In this interview, Sins of a Solar Empire II 's game designer, Conor "Sovereign Echo" Harris, spills the tea on the design ideas behind each of the six new Command Ships added and the new Factional Victory Conditions in the Reinforcements DLC. [read more]
11/5/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals
The Phalenoids Advance are a Civilization of light loving moth-like creatures adapted to a world split into many month-long day and night cycles, and today we’re going to take a close look at their game mechanics to see how they play. As always in GalCiv IV, you can play them pretty much however you like, and you can even alter their Civilization Traits and Abilities here in the “Customize your Civilization” screen to make them play more like evil Drengin, or money-grubbing Iridia ... [read more]
11/3/2025 By wasabi_md in GalCiv IV Dev Journals
The latest update introduces significant balance changes, tooltip improvements, and technical fixes. Get Ara: History Untold Now View the Full Changelog Below The latest update for Ara: History Untold, version 2.02, has been released, bringing a variety of adjustments aimed at enhancing gameplay and stability. Culture & Traits Updates Several Culture Traits have been rebalanced to improve their strategic distinctiveness. Key changes include increased influence for ... [read more]
10/30/2025 By redskittlesonly in Ara: History Untold News
Join us on October 28th for a Discord AMA on Ashes of the Singularity II Join the Discord The developers at Oxide are going live on Discord October 28th to answer your questions about the creation of Ashes of the Singularity II, the sequel to the massive RTS. 📍 Ashes of the Singularity Discord 🗓️ October 28, 3PM - 4:30PM EST [read more]
10/24/2025 By wasabi_md in Ashes of the Singularity News
Remaster of the Classic Fantasy Strategy Game Series, Enters Early Access Today Join Early Access Now Stardock Entertainment announced that its remaster of the Elemental fantasy strategy game series, Elemental: Reforged , entered Early Access today. The classic sandbox turn-based 4X game series puts the player in the role of a sovereign of a fledgling kingdom in a world that has been devastated by a war of magic. “ Elemental: Reforged is the cul... [read more]
10/23/2025 By redskittlesonly in Stardock Entertainment Announcements
The first faction to take the stage, the United Earth Force represents humanity’s fight for survival against impossible odds. In this entry, we explore how realism, grit, and visual clarity define the look and feel of the UEF on the battlefield. The United Earth Force – Discipline and Steel Previously, we spoke about the environment as the grand stage. It’s the backdrop where the player directs an epic performance of conquest and survival. Every stage needs its first actor, and in the Ash... [read more]
10/22/2025 By Oxide_JaseH in Ashes Dev Journals
Recently I polled the community to understand where Solar Forge falls short in map creation. It took me about a month to poll the data; after several weeks I’ve come up with a working prototype on what we think will be a massive improvement. Now that the new app is closer to release, I wanted to go over the functionality and improvements we have made to this replacement over Solar Forge. Let's start with the basics: This isn’t Solar Forge, this is all-new from the ground up; and made for... [read more]
10/22/2025 By Unikraken in Sins Dev Journals
Join us on October 22nd for a Discord AMA on Elemental: Reforged Join the Discord The developers at Stardock are going live on Discord October 22nd to answer your questions about the creation of Elemental: Reforged . 📍 Elemental Discord 🗓️ October 22, 2025 3PM - 4:30PM EST [read more]
10/20/2025 By wasabi_md in Elemental News
Remaster of Classic Fantasy Strategy Game Series, Elemental: Reforged , will Enter Early Access on October 23 Elemental: Reforged combines War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress and Sorcerer King into a single unified fantasy strategy game experience Add to your Steam Wishlist Stardock Entertainment announced today that its remaster of the Elemental fantasy strategy game series, Elemental: Reforged , will enter Early Access on Thursday, October 23, 2025. Th... [read more]
10/15/2025 By redskittlesonly in Elemental News
Discover how technology shapes the battlefield as we explore the unique strengths and strategies of the TEC Primacy, Vasari Alliance, and Advent Wrath in part 2 of the Unique Faction Tech series. Building on the previous video, we’ll unravel the advanced tech that gives these factions their edge in the fight for dominance. [read more]
10/8/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals
In Ashes of the Singularity , we had a bit of a hybrid system for unlocking orbital abilities, units, and buildings. If you built the right building, you unlocked a additional units, buildings, and orbital abilities. On the other hand, if you wanted to upgrade your abilities, like armor quality or logistics or weapon power and such, you had to increment a corresponding technology level, which you did by spending the Quanta resource. So here we are again, Ashes of the Singularity II . On... [read more]
