CraigHB

Thanks for that post varis2000. I'm not a big gamer, but I'm always on the lookout for a good game to play on my PC. I've played all the GC2 releases quite a bit as well as Sins and have found that space strategy games are really my thing now. I put Sword of the Stars in my shopping cart and plan to pick it up when I get a chance. I also like war strategy games. I enjoyed Company of Heros. I'll check out World in Conflict when I get a chance.

[quote]I also just spent quite a bit on money for new hardware for my PC, and I'd really like to see what it's capable of.[/quote]I don't think the Sins is going to push the limits of your machine like other games can. It has nice graphics but they are not terribly demanding. It runs fine on my laptop computer with a few settings turned down. On my desktop system, it always runs smooth will all settings maxed. My desktop is a decent system, but not top of the line

I experienced a lock-up in the "verify" phase a couple times and had to exit and re-start Impluse to continue operations. This was with the older version of Impulse with the orange background. Otherwise, I haven't had any problems with it. I disable the fast-start. It loads a ton of stuff on system startup with that enabled. BTW, I really liked that orange/black background, wouldn't mind seeing it again.

I'd like to comment on a few topics brought up in this thread; I couldn't agree more with the post about how Windows is a horrible operating system. I've spent way too much time over the years dealing with mysterious problems and doing reloads when all else fails. As long as software developers insist on releasing products exclusively for Windows, we're stuck with the POS. I hope to see a day when something comes along to break the

You only have to download once if you archive. Right click on the line item and you'll see all the options. You can also use the drop down menus. When archived, SDC keeps the package file in the "BACKUP" directory under SDC's installation directory. Then you can copy the file to SDC's BACKUP directory on another computer and use "restore" to install it. Save's a few hours of downloading time.

I'm someone who is highly vigilant about software products that 1) install services, 2) try to wedge themselves into my startup, 3) attempt sneak in any type of device driver without my knowledge. I can assure you that Stardock Central is as innocuous as they get. The only negatives are the relatively small amount of diskspace it consumes and its need to phone home when it starts up (which you can shut off). The products it installs stand on their own and have no dependency on SDC. There's r

Yea, hehe, that was the first thing I noticed with this game, time really-really flies when you're playing it. That's got to mean something!

Thanks a ton for the updates. Keeps the game interesting and increases value on the purchase. You guys are the champions of customer service. On a side note, it's nice to see the forum getting more constructive. I was a bit hesitant to participate due to negativity and petty bickering in too many posts.

I enjoy Sins quite a bit. However, I have to admit the approach is pretty much one sided, build ships, kill everything in your path. In GC2, there are a number of playstyle options. Although I've fallen into a single playstyle for the most part with GC2, options are always there if I feel like a change of pace. I've gotten a ton of play off GC2 and expect to get a ton of play with the upcoming expansion. Without additional material, I can see myself losing interest in Sins eventually. Even

Being unable to load the demo would be discouraging. You can try installing it through Stardock Central or Impulse. These are the official Stardock clients for digital distribution. It's probably more reliable than the stand-alone download. [link="https://www.stardock.com/products/sdcentral/"]Here's a link[/link].

One other note I'd like to make regarding future updates, I'd like to see some buffing of the tech tree. Personally I don't feel the tech tree needs to be expanded at all, but it feels stingy. I say buff up the tech tree and give us the goodies.

A couple of those previous statements were harsh and unwarrented. I agree with Blair's statement about providing extra material. He's right on about that. The game delivers. Regarding improvements to diplomacy, it works nicely for the most part. I don't think it needs an overhaul or anything. It just needs to be a little smarter to avoid those ridiculous moments. For example, a race I've all but exterminated should not be asking me to do any favors. It's almost comical when you're

Heck, these guys are great aren't they? Anyway, I don't think you get the full feel of the game's 4x aspects until you get into the bigger maps. It took me a while to get there, but I've been playing the biggest maps either with 1 or 3 stars (100+ planets). These games take about 8 hours to play against the AI. Compare that to a gigantic GC2 game with a many as 750 habitable planets and that's still a very short game. With the 3 star systems especially, you do get into the eXplore aspect mo

[quote]Last time I checked, I was a « gal » ... [/quote] Actually, it's becoming acceptable to use the term "guys" when referring to any group of people regardless of gender. Don't get too offended by it. The english language does evolve fairly quick. The english of 400 years ago is hardly understandable now, unlike french for instance. That language has changed little in the same time span.

In single player, I find it a bit anti-climactic the way the game abruptly flashes a simple victory panel. It would be better if the game could fade to a victory cut-scene. After you've spent several hours scrambling against the AI, it would be nice to get a "fade to cut-scene" out of it. Thanks.

Yes, thank you. 1.03 works great for me as a single player. I do feel the black market hit, but if the devs think that's the way it needs to be, then so be it.

Wonderful game, great work. Aside from the fact it's a really fun game, I just won my first gigantic game against the AI running the game continuously for more hours than I care to admit. Not a glitch, ran like a top the whole time. Gotta love that!

There's no area for feature requests so I'm just putting this one here. Sorry if I missed it. In Single Player, I actually like the voices that speak when things happen although they received some critisism in reviews. It would be great to hear additional variety in the phrases. Some of the events only have one phrase. The phrase can be helpful for identifying an event, but I find I'm going by voice more than what is said.</

Really like the game, good to see Stardock doing well. Looking forward to more great Stardock releases. You guys are quickly becoming my #1 game connection. SDC/Impulse is great, very convenient.

Good info, thanks, putting it in "My Replies".

Thanks for that, I've logged maybe 8 hours on this game about now and I still don't have a good idea of what ships to build. I figured the higher they were on the tech tree the better. That helps alot in getting a feel for the hierarchy.

[quote]Why? only reason you will want to access the settings file is if they become corrupted and need to be manually deleted for the game to run...[/quote] There are several reasons to have easy access to the user data, like settings and save games. For one, to access the user settings file to make changes not provided in-game (I did that right off the bat to disable the logo movies). Another is to remove stale record files and save games. Those files are not small and can consume large

It seems pretty goofy to put the game's user directory under the hidden "Local Settings" folder. I found it pretty quick, but I knew where to look for it before reading this thread. I've only enountered one other game that used this location. Every other game I've played uses "My Games" under "My Documents" or keeps user data in its own "Program Files" directory. Certainly, other games are not finding this GFW situation a pidgeon hole. In any case, the location of user data for this game is