Octopus Overlords

by **Paingod** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:41 pm

This game is sporting a shiny 44 Metascore.

One assumes this is from the awesome release quality, which turned out to be a Kickstarter type buy-in so you could play the alpha at full retail.

What would you give the game in it's current state? I'm still waiting for it to be finished before I purchase it.

by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:17 pm

The newest reviews on Metacritic are from February. Most are from last year, including one from some site called GamingTrend.

I’ve been pretty hard on this game, and the score’s going to reflect that. But I’ll also stress that I write all this from the perspective of a gamer who needs his 4x delivered to him on a silver platter held by a devoted butler who can answer every question I have about the game while playing it. Diehard Sword of the Stars fans, or diehard 4x fans who crave a new 4x game may be made of sturdier stuff, and may even heed Paradox’s track record of continuing to work on their games until they’re what they were meant to be. If you fall into those categories, give this game a closer look. But if you’re a person who doesn’t want to wait around for patches and who likes a gaming experience you can glide into rather than struggle through, I sadly suggest either giving this one a pass or at least giving it time to get patched up in time for a steep Steam sale.

by **Sepiche** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:27 pm

Yeah I'm sure most of those were very much earned from the release of the game.

Currently I'd put it around 75. There's a good game in there, but the AI is still weak in a number of critical areas that would hamper anyone wanting to enjoy the late game.

Here's the lead developer's own take on the current state of the AI:

even the most casual overlook of a current ai position reveals an excess of fleet creation which leads to an excess of overhead which leads to a decrease in research which leads to a decrease in weapons available for new ships. Its a PITA to track down but its hardly beyond the pale of human knowledge...and as I said, there are a handful of similar small pitas that are crippling parts of the AI. The REALLY hard parts, like adaptive research/building, expansion, and tactical reactions are already there and people see them...just a matter of unfettering it all.

So the AI definitely being actively worked on, and it's only a few key issues holding it back, but it's not quite there yet.

by **JonathanStrange** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:32 pm

Sepiche had recently posted a lengthy impression which I, after a several hours of play, generally agree with. I've not engaged in a long-term campaign - being currently pressed for time and having finished up a bout with the under-rated Armada 2526 Supernova - but I'd give the game about a 75 too (though that's generous, other times I felt like 60). With the possibility of giving a higher score if the remaining UI/AI issues improve.

Again, thanks to those who are playing the game currently and are courageous/disciplined enough to post about it. I can't complain about the $7 I spent for it.

by **Sarkus** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:46 pm

I would also agree with the 75 assesment, having picked it up last week and played it a fair bit. Most of what bothers me is minor in nature, like the UI delays and stuff like that. I have had a few crashes, though, but since the game autsaves all the time its not been much of a loss. I also agree about the lack of feedback - there are a lot of things I still don't understand that don't seem to be explained by the in-game encylopedia.

by **Bakhtosh** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:15 pm

Has there been an announcement for an expansion?

by **Sepiche** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:38 pm

Bakhtosh wrote:Has there been an announcement for an expansion?

Nothing official and no details, but I believe Mecron confirmed they were still planning on working on one after they get the base game finished.

by **JonathanStrange** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:05 pm

Sepiche wrote:
Bakhtosh wrote:Has there been an announcement for an expansion?

Nothing official and no details, but I believe Mecron confirmed they were still planning on working on one after they get the base game finished.

An expansion was, I've long thought, one of the reasons, maybe even the principal one after salvaging their honor and belief in the game's potential, Mecron kept working.

If his crew can get SOTS2 even more shipshape, I've no problem buying the expansions. I'm playing more and more of the game and I'm liking what I see.

by **Tampa_Gamer** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:55 pm

I believe one of the primary focuses of (at least one of) the initial expansions was to finally do "ground invasions" in a proper way. Since I am a big fan of this aspect, I would welcome such an expansion. I still play Star General every now and then for that sole purpose and thought that was one of the things that MOO3 did get right.

by **Bakhtosh** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:08 pm

It's on sale for $15 at Gamers Gate

by **silvaril** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:20 am

Heya

Another couple of updates:

Steam Product Update wrote:r21736b
-------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a crash that could occur if no enemy was present in combat.
+ Fixed a crash that could occur if a colony support mission was cancelled.
+ Fixed known crashes related to recent news events.
+ Fixed a crash related to invalid station modules.
+ Fixed a crash that could occur by entering certain characters into
the encyclopedia search box.
+ Fixed a treaty generation related crash.

