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General discussionRelease: Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection(167 posts)(167 posts)
(167 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 10, 2016
Cutting through the galaxy.



<span class="bold">Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection</span>, the comprehensive package of turn-based 4X gameplay, real-time space battles, and intergalactic exploration, is now available, DRM-free on GOG.com with a 50% launch discount.

If you happen to find yourself in a space fight, bringing a sword is hardly going to do you any good. How about a fleet of sword-shaped spaceships, though? Yeah, those might actually provide you with the firepower needed to conquer the treacherous far reaches of the galaxy and establish your own interstellar empire.

Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection is all about carefully building an armada that feels unique, unleashing it upon the unsuspecting galaxy through the magic of faster-than-light travel, and blowing your opponents to smithereens in real-time space combat. Since the inclusion of the three DLCs, there are six playable alien factions in total, each with their own preferred technologies and ships, as well as distinct physiology. Player-designed ships and a huge variety of scenarios promise to keep you engaged for dozens of hours, as you hop between star systems, trading, raiding, colonizing, and laser-blasting your way to intergalactic domination.



Build a spacefaring empire and cut the galaxy any way you like with your <span class="bold">Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection</span>, DRM-free on GOG.com. The 50% launch discount will last until March 15, 4:59 PM GMT.
Posted March 11, 2016
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Maxvorstadt: Test of time? Well, you never played it!
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BoxOfSnoo: Um, what? I own and have played both. I recommend both.
I mean Civilization II: Test of time! :-)
Posted March 11, 2016
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ggf162: DRM-free cars when?
Right...
Posted March 11, 2016
Bought.
Posted March 11, 2016
Yay!
SotS1 is certainly a"Good Old Game"!
Though I'd say it's more than "Good", and not that "Old" yet. ;)
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Maxvorstadt: Is this game pauseable? Is it good? How difficult is it?
Yes, the real-time combat is pauseable,
unless you're in multiplayer and there's another player present during that combat (whether he's fighting or just watching).

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You bet.
But since this has been my "best game ever" since 2009, I might be biased.
So let's take some hopefully less biased numbers :

90% of positive User Reviews on Steam (out of 254)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/42890/

SteamSpy in 4X tagged games :
http://steamspy.com/tag/4X
n=°8 Score Rank (excluding multiple instances of Civ4, and Drox Operative & AoE3 which are not 4x)
n=°3 in Mean Playtime

Metacritic User Score for SotS1:Complete :
8.5/10 (19 ratings)
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sword-of-the-stars-complete-collection

Metacritic User Score for SotS1: Argos Naval Yard (latest expansion, pretty much the same thing as Complete) :
8.4/10 (11 ratings)
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sword-of-the-stars-argos-naval-yard
(And 2 Critic Metascores of 89 and 100.)
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I'd say it's average in difficulty as 4X games go (and was easy in 2006-2009 when 4X games were seemingly harder).
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justanoldgamer: This looks interesting. How does the real time space combat works? Is it like an RTS? Can you adjust the speed?
Instanced at the end of each turn Real-Time Combat.
You can pause it
(even set it up so that each combat starts paused)
or speed up to 2x, 4x, 8x
(you'll be obviously limited by your computer's processing power at some point)
...
unless you're in multiplayer and there's another player present during that combat (whether he's fighting or just watching).

Or you wanted other information about combat?
Here's an example of combat :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8kB6Brlqc&amp;list=PLkuJSFWAxEVUmypthxXeCnFKoMGaZyMHb&amp;index=22
P.S.: Nice forum feature here, auto-merging multiple posts!
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mrkgnao: Does it have active pause?
Yes, see above.
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mrkgnao: Does it have active pause?
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Jacob_1994: Its turn-based with real time battles and you can speed up the battle but I don't think it has a pause function.
Yes it has, see above.
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tinyE: Is TBS or real time!? :P
Both, see above.
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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Jacob_1994: Its turn-based with real time battles and you can speed up the battle but I don't think it has a pause function.
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Maxvorstadt: Hm, Wikipedia says, that the turns have a timer, so it`s not really turn based, more a mix of TBS and RTS style. I don`t like it when a game forces me to make my turn within a certain amount of time, I want to look at everything and plan my turns the way I want.
You can set up a timer for turns (between 1 and 9.75 minutes) if the other players slow the game down too much, but you're not forced to use it.
But IMHO, if you can't even agree with the other players to be civil that, you might not want to play a hours-long, multiple-sessions game with them anyway.)

