I just picked up the game recently, and I have to say I'm sorely dissapointed. The exact same late-game lag and performance issues that made me stop playing the original SINS are still present in Rebellion.
It's just not acceptable to leave such glaring, widely reported flaws in the game.
I'll start by saying that I love SINS, and visually this game is a massive improvement, the graphics and effects are spectacular, the gameplay remains solid, the additions are huge improvements, SINS is hands down my favorite 4X and is easily the best looking, and has the biggest scale. I love this game, or rather I love what it has the potential to become.
Let me clear one thing up, my PC is a performance machine, I built it myself for triple monitor gaming, this is not a case of my PC being slow, or weak, or underpowered, I've worked in IT for years and I know how to optimize my machine. I have a quad-core, 4GHz overclocked processor, an overclocked Radeon graphics card at 850MHz core and 1200MHz memory, and 8Gb of DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz.
This is enough to play Metro 2033 in DX11, full HD at 5760x1080p, at an average of 55fps. This machine should have no trouble with an RTS, the problems are in the game engine itself, and the poor coding.
Playing on a map with as few as 100 planets and 4 players results in the framerate dropping to simply unplayable levels after about 10 hours, completely independent of the graphics settings, resolution, effects or post-processing, if you play it in minimum graphical settings at 800x600 you get the same results as max settings at 5760x1080, which indicates the problem comes from the game engine and coding itself.
My first game (when I assumed the issues would no longer be present in an entirely revised and improved release of the game) lasted for 15 hours, dropping to slideshow framerates. I had 450 planets in 5 galaxies and 10 players. Now the save file can't even be loaded and the game crashes.
If the game were using my computer's resources properly, as 99% of other games do, I should have no problem with 2000 planets and 50 players, the game should simply not require the resources it currently does. If the game gives the option of creating maps with hundreds of planets, it should be able to handle them.
After my save file became unloadable, I started a much more conservative and gentle game of 100 planets and 4 players, which achieved the exact same results after only ten hours.
SINS is a game about conquering the Universe, the scale of the game is supposed to be massive, and I like my games to last for 30 or 40 hours, I like large scale, long term games.
Despite that being how SINS is advertised, it's simply not a reality when the game engine is this poorly built.
Just tell me, if there is any intention at all, to ever fix these issues, and make the game playable in the manner advertised?