Other fixes:
+ Fixed some known issues with System Killer news event handling.
+ Tomb rewards work again.
+ Retrofitted defenses are now returned to defense fleets.
+ Platform retrofitting is no longer linked to the station retrofit dialog.
+ Fixed black color for non-player empires.
+ Defense and reserve fleets are no longer disbanded when the last
ship is scrapped.
+ Addressed the issue of locusts not attacking planets and stations in combat.
+ Mining stimulus is now disabled until mega-strip mining is acquired.
+ Fixed the white cubes in the research screen.
+ Fixed the intermittently missing Political Science family button at
the bottom of the research screen.
+ Morrigi Crow firing now works again.
+ Planet sensor volumes are now affected by jammers.
+ Fixed design screen right-click retrofit loophole.
+ New admirals now display correct empire color.
+ Zuul fleets lacking bore ships no longer cause a request to bore
node lines when issuing missions.
+ Stations are now removed appropriately if their attached colonies
are destroyed.
+ Boarded ships no longer fire at unusually high rates.
+ Fixed Gardener suitability calculations.
+ Fixed an issue that could cause planets to share the same orbit.
+ The open/close star system button is now correctly synchronized in
both star map and star system screens.

Other changes and additions:
+ Engrams fully functional.
+ Improved combat sensor graphics

by **silvaril** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:22 am

Heya

The most recent update:

Steam Product Update wrote:r21933b
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a crash that could occur when building both a Naval and
Science station in the same system.
+ Fixed a Suul'ka Horde crash that resulted from relocating assets.

Other fixes:
+ Fixed phantom mouse-over effects in combat.
+ Fixed a case where asteroid monitors were not being removed.
+ Fixed a case where selected ship changes were not being reflected in
the combat UI.
+ Slaves are delivered to colonies on ship arrival.
+ Made some improvements to star map UI stalls.
+ Network packets are now more respectful of less common MTU limitations.
+ Shield graphics are now disabled when associated ship sections are destroyed.
+ Fixed grappling hook lag.
+ Fixed assault shuttle behavior after the target colony is defeated.
+ Pirates will now prefer to attack nearby freighters.
+ Life- and psi-drain now works on enemy planets.
+ Fixed reaction opportunity spam.
+ Can no longer retrofit ships in a system without a colony.
+ Fixed an issue that would cause automatic station placement not to
consider planets orbiting other planets, or independent system limitations.
+ Added missing weapon icons.
+ Fixed cases where station placement was not possible in independent systems.
+ Fixed the bug that prevented retrofitting in networked games.
+ Fixed a bug that was delimiting relocation range.
+ Fixed various missing text strings.
+ Fixed a bug that was causing relocating fleets not to show up in the star map.

Other changes and additions:
+ Combat double-left-click now makes ships move to their destination
without holding formation.
+ Added War Mind effects.
+ Improved free turret and spinal mounted weapon accuracy.
+ Combat AI now makes use of Psionic powers.
+ Defenses and Reserves can now be relocated.
+ Introduced advanced network configuration options, which can be
accessed from the game launcher.
+ Introduced new strategic AI research and colonization algorithms.
+ Reaction dialog is now an overlay.
+ Default initial savings is now 500,000.
+ Police cutters now default to the reserves fleet and must be placed
as defensive assets, but are now capable of traveling with fleets and/or be relocated.

by **silvaril** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:25 pm

Heya

Hotfix for the last Update:

Steam Product Update wrote:r21933c
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a weapon firing race condition that could lead to crashes in
networked combat.
+ Fixed the excessive strategic AI tax rate leading to economic
suicide at the start of a game.

