theRetroboy

Reply to WLd Mod in Sins Modding Sins Forums

I really like them (although maybe you should keep the posts in this forum instead of the general Sins forum to avoid giving the impression that you're advertising your mod :) ). One way to make the advent's different might be to spawn the "electrical storm" explosion effect at the impact point in addition to a less massive purple cloud, representing the psionic energy of their attack (plus it would better match their siege capship animation). Might these be included by copying the righ

Reply to Auto Handicap in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]How do you quantify, in resource percentages, the amount that player B would need to beat player A? Why has player B been losing all of his/her games?[/quote]I think that's a fundamental problem of any handicapping system. Coming up with a automatic mechanism that properly measures the difference between two players' capabilities is extremely difficult. I didn't attempt to address that in my post, although the OP had some ideas, and BlackWindx's approach can be used to avoid this but does

Reply to Auto Handicap in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Then make the handicap *less* than the total difference between the two levels, depending on the level of difference. For example, if Player A (who from his record of games is an obvious veteran) is facing Player B (a relative newbie with only three or four MP losses under his belt), and B would require 200% of the income that A does in order to have an even chance of winning, only give him 180% economy bonus, not the full 200%. This ensures A will likely win unless he's sleeping at the

Reply to Best way to manage newly built carriers? (Possible feature request) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Okay, the smilies are now frigged up and I can't edit my previous post. That was supposed to be a "sadface" smilie. ...er, and now, half an hour later, I can edit THIS post. ALL RIGHT, WHO'S DRUGGING THE SINS FORUM SERVERS? :D -- Retro

Reply to Best way to manage newly built carriers? (Possible feature request) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

One option: In single-player, you can pause the game at any time and scroll down the empire tree on the left and look for the ">" that indicates a squadron that has not been built yet. That's what I do for capital ships that have been in large furballs, except in that case I look for the "+" that indicates an unallocated experience level. Sorry, can't help you for the MP situation. :( -- Retro

Reply to Edit Button in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

No, it shows up some times and disappears others. As an example, earlier today, I posted a reply, and couldn't edit a mistake in that reply, so I posted another reply... and later I found I could edit the first reply! I have no idea why (timestamps, maybe???), but it would be nice if IronClad could dedicate some of their game bug-slaying talents to tracking down and fixing the forum problems. :) - Retro

Reply to How do phase missiles work? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]It is much easier to kill an enemy who runs when your playing as vasari[/quote]GOTTA love Gravity Bomb + Phase Disruptors for that! :D Phase Disruptor - "Oh, look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode with my fleet just behind you." use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode again. But now there's less of you." use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, you're stuck in warp warm-up mode even againer. And now there's more less of you." use Gravity Bomb - "Oh look, y

Reply to Bounties with Inactive Pirates? (Bug?) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

That's correct. An easy way to prove this is to start up a 1v1 no pirates map, put down 250 bounty, and then mouseover the first enemy scout that you encounter. It won't display a bounty value in the infopanel. -- Retro

Reply to How do phase missiles work? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Sorry, the post above was meant to be a lot LESS expensive. Phase chance upgrades are tiers 0,0,2,2,4,4. However, damage bonus to missiles is tier 5. So you can get a 10% passthrough chance for a lower price as a 5% damage boost, not including the cost to build the extra labs. SINS FORUM OWNERS PLEASE FIX THE FRIGGIN' FORUM EDIT FUNCTION OR AT LEAST MAKE IT CONSISTENT KTHX? -- Retro

Reply to How do phase missiles work? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Where it comes in really handy is against capital ships. Generally, you're hitting them with a bunch of other ships, and that drives their shield mitigation up to its max very quickly. When its shield mitigation is at 65% (or even higher in Advent culture), compare these two cases of when a 100 hit point missile hits that ship with a 5% damage bonus versus a 5% chance to pass through the shields. Case 1: 5% damage upgrade, no shield passthrough chance. Average damage: (105 points) *

Reply to what would you like to see in a Sins expansion?? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]Oh yeah, to add to that, the game needs to be polished a bit. It has the makings of a great game, but it has some rough edges that need to be smoothed out. Minor tweaks to most aspects of the game would improve it a great deal.[/quote]Like what, exactly? I think the game has a very high amount of polish now. -- Retro

Reply to Vasari's Antorak Marauder: Stabilize Phase Space. Does it work? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I don't think people should look at things in terms of a single ship, though. It's a combination of that specific ship's power AND the empowerment it gives to the other vessels in the fleet. The Marauder's power is pretty weak compared to some other level 6 powers, but it's absolutely huge when it's given in the context of supplementing an entire fleet's mobility at remote points. Coupling it with a planet with three frigate factories that is well behind the lines can bring sieges in be

