The Sins of a Solar Empire 2 campaign DLC is still coming, but it's years away – "We have a duty to deliver"

Release present scheduled for 2027

When Sins of a Solar Empire 2 launched from aboriginal entree successful September 2024, its premium variation and contented walk promised thing nary different crippled successful the bid had delivered: a singleplayer campaign.

The Times of War DLC would for the archetypal clip springiness you an authored communicative and acceptable of missions for each faction. Originally announced for merchandise successful "Fall 2025", determination are players of the bid who person waited astir 20 years for this, and they're inactive waiting due to the fact that there's nary motion of the DLC yet. Nor Harbinger, the enlargement bringing a 4th playable contention to Sins of a Solar Empire 2.

"They're decidedly inactive connected the roadworthy map," improvement pb Brian Clair tells me, "but we've shifted them astir a bit."

Clair and I spoke up of Sins of a Solar Empire 2's 1.5 update, which overhauls the AI of NPC factions and adds a suite of diplomacy tools. However, it doesn't bring Harbinger oregon Times of War. "They're some precocious up connected the roadworthy map," Clair says. "We've promised this worldly to radical who bought the premium variation with the contented pass, truthful we person a work to deliver."

The squad had "originally planned to bash the run first," Clair explains, but Stardock volition alternatively enactment connected Harbinger next. "The crushed for that is we privation to person the 4th faction successful the campaign, and it would beryllium truly hard to person them successful the run earlier we really had the assets made," Clair says. "It conscionable made logical consciousness to swap it." Clair says Harbinger is acceptable for merchandise successful precocious 2026, with Times of War present owed successful 2027.

That's a hefty hold and 1 that leaves players who person paid wealth for a DLC perchance waiting 3 years for its release. Though, signs of Stardock's advancement toward the run are trickling down into Sins 2. In the Paths to Power DLC, released successful March this year, Stardock added scenarios. These mission-driven maps gave players objectives and peculiar triumph conditions, thing that hadn't appeared successful immoderate erstwhile crippled successful the series. "That was really the instauration for the campaign," Clair says. "We're going to request to usage each those systems to marque the run happen."

Image credit: Stardock Entertainment

While that whitethorn beryllium the archetypal measurement successful gathering a campaign, determination is inactive a agelong mode to go. Even now, adding a caller script is simply a fiddly business. "You occurrence up VS code, and you're manus penning retired the JSON to bring this together," Clair says. "As a developer, I tin bash it, but it's truly going to dilatory it down." It's overmuch worse for modders. Next year, on with the propulsion to implicit Harbinger, Stardock plans "to physique a instrumentality to streamline [scenario creation] and not conscionable for us, but truthful modders tin usage it too."

Then, with Times of War, Stardock wants to stock the tools it makes to physique its campaign, truthful modders tin archer much analyzable stories than those imaginable successful azygous scenarios. "What they're going to beryllium getting erstwhile we tackle the run successful afloat is the quality to bring each those unneurotic into a coherent full and adhd successful much to it, cinematics, customized triumph conditions depending connected your communicative path, that benignant of thing," Clair says.

Sins has an progressive modding scene, twisting its real-time abstraction operas into antithetic shapes. Some original, some, er, much Star Trek adjacent. So, portion specified a agelong hold is frustrating, the imaginable of modders getting their hands connected the tools to make their ain campaigns alongside each their existent tools is an breathtaking one. Now if lone idiosyncratic were to mod successful a Tribble faction, past I could let my excitement to scope fever pitch.