>>1783566
>I feel like I suck at it
it's an old game that doesn't hold your hand, it do be like that until you 'get it'
>struggling to keep up with the AI in tech and resources
are you expanding quickly enough? are you building TRADE SHIPS? fucking trade can end up being half your total income, so don't slack there
>as Human I always do terribly
remember, humans are fast
meaning, on most maps you can and should spread like a plague
tankers, scouts, colonizers, send everything everywhere, aggressively
getting that early advantage is important, and humans excel at it
always have a scout or two a few jumps away from your current territory, as early warnings
when colonizing, send as many colony ships as you can, but keep in mind that you don't have to plop them all at once- you can 'colonize' an already inhabited world and it will still receive the little pop/industry/terraforming boost
humans can also rush very well iirc, but I've never done it
>Should I be overharvesting?
only in emergencies desu
I don't use it either
>I don't think the AI does though.
the zuul do

play on easy for a while, getting accustomed to a race's 'tempo' can be tricky if the AI is knocking at your door nonstop

>>1783566
Are you playing the early game right? You don't build explorers. You build a swarm of fuel tankers and explore with them. They can reach further than explorers and I think are maybe cheaper, but can't remember. Gives you more opportunities early. Other than that, just keep expanding and learn what technologies are good.

>>1783716
Human ships are just so filmsy. It's less bad once you get your heavy lasers but you're still made of paper and if they breach your formation or get dreadnaughts before you then it's hell. They feel really gimmicky.
Yeah I always send many colony ships it really gives a huge boost. When the rng tech tree decides to not give you biome colonizers it's total shit though.
The zuul don't get a choice about overharvesting but it was when I played them and decided fuck it I'll crack it up for initial colonization that I found it made a huge difference. Finishing infrastructure in 8 turns instead of 20 is massive even for a small resources drop.
It's not that I can't bat off the AI it's just that they always seem ahead of me in basically everything and I'm constantly fighting them.
>>1783725
Tankers are more expensive than extended range but they are way better so yeah I use them. Moreover you can recycle them and use them just as tankers for colony ships and stuff whereas scouts are worthless.

>>1783861
>Human ships are just so filmsy.
I mean everyone is, in the early game at least
have you tried going all out on missiles and PD and just kiting until you get armor and shields?
>I'm constantly fighting them.
yeah that seems to be the 'theme' in sots
if you don't get peace early, and you can't get that if you demolish a bunch of AI ships and planets first, you're almost locked in for nonstop war
also important point, try not to fall for noobtraps that only work for certain races, like drones or boarders or node missiles
invasion modules are cool and all, but just bombing planets to dust and then recolonizing them can be cheaper
and on the topic of bombing, learn which weapons damage environment, and which ones damage infrastructure- you can end up with an uninhabitable world if you overuse some
and again the most important bit of advice, trade trade trade
research it and max it out as soon as your planets are somewhat developed

>>1783872
Other races are tougher. Iirc Hivers and Zuul are tanky whereas Humans and Liir are squishy with Tarkas somewhere in the middle. Not sure about the birds. The race diversity really is the highlight of sots it's impressive how in spite of a pretty barebones economy and broadly the same ship classes they manage to be so massively distinct.
I usually just kill planets with heavy lasers. Honestly, heavy lasers seem like a good solution to everything. I can win battles it's just a constant uphill struggle where I'm outnumbered and outgunned but can actually use a formation. My usual tech path is waldo units > gene mod > suspended animation > cybernetic interface and then either cruisers, expert systems, or pulsed fission depending on the situation which is all totally economy focused but I still lag behind. I used to aggressively colonize everything but now I aim for <30k upkeep until later.

From what I remember:
>Humans are some of the quirkiest and not that easy to play, I didn't like their broadside-oriented firing arcs in particular and their reliance on node paths, they are fast though
>Tarka have beastly forward sections, no major gimmicks, their ships are slow on strategic map but catch up quickly in engine tech, cheap cruisers
>Liir are delicate and slow in combat initially, but their specialized hulls (Blazer, Bio War, Impactor, etc.) have a lot of special mounts, their small colony ships (but not as small as Tarkasian) actually do a bit of terraforming
>Hivers are slow on strategic map, but fast in combat, their ships have lots of weapon mounts with broad firing arcs, their gates (make sure to drop them everywhere) let you produce ships wherever you want and assemble fleets at any point instantly, they're more fun in scenarios where you start with Fusion and/or Cruiser tech
>Zuul are so much fun, they start with two planets, cheap ships, cheap and big colonizers (bigger than Hivers' and Morrigi's), dreadnought slaving runs boost your planets a lot (instant terraforming ftw), Xenotechs improve slave survivability, but their ships are weaker (especially if they don't get armor techs and Point Defence) and they lack in tech that they may or may not salvage later on (better salvage rates than other races)
>Morrigi have better drones or whatever - I didn't use them much, they earn more but also spend more, trade routes are set up faster

>>1783872
>noobtraps that only work for certain races, like drones
Morrigi, my love.

