Combat, Expansion Balance, and Pirates!
An aspect of the game that doesn't require constant attention - perhaps to the dismay of action-hungry RTS fans - is the combat. The combat remains an important component but it's not one that needs babysitting. It's a good thing too, since you can be involved in any number of simultaneous fights. The screenshots and ads may give the combat a Homeworld 2 vibe but it isn't quite the same. You don't give formation instructions to ships and fighter squadrons but rather you create fleets of different types of ships and they intelligently sort out the best formations. You can micromanage the combat if you like by telling each ship what to attack but it's not a requirement. Capital ship upgrades and research technologies can aid the A.I. with coordinating attacks and focusing fire but even without the research the A.I. is good about choosing appropriate targets for ships.
I was glad that the combat didn't require my constant attention because it isn't the highlight of the game. It's great to see your fleet engage an enemy and let loose a barrage of missiles and beam weapons for the first few times but the only ships that actually fly around are the fighter and bomber squadrons. The battles are more naval in nature; more "Wrath of Khan" than "Return of the Jedi". I do like attaching the camera to a fighter or bomber and watching the action from that perspective but there isn't usually a lot of time to sit idle and enjoy it. There's no rest to be had for Intergalactic Emperors it seems.
One of the things Sins of a Solar Empire does very well is the balance between economic and militaristic expansion. In most RTS games expanding your area of control results directly in more resources to throw into producing more units. Taking over planets in Sins is actually a drain on your economy until you develop the infrastructure and build up the population on those planets. Expansion and development will help your economy in the long run but the initial hit you take keeps you from spreading too thin too early.
Each race has unique ships and architecture but with similar roles and functionality.
The other side of the coin is the military manufacturing. As with other RTS games there's a limit to the number of ships you can build early in the game without researching a technology path. In Sins, as you research "Fleet Logistics" the military becomes more and more of a burden on the economy. With each upgrade you'll increase your maximum amount of available ships but also increase the percentage of the economy that the fleet requires. At the maximum level you lose 75% of all your resource income to the military whether the ships are built or not. This means that if you want to boom your economy you can't have several large fleets patrolling the phase lanes. It prevents games from turning in to a battle between two impossibly rich empires who can afford to throw units at each other with no thought to their cost.
Sins of a Solar Empire features an interesting non-playable faction that acts as a periodic method of harassment: the pirates. Pirates are roving computer controlled raiders who are aggressive toward all other factions but only attack at set intervals. What makes it interesting is that you can put a bounty on other factions to make sure the pirates attack them instead of you. The other factions are alerted to an increased bounty and they can counter with more money or deal with the attack. When it gets close to time for a pirate attack a bidding war often breaks out to see who can afford to pay the pirates the most. As the bounties climb so do the severity of the pirate attacks. They can and will wipe out entire fleets, colonies and bases although they will never colonize planets. It gives economic players a way to attack their enemies early without focusing on military while also looming as a constant threat to the border planets.
Join our discussion on this topic
