DesConnor

Reply to Incoming Missile!, or how to face Kanrak Spam? in Strategy Sins Forums

1) No experienced player would lose a capital ship to such a small force, especially a carrier, which does not need to be close to an enemy to fight. You should always build repair early otherwise you lose some of the value of having a capital in the first place. Retreat your capital to repair it. His Assailants will counter your Disciples. The AI will have the Disciples fire on the Skirmishers for the better damage modifier, you want them to fire on the Assailants b

Reply to Pirates in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Here is my mod with redesigned sneakier pirates with far less raw combat power, no other alterations : http://www.datafilehost.com/download-44dfee48.html A fleet should take these out without problems, especially away from their home asteroid. They are a little trickier on their home roid, but shouldn't just slaughter your cap ships even if you have more than a couple.

Reply to Four Game Mechanics that Need Help in order to Enhance Variety in Strategies in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Perhaps if the Kol and Radiance are allowed the same boost to shield regeneration as the Kortul has gained, and the Kol gets a more effective phase missile block, their area of effect abilities will help to reduce the threat from slow, fragile LRF. I'm looking forward to having a go with the Kortul once the current 'Vasari scare' is over. It would be good to have the battleships back on a par with the carriers. After experiments I've also become less convinc

Reply to Diplomacy 1.02 - Will it come? What's planned? in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Sins isn't in a pretty good place though. There are only three factions in the game. For almost a year one of them has been unusable owing to severe balance issues. It took nearly half a year to fix the Illuminator bug, and this was when Ironclad were supposed to be fully occupied with the game . The current issue is the crass Scramble Bombers buff from 1.19. These aren't issues that need tweaks, they are major issues that have le

Reply to Should we start a new replay thread? in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

Hello this is DesConnor here with another replay commentary. First I'd like to mention my sponsors [this will cost you- real money] and that I'm available for internet commentaries and LAN parties. Astax's team were Astax as TEC, Efejao as TEC, snoodie, who had chosen TEC, and frog, who was another TEC fan. The other team were lepar as Advent, who seemed to have somewhat gallantly volunteered to be captain, Warfleet as Advent, nelmr as TEC and Slackah Chicken as TEC.&nbs

Reply to The Push for a Supported Community Patch in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

As balance in Demigod is outside the scope of this thread we'll just have to disagree. A game that has a limited number of maps, all symmetrical, and the vast majority of game items available to all characters will always have some balance. However, that doesn't mean that the items are balanced. As for the characters, I'm led to believe that a team of three Oaks would be hard to defeat by any combination of the others, with perhaps one or two exceptions. Another a

Reply to The Push for a Supported Community Patch in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Demigod has so much potential, you've got a limited number of maps and demigods with a variety of combinations that should make for great play, it's just a pity that the game has remained so skewed for so long and some of the stuff available is so poor compared to the items taken by experienced players. It's my big problem with Stardock, they can produce games that seem interesting and look good and then suffer from some really crass balance issues, for far too long.&nbsp

Reply to The Push for a Supported Community Patch in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

At the start of your thread you even state that you will leave discussion on capital ships for a later thread ? Is that more or less misleading than mentioning the extensive discussion on the Sova? Your point seems to be that you can't test first then change, as there would be nothing to change? Yet there is no such general agreement on the current balance, only a majority opinion on Scramble Bombers having been boosted too much in the last patch.</p

Reply to The Push for a Supported Community Patch in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Demigod... many players have made the observation that since our developers were yanked to work on Demigod last year there have been three patches, whereas the year before there were sixteen, and much more developer activity on the forums and in multiplayer. It might be Demigod envy, as there has been an entire series of patches promised for Demigod and nothing at all for Trinity. Promise us some patches! However more radical theories have been proposed, such as that St

Reply to Four Capital Ship Abilities that Need Help and the Problem of Balancing With Ultimates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

While I like the concept it might require the duration to be extended, as any planet that you were bombing would be already revealed to you... so to make it work you would have to enter the grav well afterwards and rush straight to the planet. It might lead to dubious gameplay where you would vacate a gravwell just in order to scout it for the subsequent bombardment bonus? A defensive bonus to the ship itself need not be excluded by this... it's not unusual for ca

Reply to Four Game Mechanics that Need Help in order to Enhance Variety in Strategies in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Also, the debate on LRF and LF and on the LRF threat to capital ships is on another dimension of significance compared to the problems with culture in the game. If there is a revision to the black market allowing resources to become more expensive and refineries more useful, then the slight lack of crystal in the game might become more critical and LF correspondingly more valuable. However the culture technologies will need a lot of work and possibly revised mechanics to make them

Reply to Four Capital Ship Abilities that Need Help and the Problem of Balancing With Ultimates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

It was your suggestion on Guidance that I was referring to Warlord Mike, but Clairvoyance is another problem area and a further suggestion would be welcome. My major issue with Clairvoyance is that the third level does so little compared to the first... it is 50 antimatter not 70 and offers 150s duration rather than 90s, but is that valued at two extra points? If minefields are made viable scouts will be needed anyway, and it can't be made an excuse for a poor ability that a