Seriously though the dragonbirbs are my favorite race.
>arguably the worst early game
>multiple glaring weaknesses besides that (shit armor, shit bioweapon defense, weak against commerce raids)
>but if you have the chance to get your shit in order, you're basically God

>>1783890
>Morrigi have better drones or whatever - I didn't use them much, they earn more but also spend more, trade routes are set up faster
Morrigi have a shit early game due to getting lower income from planets and their ships being expansive and honestly not that great until they get Dreadnoughts. Most races can completely crush the Morrigi early on if they choose to dedicate enough resources to it. Zuul are basically a hard counter to Morrigi if played right, a well-executed Zuul Cruiser rush will 100% beat any Morrigi strategy. Tarka, Humans, and Hivers also have a significant early-game advantage. Only the Liir might have some issues, but then the Liir are great at biological warfare while the Morrigi can barely figure out vaccines.
But the have solid expansion abilities, the best stations, great research (especially if you're brave enough to fuck with AI technology), basically guaranteed full access to laser and shield techs, great (and easier to set up) trade income, their Dreadnoughts are among the best in the game (and compared to their other ships, surprisingly cheap), and their fleets get better as they grow larger, so they're ideally suited to turtling up until they're strong enough to wreck everyone's shit in the lategame.

>>1783884
>constant uphill struggle where I'm outnumbered and outgunned
yeah, you're doing something wrong then
when colonizing, does upkeep take more than half of your budget? try to keep it at 40-50% at best, depending on the map
>heavy lasers seem like a good solution to everything
I dunno, their damage kinda falls off once AI starts upgrading
I tried experimenting all sorts of loadouts but usually fall into plasma torp/cannons and snipers if you can get them
laser PD in all small slots ofc
but going all in on missiles in the early game can be worth it, especially with humans or liir

>>1783895
>Morrigi, my love.
based birb enjoyer
had a nasty campaign once, against an AI that decided to go balls deep on carriers
first and only time that I had to build PD sections

>>1784506
It depends, at the start no but there might be periods where I aggressively colonize like when a "no fun allowed" peacekeeper decides to show up. I usually aim for <30k upkeep at the start and then once my economy is rolling mostly select for location and trade. Honestly, I don't think it's usually more than 30%.
Even in the very late game I've found a few ships with lots of lancers or even blazers can take down an equally sized ship in one volley. Maybe I just like that it's a single devastating burst of damage but it's good for focus firing. Their relatively long range is great for getting the first blow too. I've never used plasma projectors and not least because the dice roll for tech is too much for me to want to commit. I usually pray for phasers and in no small part because I think they look cool.
I've always wanted to like torpedoes but I just have no success with them. Photon torpedoes seem to do nothing and plasma torps get shot down.

>>1784646
>plasma projectors
Very similar to DF Racks but potentially more powerful, especially up close vs large ships. They look like hard-mounted forward-facing weapons but they have a bit of a swivel to them.
>photon torpedoes
I don't get them either. They're supposed to be more accurate and powerful than sniper cannons but just aren't. I guess having to turn the whole ship to fire makes it hard for them to track targets reliably. There's also prone to dealing friendly fire.
I like accurate weapons with decent range myself. Armor Piercing Mass Drivers and Chakkars tend to outdamage everything else I install.

>>1784646
I've never liked projectors unless I have the energy absorber tech. That shit is hilarious against things like lancers.

As humans, I try to check of I have emitter tech. Getting medium emitters and then cruisers is basically a win. If I don't have that, I check if I have point defense or shields. If not then I fall back on deflectors and railguns. I occasionally missile spam if I have the higher level missile techs and phaser/point defense missiles don't exist.

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This thread made me start a new game. Humans, 8 AIs (all races and 3x Zuul), normal. This game is hardcore and its nothing bad that youre struggling - AI can be devastating. UI is hard to read and it will take some time before you learn to play. Tip for battles - Theres is physics engine at works and typical real world tactics can and will work! Experiment. Anyway, looks like I am kinda cucked now.

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I am fighting Pink Zuul for like 50 turns already and they do kick my ass. Somehow they keep with me in technology (I only started losing battles recently when they pumped out all out fusion missile cruisers, no pd i have can stop this spam) even if they seem to have 13 systems and i have over 50. Also I got AI rebellion, loaded save and researched ai virus first, but no slaves for me this time ; / I am currently trying to stop the locusts with disruptor/armor/fusion cruisers with phasers and gauss pd. In a turn I will get Interceptors and try to implement them on disruptor/pointdef build. Targeted planet on overharvest does 10 cruisers a turn and I still have some time.

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Anyway, thats how your Systems Tab should look around turn 100. You can and should have even more trade - I lost like 800k because locusts destabilize one of my core trade regions. Also while Locusts parade sublight through my empire I am fighting a three sides war - Pink Zuul to my galactic North, Hivers to the East and Liir in the West, however the last one seem to leave me alone for now - and that tanked my research and econ in last 30 turns

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Heres the map. I have thousands of hours in this game and I still cant really dominate the AI as humans. I do better with Liir, but Morrigi seem to be the easiest to play for me, they get the best chances overall in tech tree.

About arming your ships:
- get PD asap, in first 30 turns. It will help you immensely. AI likes to spam missiles and lots of early game Menaces are drone-like. Gauss PD does more dmg, laser pd has longer range. Best pd in the game is phaser pd, but its best to mix it, because they do work better on some targets than others.
- missiles are potent, research cheap and often passive, meaning it upgrades already existing ships. Also planets shoot missiles and benefit from that research. Do not ignore them.
- Torpedoes and heavy beams are great against dreadnaughts. For smaller enemies, torpedoes are slow (but still potent if spammed) and beams miss a lot.
In the first 25 turns nothing will attack you. Focus on getting one small slot weapon and one medium slot weapon, maybe first armor tech or reflective alloys. Also Cnc tech. Then design a cnc destroyer, armor destroyer with close combat weapons, armor destroyer with missiles (sniper guns work great in small slots here) and something else if you want - remember to experiment, almost everything is viable. Then build defense fleet on every planet you own - 6-10 destroyers is cheap and will stop a von neumann attack, even if they will be eaten, the probes wont steal resources from the planet. Dont kill the mothership.
- early game you should scout like crazy, and after getting those few techs and setting up defenses you should absolutely focus on colonising everything you can. But be mindful of your economy - I target for like 100-200k colony upkeep early game, not more. You need to build ships and research or you will lag behind. Later if you expanded properly and did set up trade your econ can take whatever you want.

Also, I ignore diplomacy in this game and never research any xenotechs.

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Welp. Gotta love the RNG.

>>1783895
>Drones are noobtrap
Drones are epic. Theyre point defense saturator, not damage dealer. Use them together with mass missile spam and watch how enemies shit their pants. Now throw in some fusion torps.


>>1783884
>Zuul are tanky

Zuul ships are the weakest armor wise, together with Liir. But Zuul get War sections for free and every Zuul section sports more and larger mounts than other races.

this game is awesome but very clunky at times
I remember multiplayer games always shitting themselves in combat after a time

>>1784646
hey if heavies work well for you, great but
>Their relatively long range
I wouldn't really call it long, as you only have enough range to let off one burst safely before you get into a knife fight
>plasma projectors
I meant cannons, both the single and the multi barrel variants
but you're and other anons are right, projectors are far too situational and are only useful against large targets and sieges (and monsters)
>I usually pray for phasers and in no small part because I think they look cool
can't blame you there lol, they have both lightshow and accuracy
kinda low in damage though
as for torpedoes, absolutely disregard unguided ones, they tend to have great side effects like penning shields or restarting weapon reloads, but they rarely hit anything
fusion/AM torps actually deal more damage the farther they travel so they're great for sieges (and support ships in general), and detonating ones trade a little damage for AOE
try them out, they're worth it when used well (and hit harder than beams)

About the photon torpedoes being inaccurate I think I remember reading that they're bugged.

If your favorite weapon isn't kinetic kill missiles you ain't my nigga.

>>1787392
A cultured pick. A nice volley of these could stagger a dreadnought and send it adrift for like half a minute. Otherwise other heavy-mount weapons are disappointing to use.

>>1787392
but impactors are immune to PD

>>1787392
If I wanna move ships I use heavy stormers or thumpers or tractor/graviton beams while spinning.

>>1787441
These are good too with all the upgrades and watching a volley of them just stop a dread from moving. I also like using that thing that turns engines off so ships go flying past.

>>1783895
>Zuul are hard counter to Morrigy
Makes sense from the lore POV
Anyway, besides the atrocious start, I always hated the look of the birbnaughts, specifically how different they are from their cruisers
>Morrigy can barely figure out vaccines
Must be AI being AI, since according to the tech tree, birbs usually have second best odds for vaccine rolls, after space fish

>>1785161
I can’t think of much with longer range besides missiles and torpedoes. SotS isn’t really a long range game half the time the ai is trying to ram me. I’m only keeping them at arms length if I have absolutely crushing odds in my favor.
The accuracy of phasers is something I love yeah. You can snipe all the heavy slots on a dreadnaught to weaken it easily with a bit of micro.

I’ve finally had a fairly good game as Tarkas. I set research and economy efficiency to 50% because I think there are too many ships anyway. Ironically, I didn’t even get suspended animation but I think that’s part of why I’ve done better than normal. I chose my initial colonies much further away but also much better quality because I knew poor colonies would be much harder to support with terrible colonizers. Tarkas have good starting engines and I prioritized them so I didn’t have a hard time spreading out a lot. I’ve had to use so many colonizers everywhere especially in the later game when I decided to settle the 500+ hazard worlds in my territory. Even 30 colonizers was just 900 pop and even with 30 infrastructure they couldn’t get off the ground. I’ve well ahead as the number one empire in everything besides tech by around turn 300 when the galaxy is filled and I’m spamming trade stations. The only thing I’m worried about is that Liir started on the complete other side from me and by the time I get to them they will be teched out. I should be able to just spam so many ships they can’t hold on though.
My tech really isn’t great though. Besides the essentials like cnc, ship classes, and power I have barely anything. I got lucky and got phasers from particle beam during fusion but they are my only weapon besides t1 heavy beams, fusion missiles (my early game), and point defence. I know I set the efficiency to 50% but I’m definitely behind everyone besides Hiver who I think I have about parity with. Both the remaining Humans and Liir are ahead of me.

>>1788837
so what's the problem then? if you aren't engaged in all out war, hunker down, develop remaining colonies, and put everything you have into research?
if you are satisfied with your territory, then the landgrab phase of the game is over and you need to build up
fortify, optimize your trade networks, you know the drill
if that's the case, don't spam low tech ships that you don't need

Anyone tried COL memes?

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>>1788837
as Tarka you have good chances for balistics and armor techs. With both you will rape Liir in the ass.

You shouldnt really support colonies so much with colonizers. Yeah, it does help, but it doesnt make sense to pump 50 in every planet. Tech the colony techs up and just let the world work itself out, go further, colonise next planets. Planets with 500+H are for endgame when there are no other planets left or when you are swimming in dosh.

If youre lagging behind (you can actually see your position in the ranking if you click upper right) invest in your economy hard. Like, fucking stop research for 20 turns and go all the way in trade. You will get those 20 turns back later when youre rich.

You dont have parity with the Hivers. Their armor bonuses mean on the same tech lvl one of their ships will kill two or three of yours, especially early game when you dont really have much to close the gap (shields or armor techs). Thats on auto fighting. Leading ships yourself you can better the odds. Thing is, you cant even kite the Hivers, because their ships are the fastest.

>>1789907
I did (I am the guy from posts above about playing humans and meeting locusts). Theyre shit. At best very situational. You can throw a Wild Weasel or a ball of mines or drones in the middle of enemy formation.

I started game as Zuul now and my tech tree is crazy. I have phasers, nanite missiles, lancers, energy absorbers, even shields mk IV xD Lack of tech is like the only thing balancing Zuul against other races

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>>1788837
Also you can load your game and on the screen showing all players you can load yourself up as AI and look how theyre doing or what theyre researched. Some may call that cheating, but whatever, its a singleplayer game and youre learning.

If youre playing on normal, AI can do very well or very bad at times. If it gets boxed in with bad planets for example. But most of the time, you can espect normal AIs going fusion between turn 80-150 and antimatter around turn 180-220. Cruisers and dreadnaughts get researched before energy techs. Of course weak Zuul AI can stay fission even to turn 300 if its unlucky and no one eliminates it. But you dont have to be very afraid. AI on normal does not max out its trade, so if you do it, and you have similiar amounts of planets, most of the time your econ will be stronger. Dont be fooled by first few fleets AI throws at you - often it doesnt have much more and attacks quickly get weaker and unfrequent. Of course, if you let it, it will build itself up and try to break through. It tends to focus itself on few planets (often just on one), trying to take them no matter the price. If you get an enemy scout on one of your planets, there is fat chance it will be attacked in near future.

Anyway, pic related is how I feel about SotS 2. I will never stop.

One of the things I like about the game is that, when you first meet a race, if you don't fire on them in the tactical map they probably won't fire on you. Eventually they do after a few encounters, but you can use whatever time you get to prepare new ships based on what you see during the initial meetings.

>>1790055
What are "shields mk IV xD"?

>>1790069
>there is fat chance
Fat chance (no chance) or fair chance(decent chance)

>>1790123
>he never saw tier 4 shields
deflectorlets need not reply

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>>1790128
We are not all native english speakers. In my language, fat chance actually does mean a large chance for something to happen We use word "fat" as "a lot" often. Sorry for misunderstanding,

>>1790123
Only shields worth using, of course together with Shield Magnifiers and Quantum something tech above antimatter. They make your cruisers very tanky and are hard to counter (Shield Breakers work, but they take a heavy slot and you still have a cruiser to fight).

Shields MK IV and energy absorbers are you to go tools when youre fighting a Grand Menace like Locusts or Von Neumann Homeworld.

If you ever fought against Zuul, you surely noticed that even if you have gigantic research advantage their ships have so many guns that they do manage to cause you loses. On same tech lvl, Zuul ships are strongest in the game, I would say, together with Hiver ones. But theyre polar oposites - Zuul are very fast and very shooty, and Hiver are very fast and very well armored.

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Thats the map of my current game. Yellow and Violet are my allies and you may think this makes my game easier, but thats false. Zuul AIs tend to be weaker and lag behind - they seem to not make a very good use of their FLT Drive. As you can see, Yellow did not advance into the galactic core at all. I am actively keeping 3 DN Fleet on the border with green Liir just to keep my allies from getting overrun.
I destroyed humans already, thats why I have second spiral arm. Zuul are really overpowered if you know what youre doing. If you have Mega-Strip Mining tech, you can (for a modest price of around 700 Resources) terraform a 700 hazard world in ONE FUCKING TURN.

or do 6 Dreadnaughts. As you overharvest all the time even if you dont want to, your gaming philosophy changes. Youre not playing an empire that holds territory. You are a Wave. You take planets, scour them dry pumping out fleets like crazy and leave them behind. If enemy takes them, let them have their fun trying to terraform worlds with 0 Resources. AI will colonize all of them and bog their econ completely.

Anyway, I thought I have this situation under control. I just have seen my allies engaging a Hiver fleet with 21 Dreadnaughts in it. I think I may be fucked.

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Oh, you thought thats over with how overpowered Zuul are? Behold: Slavery!

How do you do slavery, you ask? Very easily. Just treat your slaver fleets like assault shuttles that you have to bring back home after action to drop off your lovely workers. They will die off eventually, but with xenotechs you can get deathrate as low as 3%! Thats just like covid!

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Oh, you thought were over? Behold: Boarding pods!

What do we see on this image? Why, its a Deflector/Blazer/Antimatter Flickerwarp Liir Dreadnaught, armed to the teeth with cutting beams and antimatter cannons. I boarded it and now its mine. Contrary to tech definition, boarded ships are mobile and behave just like allies. As Zuul, you get Boarding Pods guaranteed and even your R&S, Command and Refinery ships get some.

If boarded ship survives to the end of the battle, you get salvage rolls of it with greatly increased chances. I have lancers and fusion cannons, that means I will get antimatter cannons or cutting beams almost guaranteed after this battle. Or something else I have a link to.

When using boarding pods you have to take care that theyre drone-type target that flies slowly and in a line to their target. That means theyre very easy to shot down. Bog your enemy in a furball, launching torpedoes and missiles in knife range - thats your moment to use boarding pods. But do not wait too long, as they can and will be shot off the sides of your cruisers.

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LOOK AT THAT AND WEEP. How to do it?

I come to a world first with a war fleet spawned in. If theres no opposition (or after I crushed it) i send all war ships to the backline and spawn 4 Slaver DNs. I dont even move them, just send the slave discs out. Theyre fast and most of the time they will kill the planet, so nothing will shoot at them coming back. Then I colonize the planet and drop off slaves exactly where I took them from. In one turn this planet will have its own defense fleet and will make few biome colonisers to send behind the slavers already on the way to their next target.

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Anyway, sorry for making this thread such a diary, but well, no one posts anything and I really want this thread to stay up. I love this game to the death and its so niche, almost no one knows it.

>>1790572
>>1790575
>>1790596
>>1790609
jfc how does this work against another player
>>1790615
post more I love this
better to discuss an old classic than ANOTHER hoi4 mod

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>>1790664
of course a player is not so stupid as an AI and will try to stop you. But if you have orbital superiority, they really cant do anything. I would expect a player to send everything he has to the world thats attacked.... But that takes time. And if it is like this, you dont have to stay at all. You can just fuck off and go back the node line you came, taking all those pops with you. Youre not so fast as humans, but its not like anyone can intercept you in Node Space. Humans can, but AI never does and your ships have more dakka anyway. AI is not able to intercept me at all, and I wouldnt expect a player to be able to do much other than fortify all his planets and try to wrestle orbital superiority (or never let you have it) back from you.

>>1790664
I dont have more, unfortunately. But you will find a lot of this shit on /gif.

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There is one way to counter Zuul. Their resources are finite. Yours arent. If you manage to withstand their aggression (which will get worse with time, as they cause you losses they will get salvage off you and research your tech), there are just so many ships they can pump out off a planet. Zuul are really dependent on conquering new planets all the time. If theyre forced to sit on their ass, their planets without slaves are a lot worse than any other race. They cant trade and sweat off resources all the time.

>>1790676
>I dont have more, unfortunately. But you will find a lot of this shit on /gif.
I meant the sots diary/AAR lol

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>>1790754
oh (lol)

Actually I got a bit bored, because theres not much more to do as Zuul than repeat the above 200 times until all the stars are under my control. So i tried to cause AI rebellion to make a save, which I could then load as any other race and have fun with late antimatter apocalyptic scenario. Also Hiver Dreadnaughts proved to be exactly as scary as I thought and started breaking through all my worlds in galactic center with me barely being able to save some of the planets. Farcasters give you like 2 turns of forewarning and 20 hiver dreadnaughts is not something you can get ready for in this time. Or like fucking ever, late antimatter hivers are a nightmare to deal with.

It got even more hilarious. Game spawned a Von Neumann Homeworld right off my homeworld (its visible on a screenshot above as a faint point exactly in galactic southwest, near the end of spiral arm). I tried to attack it and failed miserably (exactly on the same turn as I caused AI rebellion) and game decided thats not enough and spawned Von Neumann World Destroyer right on the end of the spiral arm I took from the humans.

Soo... It seems to be a fun save to load as any other race. Probably Hiver because with their dozens of antimatter dreadnoughts they seem to have the best chances. I can upload this save somewhere if you want; I will probably play further later.

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this could have been an amazing series, but the devs were leftycel retards who struck gold once and fumbled it completely by poorly organizing their development. Missing every single deadline which pissed off publisher who forced them to release the catastrophe known as Sword of the Stars 2.

the same devs are now making sad little card games and pixelart RPG's.

Which is a great pity, I loved the whole idea of NASA-aesthetic humanity, the fact that each race had unique FTL travel and background story of humanity going on a genocidal crusade of vengeance against a bug-race that actually consists of many factions, of which just one invaded earth and the rest had no idea humanity existed until the first nuclear warheads entered their atmospheres.

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>>1790805
It could have been the 4x of the decade. At least. If they would just not fuck it up. But they did. And they did it all the way.

Theres still a great game there under. I am actually getting a new PC next week and wanted to try getting SoTS 2 to run, maybe with some mod patches, I never tried them. But I will never pay them for this game, I have a pirate copy, so I am not sure it will work.

I dont think kerberos productions ever made any other good game. Its like SotS was their only hit.I tried playing The Pit and its an agony.

>>1790539
>>1790302
I know "mk IV", but what is "mk IV xD"?

>>1790783
fuck it, plop it on dropbox or wherever and post a link
now I have to reinstall sots, fuck
>>1790919
sidegrade of mk4 shields that throw 2009 emojis at your enemies if they fail to pierce them

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https://www.dropbox.com/t/ng1yPVtVQlQVHA5B

Those are all my saves, the one as humans above too, if you want to play around. If AI rebellion is not spawned and you want it, just hop into Gray Zuul and throw all your money into boost research, you will get AI rebellion next turn. I hope it works, never really used dropbox.


>>1790919
You have to be really great at parties, but you also probably heard that already, didnt you?

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>>1790960
Also, I hope you know what youre getting into. AI Rebellions are not to be trifled with. You are not going to win this scenario.

>>1791017
>AI Rebellions are not to be trifled with
oh I know
I had exactly ONE rebellion happen wayyy back when the game came out and I'm still traumatized

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>>1791104
I am actually a no-fun and I always saved before researching AI like a pussy.
Anyway, in this save:
- If you jump as Morrigi, you will get to see the World Destroyer, but you also have a giant fusion age slaver fleet with tip right in your very tender core worlds, like 5 lightyears away from your homeworld. If AI wont fuck it up, this fleet is incredibly dangerous - even if those are all 150+ turns old designs, they all play to the max of Zuul strengths, so expect tons of boarding pods, giant missile spam, emp torpedoes and harpoons.
-- If you load as Tarka, youre sandwiched and almost completely destroyed by Liir and Hiver, not sure if its salvageable.
- If you load as Hiver, you have a large and stable late antimatter empire with a lot of trade to optimize. Probably the best situation.
- If you load as Liir, youre probably the most powerful empire on the map. Ranked second are Morrigi, but they wont hold this title for long.
AI Rebellion took all the worlds I had in the Galactic Center, which means its surrounded from all sides. Also diplomacy is disabled and its free for all, except for Zuul, which are all in one team.
Resourced and World Size max because I like the carnage

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So like I said, I started the save further as other empire. I loaded Hivers. Looking at the Colonies Tab, it doesnt exactly look very impressive for turn 267. 1.6 mil fleet upkeep? What the hell?

Oh. AI built Repair stations on almost every planet. There are two science stations and two trade station, but everything else, all planets, just repair stations.
So thats what it did for almost 300 turns. Great. Theres also like a 500 ships as escorts in trade regions, which is useless. Raiders are random and even if you get one of your ships together with your freighters when youre attacked, it will be swarmed by 8 raider ships and quickly disabled. Just swallow it and count the money like a high class prostitute you are. Its worth it.

So first thing first, we gotta wrestle the control back from the AI. I deleted all designs, made my own, and send all old fleets to their death or decomission. Why, you ask? Because they have completely random names and I dont have the energy to check every ship when I am trying to build a fleet. Also AI designs. Deep Scan/Armor brawler, great. Surely this Deep Scan is very useful in a furball. I have around 200 cruisers like this.

Also, all those stations have to go. I turned off research and were modernising, all the money will go into trade. We need to make more money, thats always the first priority, as everything else in this game is just throwing money at things.

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>>1791017
>picrel
bruh

yeah that's a proper mess, but the human game is surprisingly clean
and you delivered on beam boats lol
I wish 300 stars on a 3d map didn't make me so dizzy, i usually play 2d or spiral with a smaller amount, to make the center more 'flat', otherwise my smoothbrain ass gets disoriented

>>1791726
Yeah, i gave myself a little headstart. I did not play this game for years and never as Zuul. I thought with all the maluses to research AI will very quickly catch up with me, but it didnt until like turn 250. I couldve get where I am without it - it would just involve a lot more missile spam. AI cannot defend itself against well organised missile fleet and nanite missiles nullify any and all research advantage for the AI - it shoots down the missiles and flies through the clouds anyway.

Also you will get used fast to 3d maps if you play them. The key is to rotate the map a lot so your brain recognises the 3d space and not only 2d image on the monitor. Real 3d maps are very unique thing and I find playing on 2d taking away a lot from the game.

>>1792092
>The key is to rotate the map
believe it or not, I'm generally good with all things spatial, but sots eludes me, even with axis turned on
>playing on 2d taking away a lot from the game
fully agree, we really need more 3d space games
I'd say that it needs a more prominent skybox... or not, as it could obscure actual colonies
maybe I'm just too lazy to explore an 80+ colony empire and find out what is where
also, maxed out civilian pops? doesn't that ruin your industry in the long term?

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tfw sword of the stars 1 & 2 modding scene will never revive

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>>1792137
>pic rel

>>1792131
Im not sure how to explain, for me it just clicked one day.

>also, maxed out civilian pops? doesn't that ruin your industry in the long term?

Well, you can play SotS twofold. You can treat every planet as a potential industrial world if circumstances require it, and just leave it at 50%. Its nothing wrong with it.

Or you can specialise your worlds. I tend to choose few 8+ well positioned planets to be my forge/fortress worlds (its great if its a planet that AI likes to attack too), mine out uncolonisable planets and drop ore there. But most of the time I am too lazy to do it with more fleets than just one and just the homeworld.

All other planets are trade planets. On them, I build a defense fleet, 10 destroyers is enough for random menaces most of the time, closer to the front they get cruisers or even DNs. Then max the civ pops and trade. I build everything I need on Forgeworlds anyway and you need strong Industrial planet to build a DN fleet in any sensible amount of time. Those planets wont get empty before the end of the game and they will always have enough IO to build an emergency Dreadnaught or two.

I dont even remember if income from more pops is more than lost IO. I think it is. I played a lot second game (sadly) and I dont really remember whats mechanics in which one - for example, I i was sure Zuul have a tech in xenotech tree that generates slaves automatically on their planet. I think that was in second game.

>>1792137
be the change you want to see anon
i think sots2 is unrecoverable ngl people did try but the ui is so garbage
the most i ever did was mod the tech tree dice rolls but i don’t think it would be hard to add new techs by just reusing assets

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>>1792173
UI is playable, you just have to accept some strange design decisions. I remember flamewars about those decisions on forums, but there always was a legion of fucked up cultists shutting off all and every discussion.

Like the mission system - I am conflicted myself about it. I get what they tried to do, to simulate logistics, but its just so stiff. Its kinda like control scheme in first Gothic game - either you accept it or you can never live with it.

Whats the reall problem with SoTS 2 is thats its completely unstable. I never managed to play any game further than turn 150. AI makes some fucked up design that crashes the game and you get repeatable crash the turn it gets build. I could live with many things if the game was possible to play, but it isnt. Its always such a shitty feel when it happens to you. You can try to find that design, load the game as AI and delete it, but have fun going through all the designs. And then 10 turns later it happens again.

They never patched up the AI too. It will send 3 fleets after you and then bankrupt itself by setting empire sliders completely random.

Also Loa are bugged and fucked up beyond any recognition. Shitty cashgrab race.

>>1792171
Does maxing civilian pops make your worlds go red and ugly?

I started a game as Morrigi and it feels like cheating. Their ships are frail and slow tactically but besides that they have every advantage. I’m taking out Zuul and Human fleets 10x my size at the start when I’m supposed to be a slow race and Zuul are fast. I don’t know if it’s just that the AI can’t handle drones but I don’t even have point defence yet and I’m not sure what they could do to stop me just dispersing and flying away and harrying them while they slowly catch me.
My assault shuttles seem brutally effective too are Morrigi ones better?

>>1792180
when i have to play for hundreds of turns it taking like 4 clicks to issue a simple move order isn’t acceptable
the game is just a chore where everything takes too long
i remember the instability but i usually give games a pass for that because i assume it will eventually get fixed although i doubt sots2 did; i do remember hearing that kerberos kept patching it for years but i have no idea if it accomplished anything or was even true

there’s just no good part to the game which sots1 doesn’t do anyway
it had too many ideas and they all end up just being flaws and it is a huge shame because sots1 is legendary and imo still stands up as bis 4x world building done very subtly and woven expertly into the gameplay: whereas other games will just dump paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition in your face and have superficial differences or simple leading % modifiers sots imposes almost none of that and bares out the racial characteristics in their playstyles organically through engines and subtly through ship designs, costs, and revenues which is particularly remarkable given the simplicity of the economy

>>1790805
That was even worse as at the time paradox publisher QC was just relating on Devs word and mecron and that erynie bitch was telling them it's just fine.

>>1792171
huh, apparently I do some mix of both
dedicate some forge/fortress worlds and dump ore there, but leave everything else 'stable' just in case, while filling out trade slots
does having all those little defense fleets not bloat your upkeep? I generally avoid building garrisons, just drop obsolete ships there and call it a day

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>>1792482
no wonder almost all publishers excommunicated kerberos

>start new game
>first terraformed colony gets annihilated by specters
sure, why not throw in a herald or two

>>1792958
It was shitshow. Paaracucks quality control get reformed after that because before it was relying on "trust me bro" from devs. Mecron&co really fucked it up and then lied with straight face. Heck in their forum they even rewrited what happened - last time it was evil conspiracy by paradox or something

>>1783566
Are stormers any good early/mid game?
I'm trying to experiment with weapons I rarely use but I don't see them doing that much damage to ships
Mounted them on a pair of war chassis cruisers and they did delete a planet pretty quickly though

>>1793787
i think it's cool how they push ships and if you break their engine then they just drift off for minutes

Should I get the first one or the second one?

>>1793865
2nd one was never finished, get 1 and all expansions

>>1794057
2nd one has jamaican AI's though. That's enough reason to pick it up.

>>1794060
>jamaican AI's though
what

>>1794103
The loa

>>1794121
the whatnow

>>1794156
Haitian.
Specifically they are inspired by spirits of the voodoo religion
My lore-fu is a bit rusty but IIRC the AI's from canonical in-universe AI rebellion basically ran to some remote location where they then created a new faction.

>>1795411
they went from zuul and morrigi to... that?
no wonder the series fucking died

>>1796232
>they went from space islam and space jews to...
Yes?

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Obligatory tech tree post

>>1793787
The thing about kinetics is they have crazy raw dps but bounce off armor doing no damage. Stormers are this taken to the extreme, because they fire a burst of undersized rounds with less penetration. Even the first level of armor makes them worthless like gauss cannons, while regular drivers can still somewhat work. Those struggle with accuracy instead, unless you have a fire cotrol section.

They totally ruin unarmored ships though. Either in early game, or midgame against Zuul who have bad access to armor and often have to salvage it.

>>1796732
i've never once done any xenotech techs besides translate zuul for war sections
it amazes me that even after years of playing this game on and off there are aa bunch of techs, besides xenotech, which i've never taken or even seen

>>1796745
Well the main line gives you a better chance to salvage their tech, and they can surrender to you, either at a planet level of the whole player. Saves a lot of time if you're already winning so you can move onto other enemies. Also it's needed for diplomacy and lets you trade if allied. The stuff on top is just a gimmick, you can have a few more civilians on your planets if they're from a different race.

>lower the battle timer
>game is suddenly a lot more fun

>>1797178
desu not getting demolished by menaces every time and getting to fight multi stage sieges and battles does sound more fun
>>1796732
>fire cotrol section
I often forget those are a thing
could running fire control/ballistics be generally better than shield/deflector or pure combat sections with more accurate weapons?

>>1797816
Drivers have better range than plasma or beams, once they can actually land a hit. And concentrated fire pushes enemies away, often completely out of the fight so you end up with a numbers advantage. But the fire control section is fragile. You're better off giving movement orders manually and not rushing into melee like the AI does.

>>1797178
It does mess with the balance a bit. Less time to destroy a Hiver gate before infinite reinforcements show up. Bigger defender's advantage, when fewer ships die per turn you can just keep producing new ones and never lose. Less time to blow up VN berserker, planet killer, herald, etc before they do their thing and/or leave.

>battle timrr5
I've never played battles in this game despite having ~50 hours or more

>>1799474
It's one of the few things this game has going for it vs other space 4Xs. Plus supporting features like the randomized research tree full of sidegrades and ship designer with 3D firing arcs. Also the unique FTL per faction, and the pve against menaces.

But colony management is non-existent, trade is just "spam trade ships", diplomacy is a joke, strategic resources don't exist, no unique planets or locations and so on.

>>1799472
It's a balance. 10 minute battles are long but the game has no unlimited battles so obviously draws are intended.

>>1783566
The tutorial guy says this game only shines in multiplayer. Is this true?

>>1799757
No, read the thread. Lots of people enjoy the singleplayer. Certainly, it would be better in multiplayer but it's still fun outside of that and good luck playing multiplayer today. You would probably have to directly connect to the host via ip.
>>1799474
It's literally the highlight of the game.

>>1799757
Nope. Never played MP and had tons of fun.

>>1799478
>Also the unique FTL per faction
it didn't make much sense in case of piracy tho

>>1805416
how did piracy even work?

>>1797178
It helps the AI a lot too because they tend to start streaming ships piecemeal after their first wave is lost and you can kill an obscene number of enemy ships that way. Shortening the timer so combat is roughly concluded by the end of the first 'wave' both helps the AI preserve its ships and helps avoiding colonies incidentally gaining +700 climate hazard from collateral damage in a fight.

>>1805633
i find it helps me and favours small fleets a lot more because you have much more opportunity to repair whereas in protracted engagements many weaker ships can much more easily wear you down

>>1805566
Take ships and put them in the enemy trade sector and sometimes they will attack enemy freighters even if they can only travel sub-light speeds while the freighters use phase lanes