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28 Apr 06

David is 18 months today. Somehow I feel I've aged more than 18 months in that time. Still, what a blessing.

I thought I was done with Sword of the Stars for a while, but based on questioning on other forums, there's one thing I haven't made clear. This game is not Galactic Civilizations II with tactical combat. This is a game that creates intense spaces battles. Everything is focused toward that goal. Planets provide the industrial capacity and economic capital that build ships to fight battles. Research focuses on aspects to improve ships or production of ships or weapons for ships to fight better battles. Ship design and fleet management give you more options for your battles. Exploration and expansion increase resources to fund research and production of ships for battles. Spying is limited to watching battles. Perhaps you see where I'm going with this. If you want to increase zirconium mine production so you can flood the market and collapse the Xebian economy, buy their debt and make them work for you to open negotiations with Zflax, SotS isn't your game. If you'd like to conquer the galaxy in a series of sparkling space battles, this is your game. I felt the need to clear that up.

While I was working on all those impressions, I missed the Wii announcement. Now there's a theory that the whole thing may be an elaborate hoax. Interesting. I'm already tired of the Wii jokes.

Finally, I have to comment on the Houston Texans. I'm sure Mario Williams will be a fine player in the NFL. It's just when you're the laughing stock of the league and you've already annoyed a chunk of your fan base by turning down the hometown hero, perhaps that's not the time to make a 'football decision' that will annoy the rest of them. It's especially bad when you would have made another almost identical decision that would have received near universal praise. If you're the undisputed worst team in the league, perhaps you shouldn't start thinking you're smarter than everyone else in the league. There was another group here in Houston that thought they were smarter than everyone else. We have two CEO's on trial downtown to prove it.

Last year's first pick was a defensive lineman. Their big free agency acquisition was a defensive lineman. Now the first player selected in this draft is a defensive lineman. Houston better lead the league in sacks, pressures and knockdowns next season. Hopefully that would somehow translate into wins.

I think that's the real problem with the Texans. The fans think they're four to five years away from being a consistent playoff team. The management seems to think they're going to be competing for the Super Bowl this season. The fans just want to see some fun football with big plays from explosive players like Reggie Bush or Vince Young to tide us over until the winning becomes a habit. The management seems to think one of the worst defenses in the league is just a little away from shutting down Peyton Manning and ending that winless streak against Indianapolis. The fans just want a defense that doesn't collapse at the end of games. I guess we'll see who's right once the season gets under way.

I had been thinking this might be a good year to see about getting some Texans tickets to watch Reggie. Now, I think I'll wait and see how the season is panning out. I don't really want to have to go with a bag on my head like fans did last season. I don't think I'm alone.

I should say that I'm overall pleased with the changes Gary Kubiak is making to the Texans. I do think they're headed in a better direction. This decision doesn't change that. I'm just not quite as excited to see them play as I was before. I'll get over it, probably by Sunday evening. Have a great weekend.

Jason
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26-27 Apr 06

Before I start, I'd like to answer the one and only question I received. It went, why are you going into the mechanics of play instead of telling us what you think about it? First off, it's not quite the game I expected. I don't mean that in any negative way. It's just that some things are different. So I wanted to start by making sure we were all on the same page since I don't think anyone else has made it clear yet. Second, hopefully the following section will let you see how everything works together to give you surprising strategic and tactical depth. That explanation wouldn't work if I did detail all the basic mechanics. Finally, I'm slow. I don't mean that as stupid (though you're free to disagree). I mean it takes me a long time to evaluate a deep game. I'm just about finished with my Civilization IV review. I'm also working on a GalCiv II review. I love to experiment and try out all different things. I like to get a feel for the AI. I like to get all the basics down and then see how each little tweak affects everything else. I can give you words like 'fun' and 'captivating' now, but it will take me several more complete games before I can say with confidence what works, what I like and why. I want to make sure you're not hanging the whole time. This effort also helps me keep my thoughts straight about different aspects of the mechanics. I hope that answers the question.

