I think its a system side font issue or a font rendering issue. Its just gibberish and has nothing to do with the application's fonts per say. Its quite sad because if it just wasn't for the font issue Sins would be 100% playable out of the box using the cider translation layer. It even seems more stable under cider then under a native windows environment.
Now I have checked all eyecandy, different resolutions, and played a game for a few hours (actually playing two since I need to have another open under windows for reference of what is what).
If I can figure out how to get the fonts displaying correctly then the developers could actually add Mac OS compatibility officially with minimal effort (granted their impulse system wouldn't work and they would have to find another way to deliver patches).

Update: The fonts display correctly under Crossover Games Mac, but it seems slightly less stable. If anyone is interested I can upload a few screenshots to show you how far I have SoaSE running under Cider.

The bottom line is if you are a gamer there are only two choices, Windows or consoles. You have to go to where the games are. You cannot expect people to cater to your every need.

I am not saying they must port it to the Mac. I am simply seeing how far the community tools of the WINE derivatives are working now a-days. I don't expect Stardock or anyone to support this, but technologies based on WINE derivatives like Cider are now becoming real ways to implement single system games without the normal loss through virtual machines or traditional emulation. Already I can run many of my favorite games through Wine derivatives (TF2, Quake Wars, C&C 3, Oblivion, and now SoaSE) or native apps (AoE3, Civ 4, etc).
The native system is becoming less of a hindrance, as these tools continue to evolve. Soon more companies will become comfortable throwing a few hours of coding and a a few grand to license the technology to add support for different systems.
I have no illusion SoaSE will ever see official or even blessed un-official support under Linux or OS X, but I do have hope that they may play with the technology for a sequel in several years. And getting people to play with the technology and used to it is half the battle of getting people to port using API emulation layers.

The real issue with adding Mac is not the code change or time required. Its tech supporting another platform, the patching system, and investment in a new system with hit or miss results.

So I am back to doing work on SoaSE with cider build 1770. I have played a whole game, 4 hours, without a single crash using Cider. I am using the latest 1.9 beta line under OS X 10.5.5 with ok results. I have gotten most of the required modifications done, but still have issues with the text being gyberish symbols. As has been pointed out before SoaSE uses pretty much its own fonts for everything with the exception of a few buttons. I think these are images, but I am not sure.

 

 

Anyways here are two pictures, notice I have a huge screen resolution and all of the eye candy turned to max without any lag what so ever... then again its only a 1v1 with a system thats still being built up and no combat.

 

Cool stuff!

I have been playing Sins on my Mac since Beta - but of course only via BootCamp

It runs perfectly, however, I would buy 2nd copy right now if it allows me to play natively under OS X...

In fact, just the other day, I bought Mac version of C&C3 - not cause its great game - but cause it can act as my gaming fix without booting into horror called Windoz >_<

I think we are slowly but surely aproaching time when publishers / devs will need to start thinking about Mac owners since our numbers are growing on daily bases...

Sooner they realise this better will be for all involved

@cwestpha

 

Any word on a possible fix for the font issue when using a CIDER wrapper. I'm currently trying the latest one from the COH port. But I'm having the same font issue as you are (shown in your pictures). I was just wondering if you fixed it by chance. Or if anyone has.