So, for those of you that may find the mod through this very post, let's start with the biggest question: What the hell is this?
Sins of the Prophets is an award winning total conversion mod for the RTS game Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion based on the Halo universe of Xbox fame. The mod features the human United Nations Space Command and the alien hegemony The Covenant, along with some Forerunner flair here and there. Gameplay focuses on fast paced fleet combat utilizing sophisticated tactics and long term strategy to beat your opponent or survive invasions from the parasitic Flood. SotP battles have often been called devastating slugfests with decisive ends. If you've found that Sins of a Solar Empire may be too slow for you this is your mod!
The mod is available at: Moddb.com for free and the game SoaSE Rebellion is available on Steam: Store.steampowered.com. While the DLC is not necessary, it is supported by the mod and you are missing out on interesting gameplay by not getting it.
Q: Why are release cycles so slow and when will we see the next release?
A: Releases are so far apart for two reasons. First of all, we are all working professionals or college students and our time is incredibly limited, so change comes slowly. Secondly, with each release we find flaws in our gameplay that we want to adjust and it generally requires us to shift everything in the mod to do so. With the latest release we discovered some glaring issues in the balance that affects every ship in some small way, so we're having to just that, make adjustments to every ship in the mod. So, lots of changes with little time to do them stretches out the release schedules. We'd like another release out before ModDB's Mod of the Year contest, hopefully with some more ships updated and textured. We'll see if time permits that.
Q: Will you bring back the Eion?
A: Yes. It's replaced the Athens in the current dev build.
Q: Is the Infinity coming? When? Will it have deployable Stridents?
A: The Infinity is coming eventually. As of late the artist working on texturing the model is very busy with the real world, so we've not seen much since we updated you last. When we have something to show off keep your eyes on our ModDB profile and Facebook page. It will have the frigates when that ship is textured as well.
Q: What's up with the Covenant titan? It's kinda small and odd looking.
A: The Covenant titan is the Battleship (or Super-destroyer depending on if you have a first edition copy of the comic it was in) from the Second Battle of Harvest. The model itself currently in-game is a placeholder that will be replaced when we have the right model textured. However, the ship itself is not huge. Size doesn't always relate to power.
Q: Will you add the Covenant Supercarrier from Halo Reach?
A: No. If you Google "Covenant Supercarrier Sins of the Prophets" you'll probably find very elaborate explanations that we've given in the past for why we're making that decision. Suffice it to say that the ship doesn't fit our vision for the mod and is an eyesore in the Halo universe.
Q: The Covenant doesn't seem as finished as the UNSC, why is that?
A: Because it's not. We started with the human faction and there's still a lot of work to do on the Covenant. There is still a lot of work to do for both factions, but we'll get there.
Q: Do you plan on putting High Charity into the game?
A: Yes we do. The current Covenant starbase is a placeholder for something more like the Unyielding Hierophant from Halo: First Strike. The current plan is to have the Covenant homeworld be High Charity. More on that later.
Q: Will the Halo rings and shield worlds have an actual purpose?
A: The shield worlds already have a purpose, they're fortress worlds usually with amazing benefits. Halo installations are a much harder thing to nail down. We're not comfortable with making them super weapons. There is a lot more going to be done when we have a few more Forerunner things modeled and textured, but that takes time and manpower we don't currently have.
Q: Will the Forerunners still be a faction? How will they work?
A: A lot of what the Forerunners will be hinges on the final balance between UNSC and Covenant, so we can't say exactly how they'll work yet. However, something to keep in mind is that this faction is being called the "Forerunner Remnant" and they will be a shadow of their former glory. Not many Forerunners themselves survive and much of their force is going to be some variation of sentinel along with large command and control ships.
Q: The Flood always seem to wreck my games, what can I do?
A: Turn them off in Game Options before you start the match. "Flood Inactive" is the recommended setting for playing a standard game of SotP. Flood stunt the performance of faction AIs severely. Flood planets may still exist, but they won't be actively hunting for prey.
Q: Why won't the Flood be a faction?
A: Because we don't want it to be. Right now we're completely focused on the UNSC vs Covenant gameplay. However, even when we finish that and move to the Forerunner expansion the Flood will stay as they are. Keeping them in the AI-controlled pirate role gives us a ton of flexibility we wouldn't otherwise have. It's a conscious design decision and we're sticking to it.
Q: I don't have many friends, but I want to play some games with humans. Any help?
A: You could try making friends at our forums, Steam Group, or Facebook page.
Q: How can I help out the mod?
A: We need experienced modelers and texture artists, as well as people who have experience making particle effects in SoaSE. If you can't do any of that, tell others about the mod and participate in our community events and polls.
If we didn't answer your question above, feel free to ask below and a staff member will try to respond in a timely manner.
