Sins of a Solar Empire v1.02 is coming...

We hope to get this out this week. Ironclad has been working hard to make v1.02 available as soon as possible but we also have to finish testing.

Updated info at bottom:

Here is what will be new:

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Gameplay / Balance:
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-Tutorials moving into bad states at random fixed.
-Siege frigate survivability decreased.
-Pirate raid frequency decreased.
-Later stage missions to destroy ships and structures have had their expiry times increased.
-Clairvoyance: duration increased from 30, 45 60 seconds per level to 50, 100, 150 seconds.
-Guidance: cooldown changed from 20, 15, 10 seconds per level to 20 seconds at all levels.
-Guidance: ability cooldown rate changed from +20%, +35%, +50% per level to +40% at all levels.
-Guidance: duration changed 20 seconds at all levels to 15, 30, 45 seconds per level.
-Reverie: friendly units will no longer auto-acquire enemies under the effects of reverie as attack targets.
-Reverie: duration increased from 15, 20, 25 seconds per level to 20, 30, 40 seconds.
-Gravity Warhead: range decreased from 7000 to 6000 at all levels.
-Gravity Warhead: cooldown increased from 18, 16, 14 seconds per level to 25 seconds at all levels .
-Gravity Warhead: antimatter cost raised from 80 to 100 at all levels.
-Gravity Warhead: duration changed from 12 seconds at all levels to 12, 15, 18 seconds per level.
-Gravity Warhead: Speed reduction changed from 15%, 30%, 45% per level to 30%, 45%, 60% .
-Gravity Warhead: Acceleration reduction changed from 20%, 40%, 60% per level to 60%, 80%, 120%.
-Nano-Disassember: range increased from 4500 to 6000 at all levels.
-Nano-Disassember: antimatter cost decreased from 85 to 75 at all levels.
-Ion Bolt: antimatter cost increased from 65 to 85 at all levels.
-Ion Bolt: cooldown from 9, 11, 13 seconds per level to 10, 12, 14 seconds.
-Shield Projection: radius of effect increased from 2500 to 5000.
-Game update rate change hooked to - and = buttons (singleplayer only).
-Two new pirate-less maps.
-First tutorial now handles players spending their ability point before they were intended to and thus not being able to spend it when instructed.
-Phasic Transmissions research is now effective even at max fleet supply research.
-Reduced Phasic Transmissions supply bonus from 20% down to 15%.

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Graphics:
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-Shield projection's bubble less opaque.
-Various new ICO art.

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Networking / Multiplayer:
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-Games in progress causing "Rejected by Host" error fixed.
-Multiplayer lobby screens now have Map Designer tab.
-Whisper functionality for ICO
-Refactored join game screen.
-Fix for not seeing friend's games.
-New chat friendly ICO font.
-ICO user names are now sorted.
-Self and friends are colored in ICO channel player list.
-Events for players entering and leaving channels.
-ICO nows preserves history when changing channels.
-ICO logged in user count now displayed. This number will only update when you change channels or login.
-Added some default lobby names.
-Reorganized numbered lobbies to increment sequentially as they fill.
-Added notification of what channel you are in.
-Fix for rare multiplayer lobby crash when host leaves a game in ICO.
-Various new ICO message strings.

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UserInterface / HUD:
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-Added counter descriptions for all frigates and fighters.
-Game menu now mapped to F10 by default instead of Esc so people can repeatly press Esc to close any submenu they may-Fix rare bug in group selection.
 be in w/o going all the way to the escape menu.
-Various strings cleaned up.

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Modding:
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-Loading mods supported

Might be ready by Friday. Maybe.

Update:

Some people are complaining that we're simply catering to "whiners".  I would remind those people that Stardock has many many years of experience in putting together lists based on user feedback and making its own judgments on the matter.  The GalCiv series, for instance, has evolved plenty over the years and it's unlikely you're going to find any reasonable person who would say that we simply make changes based on who is loudest.

Prior to release, our internal testing of the game has produced a lengthy list of suggestions for future updates (1.01, 1.02, 1.03, and so on). Stardock and Ironclad get together, discuss what things we would like to change, and then prioritize it. The only thing that was "rushed out" for this release was some additional maps that don't have pirates so users have a choice.

