Winterblink
Member
Some sort of patch came out today. I'm scared to get my hopes up and try the game.
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Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter |OT| Embrace Your Strategic Place In Space
- Thread starter Alex Connolly
- Start date
Alex Connolly
Member
New patch notes!
Additions and Improvements:
- The game will now start in native 64-bit mode on operating systems that support it.
- Added 15 new entries to the encyclopedia.
- A new badge has been added for all factions.
Bug Fixes and Other Changes:
***This update will break save games due to changes to special encounter implementation***
- Fixed a divide by zero crash that could occur when the game tried to trigger a rebellion on a planet with 0 civilian population.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when entering the multiplayer lobby.
- Fixed issues where the game would hang on end turn when resolving AI versus AI combat.
- Fixed issues where concurrent combat scheduling could cause game turns to hang.
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash when a player attempted to save between turns.
- Fixed an intermittent crash that could occur during combat.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when committing an intercept mission.
- Fixed encyclopedia content appearing in the wrong locations.
- Fixed issues where user interface would be unreadable when starting a game window larger than the desktop resolution.
- Added more tool tips to the game lobby.
- Added more tool tips to the colony information widget.
- Added more tool tips to the build screen.
- Added more tool tips to the certain pop-ups and to the station placement screen.
- Fixed a few outstanding localized text issues, including three descriptions in the tech tree;
**** Spinal Mounts
**** Heavy Fission Cannon
**** Assimilation Plague Cure.
- Rebalanced Police ships and some menaces.
- Made improvements to Swarm Hiver, Larva and Queen art.
- Fixed issues where the game window could shrink below the minimum 1024x720 resolution.
- Fixed issue where minimizing the game window could cause it to go full screen instead.
- Fixed an issue where Suul'ka could become available to non-Horde Zuul players via Diplomatic Stations.
- Suul'ka arrival after building a Tribute station is now delayed by at least a turn.
- Fixed a bug with post encounter dialog where list selections were getting mixed up.
- Fixed a miscolored element of the fleet widget items.
- Fixed some underlying UI layout bugs.
- Fixed a bug where Gate Amplifiers would not show up in the station module list. This was preventing the upgrade of Gate stations.
- Fixed a bug that was allowing built modules to be re-queued.
- Fixed art issues with Tarkasian Dreadnought GOOP and Heavy Beam modules.
- Fixed outstanding art issues with Human Supply Transports, Naval Outposts and Polic Cutters.
- Fixed an issue where AI controlled agents running at accelerated time in simulated combat were not doing enough damage to each other.
Known Issues:
- Main Menu becoming active before background combat loads. Players cannot proceed past Main Menu until load complete.
- Section descriptions not displaying in Design screen.
- Fleets not providing turn/distance to objectives mid-mission.
- Optimization of Hiver fleet use of gate network.- One avatar per race not displaying correctly
- Options button not working in Main Menu (works in launcher)
- Cinematics button not working
- Continue game button not working
- Sound cut outs (in combat, when lots of sounds)
- Screens transitioning slowly
- Hotkeys not working correctly
Got a reply on my request for a refund.
"We apologize for all the problems with Sword Of The Stars II. We are currently working on some kind of solution on how to handle your request for a refund. Please be patient and we'll contact you again in the beginning of next week with a solution.
Sorry for all the inconvenience this game has caused you.
Kind Regards,
Johannes"
"We apologize for all the problems with Sword Of The Stars II. We are currently working on some kind of solution on how to handle your request for a refund. Please be patient and we'll contact you again in the beginning of next week with a solution.
Sorry for all the inconvenience this game has caused you.
Kind Regards,
Johannes"
New update. They're fixing the game at a nice rate like they promised (but you can see the humongous amount of problems they have to fix too. I'll remain an optimist). Bolding some of the stuff I think is promising.
Critical fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the game could crash when battle riders, drones, boarding pods, assault shuttles or bio-missiles were launched in combat.
