Follow SpaceSector.com on G+ Follow SpaceSector.com on Twitter Subscribe the SpaceSector.com Facebook page Subscribe the SpaceSector.com RSS feed Receive notifications of new posts by email

Currently developing Interstellar Space: Genesis
A turn-based space 4X strategy game for the PC.

Interstellar Space: Genesis | Turn-based space 4X strategy game for the PC

Sword of the Stars 2: The “All Clear” Flag Was Activated

By on October 19th, 2012 6:42 am

Sword of the Stars 2 | "All Clear" ?

Today, Kerberos Productions announced, through its CEO Martin Cirulis (aka Mecron in the Kerberos forums), that Sword of the Stars 2: Lords of Winter is “all clear”, which is what they understand as being “in the shape we would have wished it to be upon release” ~Martin Cirulis (Kerberos Productions CEO).

Martin added “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”.

However, this doesn’t seem to be the end of the journey for Sots2. With the “All Clear” announcement Martin clarified that this doesn’t mean that they are done with the game and that they plan to keep updating it regularly in order to “fill out and flesh out the SotS2 universe as well as adding new maps, scenarios and plenty of quality of life suggestions”.

So, almost 1 year after release, and after the post-release dark days of plenty of crashes, bugs, missing content, obscure mechanics, and plenty of very bad reviews, there seems to be a new hope for SotS2.

To know more about the game’s state after release, and three months after that, I invite you to read my SotS2 first impressions and the review.

As promised, I will start to work on a re-review asap, so that you may know how better the game really is. Hope to have it ready somewhere next week.

     Subscribe RSS

Tags: , ,

Interstellar Space: Genesis | Turn-based space 4X strategy game for the PC

85 Comments


  1. Bryan Bell says:

    Looking forward to your re-review, Adam. :)

    • Adam Solo says:

      Thanks for sending the tip Bryan ;)

    • Stupid Space Lizard says:

      Really interested to hear your take on it too.

      Unfortunately from what I’ve seen so far the consensus is that it adds a lot of ideas to SOTS that sound good on paper but are hopelessly clunky or tedious in execution, especially the fleet system. People just go ON about the fleet system.

      • TrashMan says:

        The Fleet system takes some getting used to as it is differnet from the standard system used by RTS and similar games.

        But it is in now way broken or bad. It closely simulates how real fleet operate and I for one
        don’t think it’s worse in any way, shape or form.

  2. DeLastOne says:

    Still a shame on them for this release. That do not excuse anything.

    At least they had the courage and honesty to follow up and address all the bugs and gameplay issues. And for this I will continue to trust Paradox and Kerberos.

    Sadly they have lost one year of their time doing this instead of giving some nice upgrades etc… But I guess it is never too late.

    Hope the 4x space genre will get more consideration in the future…

    Thank you Adams for the news. I am looking forward to see what Kerberos will do next and for your “re-review”…

    • BTJ says:

      Actually there is an announcement on the Kerberos forums about “what they do next”. They are planning to go full indie. An while the SotS series will stay with Paradox, they plan for a roguelike game called “The Pit” They started crowdfunding at indiegogo.com and raised 5.600 dollars up to now:

      http://www.indiegogo.com/sots-thepit

  3. Jeff P says:

    This always seems to happen whenever studios try to “re-imagine” an already good game. The original SotS remains one of my favorite games and I continue to play it to this day. This whole fiasco could have been avoided if they had given SotS the Sins of Solar Empires treatment: refine and add to the existing graphics, expand the tech tree, polish the interface, etc. rather than try to redesign something that didn’t need redesigning.

    • dawmail333 says:

      I have one word for you.
      XCOM.

      It’s rare, but some studios pull of reimaginations successfully, so don’t brand them so hastily.

      • Ben says:

        Funny that you mention XCOM.

        Plenty of veterans, say the game has partially the same feeling, but still lacks a lot of details & features from the originals. Small Maps, non-moving aliens ( until spotted ), limited tech tree, no “arms” market to sell stuff, no multiple bases, characters limited to predefined profiles, shorter then the originals, …

        Sound a lot more like XCOM “lite”.

        Its like saying Fallout 3 is a worthy successor to the Fallout 1/2 series. No, its just a different game, with the same name.

