Sword of the Stars II (Or another 4X space game I will probably buy)

[rattasak]

You can definitely play it. I played for a couple of hours last night and didn't experience any crashes. There seem to be some minor things that get broken with every patch, like for instance they fixed some quirks of FTL movement for the Hivers, but now it's properly estimating the amount of time a mission will take.

I still think it would be best to hold off before giving it some serious play time. Probably the most broken thing right now is ship behaviour in combat. Combat stances sort of work, but ships are generally not proactive enough and its kind of hit or miss whether they will really do what you want. The interface for combat stances is just bad so I found myself giving a lot of individual orders and a lot of 'for the love of god, point that-a-way'. There's also an issue where the sound doesn't carry far enough in space, so unless you are zoomed in on a ship, you don't hear that much. That really kills the atmosphere.

So I think at the moment, tactical combat 'works', but is too frustrating. Combat is the focus for the next 'pre-holidays' patch that should be out on Wednesday, so hopefully that improves the situation. As it stands, it takes the fun out of the game to research, design and deploy your awesome new dreadnaught, but have it sort of a chore to use in actual battle.

thanks for the information!

[KevinC]

Hold off, rattasak. The latest patch was a bugfix patch, they're in the process of doing a major pass over the combat systems now. You can expect the combat patch to be early next week, probably followed by at least another bugfix patch to correct existing issues and new issues introduced.

Kerberos is aiming to have a stable game by Xmas, so if you've waited this long just hang in there another week or so before giving it a go. It's still not going to be polished by then, but hopefully it'll be stable and most of the major issues worked out.

[Morberis]

Ooo some of the different immersion factions looks amazing. Like the Liir-Zuul Alliance Immersion faction.



What you may not see is that most the ship is black but as you rotate around it it shimmers in a similar manner to ammonite.

[KevinC]

Yep, there's some amazing looking ships, especially those immersion textures!!

[marxeil]

There's also an issue where the sound doesn't carry far enough in space

Not a bug.

[MikeJ]

Who are you going to believe? Physics or George Lucas?

[Evrett]

To quote the lead dev

"The plan is to get you folks playing a SotS2 game from beginning to end with a reasonable chance of success. Will be less huge of a game for now but what is there will work. Thats the plan"

He means by xmas. Wait for the re-release sale late next years sometime. Certainly dont rewards these people's deplorable business practices by paying full price. I've enjoyed Distant Worlds quite a bit if you are looking for some 4x fun right now.

[Rorschach]

Here's the full post:

Hey folks,
Because everyone is interested I thought I would outline the next few days for you. The plan is to put a big update out on Tuesday and then follow it up with at least one hotfix before friday. The update will contain some mission screen changes and a pass at combat to address some issues. Will be a bit lean in terms of picking up on content, and to be honest I wish we were farther ahead on that count, but given the holiday week, we have decided in the push/shove contest of feature placement vs stability, stability has to get the nod from Santa. So update and then a few days if intensive hotfixing of anything resembling a CTD or gameflow stopper. The plan is to get you folks playing a SotS2 game from beginning to end with a reasonable chance of success. Will be less huge of a game for now but what is there will work. Thats the plan.

The new year as I have mentioned will have at least a couple updates a month till every lil thing is where it should but the longer pacing should make for much cleaner updates. Before the end of the week we will put out a fairly comprehensive list of whats in and whats waiting so you can adjust your holiday playing accordingly.

[SirTomster]

Here's the full post:

Hey folks,
Because everyone is interested I thought I would outline the next few days for you. The plan is to put a big update out on Tuesday and then follow it up with at least one hotfix before friday. The update will contain some mission screen changes and a pass at combat to address some issues. Will be a bit lean in terms of picking up on content, and to be honest I wish we were farther ahead on that count, but given the holiday week, we have decided in the push/shove contest of feature placement vs stability, stability has to get the nod from Santa. So update and then a few days if intensive hotfixing of anything resembling a CTD or gameflow stopper. The plan is to get you folks playing a SotS2 game from beginning to end with a reasonable chance of success. Will be less huge of a game for now but what is there will work. Thats the plan.

