Is Sins of a Solar Empire Too large?

Endless Gaming??

from Sins Forums
Is Sins of A Solar Empire too large in the Multiplayer Arena? I came to a idea that it just might be. I remember playing a game recently with about 6 other players in a free-for-all where we were scattered across 4 star systems. I ended up fighting a guy for over three hours to take a system for myself. The three other players eventually left or were defeated. It came down to a late-game Vasari holding two systems, A late game Advent holding a system and few planets in my system, and a late game TEC (me)holding over almost all of a system for myself. I honestly asked myself if there was a way any of us could technically win. We all had massive fleets with a slew of capital ships at our disposal. Heck, I was TEC, I had so much resources I could replace anything I lost in battle. The Vasari had gates everywhere so his fleet was jumping easily from one spot to another. The Advent players fleet was massive in its own right. We all were basically going back and forth against one another. Until I literally had to log off at Midnight because I had work tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I love this game and I love having massive fleets duke it out over planets and the like. But I'll never finish a game short of saving it and going back to it, which I admit really kills the mood of the game when you have to stop. So the question I pose is, How do you shrink the game down to more manageable ability to complete games with a higher number of players in them?
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
So the question I pose is, How do you shrink the game down to more manageable ability to complete games with a higher number of players in them?
End of quote


Play a game with fewer systems. Giving every player a system of their own, or even more, will result in a long game no matter how you cut it.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Try ancient gifts if your into multi-star systems.
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Larger maps will always result in longer games. Although if time is going to be an issue then I suppose you could always turn everything to fast I suppose.

(I would advise using the 2x speed if neccesary, but I don't know if that works in multi-player. It didn't seem to work last time I did a LAN game...)
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I say there needs to be new in-game options in regards to pre-starts. :)

Would help get the game going quicker. Players could be given varying amounts of ships / buildings / territories and the action could start straight away.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I think the better answer would be the pre start settings like Phazon mentioned. Something akin to starting at tech level x with x many planets (actually I'd really like to see a min/max level option for games, some of us would like to see what the game is like without the full tech tree) and not actually have the core gameplay elements shortened for mp game sake.

Heck, if anything I suspect the game engine is quite scalable and has been set to certain limits right now so as to be accessable by more players with not-so-megapowerful systems, which I think is the right thing to do too. I'm pretty sure it's actually been stated somewhere that accessability was a goal they set.

If you question the scalability, search for PolyAnna's screenies of the huge fleets she made a while ago. Pretty much blows me away. I think I want to build a dual core with loads of ram just so I can make a mod capable of playing with crazy amounts of systems/ships.