What a wonderful game - KUDOS Ironclad

Not that I disagree with the post but on this point, who, especially in the RTS category, has 'not' supported LAN play?

HellgateLondon is the first one that comes to mind. It has been whispered here and there that this was going to be a more standardized practice usually to deter pirating, so I was glad to see it included in this game and my buddy and I fired it up and played without a problem this past weekend.

It is standard, but bore mentioning because I don't want to see that feature left out of future games I guess.

Welcome aboard NapalmEnema! Thanks for your support.

Glad to be here, and spreading the word as best I can. You guys really caught me by surprise with this game. I hate RTS and now all I'm doing is not working and calling my buddy discussing strategy.

Yay Ironclad, they know what gaming is all aboot.

Thanks so much Napalm. This is particularly rewarding for us today because we've been discussing the problem of the vocal minority dominating our leading threads with negativity that is not shared by the vast majority of the community. They are too busy enjoying playing and its just not as common to post positive thoughts. We really really appreciate this

I plan on bumping this to keep the haters in check and defending this product as I have time for in the other threads.

Personally, after a certain point, you should just ban the more trollish ones that insist on bashing the game right and left.

Peace - and keep a thick skin, this game is great fun and masterfully done. The interface is just awesome.

I think it's not so much the support play, but the fact its supported play with 1 copy of the game needed, rather than all of you buying your own copy and cd-key, and for this i thank IC, great feature that helped me talk my friend into getting a copy anyway (to finish our game over the net)

Blair,

I don't know the exact saying but it's something like "1 unhappy person will complain to 10 people, 1 happy person will tell none or maybe 1 other one". That addage truly applies here. (i know I butchered the original, but when I used to work in sales it was a very important one because you have to filter all the vocal unhappy customer because it's not representative)

It is a VERY small, vocal minority that are the majority of the whiners and complainers on the board. You really do need to filter the input you take from the bulletin boards. For one thing, I've noticed that many of the "flame" posts have terrible spelling an grammer, which makes me think that many of the negative posts are by people under the age of 13. So for one thing, take into account who is posting. Do you really want rantings and ravings of pre-teens and teenagers who know nothing about software development and have relatively little experience in playing games dictating the direction of the product? You unfortunately have no way to judge the qualifications of the poster.

Also, again, based on sales and reviews, you KNOW people are happy with the game. I don't think the average gamer even reads these boards. All us happy people are actually PLAYING the game rather than spending time trying to write posts finding every fault.

Also, like the original poster said, alot of times it's the whiner's own fault they are struggling with this game (and any other game really). If they don't spend time playing the game and the game owns them, then of course they will think the game sucks. One particular post comes to mind, it was a HUGE flame post and I think he wrote in there that he didn't even understand what the Underdevelopment tax rate was. I was appalled because he didn't even take the time to understand a basic game mechanism yet felt compelled to write a long flame post about how bad the game is??? That just doesn't compute. Or if the game is buggy, g-d knows what that particular person has on his computer that is causing the crash, or how badly configured his system is, or if he even has a legal copy!!

The point is, you really do need to take the negative feedback with a very small grain of salt. The vast majority are playing the game and if they do post on the boards its with a constructive post supporting their points. All those other posts you should not even waste your time reading.

Well, technically, this is also supported by all but a handful of multiplayer PC games I've played though the methods, I suppose, could be questionable (or perhaps not. I don't make a habit of reading license agreements).

And just to ward off any righteous fury on the subject, I'm talking about a simple CD-swap. Not cracks or piracy.

Interesting I didn't even realize it supported that.

Kudos again Ironclad!!

Drish, I completely agree but we want the forums to remain a useful resource. I'm reading consistantly on other forums that people are making purchasing decisions based on these forums and the top of the stack is always negative. Its hardly representative.

It is also taking us an incredible amount of time to filter out the useful information because of all the trolling and the huge debates they cause. This also completely drowns out the topic of the thread which may have valid, useful ideas. This is magnified because they are consistantly spreading their opinions to numerous to other threads in which the entire process is duplicated.

In effect its like a virus outbreak and its harming the whole community by annoying people, drowning out valid ideas, detracting potential community members and customers and limiting our ability to improve the game by wasting resources filtering the good info from the bad and increasing our potential to miss new valid concerns and ideas.

Its out of control so the new rule is that you can have a single thread on each of your primary concerns (or a single one for them all) and you can debate all you like but if it starts spreading we'll lock things down. This is pretty much how beta worked emergeantly without us needing to interfere. I don't know what has happened in the last few weeks to cause this change.

Anyone from the start of the beta (March 2007) knows how tolerant SD and IC are. That we have to do this means it is that bad.

PM me if anyone wants to continue this discussion.

Back on topic. 

