Because Legends of Pegasus seems to be such a fizzer I decided to finally brush off SOTS2.

I have virtually no experience with SOTS1 because the interface was so childish and garish looking.

In SOTS2 its just as bad. Its like walking in the red light district... neon signs everywhere taking up 

a huge amount of un-necessary space.

Is there any mods that people here use to:

a) Make the icons smaller

b) Make everything less gaudy and neon like. 

What I want is something that looks like endless space.

There are no such mods that I know of.

The visual effects have been a complaint by some other users over at the official forums too, mainly by people with epileptic seizures, scared that all the 'red light district' effects will trigger one sooner or later.

While there are no options (apart from the Bloom effect) to alter these effects, Kerberos have stated that they are looking into providing more options later on.

For now their energy goes into bug squashing and feature implementation, so we'll have to live with it for now.

Wether whole UI elements will be moddable I do not know.

I am interested to see your findings. I am enjoying the game quite a bit since the latest few builds, as long as you do not try multiplayer.

I am enjoying it. But am already finding it is a bit shallow.

The research trees seem limited and uninteresting even when compared SOSE.

The ship hull variety is a little limited even though I am a fan of the different weapon mounts displaying the proper graphic and animated mounts.

Some of the events are cool. I had a ghost ship attack a colony of mine for instance.

The game is very slow to start with and waiting for turns to load is labourious.

I am finding it extemely hard at the moment to get used to the interface. But am sure I will get used to it.

I like all of the stats and analytic data for everything. That I am a big fan of.

The five minute combat turns can be annoying when you are in the middle of a battle but I understand why this is done in the context of a turn based strategic game.

I love the fact that ships can spin on there axis to avoid damage and that weapons seem to have blind spots.

Also love the three planes Z axis thing. The battle AI also does not seem too bad thus far.

As I said the interface seems to me to be a real hog to get around. Some things just don't make sense to me yet. 

There are some nice tool tips as well.

I have to say that so far its not drawing me in well and I feel very detached from this game. I don't feel like I am doing anything but pushing paper around a desk.

The post combat window does not make a whole lot of sense to me yet. But in basic form does the job. Often I will get a draw simply because I had no time to finish the enemy off in the 5 minute combat window. 

As you can see I seem to have dished out a lot of damage and almost taken none yet the combat is a draw?

Nice stats on weapons.

Once combat is joined the game automatically fast forwards in a zoomed out sensor mode until you encounter each other. I like this.

The ghost ship attacks. This random event at such an early stage of the game would probably easily crush a fleet if I even had one at this planet. It destroyed my entire planets population and infrastructure in one 5minute combat block. I sent a patrol fleet here to find this ship to no avail. 

The pre-combat window. You see this which is nice to give you a feel for what forces you will have. In this case its a ghost ship VS my planetary defence missile batteries.

In the background you can see the bright lights of the red district. Once back at the main screen I am faced with planets and flashing neon lights as bright as the sun!

Choosing a ship design. Each fleet needs a commander and a command vessel. I have already researched and designed a ship with a better kind of missile.

Is is a very combat oriented game.

The empire management side of it is indeed a little shallow, but the combat is not by any stretch.

The hull types (or parts of it) are unlocked by the techtree, which is randomly generated for each game. That is not to say you get different trees every game, but certain options might not be available or vice versa.

A nice touch.

In the end, SotS (2) comes down to a tactical wargame more than a true 4x game, but it has always had the focus on combat.

That part is very deep, make no mistake. The presentation might give the impression it is shallow.

The empire side has been beefed up.Spacestation building and its hubs are vital to research and getting diplomacy points.I think SOTS2 does a terrible with lacking tool tips and a tutorial.You really need to read the manual or you have no clue about the mechanics.

I think the road map for the game is the A.I work is starting to get some focus for updates from now on.I am still holding off for a few months untill I play some serious games.

Are you saying their are more than say 5 hull types for humans?

Here's the wiki entry for the ship sections available in the game.

http://sots2.rorschach.net/Ship_Section

So yes, there are a handful of ship classes per faction, but they are consisted of several ship sections (Command, Mission and Engine). These three sections provide a multitude of combinations within the ship Class.

And be advised that at the beginning of the game you only have the option to use the basic known sections in your ship designs. All other sections need to be researched first. Of which some might or might not be available due to the randomized tech tree.

My original point stands then. That is if I understand you correctly.

Their are only a few basic hulls. 

However you are saying that huge parts of the ship (25-50% of the hull) will change with research.

I have already seen small modules - ala homeworld2 - that can be added or removed from points ON the hull, but not whole hull sections.

Well..kind of....You may only choose between Cruiser, dreadnaughts and Leviathans for battle ships...but there are also, defensive platforms, trade ships, police cutters, etc, etc.

