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[Firgof Umbra]

We're estimating about 8 players per multiplayer game on a residential connection.  It's more optimized but we're still talking big numbers of units, particles, etc.  Granted, fully modable so I'm sure someone can make a 'Big MP friendly' mod for lower-end connections by adjusting weapons fire rates, etc.; in exchange being able to field more units.

But up to 8 players should work OK on cabled/fiber internet.

[Orb]

I am extremely excited for this! I clocked over 100 hours on the original Star Ruler and I am sure I'll see the same level of quality in the sequel.

A few questions:

1. How is the pace looking? I felt for the original Star Ruler that the pace was too quick for meaningful diplomacy. With the more complex economy I would hope the sequel is a lot slower.

2. On the flip side, what about game length? In the original, game length was often times too long, and could last for hours. While this is fine in a TBS (which is the scale I feel SR is trying to emulate), in an RTS your brain can get fried within a half hour of constant action. How are you attempting to have games "close" quicker?

3. I was wondering if you could explain more on research. I haven't played FFX or PoE so I'm a little lost. Are you still going for "levels" of research, or the more interesting way in which every tech unlocks something unique?

4. In regards to influence, are you going the Galactic Civilizations 2 route? Or a more HoI 3 route? (For reference, HoI3 required you to have "diplomacy points" in order to create diplomatic agreements, which I felt made diplomacy boring. GC2, on the other hand, had you use influence points, which could be traded among players like any other resource, to vote on "rules" that effected all players).

5. Can resources (such as fish, water, and plastics) be traded among players?

6. How random will the game be compared to SR1? It seems from the description you've added much more than pirates and other player empires to contend with.

7. Will ships modify their movements themselves to dodge kinetic shots, will we be required to do it ourselves, or will shots move too fast to make it near impossible to dodge them?

8. Will ships have their own fuel still or will you be adopting a "supply range" like SOTS2 had?

Oh. I got a little carried away. Don't feel obligated to answer all of them.

[Firgof Umbra]

Note: there'll be a big dev diary on our website with the Influence system, by the way, if you'd like to know more than what I'm going over here.  Our first Dev Diary is already up and goes over the lowest-level fundaments of SR2's economy/expansion mechanics.  Also, disclaimer that these aren't final -- they're what we've got at the moment but we may tweak/alter bits and pieces of anything I state here.
1.  On pacing: We intend for it to be more deliberately paced in SR2; a lot of the economy revolves around cycle timers and combat is less frantic.

2.  We're hoping to provide the ability to play both long and short games and in a way that's much easier to control than in SR1.

3.  We're keeping the specifics under wraps for now but you might call it both leveled and unique.

4.  It's kind of both?  We're anticipating that there will be global things as well as 'empire v. empire' things.  It's more complex than that but there'll be a dev diary explaining it in more detail.

5.  It's been suggested; hasn't been properly evaluated yet so "not sure" for now.

6.  We want the galaxy to feel more 'alive' than SR1's mostly static galaxy; we're hoping to incorporate a couple of features we think will definitely accomplish that.

7.  We're still looking at that portion of combat mechanics.

8.  Kind of both. It's more strategic and less tactical/number-crunch now.

[Orb]

Ah cool. Thank you for answering all my questions. The "global" diplomacy sounds very interesting.

[Flare]

Have you guys worked out a better arrangement of the UI? One of the most frequent complaints I read in reviews was that the UI was pretty bad. I found it fine myself, but are you guys going to switch the stuff up?

Will this game run better than the old SR? I don't usually spend much money on machines and make do with my hardware as long as possible. Though this would be a great reason to readjust some funds once the game is more fleshed out.

[Jack_Bread]

I really hope the camera is more consistent in SR2. My friends and I REALLY love this game, but we never play it because of how annoying the camera is.
But otherwise, I am excited to see this and hope it can run well on crap hardware as one of my friends has a crappy laptop.
PTW, too

[lastverb]

2 more questions from me:

1) Will new engine support rangefinding on ultra-long ranges? In SR1 your units couldn't automaticly shoot anything beyond current solar system. With proper settings they could only jump to new system and then shoot despite having range from 2 systems away.

2) Will carriers get some love? It was so terribly done in SR1. For example it was impossible to set carrier to launch its units and DO NOT engage in frontline. You had to either get system-wide range weapon and set to fight at max range or give so small engines that battle ends before it gets to frontline.

[Krevsin]

While I cannot claim that I have ever played the original Star Ruler, this looks a lot like the kind of thing I'd really enjoy.

PTW.

[Flare]

2) Will carriers get some love? It was so terribly done in SR1. For example it was impossible to set carrier to launch its units and DO NOT engage in frontline. You had to either get system-wide range weapon and set to fight at max range or give so small engines that battle ends before it gets to frontline.

I usually just set them to hold position, and bring a few balls of armor for the tanking of enemy fire if they do come into range.

[SOLDIER First]

WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS!?

[Viken]

About two weeks ago I was reading through the Blind Mind forums and saw that people were asking about Star Ruler 2 that were only getting veiled hints and 'perhaps sometime soon' answers.  From the way it was sounding, it was like they were working on things, but hadn't gotten to a good point yet. 

But with the release information and this announcement, it seems they've come across a major milestone that has set them up for making it public.  I'm honestly drooling.  I enjoyed Star Ruler, and still play it with a couple of my favorite mods every now and again.  In response to this, I have my own question though.

Will we still be able to make our own custom races/species? And if so, will there be a wider range of abilities, economic and government styles compared to Star Ruler?

In Star Ruler, generating your own race and the like felt more like picking percentiles of what you want to be good and bad at.  While that's fine, it felt rather... dull, in a way.  It didn't affect gameplay balancing or your actual game playing style besides giving soft bonuses at the beginning that quickly faded once the game got underway.  I'm just hoping for more variety and actual 'reason' to use custom races instead of the basic ones provided.

[lastverb]

I usually just set them to hold position, and bring a few balls of armor for the tanking of enemy fire if they do come into range.

If you set them on hold, they won't launch without player interaction (manual launch or attack command).

[Firgof Umbra]

WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS?!

But you are funding this: you bought SR1!

I really hope the camera is more consistent in SR2.

Have you guys worked out a better arrangement of the UI?

It'll definitely be better with the new approaches we're taking.

On other questions (race customization, carriers, long-range-weaponry handling): Will ask and edit this post as I get responses.

[Tarran]

Posting to watch. Didn't really like the first game, it felt too "heavy" and "lifeless" for me (vague, I know, but I don't really know specifically what was the problem), so maybe this will be better.

[Firgof Umbra]

Long range weaponry: System barriers are not something that has carried over to SR2.  It's all one big galaxy now so your weapons can fire anywhere they like so long as the target is in range.

Carriers: We will have them but they haven't been designed yet.