[quote who="Yurka_Sanctuary" reply="21" id="3162713"] ... But then again, it's a universe where no one has tried strapping phase engines to a planet. [/quote] Strikecraft -> Corvettes -> Frigates/Cruisers -> Cap Ships -> Titans/SBs -> Attack Planets? A whole new level for Sins 2 perhaps...
The AI is still a work in progress but I've noticed that it makes a better ally (I only play SP) than in trinity. It's more supportive without being told to be and especially for the Advent it's using superweapons better - firing at planets it or I was attacking not just randomly. Once I had a starbase slowly loosing to a titan in an otherwise empty gravwell but it was keeping the titan busy while I attacked on another front. Eventually a single subjugator
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Just loaded up a game where I had five artifact planets, stripped em all and lost em all.
Actually I do use them heavily in SP and love them but they are very easily undervalued: - Missile swarm is one of those abilities that is underpowered for the first couple of levels and only pays off when maxed so first impression tends to be lousy and it takes a while to get worth the points. - Assault spec really helps against structures when pacifiying the grav well and then the planet afterward but it's passive so isn't obvi
I would hazard a guess that The Maw doesn't actually "kill" but is more a super instant salvage mechanic and thus doesn't trigger the experience process. Not a bad balancing aspect for such an insanely powerful ability IMO - it is capable of instagibbing huge numbers of enemies and turning them into resources in your bank afterall. I agree with the need for a bit more hardening and firepower since it has to get level 6 to use it's most powerful ab
I was a bit shocked when I read the duration increase numbers. I figured 75 at level 1 and 90 and level 2 would be lots and incredibly ugly when facing it as an enemy. I'm wondering if IC didn't overdo it on purpose to show how powerful it is and plan to bring back down to somewhere between the two extremes.
There is still the antimatter cost for a phase jump itself, the tech just protects ships from the additional loss of AM and HP from starbase effect.
Well that's kinda lousy. Should work everywhere since it's only ships and not starbases isn't it? Double natural regen speed on the titan would help a bit in long battles, maybe high level cap ships too but compared to the extra 2% mitigation loyalists get somehow "meh" comes to mind.
Flak burst on the Kol and TK push on the Halcyon don't seem to do anything anymore. Never have seen any effect from militia weaponry although militia armour is working fine. Obviously this game is a labour of love - truly impressive.
Wow quite the response, thanks. Yeah back in the early days of Steam I had problems with it and most importantly had it creating problems with the computer. I got crap for support, etc etc, uninstalled Steam and swore to never install it again. Bad enough of an experience I was really hoping it would fail and something better (less controlling/offensive) would come along. Also on the moral side of things I believe that after paying a whack
will I be able to buy and play without Steam? I love Sins and planned to buy Rebellion the second I heard of it but I refuse to install that POS on my computer so I'm wondering if there's another option.
[quote who="Yarlen" reply="29" id="3019264"]Needs extra time for the flavors to meld. [/quote] Sounds great, please take the time to make it what you want to release. Sword of the Stars 2 is the current example of what not to do so I'm glad to see Stardock taking a better approach.
Just being able to turn them off would be great. A no-mines game would be faster in late game, no annoying cleanup, and Advent AI wouldn't be gimped running around with 95% of their SC as mines in their battle fleets.
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All the new features sound great but by far the thing I would love to see the most would be a way to turn off mines. Not only do they add more (bloody well insanely more) aggravation than tactical depth but make the game too slow to enjoy playing with higher numbers of AI on larger maps. Would be nice to play again, mines are the reason I stopped.
It seems to be a random setting for each AI as far as I've seen. I recently finished a long game and the final 3 AIs (out of 7) had a max of 6, 13, and 16 Cap ships. Each had more than enough time and resources to research everything the AI wanted to so some just don't seem to have it set as a priority.
I grabbed Beta 3 with hotfix (0.95) and played a game with each race in single player vs 6-8 AIs depending on map. Impressive work IC, this is a very cool addition to a great game. Bugs: 1. AIs accepting pacts then instantly cancelling them. After reaching higher levels of relationship they stop doing it but at the moment it's pretty much useless to offer a pact near the minimum relationship values. 2. Rarely after an AI cancels a
I've always seen the GRG as a higher level ability pick. Combined with a Dunovs antimatter cost reducing ability and the antimatter recharge part of Finest Hour then the Kol can really go nuts with a GRG every 5 seconds (since FH reduces ability recharge) while keeping up Adaptive Forcefield and an occasional flakburst to boot. A couple of those leading a fleet are quite impressive and effective - in SP anyway. I'm not saying the Kol couldn't use a bit of a balancing
Same here, single player Vasari pressing the give mission button is instant minidump in beta 3. Haven't tried yet with other races.
That's always been one of the problems with multi-genre games. With Sins I think they did a good job of blending *elements* (not everything!) of RTS and 4X. Although since I love Sins I'm obviously biased. However a hardcore RTS or 4X player who really doesn't like anything about the other genre and isn't open to new things is not the target audience. Some of them will get ahold of the game one way or another and then express their dislike of the blend
Compared to an experienced person yes of course the AI falls short. That's called reality for a while yet - Deep Blue was needed to equal the best human chess player and Sins is just a bit more complex and variable than chess ;) Compared to other RTS AIs it's much better than average and only getting better as they tweak it and release more content. IC obviously didn't treat it as an afterthought like so many other RTS devs and I'm grateful since I only play SP.<
I only play SP, roughly 50%/25%/25% Advent/TEC/Vas. When I play TEC I don't build any Marza's because once it/they hit level 6 the game becomes a joke difficulty wise - and I always set all AIs to unfair. That's nowhere near the case for any other cap ship of any race, or even combinations thereof. That's overpowered. Even at half the current damage it would be a close call with being OP. While I really don't like nerfs in general, MB is so out of whack with th
Mmmmm, how about... TEC: Novalith Cannon Primary Effect: 3500 planet damage Secondary Effect: Cannot re-colonize Tetrary Effect: Population cap reduced for a long period of time Targets: Enemy planets Vasari: Kastura Cannon Primary Effect: Disable orbital structures for 3 minutes Secondary Effect: Disable ships for 15 seconds Tetrary Effect: The planet acts as if there is a phase ga
The learning curve is a touch steeper than casual games to be sure ... but more than worth it!
[quote who="leejaywu" reply="5" id="2089972"]Regarding the planetary pop upgrades: Advent capital + two of the allegiance modules + max culture bonus of 10% (two levels of research) = 140% allegiance = 140% tax revenue from that world. Doesn't affect trade ports, apparently. [/quote] Don't forget two levels of Allure of the Unity for a max of 150% at home planet. It takes a lot of investment in research and starbases but very late game Advent ec
[quote who="samisawright" reply="2" id="2089151"]The starrbases arent meant to be even. The vasari dont have assault cruisers, so this is their only real structure attacker. And dont look at individual units for blancing issues, just how the whole picture fits together. [/quote] Desolators with assault spec do a heck of a lot of extra damage to all structures - including starbases. Also, since starbases have shields (and therefore shield mitigation) the fact that their main