From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
Published on February 1, 2008 By Zoomba In Sins Developer Journals

This is the chat log from the February 1st Developer chat in #sins on irc.stardock.com.  I've cleaned up the log for readability and to remove extra bits like join/leave messages etc.  I've also grouped responses by question as things were jumbled a few times during the chat.


Session Start: Fri Feb 01 20:01:21 2008
<SD-Zoomba> Welcome everyone to the Sins of a Solar Empire Developer Chat
<SD-Zoomba> To start with, lets go around the chat and let everyone from IC and SD introduce themselves
<SD-Zoomba> This chat is moderated by the way, all questions should be asked in #sins_questions
<fiftyfive> haha i was just geting jse80 to op me but yarlen was too quick
<SD-Frogboy> Ironclad guys should go first.  It's their game.
<SD-Frogboy> I simply take credit for it.
<Blair> lol
<SD-Frogboy> As is my purpose.
<Blair> My name Blair, I work on Sins.
<Blair> hehe
<SD-Zoomba> Sounds like a support group
<IC-Spish> Jamie, I too work on Sins
<IC-BulletSponge> Hi everyone I'm Steve Mackay, Lead Designer on Sins
<SD-Frogboy> Yay!
<SD-Frogboy> Okay, and now for Stardock. I'll go first.
<fiftyfive> hi, im Allan, im an artist at ironclad.
<jse80> Hi guys.. im Ed Sarabia and im one of the artists at IC
<SD-Frogboy> I'm Brad Wardell. I work at Stardock I worked on Sins.
<SD-Frogboy> Mostly incorporating the updated Hot Coffee mods into it.
<SD-ID>
<SD-Yarlen> I'm Brian Clair, I've been working on Sins for the past year doing various stuff.
<SD-Frogboy> Okay, let's go ahead and get this started.
<IC> Hi Craig Fraser here, Creative Director for Ironclad
<SD-Zoomba> I'm Mike Crassweller.  I helped with testing, forums, feedback etc.
<SD-Frogboy> Zoomba, want to ask the first question?
<SD-Zoomba> Sure thing

<SD-Zoomba> <xnode> Looking in the past phases of development, if there was one thing you could have had more time to work on what would have it been? With that, is there in consideration to adress this issue further in later released patches and or expansions?
<SD-Frogboy> Sounds like a good Blair question.
<IC-Craig> More character portraits, and random events
<IC-Blair> AI and particle effects. and both have major updates planned. more npc stuff for sure too.
<IC-Craig> we have more planet bonuses, and artifacts in mind as well

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad> "Will Sins have a way to watch games live as they happen, or later as replays?"
<SD-Frogboy> Yes.
<SD-Frogboy> Sins supports observation modes
<SD-Frogboy> and replays.
<SD-Frogboy> Down the line, we hope to have some tournaments and such which these would be useful for.
<IC-Spish> You can watch games currently by surrendering at the start.

<SD-Zoomba> <Astax> What inspired the early look for TEC ships.  You know where the ships looked like space garbage trucks
<IC-Craig> garbage trucks
<SD-Frogboy> Space garbage trucks.
<IC-BulletSponge>
<IC-Blair> lol
<SD-Yarlen> Garbage scows.
<IC-Craig> Obviously we dont live in a vacumn, so the look of the TEC is certainly influenced by general sci-fi culture.  We wanted to have something that looks believeable, functional, and industrial..
<IC-Craig> to draw out the contrast with more aesthetic oriented Advent and the agressive Vasari look
<SD-Frogboy> They look a little bit like the EArth Alliance ships from Babylon 5 to me.
<SD-Frogboy> I really like the look.

<SD-Zoomba> <Annatar> - The recent Dev Blog talked about the much anticipated Fleet mechanic. How is this different from the traditional RTS control groups and do you expect that players will find it easy to use it, given that control groups have been a staple of RTS gaming for many years?
<IC-Blair> first, control groups are still there and work as they always did
<IC-Blair> its different because a fleet contains behavior information, its not just an user interface shortcut. repair and flak ships will stay with the fleet and do what they are supposed to do without runngin all over the place
<IC-Blair> i think, like most features in sins, its pretty easy to use. you select your ships and click the "create fleet" button. done.
<IC-Blair> it also works pretty seamlessly with control groups (e.g i can control group my fleets for easy access) so i don't expect any conflicts.

