Darvin3

Reply to Argonev Star Base in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

Strike craft upgrades, in my opinion, should only be used in uncolonizable gravity wells, especially as Advent. Spend tactical slots on cheap hangers, not starbase upgrades on expensive strike craft bays. Only use them in wells where you cannot build hangers. If you need mines, use your drone hosts as mine-layers. Typically you should use either disorient or meteor, not both. An intelligent player probably won't even attempt to rush your starbase if you ha

Reply to Wikipedia Article for Sins -- Adding Content for Online Multiplayer Section in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

Be careful wading into wikipedia articles that deal with any form of media. It's very easy to get carried away with details, but your goal should be brevity and focus. I think much of the proposed addition doesn't speak so much about Sins of a Solar Empire multiplayer games as it does about multiplayer RTS games in general. Many of the facts you state are universally true to all titles across the genre. Perhaps you should consider refining your statements to be

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

Siege frigates are countered quite soundly by scouts. So long as you actually see the siege frigates coming you should have enough time to build a fleet of scouts and trounce them. Carriers are always the better bet, but you can amass a good force of scouts quite quickly if you see them coming. In any case, JJ is correct that the best way to rush is by picking the units that counter your enemy. However, in the current version of the game, your safest bet is the solid LRF/Flak combination.

Reply to A.I in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Compared to other games, the AI in Sins is very good. Compared to a reasonably experienced human player it's a impotent worm. The specific weaknesses of the AI is that it doesn't expand its empire very quickly, picks poor capital ships and capital ship abilities, chooses the wrong unit types for its situation, and doesn't manage its economy very well. Perhaps ironically it is situationally too timid (doesn't attack when it needs to or has an opportunity) or too aggre

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

Semantics; a [i]viable[/i] colony frig rush does not exist. Obviously whenever we talk about strategies here, viability is implicit.

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

The problem in this regard is we don't have a small multi-star scenario. Your choice is between medium single-star or a [i]massive[/i] multi-star. Hard to find middle-ground there. Now, I guess you could create a custom random setup for many small star systems, but I've yet to see anyone do this. All I've seen are annoying ones where you'd have to bypass five or six massively fortified neutral worlds to get to the enemy system, ensuring that you don't even see each o

Reply to Entrenchment - Spoilt by Starbases. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote] this issue was handled fairly well with 1.01 update (we are at 1.03) they still run at your starbase but they do build their own (though it does depend on the AI) and can be effective at it[/quote] I'd disagree; they still will suicide regularly on your starbases and are completely inept at attacking anything with even a couple of upgrades. Furthermore, they are still very stupid about starbase expenditures themselves. Often key worlds are

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]I wish Sins had the feature that Rise of Nations had. You could set a timer on how long until aggression could commence. Like, say, just put a 15 minute "all peaceful" mandate on the game.[/quote] The problem with that in Sins (and many other games) is contested resources. There would need to be a mechanism to ensure any conflicting claims over planets or neutrals cannot occur, since any method of conflict resolution (now [i]that[/i] is a euphemism) is banned.

Reply to Which faction is the best? in Strategy Sins Forums

Better yet one level 1 Jerrasul Evacuator will beat an unupgraded starbase... and a level 5 one can beat even an upgraded one. He'll, with repair bays I once beat a [i]fully[/i] upgraded Advent starbase (bypassed it, colonized the planet, built repair bays) just with my evacuator.

Reply to Lower Fleet Sizes in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The number of ships at each level changes. This means you need to purchase more upgrades (and go to higher upkeep) to get the same number of ships when the fleet level is set to low. Similarly if the fleet level is set to high you don't need to go as high into upkeep. Often times people play with small fleets on big maps, since things can lag up late game once economies get big. People will similarly play with large fleets on small maps, since you don't have as much

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]My capital ship was a Kortul. luckly the map was really small. -And scuttled the capital ship factory for a small boost lol[/quote] I don't understand choosing Kortul over the Evacuator. Nanos is simply insane. Personally I never scuttle my capital ship yard unless I'm desperate for logistical slots. I love bringing out multiple capital ships for their utility. Sure, you lose out on brute force, but at the end of the d

Reply to The Best Rushing stratgey and why in Strategy Sins Forums

Mothership and illum, in most cases, is your best form of attack. Really any large force of LRF and flak that considerably outnumbers its foe will be extremely deadly early on. The Vasari starbase rush is powerful but risky. It usually requires feed from allies, but can totally backfire if the enemy can counter-attack and punish you for putting all your resources into a single powerful installation. This rush works best on maps where the enemy homeworld is vulnerable o

Reply to Scouts aren't the only ship that can explore... in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I always manual scout. I find the scout, light frigate, and flak are the best choices.