Other fixes:
+ It is no longer possible to modify caravan fleets in transition.
+ Fixed an issue that could cause the strategic AI to redesign
constructors and freighters each turn.
+ AI ship designs now consider armor and other available options.
+ Fixed sporadically missing Zuul battle music.

by **silvaril** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:17 pm

Heya

Hotfixes from last week:

Steam Product Update wrote:r22027
---------

Critical fixes:
- Fix retreat crash
- Fix combat freeze
- Fix crash for null AI designs
- Fix move order crash

Other fixes:
- Fixed AI equipping the wrong modules on the wrong sections
- Fixed AI building stations in un-owned worlds
- Fixed using psionics on menaces (eg: fear on swarm queen)
- Fixed Suul’ka fleets not storing their Suul’ka as an admiral
- Fixed display issues with relocating reserve assets
- Fixed diplomacy UI buttons
- Fixed being able to build stations in indy systems unless system was selected
- Fixed getting a combat if both players ONLY have a colony in a system (colony vs colony and no fleets)
- Fixed auto firing not always finding a target
- Fixed Morrigi LV not assigning all riders proper indexes, which leads to riders entering combat "launched"
- Fixed Hivers using node races pathing in some cases
- Fixed fleets in fleet widget properly displaying their base system instead of current location

Other changes and additions:
- Implement new player list UI in combat
- Implement ionic thruster tech
- Implement display for colony pop/infra info
- Implemented internal kinetic dampening tech
- Implement Morrigi traps
- Gave Morrigi abilities to instantly defeat Morrigi relics and traps
- Added notches to sliders in Empire Manager and for trade/construction sliders
- Starmap now properly shows Zuul slave and civilian count

KNOWN ISSUES:
- Morrigi trap combat does not carry over into combat (will be Fixed in next patch)

by **silvaril** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:19 pm

Heya

Note that Steam had to "convert" content on my install.

This did not take place automatically, but kicked off when starting SotS-2 from within Steam.

Update from Yesterday:

Steam Product Update wrote:r22112b
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a multiplayer combat crash related to weapon damage.
+ Fixed multiplayer crashes related to news events.
+ Fixed a news event crash related to resuming older games.
+ Fixed a scout rider crash.
+ Fixed a crash related to the colony information display in combat.

Other fixes:
+ Fixed an issue that caused civilian population to drop after new
factions were introduced.
+ Improved trade slider notch accuracy.
+ Planet missiles now target battle ships and battle cruisers.
+ Fixed an issue where battle riders were not launching in multiplayer combat.
+ Fixed the issue where minelayer were not working in multiplayer combat.
+ Fixed overharvesting beyond available resources.
+ The grovernment graph marker no longer moves beyond the graph bounds.
+ Fixed grav boat behavior.

Other changes and additions:
+ Gate ships now deploy after the combat phase.
+ Colony stimulus now considers star systems each player already has
colonies in.
+ Fleet support range now takes all support points into consideration,
which should extend range in friendly space.
+ Eliminated players are now reflected in the diplomacy manager.

by **silvaril** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:12 am

Heya

Latest Update:

Steam Product Update wrote:r22173c
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed new population growth issues.
+ Fixed a crash related to dragging fleets in the relocate mission screen.

Other fixes:
+ Favourite invoices no longer revert to Cruisers after submitting an order.
+ Spectre attacks now have a range limit in combat.
+ Trade sliders no longer override settings for other colonies.
+ Trade sliders no longer get stuck on last notch.
+ C3 and Psi research bonuses now displayed.
+ AI now includes psionic abilities in ship designs.
+ Fixed a case where drones belonging to NPC factions would not fire weapons.
+ Adjusted implosion mine health.

Other changes and additions:
+ Queued station modules are now highlighted in orange.
+ Added auto-upgrade button to the station manager. This automatically
queues a minimal number of modules to enable upgrading.
+ Station level is now displayed on the icon in lists.
+ Systems in lists now display station icons where applicable.
+ Planet manager items are now alphabetized.
+ Various racial attributes tuned.

by **silvaril** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:29 pm

Heya

New update:

Steam Product Update wrote:r22437b
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a battle manager crash.
+ Fixed a combat crash.
+ Fixed a Zuul slave station upgrade crash.

