Update on Sword of the Stars 2

[Hawawaa]

I'm sure we have a sizeable group here that likes 4x's and maybe Sots. Sots 2 had a very rough start. I just wanted to update folks on the current state of the game.



The good news-

Sci-Fi Strategy Game from Paradox Improved and Updated

NEW YORK – November 16, 2012 – A year ago, Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter was released and while full of potential, didn’t quite meet expectations, including those set by the developer and publisher. Since its release, the main focus from publisher and developer has been to serve all of those that purchased and believed in Sword of the Stars II. Paradox Interactive has financed and distributed updates, giving Kerberos Studios the opportunity to continue patching the game to get it into a state where everyone can be proud of the product.

Now, a year later, Paradox Interactive and Kerberos Studios are finally happy to declare the game in good condition and are celebrating by revealing a brand new expansion “End of Flesh”, alongside new content and improvements in Sword of the Stars II: Enhanced Edition.

As a token of appreciation and “thank you” for their patience, Paradox Interactive will arrange for existing Sword of the Stars II owners to receive “End of Flesh” for free on release. Sword of the Stars II: Enhanced Edition is scheduled to release on November 30th.

The “End of Flesh” expansion to “Sword of the Stars II” introduces players to the Loa, a shape shifting artificial intelligence that can settle some of the most foreboding of landscapes. A former slave race, they now have freedom and an incentive to use their powerful and unique vessels to teach their old masters a lesson.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIxeT7SBu4A

Features of the Sword of the Stars II Enhanced Edition include:
The new Loa race with a new drive for their ships – the Neutrino Pulse Gate
Over 25 new technologies including a new tech tree for cybernetics
10 new weapons and attack systems
Expanded ship building options for all six original factions, including new Leviathan class ships
2 new independent races to seduce or bludgeon into your imperial orbit
New random encounters and mission types
All previously released faction based DLC – the voices, the badges, the avatars, the skins...all of it.

This site is russian but you get to see early screenshots. God the new race is sexy. http://www.ag.ru/games/sword-of-the-sta ... ots/458597


Currently in beta and coming soon

Other changes and additions:
- started the transition to Steam multiplayer
- Implemented pending/resolving combat screens (thank god)
- Implemented free-fly and tracking camera modes that can be toggled in combat
- Implemented a random ship name feature (continued tweaking this week)
- Implemented tech boosting
- Implemented special failure events for some tech
- Implemented right-click weapon fire mode / target filter control
- Implemented auto-fire for AOE weapons (need to field more aoe weapons but theres so many weapons)
- Implemented Zuul minimum 5 overharvest rate
- Revised empire manager screen
- 2 new maps and new Hiver & Liir Badges.
- Race balancing and ai tweaks
- lots of fixes




Want videos to learn how to play-
Resoks multiplayer videos- http://www.twitch.tv/terrakus
Zuul LP videos- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXgqQe_a ... plpp_video
Random sots 2 video channel- http://www.youtube.com/user/theHaloEnfo ... rid&view=0

Awesome screenshots-
Steam sots 2 community- http://steamcommunity.com/app/42990/...ilter=toprated

Also Kerb forums sots 2 ships pics- http://www.kerberos-productions.com/...2050&start=405

Sots 2 rereviews that have popped up-

If you got a translator Eurogamer rereviewed sots 2 from 5/10 launch to 9/10 today
(2 reviews) http://www.eurogamer.dk/articles/2011-1 ... lse-review
http://www.eurogamer.dk/articles/2012-1 ... 2-faerdigt
More reviews http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/swor ... -stars-ii/




Community F.A.Q. for Beginners- http://www.kerberos-productions.com/...p?f=37&t=35957

Small questions and answers thread- http://www.kerberos-productions.com/...p?f=37&t=31083

I think this will help you for missions- http://sots2.rorschach.net/Missions you right click system and pick a mission

Admiral perks help out with certain mission types- http://sots2.rorschach.net/Admiral





Now to clear a few things up...

I remember people saying that about Sots1, hell i couldn't play sots 1 at all at launch. I was not a happy camper. Came back a year or so later and it still had its rough edges ie ui and managing big empire is still a pain. With every update, every expansion the game slowly was made into a gem. Perfect nope, better yes.

For some it may take longer than others. If your not looking for multiplayer and only good ai then yes more time is required. Patches are still coming out.

Multiplayer is fun, been getting games going every other weekend. I have about 9+ games I am currently in. Though doing a few games against the ai to warm yourself up isn't a bad idea. Also thank god after this beta update everyone will have steam multiplayer. Gamespy is old.

