[NGTM-1R]

I do believe I have called this ****.

[mxlm]

On the other hand, in game development as in life, sometimes there are times when the baby just has to come out or die. Both my children and I are alive today because when it came to a hard decision, the doctor was willing to use a knife to insure our survival. The release of this game was much the same. It was a thing that had to happen, and because of it the game and the team now have a chance to live that they would not otherwise have had.

Yeah

[Ravenholme]

Aside from that reviews suck anyways and reviews of space strategy games even more... even Homeworld 2 barely got some 60% in the games magazine i used to read back then LOL.

Except that's actually pretty spot on for Homeworld 2, the campaign was terrible, with poor map design and even worse story/plot, balance was pretty poor too, all you ever needed to do was just mass battlecruisers, which the AI loved to do when you just started building your third destroyer.

Had good music too, but not as good as some of the Homeworld tracks.

So far, a very typical Paradox release, but with the added spice that Kerberos had to push it out the door or die, apparently.

[SpardaSon21]

So SotS2 will be a decently playable game in about a year then.  Good to know.

[Ravenholme]

So SotS2 will be a decently playable game in about a year then.  Good to know.

Probably.

It seems far better than SotS 1 was on release, but niggling technical issues abound. (My computer's sound dies entirely because of the Gauss Cannon firing/impact noises, and a friend has the same issue)

[Ace]

Well the "final build" plays like a beta.

Options screen not working? Their solution? Disable it.

It's not hanging on end turn anymore, but still random crashes during pop-ups.

Initializing the star map and main menu also seems to take longer than it should, once it's up it's smooth but there's a good 5-10sec load on the renderer. Very annoying with the main menu.

Overall GUI wise, a lot of steps backwards made worse by a lack of documentation and tool tips. Also missing artwork for things.

...and despite claims that "people were finnicky about the SotS1 screen space use" those were clean, generally intuitive menus whereas these ones are a case of graphic designers running rampant with no regard for usability.

Basic things like the color coding in SotS1 which helped differentiate menus are gone, ETA markers with fleets, etc.

The new fleet system is a mixed bag. Colonizing and exploring systems I do like with the new mechanics but it's rather encumbersome for things like attacks, defense, etc.

It really needs clearer indications of ETAs on strategic view, an option to not return to base immediately when doing a mission but instead to stay and take on a new mission prompt (do a toggle for this).

Tactical is good, but the problem is still with autoresolve. By axing the calculation system and going with running them at high speed it can take forever to go through turns.

...and the damn 3 second end turn countdown timer is still there.

Anyway, I still can't complete a game due to the colonizing pop up crashes, but 1v1 isn't too bad.

The combat is great, which is the focus of the game, but the broken strategic side makes it hard to get to the part of the game that does work

[Fury]

The bugs listing has been updated.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2208346
And more stuff at http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=21876

Well, with any luck the game might be properly patched up for Christmas holidays.

[Starman01]

Yeah, what a huge pile of crap. I have fate in Kerberos, and I truly hope that they will be able to finish and fix this. OK, so I can't play the game this weekend. Dissapointing, but not that bad. I hope that once repaired, it will be a great game. I was impressed about the shipmodels in the race selection screen. If the ingame is only half es good, that would be awesome.

However, I'm very worried, that if they are already out of money yet, it's unlikely that any addons will follow, because i think Kerberos will die  after this And Paradox certainly doesn't have to blaim them alone, because they were the one pushing them to release, it's their fault as well if you ask me. But now, so many customers are angry and pissed off, I doubt the company will make it out of this alive.

[NGTM-1R]

Good. Let's be honest here, this is how they usually release a game. (I mean jesus, this is how Paradox usually releases games, nevermind their developers.) Any company that makes a habit of releasing products in this state deserves death.

[Starman01]

Honestly, I cannot argue about that, i'm not sure which of my games is published by parallax. but sadly, this is how it often works in the gaming industry. The work for money, nothing else. It's the economic. Unfortunately, not all have the funds of a blizzard and bioware.

