Well, that's my review. It's weird in what way?

TB & RT = apples & oranges. Ironclad and Kerberos went their seperate ways because they had two different visions, each studio can only work on one game at a time, but playing is a different story. We play what we want because we pay the money, as opposed to earning it with a single product.

I am still playing SotS as my #1 TB4X in single player mode, no problemo. SotS is a very playable game, AI and turn processing much improved post patches, true it has some flaws and its own particular type of fanboi, but what game doesn't?

That includes SoaSE, which looks like it is shaping up, I might get that too.

But IMHO nothing beats SupCom for multiplayer at the moment except it is a laggy hardware wasting ***** ! Still a fun game though.

The SOTS expansion promises to add a lot more depth to the core game.I will see what that brings and might give it another try.

There seems to be an information void with "Sword of the Stars: Born of Blood"; there is no previews, no public screenshots, no box art, a vague list of additions, and all for an expansion coming out within the month of April, 2007. In addition, they set this expected release date only a month ago, and it seems they either ran into some serious setbacks or they are planning one hell of a stealthy release.

Kind of hard to get interested (or renew one's hope) in a game that is an enigma such as this.

Actually there is a ot of info about the expansion on the Kerberos forums. the devs have released several screen shots of new weapons and ships. here are also fiction stories written to introduce you to the new race. The devs have not told the communty about any setbacks so it must be on schedule. If it makes you feel any better they have been working on the expansion since before the original was realeased.

In all honesty, that doesn't make things much better for them, they need to get the press ball rolling, and start making such information more widely known to get attention towards their expansion.

Right now, they have a website, which frankly should be spilling with information on the expansion this close to release. Yet, are more content -- releasing tidbits throughout forum posts? I think they need to hire better community managers, site administrators, and-or marketing personnel, if there strategy is to wait till the last minute to get the ball rolling.

That should be the publishers job.

I actually play SOTS all the time. With the 1.2.2 patch, the AI is mean and the lag is pretty much gone for fleets <800 ships (if you have a decent (read: Good but not top of the line) system, though hundreds of ships will cause lag on almost any system regardless of spec (unless the ships are little tiny 1 pixel icons). Granted, diplomacy and tactical combat is a bit shallow (OK, diplo is a disaster), and a 350 star map with humans is confusing at times, it is still a great war-based game. It just takes a bit of time before you get the hang of things.

BTW, IIRC, it's actually the developers who are running the site (or at least the forums).

I used to play sword of the stars a lot, but it had a couple problems

Did they ever fix the auto combat? It used to be horrible...
It didn't take into account anything like shields, engines, point defense. It looked like it just used attack and health to decide a winner.
Also, did they fix the ships AI? They turned horribly, and my dreadnaughts would waste 32 missiles on a destroyer that only needed 4.

All of those except the missiles were fixed in the latest patch The human cruisers no longer have drunk drivers

The additions to the strategy (trade, more diplomacy, POLITICAL map) are definitely very appealing. I hope I get to do the BoB review as well.

I love SOTS, moreso than Galciv2. The battles are an element of this. If you think they're shallow, then you really didnt play enough or get up the tech tree. I wish it had more empire-building features also, but it just simply isnt and wasnt designed to be that type of game. However(!), I am glad they listened to the fans, who vastly wanted a more empire-building 4x style to it, and are adding it with the expansion. A terrific game that came out of no where.

The 3D map is actually pretty simple, I dont really see the issue some people have. Right-click, spin turn, your planets are highlighted and fleets are obvious. If you have a 300 star sphere, then maybe it gets tough lol -- so dont put a 300 star sphere -- Cluster it, hourglass, spiral (so you still get a middle-range sphere in the middle) whatever. It's even easier if you dont spin around the camera too much, you get accustomed to looking at your empire a certain way and where everything is.

Looks like it right now - but - lets see whats gonna happen :/

Who knows in future betas all kind of things will popup that will change this, but I doubt it as this would mean lots of work and time.

Maybe, just maybe - I just got suckered into buying this by those trendy words & hype.

You do realize this is a stripped down version of the game, right?

Has anyone tried the new 1.2.2.2 patch? It came out last month I think.

I haven't played SOTS since February... Maybe I'll reinstall it.