It is not hard to defend against siege units.  But that is irrelevant. No counter to a given strategy should require more effort than the initial strategy. Throwing a swarm of siege units, takes virtually no effort. Defending against it requires considerably more. Similarly, the strength of the pirates is fine.  It's how OFTEN they strike.  The changes are not drastic, however.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Stardock, we can understand your concerns.  For those of you who have GalCiv II,  I would hope you all know better than to think that we make changes on a whim based on who posts loudest on a forum by now.  Ironclad shares the same views as we do on this matter. It's their game and we get together and discuss these things at length.

On Monday, Sins of a Solar Empire was released digitally. On Tuesday, the retail launch began. And so it's Wednesday. Where do things stand?

• As I type this, Amazon.com has Sins of a Solar Empire listed as the #2 best-selling PC game in North America.  Obviously, World of Warcraft and The Sims just can't stand up to the marketing juggernaut of the Sinners...cough.
  
  
• Meanwhile, Penny Arcade, which is extremely popular at both Stardock and Ironclad mentioned the game today. We're pretty excited about that and you'll be seeing a lot of Sins stuff over there as it's where the bulk of our web budget is going. Penny Arcade only allows games that they have tried and liked to be advertised there which I think is a really impressive stand to take.
  
  
• We are hoping to have the first post-release update out THIS WEEK. Now, those of you already familiar with Stardock won't be surprised by this. But for gamers who aren't used to getting lots of free updates that aren't just "bug fixes" you're in for a pleasant surprise.
  
  
• This week's update will add some new maps (maps without pirates for those who want pirate-free games).  It will also cure the annoying bug where games in progress wouldn't dissappear off Ironclad Online (ICO) and so you'd get a "rejected by host" message when in fact it should have disappeared or said "game has started". And the tutorials are fixed for users running at high resolution.
  
  
• Retail availability is spotty still.  I went to Best Buy today and they have it in the ACTION game area.  Sins is many things but it is not an action game. But it was well stocked at least. So if you're going to Best Buy, look in the action area...
  
  
• Next week we hope to offer a preview of the first significant post-release update. We're reading through the forums and considering everything from adding a "faster" game speed option for people who want a faster game pace option to new options regarding pirates to getting AI opponents to take over for disconnected players automatically.  Right now, you probably noticed we're all over the forums. 
  
  
• The first major reviews should start showing up early next week I imagine.  I read the Game Daily review and the Shacknews review (I'm a pretty big Shacknews fan).  I won't comment on the Game Daily one (it got an 8 but reads like a 9.5 so its score surprised me a bit).  I do recommend the Shack review even if I don't agree with all of it. I think people who play the game will really enjoy the visuals of the game a lot.  Let me put it another way (to use two of my favorite RTS's of recent memory) zoom in to a unit in Supreme Commander or Age of Empires 3 and ask yourself if they have the detail of a zoomed in unit of Sins.  One of the reasons Sins has become so popular so fast despite little publicity is because you can zoom out and see the entire map and zoom in fluidly to see quite detailed individual ships fighting it out.  But the Shacknews review is high quality IMO.
  
  
• The first of the Forge tools is now available. They're a free download in the downloads section. Go ahead and create your own maps and other goodies and upload to share with others. There's a ton of mods in the making and more tools coming!
  
  
• And lastly, the fun has only begun.  In all my years as a gamer, I've never seen a period in the game industry in which the right game showed up at the right time.  First, Sins is the only major new PC strategy game (that I know of anyway) coming out until, well next Fall/Winter time frame (feel free to correct me -- I've been looking pretty hard though).  And secondly, Sins will continue to evolve.  You think the game needs X, go ahead on the forums and make your case. Just be sure that you show you have played the game or aren't expecting Sins to simply be a clone of some existing game or something.

Stay tuned!

Wow!

One nice thing about Vista is that it requires 256x256 icons which ups the visual quality of things. This is a 128x128 thumbnail of the Sins icon.

Yesterday saw the digital launch of Sins of a Solar Empire.  Today begins the official retail launch of the game. 

The following retailers should have Sins of a Solar Empire on the shelf starting today or by the end of the week:

• Best Buy (launched at 2pm today)
• EB
• Gamestop
• Target
• Circuit City
• Walmart
• Fry's

Regardless of where you buy the game, you'll get the full direct digital service from Stardock. That means you'll be able to re-download your game on Stardock Central (and soon Impulse) even if you lose your DVD. In fact, once you've created an account, you'll be able to re-download the entire game even if you lose the DVD and serial # and everything else.

