Kin of the Stars is a gameplay modification for Sins of a Solar Empire, based on the Seikai series of science-fiction novels by Hiroyuki Morioka. This series is more widely known in the English-speaking world by the translated name of the first novel, Crest of the Stars. It has spawned comic book and animated versions by Bandai Visual, and video game adaptations on Playstation, Playstation 2, and Windows PC.
And the mod is available now for Sins beta-testers! See http://hoshizoraproductions.com/kinofthestars.aspx to download, or to look at the readme.
The Seikai series is praised for its attention to detail, with exacting descriptions of how science-fiction technologies like faster-than-light travel work, and an original language spoken by the best known race of the series, the Abh. The Abh (the noun can be singular or plural) is a genetically-engineered aristocratic race derived from human stock. They spend their lives almost entirely in space, whether aboard stationary installations or ships, and disdain planetary life. (The position of planetary governer is usually considered a demotion, and most conquored races are left to manage planetary affairs by their own devices.)
Why is the Seikai universe a natural fit for Sins?
- The Abh disdain planetary affairs and rarely invade. Instead they generallylive their whole lives in space. Sins places the focus clearly on space combat, with the important structures in orbit, with much of planetary development and management abstracted away.
- In the Seikai universe, travel between the normal universe and the "planar universe" (where FTL travel is possible) is restricted to gates near planetary systems. These form natural chokepoints where combat occurs to control the gate and the planetary system behind it. Sins' phase jump system fits naturally into this picture.
- It is a series with rich backstory about the clash of interstellar empires and massive fleets, with lots of technical detail that can inform gameplay.
This mod also showcases a number of uses of the Sins engine to enable gameplay different from stock beta 1, that may be of interest to modders and players to evaluate:
- Colony ships are lost when they colonize a world.
- Colony ships can now launch troop transports to attempt to capture an enemy world without exterminating the population.
- Heavy physical weapons (capital ship missiles, gauss cannons) ignore shields, leading to a sharp difference between ships carrying them and those restricted to energy weapons. Autocannon and fighter missiles are unchanged.
- Most weapons fire a single shot or burst instead of a constant stream, and they now take a while to reload, but they pack a wallop! A single shot from a gauss cannon or a capital ship will annihilate a frigate. A burst of missiles from a dreadnought will cripple a battleship, or destroy a damaged one outright. Frigate battles are short, sharp, and violent, with high casualties. Because rates of fire are lower, capital ships are still vulnerable to getting swarmed by frigates: the battleship may kill a frigate every shot, but it can only shoot a few times per minute!
- Fighters are unchanged, but because of the increased lethality of ship-mounted weapons, they feel more in-line.
- Siege frigates now carry short range missiles with high damage but slow reload time. They are excellent for quick strikes against capital ships and orbital modules, but fare poorly in extended combat due to low overall DPS.
- Battleships carry anti-fighter beam weaponry, but due to an engine bug they aren't used while the battleship is engaging another target.
- Capital ship missiles can be shot down by point defenses.
- Capital ship missile ammunition limited by antimatter. Supply ships replenish the antimatter of friendly ships.
I hope you will have a look at this mod, and see the possibilities that Sins opens up for us, even at this early stage!
