Four Add-ons Planned For Sins of a Solar Empire 68
With the first add-on pack for Sins of a Solar Empire arriving in just under a month, publisher Kalypso Media has announced that three more add-ons are on their way as well. Gamespot has an early look at the first add-on, Entrenchment, and a couple of additional screenshots are available at Shacknews. The game's creative director, Craig Frazer, also explained their reasoning for making small expansions rather than large ones: "If PC gaming is to survive, the industry will need to be open to change. We went out on a limb with our anti-DRM stance and it paid off really well. We tried an unusually long beta period and that worked as well. Micro-expansions are just another experiment we are trying out to improve the market. These small expansions give us the opportunity to provide highly focused, high quality content within a reasonable time frame. Micro-expansions also reduce the development risk associated with 1-3 year cycles. With lower risk, we can be far more progressive in terms of gameplay and content."
Nice game. (Score:1)
Looking forward to play it. :)
Don't tell EA (Score:3, Funny)
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RTFA,
$9.95.. not "approx"
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OK as I said before Stardock is a US company and all transactions are in USD. 8 British pounds are an approximate conversion of $10 USD. Please refer to the Stardock [stardock.com] store for more details.
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Stardock have said from the outset that each will have a US$10 price tag, so if you're talking in AUD you'd be correct but seeing as you mentioned Walmart I think that you aren't Australian. Seeing as Stardock is an entirely US company all transactions via Impulse are in USD (8 GBP is just an approximate conversion for our pommy friends), please see here [stardock.com] for the actual price.
EA
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I believe the install time on a fresh copy of The Sims 2 with all expansion packs, stuff packs, and free items (just official not fan made) is in the neighbourhood of around 5 hours.
They desperately need to come out with some "TS2 Complete" DVD (or set of DVDs that are part of a single install) to streamline this process. I'd also encourage them to allow anyone who has actually bought all of them to send them all their DVDs for a free copy.
That doesn't sound good (Score:1)
Should they really tell people "hey, we're making more and more expansions for you to waste your money on"?
Periodic add-ons can be great (Score:4, Interesting)
I recall the game "Total Annihilation", a popular real time strategy game from the 90s. The publisher, CaveDog, periodically would add new units to the game (something like one a month or so). While I also like it when the publisher includes map editors, it is still good to get new material from the original developers.
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Micro-price? (Score:3, Insightful)
I only hope these micro-expansions also have a micro-price.
What they ought to do is offer one pack of expansions that includes all the expansions released up to that point, with appropriate discounts if you already have a subset of the included content. I can't see a la carte expansions ever working.
Re:Micro-price? (Score:4, Informative)
According to the preview at IGN [ign.com]: "The first micro-expansion is called Entrenchment, and Ironclad plans on selling it for about $10, which is a third of what a typical expansion costs."
So four expansions for fourty dollars sounds fairly inline to me at least.
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Winter Assault required the original DoW to play. Dark Crusade was the first that didn't require the original to play, and Soulstorm follows in its trend. I know if you wanted to play it on a LAN then you were limited to the races that you had (so if you didn't have the original DoW or WA with DC then you were limited to Tau and Necron). Single player I'm not so sure on, but I remember when it was initially released we did some testing with new DC against DoW:WA ones and each were restricted in LAN play to
They are (Score:3, Informative)
$10 is the price I see for it on Impulse. Given the normal expansion price of $30-40 (for example Wrath of the Lich King is $40) that seems pretty reasonable.
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You're right. I know in Korea when they try to do these kinds of individual purchases for games its failed horribly...
Re:You can't knock Kalypso Media (Score:5, Insightful)
Anti DRM unless you want patches (and maybe addons...) and you can overlook the DRM they include with Stardock Central and Impulse... Other than that, sure. They are TOTALLY anti-DRM. /sarcasm
Re:You can't knock Kalypso Media (Score:4, Informative)
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Does Sins have a sig.bin file like GalCiv? I'm 99.999% sure it does....if so, it has DRM. That file is a hardware ID that will de-activate the software if any significant hardware changes, or you copy the files to another machine without running the install to "activate" the program again. You cannot play it if you alter this signature file in any way. Try renaming it and see how fast it asks you to activate it. That is the definition of DRM by every standard. The only difference is that they hide it
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I copied the Sins folder from my desktop to my laptop so my friend could try it out with a 2 play LAN game. It worked just fine and nothing asked me to reactivate. Perhaps the sig.bin file is some sort of ID, but it certainly doesn't care what hardware it's on.
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http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/5128/screenshotgalacticcivilex5.png [imageshack.us]
That's my experience with the exact same sequence of events you just describe. Care to explain it? (And yes, the same thing happened when I copied the game to my XP tablet)
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Brad Wardell, the author of "Sins" is partly responsible for the "Gamer's bill of Rights" that keeps getting posted on
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It doesn't matter if they guy wrote out the ten commandments. He's trying to make money and will say anything to get it. Just because he says DRM shouldn't be restrictive doesn't mean he's not using it.