Other fixes:
+ Fixed Suulka beam not reaching planet.
+ Fixed launching bug with Wraith Abductors.
+ Stations no longer become constructed when construction fleets are absent.
+ Station slots are no longer shown for unsurveyed systems.
+ Fixed Reflector psi power after-image.
+ Fixed re-base loophole that was causing fleet support limits to be bypassed.
+ Node tracking techs no longer display innapropriate node line types.
+ Fixed an issue with incorrect assignment of empire colors to star systems.
+ Fixed sticky province effects.
+ Fixed an issue with certain drone types getting stuck when their targets were destroyed.
+ Fixed a rare instance that was still allowing freighters to be built in closed systems.
+ Fixed an issue that was causing the Hiver AI to stop sending gate missions.
+ Improved reflective coating ricochets now work as designed.
+ Planet lists are now refreshed when multiple colonization missions are committed in sequence.
+ Fixed the missing Fusion Enveloping Torpedo icon.
+ Destroyed ship sections in combat no longer spam turret destroyed messages.
+ Fixed audio cue spam caused by adding a favorite invoice.
+ Asteroid monitors no longer disappear from systems when research is complete.
+ Plasma Focusing now updates correctly.
+ Liir battleriders no longer cause their fleet to be affected by gravity wells.
+ Ship groups in fleet lists now display the correct icons.
+ Asteroid monitors can now be repaired.
+ Fixed an issue that was causing multiple swarm queens to focus on one star system.
+ Fixed many varied art issues fixed.

Other changes and additions:
+ Polaris missiles now retarget.
+ Defeating the VN Homeworld now causes all related encounters to be removed and awards all players in combat with a 5% increase in research.
+ Added a popup dialog when the VN Homeworld is defeated.
+ Optimization of AI adjustments to empire and colony economic sliders.
+ Stimulus-generated colonies no longer claim combat zones when added.
+ Added a fleet creation button to most fleet lists.
+ Improved AI weapon selection to address issues that were causing it to avoid beam weapons.
+ AI now makes use of more ship section types.
+ AI now builds and places some defensive assets.
+ Targeting controls in combat have changed; A single click now isolates the hull or object on a ship, and a double-click targets a specific position on the surface.
+ The fleet manager has been updated.
+ Generated fleet names are now unique.
+ Shield Breaker ballistic weapon added.

by **silvaril** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:36 pm

Heya

Apparently, 22437c is also out now, which is a hotfix for some crashes introduced in the Update.

by **Zurai** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:56 pm

silvaril wrote:Heya

Apparently, 22437c is also out now, which is a hotfix for some crashes introduced in the Update.

I think you could make a drinking game revolving around guessing how many crashes and critical bugs get introduced with each patch. I don't think there's been a single patch that hasn't introduced at least three.

by **silvaril** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:52 pm

Heya

22437d:

Kerberos Forums wrote:Other fixes:
+ Corrected some VN-related news events.
+ Initial designs are now consistent again.
+ Fixed some news event speech cue timings.
+ Fixed Morrigi PD weapon art issues.

Other changes and additions:
+ Design prototyping is now free on the first turn.
+ Freighters can now be moved between star systems.
+ Player-built freighters now display in empire color in the trade view.

by **Daehawk** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:14 am

So this is on sale on Steam now . Is it worth buying?

by **GreenGoo** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:17 pm

Daehawk wrote:So this is on sale on Steam now . Is it worth buying?

Given your recent technical difficulties with multiple games, I say with all seriousness, you should probably pass on this. And I haven't even played it myself.

It just seems a bad fit. Despite being in development and heavy, heavy patching for month(s?) now, it's still getting only mediocre opinions from those most willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

by **Daehawk** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:12 pm

Ya good idea..I passed. Was thinking of re trying Solar Empire and just lowering the rez so i can see the tiny units.

by **Kraegor** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:55 pm

Daehawk wrote:So this is on sale on Steam now . Is it worth buying?

40% off for the next 44 hrs. just got done downloading...

by **silvaril** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:10 am

Heya

Latest Update:

Steam Product Update wrote:r22508c
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a Comparative Analysis UI crash.
+ Addressed a weapon bank related crash.

Other fixes:
+ Fixed recent mission screen UI issues.
+ Fixed loophole that was allowing station construction to exceeed the
number of each type of station allowed.
+ Engrammed admirals with the Inquisitor trait no longer gain extra traits.

r22508b

------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed reported crash bugs in combat.
+ Abandoning a colony in the Colony Established dialog no longer causes a crash.

