Hello

Welcome to the new war raging across hundreds of light years at once, with mechanized Titans as the main fighting force.

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shunwick
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Hello

Post by shunwick »

While I am waiting for the game to arrive I thought I would say hello and ask if there are any patches or mods to the game that I need to know about.

The whole sci-fi thing is bit off the beeaten track for me but the game sounds interesting and I am looking forward to playing it.

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
Thorgrim
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RE: Hello

Post by Thorgrim »

Latest patch is v1.2.1, check out the sticky threads to know how to get it.
Have fun!
Iceman
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

Thorgrim,

Thanks for that.

This forum doesn't appear to be one of the most active at the moment. I hope there are still players out there willing to help a new player get up to speed.

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
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Rainbow7
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RE: Hello

Post by Rainbow7 »

I still lurk.  There's some documentation to be found in the forums, if you look for it  A helpful spreadsheet and a helpful word document ... detailing all the abilties and skills of your jock/titan.
Troubles overcome are good to tell. -Yiddish saying
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

Thanks. I am slowly going through all the posts to see what help is available but until I reveive the game and have a chance to read the manual I don't really understand what everyone is talking about. Hopefully, the game will arrive soon.

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
Kuokkanen
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RE: Hello

Post by Kuokkanen »

There are still unanswered questions. Let's start from this one: are there on the board any other units than Titans?
You know what they say, don't you? About how us MechWarriors are the modern knights, how warfare has become civilized now that we have to abide by conventions and rules of war. Don't believe it.

MekWars
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

There are still unanswered questions. Let's start from this one: are there on the board any other units than Titans?

Er...

Was that a question for me or for anyone?

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
Burzmali
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RE: Hello

Post by Burzmali »

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

There are still unanswered questions. Let's start from this one: are there on the board any other units than Titans?

No
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

There are still unanswered questions. Let's start from this one: are there on the board any other units than Titans?

Matti, are there any more? I still haven't received my copy yet but I would like to get people talking again.

BTW, is the lack of any units other than titans good or bad?

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
Kuokkanen
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RE: Hello

Post by Kuokkanen »

ORIGINAL: shunwick

Matti, are there any more? I still haven't received my copy yet but I would like to get people talking again.
I've understood that there are campaigns in Warring Suns and that might be good enough reason buy the game. But I want more info. Are campaigns static or dynamic? How much static or how much dynamic? What kind of scenarios are there? What are conditions to win/lose scenario? What is player's role (officer of national military force, mercenary, else)?

is the lack of any units other than titans good or bad?
In my opinion, bad! It would be nice to have some variety like in Classic BattleTech and MegaMek. In those games it's easy to experience why BattleMech is king of battlefield, but in ToS only reason why Titan is that is becouse there are no other units.
You know what they say, don't you? About how us MechWarriors are the modern knights, how warfare has become civilized now that we have to abide by conventions and rules of war. Don't believe it.

MekWars
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Rainbow7
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RE: Hello

Post by Rainbow7 »

There are campaigns, and they are a series of connected missions.  You don't have to proceed one after the other (that is, you can intersperse other random battles between campaign missions, if you like).  They are static in the sense that there are clear goals defined by the designer, and those won't change if you replay the mission.  But most of the campaigns are well designed, in that they tell a good story.  The heart of ToS, in my opinion, is that you bring your team up from scratch, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses (and improving on the latter).  I imagine most people play with a favourite team, which you start to care about dearly.  You won't want to be throwing your favourite team into a campaign that's rated way too tough for them, for fear of having everyone killed off.  And for the most part, kills are kills.  You don't go back.

The scenarios all, obviously, involve combat.  But there are little variations that make each one interesting.  Some involve a time element, or a discovery element, or a hunt for a particular enemy element (or a combination).   Your role is kind of left to your imagination, but you control every member of your team, one at a time.  I, for example, placed my self as the leader of my team and slowly recruited other members (as funds permit) and gave them the names of some of my real-life buddies.  Believe me when I say that I hate losing a teammate.

I guess some variety of other units would make things a little more interesting, but that never really bothered me.
Troubles overcome are good to tell. -Yiddish saying
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

Rainbow,

The advertising blurb mentions a game editor. Does this mean a scenario editor or a campaign editor or both? Designing my own campaigns sounds like fun.

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
Kuokkanen
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RE: Hello

Post by Kuokkanen »

ORIGINAL: Rainbow

There are campaigns, and they are a series of connected missions.  You don't have to proceed one after the other (that is, you can intersperse other random battles between campaign missions, if you like).
Sounds like MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries. If someone don't know, it's BattleMech simulation where player's role is commander of mercenary unit. Campaign of that game consists of series of preplanned scenarios or short campaigns, and between/instead them player can play randomly generated scenarios, something like in first MechWarrior. So how close Warring Suns comes this? Or would campaigns of SPWAW be better comparison?

The heart of ToS, in my opinion, is that you bring your team up from scratch, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses (and improving on the latter).
What is this team? Mercenary unit or what? And you make it sound like one team can be used in several different campaigns with all their stuff.

The scenarios all, obviously, involve combat.  But there are little variations that make each one interesting.  Some involve a time element, or a discovery element, or a hunt for a particular enemy element (or a combination).
More details please. And are there any victory hexes which must be hold by end of time limit?

