ColdSteelRain

Reply to Twilight of the Arnor enters final gamma testing! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

You'd think anyone playing this game would have learned patience...

Reply to Confused on Fleet Groupings in Strategy Sins Forums

If you want to maneuver them separately, I think you'll have to make them a separate fleet.

Reply to Just finished my first game in Strategy Sins Forums

I usually have several frigate factories, sometimes 2 or 3 on one planet. It depends a lot on the map, but I try to have a factory near the front lines so I can quickly replace losses. Also, if you have a couple of planets with multiple factories, you can try a strategy where you wait to build up your fleet until just before you attack (or until you're attacked) and tailor it to counter the enemy. The tricky part of this is being able to build up fast enough, and in increasing fleet c

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire Update Schedule in Sins News Sins Forums

[quote]your update 1.04 has too many bugs! please fix this game because now i can't play one game in peace!!![/quote] That was a waste of bandwidth. If you're having a problem with the game and expect anyone to help you, provide details. Maybe you could even search the forum to see if your problem has already been addressed.

Reply to Damn pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The Novalith Cannon only damages the planet, and it makes it uncolonizable for a while. It probably isn't worth it in general, due to the very slow rate of fire. I'm playing a large map with three stars, and have 2 cannons in each of 2 systems. It's down to me vs. an unfair AI, both our fleets are maxed out. I can knock out one of his planets in each system at the same time, but it'll take 5 minutes before I can shoot again. The question is to see if I can knock out his pl

Reply to Expansion Request: No Space Elves Allowed in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

How about super-intelligent multi-dimensional beings who manifest themselves as white mice and control society by throwing off the results of laboratory tests? The gameplay would be to manipulate the research results of the other players while surreptitiously spreading throughout the galaxy.

Reply to Total noob, i need help from the get go. in Strategy Sins Forums

Play on small maps against 1, then 2, easy AI to learn the basic game mechanics. Try each of the races to see which one you like. Then step up the AI difficulty, then increase map size, then increase the number of opponents.

Reply to Only Three Races!?!?! in Sins Modding Sins Forums

[quote]Not trying to sound rude or anything but what drives people to buy games they know nothing about?[/quote] Curiosity. Marketing. Spirit of adventure. ;)

Reply to Sins Units = Warcraft 3 Units in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

@whiterabbit007 ...and might I chastise you for using an id that at least six other people have used... ;)

Reply to Fortified Strategy in Strategy Sins Forums

This game doesn't lend itself to a fortification strategy because you have to wipe out your opponents as the only victory condition. If you fortify at the expense of expanding, your opponents will control the majority of the map in the early to mid game, and you'll never be able to overcome their numbers. Your strategy could work on small maps, simply because you'd have half the map with only a few planets under your control, and your opponent wouldn't have as much resource superiority

Reply to Official (Unofficial) Thank you Iron Clad and Stardock Thread in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I'll say it: Thanks! It's certainly a fun game and I'll be playing it for a while. I've definitely gotten $40 of value out of it.

Reply to Unacceptable Experience in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Since this issue doesn't seem to be affecting *most* players, and since it's unlikely that IC/SD have even a fraction of the different possible combinations of videocards, drivers, OSs, and related hardware available in their test lab (even counting the beta testers), and since there isn't *a* driver for NVidia that existed when the game was developed but a series, each with its own issues, I think it's unreasonable to hammer the devs on this. The best a development team can hope for is

Reply to Should I buy this game? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If you can only afford, due to time or money, one new game, get GalCiv2:TA; the final is due out this month. If you can afford two games, get that and Sins. I wasn't sure how I'd like Sins, since I didn't care for previous RTS' I'd played, but I got it on the strength of the quality work that StarDock does. I play off-line due to scheduling issues, and am having a blast with Sins. Just set the game speed to "Slow", and make use of the Pause key, and you won't have to worry ab

Reply to Simple request for Devs, please include a clock in-game. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

A clock with an alarm would be nice in-game. Until the devs get to it, though, there are some freebies on download.com (search "alarm clock") if you're not running X-Fire.

