Did Anyone See the Sword of the Stars Pack on Impulse?

It looks pretty awesome!! I've been checking out the vids on YouTube...

http://www.impulsedriven.com

they look pretty cool, you can customize ships, you can choose long or short games, there are moving parts in the ships, but there are some similarities to Sins and GalCiv, it looks like its a 4x game, or at least partly. Because it looked so cool I have been thinking of picking it up, but wanted to ask if other people had played it and what they thought.

Thanks for the feedback and I will let you know if I get it,

Take care,

-Teal

 

 

29,142 views 11 replies
Reply #1 Top

I got it and already wasted too many hours on it. It's great! ^_^

 

Strategic play is turn based, micro heavy in late game, but very focused on conquest. Economy is just based on money, which you get from tax and trade. It is quite automated, you just have to research trade and build frighters, which get then added to specific trade zones.

You get a big research tree that is in part randomized. There are base techs which you get every game every time, and then chances to get other techs, based on race. So morrigi (space dragons, boo-yeah) are big on energy weapons, while The Hive (space bugs, cheer again) is better on ballistics in space.

All races get different ship designs and can build from 3 parts, each with different slots and so on.

Battles are real time and cool to look at, with all the beams and missiles and ships exploding and burning and newtonian sliding.

In short, i dont regret the buy. :thumbsup:

Reply #2 Top

But the battles themselves don't have much in terms of tactics going for it. What I don't like most about it is that you only have a limited number of ships in a fight, and any "extra" in your fleet get used as reinforcements. So if you build 50 cruisers, depending on your research and CnC ships (Command and Control), you might get something like 8-10 of them into a fight. As they get destroyed, their replacements jump in. So the scale of the battles is much, much smaller than Sins. You can, with proper research, organize your ships so that you control what jumps in (so you can have your CnC cruiser in the middle, with heavy damage cruisers as your line ships and a few to flank, and throw in some Point Blank destroyers for anti-missile protection if the enemy is using missiles). Otherwise, it usually jumps the last thing you want it to jump in - like all your refinery ships so you lose your ability to fuel when they get blown up, or all your CnC ships so you lose the ability to field more ships in a fight.

They do look nice, though, especially when you research some of the higher end weapon techs, and there are many different weapons. Gauss turrets (projectiles), lasers, missiles, torpedoes, beams, so on. Each of these has different variants, too. Projectiles might have AP Rounds, or Sniper Rounds. Then there are 3 sections to each ship, with research to unlock new ones. There's the forward section, the backbone, and the engine section. Bigger ships have more mounts and more turrets per mounts, and the different sections of each type have different amounts, too. And the bigger the ship, the more sections you need to destroy to blow it up, each section has its own hp and you can direct your ships fire on a particular section - so if the enemy is using a heavy missile boat middle section (those hurt, trust me, as the missiles don't miss), you'd probably care about taking that out before the engines.

For example, you can research a destroyer (the smallest ship) mid-section that lets you house a single Large weapon (like a torpedo), so you can use them as light bombers against heavy ships. Or you can keep to more regular hulls and then have more mounts to put Point-Blank defense turrets on it to make a nimble anti-missile/torpedo ship. There are sections for salvaging, repair, refueling, deflectors, all sorts of stuff.

The game is most definitely worth the price, however. The combat is simpler but it still does not disappoint. And at the top level it has a similar structure to a Total War game - you have your strategic map where you manage your empire, and then each battle can be fought in tactical mode or auto-resolved. It's not full TBS and it's not full RTS.

Oh, one more thing.. the map in the strategic layer is fully 3D. That is to say, it can be pretty disorienting because it's hard to gauge distances without lots and lots of camera rotation so you can try and see just where that planet is in relation to you.

Reply #3 Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 2
But the battles themselves don't have much in terms of tactics going for it.

Hm, i have to disagree. You can fire at ship parts, weapons and even use indirect fire, define weapon groups for each single ship and define targets for them.You can, for example, focus fire the engine of a Dreadnought, then move all your ships behind it and fire away in relative savity (hey, its still a DR :D ), since it wont be able to bring his mainweapons to use.

Or you can mix your heavy armor with long range ships, use the first to engage in short range and keep your damage dealers save at long range.

Also the KI will adapt to your tech and build ships to counter yours, so you will have to do the same to stay on top.

In short (again) i think the tactic side is as strong as Sins, its a smaller scale, but not worse. On the other side Sins isnt the pinacle of Tactics either. Its all just a fun galaxy smash :grin: .

 

Reply #4 Top

I'm also thinking of buying it! Seeing as I love GalCiv II! Terror Stars FTWWWW..eat that Terran Alliance ;) I'd love tot ry this baby out! And if Annatar says its good then its DAMN GOOD!

Reply #5 Top

And if Annatar says its good then its DAMN GOOD!

Hey, I've got a proposition for you. I've recently inherited a large sum of money from a relative in another country. However, I need some help getting it here. All I need from you is your Social Security number and your complete bank information. I guarantee that within a week you will receive a 20% cut ($1 million US dollars).

+1 Loading…
Reply #6 Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 5

And if Annatar says its good then its DAMN GOOD!


Hey, I've got a proposition for you. I've recently inherited a large sum of money from a relative in another country. However, I need some help getting it here. All I need from you is your Social Security number and your complete bank information. I guarantee that within a week you will receive a 20% cut ($1 million US dollars).

OH OH OH

here is mine 555-69-3862

my bank is Duh bank 1221550-7878787878#*@^

Reply #7 Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 5

And if Annatar says its good then its DAMN GOOD!


Hey, I've got a proposition for you. I've recently inherited a large sum of money from a relative in another country. However, I need some help getting it here. All I need from you is your Social Security number and your complete bank information. I guarantee that within a week you will receive a 20% cut ($1 million US dollars).

 

LOOOL! Received that email a few weeks ago from a dude in southern Africa....let's say the reply he got was probably not what not very polite ;)! Since then, no word form him..how strange :)

 

BTW can we convert it into canadian dollars....cus seeing the American econ is failing I don't suspect the dollar will last much longer ;)

Reply #8 Top

Just bought the complete pack +_+! Hope I like it ;)

Reply #9 Top

:)  Sounds Very Cool!!!  Let me know, I saw GalCiv II at the store, very nice price, i think it was DreadLords, $19.99, anyway, i wanted to get that AND SotS and i would have a time!!  :)

Impulse has SotS and i believe on the Sots website they list some of the retailers that have it as well,

Now im looking at Demi-God, :)  but that will have to wait a few weeks for the money.

-Teal

 

 

Reply #10 Top

Bough the pack a while ago (actully the ultimate + argos naval yard separate) and i can say its a really great game!

 

Only bad thing i can say is that everytime i decided to buy it (ultimate edition first, argos naval yard later) a promotion started just a few days later :P LOL ^^

 

In any case definetly worth the money and its great fun.. i just wish i could play more multiplayer of it ^^

Reply #11 Top

:)  i would like to give it a go as well, friday is payday, so maybe that would be a good time, provided the bills arent too heavy.  :)

-Teal