Other fixes:
+ AI no longer executes diplomatic actions without sufficient diplomatic points.
+ AI now builds various station types again.
+ AI no longer redesigns platforms continually.
+ Battle riders can now be targeted specifically.
+ Security slider no longer jumps to a notched position when the
research slider is moved in the star map.
+ It is no longer possible to retrofit stations with pending modules.
+ Mining stations can now be built on asteroids.
+ Fixed absorber ship section effect.
+ Asteroid monitors now have Polaris missiles.
+ Ship targets in combat are no longer lost when turrets are lost or a
section is destroyed.
+ Fixed a corner case that could result in ships rolling continually in combat.
+ Meson projector now aims at the intended target and applies damage correctly.
+ Ships turned over to a different player in combat now are now
correctly removed from hotkey groups.
+ Fixed torpedo retargeting.

Other changes and additions:
+ Added Leech Driver.
+ Added population manager.
+ Added comparative analysis screen.
+ Changes to the All Stop command mean that a ship issued All Stop
will return to Normal Stance. If a ship is answering All Stop and
another stance is selected, it will start moving again.

Known issues:
- Existing sync errors in multiplayer turn updates are still being addressed.

by **Tampa_Gamer** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:29 pm

Played a lot more with the recent patches. Unfortunately, somewhat irked at the lack of love for the combat engine. Yes, it looks new and pretty but I truly hope some of the promised "polish" goes to providing feedback for the "pause and give orders" club. While SoTS I required you to sometimes advance a frame to see the results of a particular order, it at least showed you feedback/statistics of your current mouse/cursor selection so you could use that information to actually give orders. Unless I am doing something wrong, you need to advance the frame (unpause and then pause) each time you select a new ship because the information panel does not update with your new selection.

by **silvaril** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:15 am

Heya

Another Update:

Product Update wrote:r22600b
------

Critical fixes:
+ Fixed a post-combat crash related to node cannon effects.

Other fixes:
+ Made general optimization passes to speed up turn times, AI processing and star system selection responsiveness.
+ Zuul no longer immigrate to other factions.
+ Population Manager and Comparative Analysis buttons are now disabled between turns.
+ Corrected 'pirate encounter freighters destroyed' news event messages.
+ Fixed graphical glitch caused by moving defense assets.
+ Battle riders destroyed by node cannons no longer continue to tie up carrier space.
+ Fixed ownership display of systems in sensor range.
+ Corrected intel result rolls.
+ The intel success rate is now correctly reflected in the UI.
+ Fixed some cases where fleets were spawning at the wrong locations in combat.
+ Diplomacy panels are now disabled for defeated empires.
+ Fixed some odd behavior with ship rolling in combat.

Other changes and additions:
+ Factions now get population bonuses when immigrating.
+ The F key now functions as an alternative button for focusing on the object under the mouse pointer in combat.

by **Kraegor** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:57 pm

Gave it a whirl. 8hrs into the ginormous epic map. The game is stable, no crashes. It is also incomplete. I would qualify it at this point as a beta with a minimum of 6 months of polish remaining. Perhaps more. This was no accident. I don't know what that half-assed apology message was from the lead guy but it sure as hell could not have been a surprise to anyone paying attention as to the state of the game. It was never finished and was never close.

Can see they added the illusion of depth... the illusion being all this new depth is still locked... but there it is... defense ships.. that cannot be assigned to anything... a base tag that always says none. No tanker/refinery option. What this means is that if you don't spend time reading the forums and tracking exactly what is broken and what is fixed you can waste valuable turns/resources on research and build paths that lead to a dead end.

I'm now locked into my corner of the galaxy until I get upgrades to engines. I wasted 40 turns building up systems defenses to belatedly learn that I cannot assign them to anything and when the enemy attacks I cannot even use those assets.

The ship designer is obtuse with a UI that essentially makes it impossible to tell if this that or the other thing is an upgrade at a glance. You have to click out multiple times to see the final prototype to see an actual dps breakdown. The weapons test option is an interesting addition tho it is just a stuck in place firing range. Would benefit if one could see performance vs various ship types instead of the generic dummy range.

UI navigation and performance is abysmal. i have an i-7 3960x with 16gb of ram and dual ati 6900 in crossfire... and I have to wait anywhere from 5-15 seconds to go from a ship design screen back to city management. In a 4X game one has to habitually click thru numerous overlays to get a feel for how things are progressing. The ui overlays here do not give a clear image. I cannot look at a list to see what all my planets are producing. So I gotta click one planet at a time to see what build status is. if I build something I gotta wait for that screen to appear... and then wait to return to another planet because hey... I can't scroll through planets while in the build screen. The constant dead air pause of waiting for a screen to flip is tiresome. But no worries cuz apparently the only thing the game is ever waiting on is me... (mocking the "waiting on kraegor" message at the top of the screen that never changes). CPU turns can take a minute or longer. Often in the combat nap I can see nothing but a polygon that represents a ship... so I dunno wtf the fuss is about improved graphics. It's crap. Wait 10 seconds for the polygon to paint and if ya zoom out and back it becomes a polygon again which you must wait 10 seconds for it to repaint. Make's pinpoint targeting in the heat of battle pointless.