The new year as I have mentioned will have at least a couple updates a month till every lil thing is where it should but the longer pacing should make for much cleaner updates. Before the end of the week we will put out a fairly comprehensive list of whats in and whats waiting so you can adjust your holiday playing accordingly.

Which sadly translates into me not even touching it until February at the earliest. Martin best be very happy Skyrim came out because otherwise I bet more people would of gone the refund route instead of just playing Skyrim for a few months then checking up on SOTS2. (Me being one of them). So they best be using my donation to good use (my donation was doing the pre-order)

[Dan_Theman]

Yep. Sad & frustrating news, but I admit I'll be interested in seeing this list of missing content.

[MikeJ]

Minor races, government ideology and psionics are probably the biggest missing pieces right now. I'd much rather they get the stuff that's in there working more smoothly than link in more half-implemented code.

[Lorini]

I asked for a refund the first day they offered it and still haven't gotten it, so their refund offer so far is a bunch of bullshit.

[Aeon221]

Minor races, government ideology and psionics are probably the biggest missing pieces right now. I'd much rather they get the stuff that's in there working more smoothly than link in more half-implemented code.

Why is it that every game seems to cut the minor factions these days? They get bullet pointed, hyped up and then cut two months in when it's apparent that nobody had time to work on the major factions, let alone the minor stuff.

[Dan_Theman]

Sorry to hear about that, Lorini. Most other people have received theirs - I'm guessing you've already done this as any good QT3er would, but I would follow up with someone over there in case your request got lost in the shuffle. It's bound to be on file, someplace.

Why is it that every game seems to cut the minor factions these days? They get bullet pointed, hyped up and then cut two months in when it's apparent that nobody had time to work on the major factions, let alone the minor stuff.

Good question - I've seen that in a few games, and I think it's pretty aggravating because I honestly enjoy dealing with the little guys in most games.

[Sarkus]

By the way, noticed that this is 33% off on Steam right now - $26.79. Not a daily deal as part of their sale either, but still cheap if one assumes the game is going to come together relatively soon. And it might still show up as a daily sale item at an even lower price.

[Aeon221]

By the way, noticed that this is 33% off on Steam right now - $26.79. Not a daily deal as part of their sale either, but still cheap if one assumes the game is going to come together relatively soon. And it might still show up as a daily sale item at an even lower price.

I will pay 5$ for this product. Here's hoping Steam feels that price is fair.

[Lorini]

I've followed up three times and each time I'm told my refund has been processed and will be issued 'shortly'. No refund yet.

[Fenris99]

I will pay 5$ for this product.

Me too.

[Rorschach]

Here's the content update noted above:

r18757b
------

Critical Fixes:
+ Fixed a crash that could occur within the strategic AI could not determine which ships to construct for a fleet.
+ Fixed another crash related to selecting shield options in the design screen.
+ Mission estimates are back.
+ Fixed a crash related to fleet selection in the Battle Manager.
+ Fixed an issue where the star mapo camera could become locked after selecting a system for a diplomatic event.
+ Fixed a feasibility study crash.
+ Fixed mine frame rate issues.
+ Fixed mine audio issues.
+ Fixed frame rate issues when selecting large numbers of ships in combat.
+ Fixed an issue where fleet entry positions were not taking advantage of closer control zones.
+ Fixed the issue where game setup parameters were being lost when reloading a saved game.
+ Players rejoining hosted saved games will now be moved to their respective slots when possible.

Other Fixes:
+ Strike missions against stations now require the targets to be in sensor range.
+ Added missing Ionic and Shield Breaker weapon attributes.
+ Fixed an issue where Siege Drivers were not causing damage.
+ Added missing psionic abilities to modules.
+ Added missing tactical sensor range to colonies.
+ Fixed an issue that stopped cancelled fleets from being able to be issued new missions right away
+ Fixed an issue that caused the autosave to save the wrong turn number
+ Fixed a trigger constraint with the von neumanns
+ Fixed issues with calculating fleet ranges.
+ Fixed an issue where the endurance rating for fleets was falling below one turn.
+ Boarding pods are no longer factored into fleet endurance calculations.
+ Armor display on the design screen now updates correctly when changing techs.
+ Fixed an issue where colonization missions would not resume after clearing enemies out.
+ Fixed the bug where non Zuul factions where getting node line collapse events.
+ Fixed issues with station module assignment.
+ Fixed a number of small resizing issues in fleet lists.
+ Added missing combat fleet placements for neutral encounters.
+ Fixed an issue where damaged ships entered combat destroyed sections not properly connected.
+ Fixed various boarding pod issues.
+ Fixed issues with weapon target leading.
+ Added missing economic and research efficiency connections.
+ Von Neumann homeworld starts hidden once again.
+ Fixed Fire Control and AI Fire Control section effects.
+ Fixed an issue where all weapons would fire immediately when coming out of overthrust.

