Tom Chick has an interview up on CrispyGamer.com with Ironclad Games’ Blair Fraser.  The interview starts off with some bits about Turtiling, and then goes into everything from mods to multiplayer regarding Sins of a Solar Empire.

“Tom Chick: I just wrote about how very few real-time strategy games still have turtling. My point was that it's fallen out of favor because developers want their real-time strategy games to play faster and be more accessible and action-y. Thanks for making me look like an idiot. Now, you guys have had turtling all along, but with Entrenchment, you've reemphasized it in the whole balance of things. Isn't that risky? What made you decide to do that, to buck the trend?”

Read the full interview at CrispyGamer.com!


Comments
on Mar 11, 2009

Now there's a fun interview to read.

on Mar 11, 2009

woa, quite an extensive interview. and an interesting one too. I knew they had the open line system long ago, but full gravity model and ships rotating as well I had not heard.

I think he slipped once though, as I have yet to see a way to bring the adjudicator's target count up to 10. without file manipulation anyway.

on Mar 11, 2009

Tag for later.

on Mar 11, 2009

Mazuo
Tag for later.

Im in ur forum accountz messing up ur My Replies.

on Mar 11, 2009

It's always nice to hear the background from the developers, and again, there was a hint that an extensive campaign will come sooner or later. Keep up the good work, "Galactic Supremacy" can only get better

on Mar 11, 2009

I read it as a hint of "it may come" sooner or later

on Mar 11, 2009

The increased usefulness of carriers has led to a dramatic increase in the use of fighters and bombers. Watching the Kol annihilate clouds of them in one or two bursts is hilarious, particularly when I know I'm dashing the spirits of some online player who thinks the carrier mob is the be-all end-all of strategies.
 

 

on Mar 11, 2009

I'm thinking about orbiting planets in the new, phase-lane rich universe... It just might be interesting! Especially with some kind of dynamic system for illing old and too long phase-lanes and creating new ones... This might be awesome!

on Mar 11, 2009

Good stuff.  Rewatched the old trailer, and I still enjoy it. Don't see why you'd think it is embarassing.

My favorite line remains "I'm more a merchant then I am a solder, but the choice is not always mine to make."

on Mar 12, 2009

You know, I take exception to his stance on the first article on turtling.  Turtling isn't dead, or even endangered.  I can tell you that as a Warcraft III player (a game notorious for its brutal rushes) I don't panic when I see a big army rushing me hard.  This is because I know my opponent has geared all his resources towards this, so I need only survive it and reach a higher tech level unit to punish him severely.  It's when I see a few harassers trying to keep me occupied that I panic, because I know he's put up a few defenses in his base and is pursuing those high level units, and it's going to be hard for me to actually get in there and stop it while his small force is playing cat and mouse and a few well placed towers keep his base fortified.  If you notice, this strategy that causes me the greatest angst isn't definitively rush, turtle, or boom, but rather a combination. 

A good strategy game doesn't force you to play rocks-paper-scissors with these three strategic paths, but rather to use different aspects of those archtypes to pursue a larger strategy.  Sins of a Solar Empire does this very well, and it's only getting better.  I think it's a misconception when people talk about rush > boom > turtle > rush.  People see a rush beat a turtle, and instantly think the equation is broken.  However, they often miss the larger picture that opponent is using the rush only to lock them into turtling and then actually leans more on booming once they're cowering in their base.  I think a lot of the problem is often inexperience; you need upwards of a month to really get a feel for the balance of a game, and in that time you're more or less making intelligent guesses about how to divert resources between military, economy, and defense.  Is it really so hard to see such a player not knowing how to use his defenses to win if he's inexperienced?

I think the people who ask for a game where they can sit happily in their impervious shell without need to go out and fight for resources don't know what they're asking for.  If there is no neutral resource to fight over, and an early attack force can't successfully attack the main base, then there's no reason to build an attack force at all.  The game just becomes a test to see who has the best build order to reach the "shell-cracker" unit that can break down those defenses.  In other words, turtling is a moot point, because no one builds an army until they have the units that counter it.