[Click Me: Launch Day FAQ]

On February 4, 2008 Sins of a Solar Empire will be released.  So how exactly is this going to proceed?

1) For those of you who pre-ordered:

If you pre-ordered the game but were NOT in the beta tomorrow afternoonish, Eastern Standard Time, the orders will begin to be processed. There are thousands of pre-orders to be processed so it will take some time.  Here's the insta-answer to this question "I haven't received my email yet!" answer: It hasn't been sent to you yet.  The pre-orders should complete being processed by 8pm EST. If you haven't received an email, then check your various spam filters. Otherwise, go HERE, type in your email and it should email you all info we have on you.

2) Get Stardock Central

To download the game, you will need Stardock Central. Your email will include instructions on creating a Stardock.net account (that's the account you use to logon to this website and post and such). If you want to get a head start, you can go here.

3) If you had a beta version

If you were one of the beta testers, first, thank you for your help! Sometime tomorrow afternoon v1.01 will appear on Stardock Central. That is the latest version. You will need to uninstall your existing beta first.

4) If you are buying it at a store

Once you install it and have it running, you will need to update to v1.01 to play on-line. Click on the "update game" button on the main menu and you'll be taken to where you can download the v1.01 patch. The patch is only 11 megs so don't worry.

5) If you are downloading the full game

We have leased some mega-super-duper high speed lines for the launch week. It should (better) download really REALLY fast regardless of how many people are buying.

6) If you are going to play multiplayer

If you are behind a router, you will need to make sure that port 6112 forwards to your machine. If you're doing a LAN game just make sure you have Windows Firewall either disabled or set up to allow Sins to work on it.  Also: Be aware that if you have a slow machine, that multiplayer runs at the speed of the slowest machine in the game.  So while the game will play fine on that 4 year old PC, you may want to think twice about joining a 10-person multiplayer game. It'll run but you won't be popular.

7) If you do have an older machine

Make sure you update your video drivers.  Don't do what I did with my ATI 9800 and assume that my drivers were fine. They weren't.  Same on audio drivers. Before you report garbled or stuttering or whatever sound, make sure they're up to date.

8) IF you run into a problem

Make sure you read the sticky threads before posting. Odds are, there is a common problem that pops up, we'll post a sticky post with a solution.

9) If you have a good machine

Go to the "Effects" option and turn up the graphics option. Make sure you get the full Sins experience graphically. The defaults are conservative.

10) If all else fails

Take a deep breath. Relax. We WILL take care of you.  Whether it be with your order, your PC, getting multiplayer to work, making sure you get the right package, etc. Don't worry.  [email protected] can take care of most problems.  On launch day, the fastest way to get support will be the forums because we're all hanging out here.  But remember to look up the sticky posts.

11) Waiting for your download to finish?  Try making some maps!

Today we also released the first piece of the Forge Tools package; Galaxy Forge.  It's a visual map editor for Sins that will let you craft your own custom maps.  Every map in the game was built using Galaxy Forge.  You can grab it from the Downloads Page.  And if you're having trouble figuring it out, be sure to check this Beginners Guide.

Good luck and have fun!

In a few hours, our friends at deviantART will hit their 50 MILLIONTH submission (deviation).

But for me, the most amazing thing about deviantART is its popularity.  It is now in the top 50 most visited websites in the world. 

Let me put that in perspective. deviantART is more popular than MSNBC.com, CNET.COM, MTV.com, Gamespot, IGN, and many other extremely well known sites. 

In fact, more people go to deviantART.com on a typical day than CNN.com.  That's how popular the site has become.

What started out as a skinning site has become the world's dominant art site.  Obviously, customization isn't a focus these days, I think it's still amazing how the site has grown.  I'll be the first to say that for the life of me it's beyond my grasp. I've never (and continue not to) understood the desire of people wanting to submit random stuff.  I understand people wanting to share skins or icons or software and other such things, but not scans of sketches or random art.  And that's what makes deviantART so revolutionary. It's not an obvious concept (at least not to me).

Congratulations deviantART on your 50 millions submission!

So what is a game of Sins of a Solar Empire like?  Just like we did with Galactic Civilizations, we've put together a story based on playing a full game. 

View: Rage of the Ishendi

This week's IGN blog on Sins of a Solar Empire focuses on an issue that is rarely discussed in the game industry - the problem of high system requirements for new PC games.

Increasingly, new PC games will be released with extremely high hardware requirements and when they don't sell as well as hoped, it's used as a blunt instrument to say that "PC games are d0med".  The reality is much more complicated.  When you sell a product or service, only those who are capable of making use of it can become customers in the first place.  Too often, game companies assume that people will upgrade their systems just for their game. 