Your role is kind of left to your imagination, but you control every member of your team, one at a time.  I, for example, placed my self as the leader of my team and slowly recruited other members (as funds permit)
Recruiting and funds? Sounds like mercenary stuff to me. Anyways you placed yourself as leader of team... are there some other choices?
You know what they say, don't you? About how us MechWarriors are the modern knights, how warfare has become civilized now that we have to abide by conventions and rules of war. Don't believe it.

MekWars
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

Matti,

From the little I have learnt so far the background story of Tiatns of Steel is different from that of Battletech.

Take this with a pinch of salt because I don't yet have TOS and I hadn't even heard of Battletech before you mentioned it but whereas Battletech is fighting a war with mechs and other units, TOS has titans fighting other titans in a sort of competition environment. It's more like a boxing match than a war. So you earn money from prize fights and your pilots gain experience ...

I don't understand how all this fits in with campaigns and the like but I assume it does.

I may be entriely wrong or only partially right. Unfortunately, I won't be able to tell until I have the game.

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
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Hertston
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RE: Hello

Post by Hertston »

Been a long while since I've played this, but yes you control a merc unit (not some sort of sports team). You earn cash, buy new Titans, hire new 'jocks' (four different races to choose from) , allocate experience points across different skills, etc, etc, etc. All the usual sort of stuff and all quite fun. BUT none of it really matters a toss, ToS is a wargame not an RPG. It doesn't suffer in the slightest from not having non-mech units (it isn't Battletech), the game is about the Titans.

The tactical system is a little unusual and takes a while to get to grips with but is positively inspired once you do. If you like that system, you'll love the game regardless of the management/RPG trimmings. If don't, you'll uninstall a.s.a.p. If you like Battletech/Megamek I can't see you not liking ToS, at least as long as you accept they are not meant to be the same thing.


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Rainbow7
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RE: Hello

Post by Rainbow7 »

Hey,
When I say that I 'placed myself as leader', all that means is that I gave one of the jocks my name and filled the leader position with him (my wife, it turns out, is the mechanic of the squad).  But you control every member of your squad.  I just did it this way for immersion.

You can have up to four teams saved, and at your disposal for missions/campaigns/random battles.  I created one for initial learning purposes, but after that I tried to bring a single team up through the ranks.  I would start with three or four jocks, buy them titans, and throw them into some random battles.  Once I earned more money, I would recruit more jocks, buy more titans, etc.  At some point, I put the team through the first campaign (series of connected missions), and interspersed some random battles in there to bring an influx of money.  As my team got larger, I attempted the harder campaigns, occassionaly waiting quite some time before moving to the next campaign mission.

The background story that came with ToS never really impressed me, so I just ignored it.  It did have something to do with the costs of interstallar war being too expensive, so arenas were created for competitions.  Like I said, I didn't like it, and anyway, the campaigns don't really have much to do with that background.

I don't remember whether the program allowed for conditions such as 'hold location until time x.'  There is an editor, and if you look around the forum you'll see a handful of user-made campaigns. Although I've never even run the program, I know that you can create stand-alone battles or linked missions.

I guess you could consider the RPG element as mercenary-like.  If I remember correctly, there are three positions that can be held in a team:  leader (the right attributes allows recruitment of jocks with higher baseline attributes), mechanic (certain attributes allow cheaper repairs), and manager (the right attributes will allow titan purchases at cheaper prices).  For some reason, I can't remember how big a squad can be ... but I'll say 8 jocks (until someone corrects me!).  At the end of a successful battle, each jock will be given experience points (and you can invest this as you like), possibly money, and possibly an enemy's titan that you disabled on the field.

I'll echo Hertston by saying that, once understood (!), the tactical (move/attack) system is inspired.
Troubles overcome are good to tell. -Yiddish saying
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shunwick
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RE: Hello

Post by shunwick »

Guys,

Thanks for the info.

Hertston, can I ask why you stopped playing the game?

Rainbow, do you still play it regularly?

Best wishes,
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
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Hertston
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RE: Hello

Post by Hertston »

ORIGINAL: shunwick

Hertston, can I ask why you stopped playing the game?

Yeah... simply too many games, so little time. [:(] There are so many good games (not least from Matrix), and most have a limited installed life just because you want to play other stuff.
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Rainbow7
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RE: Hello

Post by Rainbow7 »

It's on my laptop, which doesn't get pulled out as much as it used to.  So it's been over half a year since I played last.  But it's not forgotten, and I do intend on getting back to it.
Troubles overcome are good to tell. -Yiddish saying
Kuokkanen
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RE: Hello

Post by Kuokkanen »

ORIGINAL: Hertston

too many games, so little time. [:(]
Amen! I have Combat Mission 3, Homeworld 2 and something else for some time (year or more) what I have never even installed! And here I am playing MegaMek, MekWars and SPWAW... free stuff! I might get on ToS 1.4 (predecessor of Warring Suns) too [:D]
You know what they say, don't you? About how us MechWarriors are the modern knights, how warfare has become civilized now that we have to abide by conventions and rules of war. Don't believe it.

MekWars
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