Vast, Procedurally Generated Galaxies

   * Choose however many systems you desire; you are limited only by the speed of your cpu
   * Rich, diverse, planets whose type, size, number of moons, and other characteristics vary
   * Full 3D too much to handle? Flatten maps for ease of interaction
   * Alter the Galaxy throughout the game with advanced technology


Intricate Ship Design and Exciting Combat

   * Massive ship battles fought in real-time with particle effects and directional damage
   * Ships whose individual components can be compromised, destroyed, disabled, repaired, and renovated
   * Ships depend on key components to keep functioning, and failures can lead to catastrophic explosions which can turn the tide of battle
   * Add components that modify the behavior of connected components, such as added health from bulkheads, or faster firing from coolant systems
   * Save and load your custom ships and settings to your profile for easy importation and exportation.
   * Fully simulated newtonian physics

Unique Research System

   * Unique Web-Like Research system with unexpected discoveries around every turn
   * Choose between a structured, static web, or a highly varied web each game
   * Develop technologies that lead to different strategies, rather than simply better tools


Easy to use interface, complex gameplay

   * Govern your planets with a simple yet powerful interface to customize the behavior of your worlds
   * Numerous easy-to-use interfaces which provide quick solutions to specific problems
   * Customize the GUI via scripting; add new windows, or change pre-existing interface behavior


Engaging AI Opponents

   * Choose from various levels of difficulty, with optional 'cheating' AIs
   * Watch for the AIs to attempt different strategies to defeat their opponents
   * Counter their new ship designs, as they adapt their designs to counter your own
   * Engage in complex diplomatic interaction with your opponents


Extensive Modding Support

   * Modify data files and scripts in any editor as simple as Notepad
   * Use developr tools to create particle effects and configure imported models
   * Smart use of AngelScript allows users to create entirely new gamemodes, gameplay, and online experiences
   * All files from the base game are readily available to learn from


Multiplayer: Co-Op, Team, and Free-for-all

   * Play with as many competitors as your server can manage, with drop-in-drop-out compatibility
   * Supports both internet and LAN play
   * Dedicated Servers
   * Standard server controls
   * Seamless transitioning: Multiplayer games can be saved and then played in Singleplayer and then brought back up in Multiplayer

Howdy folks, I'm Firgof; co-lead developer of the game. Just wanted to drop by and let y'all know that if you want to ask any questions to feel free to shoot from the hip. I'll answer anything I can, starting with:


Well, Technology continues onward to some obscenely large number; it's effectively "infinite" (for those programmers wondering "how infinite is it?" it's like e+24 or something ridiculous) levels. Each level of a technology represents a 50% increase in the efficiency of stuff related to that technology. In this manner, subsystems (ship components) which you unlock through the Research system become more 'alternatives' to each other rather than "Now I have Rainbow Lasers, which totally obsolete these IR Lasers that I just had".



Crudely, the randomization that we're talking about (by default) is that the Nodes get shuffled every playthrough. The Nodes are little 'sub-technologies' almost. We make a number of them when we create a technology and tell them what they're to link to. When we shuffle them, the position that the Nodes occupy moves around. Also, there can be Dead End nodes (which don't link to anything) so that makes random positioning an important decision. This is absolutely modable of course, so you can make tiered tech-trees and whatnot with a little bit of brain and finger power.


Thanks! You just helped me pay for a new HDD and my rent; important, as my current HDD is failing, causing all sorts of trouble for us and our development schedule and my rent is already taking up more than I can afford on my own without help from pre-order sales. Oh, and some of it also was given to our contracted artist and musician of course. In short: you guys are awesome. I expected maybe 25 pre-orders before we hit release and didn't know how I'd pay for rent or food. 178 pre-orders later, y'all have taught me not to underestimate the 4X community. :p


:crosses fingers: It isn't going to be too tough to get those in-game but given the recent spate of trouble with hardware I'm hoping we have enough time to toss them in before release. If not, they'll be in shortly thereafter in a patch.


Us too. We're on our second request to Steam to get the game on the service. Last time we requested to get the game on the service they told us there were too many titles similar to ours up there after a couple months of back and forth.

We figured there must have been some miscommunication but we don't know as they never e-mailed us back. We're not too hopeful that it'll get up on there any time soon, they did not download any of the review builds we sent them from what our systems tell us.

We're working on alternative avenues for y'all if you GamersGate is not one of your preferred web-stores. I can't name names at the moment but we think we'll have our bases pretty much covered by Release.



In the default game, research can only be dedicated to one discipline of science at any given time. You have a research queue which you can manage while you play (complete with repeating researches and so forth) so that research may continue along the paths that you'd desire while you work with other parts of your Empire.