For single player I put the ai on hard and giving it a head start is required still. For my single player games I experiment with my strategies.

Randoms and grand menaces are working and every other month new randoms and grand menaces are added.

Empire management and fleet management- sots 2 is better. With exception to large games when you have lots of stations. We just got a new Empire management screen and its beautiful.

Its only a matter of time for the ai. They are still working on kicking out stuff and expansions are already being worked on. Kerb is a small team. Things take time. It will be ok... http://youtu.be/iWuibmO4NFw?t=5m





Ok this next part is extra and Kerb's little Kickstarter to help support them and their future endeavors.

Here is Kerb's little kickstarter game The Pit http://sots-thepit.com/

Mecron- Hey folks!

Sorry for the long wait but I am extremely happy and proud to give the all clear signal and invite you all back to a bright and shiny SotS2. While “all clear” in no way means support for the game has ended or that we have no plans for additions, it does mean that the game is in the shape we would have wished it to be upon release. From here we will be going on to a regularly scheduled set of updates that continue to fill out and flesh out the SotS2 universe as well as adding new maps, scenarios and plenty of quality of life suggestions.

We would like to thank Paradox for continuing to distribute Sword of the Stars/ Sword of the stars 2 and look forward to working with them on any future expansions. We also want to issue a heartfelt thanks to the players who stood by us in those dark early months and who believed us when we said this game would be fixed. We owe a great deal to the players who stuck it out through all the dozens of updates and fixes and kept reporting the bugs and posting their saves. Their input has made for a bigger and better SotS2 than could have been achieved at release even under the best of conditions. Everyone who enjoys playing this game from this date on, owes those impromptu testers a great deal of thanks. And finally for those of you who are reading this now and booting up the game, we would like to thank you for your patience and welcome you back. There is a great game waiting for you now and a big universe waiting to be explored.

The Future:
As said, this announcement does not mean the end of SotS2 support. In fact, should any of you be curious, feel free to come by our boards and see our plans to support SotS2 indefinitely. For now, you can look forward to your next SotS2 update in approximately 3 weeks and it should include such tasty treats as:
--Selectable Teams at startup
--Revised Empire economics screen
--Even more AI tuning
--SotSpedia tuning and more entries
--And a pack of new maps.

While too far down the line for particulars, I can tell you that the following update after that should see the return of scenarios and a treat or two for the holidays!


So once again, I would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding during the road back and hope you all enjoy this game as it was meant to be!

Martin E. Cirulis
CEO/Creative Director
Kerberos Productions



Oh ya sale on Sots 2- http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SOTS2LW/sw ... -of-winter



Oh patch day!
1.1.23976.3
by castewarkp » Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:55 pm

Critical fixes:
- Converted MP from GameSpy network to Steam network
- Fixed end turn CTD
- Fixed post-combat CTD
- Fixed combat CTD
- Fixed multiplayer CTDs, including due to updating colony history
- Fixed CTD on Station Built dialog if station was destroyed during combat phase
- Fixed being able use hot-keys between turns in MP
- Fixed allowing hot-keys to change state in build screen when confirming invoice name
- Fixed being able to enter comparative analysis screen without having seen any enemy ships
- Fixed Suul'ka leaving when tribute station is destroyed
- Fixed bug allowing Hivers to build gate stations without the required tech
- Fixed issues with assimilation plague
- Fixed client being sent home after 1 invasion mission
- Fixed not being able to do a strike mission on any system
- Fixed CTD with getting Suul'ka info
- Fixed system killer being stuck at a system with a mining station
- Fixed dev-mode being activated in the design screen