The game is balanced around a combat timer of 4 minutes, but you can set the combat timer from 1 to 10 minutes.
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Grargar: They are in the same universe, but once again, not the same game. One is a 4x4, the other a roguelike. One is new and this is old.
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IronArcturus: I see. So this must be the 2006 version. Is it similar to Homeworld? Or is everything on a 2D plane?
No, it should be the fully patched 2010 version with the 3 expansions and the extra content.

Strategic map is fully 3D, combats are controlled in a 2D plane, but ships can move (or be pushed!) up or down the plane.
(They'll try to go back to the plane if they can, which might be problematic if their engines are destroyed.)
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Faithful: Great game, but years ago I think Kerberos was short sighted. I posted on their forum to consider placing the game on gog and was chided for trying to promote gog on their site (which was not the case, I only wanted the game to do well).

I do not remember Paradox being part of the mix then.

Clearly Kerberos was simply behind the curve and now finally up to speed and placing SotS on gog.
It was when SotS1 publisher was Lighthouse?
GoG.com existed already back then?
Could you please find and link that thread?

Also, there was no announcement of this on Kerberos nor Paradox forums
(the latter don't even have a SotS1 subforum anymore, only a "buried" SotS2 subforum).

But I'm still leaning towards Paradox pushing this as they're the publisher and get all the money (up to some (sky-high?) amount).
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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Maxvorstadt: Hm, still not sure. I wanted to play GalCiv II today, but this could be an alternative, if there is a possibillity to turn of the turn timer and if there is a customizing of the difficulty of the game, since I`m not a hardcore strategist, only someone who has fun with this kind of games. :-)
SotS1 is pretty much at the opposite end of the spectrum of space empire games compared to GalCiv2.
I'm not sure whether you would like SotS1, as I consider GalCiv2 boring. But you should at least try it...

There's plenty of difficulty customization options, you can set up 2 player bonus levels, 3 AI bonus levels, set up starting treasury / colonies / technologies; pre-set teams, and do all this player by player (max 8).
(And you can set up the random encounter level from 0% to 200%, in my experience some players just get aggravated by randoms, I guess they just don't like the variety and the extra challenge they bring to the game? :p )
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Vythonaut: For what it's worth, some of the devs of SotS worked on Homeworld Cataclysm. I'm not really sure if this guarantees the quality of SotS (probably not) but the price is good enough to find out. ;)
I think it would be more precise to say that some of the SotS1 developers worked on Homeworld 1, and pretty much all of them worked on Homeworld 1 : Cataclysm under the name of Barking Dog studios.

See this podcast/Youtube video with Space Game Junkie and Kerberos Devs :
https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featured/sjg-podcast-95-cataclysmic-homeworld-coming/

Also this (start of) a SotS1 multiplayer game / podcast with lots of interesting information with the same people :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He2uv2YWsUg
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IronArcturus: I still can't figure out if SotS has a truly 3D arena like Homeworld. It's not made clear from the videos on GOG.
See above.
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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Grargar: By the way, does the game come with a serial like other Paradox games?
The original (boxed for sure, direct download maybe) game had a serial (with a DRM check in multiplayer so that two players don't use the same serial), as well as all the expansions.
Steam and GoG give it a serial too.
All these versions put their keys and installation directory information in the same Windows registry key :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sword of the Stars
("WOW6432Node "if you're on 64-bit)

Also, the game was patched after a while to not require a CD to run, but when Paradox put it on Steam they added DRM :
the Steam client has to run in order to launch the game.
(Paradox only seem to do that with the games they only publish, but not develop?)

No idea about the GamersGate, Direct2Drive and Impulse (digital distribution only?) versions of the game.
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Jacob_1994: Only for multiplayer
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IronArcturus: So can this timer be disabled? I know in turn-based games like Fantasy Wars the timer cannot be turned off at all. Also, are the maps truly 3D or they are just flat planes?
See above.
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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mrkgnao: Does it have active pause?
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BlueTemplar: Yes, see above.
"Active pause" means pause at any time, give commands while paused, unpause and the game executes your commands. Is that what it has?
Posted March 11, 2016
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Jacob_1994: Only for multiplayer
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Maxvorstadt: I now read a test of this game. There are no buildings in this game. Seriously, a 4X game without building buildings? Nah man, I`ll stay with GalCiv II.
Why a space empires game would absolutely have to have buildings?
(I think SotS1 was based on this point on MoO1, which also has economic sliders and no buildings?)
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BlueTemplar: Yes, see above.
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mrkgnao: "Active pause" means pause at any time, give commands while paused, unpause and the game executes your commands. Is that what it has?
Yes. (In single-player, see above for MP.)
See this (early game) combat as an example of me (possibly over)using active pause :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=549770#p549770

