Pherdnut

Reply to Reviewers vs. Users in PC Gaming Elemental Forums

I can speak from some experience on that. It takes a lot of time to review most games properly, especially strategy games. Unfortunately, that's time that your average gaming journalist doesn't have given the sheer quantity of garbage games you have to give fair play to before trying to find new and interesting ways of describing them as 'derivative crap' while trying to avoid working 50-80+ hours a week. This game complicates matters due to Stardock rewriting core mechanics a

Reply to Walmart content in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Does the Wal Mart edition feature the ability to shut down all local merchant operations when you build the MegaStore structure in your towns?

Reply to Losing faith in Elemental in War of Magic Elemental Forums

You know, it's not so much the bugs that make me a little timid about making a purchase. It's the idea of really enjoying a core mechanic or really loving a certain unit or spell and then seeing that get changed or nerfed in favor of something I don't like as much. Part of me would rather just not know and come to enjoy the game once it's stabilized a bit more. It makes me wonder if it would be feasible to loosely couple game rules/balancing/mechanics concerns from the lower level stu

Reply to Number of turns important? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Upgrades that improve turnaround time on unit and city/planet/nation enhancement building are typically the most important thing to focus on in 4X games. That way when the idiot AI throws 800,000 complete rookie canon fodder units at you, you can start cranking out the ultra elite adamantium halfling slingers just fast enough to eradicate them without a scratch and then wipe out their now-completely undefended towns. My impression of Stardock is that they do a better job of making you balance

Reply to Losing faith in Elemental in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I'm not normally a grammar Nazi but this is one internet phenomenon I'd really like to stamp out. It's lose, losing, or loser. Not "loose." Anyway, I'm delighted to hear this game is as buggy as MOM was when it first came out.

Reply to lower terrain and cloth map in War of Magic Elemental Forums

That would be a pretty funny coincidence. IIRC, one of MOM's terrain altering spells caused a similar problem.

Reply to Is it Just Me or Are the Combat Cap Ships Dumb? in Strategy Sins Forums

In realistic space combat, ships would never be within visual range of each other. It would be a guessing game of where that ship is going to be when your energy weapons reach it based on a guess from what you can see of it which is where it was a few seconds ago. Not a very fun RTS, IMO.

Reply to Marza in Strategy Sins Forums

I'm not sure how I'd feel about it in multiplayer. I wiped out at least 50 pirate ships with one use of that missile barrage ability. It loses its teeth against fleets with lots of carriers though since they soak up a lot of damage. By lots of carriers, I mean at least 20. Also any special ability that freezes a ship will interrupt the barrage and it takes a long time for it to recharge.

Reply to Twilight Imperium boardgame in Everything Else Sins Forums

Absolutely loved it the 2-3 times I played it. Nobody ever has time to actually play it though. :(

So what's the typical approach to dealing with crappy advent economies? in Strategy Sins Forums

I get that they have some nice stuff available with minimal labs but what about the underlying economy to build said nice stuff? I like the Advent's units but I just always seem to get my games off the ground a lot faster with TEC and Vasari on larger maps. Focusing on population and trade ports early seems to help but I still feel like I'm wasting too much time in the beginning.

Reply to Is it Just Me or Are the Combat Cap Ships Dumb? in Strategy Sins Forums

I don't really think of the Marza as a combat cap. I meant the ones that don't really have any supporting role. But good god is that lvl 6 ability nasty after the patch. I thought people would already be freaking out about it in multiplayer. The first thing I do when I get it is wipe out the pirate base. It only takes a minute unless you actually want to kill all the gauss platforms.

Reply to New Entrenchment Shots Released in Sins News Sins Forums

It's so TEC. Just a big giant box with a crapload of guns.

Reply to Multiple broadcast station, shield generator etc. ... in Strategy Sins Forums

Number of towers definitely increases the speed that your culture spreads and pushes enemy culture back more easily so if you're dealing with an annoying turtler or you'd prefer they come to your turtle, buildling 8 culture structures on a fully developed neighboring arid world should get their attention rather quickly. I'm not sure multiple towers will actually enhance the distance unchallenged culture travels though. Population might have something to do with that. I'm pretty sure o

Reply to Sore Losers who refuse to quit even when the game is long-since over in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

Why didn't you guys just quit? Are the rankings that big of a deal?

