Faction Titans detailed for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Ironclad has dropped a few details regarding the stand-alone expansion to Sins of a Solar Empire, Rebellion, starting with the division of the game's three factions and the Titans they will be commanding.

Speaking in an interview with GameSpy (via VE3D), Stardock producer Brian Clair said the TEC, Advent, and Vasari have each been divided into Loyalist and a Rebel factions. The differences between playing each faction will depend on which race the player chooses.

"The TEC Loyalists are very defensive. If you're a gamer who likes to turtle, they're probably the best suited for you," said Clair. "They've been designed with that in mind. The TEC Rebels are very aggressive, so if you're a player who likes to go out, doesn't turtle at all, moves very quickly from one target to the next, they would fit you the best.

"The Vasari Loyalists... I don't want to give too much away, but they're offensive. They've gone back to their original roots, if you will, whereas the Vasari Rebels have decided to go down that diplomatic route. I don't want to say they're more of a peacenik faction, because that's not true of any Vasari, but they want to get along as much as they can."

Clair said what defines each faction is its super-capital ship, a Titan, which is "very defensively oriented, in terms of giving defensive buffs to surrounding fleets so they survive longer."

For example, the TEC Loyalists' research gives the faction bonuses when in their own territory, thus rewarding the player for slowly progressing and "not rampaging, destroying everything in sight."

There will also be varying differences between faction Titans, which will be dividied into six distinctive versions, each with its own abilities and statistics.

Like capital ships, which have three regular abilities and an ultimate ability unlockable at level six, Titans are similar but also have a set of unlockable "passive abilities" enabling certain areas of the ship to be stronger, and offensively make the ship more powerful.

"It basically goes down to their factional view and their racial view," Clair explained. "The TEC, of all three races, are probably the least technologically developed overall. Their Titans tend to be utilitarian, they're very militaristic-looking, they're not very elegant to look at. But they're powerful, they get the job done, based on whether you're a Rebel or a Loyalist.

"The Advent are very culture-based, so their Titans have nice curves, not sharp angles, and they use their psionic abilities to the utmost. So for instance, if you were playing with one of the Advent Titans, you have an opportunity to mind-control enemy ships, or take over enemy planets simply with your psionic power. And then there's the typical weapon differences, where the Advent are into beam weapons and the TEC are into autocannons and that sort of more mundane stuff. As a broad overview, that's the high-level difference."

You can read the entire interview through the link, and be sure to check out shots of the Advent, TEC, and Vasari Titans below in the gallery.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion will be released on PC "when it's done."