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So, I've decided to treat myself to one of these games, and have read excellent things about both games (And Stardock's approach to DRM gives me a happy!).

Just wondering if any of you weidos on Dakka had played them and which game you would recommend!

Sins of a solar empire is a good game, interesting concept for a long term space rts.

I have honestly never played the Galactic Civ 2 So I can't pass comment.

Gal Civ II is exactly what you would expect Civ 4 IN SPACE to be. It is quite good, with excellent AI, and interesting political dynamics.

dogma wrote:Gal Civ II is exactly what you would expect Civ 4 IN SPACE to be. It is quite good, with excellent AI, and interesting political dynamics.

That is the main reason I am drawn to GCivII more than SoaSE, as my net connection is rather poor and I am by nature and unsociable bastard. I also hear the Community for GCivII is amazing as the lack of DRM = Mods up the wazzo.

How is Home World 2 compared to SoSE ?

Now time for a biased view on Home World 2.

I love that game, It's the best space rts I have ever played.

I honestly enjoyed SoSE Empire, especially how easily Alliances fell apart to betrayal.

I've heard that GalCivII has an interesting political (or diplomatci?) system, but I'm not sure what it offers by the way of ships. The capital ships and bombers/fighters ect in SoSE were pretty cool.

LunaHound wrote:How is Home World 2 compared to SoSE ?

No comparison reason...SoSE has sooooooooo much more depth.

Their both fun games though.

Never heard of Galactic Civ II...

I've played both, and while Gal Civ II is a very good game, I have to go for Sins, which is simply a leap forward in Space Stategic Management games. It manages to simultaneously strip down the "options" and micromanagement available to you, which I would normally be against, whilst increasing the options available to you and forces you to make important decisions constantly throughout the game.

The politics system, which is based on "missions" is the best feature of the game. Instead of just giving away Tech, your enemies and allies each tell you what they would like you to do to improve your relationship with them, and how much less they will like you if you fail.

If one of your allies wants you to attack someone, then you have ot weight up how secure the alliance is, and how valuable it is. Do you really want to traipse halfway over the system to attack that other faction? If you have 100% approval from your ally, you don't need to anyway. Sometimes though, your approval might be dangerously close to the alliance breaking down, and you need that ally, so you are forced to take on an attack against someone you don't really want to attack...

Other times, they just ask for gifts of resources, and the like, but all in all, it is the best politics system I have ever encountered.

It's incredibly difficult to maintain helathy alliances, or (perish the thought) have more than one ally at a time. Sooner or later they demand that you make attacks on the other. A real lack of "can't we just all be fwends?"

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

I downloaded the GalCivII Demo, but sadly it doesn't work with Wine, and I cannot seem to find any demo for Sins. Not only that, but it seems GalCivII proper doesn't work on Wine too well either, while Sins has a Gold Rating. Looks like I know what I'm gonna be buying!

Galciv..?

I borrowed sins from someone a while back and there is no campaign unless they have added one since. The other major problem I had with it was that in terms of the combat it is a lot less interesting than say for example homeworld 2 as it is fought in a 2D plain. I also found that the game seemed to revolve heavily around having a pretty good defence fleet fairly central in your territory at maximum 4 jumps away from any given location and heavy orbital defences on your planets. I found by doing this it was easy enough to just disassemble your opponent using your chosen team's super weapon.

I personally would not recommend it. Unfortunately I have not played GalCivII so I can't offer advice on that.

Gwar! wrote:That is the main reason I am drawn to GCivII more than SoaSE, as my net connection is rather poor and I am by nature and unsociable bastard. I also hear the Community for GCivII is amazing as the lack of DRM = Mods up the wazzo.

Yep, after considering all the various mods you end up with 4-5 games with one purchase.

Also, to reiterate, the AI is the best I've ever seen in this type of game, maybe in any type of game. The only reason you should realize you're playing a computer is the lack of chat.

Gwar! wrote: I am by nature an unsociable bastard.

Ha! this should be Sigged.

That is tempting

I've played alot of GalCivII. Picked up the 'gold' edition for 5$ a couple years ago at a used bookstore. Had to find an online PDF for the manual- and was all set.

Playing on the largest maps- I had a single game I played for about 7 months before I had the whole map opened up. Manipulating the other factions to attack eachother, setting up lucrative trade, pushing your sphere of influence out until opposing planets revolt and come into your control. Making uber ships to crush the stupid ones....

Best 5$ I think I ever spent.

I would also look at Sword of the Stars.

Good game, simplified infrastructure and expanded combat. Sword of the Stars gives each race unique propulsion technology so the strategy for movement and deployment is widley different depending on what you are facing.

Orlanth does Sword of the Stars have full 3D combat movement (order (x,y,z) coordinates) because if it does I may look into it as it is a bit more recent than my only space RTS which I still hold as one of the best I have played (I have had a few in the past that I have gotten rid of)