Sins of a Solar Empire is designed to work on both older machines and newer machines. The graphics, of course, look better on the latest machines but the experience on older machines isn't just marginal, it's good.

This morning, we played a game on a 4 year old Dell machine with an ATI 9800 graphics card on it. It didn't just run okay. It ran very well (i.e. extremely smooth). It doesn't look nearly as pretty as it does on say Geforce 8800GTX but it certainly looks pretty good still.

At the end of the day, as much as we want our games to look awesome, we also want as many people as possible to be able to buy our game.

Check out the full blog here to learn some of the technical details involved and other thoughts on the matter.

View: IGN Upgrades

You've got Sins of a Solar Empire home. You've installed it and you go to play and POW. Something goes wrong! What the heck? Look in here to see if your issue is addressed. If not, make a post and we'll do our best to help you out!

• My multiplayer games keep crashing!

Almost all of the crash reports we've received in this regard were caused by some of the players using Mods that the other players weren't. If you're going to use Mods in a multiplayer game, either all players must use the same Mod (and version) or no Mods can be used. Otherwise this will create stability issues and de-sync problems the longer you play.

• My game is crashing for another reason...

If you had the game installed on your PC previously (i.e., during the beta), you must uninstall it before installing the final game.

• I have an NVIDIA card and my game or video driver keeps crashing!

NVIDIA has resolved this issue as of driver version 174. Check NVIDIA's website for the latest version (if you have a laptop and the OEM does not have the latest version, try laptopvideo2go.com instead).

• Where are the files kept for Sins of a Solar Empire (such as screenshots and such?)

Vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\

XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\

Please note these directories may be Hidden by default. To unhide them, go to your Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View and set yourself to view hidden files and folders.

Note: If you're running the game through Stardock Central under Windows Vista, it will save your game settings under an Admin folder:  C:\Users\ADMIN_NAME\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\

We are working to correct this behavior. 

• Why does the direct digital download version cost $5 more than game costs at the store?

The direct version is the Collector's Edition which includes additional non-game content such as a music CD (which you can download), PDF files of maps and tech trees, and a Windows theme.

• Where is my Sins settings file found?

This file is located at:

Vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\user.setting

XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\user.setting

Please note these directories may be Hidden by default. To unhide them, go to your Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View and set yourself to view hidden files and folders.

• The game blue screens or I get video corruption when I play.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and sound card. This is particularly important if you have an older video card. The game will have problems on outdated drivers.

• The game crashes in Vista.

This could be due to a known Vista bug which can be addressed here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=940105

• How can I open my settings file if I need to change something?

You can open this and most Sins files with a simple text editor such as Notepad. We strongly recommend against using programs like Microsoft Word, however, as they introduce their own hidden formatting elements that may cause crashes.

• My game has crashed and told me it saved a "minidump" file. What do I do?

Please open Windows Explorer to the location below and see if your dump file is there.

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp\Sins Dump

Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\Sins Dump

If there is a minidump file present, please zip it up along with a copy of a dxdiag from your PC and a description of what you were doing when it occurred to support(at)ironcladgames(dot)com. Please note that you must provide your Sins of a Solar Empire serial number in your email to receive support (anti-piracy measure).

• My game has a bug, what do I do?

You can send the save and/or recorded game that recreates the bug along with a description of how it occurred to us. Using the info above, locate the save/recorded game and compress it into either .zip or .rar format, then email it to us at support(at)ironcladgames(dot)com. Please note that you must provide your Sins of a Solar Empire serial number in your email to receive support (anti-piracy measure).

• I try to start Sins but I get an "Audio Engine Failed To Initialize" error.

This is an indication that your sound card drivers are out-of-date, that you don't have a sound card, or that you don't have any speakers connected (Vista). Please try installing a valid, up-to-date sound driver for your system. A sound card is required to play the game.

• I try to start Sins but the screen is a mess of color or is black and never loads the game.

Possible solutions:

1. Try turning off movies in the user.setting by changing ShowIntroMovies TRUE to ShowIntroMovies FALSE.
2. Try manually changing the resolution of the game in user.setting by changing the values associated with WINDOWEDWIDTH and WINDOWEDHEIGHT.
3. Try manually changing the MULTISAMPLETYPE setting to a value between 0 and 4 in the user.setting file.
4. Try updating your sound card drivers to their latest version (this is especially important on brand new machines).
5. Make sure you video drivers are up to date.
6. Make sure you have the latest DirectX 9c.
7. Try manually reducing all your texture levels in user.setting (set them to 0 for the lowest setting).
8. Try updating to the latest version of Sins using Stardock Central.
9. Try running in windowed mode (ISWINDOWED FALSE to TRUE) also set in user.setting.
10. Try reinstalling Sins (make sure you uninstall and manually delete anything that might have been left over)
11. Try changing the game resolution to the same resolution as your desktop.

