No, they're not. Flip open the front cover of the box and you have a detailed explanation of exactly what kind of game it is. There are dozens of preview articles floating around the net with in-depth commentary about the game. There's no excuse for making an uninformed purchase.

This game is an RTS because it fills all the criteria of an RTS. I remember reading a post on forums over at a hardcore RTS replay site where some of the highest ranking players clearly set out the criteria for an RTS, as allot of true RTS gamers felt they were duped by Wic which recieved (in most peoples opinion) an overated review score on most game review sites as it was advertised as an RTS. This was quite in depth so i wont go into it but involved having resources, managing an economy/base, having a strategic objective etc. Games like Supcom and Coh all fall into the criteria for an RTS and so does this game after playing it some.

Pretty much everyone I've ever talked to agreed that WiC was a RTT. Yes there were resources, but it was to buy troops.

And Mtn Man - scroll up. I'll quote it incase your lazy -

Sins of a Solar Empire, Real Time Strategy. Unrivaled scale.

I don't know anyone who still reads the box. Though, I also don't know anyone who doesn't atleast read a preview or two before buying a game. I probably read half a dozen - minimum.

I thoroughly embrace this game as a NEW genre, it's neither RTS or 4X...it's the best parts of both rolled into one AWESOME game style! Why does it have to to resemble one or the other more/less? Let's just learn to live with the new acronym and only make reference to this game's new and unique gameplay niche (RT4X)!

In my opinion if you want a 4X game that seems RTS then play Victoria or HOI. If you want a RTS that seems like 4X play this .... Anyone comparing the depth of SoaSE to 4X is insane. you only have about 15 ships per race... there is nothing hard about that and nothing 4X about it. The only 4X things are the planets you take over... but they can just as easily be a "base" as in any other RTS. The game looks and feels and most importantly plays like a RTS. Sure its not as dumbed down as most RTS's but its is a RTS with a few aspects of a 4X game. Nor is this a RTT game. If you want tactics you can do them but you don't have to by any means. if you want a RTT game play MTW. The only tactics this games has over your general RTS is oh wait there are none. I still like the game, but it need a good expansion pack with more races and a storyline/campaign. This is stardock so i don't doubt for a sec that they will put one out. Star dock is one of the best company's out there ... they are awesome with putting out patches too. Hell i'd buy this game just to support them. But i didn't I bought it to play it and I have and its a RTS. A fun one though.

Just a pet peeve note; an arconym is an abbreviation that is pronounced, like Radar, or Laser, or APEC, or QTAC, or TEC, etc. They are considered "words", hence the Greek root or the suffix "-nym", which approximates to "word".
Abbreviations like RTS, RPG, RT4X, FPS etc are merely called abbreviations. They are not words (since they're not pronounced) - they are abbreviations. Acronyms are specialized, pronounced abbreviations.

Just a note

I like the game, I just want there to be a few more specific unit counters (some frigates counter other frigates which counter capitals) with small bonuses in a rock-paper-scissors style. That would encourage unit diversity instead of just "LOL I MADE 10 BATTLESHIPS AND 500 FRIGATES I KILL UR CAPS I WIN LOLOLOL". It would also make tactics important instead of just ganking the capitals over and over and over.

A faster game mod would be nice, too. I'd seriously like to play the game at twice as fast as the current "Fast" mode. I understand the majority of people will want it to remain as-is, but there should at least be an option for more competitive players who want to be able to play a 1v1 in half an hour to 45 minutes. I don't have time for 4 hour games AND a life.

OMG...you didn't just do what I think you did!?!?!?

Seeing how I'm a "number" and not a "word" person (I didn't enjoy English class in school), I guess you can understand why I misused it. I'm pretty sure everyone got the gist of what I was saying anyway. Thanks for enlightening us (me)!!! :-p

Once the modding tools are released I think some of the determined RTS folks can change things around to be more what they were expecting. Personally I like the diplomacy, deep research trees, and decentralized nature of the 4x influences, but the pace is killing me. It's really bothersome to be so heavily penalized (both in antimatter and time) for moving my ships around. Every time I want to colonize something I have to send a ship over, killing 5 minutes in transit, and then wait another 2 or 3 while it regains the antimatter needed to colonize.

I know a big draw to the uniqueness of the various factions are their special abilities and how autocast they all are, but it seems like 9/10 fights are already won/lost before any of my ships can afford to cast any of them.

I don't want actual faster speed settings, I just want lower penalties for moving my ships around (shorter jump prep times, faster jump travel, lesser antimatter penalties, etc) to make on the fly tactical decisions more implementable. Even with a half dozen scouts flying around at all times I can never seem to get my ships where/when they are needed until I get my Vasari Phase Gates up. And if I can change the game to allow this more fluid sort of gameplay I would also slightly reduce ship survivability (probably by lowering combat shield regen and disabling combat hull regen) to keep every fight from becoming a race to see who can get their reinforcements there the fastest.

It's an RTS...........that's all it is. RT4X seriously, hilarious and a little sad.....

Danosh...don't even know how to respond to your comment.


Just curious....has the RTS camp played large scale games? The 4x roots can be clearly seen in large maps, when your not microing every battle, and instead fleets are stacks and your madly doing a hundread things at once. On this scale it feels nothing like any RTS I have ever played....and I probably own about 90% of major RTS releases since Dune.

Spot on.


Yes... I think I did


Perfectly ok Like I said, it was merely a pet peeve, one that descended to pedantry...

HEHE! It's nice to see most of us here have sense of humors! ;-p

There's a few threads I've been poking around in with some really uptight people replying in them.

Sorry i cant look at this game falling into its own criteria because it just doesnt. It plays like an rts with some x4 elements but does not make it a new genre. I have COH, Supcom, Civ4 and Gal Civ2 and whenever i am about to play this game i'd rather play the others. It doesnt offer anything drastically different and in trying to be both rts and a x4 game it falls short in of the current high standard of both. People who describe Relic or Gas powered games as "shallow" and not real rts's really need to have their heads examined. Yes you can base rush in those games, like you should in any strategy game because what is base rush? Yes its a strategy which has many counter strategies atleast in these BALANCED games as apposed to the 1 strategy in Sins (LRM spam) which has no easily employed counter strategy. They have online ranking systems and ladders which this game doesn't. Graphics is also another hang up i have about this game. Yes, pretty backdrops and some bloom, very nice! But you have to be blind not to notice the lack of detail in the ships and lack of any unit animation or moving parts and no cinematics except the short intro. I understand this is a small project, and for that my hat is off to the devs.

Regrettably, I believe I'm one of those uptight people - so don't use me as an example

On a side, and unrelated, note, my preferred method of execution would be firing squad. I don't think I'd be able to stand lethal injection, electric chair or anything like that.

Well anyone played Spellforce, well it is a blend of both RTS and RPG. Sins is both a 4x and a RTS, as to which side it leans towards more, that is a matter of opinion and what additional criteria one puts onto being a RTS or a 4x type game.

And to the previous poster who suggested that Sins has not much strategy to it other than LRM spams. I humbly disagree. There are different strategies to the game, inlcuding many different type of spamming, but there are also counter strategies allowed for any kind of spamming strategies. There are also currently a debate on the forums about which endgame weapons are more powerful and suggestions on how to best employed each one of them and if there are ways to counter them. There are others, but i think to say that to say that there are no strategies are missing the point, but rather, the game mechanics demands that there are different kind of strategies because of the 4x component to the game.