<SD-Zoomba> <Schod> When/why was the switch made to a solid fleet cap? why was this done?
<SD-Frogboy> Solid fleet cap?
<SD-Frogboy> What does that mean?
<SD-Frogboy> As in a hard limit to the # of units?
<SD-Zoomba> I think he's talking about how there's a maximum fleet size
<SD-kryo> Research for fixed amounts of supply, rather than scaled with galaxy size.
<SD-kryo> (as in beta via planets)
<SD-mittens> Solid fleet cap:  not done by planets increasing it, but by research (i. e. in beta you get so many points per planet supposedly thats been scrapped)
<IC-Spish> steve will answer the design reasons for why the hard fleet cap is there, but just wanted to point out this value is easily modable, the engine has no hard cap.
<SD-Frogboy> It was made to clean up the game mechanic and to make it easier to balance the game.
<IC-BulletSponge> Fleet supply was changed from a per planet investment to a research investment to help solve the problem of winning players having an unavoidable 'power potential' advantage over players with fewer planets
<SD-Frogboy> Plus, there's the issue of wanting to have a better control over the # of ships in a given game.
<SD-Frogboy> In Total Annihilation, some players with higher end system woudl swarm lots of cheap units onto the screen to bog down their opponents.
<SD-Frogboy> Users can, however, modify the number of units themselves if they want to in the settings file.

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad> "how exactly does trade (income) work?  Is it influenced by population?"
<IC-Blair> just like settlers of catan!
<IC-Craig> The longest 'road' concept was borrowed from a great german boardgame ...yes thanks b
<IC-BulletSponge> Trade ports produce credits over time simply by being built.  That amount can be increased by certain planet bonuses
<IC-BulletSponge> like the others have been hinting at, building trade ports at adjacent planets provides a multiplicative bonus for all trade ports in your empire, and the size of this bonus is proportional to the length of that longest path

<SD-Zoomba> <Alaric101> can you send a fleet through an enemy gravity well and launch an attack on another planet via the one you jumped to, eg from planet A to planet C you have to go through planet B an enemy planet to attack planet C also an enemy planet
<IC-Blair> yes you can bypass enemy planets to hit enemy planets further in (if i undesrtand it correctly)
<SD-Frogboy> You still have to go through the plaents though
<IC-Blair> yep
<SD-Frogboy> You can't just skip planet B when going from A->B->C

<SD-Zoomba> <Serian> Were there previous games or concepts that influenced your decision on creating a game that had such a large - scale?
<IC-Blair> buck rogers!!!!
<IC-Blair> the old board game
<SD-Yarlen> lol
<IC-Craig> great game
<IC-Blair> TSR special
<IC-Blair> basically any 4x games too
<IC-Craig> VGA planets
<IC-Blair> the imagined scale in those always captured my imagination - we wanted to see those massive fleets actually out there fighting and bombing planets from orbit
<IC-Blair> not just a stack of 2d icons with a number on them
<IC-Spish> we wanted to see if we could make something no one else had done before

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad> "Auto download of maps - will new maps automaticly be shared between players?"
<IC-Spish> not currently
<IC-Spish> but in-game designed ones will
<IC-Spish> (the random ones)
<IC-Blair> there is a great new tool called Map Designer that allows you to set the parameters for your random galaxy and this will automaticaly be shared with other players.

<SD-Zoomba> <Orsan> Will it be possible to mod sins to not have phase lanes? (i think it' can't be done but...)
<IC-Spish> no

<SD-Zoomba> <Annatar> We used to talk about how cool it'd be to have sort of a "persistant universe" where Multiplayer Sins games between various clans could be played out for control of space. If there is community support after the game's release, would seeing this system be a possibility somewhere down the road?
<IC-BulletSponge> too many systems rely on phase lanes to work properly, like culture
<IC-Craig> This is something we have discussed casually
<IC-Spish> that is a cool idea, we have discussed it internally
<IC-Craig> Really, we are going to listen to our community and see what THEY want
<IC-Blair> we love the idea, it really comes down what other competing cool ideas are floating around and what kind of support there is for it. it'd be quite a bit of work and if only a small % of players are going to use it, it woudln't be worth it. we wan't everyone to benefit. so convince your friends
<IC-Fiftyfive> it sounds like a neat idea