It's time for part III of Sword of the Stars impressions. Let's get into the meat of the tactical combat. After you click the end turn button, the game check to see if any hostile forces encountered each other. If they do (and you're involved or have the ability to spy on it) a dialogue box will pop up describing the encounter. It will describe the sides and number of ships (if known). Participants will have the option to fight the battle or simulate it. Though there are times to simulate, that's not what we're here to talk about.

Battles load after a splash screen with 2D art showing the two sides. It's somewhat reminiscent of old fighting games. Next the battle begins with a camera swoop in around your fleet. Once the camera centers in on your main ship, the battle will start and the countdown begins. Each battle has a time limit set by the host at the beginning of the game. Normally it's three minutes. That's more than enough time to decide most reasonably sized battles. It's not enough time to completely wipe out a major planet or huge fleet though.

The first thing you have to do is set your priorities. You'll generally have a rough idea of the strength of the force you're fighting. Depending on who has the technological edge and how large the gap is, strength can vary greatly beyond ship numbers and sizes. Knowing your enemy, you'll have to decide if you want to try to destroy the fleet, hit and run to minimize casualties, attack the planet and the planetary defenses or even run away.

I mentioned that a countdown timer starts with the battle. Actually two timers start with the battle. The second timer is the time to bring your interstellar transport back online after preparing for battle. That becomes very important if you decide to retreat. In fact, the fleet order to retreat is unavailable until that cool down timer runs out. Once you sound the retreat, your forces still have to survive a bit. It takes a few moments to activate the warp engines, open the gate, power up the flicker drive or reach the node point. Don't expect a retreat command to instantly save a heavily damaged ship. Of course, it's also possible that damage has crippled or destroyed your engines, and you won't be going anywhere.

Now that I've told you how to get in and out of battle, let's get the energy bolts slinging. Battles take place on a 2D plane with various objects such at meteors and missiles moving through 3D space. Tactical battles are broken up into two screens. One is the battle screen where you select your ships, set their targets, control their movement and watch the pretty graphics. There are buttons for your fleet commands (close, stand off, retreat, etc.). There's a display of your reserves and your ships currently in battle. Then you have your weapons firing group controls. More on that later.

The other is the sensor screen. It's here you can track objects that are hard to see such as missiles or targets beyond visual range. Until you research certain technologies, you can only see data on the sensors display not give commands. As you might imagine, you spend a fair amount of time flipping back and forth between the screens. After all, in the heat of battle it wouldn't do to let a plague ship past your defense line and destroy the population world you were defending just because you were concentrating on the heavy armored cruisers. As you would expect, there is plenty of technology to research to increase the effectiveness and range of your sensors. The sensor display is all simplified wire frames and icons.

So how do you fight? Single player allows you to pause at any time. Otherwise the battles are real time. You have basically three levels of command though all are available at all times and you're free to mix and match. The least involved just uses the fleet commands. You click the close on enemy button and your ships will all head to the nearest enemy and each weapon will fire at any target of opportunity. The next level is your standard space tactical control. You drag select or click on the ships you want to move. Right click gives them a destination. Left click give them a target. The ultimate level of control lets you micromanage to your heart's content. You can assign ships to groups. You can break up each ship's weapons into up to three groups and assign a different target to each. You can even turn off a weapon's group, say if you don't feel comfortable firing the plague canon near a friendly planet. Also your gunners will try to hit the exact point on the target ship that you clicked on. This can be useful to disable engines, take out shields or remove a dangerous weapon before working to destroy the ship itself.

Battles can take place in deep space or near planets. In deep space, trying to destroy your enemy or escape are pretty much your only goals. Planets can be neutral, friendly or hostile. Neutral planets are just areas to fight around like deep space. Hostile planets will fire missiles at your ships from the beginning until it ends or one side is destroyed. Hostile planets can be targeted like a ship. On the upper left of the combat screen, there's a health status of the hostile planet. Once that goes to zero, the planet can no longer be targeted, and the enemy presence is gone. It's available for colonization assuming the conditions are suitable. Friendly planets are the same only with the missiles going the other way.

