TFL BigBANGtheory

SoaSE should go back to its original brief of providing a best of both words experience between RTS and 4X whilst scaling between average and high end PC hardware. SoaSE Trinity (let alone vanilla) hasn't achieved that goal IMHO, if Rebellion does this I'll be there with bells on if its Monopoly/RISK in space again then I am sure some peeps will be happy with that whilst everyone else is playing BF3 or Arma3. It could go either way for IC I hope it works out for everyo

Its a difficult moment for IC, undeniable success with SoaSE but lets be open and frank here it wasn't everyones cup of tea and they have capitalised on the space RTS market with Relic/THQ doing other projects. The really telling sign is MP activity i.e. people that purchased the game vs. people that really play it... The expectation on Rebellion is going to be higher, I would say take time out and get it right is the best course of action for IC. Pick a release window tha

[quote who="DauntlessAnsible" reply="10" id="2531921"]entrenchtment is by far the best mod from original sins. [/quote] seconded.

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="14" id="2532694"]A process on a 32-bit Windows OS can only access 2 GB of memory. If it goes over 2MB, the app/game/whatever will crash with an out of memory error. Hence, to have a game that can have 10 players playing with hundreds of ships each in multiple star systems, you have to be very very careful with how you use memory. No ships with crazy amounts of texture memory for instance. Eventually, 64-bit games will start getting relea

A good post, and a good explanation of Diplomacy/Trinity thanks for that.

Congrats to IC I found it strange they neglected to mention Company of Heroes, which is regarded by most journalists to be the best RTS of all time. Its not even a option in their poll...

[quote]Or is sins of a solar empire successfull enough to justify a sins2?[/quote] I believe it has been very profitable for both IC and SD, resulting in IC expanding its staff and business. I would imagine IC need to sell SD on the idea and development plans for Sins2 and I would be suprised if some of those discussions haven't already happened but the likely hood of getting a straight answer before Diplomacy is out of the way seems small for obvious reasons.

[quote]Truthfully I dislike the idea of massing dozens and dozens of frigates in Sins like it is now. I'd rather have fewer ships with more abilities and weapons, I think that'd bring more diversity to the table.[/quote] Fewer but more complex ships, that has to be taken seriously for Sins2 its a design ethos too late for SoaSE.

[quote who="Teal_Blue" reply="3" id="2461055"]I believe the main difficulty, not impossibility, with this, is that currently the starbases use a main mesh and appended meshes that are added for the various upgrades. I think it "may" be able to be done with ships, you would have to talk to the devs to make certain. The starbases are currently a "hybrid" type of structure, since they combine features from buildings, like the hangar and trading dock buildings with the firepower of a well upgrade

[quote quoting="post"]I was curious if there could be some graphic representation for a homeworld that has an embassy established. It doesn't matter if its a 2D icon or a 3D model of the embassy (though a 3D model would look more pretty!), but just having it as a little text blurb seems a bit weak for a game that boasts pretty visuals. [/quote] a 3D skeletal model would be even better [e digicons]:D[/e]

[quote] Besides, for something as major as a campaign, wouldn't you prefer a full fledged expansion's worth?[/quote] Yes and personally I feel the updates and changes required to move Sins forward cannot reasonably be facilitated by a micro-expansion. What will be interesting is if IC will choose to follow Relic's lead in using ICO like Relic Online to keep the community together, given the MP stats/usage are likely to be very different (speaking speculativly of course). I wou

I could sum it up in two points: 1. More depth 2. More realism ...two big points that you could spend months debating the details.

Whislt it does look interesting and I certainly have no objection the turn-based strategy gameplay it does look like another developer has sacrificed realism and graphical presentation in the hope gameplay alone will carry the game. My credit card is ready for when we get a new space game which marries the two succesfully.

The majority of those stations have come from the team doing the excellent B5 conversion for X3:Terran Conflict, you can check out their gallery here for more material: http://b5.hc-gamer.de/index.php?mod=gallery&action=list&folders_id=2

[quote]There is also the Stalker series of FPS games for your more seasoned player. I saw more than a few guys on my local forum complain that the game was "bugged" because they kept getting instakilled [/quote] There is no denying that the past two Stalker games were quite seriously bugged on release day but they have been fixed. Your best strategy is to browse the community forums and wait for impatient players like me to give the feedback that things are working well, th

You should give Left4Dead a go, once you have gotten used to it and are playing Expert mode it pretty much ticks all the boxes for the hardercore FPS you described. There is also the Stalker series of FPS games for your more seasoned player. So I would agree that tougher games are becoming rarer, but they are there. Keep an eye out for L4D, L4D2 and Stalker:Call of Pripyat for anyone wanting a more hardcore FPS game.

[quote]Quoting agentx250, reply 25 anyway with anyluck we'll see moving turrets, since the nextgen gfx cards are coming soon (with ati's out/ close to release) most ppl shouldnt have a problem with moving turrets. Having several years experience in the 3D, moving piece are not something heavy on the system... mainly, you have tthe model rig with a skeleton ( yes, like with a body )... join define the max angles allowed... it will not only allow moving turret

[quote]- Company of Heroes is a great RTS, but after a few plays I grew tired of the World War 2 setting and feeling like I have to watch everything all the time. The flag capturing just gets annoying. Still fun to screw around with, though.[/quote] That can be true, it really depends on which maps you play some maps that use destructable bridges become all about the bridges and the capture points are almost incidental. Where CoH is particularly clever is giving players the ability to

Company of Heroes is basically regarded as the best RTS to date by the worlds gaming press, even if you don't personally agree. Given that you obviously enjoy space themed games you should probably play Homeworld2.

Whats worse is the same shady pricing applies to pharmaceutical drugs to the point where some countries export products purchased more cheaply from the manufacturers to other countries leaving a shortage in their own country! One thing you do need to appreciate though is that not all countries charge the same ammount of tax, in Norway for example they apply a 25% tax after any import taxes have been applied.

Well basically if you don't place limits then sooner or later you will start getting buffer overflows unless you have a way of capping/pruning the data going into the graphics pipeline. Personally I think Sins over does the number of objects without adding anything to the gameplay i.e. once you get to 200 - 300 units to manage what does any more actually achieve? '...and now we zoom into this other battle on the other side of the galaxy...' ok great lots of big battles but is battle A

[quote]I do wonder though how this ship could get near a world. would it be invisible or cloaked as a trade ship? or would attacking it automatically produce war? but then it would be useless in a war situation if the enemy can simply destroy it like any other ship. or letting it in could produce some big benefit also.[/quote] Maybe it can drop a point to point jumpgate beacons using its cloak, fend off the defending fighters with its independently targeting turrets then slowly extend

[quote]So? Campaigns are meant for SP not MP.[/quote] Thats a classical assumption, consider how Left4Dead broke that mould why shouldn't another genre?

Good find Mooster. Its funny listening to Brad's running commentry on Elemental during PAX you'd think he was describing Diplomacy features for SoaSE. There's a conspiracy theory to muse over whilst we wait for news, better than these over opinionated anti-IC ramblings.

So PAX 2009 starts today at 10am (local time), have Brad and Blair got somekind of presentation slot we need to wait for before someone spills the beans?