Of course you may override what you're researching at any time and specify another research. The amount of time you've put into a technology isn't lost by switching to other techs.

Important to note here is that technologies don't just unlock subsystems, they affect your Empire broadly. For instance, Metallurgy unlocks things like the Repair Tool which allows you to shoot friendly ships with repair beams but also affects the amount of storage, production rate, and cost of your land-based structures. Some technologies are more focused in application than others (for instance, Shields) but on the whole they all provide benefits other than just unlocking other technologies, updating current subsystems, or unlocking new subsystems.

All technologies are visible from the start of the game by default but the paths to get to them are not known. This is learned through exploring the Nodes and through logical inference. (For instance, one of the nodes on Ship Construction leads to the Armor technology)

You can change all of this with a text editor such as notepad right from the moment you install the game if you wish. Mods will have access to change the most basic natures of technological development in Star Ruler; if our technological research system doesn't fit your playstyle, developing a mod that does shouldn't be too difficult with time and familiarity with how modding Star Ruler works.



(1) I'm not sure. A lot. I had I think 74 Fighters blasting a planet with lasers that fired 24~ shots per second a while ago and encountered a bit of slow down but I know we can produce more than that. Engine limitation wise: It's a pretty big number I think; 50,000 or something I'd bet. Granted, you'll start experiencing slowdowns when you start spamming continuous fire lasers (I believe due to the particle effects; we're investigating it)

(2)Yes. In fact, normal weapons can do enough damage to cause a star to nova should your technology be high enough and you devote enough time to manufacture a ship blueprint which would allow you to cause enough damage that you get over the star's damage-soak. Note: damaging the Quasar in the center of the galaxy will take significantly more firepower than a normal star to destroy. The Directed Spatial Fold Manipulator SuperWeapon comes with more than enough alpha to penetrate all the way to a star's core, for instance.

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No matter who tries, Master of Orion II has yet to be 'beat' in this genre....

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No matter who tries, Master of Orion II has yet to be 'beat' in this genre....

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Wait, no stellar manipulation? Creating centralized jump point hubs around sphere worlds is a critical piece of my galaxy domination plans. 1)It makes defending my systems all that much easier. I have yet to see an armada break through the defenses I set up. 2)Jumping in reenforcements behind enemy lines to met his retreating forces always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling as I destory what's left of his excuse of an attack fleet.


I would like to see a 4x game that has some type of hyperspace like in Babylon 5 where you're not required to jump between stars on a fixed route thus allowing you to flank defense setup near jump gates.

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from what i've read , yes there is stellar Manipulation.



you can blow up planets and stars, there will be dyson spheres (may not be in the game yet) and there are ring worlds.



and according to the devs you will be able to place engines on planets and move them (may not be in the game yet), combine that with the planned ram order for ships and you get some entertainment.

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Sweet Jesus!



World Ships for the FTMFW!

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No matter who tries, Master of Orion II has yet to be 'beat' in this genre....

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Well shit. I went to Direct2Drive to buy this game to try it out, and I must have clicked twice on the checkout or something cause I have two purchases on this game.

I'm gonna be at work soon though, but if it's possible to gift it to someone, let me know if you want it. I don't know how I can send you the link to download it though.

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/135/l_49212023cf5c4025917de72e5d066336.jpg

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That is a costly double tap

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You mean their customer service won't see that as an obvious double click and make the adjustment? I'd call the credit card company if that were the case.

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any updates on gameplay?

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The game is still a bit confusing to me. The only other 4x space game I play is Space Empires V, so it's not a fair comparison really.

From what I can tell so far there is no way to create a custom empire without modding, and I don't know how to change the physical appearance of your ships (might have to mod those as well). This is what bothers me most though, along with the camera controls. The entire game map is a giant 3D universe, which is cool but makes navigating the camera kind of annoying.

A lot of the gameplay can be automated if you want, like construction queues, colonization, and such. I never really played for more than an hour or so, and I haven't fought any wars or battles with the AI so I can't judge on the combat system. The gameplay is all in real time so there is no turn taking or anything. When you want to negotiate treaties you have to set an expiration time (like 200 seconds until peace treaty expires).

The most I've done is just colonize planets and explore the universe. If you are into detailed 4x games though, give it a shot. It's only $25.00 on Direct2drive, just don't double click the purchase button on checkout. The game is a bit confusing at first but the tutorial should only take like 20-30 minutes. The graphics are good, even on a shitty laptop, and the sound track is nice. Once I get the hang of the game it should be pretty fun. Again, I have yet to see how good the AI is though.
 

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I did play Masters of Orion 3(still have the CDs around here somewhere) I didn't care too much for it because there was no way to retofit your ships.

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Any updates on this?

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+1