Other fixes:
- Improved screen transitions between mission overlays and starmap
- Tweaked VN planet killer
- Prevented neutral indy planets from disabling slew mode if a station is next to it
- Enabled suicide drones to upgrade with warhead tech
- Disabled operations slider
- Fixed sound channel issues
- Fixed Suul'ka voices not being available
- Fixed auto goop module
- Fixed 0 level station remaining at a system after the construction mission is cancelled
- Fixed bug when transferring some assets via relocate
- Fixed bug that moved police cutters into the defense fleet when a relocation was canceled
- Fixed bug allowing design attributes from being visible in the ship tool tip before they have been discovered
- Fixed not being able to relocate to systems when exact number of required CE
- Fixed display of civilian population in empire manager screen
- Fixed display issue with rider manager screen
- Fixed mission turns remaining display issue
- Fixed scrolling hot keys with mouse wheel
- Fixed bio war modules not saving bio missile data
- Fixed bio missiles not getting replenished when the ship is repaired
- Fixed boarding pods getting stuck when docking with their carrier
- Fixed slave disks from auto launching when they are full of slaves
- Fixed weapons ricocheting off of dead sections
- Fixed missiles from blowing up before hitting their target after researching microfusion tech
- Fixed bolt weapons from blowing up before hitting planets
- Fixed "shot gun" style weapon fire so that it fires with a better spread.
- Fixed chance of fading from sensors when ship is outside of sensor range
- Fixed interceptor missiles from hitting own ship's shield
- Fixed formations not updating in auto-resolve
- Fixed morale high/lows when colonizing a planet after killing off the original inhabitants
- Fixed bug where fleets could get stuck arriving at a system, but not set to being at the system
- Fixed not being able to auto target VN collector pods
- Fixed display issue with rider manager
- Fixed scrolling hotkey manager with mouse wheel
- Fixed admiral traits not correctly displaying on admiral info cards
- Fixed defence assets being stuck in a system after the owning player has been evicted
- Fixed issue where Zuul AI would create "super" fleets
- Fixed bug allowing players to access dev design screen
- Fixed priority issues with Planetary Salvage, should now be more common
- Fixed being able to enter rider manager with hotkeys when you normally would not be allowed
- Fixed Zuul node lines disappearing when out of range
- Fixed issues with special / salvage projects not using up all allocated research credits

Other changes and additions:
- Teams
- Revised empire manager screen
- Implemented pending/resolving combat screens
- Implemented free-fly and tracking camera modes that can be toggled in combat
- Implemented a random ship name feature
- Implemented tech boosting
- Implemented special failure events for some tech
- Implemented right-click weapon fire mode / target filter control
- Implemented auto-fire for AOE weapons
- Implemented Zuul minimum 5 overharvest rate
- Removed 64 bit option
- Allow time acceleration in MP when only 1 player in battle
- News events for that turn are now displayed when loading a game
- Movement psionic now shows range


(note I'm not a robot) I just want to keep people updated and there is lots of 4x lovers here.

[RyanCrierie]

Is it actually, you know, playable now? Remember SOTS2 was released in a pre-alpha version.

[vonRocko]

Bah! I wouldn't give kerberos a dime. After that release, what kind of sucker would contribute to their kickstart project?

[Hawawaa]

Yes its playable, been for a long time. Multiplayer finally has steam. Place AI on normal or hard. (They will continue to work on it).

You can watch some videos below
Resoks multiplayer videos- http://www.twitch.tv/terrakus
Zuul LP videos- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXgqQe_a ... plpp_video
Levys random battles- http://www.youtube.com/user/theHaloEnfo ... rid&view=0

You can try the demo (its alpha but it works) for the kickstarter.

[ilovestrategy]

It's gotta be 9.99 before I get it. That game had a really rough start.

[Wolfe1759]

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

Is it actually, you know, playable now? Remember SOTS2 was released in a pre-alpha version.

Whilst it is now playable (though still very laggy) and mostly working as designed it is just not that good and not much fun to play.

Also looking at the last bit of the OP over a year after release and they still had to fix that many bugs, CTDs etc. in the latest patch, the game is still not looking finished to me.

I'd wait until they release a demo so you can try it out for yourself before buying.

[Hawawaa]

Nice steam sale going on, Sots 2 10$ and Sots 1 & 2 20$ http://store.steampowered.com/app/42990/

Expansion 9 days!

[Hawawaa]

Ok they are starting to feed us details,

2 New leviathan classes...Invasion and SuperHeavy Transport. Both can act as command ships but at reduced ability from standard LV's.

New admiral traits

New ship attributes

Everyone gets new Heavy missile sections for dreads, cruisers and platforms.

And as mentioned, the ability to give fleet based orders as opposed to just objective based.

Super transport carries defense assets, up to and including asteroid monitors - (this is dread version too but I don't know if this is new in the expansion or been there and never tried)

Cybernetics tree...Jaeger missiles...with AI control dubious, heavy ship missiles run with the grafted brains of hunting animals as their control core. Just launch and watch them hunt.

And then there are cerebro-energetic enhancer modules that take psi adepts and hook them up to power amplification systems.

More coming...

The free expansion will come out tomorrow around 1pm eastern and yes it will break saves.

[Hawawaa]

Here is the new manual for this expansion- http://www.kerberos-productions.com/sot ... 301112.pdf

[Hawawaa]

AI is doing better as in multiplayer when I take over them they aint in debt. They are starting to try to be evil in single. Its getting better. Also lots of tweaks and rebalancing happened so getting use to the game again.