        • dawmail333 says:

          a) Aliens DO move before you see them, nothing like having a Crysallid run down a hill and kill a guy without you knowing he was there. In plus, terror missions – civilians die even if you can’t see them.
          b) Limited tech tree? Not going to argue that one, except to say it’s still pretty damn big.
          c) There’s a Grey Market, it’s sell only.

          Thing is, what’s the point in remaking the game exactly? Fireaxis made a brilliant game that is a great re-imagination. What so called veterans don’t seem to realise is that taking away the side micromanagement isn’t just to make it more accessible to casual players/more console friendly or whatever else. Fireaxis managed to boil it down more finely to the strategic core of it – XCOM (not X-COM) makes you constantly make hard choices (which country do I help?), and you have to balance your strategy to match.

          If a game is defined by the level of micromanagement, sure, it’s ‘X-COM lite’. If you want to play X-COM though, go ahead, no-one’s stopping you. In the meantime, I’ll accept that it’s not EXACTLY the same game, but I’ll sure as hell enjoy it. If you’re going to be bitter about ‘reimaginations’ that become ‘Game X Lite’, just go and play Game X and quit bitching about people’s efforts to make new stuff. :P

          As a final note, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

        • SQW says:

          Aliens do NOT sit at spawn points – most aliens has its own ‘call for help’ animation and you can see reinforcements streaming in from outside the fog of war if you remain still for several turns.

          I think most of the complainers were playing on normal or classical because I got the same feeling until I start playing on impossible. Other points you listed are either untrue or grumbling of ‘purists’.

          As a veteran X-Com player, I’m very happy with this version – my only complaint stems from the fact the plot seemed to end abruptly. I smell impending DLCs. =(

    • Jesse says:

      They expanded on the original and added a lot of depth. Doesn’t feel like useless depth either. At first I wasn’t a fan of the way fleet movement worked, but after becoming accustomed to it, it actually feels optimal to me. There’s a lot of concepts to grasp, but that’s what keeps me playing. Loving this game. Best 4x space game I’ve played since MOO2.

      • Fimbul says:

        wow, jesse, you like the fleet movement!?! it slows the game so down, no chance to refill a fleet when on a mission, a ton of new micromanagement and still the need of fuel tankers because fleets can’t support each other.

        i like many ideas they had for SotS2 but too much got worse, more micro (fleets, admirals, stations, battle manager etc), ship designing was in SotS1 clear and easy, in SotS2 it’s just a mess, far not enough infos (when you change the damage system totally, then let me have the info in the ship designer and not on some internet site where i have to search how this 8dmg is delivered and why it’s better than the 20dmg of another, or that its delivered every 0.5 second and the beam lasts 2 seconds)

        so i will try it once more, but i’m not optimistic.

        • Jesse says:

          The mission system, to me at least, works logically. You look at your goal, and the game presents your available resources for that goal. Now that you can queue up a relocation, that helps making expansion a bit less cumbersome. The endurance system is a good thing to me, as I never have to worry about some stranded ship. The whole mission system comes together to make you think in terms of fleets, not ships, and I like that.

          I do think a lot of the systems could use much better documentation. The trade systems dock:freighter ratio filled triangle system, for example, isn’t very clearly explained. The game has a learning curve, but I after I became familiar with the systems, I thought it flowed pretty well. The original was great, but between the great space pew pew and the more advanced strategy aspects, I prefer 2. Having actual systems to fight in and populate with defenses is great too.

  4. Cem says:

    At last. It was a big shame for Kerberos.

    SOTS II has many great strategic details and I hope they will continue the game with 3rd game.

  5. fred says:

    …”fill out and flesh out the SotS2 universe as well as adding new maps, scenarios and plenty of quality of life suggestions”…

    That sounds like there is an scenario.
    In fact, there isn’t ONE.

    • andrewza says:

      They never said they where in. They said they will add them.

      • fred says:

        they don’t have to say they did. they implemented the button. if you start a game the option is there, but only under maps there is someting. if you click scenario there is not happening anything.
        and there you go and tell they never said so…

        and before they add new maps (so many .. i dont know which to choose from) they like i said should work on making every button do something.

        PLUS:

        -is the encyclopedia running? NO

        -if you are in the fleet menue, can i drag and drop the ships flawlessly? NO
        -if i open in the fleet manager, the triangle from the subselection gets confused (the little trangle indicating if the submenue is open or closed)..
        -why is my grafic card running like crazy? there isnt much to show, i play every other game and the card stays quiet…
        -the planet manager is a joke. the first sword of the stars showed you everything and you could sort it. this is a step backward!