Now, just taking the battle ships. You can have a cruiser for instance: but as you research more and more techs, you open up a whole slew of varying sections for it. There is a fore section, command section and aft engine section. The fore section can have a standard battle section, hammerhead section for more guns, torpedo section, shield generator section, beam section, etc, etc. Command is the same offering all sorts of different sections to tailor your cruiser to what you want.

For example, my point-drfense cruiser has a PD section for command and a hammerhead section. It also inlcludes additional power modules. It appears very different from my long range missle cruiser which has a standard command platorm.  I have beam cruisers, torpedo cruiser, planetry asasult cruiser, etc. They all look VERY different in battle.

There are probably about 15 different command sections, 10 different fore sections and 5 aft sections.  The addition of any one over another changes the appearance and abilities of your ships.

So yeah, its stil only a cruiser hull, but you have a tremendous variety of cruisers.

This type of thing makes combat deep.  Dont be mislead by he early stage. As you research techs (there are a ton which is why i am confused about your comments that thh tech tree is shallow.) you open up new classes.

On a similar note, as you research techs, new ones appear...so dont look at the early tech tree as an exhaustive list a-al Distant Worlds.  There are hundreds and hundreds of techs.

THere is no game deeper in Space combat...trust me.  Where it IS shallow is diplomacy and plantery improvements

So in closing, as you progress and research, your options expand greatly.

Edit: In addition to teh varying "sections" you also gain access to modules like Homeworld. These add escape pods, additional crew, additional power, additional supplies, etc.

Thanks Mikeck. Sounds like I may have to stick with it.

Originally Posted By destraex (19 AUG 2012 5:22pm)

Thanks Mikeck. Sounds like I may have to stick with it.

Yes..it is worth it..truly. Its not so much a 4x space game as a space combat game..maybe a 3x.

If you would rather "jump ahead", in the set up screen for the factions...give yourslef (and the others) more than the default "3" technologies...go ahead and ramp it up to 20 or so. That way, you start out with a good variety.

Also, i always set random encounter to 0. For me, it is just a gigantic pain in the ass dealing with asteroid "attacks", ghost ships, von neumanns etc. Its like the "monsters" in Distant worlds...nonsense.

Just had two crashes related to "full screen" mode. This is what I used to get when the game was first released.

The screen goes black and I have to reboot as alt tab and ctrl alt del will not recover it.

This happens whether I start windowed and alt enter in or start full screened. What a pain!

By the way those random encounters you mention are very similar to what you get in SOSE with the pirate. Except with the pirates you know they are coming! 

I find the random encounters a pain in the butt as well. My experience is that they are so darn powerful that it is very difficult to get rid of them, especially early on. 

If you are unlucky to have one of them nearby, they often launch continuous raids. Annoying as hell. So I usually have them at 0 as well.

Destraex, what kind of crash do you get? Does the game actually exit or does it stay on a black screen, but still runs? If its the latter then I would advise to give it some time.

Sometimes it seems like the game has hung upon startup, but it does actually continue.

Mikeck, have you played any successful MP games yet?

You guys are boring, randoms and grand menaces in SOTS are awesome as they take you right out of ther typical 4x comfort zone.Pirates spawning can be countered by building police ships and science stations help with detecting the other randoms.

SOTS is a great game. You are missing out.

^  The 1st or 2nd one? 

Actually I'd say both now.

The first game.  It had a lot of kinks at the begninning like SOTS2 did but they've all been ironed out.  I've tried SOTS2 and I just don't "get it" like the original. In the original everything is so clear and easy to get the hang of. If I want to move a fleet I click on the fleet and then click the "move" button.  In SOTS2 I click on the fleet and then....? There's no move button that I can find. It also still doesn't run great on my computer. In SOTS the end turn button ticks down and then immediately the new turn starts. In SOTS 2, the end turn button ticks down and then....pause. After 3 or 4 seconds the new turn starts.

Looks to me like the interface is so subdued with a brown filter (no, not the Brown Note) that it just makes those glowing stars look even brighter by comparison.

That being said, I always thought the stars were a bit too bright in the first one, too, even with the non-brown-filtered interface.

Canuck, the second game works with a mission system instead of clicking on a fleet and then move it.

It takes some getting used to if you are used to the way the first game handled things, but in the end the new system is more efficient and less clicky.

You assign fleets in the fleet manager. You can define their tactics, commanders, etc all in the fleet manager.

Then after this that fleet is active for mission tasking.

To move a fleet from system A to B, you rightclick on system B (without first having to do anything else), choose mission and select what you want to do, then a window pops up where you can select which (applicable) fleet you want to give the order to.

Especially with large empires, this new system is much more efficient and keep you in the loop of where fleet X is doing what.

About the screenshots; I noticed that too in Des' screenies. I checked my system and I do not have this brownish filter at all. So it either a product of the screenshots, the editing or Des' settings.

The All Clear has been given by Kerberos.

The game is now in the state it should have been upon launch.

They will continue to expand the game from here on.

Everyone that has it waiting on the shelf should start to take a look again.