Reply to Single player Mode problems .. Kindly help in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

"Pause Game" is the "Pause/Break" key on US keyboards. If you're ever unsure about which key does what in the game, there's a setup/options menu for key bindings. Be sure to play all of the tutorials to get a basic (and only a basic) understanding of the game mechanics. To really learn how to play the game, read through some of the posts in the Strategy forum; there are a couple of guides that can help.

Forum bug with "My Replies" in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Got the following forum application error when clicking "My Replies". I haven't posted or replied to anything in the Sins forums, but do have some in GalCiv2. The "My Posts" link just gives me an "empty" page, as I'd expect. Server Error in '/' Application. Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: index <font face

Reply to Extreme colonization in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I delay it as long as possible due to the expense. I think researching it in the early part of the game would put me too far behind in other techs. If I can hold out to the mid to late game, I flip (or invade) the planets and then research the tech within a few weeks instead of months. Of course, I just started a game where it looks like I've only got 2-3 usable planets nearby, so I'll probably have to focus on this sooner than I'd like. It'll depend on how fast the AI expands; I may

Reply to Planetary Invasion in Waves in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Maybe it should factor in the percentage of the troop module capacity used. For example, you'd only be able to get half the maximum damage if you only filled your troop modules to 50% of capacity. Putting in a single trooper would then only let you get less than 1% of the effect, at best.

Reply to All-tech and all-industry--should it remain in game? in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

Just because the game allows it, doesn't mean you have to use it. This game's middle name is "Flexibility". I agree that using reseach output to build ships doesn't make a lot of sense from a simulation point of view, but then being able to completely flip your economy from social to military production in a week doesn't jive with reality, either. So, if you want to play the game as a simulation, just add some house rules: - set the mix of mil/social/reseach to someth

Reply to Ship Design Questions - Shields in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Sorry for not being clearer. I'll load sparrows if I need the ships earlier; if I think I can wait, I'll hold out for stingers. It really depends on what the other races are doing, where I need to focus research in order to meet other goals, etc. I usually don't try to push the missile research further until the arms race heats up. Even then, it's a balance between just building more cheap ships, or bumping the tech. That's what I really like about this game: even if I'm planning t

Reply to Ship Design Questions - Shields in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I play DA and a little different strategy, usually going for a tech or alliance victory. As a result, I focus my fleet on being strong enough to deter attack, but not necessarily strong enough for a military victory. In the early game, most of my effort is focused on economy and research. Once I see someone registering on the military power graph, I focus research to get missiles and first level mini. I then build a tiny hull with one missile and pump several of those into orbit arou

Reply to Beginner Observations on Economy and Espionage Question in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

You can actually collect quite a lot of information about another civ without any espionage investment. (From a story point of view, this would be info from trade and diplomatic missions, and public sources.) Most of this comes from the "Speak To" screen: - Treasury - Colonies (even if you can't see them on the map) - Fleet inventory - technologies (not precise, but at least what they have that you don't) Info from the foreign relations screen on treaties and i

Reply to CHOOSE ANY SIZE GALAXY? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

One long car trip later.... I think the following colony management tab changes would be relatively easy and be useful for all players: 1. sort by any column, up or down 2. change col. width 3. add/hide cols, and change order 4. add user definable text columns (ie: notes, zone, purpose, major projects) 5. allow grouping the rows based on a column, and be able to collapse those rows 6. allow saving/restoring these settings as different views Th

Reply to CHOOSE ANY SIZE GALAXY? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Curse you, SonofMoose Now I'm thinking about what you'd really have to change in the interface.... Maybe a couple of tweaks that would help the existing large games, even if the max map size stays the same. Expand the colony list screen to include more alert info, and allow filters and sorting. You'd probably need to split this into several screens: Economy, Morale, Military.

Reply to CHOOSE ANY SIZE GALAXY? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

I like playing on the larger maps in order to feel like I'm really playing a "Galactic" game, but I think there are some additional considerations to increasing the map size beyond just raw hardware capability: - The user interface would need to be substantially changed in order for you to be able to manage more planets and more ships. - There would need to be more control and management features, possibly even sub-AIs assisting the player. - Stardock would really need