        I can tell you why they say they are done. because they managed to let the messages float at the bottom and they are clickable. they are very proud of that… OMG

        • andrewza says:

          It is called a place holder, they will release the scenarios during regular updates. And what new maps they have the same map has from the launch. And every button has a function.

          plus
          yes it is running and will be expanded.
          yes you can i never had a problem in setting up fleets
          What you talking about
          No problem here maybe you should upgrade

          they said it is done because it can be played has they envisioned it. It has been running smooth for 6 months now.

          Have you even played the game post all clear.

      • fred says:

        Here we go again, a fanboy/girl. No need to argue with you, you have your mind set. I am wasting time when I were going to go into detail.
        Of(f) course ppl like you have no problem with the game. It is self explaining and everything is soo right and well done. Over and out.

        • andrewza says:

          i am not a fan boy i just like the game i only bought it 6 months a go because i wanted a 4X space game.

    • DeLastOne says:

      Hehe they probably did had one but , among a lot of other thing, they forgot to add it at the release :) Sorry… it was so easy :)

  6. David says:

    Looking forward to reading your review on this one Adam.

  7. Evil Azrael says:

    Have they added a tutorial? I read the manual when it was available but still felt lost then i started a game. Plain old SotS 1 was simple enough to be understandable without reading the manual. Later Expansions blew up the simple game play without explaining everything. And i like to really understand the mechanics before i play.

  8. Towerbooks3192 says:

    Waiting for the re-review. Too bad SOTS series is so shallow and combat-oriented for me to dive into it.

  9. t1it says:

    Nice of you to post this one Adam :)
    I haven’t played this one for months but with this announcement, I’ll check it out.

  10. RandomBlue says:

    Just loaded it up to see how things have changed. Within the first minute I still see some glaring issues:

    Resolution is still set outside the game via TEXT FIELDS and it defaulted to 1024×720 on my machine for some reason (1920×1200 resolution for my main monitor).
    No random maps.

    *sigh*

  11. May Player says:

    I’ve been playing SotS2 regularly and it’s one of the most enjoyable games. All the bad publicity, well it used to be slow between turns but it got fixed months ago.
    I think the game is totally beautiful, strategy works well as it is.
    ONE point to mention is to LEARN the game, how to move in the 3D space, how easily find stuff, how to strategize. I have done it and it is a pure joy. The battles are just gorgeous, but yes, you have to learn how to be efficient and effective.

    As to random maps, yeah this would be nice, but there are so many galaxies available already so by the time you play through them it will be reaaaly long time! It’s not hugely important for me.

    The races are so totally different.. well designed and they play differently.

    I do highly recommend this game as there is nothing close to it out there.

  12. lammaer says:

    I kept an eye on the Swots2 officiel forums regularly since the disastrous launch. A week or two when I skimmed through the forum posts, the players still complained about tons if glaring issues, bugs, primitive AI and so forth.

    I wonder that the game is all clear now…. maybe they are out of the money again, and trying to milk the rest of the playerbase.

    • Evil Azrael says:

      That might be the reason behind this move. Pre-Order DLC 1 now and get the “17 more buttons working”-Package for free*.

      * After we implemented them. Maybe.

      After this disaster would anybody be so stupid err keen to give them money for this “The Pit” thing?

  13. TimmY says:

    Waiting for the new review. Hopefully the game is running better now. On early stage of the game I had like 10 fps :|, even in game menu. I play Dishonored without problem and many other games and this is making my laptop “crash&burn” .

  14. Legz says:

    It’s not like the game is especially good even now, it’s playable in some sort of way but if we are going to start comparing it to real finished games it still doesn’t stack up especially well.

    Kerberos is starting to look a whole lot like a one hit wonder, SOTS 1 was an excellent game but after that nothing has been worth playing.

    • andrewza says:

      maybe it has less to do with the state of the game and more to do with your personal taste

      • fred says:

        maybe you accept other ppls opinion.

        • andrewza says:

          i accept you may have a different opinion but i dont need to support it. Just say SOTS 2 will not be your game no matter what since it is not your game. It is like me i do not play BF3 because i dont like the game not because it is a bad game.

