Capital Ship Crews work like Supply Points and are needed to field capital ships (in addition to 50 fleet supply points) the number of Crews available determines how many capital ships the player can make. They can be increased by researching increases in fleet logistic capacity, but this simultaneously lowers all resource income, as more resources are required to maintain larger fleets. Supply Points are used up when ships are purchased, and cannot be accumulated, acting as a population cap for the player's fleet. Selling or buying too much of either resource can cause market prices to rise and fall dramatically.Ĭertain more intangible resources include Supply Points and Capital Ship Crews. A Black Market feature allows players to convert unneeded Metal and Crystal into Credits or vice-versa. Crystal is the rarest resource, which can be mined from asteroids like Metal it is used for advanced technology and building certain advanced ships. Metal is the most common resource in the game, and is gathered by building extractors on asteroids it is used to construct basic ships and structures. Credits are the general currency used by the three races in the game, and are gained by completing missions, collecting bounties, creating a trade network, and taxing planets. Sins of a Solar Empire has three main resources to gather: Credits, Metal, and Crystal. Ironclad Director Blair Fraser asserted that the game's " Iron engine" is specially designed with new technologies that allow it to handle very large differences in size, scale, and distance. Players can conquer neighboring planets and explore distant star systems in a "massively scaled, fully 3D environment featuring entire galaxies, orbiting planets, clusters of asteroids, space dust and radiant stars." Notably, there is no single-player campaign mode, but games can be played against AI opponents offline and other players online.
It features a sandbox mode, allowing the player to choose different types of solar systems to unlock achievements.
The playing field is a 3D web of planets and other celestial objects in the orbital plane of one or more stars.
Sins of a Solar Empire is a space-bound game.