Personally, I don't even bother to post in the "true" negative threads...Why bump them? Let them die an ugly death.

I love the game. I've been a Stardock supporter since 2003 (Due to their stance on DRM, community involvement, etc) so I suppose I could be considered a fanboy...hehe. Regardless, I can love the game and still have suggestions on balance, etc. I disliked many 1.03 changes and said so on the forums . Hopefully in a constructive manner, hehe. Yet I had no doubts that you guys would resolve those issues since I know the SC(and IC) commitment to the players.

Those of us who love the game (AND are active in the forums) should simply remember to keep things constructive in our posts. Sometimes people get so "invested" in the game they love that when something changes in a way they did not expect, their initial reaction is "OMG, NOOOO!!!". We all need to take a deep breath, assess things properly, and move on from there. Also, please keep all the misinformation out there to a minimum . The people who are new to the forums *will* be mislead by that...

-Drexion

Logging in now, can't wait to start up a new campaign with the strategies I have developed while daydreaming throughout the day.

-That's the sign of a great game.

Haha,great to see a positive thread.

Just pre-ordered mine.

Sins of Solar Empire,im coming!!!Cant wait to try Advent and Vasari,even though i love TEC.

I think Biggie Smalls said it best when he said "Mo' money, mo' problems".

I think that any game (or any 'thing' for that matter) that becomes very popular and well known within a certain community will always draw its vocal detractors and
trolls. Is that the price for fame and fortune?

yes thank god for a positive thread. the vocal minority has been pissing me off lately.

And about the lan game with one disc thing. I agree wholeheartedly, and although there are some games that let you cd-swap, (and some that require differing cdkeys which makes it impossible to play a lan game with 1 copy), there has never been a game like Sins that hasnt asked me for a cd key to install at all, and allows lan play using the same cd/no key. My friend bought this game after playing it with me down at my house.

Only thing I don't like about Tec is the voices lol. Guy sounds like he is going through puberty when he's talking sometimes.

Lol,most of them is ok for me,except the Repair Ship.

I really like Koi's voice.

Not familiar with Koi's voice yet, is that Tec?

This would have to be one of the most refreshing titles to come out in a long time, and with no major bugs.

Some find it too easy some like me find it very hard so the balance must be pretty good overall. I think some of the forum negativity is because forums tend to be populated by the more experiences gamers, so Jo average is not really represented very well. If the 4x game side was increased too much it may be too hard for beginners, the forgotten gamers as they are not the vocal ones.

Anyway I am really enjoying losing all my SP matches so far.

Cheers MarkL

just want to add my love to the DEVs for this fascinating game. you know they've done a brilliant job when you can stay riveted to a single match (AI) that lasts over 48 real time hours (spread over days) and spend a good chunk of your "out of game" time working out strategies to try when you get back in. other posters have used the word "Epic" to describe SoSE and i think it fits well.

as far as some of the negative posts, its unfortunate that some people are in the habit of using a harsh tone when criticizing aspects of the game's functionality or balance. sometimes they do make some good points though, which contributes worthwhile feedback to the original devs and the modder community. i'm unfamiliar with Stardock/Ironclad but based on what ive seen so far, the game has great potential for further refinement and evolution. forums in the gaming community are often battlegrounds in themselves. lets hope folks here can make their observations and/or suggestions without being immature about it.

@Cheesenium: regarding the Tec repair ship voice ... at first i too was disappointed at choice in how silly it was characterized by the actor, but it wears better over time. now every time a repair ship spawns and auto announces, it makes me chuckle and provides a nice comic contrast to the frantic attack warnings that are always going off. the Tec's colony frigate voice sounds like a NASA launch announcer, the Javelis LRM frigate guy has needs to cut down on the caffeine, and the scout frigate guy sounds like an old time prospector who's weary voice almost seems to anticipate that hes almost certainly gonna die in the next 5 minutes. fun stuff.

Thanks again!

Still lovin it the more I learn about it and the more comfortable I get with it.

Truly a sign of a great game.

hi craig i maybe have a solution for you
why not make a topic on the homepage on this site
explaining this negative posts and encourage them if the new guys looking
for more information before they make the decision to buy this game to explore the forums more for positive information that way they still get the right information from fans.

by the way 4 friends of mine bought the game 1 friend just hate strategy but he
is addicted to this game (you must be doing something right  )
we play every friday night 2v2 in the wee hours in the morning
rock on
EMPY OUT

Well alot of the games i've played in the past tend to be quite restrictive on LAN play.

I mean gangland, my god i loved that game for multiplayer, but trying to play multiplayer was a kick in the nuts.

I mean i've played games in the passed and tried to do lan matches and it just not work due to cd-keys ect. But with sins it's fine, which is great because i tend to play lan matches instead of internet.