  15. lammaer says:

    Well, they are trying to go on crowfunding with their next project…. looks like Paradox doesn’t like Kerberos any more.

    http://www.indiegogo.com/sots-thepit

    • andrewza says:

      other way round. SOTS 2 is still under a pardox and there are 2 confermed expsions in the pip line for SOTS 2.

      • lammaer says:

        2 expansions already? Come on, they barely finished the basegame after almost 1 years of the release. They are very bold confirming 2 expansions :D

        And why their new game is not under Paradox wing? :)

        • fred says:

          reminds me of the greek and how they need more money to pay their debths..

        • andrewza says:

          the base game is finished but will be supported in the same way SOTS 1 was with regular updates.yes 2 expansions are confirmed but it dose not mean they working on them right now.

          money money money. Right now to companies get the money paradox and kerberos. This way they have there own source of income. It a small cheap game that they can then use the capital to make a larger game extra extra. And if it dose not work out at least there losses are small.

  16. Tycow says:

    After this and Fort Zombie, I don’t think I’ll bother with any more games from Kerberos. Tis a shame. :/

  17. JD says:

    Eurogamer Denmark re-reviewed SOTS2 and changed their score from 5/10 to 9/10 based on the all-clear version.

    That’s gotta say something.

    People are reporting big improvements. I have not played SOTS2 as I do not have the proper system requirements to run the game so this is purely from what I’ve picked up on the internet the last 2 days.

    I’ll wait for Adams re-review.

    • MayPlayer says:

      I’m playing SOTS2 and the review is right, it’s a solid 9.0
      What I am saying; sometimes it’s great to try something rather than listening to all the complainers ;)

      Do you know how many people are complaining about Civ V or Diablo 3 or Microsoft? ;)
      The fact is most of the world enjoys the products.

      Cheers!

      • JD says:

        Those are exactly my thoughts also.

        I enjoyed the first SOTS very much. I love the universe they created and the gameplay. This summer I’ve watched several extensive let’s plays of SOTS2 on youtube (due to all the patching that was going on during the summer) and I really liked what I saw. And the folks playing acknowledged the improvements.

        And in all honesty I can actually understand the dilemma the developers were in, don’t release and have major financial problems (basically go bust) or release something not finished and survive to live another day. I think it’s great they contined to improve just like they promised. I think it’s a nice change to see a developer actually keeping their promise instead of just giving up.

        Now I just need to get a new gaming rig.

    • Stupid Space Lizard says:

      If Eurogamer gave release SOTS2 a 5/10 all it tells me is that they probably don’t bother playing games before reviewing them.

      What does a game need to do to get a 4/10, make your hard drive explode?

  18. The Dude says:

    I kind of do understand where some people are coming from, I felt kind of the same with MOO1 -> MOO2. MOO2 was a departure from the pure and really tight design of its predecessor in my eyes, never mind the many easy exploitable elements that lead to. I still think MOO2 is a good game, but it never surpassed straight ol’ MOO for me (which probably is a big part in my like for SotS 1 since it felt like a spiritual successor to MOO 1).

    Fortunately I don’t feel the same with SotS 1 and 2, I like both equally I think. Though if you put the glorious combat out of the equation they are wildly different beasts, with wildly different gameplay on the strategic level. Sometimes SotS 2 on the strategic level almost feels like a board game to me. Fleets moving like set pieces and that you can only have three of them in combat in any given system contributes to this I think. The same with different systems having a given number of slots for stations, and the stations themselves with their levels. All this just feels… right, to me since I enjoy that kind of strategic play.

    I also enjoy the government system that choose you rather than the other way around so to say, though the modifiers that push you toward certain governments depending on your actions could probably still need some tweaking.

    The AI isn’t a retard at this point, but I’d really like to see it playing a bit better eventually (though it has caught me with surprise with a sudden shift in weapons and defense a few times in its current iteration). The in game Sotspedia still needs quite a bit of love and I feel there needs to be more options when it comes to scouting and getting intelligence on enemy empires. Most of the stuff that remains are minor niggles though, the game as it stands is very enjoyable to me. If the expansions are as good as those for SotS 1 I can see the sequel be the better game for me.

    I can see how some of the people that liked SotS 1 don’t like this given all the far reaching differences though.

    • JD says:

      Quote The Dude: “which probably is a big part in my like for SotS 1 since it felt like a spiritual successor to MOO 1”

      Thats exactly why I liked SotS 1. You hit the hammer on the nail there.

