Sword of the Stars II government and three-planes combat detailed

Kerebos's Martin Cirulis has shed some light on changes to Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter's "three plane" combat, which allows the turn-based, 4X game to represent the 3D nature of space battles.

"The three planes will allow players to not only change the altitude of a ship with the press of a key but also allow players to create fully 3D formations; something they have been asking for since the original game," the CEO and lead designer told Gamespot.

"Other combat features will be a whole set of preset combat maneuvers, like jinking and strafing, as well as movement modes that will allow ships to travel faster tactically at the cost of scanning distance and weapon rate of fire.

"This means players will be able to drive hard and fast for their objectives deep in a system but will have to take into account things like being ambushed."

Cirullis also spoke on the game's government system.

"Unlike in other grand strategy games where players simply pick which government type or philosophy they would like their empire to follow based on a simple list of advantages and disadvantages, SotSII keeps track of a large number of decisions you make economically, militarily, and diplomatically and uses them to eventually tell you what government type you have become," he said.

"Some choices may move you toward the libertarian side of things, while making hard calls may lean you toward a plutocracy or even a junta-style government.

"The political spectrum of SotSII runs along a two-axis system and allows for eight possible government styles, in addition to the middle-of-the-road social democracy."

Lords of Winter is the sequel to Kerberos's 2006 original, which saw three expansions. It's due in September through Paradox Interactive.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.