Really tempted - a few quick questions!

from Sins Forums
Ahoy there!

I'm really tempted by this ace looking game, it looks like it's going to fulfil all my Iain M Banks spacey empire dreams. Just a couple of questions and then I'll buy next pay-day...

1: Does the game have an atmospheric diplomacy system?

Does it feel like you're actually horse-trading with other empires, making friends and enemies of personalities ala Civ IV, or does it all feel a bit spartan and bare-bones? Such as are there race leader-head images and fun dialogue? Is it immersive with lots of options?

2: Is it easy to mod new races?

Such as can I change Empire names and leader-head images for skirmishes? (By this I mean as found in the Civ games. Alpha Centauri had a great faction editor where you could insert new jpegs for leader's faces in diplomacy, and easily change names in notepad - and change your own name and image ingame before launching a map.)

3: (Bit of a boring question this one, sorry...)

I have a 2.5 gig XP single core with 2 gigs of ram and a 7600GS card. Will this run rather well? Or will I have to lower either AI settings or GFX settings?

Thank you for your help! This looks like a game with a great community and a lot of love put into it. I got here from the excellent Eurogamer interview and am really intrigued. :)

Happy empire building!
7,289 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Diplomacy is kinda lame, TBH. The only real diplomacy is AI telling you what to do, and if you don't do it(It's normally like attacking these ships.) than they get mad at you, and eventually turn on you if you keep ignoring.

The thing that I DO enjoy is pirate bidding. It's like hiring mercenaries for a period of time, and is a huge strategical advantage to have them on your side for the first half of the game. But that's the only enjoyable diplomacy, IMO. On MP, the bidding wars can get crazy.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
2) Yes to all :P
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I've only played two full games (they last a while) on SP and haven't really used the Diplomacy options too much. From the Diplomacy window itself though it seems like you can affect the other players in several different ways, from giving them resources to doing what they ask of you for them (certain listed missions). At the same time there seem to be a handful of Diplomatic offerings...from truce, to trade routes, to shared visibility. Seems pretty cool.

Although, Sykonaut is right, the Pirate element is by far the more interesting one.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Hmm, well I've always got Civ IV for diplomacy then, I guess. Pirate bidding sounds cool.

I'm very glad you answered 'Yes to all' for number two. As I usually take against cheesy races packaged in strategy games I like to add my own, be they based on Iain M Banks, Michael Morcock, The Invisibles, my own creations or Father Ted.

So I can change basic race-diplomacy art and names. Neat. (And looking at the mods section quite a bit more!) :D
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I have the same system etc except 2.8 gig....it runs great, even when hosting online games
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
And looking at the mods section quite a bit more!
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Good stuff there :) Feel free to post specific questions, and there are a bunch of us who take time to answer them as best as we can, while still learning stuff ourselves :P

I'm also working on a modding quickstart guide that will deal with adding races, hoping to have that done tonight/tomorrow evening :P
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
This game runs incredibly well on low spec computers. If you can't handle it, you're computer was made in '67.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
The diplomacy isn't great (sucks is too strong- Stardock loves to tweak things and fix them, so that will probably be changed).

Some of the great things about the game are the interface, the combat and the balance, which all actually work.

That and it looks damn cool to use a Marza Dreadnout to pulverize a planet into paste.