Star Ruler 2

[Huw the Poo]

You're welcome, and I'm glad to hear it. :) I'm going to start my first proper game tonight - wish me luck!

[PanzersEast]

I've read there are balancing issues, so I am wondering your guys feedback.


PE

[Dread Rlyeh]

Good luck Huw!

I've read there are balancing issues, so I am wondering your guys feedback.
PE

I've just experimented with trying to get a reasonably efficient start and have only fought a few remnant fleets which I whipped no problem with my borg carrier.  After I get a feel for the early game, I usually go with the penultimate difficulty level and see how things shake out.  Not sure when I will have the time for that, but I will share what I find out. 

[Huw the Poo]

I've read there are balancing issues, so I am wondering your guys feedback.

Hmmm...can you be more specific?  Games like these are always accused of having balance issues, the key is determining how much merit there is to those claims.

I only started my first proper game this evening so I can't personally comment just yet (except to say that the AI empires are racing ahead of me, heh).  However I can say, at the very least, that the game probably doesn't cheat - the hardest difficulty level ("savage") specifically says that cheats are enabled for the AIs, so it's reasonable to assume it doesn't cheat at all other levels.

[PanzersEast]

I've read there are balancing issues, so I am wondering your guys feedback.

Hmmm...can you be more specific?  Games like these are always accused of having balance issues, the key is determining how much merit there is to those claims.

I only started my first proper game this evening so I can't personally comment just yet (except to say that the AI empires are racing ahead of me, heh).  However I can say, at the very least, that the game probably doesn't cheat - the hardest difficulty level ("savage") specifically says that cheats are enabled for the AIs, so it's reasonable to assume it doesn't cheat at all other levels.

I'll go back and see if I can find it, but if I remember correctly it was the factions that needed balanced out and maybe some of the mid-game.

PE

[Huw the Poo]

Well I just finished a three hour session; "one more turn" doesn't come close!  This is one of those games in which you always have multiple projects on the go.  Can't quit now, I need to see the battle when my battleship fleet completes its FTL journey deep inside enemy lines!  I only need 150 more research points before I can start constructing planetoids!  No I can't stop, this planet is finally just about to get to level 2 which will mean my homeworld will get to level 4 and I can build these awesome things!  Etc.

I'm playing a 2v2 game with locked teams and an empire in the opposing team was starting to colonise worlds inside my borders, so I had enough and declared war.  I had three fleets by this point (including a mk2 battleship which was double the size of the base battleship and packed quite a punch) and I took them on a grand tour of the enemy systems, conquering planet after planet.  However their defense forces eventually turned up and gave me a run for my money.  We won the initial clash but my fleets were down to less than half strength.  I foolishly decided to press on regardless, and the next system they entered happened to have lots of planetary defense systems which made short work of them even without the aid of ships.

We limped back home to resupply and replace lost support ships, and that's when I brought out my ace - a diplomatic event called "annex system"! O0  It does exactly that.  I played it and targeted the system that had just kicked my arse.....hoooooooly shit the enemy team threw everything they had at this proposition....I've never seen such frantic voting.  Happily, my teammate joined the voting in support, and I'd also been saving some very good influence cards for just such an occasion.  Eventually I walloped them with a +12 victory and the system immediately became mine. :)

(It was not without some cost...realising they were going to lose the vote, one of the enemy empires attached a rider to the vote, meaning the next time he decided to oppose me in the senate he'd have "leverage" on me, essentially giving him free votes as long as his stand opposes mine)

God damn, there's a lot to this game.  I just can't stop playing - it has me well and truly by the balls.

[bbmike]

Huw, how's the real-time? I love turn based games but can tolerate real-time games like EU4. Is this a click-fest?

[Huw the Poo]

No, definitely not a click fest.  It's as slow as Sins of a Solar Empire; if you can manage that, you can certainly manage Star Ruler 2.  Combat is fleet-based, and the fleets are ponderous things, taking some time to turn and move.

[mikeck]

Like EU 4....it has speed settings and you can slow it way down and pause

[Huw the Poo]

As epic as this battle looks, this is only a small 1v1 fleet engagement (around 1,800 ships in all).  I'm conquering a world of the Hoonan empire.  They're very Borg-like and gain strength when fighting near Mainframes (orbital constructions).  Unfortunately for them, there was no mainframe nearby and my fleet was commanded by my flagship, the Battlecruiser Mk2 After Forever, which made mincemeat of the enemy with its massive lasers and railguns.

(Naming a flagship is an influence event you can purchase, and confers decent bonuses when used - you can do the same for your homeworld)

[Rayfer]

1800 ships is a small battle? Holy crap. Do you need one of those government super-computers to run a large battle?  ;)

[Huw the Poo]

Heh.  It doesn't seem to tax the CPU (or GPU) very much at all, in fact I think the requirements are rather low for a modern game.

Yeah, 1,800 ships for a single battle is a small amount.  Initially your flagships will command nearly 800 support ships in a fleet.  Eventually as you tech up that number will grow and grow, plus of course there's nothing stopping you bringing multiple fleets to the same fight.  So you can have thousands and thousands of ships in a single battle eventually.

[Martok]

Uh-oh.  Apparently the game isn't selling too well: 

http://steamcommunity.com/app/282590/discussions/1/611703898451859330/


The devs are saying they'll need to close down the studio by the end of the year unless sales pick up.  :-\ 

[Anguille]

Uh-oh.  Apparently the game isn't selling too well: 

http://steamcommunity.com/app/282590/discussions/1/611703898451859330/


The devs are saying they'll need to close down the studio by the end of the year unless sales pick up.  :-\

Not good....going to purchase it earlier than intended to support them...

[Jarhead0331]

Honestly...I don't buy it. I've never been a fan of these developers. They are really poor at taking constructive criticism and come off as abrasive and dismissive to anyone who doesn't openly state how awesome their games are.

I think they openly abandoned Star Ruler 1 leaving it a hollow soulless title and then moved on to the second title in the series. Daniel DiCicco of Stardrive fame is taking a lot of flak for doing this where the Star Ruler guys seem to be getting a free pass. I bought SR2 pretty early on in development and think it is a good game with some unique ideas, but I don't appreciate a developer hiding a thinly veiled threat to not release future updates behind a sad tale of financial trouble.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but what goes around comes around.