- Fixed an issue where Swarmers could crash the game while launching from the hive.
- Fixed a crash that was occurring when creating new provinces.
- Fixed a crash caused by incorrect retrieval of achievement states.
- Fixed an issue where failure to load an asset could prevent screens from transitioning.
- Fixed multi-player compatibility issues between 32- and 64-bit versions of the game.
- The Continue Game button is now working.
- Tool tips have been added to the combat UI.
Other fixes and changes:
- Fixed an issue where public games were not being correctly published to the GameSpy master server.
- AI is now more aggressive in combat and starts closer to the action. This was done to address some cases where AI versus AI combat simulation was not resolving.
- Fixed known issues where modules were not being displayed on stations.
- Fixed an issue where certain ship designs were not being assigned default sensor ranges.
- Fixed an issue where planetary missiles were not hitting targets.
- Fixed a ship avoidance issue where ships could become immobilized between a station and the planet is orbits.
- Fixed issues where the game was incorrectly assessing whether players should engage in combat.
- Fixed an issue where the game was not correctly determining when players had discovered each other on the star map.
- Fixed issues where starting system distributions on star maps could be needlessly unbalanced.
- Fixed an issue where missiles and mines were not being assigned the correct structure, causing them to be too easy to pick off.
- Fixed the issue where Swarmers were not correctly pursuing moving targets.
- Fixed an issue where Hiver gates were not being deployed while enemy colonies existed in the system.
- Fixed an issue with lists in the GUI that was causing the Admiral Manager to present misleading data.
- Fixed an issue where Battle Cruisers and Battleships were being unlocked without the correct technologies being acquired.
- Fixed an issue where an incorrect large amount of terraforming damage could be applied by weapons in combat.
- Fixed an issue where the Von Neumann constructs could spawn at the center of a star system.
- Fixed an issue where reserve fleets were being included in sensor range checks
- The System Killer's beam range has been increased.
- Added missing icons to Heavy Beam modules.
- Start positions for certain combat encounters have been brought in closer.
- The ship HUD is no longer displayed when planets are selected in combat.
- There have been a handful of fixes to various weapon and ship art files.
- Fixed an issue where "easter eggs" could be spawned in colonized systems.
Additions
- Game setup now automatically defaults to the maximum players for the selected map.
- Missile warheads will now upgrade.
- Players are now presented with the option of renaming their initial home world as a new colony.
- The game launcher options dialog now includes a "Prefer 64-bit Process" checkbox. This can be unchecked to override default behavior and run the 32-bit version of the game on 64-bit operating systems.
- Features have been added to the station manager:
* Module descriptions have been added.
* The station module build queue now displays cost.
* A Max button has been added to the module build queue controls.
- Changes have been made to the upgrade paths of stations to prevent certain issues where upgrades might never be possible.
- The station manager now shows up as a window on the star map.
- The planet information window now shows up as a window on the star map.
- The redundant confirmation dialog that displayed when loading games has been removed.
- The Defense Manager tray has been hidden in this update to prevent the possibility of fleets becoming on the system map.
- The Liir Protectorate is now locked until the correct technology is acquired.
- As a stop-gap measure the initial window resolution supplied in the game launcher options has been reduced from 1680x1050 to 1280x960. This may help newcomers to the game in cases where the initial window size is too large for certain desktop and display configurations. Others may adjust this value in the options dialog as needed.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568294-Free-DLCs-until-Nov-30thAll gamers who have bought or will buy Sots II up until November 30th will receive the following DLCs/Immersion packs: Liir & Morrigi + Hiver & Tarka + Suulka.
I am glad they are patching this so fast. Game doesn't crash nearly as much with this weeks patches.
Looks like they released 2 patches yesterday.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6705/
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6712/
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6705/
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6712/
Alex Connolly
Member
Yeah, it's actually coming along really well. Better stability, lots of bugs ironed out...
Just glad that launch snafu is over.
Just glad that launch snafu is over.
