Darvin3

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

The AI always keeps its fleet in one huge group. A player sometimes does this, but if he catches wind (through scouting...) of a smaller strike force he'll be sure to match it with his own secondary fleet. Seeing as siege frigates cost approximately as much as a carrier cruiser, this gives you strike force a significant combat disadvantage against an enemy force of equal strength. If you're caught on the defensive, you may have no choice to retreat, and on the offensive sieg

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

The problem with your analysis of dominance vs replicate forces is that you [i]cannot[/i] presume anything about a battle. Every fight is a significant risk on your part. Sure, you [i]could[/i] walk out ahead, but there's also the possibility that you'll get hit by gravity bomb and lose a high level capital ship. Then who is ahead? The point I'm making is that a "permanent" replicate forces cannot be compared to dominance. Using dominance requires an in-combat

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

Hey, I'm mostly singleplayer myself. Fact remains that with the AI you have the leeway to play with sub-optimal units and strategies because it just isn't very good. This makes it more difficult to make precise statements about unit balance. As I said "sub-optimal" strategies in singleplayer is just a bit of extra challenge, but in multiplayer can be nearly unplayable.

Reply to Economy Boosts in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Trade ports give you an increase in credit income. Every trade port in your empire (unless the target planet has a bonus, like +10% trade income) gives the same amount of benefit. However, if a trade ship is destroyed, its home port suffers reduced income for a short duration. The amount of money each trade port gives you is based on the "longest chain" of trade ports in your empire. Refineries simply increase the amount of resources produced by

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

The AI isn't much of a threat, so singleplayer gamers don't exactly get a full sense for the game's balance issues. For singleplayer gamers, sub-optimal is just an extra layer of challenge. For multiplayer gamers, sub-optimal means worthless. You have to go with the strongest units and strategies or else you get creamed, so the experiences are quite different.

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

I agree with you on most of those points. A lot of caps could use some reworking, and there's no question that the big three (Marza, Evacuator, Progen) simply outclass everything else in their respective factions. The micromanagement problem, however, is more to do with the crappy auto-cast AI. It doesn't have to be perfect, but right now it's completely and utterly appauling how it works and with few exceptions (shield regen on progen, how can you mess that up?) it sucks.</

Reply to Trade (and other structure) positioning within a gravity well in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote] static defenses are in general not incredibly useful, even against the AI [/quote] Well, against the AI they'll run head-first into a line of turrets, which is both hilarious and very cost effective. Turret it up against the AI, they don't know any better than to run head-first into your deathtrap. The opposite applies against a player; a good delay mechanism, but a waste of resources otherwise because they won't fight them head to head. I per

Reply to Mercy Rules in Strategy Sins Forums

Defeat occurs when all your planets have been destroyed. The AI will occasionally surrender before this time, but not always. I've seen very little rhyme or reason to the AI's surrendering. On the one hand, I once trounced the AI's homeworld (and its main - presumably only - fleet) and it surrendered even though it still controlled an entire solar system (on a three solar system map, no less!). On the other hand, I've seen the AI's fight down to their last asteroid eve

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote] Of course I'm talking about the old siege frigate. That's the whole point. [/quote] No, it's not. First of all, no one is asking for a super-cheap, diamond plated world-killer that used to be. As I've said time and time again, I'd like to see a HP buff, a cost buff, or a damage buff (Spiralblitz's suggestion a few posts back is essentially a damage buff; by lowering both their cost and HP their cost:hp ratio stays the same, but their cost:dama

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

[QUOTE] POINT 1: ...The siege frigate stands alone as the early game superunit with the power to cause so much harey carey that the game will no longer be fun to play for many people, myself included. For the newb, it is utterly uncounterable, and they will just lose. For the non-newbish average player, it is simply a massive pain to deal with. [/QUOTE] I don't see an inherent problem with siege frigates having a unique role. LRF's ca

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote] lol your ships lose accuracy while they are moving this is what the Akkans targeting uplink is for. [/quote] Good to know that. Because colonize isn't something you use in combat, and armistice is a little weird, ion bolt is your only in-combat ability that drains anti-matter. For that reason, I don't think its cost is actually a huge issue. Again, it's the other abilities that should be buffed. If you're going to add a secondary bon

Reply to ??? Gained from other sources in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Yup, it would. If it doesn't fit any other category, it gets lumped into "other sources".