  19. May Player says:

    Totally agree with you JD!
    Actually many great games had issues like this. I remember Civ 4 when it came out – I could not even install it! What I did was – I did put the game on a shelf for a month or so. I just do understand that sometimes there is time needed to correct an issue. What were my choices? I could have returned the game and do not enjoy it later or just wait a bit..
    There are so many other examples; Civ 5 servers kept crashing after the game was release (also balancing issues), Guild Wars 2 – it still not working right on my new i7 Extreme with newest Radeon card (although I play various other games with no problems), GW2 just loads and I see black screen. Contacting the support resulted in BS steps to troubleshoot! Which I did but with no results ;) simply speaking – games as any other software always will have issues..

    It is nice to know there are also gamers like you (not just complainers)

    Cheers!

    By the way, I also started playing SotS1 and it was a great experience. Yes, at first the game had balancing issues (like it was too easy to make money in the game..), but it was kind of fun to watch how it grew.. It’s not like it was the only game I cold play ;) I always rotate various games depending on my mood.

    • JD says:

      Quote Max Player: “but it was kind of fun to watch how it grew”.

      yeah with every expansion it got better. Although I like vanilla too.

      I like to rotate games aswell, keeps things fresh. And yea trying something out is always a good idea. I for instance am not really a wargamer, but then I discovered a game called: Unity of Command and damn I am playing a wargame.

  20. Ermdog says:

    I’m glad I bought this game on sale for about $3.00 on Gamersgate, even with all the bugs I couldn’t pass it up. Now that they say it is “all clear” I finally went to try it out. I am disappointed there is no tutorial to help ease my way into the game. I was completely lost when I started a new game and spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to move my ships, which I still haven’t figured out. The load times are also annoying even when just going to the research screen it take a couple of seconds to load. That goes for everything, nothing seems smooth and things feels slow This will be one of the first 4x games, in awhile, I will have to actually read the manual on to figure out how to play. Almost every 4x game has some playable or non playable tutorial that helps you grasp the game. I will be looking forward to the re-review to find out if this is still crap while I try and figure out how to play this game

    • andrewza says:

      there is a very good wiki and a tutorial is in the pipe line.

    • DeLastOne says:

      The loading time is kind of annoying, I must really agree with you. Each screen you change is just too much time in between. But I barely will take is as a bug… more as polishing issue. I hope they will work that out soon

      About the manual I am actualy very happy with it. I have dowloaded it on my dropbox and read it from the bed last night. You should get the Tutorial manual PDF V1.3. It is really well written and explains a lot, specialy on ship movement and how to make fleets .
      It takes not that long to read (20 mns you are done)

      The game manual, though, will get into more detailled explanation of each feature and is a little bit bigger :)

      • Ermdog says:

        Yeah I am currently reading it. I guess we get spoiled now a days because most games come with a nice tutorial that at least explains the basics.

        • marshb says:

          On every screen there should be a question mark somewhere. Click it. Should display all kinds of info about that screen and all the buttons and what each does. Every screen has its own question mark with its own set of documentation dependent on what screen your currently viewing. Also, the sotspedia is available in game. It will have general info about many things and as you play, it will unlock new info. This is especially important when working your way up the various tech tress or discovering new races or events.

  21. Jorus says:

    Adam,
    Thanks for the notification of the “All Clear” flag on SOTS 2, it motivated me to update and try the game again. After an hour, I can see several improvements (no crashes!), but I guess I have a hard time understanding the “fleet” concept. For example, I can’t fathom why a fleet can’t survey and then colonize on the following turn!
    As mentioned above it still takes too long to change screens, and there are too many screens to slog through imho (I have inadvertantly shut down the game several times by closing the window). And I’ve never been impressed with these 3D galaxy maps on a 2D monitor.
    Anyhow, we’ll keep plugging away and see whether the work:fun ratio improves. I will be very interested in your review….

    • DeLastOne says:

      @Jorus
      ” I can’t fathom why a fleet can’t survey and then colonize on the following turn!”

      This is simply because survey takes some more time than a turn. You need to finish your survey to colonize a planet. So at the moment your survey is over, and if you have a colony ship, then you may just to it just when the mission is over

      SOTS2 is basicaly working on a mission system. You may create several fleets, each with several type of “mission” ships or unique type. Meaning you can mix colony, builder etc… and then just get things done one after each other. Or you can create “specialised” fleet.