The Loa are pretty sweet. Transmutable fleets is awesome (turn fleets into cubes). They are middle of the pack for speed FTL (they are a gate race) and I believe they are top 3 for combat speed. Bio weapons don't work on you and your ships can't be boarded. Your ships are expensive, but you have great turret #s, accuracy, and coverage. Armor sucks but your structure is #1. Their econ is different and you can't drop below 0 or your research stops. You can grow planet populations faster than anyone else (this is tricky). Planets with low biosphere and stars with low solar activity help them grow faster. They can setup shop almost anywhere except gas giants. They can't field the biggest fleets on offense. No Psionics or cybernetics for them. Only 1 tech to grab for biotech. Oh ya emp weapons mess you up. Also you go ballistics but your made of wise clay and shooting bits of yourself at your enemy isn't the smartest idea. Also Supply doesn't hurt you as much as the other races.


The additions to the mission system is now you can click on fleets directly and give mission orders directly "fleet based missions". Exception is station building (needs 3 more little additions and its good). What Major stress said is true but I have gotten use to it, multiplayer can be mean... Also evacuation mission type is in. Get your people to safety and to other worlds when hits the fan.

Love all the new admiral types.

Hunter- faster ships in pursuit mode.

Defender- increase rate of fire on defense in your systems but decrease in enemy owned systems.

Attacker- Opposite of Defender...

Artillery Expert- in Stand off mode increase in rate of fire.

Psion- 20% more psionic points.

Skeptic- -20% psionic points.

Media Hero- Every victory battle +1 morale on all colonies but -6 to all colonies if this admiral dies.

Gloryhound- on defense 20% ROF but 50% more casualties on planets.

Sherman- on attack enemy planets do double damage to population and infrastructure. -2 diplo hit to all other empires as long as this admiral commands a fleet.

Technophobe- fleet suffers reduced reaction role against Loa but +ROF against them.

Elite- Repair critical hits 100% faster but 50% upkeep costs.



Pirates have a home system (watch out for all the damn boarding pods). New grands to make you piss yourself. I'm sure there is other things I haven't found yet...



Lots of new toys to play with, AP stormers aka Rippers, tracking Proton Torpedos, new tracking burst torpedo (fusion and antimatter), emp drones, phantom missiles. Also upgrades to make drones and BR last longer before redocking. New ship modules, lots of new psionic powers, 2 new Levis invasion and super heavy transports. New heavy missile platform and missile heavy mission section. Mechaempathy- better industry and the ability to control missiles and drones! (also better gunner tracking on missiles and drones). Jaeger missiles- put brains in heavy missiles and let them do the tracking down of targets. Intangibility is back. Replicants for 30% increase in pop growth rate.


If you need someone to help you hit enter, global chat. Even in single player pop your questions and most likely someone will help you. There is a second chat for your own multiplayer games too. We had 600+ people in chat on Saturday. Good stuff. Yes it can be distracting so you can just close it too. (click global to make it stop blinking) Also devs are in there time to time. Their names are in bold.

Did I forget to mention End of Flesh is free.

[Hawawaa]

Oh this just in someone will be posting more videos on breaking the game down! Thank Rorschach-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GEqT_ISUbc

Also Sots Complete (1&2) $5 http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DDB-SOTSC/s ... ion-bundle

[Hawawaa]

Rorschach- Strategic Map
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=481364

[Hertston]

As a token of appreciation and “thank you” for their patience, Paradox Interactive will arrange for existing Sword of the Stars II owners to receive “End of Flesh” for free on release.

"Token of appreciation" my arse. They'd have had a lynch mob of those existing players torching their office if they had charged for it. Of course, this free 'DLC' had nothing to do with relaunching the game for a second crack now they are somewhat closer to actually finishing it, did it? [8|]

As for Kickstarter, NOBODY who bought SotS 2 on release can be that stupid, can they?!

[Hawawaa]

Rorschach- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spreNyeID-I This covers economics, trade, mining, colony development, morale, economic rating, and government.

My LP will be a Tarka LP and it will start in 6-9 days.

Hertston- End of Flesh a full expansion which is free and they did release all immersion skins DLCs for free too. Also The Pit kickstarter has a alpha demo for everyone to try.

[Wolfe1759]

ORIGINAL: Hawawaa
Also The Pit kickstarter has a alpha demo for everyone to try.

They also released an alpha demo of SOTS2 - no wait a minute that was them actually releasing the game [:)]