Sins of a Solar Empire, the sci-fi real time strategy game, is boldly going where no strategy game has gone before. As far as I know, no strategy game has added diplomacy into the mix after it was released. You can't just slap onto a game the option to negotiate your way out a war. But as they demonstrated with the Entrenchment add-on, the developers at Ironclad aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and completely rework the balance of their game. They're at it again.

Starting today, you can get an early look at what they're doing. Pre-orders for the February expansion pack, Diplomacy, get to partake of an early build.

All Diplomacy pre-orders will be charged on Monday with access to the beta (which will not be fun, per our usual disclaimer). Beta 1 will not be feature complete but will contain: New Envoy cruisers, Embassies, Diplomacy tech tree (much more to come here, only the backbone will be present), Mission Generator, the beginnings of the Pirate changes, "Faster" gameplay options and more.