Darvin3

Reply to 1.19 BETA/1.2 Buffs AREN'T ENOUGH in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[quote]Flak burst is absolutely pitifull. It hardly does any damage to any bombers (even the few that are in range). The damage rate itself needs to also be improved.[/quote] Flak burst is an uncapped area of effect ability; it SHOULDN'T be any good against 4 or 5 squads. I can certainly get behind an antimatter cost decrease for FB (especially since Finest Hour is now nerfed) but it should be measured against what it can do to larger swarms of strike craft, not a fe

Reply to Strongest Capital ship is........ in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

I'm not surprised that Sova is the strongest "brawler" at level 1, since missile turrets have always given excellent value for such a low-level ability. Nor am I surprised it scales poorly; this has [i]always[/i] been the Sova's biggest problem. I'd say due to its lack of fleet support abilities that there's plenty of room to buff the Sova in the level 5+ range. I'm not convinced that scramble needs more modifications. As you mention, it is stronger in some ways due

Reply to Sins activation, please help!!! in Technical Sins Forums

[quote]I did email them but they didn't bother with a reply.[/quote] Give it some time; they have a queue they have to work through. [quote]I downloaded a stand alone because I didn't know if the star trek modd would work with anything higher, it specifically says 1.181.[/quote] Ah, [i]that[/i] probably explains it. There's probably a mismatch going on where the stand-alone download is keyed to a different Impulse account. Orphaned mods are a major proble

Reply to If yesterday's games where made today... in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I don't know how much is nostalgia and how much is the change in design, but I [i]do[/i] miss the old days when games were really challenging rather than the indulgent linear tripe we get now. Of course, a big issue is the vastly inflated cost of level design. There was once a time when 100+ levels was just expected if the developer had more than two people on staff. Nowadays you'd be lucky if a staff of 100+ will produce more than a dozen levels... and chances are there w

Reply to Sins activation, please help!!! in Technical Sins Forums

Contact [email protected] This sounds very weird; if you've already updated via Impulse, you shouldn't need to do any activations to play the game. EDIT: Wait, you updated to [i]1.181[/i]!? That's even weirder; you should have been updated to 1.19 or not at all.

Reply to bypassing, arctic colonies, and early game expansion in Strategy Sins Forums

Because walking in with an inflexible plan is a [i]bad[/i] idea. Approaching a game with an open mind and tailoring your response to the specific needs of your situation is the [i]right[/i] way to go about things. Sometimes a map will scream that you should be bypassing an ice/volcanic, sometimes this is just a bad idea. Play the to the strengths of your start location, not to random whims of fancy.

Reply to Proposed change to PUG draft order for 5v5 in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

It always depends on the player distribution. If there's one terrible player and everyone else is competent, the last-pick always gets screwed over. If there are three roughly equally-skilled players to choose from, the second pick has an [i]inordinate[/i] advantage no matter what you do. I don't think, short of some sort of matching algorithm built into the game, that we can get a one-size-fits-all solution.

Reply to bypassing, arctic colonies, and early game expansion in Strategy Sins Forums

Even the most heavily guarded ice/volcanic should be doable with scouts and a colony cap. Use the scouts to take out the Krosovs, then colonize + turret, then use the scouts to take out the LRM's, then leave. Shouldn't take too long. It's the more heavily guarded desert/terrans that present a [i]real[/i] challenge. Certainly if the planet in question is out of the way, or you have a high-priority planet you want to beeline for, bypassing makes more sense. However

Reply to Domina in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

The biggest issue with the domina is that its auto-targeting is completely broken; doesn't work, you have to manually target all its abilities. On a 4-command unit that only becomes available once fleets are in the 600+ (or higher) command-range, that's unacceptable. Beyond that, it could use a few solid buffs, but its abilities aren't [i]that[/i] bad. Implementation-wise, what you suggest seems beyond the scope of a patch. A cool idea, but not gunna happen.

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Being a colour blind gamer is a pain in the rear end, I can attest. You learn tricks to get around it, but telling at a glance between a green number and a red number is never easy for us. That said, Sins isn't the worst offender since there is an intensity difference between the red and green text, which helps contrast them.

Reply to GRG Idea in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

TEC already has two interrupts as well; ion bolt and magnetize. That said, I'm not opposed to adding a third to the list. I've never been able to come up with a solution I've liked for GRG. I strongly believe it needs a (new) secondary effect, since it's never going to scale appropriately as a pure-damage ability, but that also has to mesh well with the Kol's unique antimatter limitations and role as a front-line brawler. I think this is the checklist for a viable

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[QUOTE]Did it get pulled my impulse still does not show any updates[/QUOTE] *sigh* Click the blue button in the upper-left-hand corner of the Impulse screen, and tick off the box that says "show prerelease version" https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/404715/page/3/#2886007

Reply to BOOM!!! in Strategy Sins Forums

I was wondering when that was coming....

