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[nammafia]

Since Swords of the Stars II is coming out on September 20th, do you think October release might be not a good time? I would think many space strategy gamers might be busy playing SOTS II and I know I will be playing SOTS II for couple months before moving on.

[Simulation01]

ORIGINAL: nammafia

Since Swords of the Stars II is coming out on September 20th, do you think October release might be not a good time? I would think many space strategy gamers might be busy playing SOTS II and I know I will be playing SOTS II for couple months before moving on.

It's fine. I will compare and contrast the two. SOTS II system recommends scares the hell outta me...I'm still running Vista on 32bit. I have a 1/2 gig geforce 8800 card and 3 gigs of ram. I'm not sure how well my rig will do against that game, but I'm gonna find out! [:D] I'm really looking forward to both of these games as well as the expansion to Elemental and Sins. Maybe strat gaming is coming back!!!!!

[Data]

which would get me killed here in the United States

I like US, they only kill you there for this. Here they torture you before they kill you....than they bring you back and do it again....and not once divorce you in the process.

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Data

which would get me killed here in the United States

I like US, they only kill you there for this. Here they torture you before they kill you....than they bring you back and do it again....and not once divorce you in the process.

Laughing so hard I am drawing a crowd around me here...

Data, that is how you know your wife loves you: murder and torture are both possibilities , but they love you so much they would NEVER divorce you. [:D]

[Data]

That's sadism [:)]

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Data
That's sadism [:)]

I meant that with a certain amount of irony.
But I am a believer in the commitment of marriage...
Be thankful for what you have... many would pay dearly for what you have...

[Data]

I can start the bigest ranting ever on this off topic but even I have my limits so I'll only agree strongly with you.

[Hawawaa]

Great news! Can't wait to test and preorder!

Wow SOTS II is in September!? Holy crap! Lots of good games this fall/winter and not enough time, ef...

Can't wait for more info! [:)]

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Data
I can start the bigest ranting ever on this off topic but even I have my limits so I'll only agree strongly with you.

My apologies; shan't happen again.
And with that I think I am going to shut my yap a while...

[Erik Rutins]

Hi guys,

Here's something from the alpha (as in not yet beta, so please consider it work in progress) to keep you busy. Just to guide the discussion a bit, the large colored areas are spheres of influence. Spheres of influence are not quite the same as the way we think of "borders" here on our planet. They project from your colonies and define the space that you could control. Systems within your sphere of influence that you have at least explored are considered under your control. Borders in space are enforced within each controlled system but not in the deep space between systems. Also, building a mining station (for example) outside of your sphere of influence does not give you control over that system (though colonizing it does). Diplomacy has been overhauled to allow the negotiation of mining and refueling rights within your controlled systems, among other improvements.

There are a few other things you may spot in this screenshot.

Also, regarding ongoing support, we are very much aware that another update for ROTS is desired and it will arrive before the next expansion is released.

Regards,

- Erik

[Igard]

Wow! Thank you Erik. I'm amazed that you're sharing this with us. It certainly seems  as though you've changed your policy. We got nothing before RotS expansion!

Are you sure you've got permission to share this with us? Just kiddin'.[:D]

Actually looks really good. I had a feeling it would be a system like this. It's very similar to GalCiv, which I think is the best way to go for such a complex map (so many systems).

There appear to be several borders, so a nice screenshot for this. Looks like the larger the population, the greater the sphere of influence.

It looks like a distance of about 3/4 of a sector radius for a densly populated system. Very small systems have a fraction of this, looks like about 1/20th of a sector radius! This is very good. It means we can't just colonise a system, then expect to go on to control the rest of the sector. Should provide lots of little 'border skirmishes'. I like that very much.

What else can we see?....

Our recent breakthrough in desert colonisation produces a new scientist! Very interesting.

We've got some white dotted lines. Looks like trade routes.

Fleet posture. Defend Taros 2 and sector. Good stuff. There's also a little picture of a human with a badge on him. An officer/captain/admiral perhaps?

Are those a couple of new icons I recognise above the mini-map? I'm not sure, I never look there.

Did I miss anything?

Well it looks really promising. Looks really good actually. I'm sort of surprised![:)]

I do have some questions, but I think I'll wait until I can collate all the info and.... AWW Heck!! I can't wait to try this!!!!

Really looking forward to beta testing now. That's assuming my application is accepted.[;)]

[Haree78]

List of things spotted:
Researching an item created a scientist character.
New mini map icons appear to toggle different information.
One of the new types of info appears to be ship destination with dotted line on the main map.
The Resort Location icon seems to have changed.
New Fleet commands in the selection window can be seen.
We have the ability to command Fleet to defend areas rather than patrol perhaps?
The human picture of the fleet appears to have a red icon in the bottom right of the picture, perhaps indicating a character or something else?
Fleets have a visible posture in the selection window.

[J HG T]

Oooo... shiny new screen...
Borders, characters and better diplomacy seem to be there so I'm quite happy already.
Interesting to see how much of the old icons and visuals are going to be updated.

[Data]

Drooling over the new stuff, a picture does do more than a thousand words so if the policy has changed as Igard notices than it's a great change.
Also, an update before the expansion? Really cool stuff.

[ehsumrell1]

Wow Erik, I'm so far impressed! This reminds me of the 'influence' realms that GalCiv II
has, but with more. I also notice in the report window about the research breakthrough
'producing a new scientist'. I assume that you guys have added 'scientists' as a sort
of commodity that can be earned. Interesting! Hmmm....I wonder if this also means that
there has been some head-way made possibly toward 'Captains' or similar shipboard personnel
as well? [X(]

Chomping at the bit to begin testing! Will we get notification through the developmental forum
soon? Tell Elliot that I'm ready to both give up my current devotion time with Mina, my Orion
Slave Girl AND I will also give him my key to Igard's Cargo Bay and the security codes as well!
(S O R R Y I G A R D!)

[Spacecadet]

Yes, this does look interesting.

My guess on the Borders is that it's going to be based on the Colony/Colonies Development/Culture level.
We've all seen the "Culture" values in our reports, and up to now they seem mainly to reflect Development level.

I'm wondering if Elliot has finally figured out how he wants to implement Star Base Colonies . . . .


.

[Shark7]

Diplomacy has been overhauled to allow the negotiation of mining and refueling rights within your controlled systems, among other improvements.

Woot! Ok, little (actually a whole lot) excited as this is something I specifically asked for. Looks like Elliot is giving us a much improved diplomacy system. [&o][&o][&o][&o]

Secomdly, I don't know if anyone else noticed, but it seems to me that the fleets have a few new commands to choose from...I see a shield in its action menu, which to me screams '"Guard Command".

[Sithuk]

Erik: Will game data be externalised in easily to edit file formats for modders?

[Erik Rutins]

We are externalizing more as we go. So far there will be a lot more that can be done in terms of the races and policies. We're focusing a lot of time in this expansion on making each faction different and unique and having a great leader and character system and we are also making those abilities accessible to modders.

Regards,

- Erik

[Sithuk]

Erik: Thank you for the info. I had hoped that large amounts of the game variables would be externalised in this expansion. The modders could then spend many hours optimising the game balance. I appreciate it takes time to extricate the variables from the code and relocate to external files. Externalising the game data would unlock the many eager volunteers who could balance the gameplay for you. Achieving true balance takes many many months if not years of modding. It is never done by game devs because it costs too much in time. Please let us do that. Please give us the ability to do it.

I intend to buy the expansion. I already have bought the original and RoTS. The screenshot above hints at much appreciated user interface updates. I like the borders/influence concept with the diplomacy tie-ins.