Sins of a Solar Empire. Pirates on or off?

So I got Sins of a Solar Empire for my birthday and it's pretty fun, but the pirates annoy me sometimes. I just think of an organized horde of pirates rampaging through your systems as silly. Do you turn them off or do you keep them on?

on, I just try to keep my bounty lower then my opponents

Yeah it's almost like an auction. I rise the bounty on someone and then they raise the bounty on me.

The pirates are very useful.. either to harass the enemy by outbidding and sending the pirates after them.. or as free XP for your cpa ships

Maybe if the trader ships weren't so stupid I would leave them on. One game that I played I planets around two different stars and my ally was around a third. My trade ships would go to the third star, then go straight into the Pirate Stronghold on their way to my ally. Needless to say, none of those ships EVER made it and there was no way for me to stop them from taking that route.

I leave them off, especially when playing vs computer.

pirates on plz, also did u hear they are coming out with an expansion which will have a campaign and a new race? =o =o =o

Campaign might be interesting if they can concoct a good story. A new race... meh. Whatever. I'd rather have new ship types for all the races!

Is SOSM like a MMO or more like a RTS game?

It's an RTS but at the same time it's an empire-building game like Civilization. Zoomed in you have complete control over your individual units and zoomed out you control your empire (you can also control the empire zoomed in, but it's easier zoomed out ). The zooming is perfectly seamless and beautifully implemented. Sins isn't an MMO, but you can play multiplayer games on Ironclad Online if that's what you're asking.

lordkosc said:

pirates on plz, also did u hear they are coming out with an expansion which will have a campaign and a new race? =o =o =o

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An expansion already? I just got the original! A campaign does sound good though. I was surprised when I saw that opening cinematic but didn't see any campaign in the game. I was more surprised than disappointed though.

reclaimer122 said:

It's an RTS but at the same time it's an empire-building game like Civilization. Zoomed in you have complete control over your individual units and zoomed out you control your empire (you can also control the empire zoomed in, but it's easier zoomed out ). The zooming is perfectly seamless and beautifully implemented. Sins isn't an MMO, but you can play multiplayer games on Ironclad Online if that's what you're asking.

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Woah I thought it would just be another Empire Earth game. I might have to look into this haha

Check out some reviews for it. Sins has gotten amazing reviews from all over the internet.

IGN
Gamespot
GameSpy
Wikipedia, has a table of some review scores at the bottom.

Colton H said:

Woah I thought it would just be another Empire Earth game. I might have to look into this haha

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It's WAY better than Empire Earth. It's a great mix of RTS and empire building (Civ style). It's a real-time 4X game, really kind of in a genre by itself.

I like it because you really have to think about how to spend your resources. In most RTS games are just race to the end of the tech tree and build as many of the best units as you can. Since Sins is more of a Civ like empire builder, it takes a long time to get to the end of the tech tree and you have to really think about what you want to spend your resources on next. Do you want to build more defense on one of your planets, do you want to research a new ship type, do you want to research something that will allow you to gather resources faster? Also, the games can be as huge as you want. You can play on maps with 5 solar systems and over 100 planets!


I'd also like to mention how much I like the way they are marketing and presenting the game. There is no copy protection, no DRM ("customers are not criminals" is their slogan) and if you register your copy on their website, you can download the full game any time in the future for free and it will save your CD key. The game doesn't have high system requirements and will run on basically anything, it will run on a Radeon 9600, that's like a 4-5 year old card. They update the game often and listen to the community. And for all this, the game has been on the top of the PC game sales charts recently. That's right, a game with no copy protection, not a sequel, not made by a huge EA/Ubi type company is on the top of the PC gaming sales list. It just goes to show that if you make a good game and present it correctly, people will buy it.

Leviathan41 said:

Also, the games can be as huge as you want. You can play on maps with 5 solar systems and over 100 planets!

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With virtually no lag I don't think I ever got any stuttering in that game with my system. Max settings and 4xAA at 1680x1050. The graphics are BEAUTIFUL and still manage to run amazingly. I'll see what kind of performance I can get with my 7900GS tomorrow.

PS: After EE3, I will NEVER buy an Empire Earth game again.

Yeah it runs really well on my computer and the graphics are top notch.

I stutter in EE2 even at lowest setting.
Although I can max out LotrO @ 1680x1050 res. Odd...

e2140 @ 3ghz
7600gt stock settings 100% fan speed.

PIRATES!!!!!

Wreaks the game without them IMO. There more useful to you than not. While yes they can be annoyance, they are still nice either way.

How do you guys feel about the constant zooming in and out, I didn't really like that.

The rest of the game is 100% pro though.

Shiggity said:

How do you guys feel about the constant zooming in and out, I didn't really like that.

The rest of the game is 100% pro though.

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I haven't really noticed it. I just do a quick pull back (2 scroll downs or so) click the planet I want, hit space to lock onto the planet and do two more scroll ups to zoom into the planet.