You can also use Shift+Space while paused to advance the simulation one frame forward.
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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IronArcturus: So can this timer be disabled? I know in turn-based games like Fantasy Wars the timer cannot be turned off at all. Also, are the maps truly 3D or they are just flat planes?
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Jacob_1994: There is no timer in single player (however there is a countdown after you pushed the end turn button allowing you to stop it if you need to) and the maps are 3d there are some there flat maps
If you don't like 3D maps, it's generally recommended to use the pretty flat "Disk" instead of the completely flat "2D", which might cause small issues : balance ones, and Nodelines (that the Humans use) not linking well.
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Projectsonic: So uh... SOTS complete collection is available in Galaxy, but The Pit isn't yet. Anyone know the reason for this?
It is??
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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mrkgnao: "Active pause" means pause at any time, give commands while paused, unpause and the game executes your commands. Is that what it has?
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BlueTemplar: Yes. (In single-player, see above for MP.)
See this (early game) combat as an example of me (possibly over)using active pause :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=549770#p549770

You can also use Shift+Space while paused to advance the simulation one frame forward.
Thank you. Good to know.
Still, probably not for me, as I understand it does not have a story-driven campaign.
Posted March 11, 2016
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ElTerprise: Different genres. SOTS: The Pit is a roguelike while SOTS:Complete Collection is a 4x.
And afaik none of the Add-ons from the original SOTS 4x are offered seperately...

Now only SOTS II and SOTS: Ground Pounders are missing here.
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tremere110: Is SoTS II still the same steaming pile of crap when it was first released? I remember bugs - lots of bugs - and not the alien kind.
Not even close.
IMHO It went from
"pretty much unplayable due to technical issues, unless you're lucky"
to
"there's still plenty of bugs, some parts of the game still seem like they're still stuck in alpha, but it's much more stable and you might possibly enjoy the game a lot if you're willing to overlook some things, especially if you like multiplayer. And it's not like there's anything similar available as games go... besides maybe SotS1"
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BlueTemplar: Yes. (In single-player, see above for MP.)
See this (early game) combat as an example of me (possibly over)using active pause :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=549770#p549770

You can also use Shift+Space while paused to advance the simulation one frame forward.
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mrkgnao: Thank you. Good to know.
Still, probably not for me, as I understand it does not have a story-driven campaign.
It has multiple scenarios though.
The (in-game) story is mostly in the form of racial descriptions and clues in overall design.

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mrkgnao: The game page reads "Choose from a variety of scenario campaigns".

What does this mean?
How many campaigns are there?
How long are they?
Are they story-driven?
Here's a thorough description of scenarios :
http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots1/Scenarios
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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Jacob_1994: There is no timer in single player (however there is a countdown after you pushed the end turn button allowing you to stop it if you need to) and the maps are 3d there are some there flat maps
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IronArcturus: Does it have a singleplayer Skirmish mode? How many maps are available?
It's the main form of the game.
Game setup :
http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots1/Game_Setup
Screenshot :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&amp;t=55412#p549643

Map shapes :

The current predefined shapes are Sphere, Clusters, Spiral, Arm, Hourglass, Rift, 2D, Hollow Sphere, Globular Clusters, Galactic Collision, Tube, Ring, Stellar Nursery, Barred, Disk, Barbell, Clouds, Cubes, Sinusoid, Helix, and Mountain. Custom and Random options are also available.
Eleahen's (popular) generated maps :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12574

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Matruchus: DLC? This version already includes all the dlc for this game.
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zlep: I'd say it's a cynical poke at the marketing strategy used for SotS The Pit (speaking of which, it wouldn't kill them to put all those bits into a "complete collection" - it's been enough time).

Anyway, I'm really pleased to see SotS here. It's a guaranteed buy for me.
Another DLC for The Pit is coming :
"The Medic is making a house call" :
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=56&amp;t=55344
Post edited March 11, 2016 by BlueTemplar
Posted March 11, 2016
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IronArcturus: Is there a way to adjust the resolution for the SotS windowed mode? The only resolution that's listed is 1024x768.
Yes :
http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots1/Display.cfg

You can also switch between windowed and full screen modes using Alt+Enter.
Posted March 11, 2016
Thank you GOG! :)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection(167 posts)(167 posts)
(167 posts)