The diplomacy system is undergoing improvements currently so nobody other than the devs can comment on how it will be. Right now, there are 3 alliance options: military (ships don't fire at each other), trade (trade ships go between the players), and intel (one sees what the other sees). All special abilities that target friendlies start working on your military ally (really military goes hand in hand with trade, since otherwise your trade ships would all get shot up ), which means you can combine races for some very powerful combos, and join fleets in general for massive battles.



Currently, military is the main way to win. In FFA games, you can win if the remaining players are in an alliance (say, 6 person FFA game and 3 all ally with each other, as soon as the other 3 are eliminated, the alliance wins). Culture also plays an important role, but it's very difficult to win through culture alone if you're playing an opponent with experience.



You can give credits and resources, but as the races have different techs, those aren't exchangeable.



That's how it works Repair stations, trade ships flying to your ally's trade ports, joining fleets for attacks..



Oh, already answered above An alliance can win, but every player in it needs to be allied with each other. For example, if player A is allied with B and C, but B and C are at war, the game won't end. But if A, B, and C are all allied with each other, the game will end in an alliance victory.



This has been discussed and suggested, but I don't believe we ever got a concrete response on whether or not we will have a permanent scoreboard of sorts.



The galaxy generator has been removed from the 2 latest betas, but don't worry, it'll definitely be in at release



Do you mean design ships in game? Then no, that won't be in. It's just a different kind of game. For one, designing ships takes time, and with everything in real-time it becomes cumbersome. Then there's the whole balancing issue, etc etc. However, Sins is amazingly moddable, so you will be able to create lots of nifty stuff. There are many weapon types to play with, and you will be able to create your own meshes and such as well.



In truth, we don't really know MP beta is played in Flagship mode, where everyone gets a level 3 capital of their choice for free at the start. We know normal mode will be in, where you have to research/pay for your first capital, but beyond that we don't have any info.



Because the game is still changing and focused primarily on MP balance/bug testing, the AI has taken a seat back until all the changes are finalized and a good AI can be created from the start, without having the devs re-create the AI every time something big changes. So, for now you'll hear that the AI is pretty poor, but rest assured the devs do want to give us a fun and challenging AI



You might hear various opinions on this. The game follows the model "easy to learn, difficult to master". The races (2 of the 3 we have access to) have similar structures, resource collection, and some similar ship roles (missile ships, light carriers, 'line' frigates), but they have diverse tech trees and special abilities. Capital ships in Sins add a lot of tactical and strategic depth to the game, and make differences between races like light and day. For example, the Vasari (experts in phase technology) have a ship that can bypass phase jump inhibitors and open a phase gate at its location to allow you to jump your fleet into that planet's gravity well from any other phase gate you have built. That means you can sneak into your opponent's backyard and jump in your whole fleet, bypassing all of his stationary defenses at the forward planets. The TEC, on the other hand, have more traditional/supportive abilities. Their carrier can instantly replenish its fighter/bomber forces, one of their support capitals can create a cease fire in the whole gravity well, so on so forth. So, while the basic way the races are played as far as construction/resource gathering are the same, there is an enormous amount of difference in how the races actually play.

And the game was specifically not designed as rock-paper-scissors, except for a select few examples (and even then, not extreme ones).

And when they say it is being worked on, they mean it is being completely redone.

Tell what ship which ship to attack and which abilities to use. That or you can just turn certain abilities off autocast (capital ships that can colonize planets will go to colonize the planet even if there are 100 enemy units next to it ). Ships might also be dumb and go after a small frigate that does 8 damage rather than the heavy cruiser that does 20.

Thanks again for your answers!



What are those situational abilities and manouvers?

Yarlen-


Yep using Forge Tools you can pretty much do anything  

Yeah they do, thanks!! ...but to be honest, I don't mind more examples, because it sounds like it could be fun using those





You guys are saying that they're rebuilding major and utmost important aspects of the game, like diplomacy, while also adding another race and enabling more game modes and bringing a galaxy customizer back in. This is next to even more work thay have to do to get the game done and to top it off there's even more secret stuff they're saying they're including in the final release. They're going to do all that and *after that* they really start working on the AI? Maybe I'm getting it wrong, but if they couldn't build a convincing AI in all the dev time until now, how are they going to build a superb AI till February? I hope they pull it off!




Can you play the beta till final release or does the beta end some day before release?


What about disconnecters? Are people leaving the game when they're not winning? Can someone else take the place, i.e. can you join an ongoing multiplayer game?

You will find in it's final implemenation that this is well beyond well-known RTS titles.

 

Also, you probably didn't see the thread by our resident video maker guru, Multianna.

Check it here!

If you don't mind long downloads, he's got high quality gameplay videos from each beta, with the beta 4 video being an actual MP game so you can get a good idea at how it's played outside of demos, as well as see some of the cool abilities in action

Technicalities It still has support capabilities! However, by 'support' I meant that their uses lie outside of direct combat, plus I did mention that each of them plays pretty differently from their racial counterpart

Though, in the files they are identified as the battleship, carrier, and 3 utility ships, meaning the Advent will get a battleship and a carrier, but may not get a dreadnought.

The current TEC and Vasari lineup also names them Utility A, B and C. The Marza/Desolator is considered a utility ship for some reason. I think they're pretty straightforward planet killers.

What about the customization that we had in gal civ2? that u somehow could customize your own ships, it would be a lot of fun, instead of all vasari/ TEC / Advent ships look the same. Especially if there are two players who wanna play the same faction.

Actually, I believe they said you could use mods to edit ships -- in or out game graphics-only modding ala GalCiv2 isn't going to happen.