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[Jimbo the Legend]

had a look at the trailers a few days ago, looks awesome. am very intruiged by your turn sytem.

just a couple of quick questions that im surprised no-ones asked already:

1) any idea what the minimam specs will be, comp is dying a very slow and painful death so its an issue for me on most games

2) release date?

J

[Mecron]

Hi Jimbo!

THanks for the comments. TO answer your questions...

1) Min specs are still up in the air. We are designing the LOD system to also adapt to older comps and graphic cards. Older system = game less pretty but we still want you to be able to play. You didn't hear it from me, but filling up to a gig of main memory will help a lot if your machine is a bit elderly.

2) It's up to the publisher we are negotiating with but again, rumor has it within 6 months

[Shrek]

hey, just wanted to say: WOW, AWSOME... WHERE DO I GET IT? (just kidding )

just one thing: did i hear something about a gig of main memory for old machines? if so, i belive some old machines won' t accept that much. but maybe that' s just my concept of "old machine" :whistle:

by the way, i can make efthimios words as mine: if you need more beta testers, you can count me in (and almost all of the people here :evil: ) we all love challenges :w00t:

[Mecron]

LOL @ Shrek... Well ok, if your machine can't take two 512 sticks...then it may be very very old by my standards :tai:

Thanks for your kind offer for testing but at this stage, like any new franchise, the real thing we need help with is spreading the word. With less publishers interested in PC games and even less interested in strat games that are NOT pure RTS, games like SOTS are getting less and less coverage. Sad but a fact of life.
--Mec

[Mecron]

Hmmm, its gotten all quiet

Well for a weekend treat the details of the Liir have been posted.

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

Have fun and as always, feel free to ask anything that comes to mind.

--MEC

[efthimios]

Here is a question, (or more :-p )

how does the AI react/play to a human player that controls an empire. Meaning, if one of the races (just generalizing now) is good at missile weapons and peace treaties, but the human player plays that race building beam weapons and making wars, does the AI adapt to the play of the human or does it mainlyplayas how that race would play? ("that race" meaning the human controlled race).

Hmm, also is it possible to have complete reversal of the political situation between empires, and while for some time two were at war, they can have peace and perhaps even alliance?

Is it possible to adjust the speed the RTS battles play at?

Are there going to be "minor" races in the game?

Is there going to be a/more super/uber weapon that once one empire builds it, it turns into almost unstoppable?

If say none of the races are in an alliance, and one of them (human or otherwise) is getting huge and a clear threat to the status quo, will the AI races (or AI+human meaning AI initiated) try to ally against the common threat?

Will there be supplies in the game?

How is ground combat resolved? Or done? Will the player have any tactical control over it? Strategic control? Any control? Is there ground combat?

Is it possible to give orders to a ship to self destruct and hopefuly take with it another , enemy ship?

If ships get experience, is it possible to have their crew (or say just the bridge crew) survive its destruction to be re assigned to another ship?

Will it be possible for anyone to immediately attack the homeworld of another race even if there are several systems between them?

Is there a distance between two systems that matters in how long it takes to travel to or any neighbouring systems are always distance (in terms of time needed) equal to say 1?

Is it possible to order your fleet to ambush one?

Is it possible to have two enemy fleets in the same system but not necessarily fight each other?

I haven't seen any pictures of video of other parts of the game than the battles, so when will we have a look at them?

There is a mention about a 3D starmap, is it similar to Ascendancy's map?


Hey, you asked for a question! :bleh:

[Mecron]

efthimios, that'll teach me! :blink: Next time I post I'll say whatever you do don't ask any questions! LOL

Actually its a fun way to start the design day, and it lets me put off adjusting the defense platform values...

so lets get down to it then...

how does the AI react/play to a human player that controls an empire. Meaning, if one of the races (just generalizing now) is good at missile weapons and peace treaties, but the human player plays that race building beam weapons and making wars, does the AI adapt to the play of the human or does it mainlyplayas how that race would play? ("that race" meaning the human controlled race).

SOTS is just not this constrained. While there are general behaviours for the races when handled by the AI, in general I have never cared much for overgeneralizations like "Race A is good at treaties, Race B only uses beams." I like tendencies more than rules and hence the AI will NOT expect you to play in any particular way. Its racial rules are there for you to learn and adapt to but not second guess. Yes you can safely assume that a strike against the Hiver homeworld will bring brutal retaliation or that the Liir won't try to exterminate you just for existing, but they all have their own agendas that are dictated by their real situations in the galaxy you are playing at the time.

Hmm, also is it possible to have complete reversal of the political situation between empires, and while for some time two were at war, they can have peace and perhaps even alliance?

That would be a big yes. Alliances are about mutual advantage. And that comes and goes over the course of a game. If you are a big "make 'em and break 'em" kind of player, the AI will notice and be leary about any treaty though like a human would.

Is it possible to adjust the speed the RTS battles play at?

In single player you can pause the action and give orders but in multi-player its just reality, my friend. On the other hand I wouldn't over panic about the speed of play. This is a game about battling starships of the line, not rushing tanks or hopping zerglings. LOL

Are there going to be "minor" races in the game?

There are some random and semi-random encounters with a few mysterious races and lifeforms but no "minor" races per se. I really didnt want to put anything in the game that felt token. And populating a planet with numbers and a funny name that just sit there to be beat on just seemed very token.

