History VideoGame / SinsOfASolarEmpire

* GutturalGrowler: The Vasari are an entire race of bad [[VideoGame/MetalGear Revolver Ocelot]] and [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Dinobot]]/[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Lord Bale]] impersonators, barring a few exceptions such as the captains of the Vulkoras Desolator and Vorastra Titan, who sound like space orcs, and the Rankulas Battleship, whose captain sounds like a stereotypical mad scientist.

The game was designed from the ground up to be playable on a wide spectrum of hardware configurations, including ones most of its contemporaries would write off as "obsolete"; this didn't hurt sales by any means. It was also free of CopyProtection, making headlines at a time when invasive, unnecessary DRM was turning people off ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}''. A pirated copy was essentially a fully-functional demo, allowing you to skirmish against AI but not to play over the Internet; you needed to ''buy'' the game for that. Those who held pro-DRM attitudes predicted failure, but as of September 2008 ''Sins'' had sold 500,000 copies, recouping its $1M development costs months before any of the $10 {{Expansion Pack}}s came out. (There's no hard data as to how and why this game managed to be financially successful, but you can guess what most tropers think. Having said that, Ironclad Games eventually switched to UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, and more pertinently Valve Anti-Cheat, as their distribution method.)

In September 2022, ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpireII'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppdCADwgoOU was announced]] and went into early access through the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore on October 28, 2022.

* GutturalGrowler: The Vasari are an entire race of bad [[Franchise/MetalGear Revolver Ocelot]] and [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Dinobot]]/[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Lord Bale]] impersonators, barring a few exceptions such as the captains of the Vulkoras Desolator and Vorastra Titan, who sound like space orcs, and the Rankulas Battleship, whose captain sounds like a stereotypical mad scientist.

* CloningBlues: Because of their dramatically reduced population, the Vasari are forced to clone their best commanders on a regular basis in order to field more capital ships.

* LadyLand: Downplayed with the Advent. All the voice samples you hear in-game are female, and women are stated to be over-represented in high ranks, but male acolytes and leaders can still be seen in the artwork. This imbalance is stated to be because their social structure is based on PsychicPowers, and Advent females [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority tend to be the stronger psychics]].

In September 2022, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppdCADwgoOU a sequel was announced]], though not much has been revealed about it yet.

* ReconcileTheBitterFoes: Attempted by all sides in ''Diplomacy'', presumably with some localised success, but still ongoing as of ''Rebellion''. Official policy for the Vasari Rebels (who want to form a united front against the UltimateEvil chasing their race), although they aren't above using GunboatDiplomacy to achieve it.

* UltimateEvil: The unknown enemy hunting the Vasari. Its precise nature is the source of much WildMassGuessing among fans.

* ParadisePlanet: Each species has their own version on what planets interest them the most. Slightly subverted as Terran and Ocean planets usually have higher populations in general. However, the TEC, being standard humans, put the most effort into making Terran-like planets habitable. The Advent prefer desert planets like the one they arose upon. The Vasari put the most effort into making it easier to live on volcanic planets. It's not explained if the Vasari originated on a volcanic planet or simply prefer them for their capacity to generate power and hasten their manufacturing and "grab and run" policies.

* AbsurdlyHugePopulation: Downplayed. Presumably the population numbers are in millions of people. Therefore, at that highest end (with max planetary upgrades w/ social specialization, the Plantary Organic AI artifact, the Ancient Arcology planetary bonus, and using TEC Terran upgrades) the max population a planet can get is 1,972 units of people. Again, presumably, that's only 1.972 billion people which is rather low all things considered. It's the rate of population growth which is absurd at that point given that, at most, a map is taking place only within 30 years based on the lore. Granted, a lot of the growth is implied to be immigration, but with that entire population being annihilated in 3 or 4 nova cannon shots, it makes you wonder why they even bother.

** The Ragnarov Titan takes this UpToEleven as nothing but a giant cannon with gun placements on the side and engines on the back of it.