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

A free trade port would be a bad idea, because we may want to use the planet's logistics capacity differently, or the planet might break our longest trade chain, so this is non-viable. [quote] I'll tell you what really needs to be looked at is the lvl6 ability. It doesnt effect SC, and that is very lame. [/quote] [i]That[/i] needs to be addressed.

Reply to Marza lvl 6 missile barrage, The key to kick that! in Strategy Sins Forums

You can't compare reverie and detonate anti-matter directly. They're two separate abilities that happen to have some overlap in purpose. You can't just say one is better than the other, because they have very different strengths and weaknesses. Detonate anti-matter won't stop an enemy from fighting or retreating, and (in the long-run) reverie has next to no effect on capital ship abilities (like nanos). Sure, it will disable it for a few moments, but the enemy's anti-m

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

Well, I think most people will agree ion bolt is fine as is. Colonize would be respectable if it went to 1/2/3 extractors. The only other ways to buff the Akkan would be to address targetting uplink or its basic stats (health, armour, damage, shields). I think the problem with targetting uplink is more to do with the fact that there aren't enough accuracy-reducing effects in the game. If you're up against an Advent with vertigo or fighting in an asteroid belt, it sudde

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

Dead asteroids don't have any resource asteroids, but the Akkan can still colonize them. You just don't get any bonus from doing so. If the planet has 2 asteroids, then that's the maximum the Akkan can give you, simple as that. Anyways, just running through the math, the Progen with equal level colonize would still offer more cost savings in most cases. The only case where the Akkan would be better is if you only purchase only one pla

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

Rather than going on in this endless circle of one of us saying they're useless and need a buff, and you saying that if anything they should be nerfed more, how about addressing my key points. To convince me of your position, you'll have to convince me that these concepts are somehow flawed: 1) currently siege frigates have poor health, damage, and cost. The siege frigates you describe are tough as diamond, dealt lots of damage, and costed relatively little. There is

Reply to ??? Gained from other sources in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Basically the catch-all for any income that doesn't fall under the other categories. I think bounties fall under there, too.

Reply to V 1.14.045 Breaks the game on a completly fresh install in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If you uninstalled and reinstalled, you may still have old files somewhere that the game tries to load and ends up crashing.

Reply to Labs and ship/structure build speed in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

There is a TEC upgrade that requires 7 civilian labs which dramatically increases frigate build speeds.

Reply to Also a TECH Problem in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The issue is the new update. If you have any custom maps predating 1.14, the game will crash when you start it. Remove any custom maps from your galaxy folder, and the game should launch.

Reply to Countering the Carrier: Now Many Mini-Guides to bringing down the new workhorse (updated 2/24) in Strategy Sins Forums

I remember reading a developer post that stated the target acquisition AI had been improved.

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

The Advent and Vasari ones are both better in that regard. Vasari obviously gets a build speed bonus, but Advent can cheaply bring out logistics and tactical upgrades to get extra builders. Honestly, I've never understood why Akkan doesn't give you 1/2/3 extractors. It's the weakest colony ship to begin with, and the savings are still not even a fraction of what the Advent get out of their mothership.

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

I've heard there's a dedicated anti-structure frigate coming in entrenchment, so that role is already filled.

Reply to Akkan colonize in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="2" id="2072594"]In Entrenchment, it's instant now, finally [/quote] Well, 30 seconds of .5 crystal or metal only comes out to 15 of that resource. By the time you have level 2 colonize, that's not a considerable amount of resource. Not going to change my opinion of Akkan's colonize ability. Still, it's [i]convenient[/i] that it's instant now. [quote]Thanks.[/quote] You're welcome.