More than one battle has ended with me losing 0.001Ex0440 civilians... which might be worrisome if I knew what it was.

UI is everything in a game like this. Information has to be easy to access and quickly referenced. Having to constantly WAIT for every little thing... feels like I'm playing via dialup... oh yeah the game occasionally crashes my internet connection... wtf is that about??? Not only slow performance in game but it's gonna DoS me if I try to bring up a web page?

Encyclopedia gives less information than a madden manual. Here's what buttons do... Here's useless fluff. The actual game mechanics pages link to a blank page. It's poetic. Only reason I can play the game is because I've played SOTS1. Anyone new to the series should stay far far away from SOTS2. It is not even remotely friendly to the uninitiated.

Right now SOTS2 is a shell. They've got some core mechanics in place but the game is lacking any of the nuance that would make it enjoyable to play. My advice... wait till next year before purchasing... then read for any new reviews that say it's done. Don't take it on faith... they burned a lot of bridges with this flop.

by **Kraegor** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:05 pm

I wonder if Molyneux was a consultant for this game... might explain all the undelivered features...

by **JonathanStrange** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:01 pm

A month or so back, I attempted a short game, on a small map to test the waters, so to speak.

I had fewer slowdowns than Kraegor - although the screen menu changes were slower than I like - but then again, it was a small game (so the AI processing wasn't as taxed?)

Anyhow, I thought I had my enemy on the ropes when I found their capitol and presumably most developed world, but the sucker kept sending fleet after fleet against me.

I was perplexed at how they could afford, let alone build so fast, all these ships. Turns out their economy was in a mess, they were greatly in debt but their empire was larger than I thought.

I felt the AI was cheating (duh, I know, but there's cheating and then there's frackin' cheatin) to have built so much and colonized so quickly. But I can't prove it.

Another game, it looked liked the AI had bankrupted itself building defenses and ships (that it didn't move).

So overall, I guess it evens out.

What a world, what a galaxy...

by **Grifman** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:21 am

The "all clear" has all but been given:

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that tonight's update is the pre-all clear update. This does NOT mean support for sots2 is ending in any way, or that there are not a couple things like scenarios still outstanding. It simply means that the game is robust and playable and ready to be enjoyed if you should see fit to do so. Truth be told is it has been for sometime but we were not comfy waving folks in when it still needed updating a couple times a week. Now things are at the point where we have a nice optional beta update testing system in place and the vast majority of crashes and MP malfunctions are solved. And for the sneaky ones that are still lurking in this huge game, we will stomp them as soon as they are reported.
So for everyone who has kept the faith we thank you, enjoy the game this weekend. Please report anything crashy or super weird so we can tidy it up monday and send out the word. And then it will be off to a brave new world of quality of life issues, constant AI tweaking and lots of backed up user suggestions

And once again, please do not feel as if in any way this is about ending or even diminishing support for the game. In fact, come Monday, we will also be announcing other plans that hopefully will allow us to maintain and evolve our games indefinetly in the manner we have become known for.

http://www.kerberos-productions.com/for ... 37&t=35437

by **tgb** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:18 am

That ship has sailed, afaic. I may go back to it some day if I'm bored and have nothing else taking my gaming time. But take time away from XCOM for this? No way.

by **Grifman** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:31 am

tgb wrote:That ship has sailed, afaic. I may go back to it some day if I'm bored and have nothing else taking my gaming time. But take time away from XCOM for this? No way.

Oh, I agree. But saying "the ship has sailed", I don't understand. If the game now works, and if you have some free gaming time at some point in the future, and you have that 4x itch, I see no reason not to give the game a try.

by **tgb** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:02 am

Grifman wrote:
tgb wrote:That ship has sailed, afaic. I may go back to it some day if I'm bored and have nothing else taking my gaming time. But take time away from XCOM for this? No way.