Isomac said:Looks like they released 2 patches yesterday.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6705/
http://store.steampowered.com/news/6712/
Patch notes are scary, but they don't indicate the frequency of those bugs.
I am deciding between getting a refund or keeping my purchase. Can you make it through an entire campaign without crashing?
I decided to keep the game and here are some initial thoughts.
1) Manual is worthless. Not nearly the level of detail needed to navigate this game. In game encyclopedia is just as worthless, as most of the topics one would want to read about (technologies, ship modules, etc.) are completely absent. I could do without the useless lore items that fill up the encyclopedia at the expense of basic information about core game mechanics.
2) Complexity for the sake of complexity in the turn based part of the game. I look at the splitting up of research into three separate areas of research as a prime example. First, I can't even figure out how to initiate a special research project or research my enemies wreckage but apparently I am spending money on it every turn even if I have never encountered an asteroid monitor or fought a space battle. Manual and encyclopedia have no mention of it either.
3) Background calculation between turns takes way too long. The first turn of the game should be near instantaneous as no one has any ships or anything to calculate. Good god how long does a turn take when there are 50 planets colonized and hundreds of ships in the universe?
4) Streamlined fleet commands less intuitive than the old way. Still haven't figured out how to stop my survey fleets from returning to their home base automatically. Cancelling the mission and they still return home.
5) No explanation for most ship modules in tooltips, encyclopedia, or manual. How are you supposed to know what the non-self-explanatory ones do?
6) Convoluted information presentation. Make the most useful information display prominently. I am going to build a space station, all I really need to know is how much it is going to cost, what its upkeep is, and what the benefit is. SotS II seems to completely forget about telling you what the benefit is, and the other information is either forgotten half the time or seems to appear on the UI in a certain place because that is where the dart hit on the wall. Sure, we have pretty detailed weapon information (too detailed), but no other benefits are explained well.
7) Space stations seem worthless. Haven't made it deep into the game but a freaking 2% research boost to only 1 of about 12 different research categories if you spend a shit ton of money building it. What a joke.
Overall, coming from a SotS 1 fanatic I find the learning curve frustrating due to unintuitive empire management combined with a piss poor manual, piss poor in game encyclopedia, and unhelpful descriptions of all the empire management sliders and lack of transparency into the game mechanics. Compared to SotS 1 where I never needed to look at a manual and barely ever look online to figure out what I needed to know, this is a step in the wrong direction. For people unfamiliar with the series, the learning curve must be even worse.
1) Manual is worthless. Not nearly the level of detail needed to navigate this game. In game encyclopedia is just as worthless, as most of the topics one would want to read about (technologies, ship modules, etc.) are completely absent. I could do without the useless lore items that fill up the encyclopedia at the expense of basic information about core game mechanics.
2) Complexity for the sake of complexity in the turn based part of the game. I look at the splitting up of research into three separate areas of research as a prime example. First, I can't even figure out how to initiate a special research project or research my enemies wreckage but apparently I am spending money on it every turn even if I have never encountered an asteroid monitor or fought a space battle. Manual and encyclopedia have no mention of it either.
3) Background calculation between turns takes way too long. The first turn of the game should be near instantaneous as no one has any ships or anything to calculate. Good god how long does a turn take when there are 50 planets colonized and hundreds of ships in the universe?
4) Streamlined fleet commands less intuitive than the old way. Still haven't figured out how to stop my survey fleets from returning to their home base automatically. Cancelling the mission and they still return home.
5) No explanation for most ship modules in tooltips, encyclopedia, or manual. How are you supposed to know what the non-self-explanatory ones do?
6) Convoluted information presentation. Make the most useful information display prominently. I am going to build a space station, all I really need to know is how much it is going to cost, what its upkeep is, and what the benefit is. SotS II seems to completely forget about telling you what the benefit is, and the other information is either forgotten half the time or seems to appear on the UI in a certain place because that is where the dart hit on the wall. Sure, we have pretty detailed weapon information (too detailed), but no other benefits are explained well.