10/3/2025 By Frogboy in Ashes Dev Journals
Every Core Civilization in Galactic Civilizations IV plays quite differently and has Civilization Abilities, Traits and many more mechanics that are tuned towards a specific playstyle. What’s great about this system is that you’re not generally hard-locked into that playstyle, which suits GalCiv as a sandbox style 4X and allows you to experiment with different ways to play with that one Civ. There aren’t very many Civilizations that outright lock you out of certain mechanics for this rea... [read more]
9/30/2025 By BATTLEMODE in GalCiv IV Dev Journals
Sins of a Solar Empire II – Reinforcements DLC Now Available New command ship class units and lore-driven factional victory conditions bring fresh strategies to the battlefield Players can also enjoy the free v1.45 update released today , too. Get the Reinforcements DLC | Get Sins II The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has released the Reinforcements DL... [read more]
9/25/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News
New Minor Faction and Quality-of-Life Improvements Enhance Gameplay Experience Buy Sins II | View the Full Changlog Welcome to Eivonn’s Fine Update, which re-introduces our favorite used ship dealer as a new minor faction to the Sins II galaxy. Eivonn is all too happy to wheel and deal with those who want to purchase the finest ships of yesteryear. (All transactions final. No refunds.) In addition to Eivonn, we’ve made a number of quality-of-life UI/UX improvement... [read more]
9/25/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News
Massive v2.0 Revolutions Update is Now Available Ambitious historical strategy game celebrates its first anniversary by adding nation specific units, unique leader traits, cultural conquest, AI updates and much more Get Ara: History Untold | View Full Changelog Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games, in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, released Ara: History Untold – Version 2.0 today. The Revolutions Update is a massive expansion of new features a... [read more]
9/24/2025 By redskittlesonly in Ara: History Untold News
Welcome Back First, apologies for breaking save games. We even had to break the Preview save games to add the new map generation system for 2.0! Second, wow! I hope you guys like what we’ve done here. Since the original Sid Meier’s Civilization was first released in 1991, there have only been a handful of strategy games that have attempted to take the player through all of human history. It’s hard. I bet you, reading this right now, know something of this. Ara: History Untold not only sho... [read more]
9/24/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
This week we’re continuing our reveal of the new command class warships that can be found in the upcoming Reinforcements DLC. As we mentioned last time, these units are designed to expand the background lore of each faction and bring new dynamics to the gameplay - but they are not required to enjoy Sins II. War Year 36 As the long conflict between the TEC, Vasari and Advent factions enters its 36th year, tensions have been rising even higher. Diplomacy has broken down utterly, with only min... [read more]
9/18/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals
Join Us for Our "Reinforcements" Livestream Event Mark Your Calendars | Learn More Join us as we dig deep into the new ships and victory conditions included in the Reinforcements DLC ! 📅 Thursday, September 25th at 1:00 PM EST 📍Location: Sins of a Solar Empire II Steam Page What to Expect "Reinforcements" DLC The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has ann... [read more]
9/18/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins of a Solar Empire News
Version 2.0 keeps players in control without the overwhelming micromanagement. The crafting queue is gone. The crafting quotas and priorities system is in. It is very straightforward: Set how much of a thing you want Decide what priority it has, if any, of the things the crafter can build. There is no step 3. This lets you set your nation up as a well-oiled machine. Once you set it up, you will never be interrupted with a “crafter idle” message again because they a... [read more]
9/18/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
Culture & Influence in History Soft Power. Strategy games favor focusing on warfare, but culture and influence have mattered far more in shaping the world. While this may seem, to some, to be a change in the post-World War II era, it has been true going all the way back to the Bronze Age: culture and influence matter. Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson made cultural influence a major focus of Civ IV, forever changing 4X strategy games. In fact, when we teamed up to make Off... [read more]
9/11/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
When designing a real-time strategy game, most people think first about the units: the soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and other powerful pieces that players use to dominate the battlefield. But as the art director on Ashes of the Singularity II , I know that the real star of the screen is the environment itself. The terrain is what players spend the majority of their time looking at. It’s not just a backdrop - it’s the stage where every battle is fought, every strategy unfolds, and every story eme... [read more]