<SD-Zoomba> <Multianna> Now that we know the game dont have a campaign, can we expect to see something in the future and if so, what kind "campaign" have went thru your wonderful minds
<IC-Blair> We are floating around some pretty cool ideas to bring all our lore and story to life. Now that the core sins experience is ready for prime time, we can put the neccessary resources into doing it properly should be decide that is the best route for the next phase of sins.
<IC-Blair> should we*
<IC-Blair> i can't give any details on the ideas of how we'd like to see it done sorry

<SD-Zoomba> <Jurfop> I use XP, does your game use any DX10 features I will miss out on?
<IC-Spish> not currently
<IC-Blair> nope. we believe in maximum capability and dx10 isn't in the majority at the moment.

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad> Modding - can u give us some more details about the modding tools we will get and how easy it will be to include a mod ingame ?
<IC-Craig> Oh...exciting....on the basic level, anyone can pick up Galaxy forge and start mapping out their own universe!
<IC-Spish> we will provide all of our data files in easy to read text along with tutorials on how to add new races, ships, abilities, research subjects, skin, meshes, effects, etc.
<IC-Blair> Galaxy Forge (design your own galaxy), text files of all the data, data formats, instructions, Mesh Forge, Particle Forge, possibly a conversion tool and most importantly - just raw information you would normally never get or spedn months uncovering.
<SD-Frogboy> This is one of the reasons why the whole "no campaign" is a bit of a non-issue. Because the Galaxy Forge and other scenario creation tools that come with the game are so much better for creating an epic single player experience IMO.
<IC-Craig> I would also like to add that we will be providing PSD templates for some artwork that you otherwise wouldn't have access to
<IC-Craig> for example,  scenario map pictures frames
<IC-Spish> getting new galaxies created by galaxy forge in game is just requires copying the file into the appropriate directory and it will show up automagically
<IC-Blair> Getting a mod in game is very easy now. placing the files in the mod directory will get picked up automatically in game and you choose which one to activate.

<SD-Zoomba> <hezekiah> I'm an avid GalCiv II player who enjoys playing single player games against deviously smart AI.  What kind of strategic AI (not tactical unit AI) improvements would you still like to see that you haven't already gotten into Sins version 1.0?  Also, will Brad be helping with any of the AI coding?
<SD-Zoomba> For those who have joined us recently.  If you want to ask any questions, join #sins_questions
<IC-Spish> Brad is too busy putting more Hot Coffee mods into the game
<IC-Blair> Oh that's a big one. Really we want to see what kinds of strategies players start using and then we will mimick them.
<SD-Frogboy> I give them feedback on game mechanics and strategies (like siege frigate fun heheh).
<IC-Blair> Brad and the rest of stardock are always giving us suggestions and there is no shortage of AI ideas too but they aren't involved in the game coding.
<IC-Blair> oh the siege frigates...
<IC-Craig> To feel the full single player experience you really need to play with many AI....the diplomacy can be very entertaining
<IC-Craig> Varying the AI personalities will give you a very difference experience

<SD-Zoomba> <lordkosc> Will more civilian traffic be added to the game in terms of inter planet travel / inter star system travel?
<IC-Blair> there was supposed to be more, we'll get it eventually. so yes, we want the universe to come even more to life.
<IC-Spish> things get pretty busy already with refinery ships and trade ships in the late game
<IC-Blair> yeah it looks pretty awesome and very city in space like