Reply to Bounties with Inactive Pirates? (Bug?) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I wouldn't call it a bug so much as a bit of omitted logic. I'd guess it's because Sins' bounty model wasn't really designed to handle a 1v1 situation very well, particularly in a no-pirate map. The bounty system really shines when you're up against a combination of pirates and a number of players, but I agree it could use some adjustments when there's just one enemy. FYI you also see this problem in a 1v1 map if you stomp the pirate base before killing the enemy. -- R

Reply to Sins Campaign Storyline Predictions in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Agreed as well. For example, TEC as "good guys" doesn't really make sense when you see them glassing entire planets using nuclear fire. Advent are a cult that stomps other cultures into the ground using propaganda and mind control, and Vasari are slavers. They're not exactly nice people. I also don't think a storyline that's based around the motivations of individual characters and leaders fits Sins very well. TEC is a coalition and wouldn't have a single empirical leader. Let the vario

Reply to Why is there no storyline in this game? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]each skirmish is simply a race up the tech tree.[/quote]I can understand how the game might not be enjoyable to some people, but that's a gross oversimplification. It's a bit like saying any RTS is "simply pointing and clicking". On topic: Homeworld didn't have planets as fixed bases. Instead the mothership slowly upgraded its manufacturing capabilities as it moved from location to location across the galaxy, allowing the player to build more and better starships. It had an aspec

Reply to I demand...... more races! and ships to! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]Starcraft units are more complex because their units had moveing parts where sins doesnt even have turrets regardless of the end outcome.[/quote]Unit models with moving articulation is nothing at all like customizable units with different weapons. One is just graphics and modelling detail, but the other actually affects the gameplay. When I said Sins is "complex enough", I was referring to its [I]learning curve and game dynamics[/I], not the graphics. Even if the unit customizat

Reply to Dev Game Night + Patch 1.1 = When? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

redwing, it's when the IronClad developers actually play members of the community on MP maps. It's a pretty nice way of them to say "thank you" and have some fun with us. -- Retro

Reply to I demand...... more races! and ships to! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]3 panty twisters 2 serious replys i should use I DEMAND more [/quote]Actually, in reading the thread, I found all of the replies were serious. And you can't really compare Sins to Starcraft. They're different genres. Starcraft is a "pure" RTS and doesn't have diplomacy, culture, missions, units that upgrade with experience, an upgradable economy, supply limitations, base building points (i.e. planets) with different levels of upgrade capability, research labs, or a seventy-o

Reply to Single player AI alliance lameness in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

siAION, generally you don't have to worry too much about failing a mission or two from an ally. You don't have to do [I]everything[/I] they say. -- Retro

Minor "pause" bug - research queueing in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I'm not sure how many other single-players out there use the pause option as frequently as I do so this might not be a big problem. But I did notice that when you have paused the game and are in the research tree ordering several items, the game lets you pick more than you can really afford, and only de-selects the ones you can't afford after you un-pause. Say you have 1000/100/100 money/metal/crystal and you pause the game and order a 400/0/50 research item. The tot

Reply to Needing some help with TEC strategy after a savage 2v2 beating in Strategy Sins Forums

Not being an MP guy, I can't comment on your strategy. But I did want to point out this: [quote]Thanks for any help you guys can give me and insults will be very acceptable because yes I did make a huge amount of mistakes and deserve to be ridiculed for my horrible performance during that game.[/quote]The world would be a better place if more people had this kind of honest self-assessment attitude. ;) -- Retro

Reply to What we want in patch 1.05 ;) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I agree with Hollow Man. An expansion is far from trivial, and IronClad is working on 1.1 besides. It's not like they have a staff of hundreds like Blizzard. -- Retro

Reply to I demand...... more races! and ships to! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

"Demanding" is pretty rude, don't you think? Makes your post seem more like a rant than a suggestion for improvements. You don't have hard points because the game didn't have an unlimited development budget. It would be HUGE amounts of work to develop and test a hardpoint system with variable weapons - the game would need configuration screens, ship set-up screens, and weapon type researches at minimum. I think you're looking more for a Mechwarrior-like RPG or simulator than an RTS.<br/

Reply to Single player AI alliance lameness in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Herodias - try that same map in FFA. :) It's really a different story when you have 3x2 Hard-teams because at least one of the factions will soak up some of the damage that would otherwise get pointed directly at you. There's a huge difference between a game where you don't chase down some peace in a 2 vs 4 (where you are effectively facing 2 other players yourself) and 1 vs 4 (where you are facing 3) or, worse, 1 vs 6. And the comment about strongest garnering the most attenti

Reply to How do phase missiles work? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

That *really* makes sense, sakhari. I was wondering what the benefit was myself. So if your theory is right, this makes Vasari focus firing much more powerful because missiles that get through do 100% damage, not the 35% that mitigation would drop them to. That's a huge benefit. -- Retro