The factions are all the same

Pretty much, yeah. The tech tree differences have an impact, certainly, but at the end of the day there's a real lack of diversity in the factions. The ships are all equivalent to one another, role-wise, and the buildings are of course identical. This'd be less irritating if the game were more towards the 4X end of the spectrum, where the depth of the game makes up for it, but since it's mostly just an RTS it's one more thing that brings it down.

Yes.


My main metric to see if sides are different in a game is: Do I need to change my tactics or strategy depending on the side I'm currently fighting? If the answer is 'no', then the sides are too similar.

I can understand why the devs did this, however:

1) If you learn one race, you can also play well with the other two (once you figure out bit of the tech tree)

2) It should be easier to competitively balance three similar races against each other, as you only need to worry about if type A counters type B. When all sides have types A and B you'll probably have less balance problems

3) Subtle differences are the 'perks' for choosing each race; since the races function roughly the same, players can gravitate to the subtle differences they like more: Economic advantages of the TEC, phase missiles of the vasari, etc.


Still, in a huge game like sins, the samey sides bother me: Here are three fleshed out sides with very different lore, yet they have the exact same ship types and different, but overall mediocre abilities? The lore does not affect the game, as the philosophy of the lore isn't strongly translated into the gameplay of the three sides. The look of the ships between the sides suggests that they would operate very differently, yet they don't, which is frustrating.

With three different sides, the number of matchups you can have as an individual race are three: your same race, and the two others. With each of the races playing differently, and needing to learn different strategies to counter the others, you end up with nine different playing styles or strategies that players must adopt. If the sides are identical, you simply have one strategy: counter the same technology, units, and strategies in any of the other players that you have yourself.

One overall strategy is far less interesting than the potential nine that this game could have. When a game this rich has the potential to have much richer combinations and relationships, samey sides are disappointing.


Of course, I'd rather have the game come out on time and be balanced with three samey sides, than have three unbalanced, potentially buggy sides in the release build, so props to the devs for choosing their battles

I am sure someone with a lot more knowledge of specifics will respond to this post better, but I figured I would comment on what I had noted.

When I first played the game, I kind of assumed that each of the three factions would be the same.
What I found in practice however was that though each frigate that could be built were similar, the special abilities that are available to each of the different factions for the frigates, and the way the tech tree extends those abilities for each of the frigates (and cruisers) does change the way that some units are used.

I first played the game as TEC (under original version of game), then by the time I played through as Advent it was v1.2, and finally Vasari as v1.3. Given that, I am not sure how much of my experience was impacted by changes to the game, but I found that due to the special abilities and the technologies that are different between factions, the way I had to approach each faction was definitely altered.

There is a degree of commonality between different factions/races of course. But I have found technologies and abilities of different units work together to change the way I needed to approach a game.

I also haven't played online games yet, so my comments deal explicitly with Single Player experiences too.

Play the game before crying about how bad it is please.

While not nearly having the same level of differences as Starcraft, there are many things about each faction, beyond shuffled tech trees, that make them unique. Many of these only become apparent once you learn the mechanics of the game.

Keep in mind that the capitol ships are totally different for each race, save their general role.

Some differences
-Advent has the best unit combos. Their support ships serve to disable enemies as well as keep your ships alive for a long time with iconus' shield. They also have the most deadly fleet spell combo. Malice + Brilliance deals an absurd amount of AOE damage.

-Vasari, after research, has the ability for some of its weapons to pierce through your shields. It's support ships have an AOE ship disabling move as well as allows all your ships in radius to have shield pierce. They also have access to the most broken ability in the game: Returning Armada (endless supply of free ships)

-TEC, have several abilities which net them mucho denero. The generally have the most hull of the three races. They don't really have any interesting unit combos but (when taking Returning Armada out of the picture) they can win a war of attrition.

There's a lot of other nuances, but that's basically the high level. At the end of their civil and military research trees, they have completely different skills/planetary weapons as well.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/300951

Huh? Are you sure you read the OP correctly? Last time I checked each race used their own ship and structure models, effects, and animations...which is what Ecclesian said.

To add to my earlier comment, I'm sincerely hoping that the post-release support (which Stardock is deservedly famous for and Ironclad has said they'll keep to) will add some much needed depth and diversity to the game. Failing that, I guess it falls to the mod community.

There are no animations on the models, just effects. Maybe I am just being nitpicky. I fail at feeding trolls I guess.

Your door is a jar.

The moon is made of cheese.





... oh I though this was an absurd statement thread?

Advent have plenty of shields.

What do Vasari phase missles beat?
Of course, shields!    (As you may have gathered, I am a Vasari player)

Nothing against nitpicking but it's a simple courtesy to explain what it is that you are nitpicking. Also, imo there's no need to assume this guy is trolling...maybe he's just new and is genuinely interested in what other players think. Though I realize it probably wasn't your intention but imo your nitpicking seemed more like you were just insulting the OP.