Every so often, they’ll seek out and destroy whoever has the highest bounty on their heads. Pirates are NPCs that occupy a planet and have tons of ships in orbit. I don’t have the time to get into every mechanic, but I will say that I enjoy being able to hire pirates and send them after your enemies.
![sins of a solar empire orbital refinery sins of a solar empire orbital refinery](https://lonerstrategygames.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/All-Factions.jpg)
Will you concentrate your resources on military and civilian tech to improve your forces before expanding? Will you spend your money on ships so as to conquer as many planets as you can right from the start? Will you construct buildings on the planets you have first to secure your economy before branching out? Will you spend your credits to buy resources for an early boost or save them up for mid-game expansion? Will you build a fleet of capital ships, or mass produce basic ships and send them at your enemies en masse? Will you let the pirates (if you have them enabled) do the dirty work for you? There’s a lot to consider, and the chance of being overwhelmed increases as you get more planets under your control. You’ll be overwhelmed with choices initially. The real strategy behind this game is how you’ll be spending your resources. Sometimes, you’ll need to buy minerals to acquire those costly techs more quickly. Other buildable structures exist to augment your resource income, like the trade center or refinery. Resources can be traded on the black market, and what’s cool is that the prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. You’ll be building colony ships and trying to build your network of planets as quick as you can to bring in those precious resources. On occasion, you’ll hit an asteroid cluster that can’t be populated but can still be mined. Worlds need to be colonized in order to mine the first two resources, in most cases. Unlike “Age of Empires” and its successors, you’ll only have three resources to manage: metal, crystal, and credits. I would have prefered to see more variations and differences among the three races, personally. Some techs are unique to a race, but not many. An increased metal and crystal extraction rate, for example, is available for all three races…you’ll just find them in different slots and in a different area of the tree. Tech trees are the same way in that while certain techs have been moved around in the tree from race to race, you’ll still be unlocking things similar to that of another race. Ships have different names and designs, but their roles are similar across all three races. Ships look and feel different, but it’s clear that one is designed to be an artillery ship while another might be a support ship. All three races have upgrades for the same thing, for the most part. While they each have a unique look, the tech trees are similar. There are three playable races and they all have unique ships and tech trees…kinda sorta. You can also conduct market and pirate transactions from here without accessing the menus. All in all, the interface is sleek and user-friendly, making the game easy to play. Other important menus like diplomacy and tech upgrades are easily accessible via a mouse click. On the left side of the screen is a handy planet list, which helps you keep track of where your ships are. The camera is freeform, allowing you to swivel it across all three axes. You’ll also have panels that display your current resources and the like, so RTS vets will have no issue understanding what is going on. Like other RTS games, you’ll have menus for constructing various ships and structures.
![sins of a solar empire orbital refinery sins of a solar empire orbital refinery](https://www.naguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/fallout-76-black-powder.jpg)
The in-game interface reminds me a bit of “Supreme Commander” as you’ll be able to zoom in and out at will and still have control over your forces.
![sins of a solar empire orbital refinery sins of a solar empire orbital refinery](https://www.naguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/fallout-76-join-a-team.jpg)
The scenario editor is a bit lacking and doesn’t allow you to physically move planets around and design the map personally, but you can set the parameters for specific things and have the game create a map based on that input. You’ll also be able to cycle through portrait sets of the three playable races, but you can’t change individual races to display a particular portrait. The options menu covers your basics and then some (screen resolution, graphics quality, etc.) but I enjoyed having the ability to set my profile’s race icon and color. The main menu lets a player setup single or multiplayer matches, dabble in the map/scenario creator, adjust profile settings, and set game options.