Reply to Making Cap abilities viable in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]so giving GRG an insane damage buff doesn't seem all that out of the question... That said, I don't want it going over 2000, but still, I'd say that 2000 is the peak... So, I'm revising my previous statement of 1400-1600 to 1500-2000. This does need to be powerful.[/quote] I'd agree with you that 1500-2000 is probably a reasonable value if we want to create an ability that really is a match for nanos. Of course, I wanted to give a more conservative value

Reply to Banning of advent in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Ever tried to beat a vasari SB rush early on[/quote] The Vasari starbase rush is its own balance issue, but it depends on your race. In Vasari vs Vasari, it's no problem, because the egg is the best anti-starbase weapon in the game anyways (nothing else is so deadly to a starbase for only 50 command!). If Advent can pull guardians out of their ass, a lightly upgraded Vasari starbase can be tanked and killed with shield restore and illums (although this is definitely

Reply to Making Cap abilities viable in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If you want to compare gauss cannon to nanos, it'll be a little difficult. Gauss is instant damage, nanos is damage over time. You can't use nanos twice in a row on the same target (it won't stack) but you can use it on multiple targets to have its DoT effect on several. However, if you want to look at the maximum damage potential of gauss cannon compared to nanos on a single target, that's doable. Nanos damage per second is very obvious and easy to calculate

Reply to Which faction is the best? in Strategy Sins Forums

A Vasari starbase is nice, but the problem is that illums with guardians and SR will be able to tank their way through a moderately upgraded one, and will simply go around a heavily upgraded one. You're in an uphill battle against Advent, but the Vasari starbase is probably your best weapon against them.

Reply to Making Cap abilities viable in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Maybe one ability worth considering that you haven't yet is the Kol's Gauss Cannon. The ability is somewhat lackluster compared to other direct damage abilities, and its only redeeming feature is that low cooldown. It basically requires flux field to be of any use whatsoever.

Reply to Which faction is the best? in Strategy Sins Forums

Unless the map lends itself strongly towards TEC or Vasari, Advent is simply overwhelming.

Reply to Calculated: Trade Ports vs. Refineries in Strategy Sins Forums

The problem is that culture's benefit is even more dependent on the layout of your empire than refineries are. Trade ports not so much. In any case, usually you want to balance your trade/refineries in such a way to minimize your use of the black market. This is a huge black hole of your economy and you'd save tremendous amounts of wealth by avoiding using it.

Reply to What is thier fatal flaw? in Strategy Sins Forums

Advent's economy is actually the strongest at the start of the game, and only becomes lackluster later on due to how few decent civic techs they have. It's not a significant enough disadvantage to be considered a fatal flaw. Actually a bigger flaw for Advent is that their fleet is (relatively) weak when split up and highly dependent on capital ship support for maximum effectiveness. Vasari's fatal flaw is simply that their ships are weaker than other faction

Reply to Banning of advent in Strategy Sins Forums

Honestly, nothing is in the same league as the illum/guardian/progen combo right now. Not even missile barrage; lest anyone forget, a mid-game Advent fleet can [i]tank[/i] missile barrage, easily. I only ever beat a mature Advent fleet in one of three ways: [i]significantly[/i] outnumber them (more than 2:1) with a (well upgraded) starbase with my own fleet of Advent units I'm not surprised that people are banning Advent. I'

Reply to Brand new player, need suggestions with first steps. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

When you lose labs (either because they were destroyed or your scrapped them) some things you researched become unavailable, but others remain in effect. The ability to produce unit-types and structures is lost. If TEC researches trade centers and loses their labs, they lose the ability to build new trade centers until the labs are first rebuilt. However, special abilities are not lost. If TEC researches cluster munitions and loses their labs, their LRM's are still a

Reply to [REL] Capital Abilities Mod |Obsolete| in Sins Modding Sins Forums

I think, even among those advocating a MB nerf (including me) that a hard cap is the wrong way to go. Part of the problem with MB is that there's no obvious way to nerf it. I personally think phase missile swarm should have been made to shield bypass (100% chance of bypass, basically) instead of a damage boost. Those critiques aside, I approve of this mod! Keep up the good work!

Reply to Unfair: Point Blank in Strategy Sins Forums

[QUOTE]You guys fail because you fight LFs with LFs, I kill the firgate factory.[/QUOTE] Now [i]that[/i] makes sense.