DesConnor

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

Though I find the concept of friendliness levels with dead factions contributing to victory more than slightly bizarre- especially the concept of proximity to their former territory- for this post lets assume that the relationship points victory will stay the same and the question is how to adjust it using the existing system. The problem is that it is all too easy to fulfil missions by simply playing an ordinary game and building a strong fleet. At least up to Unfair level the

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

That's another subject where I haven't seen a thorough investigation posted. As it is, the option to sell to other players using the black market is rarely taken and may be too time-consuming for the limited reward. But suppose the black market could be shifted from its simple cyclical model to something more responsive to player transactions and the state of the game? Even without limited resources, prices should perhaps begin to rise overall&nbsp

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 it is good to consider wilder changes, on reflection much can be achieved with only limited improvements to existing abilities. The more I consider capitals the more I am impressed by the revision to the Kortul. The ship works, it can tank, it has a good ultimate, it can hold its own against carriers. Its probably the capital thats been improved most by balance changes without it breaking the game, and I'd like it used as a model for further change. That would

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

That game could have been five one versus one games. If Warfeet, NME, Auqia and MR G played a tournament on a standard balanced map we might get to determine who was right. However, I doubt that 5s will ever produce that sort of decision, there's always too many factors involved.

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

I watched SageWon's replay until about 40 mins in when Warfleet dropped, which seemed effectively the end of the game. This is why I have so little time for 5s, even if you magically balance the teams with an equal skill level on both sides, which is infrequent, the wrong drop turns it into a walkover. One team is DaKnife-Vasari, NME-Vasari, Auqia-Vasari, JonnyC321-Vasari and jammie85- TEC. NME has the only eco slot, jammie85 is isolated, Auqia and Jonny have CCBoom b

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

How about a reactionary phase for the game? Revert the Scramble Bombers change, revert the scout nerf and alter Illuminators back to the original anti-capital damage concept, with the same firepower as currently. That would leave Advent nervous about LF, but it would bring LF into the game more- as Pbhead pointed out no-one uses Skirmishers. Also the Seekers would return to being an excellent counter to LRF so Advent could counter LF with their own LF. Plus Ad

Reply to What does the Advent's Deliverance Engine do? in Strategy Sins Forums

Perhaps planetary shields could inhibit the Kostura in some manner? Even more 'Star Wars', how about allowing superweapons to intercept each other, cancelling attacks....? The Indifference Engine is heavily dependent on culture itself being effective though, and it isn't. If you made the Indifference Engine three times more 'powerful' it still wouldn't work.

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

A further Relations Victory play example: I am again Advent (as I need the practice, not having played any during their long spell as top cat). The opposition are four TEC unfair AIs and a Vasari unfair AI. This proved as straightforward as the first game. There was one TEC AI separating me from the Vasari on my right, and they proved pathetically easy to convince into ceasefires, treaties and pacts. I may have accomplished one of their missions but I wo

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

Relationship Victory Play Example: I played Advent in a four-way game with 2 TEC and one Vasari hard AIs. As soon as I fulfilled one mission from one of the TEC AIs, and with the first level of influence researched, I obtained a ceasefire. The single mission was more than enough to wipe out the centuries of enmity between TEC and Advent.... I then began to win the game, as the positive points I had from my truce outweighed the negative points from the other factions

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

All races have their own advantage. However the effectiveness of phase missiles might have been why Scramble Bombers was kept reasonable. The last buff made it at least twice as good as the L6 power Anima Tempest, and that's just in terms of strikecraft- an Anima had already been buffed the patch before to continue to keep it in line. Its just silly, as if balance had been abandoned. Also, it may be that scouts weren't intended to counter LRF though it seemed a good

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

Indifference Engine Play Example: TEC have four planets left: their homeworld, a roid connected to their home and no other planet, a volcanic connected to their home and an ice, and an ice connected to their home, the volcanic and two Advent frontline ice planets. One of the Advent ice planets has five phase lanes going from it, the other has three. TEC has four broadcast centres- one on the roid and ice, and two on the volcanic. Advent have four temples

Limited Resources? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Is it possible to mod the current version of the game so that the extractors- both neutrals and planetary- have limited resources, after which they can only be made to produce by using a refinery?