• I can't connect to Ironclad Online (ICO) or any LAN games.

Make sure your software firewall (including the Windows Firewall) has not blocked Sins of a Solar Empire. With some firewalls it may appear that Sins has frozen, as the firewall is waiting to receive confirmation to proceed. You may need to exit Sins and restart the game in Windowed mode (IsWindowed in user.setting) in order to get around the firewall's pop-up. Alternatively, you could configure your firewall prior to starting Sins. You also have to be able to connect to both port 6000 and port 7000 on ICO.

• Sins won't continue when I try to host a multiplayer game.

Your TCP/IP or Winsock settings could be corrupted. To confirm this, turn on logging (using the instructions above) and attempt to host a game again. If your log file is filled with "Socket'ServerAcceptedSocket0' failed recv: An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket." then this is most likely the problem.

The solution to fixing your corrupted settings can be found here.

• Other players aren't able to connect to the game I'm hosting.

As of version 1.11, Sins uses Alloy by default so no one should have problems hosting. However, if you choose to disable Alloy in the online hosting options, the following is how to make sure you are capable of hosting. (Note that in some situations you won't have the rights to the make the following changes and Alloy is your best bet - this is typical of tight corporate networks or a university campus situation).

Your user.setting file has an entry for GameHostPort (default is 6112). Make sure your router has this Port Forwarded to your computer's IP address or has UPnP enabled. If you use Port Forwarding, it's important that you set your PC to have a static IP address to maintain your settings.

XP
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting

Vista
C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting

All computers behind a router should have their own unique GameHostPort setup in case the original host leaves and a new host for the game is needed. Be sure to restart your game after changing these settings. Keep in mind these are NOT the ICO ports of 6000 and 7000 (see above).

Example (computers behind router):

Computer IP                user.settings -> GameHostPort                  Router Port Forwarding Setting

192.168.1.47                             6112 6001 ->                                       192.168.1.47
192.168.1.201                           6113 6002 ->                                       192.168.1.201
192.168.1.35                             6114 6003 ->                                       192.168.1.35

• Q: Where can I get more help with setting up my computer for multiplayer?

 

One site we recommend is: http://portforward.com/default.htm

 

Even before humans decided that capitalism was their religion, the Ishendi were different. Their colony had originally been founded by members of a philosophical sect dedicated to living a more principled life. Over time, the Ishendi came to be seen as more militaristic than some of the other members of the TEC. The Ishendi tended to have little patience with the subtleties of contracts when some of the more slippery members of Trader Space did not fulfill their end of bargains.

A thousand years ago, when the deviants were exiled, the Ishendi had mixed feelings on the matter. On the one hand, the disgusting and vile practices of the deviants were appalling to the Ishendi.  But on the other hand, was their world not theirs to live as they pleased? Many Ishendi could imagine a future where they too would be exiled because their culture had become too "deviant" from the mainstream of the Trader worlds. As time had passed, humans were drifting apart in more ways than one.

But 10 years ago, when the aliens arrived...these "Vasari", the Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) was formed and suddenly the Ishendi were expected to take the lead.  But the Ishendi were far from the front and their isolationist policy made them slow to act but not slow to begin designing the kinds of ships that might be needed to deal with the Vasari.

Ironically, it was their ancient cousins that caused the Ishendi to truly join the TEC.  The deviants had created their own empire called the Advent. And their meaning was quite clear: Revenge.  To the Ishendi, the Vasari and the Advent make compelling opponents. This is their story

And so it begins

For this single player game, I'm choosing a medium random map. there's plenty of pre-canned maps but I like the surprise of a random map and plus I want to see how good the random map generation is.

Picking a map (I could also use the built in editor to make one)

Making it a FFA.

My starting resources (there are scenarios with accelerated stars but this is the basic start)

My first moves are to improve my research capability and get my free capital ship (you start out with 1 capital ship slot for free).

Meanwhile, on my planet, I build up my civics support so that my population can go higher (more tax revenue) and increase my logistics so I can build more things around the planet.

I also build up some scouts so that I can start seeing where there are good planets nearby.

My scouts often encounter hostiles as trader space is lousy with thugs who lay claim to shipping lanes. One positive outcome of this war will be the elimination of the scum from our space.