<SD-Zoomba> This is a question that's been asked a lot: What is your single favorite feature?
<IC-Spish> space ponies of course
<SD-Frogboy> Yea, it almost looks like a Simcity in space late game with all the civilian ships going about their business.
<SD-mittens> I asked that to Blair last night.
<SD-Frogboy> My favorite feature: the unit AI.
<IC-Blair> the scale of the game and despite the scale its incredably easy to get around, navigate and explore.
<ICJosie> culture cannon
<SD-Yarlen> for sure
<IC-Fiftyfive> lvl 6 capital ship abilitys
<IC-Craig> Having the environment change dynamically between systems...without waiting for a loadbar
<IC-BulletSponge> ship abilities in general and teh potential for synergy between them
<IC-Fiftyfive> and the zoom ofcourse
<SD-Frogboy> I mean seriously, how many of you guys have played an RTS and seen your peon sit there and get killed? In Sins, your peon would go get help and come back and kick the guy's butt and you wouldn't even have to be involved.
<IC-jse80> the scale the the incredible zoom
<SD-Zoomba> The zoom is my favorite part
<SD-mittens> The scale.
<IC-Spish> Empire Tree and going between epic battles on completely different planets across the system instantly
<IC-jse80> it shows the power of the Iron Engine
<SD-Frogboy> Yea, I love clicking on an individual fighter and watching him battle it out. It's like watching the end of Return of the Jedi.
<IC-Craig> placing bounty on blair...oh sorry...already voted
<ICJosie> the music!
<IC-jse80> good one craig
<IC-Fiftyfive> I love deciding which way im going to climb up the research tree
<SD-Zoomba> Oh, the pirates are fun... aren't they Frogboy?
<IC-Blair> there is a great you tube video of following a bomber in combat - its awesome!
<SD-Frogboy> Zoomba is a bad person.
<SD-Yarlen> lol
<IC-Blair> yeah the bounty system is a lot of psychological fun
<SD-Yarlen> Long live the bounty!
<SD-Yarlen>
<SD-Zoomba> lol
<SD-Frogboy> The empire tree is going to be the feature that we see in future games I bet.
<SD-Frogboy> And we'll know it started with Sins.
<IC-Blair> hehe

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad>  Community support - are there any additional plans to support the community? For example a library like the one for GalCiv or a section on the official page dealing with community news and websites
<SD-Frogboy> heh, when I first played Sins, I immediately said "What? No mini map. Ya gotta have a mini map" but then once you play the game, you realize that the mini map is an old relic in a game liek this.
<SD-Frogboy> There's going to be a upload gallery.
<SD-Frogboy> In fact, it's already up.
<SD-Frogboy> just not publicized on Sins yet.
<SD-Zoomba> You'll be able to submit maps, mods and game replays for others to download on day-one
<SD-Frogboy> Sins mods gallery: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=71
<SD-Frogboy> Maps:  https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=70
<SD-Frogboy> (eventually it'll be skinned to look like the rest of Sins)
<SD-Zoomba> There will be information on the site walking you through how to upload and download the content

<SD-Zoomba> <cyxs> What is your best memory when working on Sins(Not counting it going gold)?
<IC-Spish> seeing space ponies for the first time
<IC-Blair> My favorite moment is the first time Sins was played by people outside of Stardock/Ironclad. The response to beta 1 was great and inspired us to take it to the next level. Its difficult to imagine working on something for so long without any outside feedback and having no idea if its 'cool 
<IC-Craig> Reading the 'what do a like about Sins' threat    Usually I am driven by perfection alone...but once in a while its nice to hear from others who play
<SD-Frogboy> Personally, I want the game to come out so I can start playing online more.
<SD-Frogboy> I've been playing it single player for months.
<SD-Frogboy> I'm ready to play other people.
<SD-Frogboy> and by people I mean non-zoomba people who don't secretly gang up on you from the first moment you start the game.
<SD-mittens> Frogboy and I still have to have an epic 1v1 battle.
<SD-Frogboy> It wouldn't be very epic.
<IC-Blair> i agree - i want to see if anyone can take on the IC folk Perhaps in our little bubble we aren't so hot and you guys will school us into hacking in cheats for ourselves
<SD-Zoomba> I'll be honest, my favorite moment was playing the first internal alpha build Ironclad gave us.  It was really obvious immediately how awesome the game was going to be, even back then
<SD-Frogboy> I dunno.
<SD-Frogboy> No mini-map...
<SD-Zoomba> The mini-map is a crutch... embrace the empire tree!
<IC-BulletSponge> There was a short period well before beta 1 where we had the luxury of enough time to try out some experimental ideas. I felt the the gameplay really solidified as a result of that
<SD-Yarlen> I noticed greatness immediately. I have mad game skillz.
<SD-Frogboy> and no campaign. I mean, how can it not have a campaign? I mean, why can't it be like normal games where it has a long tedious campaign and then you get say 8 pre-canned maps to play forever? Don't they know how this is supposed to be done?
<fiftyfive> watching the game progress each week was very exciting
<IC-Spish> looking back at old screen shots from previous years is always fun
<fiftyfive> hahaha, yeah
<SD-Frogboy> Here is a Sins Game Play Example btw: http://tgnforums.stardock.com/?aid=174326
<IC-Blair> we should release some of those spish
<SD-Frogboy> heh.
<SD-Zoomba> I have an alpha CD sitting around here somewhere....
<IC-Blair> NOOO!!!
* IC-Blair is embarassed.
<IC-jse80>
haha i think hatem still has an old old old copy of the game
<IC-Spish> kind of like the difference between pong and super mario galaxy
<SD-Zoomba> The "Whack a Mole" version
<IC-Blair> lol
<IC-Craig> I think the game took a more intimate turn when the portraits and 4X features/screens were added...that was exciting for me