The sig.bin is automatically generated on install so it appears to you as if there is no DRM, but it's there.
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The sky is not falling. I first played Sins from a bittorrent copy. I already had stardock installed, and I had no problems playing in single or multiplayer.
I played it for a couple of days, and then when I realized I had a jones for some more, I uninstalled and bought a copy.
Talk about harsh DRM...
Re:You can't knock Kalypso Media (Score:5, Informative)
For the absolute last time, Gal Civ and Sins do not have DRM, they can be run, moved and installed independently of Impulse. The activations programs are called up by Impulse (Stardock Central) when updating and not by the game and if it queries to see what hardware it runs on before the game runs then that is a serious failure because I've moved a GalCiv installation from my Gaming rig (AMD X2) to my laptop (Intel Pentium M) and shock horror, it didn't stop me from starting the game (as DRM would). The only problem I had was that my laptop did not have the 1600x1200 resolution I was playing it at on my gaming box. Did you consider that it has the hardware information written a less nefarious purpose? perhaps to let the game know the maximum resolution of my monitor is perhaps? As sceptical as EA and their ilk have made me about PC gaming I cant find what Stardock are doing wrong here?
Also I can install Gal Civ and Sins from the optical media without installing StarDock Central or Impulse and play them, I just cant update the games.
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That's funny because I did the exact same thing and got this message:
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/5128/screenshotgalacticcivilex5.png [imageshack.us]
Yes, that's on my Wine box, but it also happened when I moved Gal Civ to my XP Tablet from my XP gaming box.
So, one of us is lying, one of us is lucky, or you have a different GalCiv than I do.
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Here are two more screen caps that I just took. Maybe you can tell me why this isn't DRM?
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/9635/galcivactivatefailnq9.png [imageshack.us]
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4140/galcivactivateke2.png [imageshack.us]
Maybe we need to look up the definition of DRM [google.com] again:
"DRM is a restriction on the use or copying of files, imposed by the copyright owner."
"Digital rights management (DRM) refers to the control and protection of digital intellectual property (content), including documents, images, video and audi
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Why the hell is parent currently moderated as Troll?
What he's saying is totally right.
StarDock are _not_ "anti-DRM". They never claimed to be. They believe in the need for DRM, but they don't subscribe to the current trend of having to donate blood every time you try to start your own game.
Two truths:
1. If you buy the mentioned games in a store (ie, physical medium), you can install it on as many computers as you like. You never need to go online to activate. They'll never stop working. There's *no* DRM.
HOW
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its the download version not the DVD version. the download version is tied to SDC due to the nature of downloadable games (as in not having a stand alone installer). BTW the SID of the machine is stored in clear text, not exactly the damning evidence of Stardocks evil you were looking for. Easy to get around, anyone who will do this as opposed to using just using the optical media or SDC/Impulse will be able to figure out how to fix it (in addition to this you also need
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I'm only upset by the people touting that it doesn't have DRM when it clearly does. I only wish to educate those people.
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What DRM?
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Rename that sig.bin file in the Sins folder and tell me it doesn't have DRM when it asks you to activate. It's a hardware key tied to the device you installed it on.
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I can download a song off iTunes without ever entering a license key for the song as well. Does that mean it doesn't have DRM?
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You have to enter a password to authorize your computer, unless it's one of the DRM free iTunes files.
Try again.
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You have no idea what you are talking about.
I am running the latest version of Sins, have all updates up to the latest version, plus a couple of mod and maps and I have yet to pay for it, all their updates are located on all the gaming file sites.
Saying their download system is like DRM is just plain silly. If anything its more of a great convience to have all your needed downloads in one place. Also to play online against other players requires you to have a paid for version.
Four expansions? (Score:2)
The articles only mention three. Whats this about a fourth one?
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well, in TFA they won't even mention what the third is about until the second on is out so I suppose they are gonna go all out on the fourth and deny its existance completely
Micro Expansions (Score:2)
Sounds like an attempt to milk the cash cow to me. I suspect the only way these micro expansions will work out is if they also come with a micro price.
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Sounds like an attempt to milk the cash cow to me
It probably is, but then again I own the game and I've gotten more than my moneys worth of fun out of it. It's a genre I really enjoy, decent graphics, decent gameplay... It was money well spent.
I haven't checked out the contents to the micro-expansion yet, but I probably will when it gets released. It'll depend on the content and the price most likely if I buy it, but I haven't been disappointed by the Stardock titles I liked yet.
I suspect the only way these micro expansions will work out is if they also come with a micro price.
Most likely. If the price is too high they'll probably have a lot of people w
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You might have a look at Sword of the Stars [wikipedia.org], from the peeps who did Homeworld Cataclysm. They just released their second expansion in GamersGate, and the original and first expansion are on Impulse.