      But each fleet get one mission at a time (though you may cancel their mission anytime)

      • Jorus says:

        Well, maybe I haven’t played enough, I did cancel the survey mission as you suggest, but the fleet just returns to its home base. And then I can tell the fleet to take two more turns to go back where it was two turns ago and colonize! Brilliant use of expensive hard/soft/wetware!

    • May Player says:

      Yeah, I kinda understand whta you are saying.
      Just do not understand why keep playing something if it bothers you so much?
      I have similar issue with Endless Space. Bought it and yes, it looks nice and so, but cannot go through the pain of reading the meaningless research tree, the flat space discovery and so on.. Tried several times and don’t go back!

      As to SotS 1 and 2… i really do enjoy everything in it, I just spend some time and learn the way things are done in the game. The battles are just eye-popping ;)

      It’s like buying any product. For example a car. I really do go to the dealership and keep poking at the things I like in such and such car. If I do not like it I go to another one that better suits my taste :) It’s not like the salesman at the dealership is forcing me to buy/drive the car, hahah

      • May Player says:

        to correct the last paragraph:

        It’s like buying any product. For example a car. I really DO NOT go to the dealership and keep poking at the things I like in such and such car. If I do not like it I go to another one that better suits my taste :) It’s not like the salesman at the dealership is forcing me to buy/drive that single car, hahah

      • Jorus says:

        I think it is fairly obvious that I agree with you – I haven’t played the game for a year because it had serious problems. After the “All Clear” was given I thought it time to give it another look – which I am doing.
        As I said, I only have an hour’s worth of game playing on SOTS2, so my remarks are obviously first impressions. I am hoping to love the game, but I don’t think that MOO2 has any fear of being knocked out of the #1 spot, yet.
        PS. Strange analogy with the car for many reasons, but what is really funny is that the learning curve for driving a new car is a lot less steep than for learning SOTS2!

  22. DeLastOne says:

    Ho I just understood taht your point was about to scheduled one mission after the other… Then I will agree that some sort of mission scheduler (or queue) is missing… I guess that is something you should propose on their official forum… after all they are now focusing on upgrading the game with new features :)

  23. DeLastOne says:

    Haha they fix some stuff today… I could not resist laughing out loud at this fix :

    Other fixes:
    – Fixed bug that allowed meteors to capture admirals.

  24. Zaknafein says:

    I’ ve been playing SotS 2 for a while now :) the game is pretty good. Tactical combat is awesome, ship customization is very interesting, thanks to the modules and supply/energy system. The research tree seems much larger than in the last game, it is very hard to choose what to research, all the techs are very useful. Great graphics too :)

    Some people compaining about the movement system (compulsory fleets) and the fact that the game is slower than SotS, I personally like that. I used to play MoO2 and taking my time with a turn is something I’m used to :) As to the fleet system, it is no longer possible to spam ships so much, one of the things that spoiled my SotS1 experience.

    Still can’t build any buildings on planets :( but we can now build science, naval, civilian and diplomatic stations, which can have certain modules to improve effectiveness. You can also build system defenses like minefields, System defense boats and platforms. These things give a player more to do in peace times.

    • JD says:

      I had no real issues with the ship spamming, although I can understand your issue with it. Nice to hear first hand from players.

      Man I really need to get a new rig so I can play this game.

  25. Brian says:

    I enjoyed imperium galatica 2 a lot more than this shi* and sure hope this franchise just goes quietly into the night because I didn’t enjoy either offering despite spending many weeks trying to like it. Oh well. Here’s hoping for the next big name in space 4x gaming.

    • DeLastOne says:

      I am not sure this comment is the most useful and constructive… the way you have describe SOTS2 is, IMHO, not partial.

      The fact you do not like something do not make it “shi*”… Have your parents ever told you that ? If you do not like it then just say so, and, in the event we ask you why, then try to extend your vocabulary with some more adjectives and also to use some adverbs, arguments.. in brief to learn about syntax.

  26. May Player says:

    I would give an analogy for buying a spaceship, but there are no dealerships yet…
    Imagine that learning curve to fly it?

  27. motorbit says:

    Kerberos always had the guts not to do what people expect but do things in a new way.
    sots prime was harshly critizied for this at first too, even though people now years later come to realize that these things are what made this game unique.
    we just see the same thing with sots2, especially with the mission system. its just fundamentally different than the systems we have seen before, so the first and obvious reaction is “wtf is this crap?” – untill one comes to realize the advantages and what it can do, one just notices what it cant.
    its just sad the game had to be released in that unfininished condition back then. im so sure people would have been more open minded about the new things if it was released “all clear”.