9/10/2025 By Oxide_JaseH in Ashes Dev Journals
In late September, a new class of warships will be deployed into the Sins of a Solar Empire II universe with the release of the Reinforcements DLC. While not required for play, these new units are designed to expand the background lore of each faction and bring new dynamics to the gameplay. War Year 36 As the long conflict between the TEC, Vasari and Advent factions enters its 36th year, tensions have been rising even higher. Diplomacy has broken down utterly, with only minor fringe groups w... [read more]
9/10/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals
Ara: History Untold v2.0 Revolutions Update Expands Historical Strategy Through Culture and Influence Ambitious historical strategy game prepares for first anniversary by adding nation specific units, unique leader traits, cultural conquest, AI updates and much more Get Ara: History Untold Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games, in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, announced Ara: History Untold – Version 2.0 today. Dubbed the Revolutions Update, version 2.0 i... [read more]
9/10/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold News
The Truth about AI in PC Strategy Games Multiplayer will not save your game. Strategy games must have computer opponents as a first-class game mode. They aren’t there to be “practice bots”. Even in games that are allegedly “multiplayer-centric”, fewer than 20% of players will press the multiplayer button, let alone actually play it. Yet many strategy games just handwave, putting in interesting computer opponents. You, reading this, know the folly of that, and yet they still do it. W... [read more]
9/4/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
v1.18 "Endorsement Reinforcements" Update Adding new Endorsements and Issue Get it Now | View the Changelog Below The Political Machine 2024 is a political simulation game that allows players to run their own presidential campaigns, navigate complex political landscapes, and engage with various issues and endorsements. The latest update, version 1.18, titled "Endorsement Reinforcements," introduces a few new features aimed at enhancing the gameplay experience without mak... [read more]
9/4/2025 By redskittlesonly in Political Machine News
In the original Ashes of the Singularity , we noted some key pain points when it came to producing units and managing armies in the late game. One of the first frustrations was the need to micromanage numerous production buildings during large-scale conflicts as the game progressed. You could dogpile engineers onto a single production building to make it construct faster, but if you were trying to field various cruisers, frigates, etc., you still would need to manage several different buildings... [read more]
9/3/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals
Exploring the Factions of Sins of a Solar Empire II: Unleashing Unique Technologies Sins of a Solar Empire II invites players into a universe of interstellar warfare, featuring three distinct races each split into two warring factions. With a total of six playable sides, each faction boasts its own unique technological innovations aimed at outsmarting and outpacing opponents. In part one of a two part series, we take a closer look at the first three factions and their standout technologie... [read more]
9/3/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals
New command ship class units and lore-driven factional victory conditions Players will experience fresh strategies on the battlefield September 25, 2025 Wishlist Now The battle for galactic control has evolved as all sides introduce deadly new ships and cunning methods of victory. Stardock has announced the Reinforcements DLC for Sins of a Solar Empire II , will launch on September 25, 2025. This content expansion introduces a brand-new command ship class—one u... [read more]
9/3/2025 By redskittlesonly in Sins of a Solar Empire News
How do you make nations more unique? When we began discussing Ara: History Untold 2.0, we asked: how do you make 40 different civilizations feel genuinely unique while maintaining strategic balance? The answer went deeper than a few superficial differences. We discovered that giving players ways to leverage systems and explore new tactics yielded the most rewarding experiences. Distinctive traits and unique units give Nations personality and don’t just challenge the player to find new ro... [read more]
8/28/2025 By wasabi_md in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
Making the map a character When you think about RTS games, what do you spend most of the time looking at? More than your base, more than your armies - it is the terrain itself. It sets the scale of the conflict, shapes how battles unfold, and creates the sense of immersion that keeps players engaged. For Ashes of the Singularity II, we wanted to push this further by creating maps that are larger, more detailed, and more responsive. Our work on Ara: History Untold taught us a lot about h... [read more]