Reply to Looking for new ability ideas! in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Here's six fairly standard science fiction concepts to start you off: Cloak generator (cloaks other vessels as well within its radius) Inertia Stabilisation Field (counter to Repulse, Push, Gravity Distortion etc...) Chaff/CM (counters LRF missiles and beams) Plasma torpedo (a weapon that has enormous damage at close range and dissipates- is this possible in this game?) Web (requires two or more ships, any ship surrounded by the Web is immobilised until

Reply to The way pirates should work.... in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Hello, BlackDes here. I have temporarily taken over this account to remove some erroneous, and if you'll forgive me, slightly negative notions that have been posted about piracy. When many people, relaxing in a comfortable chair, contemplate piracy, what do they imagine? Shadowy figures with smoke rising from their beards, rum-soaked, swinging cutlasses, boarding ships and forcing sailors to walk the plank- a very inefficient procedure I might add.

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I was disagreeing that the backweighting of the ability meant that it was too weak at the lower levels: just because it is backweighted doesn't make it weak. Compare it to Heavy Strikecraft. Is that backweighted in the same manner? Why shouldn't the supposed weakness of ADA apply to Heavy Strikecraft? ADA was fine as it was, Heavy Strikecraft is fine at is is. Could you write up your figures? L2 ADA is currently +14 strikecraft based on 7-cr

Reply to The way pirates should work.... in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

You're right. The only wrinkle I would add is that it should be based on trade income, rather than total income. The pirates should be more enticed by the greater opportunity, so that bounty goes furthest if you have no trade income at all. While there is a multiplier for trade in the current version, it only affects the size of the pirate fleet and not the bounty. Another consideration: the old pirates were used to level capitals, so they were turned into the 'can

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I've only played Advent in this most recent version so I have zero experience with the old version of ADA. However I would question whether there are any AEA Halcyons around in this version- and AEA is a very strong ability. The old ADA may have been backweighted, but it wasn't weak, just not as good at low levels. Even at L1 it was the equivalent of a more than 10% boost- thats more than many abilities, and all % boost abilities with levels are 'backweighted'

Reply to Multiplayer GalaxyForge Compilation - Third Version Available in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

Thanks- could you edit the first post with the new map list? Any objection to the .zip version being submitted for download from this site?

Reply to Incendiary Shells for everyone? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Wasn't this done with the pirate ships in the expansion? I attempted it with my MarauderMod, anyway. I added it to the pirate frigates, always best to be on their good side. They seemed to like it and there were structures on fire, so I assume it worked.

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

The suggestion is to have a reduced rate of antimatter cost, not the full rate, so that the carrier capitals still have an advantage over carrier cruisers. By itself that would boost the Sova late on, if rapid manufacturing was antimatter-free. It would also boost the L6 Skiranta and Halcyon abilities- perhaps they might need a boost compared to the other supposedly inferior options..? The Skirantra has fewer squadrons and the Halcyon fewer uses for antimatter- I believ

Reply to rather indepth phase missle examination. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

This was a good thread, started by a strong player. Then it started to go wrong when other players offered their opinions, not that it is much worse than any other thread in that respect. However I will offer one myself, though it isn't based on balance as much as coherence: it seems odd to have fighters and flak use phase missiles, they are just not flak/fighter type weapons, whats the purpose of bypassing shields, why over-engineer? Bombers, LRF, capital ships, starbases,

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

By the combat AI I meant the combat auto-target AI, not the strategic AI. Your input is always welcome, I shall be sure to refer to it as the Indifference Engine in future, to make it more clear- and the non-returning fleets, until they are made useful once more, perhaps... Players say that there are no counters to LF but LRF and it just isn't true. Heavies counter LF. Capitals counter LF, and isn't that one of the main purposes of the patch, to&nbsp

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

Darvin is the lead on our community multiplayer map pack project also... and I would suggest that the community patch include new maps. Three of the four worst military technologies I've identified have just never been integrated into the game, so there's no real starting point for balance- as soon as they become at all useful they will start to change the game as it exists. Planetary shields should have been adjusted with Entrenchment, when all factions got a superior version o

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 occurred to me that the current version of Animosity might be a useful choice for conversion to the cruiser ability.. as an elegant solution to focus fire, rather than an exacerbation of it? Then you could put Repulse on the Radiance... I like that. That would still leave Guidance as a sub-par ability, though I'm not sure how it would work in its existing form with cruisers anyway..? How about altering it slightly to make a Revelation-based fleet w

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

After returning to these threads I'm convinced that the game will only be improved by a community patch. It's been too long, and there's just too much of the game that needs work to believe that one last patch, put together while the developers are busy with a new project, will improve it enough. The wave weapons problem has been with the game for as long as I've played, for instance, as pointed out by N3rull- but the developers haven't heard before, why would they hear after they