* LightningBruiser: Late game Vasari fleets. Their ships have a nasty combination of damage, shields, and hull armor that makes engaging them in a straight fight nearly impossible if both sides are closely matched. With phase stabilizers and a Kostura Cannon their entire fleet can show up anywhere on most maps in one jump making them nearly impossible to set up hardened defenses against or sneak attack. UpToEleven if the fleet is escorted by an Antorak Marauder with the Distort Gravity ability, which improves the speed, acceleration, and phase jump range of all nearby ships.

** The Titans run on this trope and can destroy whole fleets by themselves. All of them except for the the Advent Loyalists' Coronata, possess area-effect abilities that can annihilate entire fleets of sub-capital ships, and they all also possess lots of straight-up firepower on top of that. The TEC Rebels' Ragnarov is perhaps the most extreme example - it's a massive gun, with more guns attached to it, and it takes everything exemplified by the Marza and turns it UpToEleven.

** Starbases with high defensive upgrades but no weapon upgrades qualify. Certain capital ships can also qualify depending on how you assign their abilities--special note goes to a Kol with points in Adaptive Force Field but none in Gauss Rail Gun, making it extremely tough but giving it no offensive capability against other ships besides its standard weapon banks (UpToEleven if its ultimate ability comes into play).

* GameplayandStorySegregation: According to the lore, the TEC Rebels, Vasari Loyalists and Advent Loyalists are all hostile and uncompromising, while the TEC Loyalists, Vasari Rebels and Advent Rebels are more open to diplomacy. Yet in the actual gameplay, all six factions are equally capable of forging and maintaining alliances with anyone.

* AbsurdlyHugePopulation: Downplayed. Presumably the population numbers are in millions of people. Therefore, at that highest end (with max planetary upgrades w/ social specialization, the Plantary Organic AI artifact, and using TEC Terran upgrades) the max population a planet can get is 1,894 units of people. Again, presumably, that's only 1.894 billion people which is rather low all things considered. It's the rate of population growth which is absurd at that point given that, at most, a map is taking place only within 30 years based on the lore. Granted, a lot of the growth is implied to be immigration, but with that entire population being annihilated in 3 or 4 nova cannon shots, it makes you wonder why they even bother.

* OneFederationLimit: The TEC, although argument could be made that they are more of a HegemonicEmpire (albeit a fractured one as of ''Rebellion''). Vasari are the game's obligatory [[TheEmpire empire]] (of the [[VestigialEmpire vestigal]] variety) and the Advent are an interesting variation on the HiveMind

* VestigialEmpire: The Vasari once ruled a great interstellar empire that was destroyed by some unknown menace. The Vasari you see in the game are the descendents (and tag-alongs) of a ''single remote colony'' that autonomously decided to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere pack up and leave]]. They still follow many of their old imperial practices, such as "Locking down" a planet and enslaving the populace, but these days it's more because it's the only way they can work fast enough to survive rather than to build an empire. See We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future below.

*** Capital Victory: Simply knock out their capitals.

* DirtyCommies: The planetary modifier "Ordered Society" from ''Forbidden Worlds'' marginally improves mining output and taxes but penalizes culture, allegiance and trade income. Given that the Allegiance drop practically negates the advantages it grants, it's one of the worse options, albeit not as awful as [[AnarchyIsChaos the Chaotic Society]. Telling, the icon for this trait is a honeycomb.

*** [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Loyalist Vasari]] want [[IDidWhatIHadToDo to strip mine the local systems using enslaved humans workers]] and [[ExitPursuedByABear make a run for the next region of space]] before the unknown threat arrives; [[NobleDemon Rebel Vasari]] want to do the same thing [[AdoptTheDog but bring humanity with them]], even if preparing the disorganized TEC for the journey costs them time and forces both to make [[BackToBackBadasses a desperate stand together against the unknown enemy]] - it probably won't end well, [[FireForgedFriends but apparently humanity has proven themselves to be worth the risk.]]