Reply to Close Range Combat V. Carriers in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

They cost 1280 and a crapload of resources. So yeah, I'm okay with them being really hard to kill with a flak frigate. Advent get 3 squads in their hangers too. On top of that they can boost each hangar squad by two more strike craft with upgrades. I agree with the OP though. A lot of the ship movement can be frustrating. I'll try to micro and my ships just go on these insanely wide arcs that take them right into enemy fire. Edit: Just made it clear that upgrade applies to the hangars

Reply to Begin game in Strategy Sins Forums

That's pretty much how I start. The follow up depends on how big the map is. Start by colonizing any nearby asteroids first so you can start bringing in more resources. After that, do the research for Tundra or Lava worlds, which have easier to conquer neutral fleets than the arid and terran worlds. Tundra is ideal but I usually research whichever planet there is the most of nearby first. Focus your resource upgrades on whichever resource you get the most of so you can sell the excess and buy

Reply to Useless Units in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Does building 3-5 really hurt you that bad in MP? Because it sure helps waste planets faster. You don't have to build 80 of them to be useful. It would definitely be an obnoxious unit to spam if that were possible.

Reply to Is it Just Me or Are the Combat Cap Ships Dumb? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="CoolJets" reply="10" id="1953968"] Quoting -Ue_Carbon, reply 8 Yes they are big slow expensive targets. Any Cap ship by itself will lose to any average/small frigate fleet. Caps are ment to agument your frigates and cruisers. As exampled above, Kol are can be crazy damage absobers. Carriers are ment to add unique fighter/bomber to the mix. Example: Sova has heavy Fighters. Helps with DPS and give bomber/fighters better chance surviving more than 1 or 2 runs. You can argu

AI Never takes open mining operations in Beta Feedback Sins Forums

I'm sure somebody noticed by now, but I just found it odd that the AI hasn't been fixed to actually take advantage of free loot. By "open" I mean the stuff that doesn't have planets. I've seen AIs with multiple colony frigates right next to unguarded/unclaimed mining ops in asteroid belts etc...

Reply to re : Capital Ships in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="CoolJets" reply="4" id="1953712"]Don't bother making a second one though. Frigates and cruisers give you more bang for the buck.[/quote] Cap ships enhance fleets. You can't just evaluate them on the basis of how much attack power/health/etc. they give for your buck. A fleet with a mothership regenerating everybody's shields is 5 x's as dangerous as one that just added 3k more worth of frigates and cruisers.

Reply to Is it Just Me or Are the Combat Cap Ships Dumb? in Strategy Sins Forums

Well, except maybe the Radiance, I find combat caps questionable (each race has one) but some special abilities are too much benefit for a fleet to ignore. When you consider the amount of resources that an Advent drone cruiser costs, the Halcyon Carrier with the ability to ultimately carry a lot more strike craft, bring some decent attack power of its own to the field, boost the ROF of your entire fleet, and push enemy fighter craft out of the way while doing massive damage to all of them at

Reply to The Novalith-Akkan-Pirate Strategy (NAP) in Strategy Sins Forums

I prefer to give a nice XP boost to my caps with all the crap at the pirate base.

Is it Just Me or Are the Combat Cap Ships Dumb? in Strategy Sins Forums

Don't get me wrong, I think the Kol is as cool-lookin' as the next guy but I'm always glad when I see the AI building these. I haven't leveled its flak ability to max yet but even that fails to wow me and for some reason they tend to die a lot when I try to use them. I've heard fans of the Kol say fleet-boosting is only one aspect to consider but unless you're leaving home without 5 frigates and you only play vs the easy AI, I'm not sure what other aspects are more important. 5 starting friga

Reply to Tech strategy advice requested in Strategy Sins Forums

First off, there is a pause button. Look to the upper right of your keyboard. It's mapped to the button that says "pause." I'm not being a smartass. It's just that a lot of the TB crowd (I'm one of them) tends to fail to notice this. I've seen several reviews bagging on the real-time factor not allowing them to stop and think. Research depends a lot on environment. In a close map like point blank you can't afford to go too long without upgrading for war. On a huge map with few opponen

Reply to So, let's talk *fleet* movement in Strategy Sins Forums

Fleet behavior seems buggy to me. Sometimes stuff stays together as I would expect it to (yes I know where the fleet distance button is). Other times it seems totally oblivious. I've had a real hard time getting disciples and Illuminators to stay close to Motherships.