Personally I found it more interesting than SoaSE; there's more variation between the different races.
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Indie games can be quite fun for a while and often are cheap (eg Audiosurf [steampowered.com] is just $10, and Defcon [steampowered.com] is $15).
Unless, of course, you want it for Mac-- in which case, it's $25 [ambrosiasw.com]. Actually, you can get all three of Introversion's games (Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon [introversion.co.uk] for $33.20 for Windows/Linux, but Ambrosia charges $25-28 each for the OS X versions.
And people wonder why everyone games on Windows.
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Sounds like an attempt to milk the cash cow to me.
"Sins of a Solar Empire", while moderately successful, is hardly a "cash cow". I believe you've mistaken this article for the one in which EA is selling an expansion to Spore almost immediately after its launch, with another shortly to follow. [slashdot.org]
I suspect the only way these micro expansions will work out is if they also come with a micro price.
$9.95 micro enough for you?
If one of the future expansions (Score:5, Funny)
"If PC gaming is to survive?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Have WoW's 10+ million subscribers suddenly decided to abandon PC gaming?
Seriously, when has PC gaming been a bigger industry than in the last few years?
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Re:"If PC gaming is to survive?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Have WoW's 10+ million subscribers suddenly decided to abandon PC gaming?
One game does not an industry make.
Seriously, when has PC gaming been a bigger industry than in the last few years?
The issue, I believe, is not about size per se but rather the fact that DRM is pissing off enough customers that the *stability* of it is in question. And once the market is deemed too unstable, the shrinking customer base is almost sure to follow.
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Have WoW's 10+ million subscribers suddenly decided to abandon PC gaming?
One game does not an industry make.
That's right. That's why with only 1 major desktop O/S for PCs business and consumers alike have abandoned PCs entirely. I don't know, 10M is a pretty nice chunk of market. While what you say is technically true, WOW is just one example. It may be an outlier but PC gaming is not dead. Netcraft confirms it.
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That's right. That's why with only 1 major desktop O/S for PCs business and consumers alike have abandoned PCs entirely.
That's a secondary market. The closest analogy is that of OSes themselves, and besides Macs (which live in their own world anyways) and the Free UNIXen, how much activity has there been on that front for, ohh, the last 15 years? fuckin' active industry, right.
While what you say is technically true, WOW is just one example. It may be an outlier but PC gaming is not dead.
No one has said that it's dead. Only that it may be in danger of becoming so, and if the current trends towards pervasive DRM continue unchecked, I wouldn't be sad nor surprised to see that.
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Quake?
"Blizzard gaming" is not in any danger (Score:3, Insightful)
PC gaming is.
If anything, WoW harms the PC gaming market more than it supports it. Gamers spending all their time (and money) on WoW are less likely to buy other PC games.
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That's actually part of the problem. WoW is essentially sucking all the oxygen out of the room. Who has time to try out a potentially great new game when they are trying desperately to level up their characters or reputation or gear in WoW?
If you look at it as two separate industries: the MMORPG industry and the PC gaming industry, the former is doing OK (particularly if your name is Blizzard), but the latter has been doing much worse in the last couple of years.
About as much fun as watching paint dry (Score:2)
I wanted to like this game, I really did, but the pacing is excruciatingly slow! You spend most of your time in information-OCD-mode, checking up on things even when you know it will take another 10 minutes until you can....click an upgrade and wait another 10 minutes. Turning up the game speed only makes it choppy and unless you are zoomed in all the way (which makes anything more than spectating impractical) every ship is displayed as a two-dimensional sprite.
Next time, if you're going to make a game t
But...b-b-but... (Score:2)
...th...th-t-there's no DRM!!!!!!!! That makes flowers, paper money, and porno tapes bloom from thin air!
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L2P (Score:2)
The plus key is your friend. Don't like the pace? Turn it up by 2x, 4x, 8x.
I play at 2x by default now, and the pace is quite brisk. Don't blame the game for your ignorance.
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Riiiiiiiight.... (Score:2)
Fixed that for you....
I understand there are lots of efficiencies to doing smaller releases, but one of the trends I've noticed lately with these "episodic" releases is that they give you a smaller amount of content and charge
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Do the expansions fix the original game? (Score:1)
I'm a harsh critic, but they really need to fix the original game before people will flock to it. Just as with all games for the last few year they may have made their deadline and maybe even kept to the spirit of their original designs, but they have to FIRST make the games usable, THEN make them interesting for there to be any chance at being FUN.
UI seems to always be the part that suffers the most.
8-PP
I didn't like it, no story (Score:2)
I guess I am the only one that didn't like sins of the solar empire, so I expect to be modded to oblivion, but I just couldn't get into it.
Quite simply there was no story so I didn't really have much of an interest in playing.