And just as we do with our other games, we plan to provide frequent updates based on player suggestions and feedback. These updates are not required to play (except for on-line games of course for synchronizing reasons) so if you don't want to update, you don't have to.

Here are some highlighed screenshots from the launch:

Stardock is pleased to announce the official release of CursorFX.  CursorFX is a free program that allows users to customize their mouse cursors in ways far beyond what Windows is capable of doing on its own.

The default Windows mouse cursor technology is the same today as it was in 1993 when Windows NT 3.1 was released. It lacks functionality and visual effects that are easily possible with any remotely modern PC.

CursorFX updates the Windows mouse cursor engine to support fluid animations, alpha blending, effects, real-time shadowing, user-action mouse states, mouse cursor resizing on the fly, color changing, trails, and much more.

CursorFX is a replacement to CursorXP which only ran on Windows XP.  CursorFX runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista and includes dozens of new features and tweaks over CursorXP.

A gallery for CursorFX cursor themes is available on WinCustomize.com to download hundreds of free mouse cursors, trails, effects, and more.

CursorFX is a free program. A plus version is available for $19.95 that adds more features.  To learn more and to download, visit www.cursorfx.com.

Screenshots:

Download: www.cursorfx.com

Yesterday marked the launch of the digital release of Sins of a Solar Empire, today at 2pm EST, the retail edition should begin showing up at retailres such as Best Buy.

Here's some links to some impressions and feedback from around the net:

• Quarter To Three
• War Gamer Forum Impressions
• Comment here with links to yours and we'll look at making more

Here are some suggestions on maximizing the fun factor:

1. I saw some people talk about game pacing. The game has three game pacing modes: Slow, Normal, Fast.  It's designed to appeal to a very wide range of users and these settings have pretty dramatic effects.  If you find the game pacing too fast, you can change the various settings at the start. If you find it too slow, you can increase the speed as well.
2. The Tutorial has a glitch that requires users to run at 1024x768. We're going to release a minor update later in the week or early next week that addresses that.
3. If you have any ideas or suggestions on tweaks and such you'd like to see, visit our forums and we'd love to hear them! We plan to release free updates based on player feedback.
4. Pirates. They're bastards for sure. Read the manual regarding them. But basically they will attack every N minutes the player with the highest bounty. However, if you don't want pirates in your game at all, create a map (or use an existing map) with no pirates.
5. On multiplayer, some games on multiplayer don't disappear immediately off of ICO and will report "rejected by host". So don't worry, you're not being really rejected -- well not by the game anyway.
6. If you have an nVidia card with recent drivers and have any problems, turn the planet detail to high if you have it on highest. 

We're glad you guys like the game! We're very excited about how things have gone so far! Lots of cool stuff to come!

Since 1999, Stardock has been a pioneer in digital distribution.  The original Galactic Civilizations was the first PC game to be released at retail and digitally at the same time.  Its flag-ship product, Object Desktop, made the transition from being a retail product to being digitally distributed with a subscription in 1999.

For the past few years, Stardock has distributed its content with Stardock Central:

Stardock Central

And while Stardock Central was very cutting edge when it was launched back in 2003, it's getting a bit long in the tooth.  For the past year, Stardock has been working on a  new platform that will finally combine Stardock's various technological assets into a single place. This new platform is called Impulse.

Impulse

Impulse isn't just a cosmetic make-over of Stardock Central. It greatly expands the capabilities of Stardock's digital distribution offerings. 

Here are 5 key differentiators of Impulse:

1. Users do not have to load Impulse to use the software or games.
2. Impulse will support third-parties submitting their software or game, name their price, and then after review having it available -- all done nearly automatically. Stardock already has this system in place on WinCustomize.com with "Master" themes.
3. Impulse will integrate its next-generation social networking features in the Community tab that will let users have friends, chat about games, have blogs, and more.
4. Impulse includes built in support for backing up your purchase to CD/DVD.
5. Impulse allows users who buy software or games at retail to still manage their updates and re-download the entire product on Impulse (for products that support this feature).

Impulse provides a cleaner UI than Stardock Central.

Managing your software on Impulse is a snap. If you bought a game or software program at retail or even from another digital distributor, you may be able to still manage updates and such on Impulse.

Impulse is still in internal beta at Stardock but it expects to release it in mid February with additional features for it being added through the course of the year.