What leads to "defeat"

from Sins Forums

Hi all,


I posted this question on gamefaqs, but then realized the board is moving pretty slow, so I thought I would try it here.

Ok so I just started playing the game for the first time. I played two games on the Point Blank map. The first game I was just trying to get the hang of everything, and ended up surrendering. So, I understand that one, naturally. However, for the second game, I thought I was doing well. I had moved over to the other player's (comp AI) home planet and was close to beating it down to where I could take it over. I think that everything is going well, and after I did that I was going to go on to the next planet. However, all of the sudden I get a screen saying "defeat." I chose to continue playing so I could see what caused this. However, I just couldn't figure this out. I successfully repelled every attack on my home planet, while taking the other player's. All of this is a long way of asking, what factors go into the decision as to who wins the match. I was under the impression that it was determined by taking over the entire map, but I was obviously mistaken about that. Any info would be most appreciated. Thanks.

6,905 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

What version of software are you using?

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

The only way to to lose the game is to lose control of all your planets.

My only guess as to what happened to you would be culture (essentially propaganda), which would enable an enemy to cause your planets to revolt without ever having to attack them.  If all your planets revolted, you would lose regardless of your military standings.  This is exceptionally rare, and once you become experienced you're unlikely to lose a single planet, much less your empire, to culture.

There are three ways to repulse culture.  The first is to create your own culture and fight fire with fire.  The second is to attack the enemy's worlds and destroy their culture generators.  The third path is to station your own capital ships in friendly worlds, which mitigates the effect of enemy culture.  In the long-run, you need to have culture of your own, but in the short-term attacking the enemy or stationing capital ships is a good temporary "band-aid" solution.

You can tell that there is culture in play when your enemy's colour begins to spread along phase lines.  If the spread reaches one of your planet, that planet begins to fall under the influence of enemy culture and loyalty will begin to drop.  If loyalty reaches zero, you lose control of the planet.  As well, planets under enemy culture give the enemy fleet a combat bonus when fighting there!

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

sometimes you also have to make sure that he cannot begin new planets.  so make sure there are no colony ships left over, so make sure you destroy their frigate factories, and their colony ships

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

de ankles.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

space ponies

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

I hadn't thought of the culture bit. In fact, i was not paying attention to it at all. I'm going to try again tonight, and I'll keep an eye our for that. Thx.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

 

If it had been culture, shouldn't Wurdmann have received warnings about enemy culture overthrowing his planets?  He would receive warnings about it and then also notices of individual planets being lost.  From the way he described it in his original post it almost sounded like his game was just bugged and that he had received no warnings or notices of planets being lost.

Note that you will see culture as color, yours, an ally's, or the enemy's, spreading slowly down the phase lanes.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Well I went back to a save right before I got the defeat, and looked for any indication of a culture problem. However, everything seemed to be fine. My planet's allegiance was at 100%. I played through the save and won the game using essentially the same strategy, so I'm not sure what happpened. I guess one lesson I learned is to save at regular intervals.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

sounds like a bug, what version are you running? it should show up in the bottom right corner of the sins menu when you first launch the game

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Well I'm not sure of the version. I'm out of town until next week, and can't play. However, I do know that impulse just updated it recently, so I think it is pretty recent. I'll look when I get back.