One more thing about planets I should mention is they support defense platforms. Defense platforms are designed and built like ships, but they only have a mission section. You are free to choose the weapons load out. A planet's size determines how many weapons platforms it can support. The platforms are in concentric orbits from heavy platforms to light. In combat they orbit around the planet and fire at any target of opportunity. Though cruisers can often easily take out light platforms, expect to spend several turns trying to take out a large planet protected by a fleet and a full complement of platforms.

I've touched on some of the ways technology impacts battles. Information flow is key. You can design your ships and focus your research on areas that most hurt your enemies. If they're using lasers, perhaps it's time to research reflective coatings and start building ships with them. There are counters for each type of weapons. Obviously, if you have weapons that are strong against his defenses while your weapons are not affected by his defenses, you'll have a much easier time in battle, at least until your opponent adjusts. Advantages in speed, range and accuracy can turn a battle just as much. With technologies enabling cloaking, mines, missile defenses and much more, you can tailor your ships to match your attack style exactly.

That took longer than I thought. I'm sorry for the delay. It seems that every time I went into the game to check something I lost a block of time. That will about do it for initial impressions. I'm going to work on getting the screenshots and movies up. Then I'm going to dig deep into the game. After that, I'll report back with the game's strengths and overall a more personal statement on my feelings about Sword of the Stars. Finally, Martin reminded me that the game was build mostly by a core team of only nine people. That should put it in a position just above a good indie game. It's well beyond that. The team at Kerberos has every reason to be proud of what they've accomplished.

Jason
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25 Apr 06

Welcome to part II of the impressions of Sword of the Stars. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going over research, ship design and fleet management. Since all those are things required to set up the tactical battles, we'll cover those tomorrow. Of course, if you send in or post any questions, I'll try to answer those as well.

The first thing you notice about research is that it has a fog of war. Well, ok, the first thing you might notice is the cool 3D interface. The tech tree is projected on a cylinder around you. You can pan left or right and zoom in and out. Once you get very zoomed in, descriptions pop up. The descriptions conveniently let you know the effects on your economy, costs, or abilities. They also point out any new ship sections that will become available. Weapons provide the usual information range, accuracy, and damage.

So what about this fog of war? Well, you can only see techs that are available to research right now. That means a couple things. You'll have to get to know techs pretty well if you want to adapt to the random nature of the chart. It also means that each time you research a tech, you'd be wise to do a thorough check of the whole tree. Some surprising new options can pop up when you least expect them.

I mentioned that research unlocks new ship sections. That brings us to ship design. From the main star map, one of your buttons is ship design. That takes you to the design screen. Designing a ship is pretty easy. You select the hull size (destroyer, cruiser or dreadnaut). Then you select three sections (command, mission and engine). The designer will automatically choose the most powerful weapons you have, but you're free to put any weapon of the right size and available in your inventory onto any hard point. Once you're happy, save the design, and it's ready for production.

Ah, if it were only that simple. They don't call it a strategy game for nothing. The mission section determines the character of the ship. Do you go Armor for more weapons and strength? Do you choose Extended Range to go further but with less weapons. Once you get bigger fleets, you'll need some Command and Control ships to bring more ships into the fight at once. You'll have fun discovering and playing with all the mission sections.

Command sections can spice things up a bit. Do you want your ship to cloak? How about more hard points? Better firing accuracy? What about shields? If I cloak my Barrage ships, perhaps they can get close to the planet undetected and attack undisturbed longer after uncloaking. Maybe it would be better to use gravity shields since my opponent favors a lot of mass based weapons. More fun choices.

Engine sections aren't quite as exciting. Unless money is tight, it's usually best to just put the best engine tech you have available on new ships. The Hiver with their gate technology can make some exceptions to that, but it still holds generally. Not to mention that the better tech usually has better or more weapon hard points, and it becomes a pretty easy decision.

