A Dynamic Galaxy: Planets orbit their stars in real-time causing the galaxy's structure to slowly change, creating new battle fronts and new opportunities. Players can view the state of the galaxy up to an hour in the future to prepare their strategies.
3 Unique Races: It's War Year 35 and the emergent TEC, alien Vasari, and deviant Advent have been forced to adapt and evolve to survive.
- TEC: The inhabitants of this region of the galaxy, the TEC are humans who have joined together as the Trader Emergency Coalition to combat the alien Vasari empire. They rely heavily on trade to support their industrial base and augment resource income.
- Vasari: Ten thousand years ago, the Vasari Empire once ruled over hundreds of planets and dozens of sentient species. Now on the run from an unknown enemy they use their mastery of phase space to conquer and acquire resources to continue their exodus.
- Advent: A civilization of humans who were forcibly outcast by the Traders over a thousand years ago, the deviant Advent have returned with technologically amplified psionics and the power of the Unity - a devastating expression of their collective will.
Each race features unique starting conditions, gameplay mechanics, units, abilities, items, and technologies. Their game changing new Empire Systems add a whole new level of strategic capabilities:
- TEC Trade: The new TEC trade system enables them to dynamically adapt their economy by adjusting the allocation of traded resources on demand.
- Vasari Phase Resonance: Strategically placed structures collect Phase Resonance allowing the Vasari to customize their global phase mastery effects.
- Advent Unity: Enables the Advent to harness the collective will of their population, unlocking the full potential of the Unity's global abilities.
6 Playable Factions: The parent races are further differentiated by unique sub-factions each with their own unique features and play styles that reflect their motivations and goals. For example, the TEC: Primacy is a xenophobic 'human first' empire focused on aggression and the Vasari: Exodus is willing to destroy planets to fuel their mobile empire.
Combat Simulation: A detailed combat simulation adds incredible depth to tactical gameplay. Turrets with their own pitch and tracking speeds make firing solutions important in battles. Fully simulated missiles can be blocked by ships or destroyed by point defense. New mechanics around shields, armor and hull points give greater depth to units and tactical decisions.
Empire Management: All planets and ships can now be easily analyzed, customized, and upgraded in one place without the tedium of finding and clicking through all units in your empire. The Intelligent Construction system will queue up the entire chain of prerequisites to fulfill any item, research, or unit build request.
Fleet Management: The new fleet system includes the ability to request specific reinforcements on the fly. Requested units are automatically queued from the optimal factory and rallied to the fleet. Combined with Intelligent Construction this allows you to focus on the important tactical decisions and big picture strategy.
Unit Customization: Planet surfaces can now be customized with special items that vary by race and planet type. Capital ships, titans and starbases can also be customized with race specific items to fill gaps in the fleet's composition or target specific strategies.
Minor Factions: Numerous minor factions now inhabit the galaxy offering trade, auctions for rare items, and with enough influence, access to their most powerful abilities. Will you befriend them or annihilate them to keep your enemies from turning them against you?
Diplomacy: New features include a new offer / counteroffer system, the ability to give or demand planets, and the game changing time locked cease-fires that prevent your 'ally' from backstabbing you until it expires - but keep on eye on the time!
Multicore 64-bit Engine: The Sins II engine can utilize all available cores and RAM to maximize performance, now and into the future. Dynamic lighting, physically based rendering, higher resolution textures and more create a beautiful tapestry.
10-Player Multiplayer Support: A cloud based online system supports both 'join codes' and lobbies to make it easier than ever to play with others. Games can now be rejoined in progress if a player drops or has to leave; humans can even take over for AI players if a friend joins late.
In-game Mod Support: Mod support has been integrated into the game, making it easy to discover, install, and share mods. Custom maps are automatically shared for multiplayer games, preventing the hassle of everyone downloading ahead of time.
Easy to Learn; Hard to Master: With an elegant and intuitive user interface Sins II is easy to pick up and play. However, mastering your chosen faction will take true skill.