Oh, I agree. But saying "the ship has sailed", I don't understand. If the game now works, and if you have some free gaming time at some point in the future, and you have that 4x itch, I see no reason not to give the game a try.

Which is why I say I may try it at some point in the future when nothing is around that interests me. But I'm not rushing to download it again just because they claim to have finally finished it (a year after release and 10 months after the promised "all clear" date), especially not with XCOM out and Fallen Enchantress a week away.

by **Sepiche** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:08 pm

So if anyone is feeling brave, apparently what will likely be the "all clear" version is available on Steam as a beta currently.

Here's the thread that describes how to access it:
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/for ... 51&t=34895

Obtaining the latest beta

1) Open up Steam and then navigate to your games library.
2) Once there right-click on Sword of the Stars II and then select properties.
3) Go into the beta tab, then drop down the box there and then select "Beta"
4) Steam will then ask for a password to begin the upgrade to the beta version. The beta password is: T3sterz

I messed around with the non-beta version on Steam a bit last night and it seems much more like a functional game, but I only played for a few turns before heading to bed, so I didn't get a good look at much beyond the basics.

by **Sepiche** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:21 am

Well, I can't say it's perfect, but it's pretty good... it felt like the game I expected to play a year ago at any rate.

No crashes, and no obvious bugs while I was playing.

I played for about 50 turns as the Tarka and mostly just expanded and explored. Ran into a human empire that would demand money or system data from me every so often. Intelligence seems to be in and working, stimulus spending is working, didn't see any station bugs, and there's a nice autoupgrade button for them now that automatically adds the modules you need to expand a station.

The government system is up and running. Basically you start as a centrist government, but as you build stations, freighters, station modules, colonies, etc they each add or subtract authority or economic points which moves you along a scale. Building freighters through stimulus decreases authority and increases economy for example, while building them yourself increases authority and economy. Each different type of government gives you different bonuses and has a big effect on diplomacy since some government types are attracted or repelled by others.

One nice change from earlier builds is any ships you design on the first turn of the game don't have to be prototyped. Before you were kind of forced to use the default designs the game gives you, but now you can redesign and make new ships to your hearts content without a huge expense.

Mining stations are also an option now. They can also be built with stimulus like freighters, and are built in asteroid fields, or around barren or gas giant planets. They give a large boost to production if you have a colony in that system or if they are in an unowned system they will increase the production of your nearest colony.

I finally got my head around the new trade system and I like how it works. Rather than it being a race to build as many freighters as possible your planets only have so much import and export capabilities, and can only export if there's a civilian station over a planet. Rather than just build my freighters outright I used the stimulus system to allocate 100,000 per turn to trade development and that means my citizens will build trade ships as needed around my empire, plus since those are owned by civilians I don't have to pay upkeep on them.

Planets with trade have a chance of having pirates attack however, and my one major battle last night was when a group of 5 pirate cruisers attacked one of my freighters. Thankfully I had built police cutters in all my main systems and those automatically spawn next to freighters if they come under attack. I was able to use my PCs to hold the cruisers off long enough for my freighters to escape and for missiles from my nearby colony to start arriving and pound them pretty hard.

And that is where the game is really starting to shine... the tactical combat looks amazing, and it seems like they've gotten a lot of the quirks worked out with the controls and AI. It was really impressive to see my little flight of cutters keeping just behind and to the right of the pirate formation while keeping just in x-ray laser range of their right most ship. My police ships took a pretty heavy beating, but they are well armored and like all ships, much tougher than their SotS counterparts.

Oh, and finally hotkeys! With an editor even. Unfortunately they still have't added the one hotkey I really want... the one to cycle through idle fleets, but it's a step in the right direction anyway.

The only main thing that annoyed me was that the UI still needs work: the load times are much, much better, but it's still a little sluggish loading some screens, and it still takes a lot more clicks for some actions that it seems like it should, plus the notches on things like the trade sliders don't properly stay locked to the notch you set them on. All relatively minor stuff, but still annoying.

I also haven't gotten far enough in to really judge the strategic AI or the mid - late game, but I will say the pain of playing is low enough now I'll probably go back to it tonight and see if I can get a little farther in this game.

by **Grifman** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:13 pm

Thanks for the update. I think I am going to wait for the first cold rainy weekend, and then dig into this. I've been waiting a long time, like everyone else :roll:

by **Sepiche** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:36 pm

Well it's official:
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/for ... 37&t=35604

Hey folks!