Of course I'm a bit perplex about the release state of this game, but I simply don't want to anger myself. I just hope they fix it, and will survive for one or two (working) addons. Everything else, I see simply do not interested in. But I definitly don't care about the "Publisher", but only the developer. If paralax dies, I don't care even a second.

[TrashMan]

It's confirmed that a completely wrong version ofhhte game somehow made it to the steam server. This is now causing the devs all kinds of headaches.

[Fury]

You're pretty late with that information. Correct version was already uploaded to Steam yesterday and been downloaded by Steam clients. There's even been a small patch since.

Well, unless the original upload of the game is STILL causing them problems even after it was replaced by supposedly correct version.

[Starman01]

Yep, that has been fixed since saturday. Despite what I have read, i will try it out today. Yesterday, I only started it up shortly, and in the weapon test it crackled, and then sound was gone. I first thought I installed something wrong on the new OS, but it seems to be the game. And if it wont work, then I will play Starruler for 2 weeks again until the bugs are mostly sorted out. I'm confident, they will manage it.

[Mikes]

Good. Let's be honest here, this is how they usually release a game. (I mean jesus, this is how Paradox usually releases games, nevermind their developers.) Any company that makes a habit of releasing products in this state deserves death.

... it's a bit unfortunate how they are/will be judged over this however because they are one of the very few left that even attempt to make a complex 4x strategy game, don't you think?

[Starman01]

Definitly. This is an enourmos negative blow against their reputation. Think about all the reviews coming out the next weeks in all magazines. If they do not fix that fast, it could be their end.... And 4x Space Games are rare. The developers of StarRuler also go a new path now, since their sales didn't went so well. Quite a shame, since it's a great game.

And I still not give up the hope, that someday we will see a new imperium galactica, with direct planet building, RTS ground and Spacebattles, Research and Shipbuilding.

[Flipside]

Normally I'd blame the crunch for stuff like this, it's why setting release dates for games is always a bit risky. Problem is, the risk of not having release dates is Duke Nukem Syndrome.

Someone made a cock-up, probably quite a small one in the grand scheme of things, clicked on the wrong file in FTP or the like. Personally, I think judgement should be based on how they deal with the problem, rather than what the problem is, so I'll give it a week or two before picking up the game

[G0atmaster]

What does SOTS stand for!

[Starman01]

What do you mean by that ? The shortcut ? It's "Sword of the Stars".

In the first game, one of the terran dreadnaught ship types automatically was named that way, when you build it.

[Fury]

What does SOTS stand for!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sword+of+the+stars&aq=2

[NGTM-1R]

... it's a bit unfortunate how they are/will be judged over this however because they are one of the very few left that even attempt to make a complex 4x strategy game, don't you think?

You mean, perhaps, with the appearance of complexity. (They're certainly not actually complex. Complex is over there with HoI3/Vicky2 which were also similar disasters at release. Complex is something like Dwarf Fortress. This is stuff isn't much more complex than MoO2. Hell, Civilization has been far more complex for the last two expansions. Alpha mother****ing Centauri is at least as complex as SOTS!)

Granted, I have little respect for the designer, regarding them as totally inept at game design, totally inept at community interface (lolMecron) and totally inept at programming. But that's really not relevant.

If Bioware, if Obsidian, if goddamn Relic had tried to foist this game off upon me with assurances of completeness before release, **** damage control after, and the promise that in perhaps a year we'll have most of the bugs worked out (since I know from personal experience that SOTS1 was never completely fixed) , I'd want their heads on a platter too. I'd be donating oil and rags to the cause of watching them burn. And they'd have only ****ed up once.

SOTS1 came out like this too, an unplayable, nonfunctional wreck. We have a consistent pattern of behavior. Death is no longer merely just, there is no possible excuse for not supporting it.