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[The Niles]

Sword of the Stars, is being developed by a small Canadian studio populated by veterans of the industry. From what I gather the game will have four races and 3D combat a la Homeworld. There are a few screenshots online as well as two trailers (the bigger one has only the setting for the game the second smaller one has some in game shots).
I read they are close to having an Alpha build which basically means this game is over a year away which is good as they will have plenty of time to up the production value of the game. Even Homeworld looked better.
Still I am going to keep an eye out on this one. It has been too long since a good 4X game has been released.

http://www.kerberos-productions.com/index.shtml

[Borodin]

Looks interesting, but I'm not sure what makes it such a "breakthrough space strategy game," as the PR states on the site--unless by definition I should ignore it, since it's PR. Looks to be better graphics, and 3D action in realtime for spacce battles, but both have been done before: doing them better, if and when it occurs, doesn't make something a breakthrough.

What would? Completely new features. I don't see anything like that on the site, but I'll keep an eye on for future developments. Thanks for the tip.

[The Niles]

The mix of homeworld style 3D action with space strategy is new although perhaps not to the extent they claim. I always wanted the ability to create my own vessels in Homeworld but was never able. This promisses that and more.

[efthimios]

After the heavy blow to my expectations of the sequel to Stars! (the game was finished but never found a publisher or something close to that), which would be for me the perfect 4X, I am not willing to hope much on this new one. I wish them all the best but I will reserve my hopes till after it has been released.
Thanks for the url/news!

[MdaG]

FreeOrion is also in the works. It's far from finished though. Check out "Projects in the making" on Reloaded forum for the link.

[MdaG]

Space Empires V is in beta stage now so it shouldn't be too long before it's released (6 months?)

[Mecron]

Hi all

re: Sword of the Stars

innovative= random tech trees...useful 3-D star map and all the strategic implications thereof...races with different strategic movement tech...real time combat resolved in 5 minute combat rounds between strategic turns...the ability to spy on other players combat also in real time in order to learn about their tech and tactics...the ability to mix and match entire ship sections and loadouts to create everything a fleet needs from a point defence destroyer to a standoff cruiser to a refinery ship and almost everything in between...the fact you do NOT have to click through 150 turns in order to get a ship thats capable of hurting anyone.

Are these innovations on the originality scale of inventing fire or sliced bread to toast on said fire? No. Are they innovations combined in such a way to create a 4X game that is NOT a spreadsheet in disguise. Yes.

For the record, the game is closer to 6 months than a year. As for its not looking as good as HW? Well having worked on both HW and HW:Cat I can pretty much vouch SOTS is at least as pretty in the ways that count. Will we ever have 40 klick engine trails or skyboxes that take a month to make? Probably not. On the other hand if you are interested in being able to see your shield generators come back on line or be able to tell when a turret has been blown off then you might like what SOTS has to offer when it comes to graphics.

If there is anything you are curious about SOTS or its design philosophy, just post your questions here and I would be glad to pop back in and answer 'em when I am not cruising my favourite old games or working on my new favourite

--Martin E. Cirulis,
Lead Designer/CEO,
Kerberos Productions

[efthimios]

Originally posted by Mecron@Jul 24 2005, 08:15 AM
real time combat resolved in 5 minute combat rounds between strategic turns...

Before getting excited, do you mean the battles are similar to Birth of The Federation (if you have played that game), where when there is a battle it is turn based with ordering your ships then watching the battle unfold?

I thought the game was completely in real time. Do you mean that the strategic map is in turn based like most other in the 4X field? (please say yes :-) )


Is there going to be an option for "skirmish" games where you choose galaxy size etc, or is it a linear game in the likes of Imperium Galactica?

I thought the graphics looked great from what I have seen, but is the game going to NEED pixel shaders to work? The reason is that I have a radeon 7500m which has no such ability. I still have no idea how you give orders to your ships and planets, and how large the playing field (ie galaxy size) of the game is. Is it like a star system, several, many like GalCiv Stars! etc.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post here!

[Partizanka]

Reminds me of Imperium Galactica 2. Should be interesting.

[omg]

the ships have a kind of babylon 5 look to them. this might be the game that makes me update my radeon 7200. definatly looking forwards to this one k: