To whom it may concern,
I am writing to encourage the further development of Sword of the Stars 2 (SotS2). I am aware of the less than ideal release and have visited the developers forums and read back into your forums here. I've also conducted Google searches to get Paradox public releases and such like.
I'm not here to place blame and I'm not here to dictate your business to you.
To whit: I'm just a gamer, I don't make games...but I want to ensure that you guys know what you and the developers are sitting on here because I routinely run into players of the game who fail to understand how much potential this engine has to do truly new things in computer strategy gaming.
SotS2 has at least 3 revolutionary features that I am aware of that are just waiting to come out and reinvigorate this genre:
1 A simulated population that thinks for itself, if the player lets it, and does all sorts of interesting things on its own. Frankly, this feature alone is enough to change the way people play this kind of game. The fact that my "people" will colonize a random star system near the enemy without asking my permission unless I take steps to restrain them is a feature that should have been in this kind of game years ago. It adds replayability, realism, and a deeper sense of leading a civilization vice manipulating a spreadsheet than any other computer wargame I've ever played.
2. Government type chosen by player action. Even Sid Meier hasn't done this. There is more to a government choice than a radio button and paying some kind of penalty. The player has to work at it. This both adds another level of strategy to the game and increases player immersion/involvement by investing them in the "civilization" they're leading.
3. A ship to ship combat model with armor, structure, and components mapped in 3D, all targetable by player action or even by the AI. This makes the tactical battle game alone better than 90% of the dedicated titles in that admittedly limited genre. I've played space tactical wargames since 1982. They are my favorite type of game hands down. SotS2's tactical engine is probably the most playable I've ever seen. I prefer it to the Homeworld series, honestly...because the SotS2 ships make sense.
And I'm not even trying very hard here. I could find more.
Look, I'll admit ignorance of the market conditions under which games like SotS2 have to compete...maybe I'm wrong and there is no business case. But I cannot believe that games like Sins of a Solar Empire and SotS 1 have done more than whet the appetite of a fan base that wishes someone would take the next leap. From reading the dev forums it looks like the companies involved are sitting and waiting instead of taking that leap. I do NOT pretend to understand why and I'm NOT writing to tell you your business.
I am writing because I think it is possible that you as a publishing house might not realize how potentially revolutionary this game is. I say that because I continuously run into players that don't recognize what this engine can do. The reason that they cannot is that the game's user interface and documentation are not as polished and easy to use as in the previous title. So the player doesn't really know that his civilians are going to surprise him from time to time. She cannot see her choices affecting her government type in the cool little "news" picture + text popups the previous game used. The diplomatic model isn't providing the nuanced feedback that the first title's did...so its improvements are also not readily apparent to the player.
If the team could just get it to the same level of interface ease of use that SotS1 had when it was done, document all the features both in the manual and finish the excellent ingame encyclopedia, if the right kind of public outreach occurred from a developer and a publisher that both know how to do that, and if a stream of new content could be built on this engine, I am certain that this game could sell a lot more units over a very long period of time.
I'm serious: you guys beat Sid Meier to the punch in a 4x title. You've got to follow up on that!
v/r
BW
I am writing to encourage the further development of Sword of the Stars 2 (SotS2). I am aware of the less than ideal release and have visited the developers forums and read back into your forums here. I've also conducted Google searches to get Paradox public releases and such like.
I'm not here to place blame and I'm not here to dictate your business to you.
To whit: I'm just a gamer, I don't make games...but I want to ensure that you guys know what you and the developers are sitting on here because I routinely run into players of the game who fail to understand how much potential this engine has to do truly new things in computer strategy gaming.
SotS2 has at least 3 revolutionary features that I am aware of that are just waiting to come out and reinvigorate this genre:
1 A simulated population that thinks for itself, if the player lets it, and does all sorts of interesting things on its own. Frankly, this feature alone is enough to change the way people play this kind of game. The fact that my "people" will colonize a random star system near the enemy without asking my permission unless I take steps to restrain them is a feature that should have been in this kind of game years ago. It adds replayability, realism, and a deeper sense of leading a civilization vice manipulating a spreadsheet than any other computer wargame I've ever played.
2. Government type chosen by player action. Even Sid Meier hasn't done this. There is more to a government choice than a radio button and paying some kind of penalty. The player has to work at it. This both adds another level of strategy to the game and increases player immersion/involvement by investing them in the "civilization" they're leading.
3. A ship to ship combat model with armor, structure, and components mapped in 3D, all targetable by player action or even by the AI. This makes the tactical battle game alone better than 90% of the dedicated titles in that admittedly limited genre. I've played space tactical wargames since 1982. They are my favorite type of game hands down. SotS2's tactical engine is probably the most playable I've ever seen. I prefer it to the Homeworld series, honestly...because the SotS2 ships make sense.
And I'm not even trying very hard here. I could find more.
Look, I'll admit ignorance of the market conditions under which games like SotS2 have to compete...maybe I'm wrong and there is no business case. But I cannot believe that games like Sins of a Solar Empire and SotS 1 have done more than whet the appetite of a fan base that wishes someone would take the next leap. From reading the dev forums it looks like the companies involved are sitting and waiting instead of taking that leap. I do NOT pretend to understand why and I'm NOT writing to tell you your business.
I am writing because I think it is possible that you as a publishing house might not realize how potentially revolutionary this game is. I say that because I continuously run into players that don't recognize what this engine can do. The reason that they cannot is that the game's user interface and documentation are not as polished and easy to use as in the previous title. So the player doesn't really know that his civilians are going to surprise him from time to time. She cannot see her choices affecting her government type in the cool little "news" picture + text popups the previous game used. The diplomatic model isn't providing the nuanced feedback that the first title's did...so its improvements are also not readily apparent to the player.
If the team could just get it to the same level of interface ease of use that SotS1 had when it was done, document all the features both in the manual and finish the excellent ingame encyclopedia, if the right kind of public outreach occurred from a developer and a publisher that both know how to do that, and if a stream of new content could be built on this engine, I am certain that this game could sell a lot more units over a very long period of time.
I'm serious: you guys beat Sid Meier to the punch in a 4x title. You've got to follow up on that!
v/r
BW