7) Space stations seem worthless. Haven't made it deep into the game but a freaking 2% research boost to only 1 of about 12 different research categories if you spend a shit ton of money building it. What a joke.
Overall, coming from a SotS 1 fanatic I find the learning curve frustrating due to unintuitive empire management combined with a piss poor manual, piss poor in game encyclopedia, and unhelpful descriptions of all the empire management sliders and lack of transparency into the game mechanics. Compared to SotS 1 where I never needed to look at a manual and barely ever look online to figure out what I needed to know, this is a step in the wrong direction. For people unfamiliar with the series, the learning curve must be even worse.
So guys... Since there don't seem to be any tutorials, I decided to try to set up a match with a bunch of teammates who could hold the fort as I figured various systems out. Well, I can't seem to figure out how to set up teams when creating a game. Is it even possible at the moment or do that not even have that done yet? Anybody know?
So now that this has been out for awhile do you think it's the sort of game for someone who wants to get into this kind of genre but hasn't been drawn in yet. I've played games like X3 and sins of a solar empire and I really liked the ideas behind them but they just didn't grasp me enough for me to really get into it.
For fans of the genre what's the general thoughts about SotS II, worth looking into or should I give it a miss for something else?
For fans of the genre what's the general thoughts about SotS II, worth looking into or should I give it a miss for something else?
Honestly? Not yet. They still got a ton of issues to fix, though it seems they're working at a good pace and have a good plan about it. I can sort of smell the good game beneath the problems but it's too early to be sure yet.
You could get SoTS I+expansions for cheap these days though, and that's an excellent game. Base game + Born in Blood + Murder of Crows + Argos Naval Yard is a really solid experience with superb tactical fights in a lightweight 4X framework.
You could get SoTS I+expansions for cheap these days though, and that's an excellent game. Base game + Born in Blood + Murder of Crows + Argos Naval Yard is a really solid experience with superb tactical fights in a lightweight 4X framework.
deathkiller
Member
I agree with Carcetti, SoTS I with expansions is still a great game (witch I have played hundreds of hours) and the reason I don't regret paying full price for SoTS II on day one even with the problems and bad first impressions of the changes (I will get back to it at some point, hope is not lost).
So this is on sale at Amazon for $7.50: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Z499V2/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Steamworks.
Before I bite, is this ever going to be a good game or is it permanently borked?
Steamworks.
Before I bite, is this ever going to be a good game or is it permanently borked?
So this is on sale at Amazon for $7.50: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Z499V2/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Steamworks.
Before I bite, is this ever going to be a good game or is it permanently borked?
It (and the originals) were 75% off on Steam yesterday.
The game has gotten a LOT better. I'm actually 250 turns into a game I started 2 weeks ago and I hope to finish it (or at least get it to the point of no return for those dirty, dirty Hivers).
Just about every major piece is in and functioning: http://sots2.rorschach.net/Version
They're releasing patches frequently - they aim for one per week but there has been one patch the past 3 days. The Friday patch added a ton of stuff and fixed bugs, and the Saturday and Sunday patches were focused on more bug fixes.
The game is by no means permanently borked. It's still not 100%, but they are definitely not abandoning the game. If you liked the original you won't regret getting the sequel at this point, especially if you can get it for cheap.
Just read on the Paradox forums, that the game is apparently now fixed enough to be relaunched as Enhanced Edition that includes an expansion with a new playable race, called End of Flesh. People who bought the game earlier seem to be getting the expansion for free, and the launch is 2 weeks from now.
The launch might've been the worst ever, but it's amazing how they've stuck with their game.
The launch might've been the worst ever, but it's amazing how they've stuck with their game.
Chance Hale
Member
It's kind of hilarious to read through the beginning of the thread with the subdued excitement and wonderfully presented OP to where it became clear things were very wrong. I didn't see a OT for the Enhanced Edition, how is the game now? Is it worth learning the ropes or should it just be put aside forever?