The first new colony we established was being obstructed by the Roider Union. The Roider Union was a fancy name for thugs in this part of Trader space.  Essentially, they existed to exact a toll on trade ships back before the conflict. Their time has passed though and now it's up to us to clean out their nests.

While my units are taking care of the riffraff, I needed to set my research policy.

The war expands

One of the things that no one would have ever thought 5 years ago would be that there would be diplomatic discussion between Vasari and human. But that is exactly what has happened since the Advent arrived. With a 3-way struggle, local cease fires, even alliances have occurred.  Even the Advent, whose stated goal is to avenge themselves on we humans, have occasionally made nice.

In diplomatic-speak, the language has greatly changed over the years. Now we call demands "missions". The diplomatic core have developed their own code-words for an ugly universe.

Exploring the star system is a lot easier than one might imagine.

Open War Begins

The Vasari are the first to begin a serious attack against my worlds. Their bombardment platforms are designed to sterilize the surface of humans.

I'm successful in repelling the attack and taking out his capital ship. Now is the time to strike with my early force.

The world Koroth is isolated and relatively safe. I use it as the center of my growing economy.

Eventually I make it to their home world

The Advent's all offense strategy left them open to a counter stroke. Their ships focused too much on short range attack and I countered it by bringing in a lot of carriers who could strike them from afar.

I then began bombing the home world.

Yea, the Narn felt the same way.

By this point, the star system had grown to two major powers. The Vasari and me had split things up between us.  Therefore, I was going have to build a bigger fleet.  But that would take time.  So first, I need to get the pirates to work for me. 

The Fleet logistics system in Sins is one of my favorite elements of the game. You can spend money to increase your fleet support as well as train capital ship crews. But in the case of fleet supply, the higher the level you are, the more of your resources go to maintaining that level (it's not based on the number of ships you have, it's based on the actual supply level).  It's a great system to prevent someone from just cranking out some mega fleet without worrying about consequence.

Next, I get in a bidding war with my Vasari enemy to get the pirates to attack.

The Vasari faction (Vaskorus Arkun) have already bribed the pirates ahead of me.

But I am ready for the pirates and grind them into the dust. The pirates will get their turn.

Meanwhile, with a simple mouse over of my money display, I can quickly see which planets are bringing in the bucks. Koroth remains my key planet.

The former Advent home world now is home to my new reality TV shows and other pop culture telecasts which...

Spread out into the star system like a poison.

The Climax

The Ishendi were slowly expanding with all in retreat of our growing might.  The Vasari do manage to make a hit and run attack on Koroth...

Oh, they'll pay.

The first Vasari faction and I meet for a final show down.

It is the end for them.  Now for the other Vasari faction.  My main task force meets theirs.

The End is near...

And so the Ishendi begin to roll up the remaining Vasari in the system.

And to finish them off, I finally get my hands on the ultimate weapon.

Which wipes out the last Vasari world.

Conclusions

The Ishendi prove that their militaristic culture is quite adept at handling the invading alien Vasari or the vengeful Advent. There was relatively little diplomacy in this particular case.  When there's more factions, no one power can dominate as I did in this case (only 4 players representing 3 different races).  Some of the TEC infighting in other systems has resulted in some shocking alliances between humans, aliens, and Advent.

I wonder how they'd do against the Drengin...

According to GameRankings.com, a site that simply takes the review scores from the major gaming publications and averages them, the top 14 games of last year (as many as I can fit into a screenshot) were:

Sins of a Solar Empire comes in two forms:

Standard Edition ($39.95) which is what is available at retail.

and

Collector's Edition ($49.95) which is available direct as well as certain retailers (I think Fry's is one).

So what's the difference?

The Collector's Edition box includes the following bonus items:

• a foldout tech-tree poster
• artwork posters
• a hotkey card
• a music CD

For users who are doing download only, the Collector's Edition is only $44.95 but they will still be able to get the music CD (we'll be providing it as a digital download shortly after release) and PDF versions of the other materials (which we will also be providing after release).  Since there's less physical materials, it's $5 less than the actual boxed version.

If you decide later you want the boxed unit, you can order that for $5 plus the cost of shipping and handling.

Also Collector's Edition users will receive the Sins of a Solar Empire MyColors theme:

Users who didn't buy the Collector's Edition will be able to seperately purchase the digital content starting in late February.

If you buy the game directly from us, you are getting the Collector's Edition (pre-order, beta tester, etc.). It is the only version of the game we sell digitally or box.

If you have any questions, ask them here.