  28. LoveGood4xNot4xcrap says:

    The AI is still pathetic i replayed the game again with max dif and razed a huge galaxy without real opposition from the other races =(
    The only difficulty of SotS2 comes from the boredom of doing repetitive tasks through excessive menus and sub-menus… the same tasks can be accomplised with less work in similar games

    • andrewza says:

      The AI can become threat but it does need work.

    • SQW says:

      SOTS with expansions was my favourite game of all time but the tactical AI was so brain dead, winning ultimately lost its lustre.

      I was hoping SOTS II would prove to be a better challenge both strategically and tactically. Menu’s, GUI and game mechanics can be changed relatively easy but fixing AI just doesn’t happen all that often in this industry.

    • Jorus says:

      I have now sunk more hours into the game and my main comment is that the speed is glacial, both in game time and RT. It seems to take forever for something to happen, except for the meteor strikes and pirates which pop up w/o warning. Research is incremental, with few “ah-ha!” moments (but maybe I haven’t played long enough).The planets have some diversity, but not enough to make it a game-breaker to grab a particular planet.
      I have problems with the fact that I seem to be doing a lot more clicking to get things down than I would like (otherwise I would play shooters I guess). How many clicks does it take to save/close/exit the game? 7?
      And finally, I guess it is my computer (i7-920, 12GB Ram) – but the turns/battles take too long.
      I find all this very unfortunate because it is easy to see that the game has depth to it that I would like to explore, but it takes a significant investment of time/effort.

      • andrewza says:

        it takes zero clicks to save. called auto save,. just jocking but honestly there are worse UI out there.

        • May Player says:

          Yes, it takes zero clicks to save. Just like Diablo 3. It’s pretty neat his way.
          As to ‘nothing happening’ in the game.. just start the game on normal and hard and there is plenty happening in the game.

  29. Lloyd says:

    I’ve been playing it since the all clear. I personally think the random encounters need a bit of tweaking (ya never know which planet on a system they occur on so…you have to make a guess. many times your resources or fleets are not in the right area. frustrating) Other than that i cant wait to see what else they have planned. I hope they consider DLC as well, id buy em. ive seen this game since its release date and each patch got a little better. It runs well now. The AI is using its diplomatic ability and seems to know where to strike when im weak. Kinda cool actually.

  30. Samwell says:

    What a disappointment Sots2 has become.

    I’ve bought it at release, and it was pre-alpha, 6 mts later it was boring as hell, but at least it got to turn 100.

    All clear given, and well, got to turn 300, uninstalled and left with a serious case of shaking my head in disbelief. It’s hard for me to grasp how bad sots 2 is compared to its original. And I am not talking about the launch or Mecrons horrid attitude, or the fact that it is still, a year later, in mid-beta basically.

    It is just a badly made game. Where as the original was inventive and had real unique ideas, drive systems etc, The second game tries to make everything “larger” and end up making everything worse.

    The game is painfully slow, almost all tasks are unbelievably repetitive, and without any reason for them to be manual in the first place! Balance is missing, AI is just atrocious. And I just don’t understand why everything lags, every menu, every action, everything. And that’s to a worse AI than X3 even, you’ll be digging in those laggy menus every single turn, doing the same repetitive thing.

    I have completely given up any hope for this series, sadly. And I confess that sots2 is a bigger let down than Moo3… and that’s saying something.

    • andrewza says:

      That your opion at least. I feel that you are wrong.

      • Adam Solo says:

        Can’t you do better than that? :) If you don’t agree with him at least explain why, so that we can all benefit from an opposite opinion.

        • andrewza says:

          i have given my point a view. It would be poitless to say it again.

        • Adam Solo says:

          Ok, fair enough. I see that you’ve been defending the game in the comments, and being informative where you can, I thank you for that. But I didn’t read any real opinion about WHY you think the game is very good and Samwell is wrong in his assessment. You deny that the game is slow? You don’t think the AI needs work? Aren’t there lags in the menu anymore? I’m not taking a position, I’m just trying to understand why you think he’s wrong so that we have more information.


Related Articles:

Post category: News & Announcements