Reply to Four Game Mechanics that Need Help in order to Enhance Variety in Strategies in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The problem is with the LF and with Repulse rather than with the Illuminators themselves.. with only 2 types of dedicated anti-medium LRF the LF stood more of a chance. I'd be more worried about Advent being overwhelmed early than with the extra damage versus capitals. Even with the extra damage Illuminators wouldn't take take down capitals as quickly Assailants, and they cost as much supply and are 2 tiers up, and their damage upgrades are higher up the t

Reply to Four Game Mechanics that Need Help in order to Enhance Variety in Strategies in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Also, the replays should be fixed to include the relations screen, it a bug that hasn't been mentioned before. I've had to track relations using save games. What surprised me more than anything is how limited the adjacency modifier is. I had imagined that it would track the growth of empires and alter as the number of potential trouble spots built up. However it just seems to check whether or not two starting spots are proximate from what I've seen- anyone know better?

Reply to Balancing the 3 factions...for real... in Strategy Sins Forums

Fighters counter bombers, like all fighters ever built... A big lightly armoured target like a siege frigate would be ideal for a bomber in most environments, but even in this game bombers are the optimal target for fighters. Also, pulse guns fire faster projectiles than phase missiles... as do wave cannons, since you mentioned it. Phase missiles are those fuzzy objects that take a while to hunt down a fleeing capital ship, why they would ever be useful against s

Reply to Balancing the 3 factions...for real... in Strategy Sins Forums

While it is generally agreed that balance needs a lot of work, you seem to have gone for adjustments to the most-used military items, mainly Vasari, to the exclusion of everything else. This is the usual patch style, and has not worked so far. If you want subtle changes you might like to consider another approach. There are many other changes that could be made- to civil technologies as well as little-used military technologies and to the basic mechanics of the game.

Reply to Still playing? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The community being the beta testers isn't good if the community ask for simple fixes to enable further testing and get ignored for months... Impulse was supposed to make quick fixes easy to release. But a community patch, if it could create some support, might help the developers to focus on the game again after working on something else for a while. I'm not sure what anyone means by the balance getting closer, it isn't. Even before balance between the factions is conside

Reply to How to Mod Faction Relationship Values? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Thanks Zombies. I'd be interested by anything more you could turn up on faction relations, and there seem to be a few threads on it recently, perhaps they could be consolidated? Adjacency should be one of the main determinants for a faction yet it doesn't seem to work at all, let alone evolve as the game progresses. Even if you prefer to work on an expansion mod it might be helpful to have a fully working and balanced version of Trinity as well? I was plann

Reply to Limited Resources? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Thanks Goa. It was a simple mod that I was hoping for. I suppose the alternative solution to the problems with refineries might be to adjust the market.

How to Mod Faction Relationship Values? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Has anyone played around much with the relations side of the game? I've had a quick look at the GameplayConstants values in the final section, but I couldn't find any that dealt with the base modifiers for dislike between different factions. It all seems a little ropey- do the refuse mission and adjacency aspects work at all? What about the fleet strength modifier, is that adjustable so that stronger fleets would incur penalties? If anyone is able to&nb

Reply to Still playing? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I still play. The basic soundness and flexibility of the interface make the game enjoyable, even if Ironclad have consistently failed to to produce gameplay that lives up to the promise. I can understand players who have quit 1.19 though. Having to face constant Skirantra-Kanrak rushes isn't fun. Also the developers seem to have abandoned the second expansion, which was rushed to release with most of its features broken. The relationship victo

Reply to Four Economic Technologies that Need (major) Help and What to Do About Them! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Unlike a return to limited resources, t he black market seems fairly easy to change if we wanted to play around with it. Which version altered it from the original values?

Reply to Four Military Technologies that Need Help and a Discourse on their Enhancement in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Perhaps you're right, antimatter use for carrier caps might not be necessary after other changes. There are changes that are just a matter of adjusting numbers that might have a big effect on the game.. Martyrdom clearly just needs an increase in power, and the hangars an increase in antimatter replenishment. Mines I would go for a vast increase in firepower combined with a much tougher limit on numbers. They slow the game down and space is too vast to mine properly

Reply to Tired of noob eco players so ima teach you in Strategy Sins Forums

It's not meant as nit-picking, the game is too complex to play perfectly, I've looked at replays where I've imagined that I've played excellently only to find that I've missed some glaring opportunity or that the enemy had to cope with some disadvantage that I wasn't aware of. My own scout play can be very weak, and there have been times when I've been very grateful that a friendly scout has wandered past at just the right moment. However the thread is about how to play

Reply to Tired of noob eco players so ima teach you in Strategy Sins Forums

I'm not at all sure that you were at a disadvantage with regard to neutrals. After all, you do have four Vasari to one, and your team has the only true eco spot, yours. If I had seen MR G with that many neutrals I would have wondered what was going on. KFear as TEC had a neutral next to the star... MR G passed several of his scouts through the pirates to get to neutrals on the other side of the star, and even took neutrals that were beyond the pirates, bey