Other Changes:
+ Sensor memory and is now working.
+ Improved interfaces for all mission types except Station Construction and Upgrade.
+ Added features to the combat UI.
+ Introduced a Surveyed Systems view mode for the star map.
+ Reduced size of tactical star system.
+ Introduced surrounding behavior to combat AI.
+ Reduced structure of all ship sections.
+ Various weapon tweaks.
+ Made improvements to the research screen interface.
+ Added tooltips to all tech selections on the design screen.

Key Known Issues:
*** This update breaks old save games. ***
- Deployed gates are not showing up in combat.
- Some moon orbits are still incorrect.

[Warren]

Critical Fixes:
+ Fixed a crash that could occur within the strategic AI could not determine which ships to construct for a fleet.

AI really *IS* advancing. Now it rage quits ....

[kerzain]

Due to the difficulties of delivering a challenging and competent AI in time for the holidays, as a temporary measure all AI teams will be played by a small team of South Korean conscripts. As a consequence there will now be only one difficulty setting, Suicide Mode.

Internet connection required.

[karnisov]

I will pay 5$ for this product.

what aeon said.

[Sarkus]

So what is the feeling after the latest patch? Is it "playable" yet, as they said they were shooting for?

[KevinC]

No but they're planning another 1-2 stability patches still by Friday. Word is the AI has gotten much better and the game is shaping up, but still has stability problems they hope to address this week.

I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see.

[Evrett]

"+ Reduced size of tactical star system."

The devs and sycophant testers though it "fun" to run around a system for 5 mins trying to find your opponent the combat is about with your senor bubble. Now you still have no idea where the guy you want to fight is but it should only take you 4 mins of clicking randomly per encounter

[Aeon221]

"+ Reduced size of tactical star system."

The devs and sycophant testers though it "fun" to run around a system for 5 mins trying to find your opponent the combat is about with your senor bubble. Now you still have no idea where the guy you want to fight is but it should only take you 4 mins of clicking randomly per encounter

Two things.

One, I found something belonging to senor bubble:

Spoiler: it is a giant bubble in the shape of a cock. this is probably nsfw

Two, have you ever heard of betas who weren't fanatical about the prior game? It's not like I'd sign up for the SotS2 beta, seeing as I thought/think the original was shit.

[Rorschach]

I'm confused Evrett. Are you complaining about the change, or that it needed changing, or did you look at a calendar and see it's been a few days since you complained about the game?

[Sarkus]

I'm confused Evrett. Are you complaining about the change, or that it needed changing, or did you look at a calendar and see it's been a few days since you complained about the game?

I think he looked at the part where the game has been out six weeks and still isn't playable and felt he had the right to say whatever he wants.

It doesn't help that if you go the Paradox forum for the game you see that they (Kerberos) are starting to pull some crap on the promised refund side of things. "Well, we tried but we can't force the retailer to give your money back." Or "Steam clearly felt that (arbitrary time inserted here) was too much play time for you to be claiming you deserved a refund." Or my favorite, "You missed the deadline, sorry. Oh I realize you requested the refund from the retailer/Steam before that date, but you didn't contact us so we can't do anything else for you."

I'm glad to see they are doing whatever it takes to make this right.

[KevinC]

I didn't think Kerberos had anything to do with the refunds, that was all Paradox? Maybe I'm wrong.

I could see Steam refusing to refund if there's a lot of playtime, but the rest of that sounds like bullshit. Sure, they've made a large amount of progress, but it's still not even possible to finish a game 2 months out from release.

[kerzain]

Well, to be fair, there's only a lot of playtime for people because it was taking 105 minutes to advance turns.