Space is so infinite, you have to wonder what is out there if anything. In the upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire (which is set to be released next year) an Empire find themselves wondering the same thing, as they branch out to find what awaits them in the eternal darkness. Mixing sci-fi storylines and elements into a real-time strategy game, we got to ask Blair Fraser - Producer at Ironclad Games - some questions about what we can expect from the game.

What is the story of Sins of a Solar Empire?

The Sins story starts 10,000 years before the events in the game, when the Vasari Empire ruled over a quarter of the galaxy. A cataclysmic event brought their rule to an abrupt end and with their species all but wiped out; the survivors began a desperate race to outrun their past.

Towards the end of the Vasari's exodus, humanity began to sprawl across a different region of the galaxy. After a brief period of strife, the many worlds organized into a Trade Order and enjoyed an age of peace and prosperity. During the Trade Order's formation, they exiled a group of colonies to the fringe of their occupied space for their scientific and social deviancy. Jumping ahead to 10 years before the present: the Vasari are still on the run, and have encountered the edge of the Trade Order's space. Unsurprised to find another species occupying the local area, they intended to easily conquer and acquire resources before moving on, just like they had on every prior step of their exodus. However, things work out differently this time. Though the humans initially suffer heavy losses due to their lack of war technology, strategy and organization, over the course of a decade they manage to adapt and now have the desperate Vasari in a stalemate. Unfortunately for the newly formed Trader Emergency Coalition, the improvement in their situation is brief. Calling themselves "The Advent", their exiled brethren have returned with an almost religious fervor for retribution. Now, the already struggling Trader Emergency Coalition finds itself caught in a two-front war that appears utterly hopeless.

On the game's website it says that each of the three races have their own play styles and other like minded characteristics. How exactly do the three races play differently from each other?

They differ in many ways ranging from their ships, special abilities, structures, research topics, planet preferences and resource needs, as well as some special interactions we can't talk about at this time. Without going into minute detail, the idea is that each race's gameplay uniqueness is derived directly from the lore behind the race. For example, the human's Trader Emergency Coalition had its roots in a commercial empire so they are great at making money, trading and economics-related operations. When it comes to warfare, the TEC is way behind the curve; having existed for almost 1000 years in relative peace. This is reflected in their almost ubiquitous use of "old" kinetic weapons, crude nukes and a fleet primarily consisting of hastily converted commercial ships. While still human, The Advent have evolved biologically, socially and technologically in a much different direction in the years since their exile. They are now the masters of social control, energy weapons and PsiTech - a strange new melding of mind power and technology. Unfortunately, to make full use of this power, their ships must be constructed with materials that aren't very effective as armor. This further increases their dependence on energy weapons and defenses, which the other races can exploit. Having controlled over a quarter of the galaxy, the Vasari are very accustomed to ruling from space. They have long since mastered a variety of technologies the other races are only beginning to start experimenting with. Nanotechnology and Phase space manipulation are their specialties, and they make use of them in a variety of ways. Given that most their race has been wiped out and they've been on the run for over 10,000 years, there isn't much left of the fleet. So, while powerful, the Vasari ships are few in number and tend to be quite expensive. And of course, being on the run means they had to figure out ways to quickly grab resources, often to the detriment of any indigenous life.

Does all the action of the game take place above the orbit of the planets, or will players go down to the actual planets to resource gather or battle?

Yes, all the non-abstracted action of the game takes place in space. While the Iron Engine is technically capable of scaling down to the planet, we felt ground-based battles would make the game unmanageable in real-time. It has already been quite a job making the current scale something that players could reasonably handle. However, this isn't to say the surface of planets isn't an important part of gameplay. Structures are built on both the surface and in orbit. Decisions as to what is built on the surface are constrained by a variety of tradeoffs and are much more restricted than those in orbit. Each planet type has its own degree of racial suitability, resource availability and usable surface area, to name a few attributes. We also felt it was very important that there was a variety of ways for each race to interact with the surface of planets from space, so you will see things like the Vasari's giant resource-sucking vortex.