Is there going to be a/more super/uber weapon that once one empire builds it, it turns into almost unstoppable?

While there are some very scarey weapons in the game, they are just weapons and I have never believed that a really big gun makes you impervious to harm at the same time. So while the siege cannon Dreadnought can devestate a world in just a few asteroid shots, I have seen it wander into a well layed minefield and then get torn apart by 2 dozen fast attack destroys with mass drivers and pulse phasers. Its the combination of ships and abilities in a fleet I would like players to find truely terrifying.

If say none of the races are in an alliance, and one of them (human or otherwise) is getting huge and a clear threat to the status quo, will the AI races (or AI+human meaning AI initiated) try to ally against the common threat?

The AI will react in its own self interest. If they find themselves falling behind the curve they will tend to stop biting on lesser threats and try to go stop the big dog. On the other hand they also think in terms of self interest so if the big dog is far away but the ungaurded flank of a peer is right next door they may try to tear off a few chunks before the threat gets closer.

Will there be supplies in the game?

How is ground combat resolved? Or done? Will the player have any tactical control over it? Strategic control? Any control? Is there ground combat?

These are easy...Sort of and Brutally. THe first because we have command and control points, repair, refueling and mining but none of those are resource managment per se so I am not sure you would call them supplies. Things like ammunition or crew are below the level of detail of this game. As for ground combat, SOTS takes the view that pummeling from space and genocide are the only ways to be sure :evil: I did not want to take the combat focus away from the fully 3-D realm and so SOTS keeps the action in space. You can bomb, attack shuttle and bio-missle a world clean and repopulate if you want though.

Is it possible to give orders to a ship to self destruct and hopefuly take with it another , enemy ship?

Yes, though not every race is as willing to sacrifice their life as others.

If ships get experience, is it possible to have their crew (or say just the bridge crew) survive its destruction to be re assigned to another ship?

To be honest, crew experience is something I am still kicking around. Philisophically I have always like things like unit quality, design-wise though its just below the edge of the detail level of this game. If it does make it in though, it will be about the ship. When it dies the crew dies. Heck, you can even see a couple of them drifting through space in the game after a ship detonates. :evil:

Will it be possible for anyone to immediately attack the homeworld of another race even if there are several systems between them?
Is there a distance between two systems that matters in how long it takes to travel to or any neighbouring systems are always distance (in terms of time needed) equal to say 1?

These two issues are related as they both revolve around travel time and distance. In SOTS the starmap is a physical 3-D object which means x distance ALWAYS equals y light years. The only thing fluid is what method you use to cross that distance. That means if you were to discover what system was the capital of a player then its up to you how you could get there regardless of how far it was. No sytem is "in the way" per se except if you are human whose node drive forces you to go from system to sytem along certain paths. You can attack any planet any time. On the other hand you can defend a planet with sattelites and your own ships anytime. Not to mention homeworlds are always size 10 and max populations which means they can launch 10 defense ICBM's every 20 or so seconds. THis all translates to Homeworlds are no push over.

Is it possible to order your fleet to ambush one?

Yes, as long as your drive tech is capable of a deep space intercept. And of course, you are fast enough to make an intercept.

Is it possible to have two enemy fleets in the same system but not necessarily fight each other?

2 or more enemy fleets in the same system will trigger a 5 minute combat round. What you do with that 5 minutes is up to you. Go for the throat or wave across an AU of system space.

I haven't seen any pictures of video of other parts of the game than the battles, so when will we have a look at them?

We are just doing our final pass on the main starmap interface after much playtesting and tweaking. As soon as we are happy I am sure a few screenshots will appear.

There is a mention about a 3D starmap, is it similar to Ascendancy's map?

Better. And in comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.



Ok, I think I got them all that time! Bring 'em on, I can handle it! :Titan:

Have a good weekend,
--MEC

[efthimios]

Thank you very much!
I will come up with more questions at one point, but for now I just have a request, please please if the game has bugs at the time of release, fix them with patches! I (and others of course) have been burned too many times by a game that could be a 5/5 and stays at 2.5/5 because of bugs never getting fixed!

All in all the game looks like a winner, I hope that who ever is going to be in charge of marketing (publisher?) will put some resources on it to let people to know about what may become the new standard in 4X. Also try not to lose focus (marketing) as to who is the core of almost certain buyers. Nothing worse than for a game to try to sell itself as something that it is not and fail to impress the newly targeted group and also make the "certain" group not "get it" that this game is what they have been looking for in a long time. Good luck, I WILL be back.
:bleh:

[Bernie]

Wow! A developer actually showed up here

I hope this game is really as great as it sounds It could definetly end up on my favorite list, if it is I really wish you all the luck with this game, and I hope I'll see it in stores around here, if not... then I guess I have an excuse for getting a visa

Anyway, I do have one question for you

The biggest problem in 4X games in my opinion is that it always ends up being the bigger players walking all over the smaller ones, and the smaller ones not being able to do a thing. Do players that have fallen behind make any difference? or is it the big ones that dominate?

[Doubler]

The race sections on your website make for interesting reading, and have made me come up with another (insignificant) question:
Will there be anomalies and singularities in the game?

This, as black holes were mentioned in the text...