Weapon choices usually are based on the tech you have available and the capabilities of the enemy you expect to fight. You could try to make generalist ships with a combination of energy, mass, missile and special weapons, but they will never be as effective as a ship designed to exploit your opponent's weaknesses. You also don't want to load a weak ship with powerful short range weapons if there's a good chance it will be destroyed before it enters it's effective combat range.

Now that you've designed your war machine and ordered your shipyards to crank them out, you'll need to organize them into fleets. Fleet management is another button on the star map. Here you can group the ships in a common star system into fleets. Fleets travel together at the rate (and range) of their slowest member. If you have ships with command and control capabilities, you can also organize your fleets into combat formations before they enter battle. If you don't have those capabilities, even a strong armada can be picked apart when they arrive at combat haphazardly and staggering in as reserves.

I think we've covered the basics there. More to come tomorrow. Congratulations to Rhett Dornbach-Bender who won the GalCiv II contest. He'll be playing his copy of GalCiv II shortly.

Jason
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24 Apr 06

I'm going to be contacting the Galciv 2 contest winner tomorrow. If you entered, kindly check your email tomorrow.

The reason I don't have the winner yet is Sword of the Stars. I've been busy experimenting, providing feedback and playing. I wanted to give you a bit of an overview of what it's like playing the game. I am, as it were, getting the basics down. Then I can tear confidently into the main course of the game. After that, expect a more exhaustive report.

Great Battles. It seems clear that Sword of the Stars was designed to serve up great, meaningful battles in the middle of an enormous 4X struggle. So when some people ask if you can simulate the battles and just play the turn based portion, I can say yes, but this may not be the game for you. The battles are where you get to see your hard earned tech and carefully designed ships in action. They're also a pretty good adrenaline spike. I'm not saying they're action oriented. No, there's tactical depth to satisfy you, but they are intense, detailed and full of surprises.

The randomized tech tree, the four very different factions with unique propulsion and true 3D star map aren't just bullet points. They fundamentally alter your strategies and the outcome of games. As we used to say in the Air Force, flexibility is the key to aerospace power. You have to learn to adapt in Sword of the Stars.

The game starts out in the 3D star map. You have your initial allocation of worlds and perhaps a few starting techs and ships. You generally start with slower and weaker ships that initially feel a bit frustrating, but you quickly move on to better and then bigger ships with ever increasing destructive power. Some of the late game dreadnauts are awe inspiring in their capabilities.

You initially just see stars on the map. As you explore, the stars change to worlds. The visual representation of the world reflects how suitable it is for colonization. That's also represented in a graph and a colonization cost. Each planet also has a resource and size rating. Obviously big, resource rich planets are generally of more value, but other times it's all about location.

Actual planet management is very simple. Once you've sent a colony ship into orbit, you order it to colonize. Once a colony is established, you have sliders to tell the colonists to focus on construction or trade. Under construction, you have sliders to set the balance between terraforming, infrastructure development and ship construction.

Trade generates revenue. That revenue goes into savings (that earns interest, nice touch) or into research. Your savings goes toward planetary development costs and ship building. Research is divided up between your primary research project and any special projects.

The other area you control on the star map is the movement of fleets. I want to get into the whole relationship between ship design, research and fleet management tomorrow.

Jason
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21 Apr 06

Well, it's late at night and my eyes are bleary. In case you're wondering, that's a good thing. I've been struggling to tear myself away from Sword of the Stars. It's addictive. One more turn, one more battle addictive. I can see some flaws (that hopefully will be fixed by release), but there's no denying that the game's fun. I'd explain further now, but my brain's turned to mush, and I need to get some sleep. I think we'll have a pretty good preview. Expect at least part one next week.

If you need something to keep you occupied, there's a new demo out for our game of the week. It's Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War (official site) from Stainless Steel Studios. Rise lets you lead one of four great ancient civilizations (Greece, Persia, Egypt or Rome) in a classic RTS with a twist. Each nation has two heroes that the player can control to lead their troops into battle. They're promising over 80 unique units, naval battles and special hero abilities to spice up the action. Balance your need for civilization with the military demands of protecting your empire. Look for Rise & Fall around June. Look for the demo at the Usual Suspects.

Jason
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