Sins of a Solar Empire : Rebellion

[Duff-Man]

Just a heads up - the open beta for SoASE : Rebellion has started (I just got an email confirming that download is available).

http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/


For those that haven't played / heard of Sins - it's a very large scale 3D space-based strategy game. It's a 'real-time' game, but in terms of gameplay it perhaps has more in common with "4x" type games. Well worth a go - so long as you're prepared to lose hundreds of hours to it!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS-VS5WS1B4


Edit: Are youtube links not working properly, or am I just being a dumbass?

 

[Duff-Man]

It's $30 if you have Trinity and are logged into your Stardock account. You can get another 10% off by using the coupon "SURVEY2011".

So, yet again pre-order customers get shafted?

I have SoASE trinity on Steam (I also bought them all individually through Impulse when they were first released, but had to buy it again on Steam when Impulse was sold and they stopped supporting the game). I pre-ordered rebellion months ago, and it cost me $40 - no deals.

I shouldn't complain really, after all $10 isn't a lot of money, but it's just the principle. Why do developers continually deny the best deals to those who support their product the most?

I need to stop pre-ordering games.

 

[Duff-Man]

Are you sure? The $10 discount for owners of Trinity has been in place since they started taking orders.

I bought it when a $10 discount was advertised at the top of their front page. It said "buy before the end of the month to recieve $10 discount".

So, I went ahead and ordered. I did it on October 31st, thinking that I would just sneak in the deadline. It turns out that the article was from September, and just hadn't been removed (I posted asking about it on their forums at the time see here). I should have looked closer at the date of the post really, but it was still a little cheeky leaving it there with no indication that "this month" meant September.

I guess I don't have much luck when it comes to SoASE! I can't even play Rebellion for a few months, as I don't have enough free time right now



edit: And Trinity appeared on Steam Nov 16th, so it was a good ten weeks after the pre-orders started (beginning of Sept). Besides I didn't buy Trinity on Steam right away - only when the old Impulse copies stopped working (or at least mine did).

 

[Duff-Man]

Ermmm...i still have mine on impulse, and it's still supported with updates (now owned by gamestop) so why exactly did you need to buy them again?

I couldn't get Diplomacy to start up without crashing... Vanilla and Entrenchment would start, but not Diplomacy.

I may have screwed something up by trying to install a mod p), but I reinstalled the entire thing and it still didn't work, so I just cut my losses and went to Steam (where 95% of my games are anyway).


I'm not complaining about this at all - it was my choice to switch to Steam rather than persevere with Impulse - I'm just somewhat annoyed that pre-order customers always seem to miss out. To my mind, those who support an in-development product, sight-unseen, shouldn't be excluded from offers.

It's a similar principle to offering a discount to those who bought the Steam version, but not those who bought each individual game (at a much greater total cost). Why are customers who "came late to the party" considered more valuable than those who supported the product from day one? I understand the financial motive (those who bought each individual component are likely to buy the game even without an offer), but morally it just seems a little... off.

I certainly won't be pre-ordering Sins 2 anyway...

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man, what did the Stardock support team say when you contacted them over your problems ?

I didn't...

I was under the (apparently mistaken) impression that the game was no longer supported, so I didn't make the attempt to contact them. I don't mind that I bought the game again on Steam, like I said it was my choice really, and it's convenient to have it alongside all my other games.

I've spent many hundreds of hours on Sins, so I've certainly had more than my money's worth (even with buying it twice). It's just the principle that bugs me really... You should support your early adopters, not penalise them.