Dear Ironclad/Stardock
There's been a lot of talk on the forums lately calling for a multithreaded 64-bit version of Sins of a Solar Empire and a lot of talk about why it supposedly cannot/won't be done.
I understand the reasons why Ironclad made Sins of a Solar Empire a 32-bit game at the time and why rewriting Sins of a Solar Empire in 64-bit would be expensive/time-consuming for a company like Ironclad or even Stardock, but in my opinion it is completely necessary. The game works about halfway for those of us who rarely play Multiplayer. Even on an excellent computer, late game lag becomes completely unplayable. Turning the settings way down doesn't help. It is just unplayable when you try to play the game on large maps the way it was designed and advertised to be played.
As somebody who bought Sins of a Solar Empire, Entrenchment, Diplomacy, Rebellion, and has bought and gifted copies to multiple people (and looking forward to the DLCs) I am a huge fan, but honestly, the fact that Sins runs so poorly late game, even on a computer which vastly exceeds recommended specs, makes me feel very cheated as a player, a fan, and a consumer. To the point that I will not buy Sins of a Dark Age or any future Ironclad and/or Stardock games if the issue is not fixed.
Remember Stardock's Gamer Bill of Rights? One of those rights was:
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Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
To put it simply, when it comes to mid-late game—Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion doesn't play adequately even on minimum or even well above recommended specs. I'm just stating facts. I'm not hating on SoaSE:R. I love the game. But its unplayable. And I think the fans who bought the game have every right to demand that this be remedied.
Here's the thing though...even though I firmly believe that I've more than paid for it already, I'd pay for the fix. I cannot speak for the entire community at large, but the Sins players I know personally have all said they'd pay a little bit for a 64-bit fix as well. Clearly people want a 64-bit build, the threads pop up again and again and again. So here's the thing, why doesn't Ironclad and/or Stardock start a Kickstarter or some other crowd funding source to get the funds together to do 64-bit build? Doing an overhaul though would be a huge undertaking for IC/Stardock and may not be all that viable financially. I am sympathetic to that fact as I'm sure others are as well. So, if we want 64-bit Sins bad enough we can toss in a few bucks to make it happen. I think that's more than fair. Let us help you do what we all deserve. Give us the game we love in a playable state and help Sins of a Solar Empire live up to it's full potential.
Sincerely and with much love and respect,
Cripple X