Sorry for the long wait but I am extremely happy and proud to give the all clear signal and invite you all back to a bright and shiny SotS2. While “all clear” in no way means support for the game has ended or that we have no plans for additions, it does mean that the game is in the shape we would have wished it to be upon release. From here we will be going on to a regularly scheduled set of updates that continue to fill out and flesh out the SotS2 universe as well as adding new maps, scenarios and plenty of quality of life suggestions.
...
The Future:
As said, this announcement does not mean the end of SotS2 support. In fact, should any of you be curious, feel free to come by our boards and see our plans to support SotS2 indefinitely. For now, you can look forward to your next SotS2 update in approximately 3 weeks and it should include such tasty treats as:
--Selectable Teams at startup
--Revised Empire economics screen
--Even more AI tuning
--SotSpedia tuning and more entries
--And a pack of new maps.

I played a bit more of my game last night and still enjoying it, but I probably should have picked a smaller map so I would run into the AI sooner.

I wanted to have some time to build up and figure out all the details before I had aliens at my doorstep, but as a result I haven't gotten a good look at the AI yet.

I have run into one other player and our border is starting to solidify nicely. We're not at war at the moment and are allowing each others survey ships to carry on unmolested, but so far he's resisted all my attempts to agree to a more lasting treaty. Diplomacy does seem much improved in this though. Diplomacy in SotS 2 relies on getting diplomatic points and spending them to offer treaties or declare wars on enemies. You gain those points a few at a time each turn, and most importantly from diplomatic stations. Actually more than just war declarations and treaties you can customize your offers quite a bit now. You can add incentives to any agreement, and there are a variety of different treaties as well as limitations you can agree to, like limits on the numbers of capital ships empires can build.

I also had a pretty good battle against a leviathan last night. It's one of the early game random events that hit one of my colonies, but luckily I had a reasonably strong fleet there was was able to protect the system to some extent. I'm still getting combat figured out and just basically put my ships on "close and engage" with orders to attack the leviathan and they did a commendable job of keeping in range and circling the leviathan. I wasn't able to destroy it before combat ended, but I was able to visibly weaken it, pop a bunch of turrets, and keep it from being able to just sit over my colony and decimate the population.

The way battles are fought over an entire system does make things interesting now too. Especially in systems with multiple planets you really have to make some tough choices about defending. Before battle you can place defense sats, fleets, and patrol craft, but it takes a LONG time during battles for ships to cross the map, and deploying all your ships at one planet can leave the other completely vulnerable.

Also I finally researched mining stations, started building a few, and man are they powerful! A system with even a single asteroid field can be a production gold mine if you fill it with mining stations. It looks like each asteroid field has about 3 or 4 places you can build a station, plus you can build then around gas giants and barren planets. Each station you have in a system with one of your colonies gives it a +500 to industrial output which is a considerable boost. One of my systems has two asteroid belts and even though the planet is still developing and I haven't built all the mining stations I can it's production is starting to rival my homeworld.

by **$iljanus** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:04 pm

Keep on posting impressions, Sepiche! I uninstalled the game to make room for X-Com but since I already own the game I might as well see if it's worth having it take up valuable HD space again.

by **Butterknife** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 2:01 pm

Played this for several hours this morning. The game is looking pretty good, but I daresay it will never be great. Nonetheless it isn't crashing all the time and I am seeing few bugs, although it has the typical difficult to understand interface and ramp up time that I remember from trying to learn how to play the first one. Experience with the first game won't necessarily help you learn this game.

Sepiche - to cycle through idle fleets, press Shift+A I believe. You can change the hotkeys in the menu though, I switched it to the period key because that is what I remember from the first game.

I went heavy into trade to start with, and I have pirates attacking my planets every turn. It is quite annoying because I have to watch a "quick combat" simulation for each one -- I would [b]much[/i] rather just see the battle results when I automate combat than have to watch a fast-forwarded version every time. Also, what is up with prototyping? I can't figure out how to update an existing unit -- I tried to put better armor on my fighting ship, and I had to prototype an entire new ship? That is going to make researching upgrades for different ships and multiple different types of ships pretty annoying, not to mention trying to upgrade ships already in combat (assuming that is even possible).

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