<SD-Zoomba> Another commonly asked question: What is your favorite ship?
<IC-Fiftyfive> hmmmmmmmmm
<IC-Blair> , I’m I’ll about planet suckin’. I love when the Vasari’s Jarrasul Evacuator (aka the floating mega city) powers up its Drain Planet and you watch all the debris fly up from the surface into its gaping maw in a giant, swirling, vortex of destruction.
<SD-Yarlen> That's a tough one...
<SD-mittens> KODIAK HEAVY CRUISER.
<SD-Zoomba> The Kol Battleship.  The new version of it was just 7 different kinds of awesome.  And who can't love a ship with four giant laser beams that shoot from the nose?
<IC-Craig> The poor construction frigate...what the hell would be do without him?
<IC-jse80> i like strikecraft so i almost always go for the Advent carrier =D
<IC-Blair> lol
<SD-Yarlen> I like the Kol model the most, but I really love the Vasari marauder
<IC-Fiftyfive> yeah, i would probably say the kol because i spend the most time on it hehe
<IC-Blair> yeah, portable phase stabilizer is pretty sweet
<IC-jse80> such an upgrade from the last kol hehe
<IC-Spish> good old reliable kol
<IC-Spish> can't go wrong
<IC-Craig> I love the aesthetic of the Advent tradeship, and cruiser carrier
<SD-mittens> The Advent style is pretty amazing overall.
<IC-BulletSponge> I'm a big fan of the Marza dreadnought, the voice talent really captured the spirit of the ship imo
<SD-Yarlen> All the Advent ships are very graceful and quite beautiful (plus deadly)
<IC-Blair> GIMMEE SOMTHING TO BOMB!
<IC-Blair> TIME TO KICK SOME ASS!
<SD-mittens> I like the TEC scout ship. Its voice talent is frightening and intimidating.
<IC-Craig> The dobson brothers were wonderfulll---plug for them

<SD-Zoomba> <Jurfop> Sins looks great, I can hardly wait to play it. When is the earliest I can play the download version? On the retail release date of Feb 4th?
<SD-Frogboy> Feb 4
<SD-Frogboy> Late in the day EST.
<SD-Frogboy> We'll be waiting.

<SD-Zoomba> <lordkosc> Are there any more plans for use of the Sun / Antimatter?
<IC-Blair> Nothing explicit but we are considering ideas for the next phase.
<IC-Blair> I agree completely that the stars should play a more prominent role
<IC-Spish> think big!
<IC-Blair> very big

<SD-Zoomba> <Thrawn2787> Will pirate fleets be proportional now? In the betas a 15,000 credit bounty would send the same size fleet as a 70,000 credit bounty
<SD-Frogboy> Isn't there always a point of diminishing returns?
<SD-Frogboy> I mean, there are only so many pirates.
<IC-BulletSponge> Pirates fleets already scale proportional to bounty and planet ownership and trade activity, but given that player fleets have an upper limit in fleet supply, it makes sense to have the pirates cap out at some size too
* SD-Yarlen whistles innocently