8/27/2025 By Oxide_SatchP in Ashes Dev Journals
In Galactic Civilizations IV, Influence is a measure of your Empire’s overall cultural and logistical reach, and affects many other gameplay elements. Today I’m going to explain how to generate Culture, how that then spreads your Influence across the map, and why all this is important in your race to win the game. First let’s take a look at the bare basics of how Influence is generated. Each planet has a baseline statistic called Cultural Significance , representing it’s potential for the... [read more]
8/26/2025 By BATTLEMODE in GalCiv IV Dev Journals
I’m a UI guy. Most of my work over the years has been on software such as Fences, Start11, WindowBlinds, IconPackager, and countless other programs designed to improve the Windows experience. On Ara: History Untold , one of the first things we noticed was that the text and icons were blurry. Not a lot, but just enough to feel like an itch you couldn’t scratch. In fact, the entire UI carried that slight fuzziness. The cause was the game rendering at 720p under the hood and then scaling up to... [read more]
8/21/2025 By Frogboy in Ara: History Untold Dev Journals
Your Path to Economic Success in Sins of a Solar Empire II Knowing the basic of the economy in Sins of a Solar Empire II is crucial to your success early on and towards the end of your match. From diplomacy with alien empires, research and development, and the exploration of star systems, this video will explore many different strategies for economic warfare whether you're up against humans or computers. [read more]
8/20/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals
Updated: 22 Aug 2025 Oxide has always loved RTS games that go BIG. Big maps, sprawling bases, units all over the place - the whole chaotic sprawl. While we certainly love more ‘tactical’ RTS games as well, with Ashes of the Singularity, Oxide wanted to go BIG, harkening back to genre stalwarts like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander . However, as we prepared to develop Ashes of the Singularity II , we wanted to tackle the core problem of “BIG”. One key challenge was that th... [read more]
8/20/2025 By Oxide_BrettN in Ashes Dev Journals
The latest update for Ara: History Untold , v1.41, builds on the positive reception of the previous patch by introducing several quality of life improvements aimed at enhancing gameplay and usability. Full Changelog Below | Buy Ara: History Untold Gameplay and Balance Updates One of the most significant enhancements in this update is the ability to upgrade undeployed units directly from the Create Army screen. This streamlines the process of preparing your forces for ba... [read more]
8/19/2025 By redskittlesonly in Ara: History Untold News
Welcome to the Ashes of the Singularity universe! Today, I’m going to quickly walk us through some lore, focusing in on a key character and his lasting impact: Andy Lexus. There are some figures that become synonymous with their inventions and discoveries. Tesla and the power grid. Darwin and evolution. In the Ashes of the Singularity universe, the same could be said of Andy Lexus and artificial intelligence. When Andy Lexus achieved the first strong artificial intelligence with Haale... [read more]
8/13/2025 By Oxide_Gab in Ashes Dev Journals
In this installment of the Ship Series, we take a closer look at the Advent Revelation-class Battlecruiser. The Revelation is a versatile warship, with offensive, support, and planetary siege functionality. As with many Advent capital ships, the Revelation relies heavily on its host of Psintegrat. These psychic adepts are capable of shutting down both enemy ships and structures, including starbases. Additionally, they can focus their minds to support nearby friendly forces by boosting their psi ... [read more]
8/13/2025 By Yarlen in Sins Dev Journals
Up to 80% off Stardock 4X real-time and turn-based strategy games Now through August 18th [read more]
8/11/2025 By redskittlesonly in Stardock Entertainment Announcements
Choosing Your Capital Ship: The Key to Early Success in Sins of a Solar Empire II The beginning of a Sins of a Solar Empire II game is crucial, as your early choices can shape your entire strategy. One of the most pivotal decisions is selecting the Capital Ship that will lead your first fleet. In our latest video, we break down the five Capital Ships available to each of the three playable races, highlighting their strengths and how they can help you tackle the early game challenges. Whethe... [read more]
8/6/2025 By wasabi_md in Sins Dev Journals
Highly anticipated sequel features larger battles, advanced units, and a new campaign to lead humanity against hostile AI takeover Wishlist Ashes II Now Stardock and Oxide Games today announced Ashes of the Singularity II , the highly anticipated sequel to the groundbreaking, massive-scale RTS that redefined real-time strategy gaming a decade ago. Set to release in 2026, exactly ten years after the original, the game invites players to engage in strategic battles of unprecedented scale,... [read more]
8/6/2025 By redskittlesonly in Stardock Entertainment Announcements
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