Reply to BOOM!!! in Strategy Sins Forums

This isn't a rule of thumb, this is just a rule: [b]Always presume a TEC player with more than 5 military labs has rigged all his starbases to explode[/b] If you do not make this presumption, you will eventually (and in your case, frequently) lose your fleet. It's not fun when this happens, so always presume that you're walking into a death-trap. You do have some good options, though, especially since you're Vasari. [quote]and the starbases were so well pos

Reply to Diplomacy v1.2 Preview in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

The strategy you describe works quite well in the early-game. The toughness of capital ships means your opponent has very little opportunity to deal lasting damage to you. I run cap-heavy openers all the time, but they are simply not viable beyond 4 capital ships. Any further and you're sacrificing so much firepower that your fleet simply won't be able to stand up to a credible threat. I strongly suspect that the "power" you're feeling isn't the capital ships, but rath

Reply to StrikeCraft - The Truth in Strategy Sins Forums

Based on in-game experience, I'd say that TEC and Advent strikecraft are roughly equal, while the Vasari variety are somewhat stronger due to the superior phase missile weapon. The discrepancy from squad size doesn't really have a [i]huge[/i] impact in practice, and other factors for each respective faction will have a greater importance.

Reply to Beta Patch Makes AI Relations Worse in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[quote]how did you know which player was on which side immediately?[/quote] When I say "immediately", I don't mean when the game started. I meant as soon as I got some scouting done. In that time frame, I'd colonized two asteroids and had some frigates working on a volcanic.

Reply to Beta Patch Makes AI Relations Worse in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

I had a 5-way FFA last night, which serves as a model of how "rational" players will utterly devastate "irrational" players (sucha s the AI). I immediately looked at my two neighbours, and found I had a hard choke with one and a porous neutral-laden field with the other. I assigned all my military units to the choke side, and offered full treaties to the more porous border and started sending envoys. By the time anyone else even offered him a ceasefire, I had envoys on all h

Reply to Map, Pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If the pirates are disabled and they don't get upgrade, then yes. The pirates can easily be overwhelmed by a relatively small force of mid-tier units with the proper support. Vasari might have a [i]little[/i] trouble, but nothing unachievable (plus the map you describe greatly favours Vasari anyways). If you have pirate raids enabled, the pirates will get stronger over time, and that might present a challenge. However, Advent and Vasari should have no problem clearing

Reply to Diplomacy v1.2 Preview in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[quote]8 capital ships and 40-50 frigates[/quote] That could be part of the problem; your capital ship to frigate ratio is [i]way[/i] off. Eight capital ships is more than you'd ever want for TEC or Vasari (Advent can go that high only after researching mass transcendance). Presuming typical units (ie, not huge units like carriers or heavies) I'd probably only want 1 or 2 capitals with a fleet that small.

Reply to Diplomacy v1.2 Preview in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Click on the blue tab in the upper left hand corner of impulse, then check the box that says "show pre-release version"

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[quote]Well one game i fully upgraded AM regen and Culture AM bonus. Build 30 hoshis 30 lrms akan and 2 carriers. Had demolition boots researched as well. While attacking advent sb 35 ilums and carrier cap. Killed SB and 95% of fleet while I lost only 1 carrier cap i would say 5 lrms and hoshikas still had 50% am if looked on average. I was disabling all his Ilums and repairing at the same time. [/quote] Tech-wise, Hoshikos with demo-bots are the equivalent of Guardians with repulsion

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[QUOTE]Now... The KOL might actually be a viable opener now. And a starting kol will almost certainly be GRG/flack instead of flack/shield. [/QUOTE] As I said earlier, we tested a version of GRG [i]even stronger[/i] than the one in this patch and still found the Kol very weak at lower levels. It was alright once it hit level 5, but at level 1 it was getting beat up by militia a Sova, Akkan, or Marza could clear with ease. [quote]The Skirantra now scrambles

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

The domina is by no means the only underpowered thing that was left untouched. Speaking of the "near worthless" stuff for Advent alone, you have resource focus, the deliverance engine, the adjudicator, and martyrdom.

Reply to Diplomacy v1.2 Preview in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

[quote]but maintaining adaptive force shield requires 60 AM/40 seconds... or 1.5 antimatter/second or the exact same antimatter cost as powersurge.[/quote] This ability is only activated when under focus fire, so again it's not something you will necessarily maintain at all times. If the Kol is under serious fire, you are probably retreating it so long-term is not a big deal, and if it's not under serious fire you won't activate much, if at all. [quote]That means that