<SD-Zoomba> <Leinad> can you tell us something about the new ICO Lobby, like does it have a ladder, player stats and so on?
<IC-Spish> lots of new stuff for tracking players (friends). one click to join their game or channel
<IC-Spish> filtering on game searches
<IC-Spish> view stats on players (win/loss/ping/etc)
<IC-Spish> some of the main things, it will be continually evolving
<IC-Blair> lots of new stuff, joining friends, sorting games by various criteria but in terms of stats you can only see a win/loss ratio. lots of stats are tracked however and the plan is to put up a website that will give you more comprehensive access to this.
<IC-Craig> We hope to get lots of feedback from you
<IC-Spish> the flow was been refined as well, from login->playing a game

<SD-Zoomba> <SDC_Guest2> Followup modding question - will more basic aspects of the game be moddable - for example, custom victory conditions, number of starting planets (0 to many?), number and type of starting units?
<IC-Spish> victory conditions=no, all starting conditions=yes
<IC-Blair> not victory condnitions but galaxy forge and Map designer have the other one covered.
<IC-Spish> most can do in galaxy forge, no explicit modding required

<SD-Zoomba> <RonLugge> You mentioned putting more screens in the new "underground" window, what are you planning to add
<IC-Blair> Sorry, can't answer this one at this time.
<IC-Spish> space pony breeding
<IC-Blair> hahaha
<IC-Blair> (in case you are wondering its illegal in the sins universe so that's why its in the underground)

<SD-Zoomba> That leads in well to... <itchy> [QUESTION] are there any easter eggs we should hunt for?
<IC-Blair> yes
<IC-Blair> next
<IC-Fiftyfive> rofl
<SD-Zoomba> lol

<SD-Zoomba> <[MH]Swiffle> can teammates control each others units?
<IC-Blair> no, but you can see their orders and there are smart pings to help coordinate
<IC-Spish> not currently, we are still discussing that one

<SD-Zoomba> <Frosty> what kind of formations can we expect through fleet management, if any at all?
<IC-Blair> the formation system is controlled by a data value for each unit that says whether it should be more towards the front or rear (carriers in the rear, heavies in front for example). the overall shape is controlled automatically. with fleets you control the leader, the cohesion range and the auto engagement range and
<IC-Blair> and oops. next question

<SD-Zoomba> <Smirnov> Will we be able to load our own DLLs for the modding? So we can write mods for Sins using a native programming language such as C++ ?
<IC-Spish> no
<IC-Blair> however the ability system is very powerful and flexible - its almost a programming language in itself. you can accomplish a lot with it.
<IC-Blair> its really the core of a lot of the game. we'll be helping teach how to use it as well.

<SD-Zoomba> <eetmorsqrls> what exactly does culture do?
<IC-BulletSponge> culture increases allegiance for friendly planets and decreases it for hostile ones. If allegiance falls to 0%, the planet becomes neutral
<IC-Craig> For those new to the game, culture spreading is represented by player- colored line segments that fill up the phase lanes that connect planets.  You can see the lines slowly growing as your culture spreads across the solar system.
<IC-BulletSponge> additionally, culture confers combat bonuses proportional to the amount of culture on all adjacent connections for all friendly ships fighting at that planet. For example, Vasari fighting in their own culture recieve a damage bonus
<IC-Blair> there are also various side effects of culture if you are a certain faction (aside from the unit bonuses steve mentionned)
<IC-Blair> you can read about these detailed ones on the research topics in game.

<SD-Zoomba> <Jurfop> If I buy the game with tokens, do I get the collectors edition, or normal?
<IC-Spish> SD?
<SD-Yarlen> You'll get the CE goodies via download
<SD-Yarlen> Basically, if you buy the game from Stardock, you're getting the Collector's Edition.

<SD-Zoomba> <ZzZ_Guy> Once a player in a online match has been replaced with a AI, can that player come back and reclaim his spot?
<IC-Spish> yes, if you restart the game
<IC-Blair> not unless you save, quite and reload
<IC-Blair> quit*
<IC-Spish> you can save and restart at anytime

<SD-Zoomba> <lordkosc> Why is that none of the structures in the game have any shields ?
<IC-Blair> the vasari have phasic barriers
<IC-Blair> shields require high powered antimatter reactors which are also need for phase jumps. structures don't need this and have higher armor HP instead (extra mass, don't need to move)

<SD-Zoomba> Any integration with Stardock Central/Impulse for mod tallation/management/update planned?
<IC-Spish> not yet
<SD-Yarlen> I don't think so.
<IC-Spish> good idea though
<SD-Yarlen> Maybe in the future, however.

<SD-Zoomba> Alright.  We're about ready to wrap it up here.  We'll cap it off with one final question.
<SD-Zoomba> Advent, Vasari, or TEC?  Which is your favorite to play?
<IC-Craig> TEC,  I am all about building a trade empire!
<IC-Josie> advent
<IC-Blair> TEC!!!
<IC-jse80> Advent!
<IC-BulletSponge> Toss up between Advent and Vasari for me
<SD-Yarlen> Advent for the coolness
<IC-Blair> Vasari for me when i want to embarass someone by resource drainging their last planet. SCHOOLED!
<IC-Fiftyfive> depends on my mood
<SD-Zoomba> TEC, I am an economic fool... plus I love the planetary shields.  It appeals to my turtling instincts!
<IC-Fiftyfive> right now i kind of feel vasari
<IC-Blair> though i must admit, you have to LOVE the Advent voices!
<IC-Craig> oh yeah
<SD-Yarlen> hawt

<SD-Zoomba> Thank you to everyone for attending tonight's chat.  Thank you to everyone at Ironclad and Stardock for coming out and to everyone else for all the great questions.  We're all looking forward to everyone getting their hands on the game come next week.  Remember, we're always on the forums answering questions there too.
<SD-Frogboy> See you next week!
<SD-Zoomba> A cleaned-up chat log will be posted tonight/tomorrow morning on the official Sins Site
<SD-Zoomba> For the Unity!
<SD-Yarlen> Thanks for stopping by.
<IC-Blair> thanks guys, can't wait to play you all online!

Session Close: Fri Feb 01 21:19:34 2008


Comments (Page 1)
3 Pages1 2 3 
on Feb 01, 2008
Phew...we made it out alive!
on Feb 01, 2008
Thanks again guys and gals for dropping in to chat, it was fun! We had a TS session on the side, added some good comedy too (Poor Yarlen)
on Feb 01, 2008
You guys were more of the question askers.
on Feb 02, 2008

Phew...we made it out alive!


Not yet you haven't... ./chomp chomp!
on Feb 02, 2008
It won't be long until the game is released and I can finally find out what your cryptic hints about the Advent actually mean!
on Feb 02, 2008
Thanks for posting the transcript guys. My Internet connection died on me half way through it.
on Feb 02, 2008
I second that Wedge, I didn't get home in time for it.   
on Feb 02, 2008
Phew...we made it out alive!


Lucky you, i had to sleep.... otherwise ...

--------------------------------
SINS de deutsche Seite
SINS bz english site
Zweite deutsche Seite
Deutsche Wiki zu SoaSE
Sins Wiki on Wikepedia
on Feb 02, 2008
Nice log. It was rather informative.

Speaking of which on a related idea, as some of you may know I have a 30 person Ventrilo server that I run for ModCraft.net and our up coming ClansofSin.com domains so if you guys want to do a VoIP chat session individually, as a team or group please let me know. Moreover it would be real nice to have a series of sessions with a focus on different aspects of development. I think it would be a real boon for the community and very fun to boot since we have a lot of aspiring developers already involved and apparently many more to join from a couple different schools after the release.
on Feb 02, 2008
It was EPIC
on Feb 02, 2008
yeah, i wanna hear blair on vent
on Feb 02, 2008
Bumpage!
on Feb 02, 2008
All the hints for future expansions...yummy. So much to do...must...take laptop to work!
on Feb 02, 2008
Blair.... its called the WHALE SHIP!!!!!!!
on Feb 02, 2008
Hmm, im no modder, so why not put a unit cap button (low/high/higher/highest) in the game creation menu? I cant imagine the game working fine on small maps and larger maps with the same unit cap limit. (
3 Pages1 2 3