Darvin3

Reply to Matter Processor in Strategy Sins Forums

11-12 is your baseline for consideration, 13-14 is where it's always worth getting around to it eventually, and 15+ is where you want to make it a priority.

Reply to Strongest Long range frigate is ........... in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Javs have an upgrade that allows them to get the first volley off.[/quote] Guess this is the range making the difference. [quote]Try a progen.[/quote] More to the point is the Guardian and the mitigation upgrades Advent get, against which the phase missiles are positively [i]nasty[/i]. Of course, this is something that doesn't need much explaining; any experienced player who has constrasted Vasari vs Advent and TEC vs Advent can [i]feel[/i] the differe

Reply to population upgrade in Strategy Sins Forums

[i]Always[/i] get enough upgrades to get yourself out of underdevelopment ASAP. This tax will bleed your treasury dry in short order. The ONLY time it's worth delaying is if the planet is if you want to get a tactical upgrade to spam defenses quickly. Otherwise always get enough population upgrades to prevent underdevelopment. For the higher level upgrades, after undevelopment is dealt with, wait until your population is almost maxed out. Buying them immediatel

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

[quote]I can't exactly remember if I ever lost a game after I had RA ... it might have happened.[/quote] I guess if the OTHER guy had RA as well... [quote]I dunno why everyone says it sucks; RA is great, but it isn't meant to be rushed for an instant win.[/quote] It's 8 civic lab, has a 7-lab tech prerequisite, and requires an extensive phase stabilizer network to pay off. That's [i]a lot[/i] of infrastructure investment to get this off the ground. Perso

Reply to Suggestion for balance for next patch in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]If you dont nerf all capital carriers then you will still continue see the other two race field multiple carrier caps. By nerfing all carriers you boost other types of capital ships, but other rarely used caps will still need a further adjustments to be seen as a viable capital ship opener.[/quote] I think the key is to give the other capital ships a strong role that lets them compete with the strength of carrier capital ships. I think we're both on the same page in on

Reply to Strongest Long range frigate is ........... in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Even with max upgrade Javs will still kill a single target faster then assailants with max phase missile upgrades[/quote] With +30% damage, those 30 LRM deal 429 damage. With the +20% of their final upgrade, those 20 assailants deal 312. This is a 37.5% difference in damage output. If we do a break-even on what mitigation values allow Assailant's 30% bypass to match this, we get a mitigation percentage of 55%. So yes, any target which averages

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

[quote]With testing, I wouldn't expect even a change list terribly soon.[/quote] I mean a tentative list when they're getting ready to launch the first iteration of the beta-patch.

Reply to Strongest Long range frigate is ........... in Strategy Sins Forums

Absolutely, in terms of sheer bang for your buck, LRM's are the best unit in the game. Period. Experimentation and spreadsheeting all confirm this conclusion. A skilled TEC with a good economic opener who can get a LRM/Garda/Hoshiko fleet operational early is [i]scary[/i]. That said, the assailants do have a lot of indirect perks (typical of the Vasari faction, really). When focus firing capital ships or starbases, fully-upgraded assailants are better tha

Reply to Suggestion for balance for next patch in Strategy Sins Forums

There's [i]a lot[/i] that could potentially be done with the random map generator, and "random symmetric" is not the only thing to consider. Personally, I'd be happy if we just got a 100% assurance that we will [i]always[/i] have a roid and an ice/volcanic connected to our homeworld. One-lane and no-roid starts are by far the most common map-screw, so much so that in a 5v5 it's almost a forgone conclusion that at least one person will be affected in this manner. It won't fix

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

[quote]hands up y'all who are checking every day, maybe twice for news or a possible download!! [/quote] Even a patch change list would be awesome.

Reply to IG2 vs SoaSE or something else? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote]I'm sure mp addicts will tell you there is tons[/quote] Yup; it doesn't have the frantic reflex aspect of a game like Starcraft, but there is a huge emphasis on tactical combat and you can milk [i]a lot[/i] of performance out of your fleet through careful positioning and maneuvers. [quote]I assume I would want to get the "trilogy" package, as that comes with the expansions vs the regular cheaper game?[/quote] Trinity is the complete game with all the ex

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

The problem with the free (or low-cost) RA is that for increasingly huge empires it gets to be unstoppable in that units just pop in as fast as you can kill them. As I said, I think it [i]does[/i] need some limiting factor. Just making it a global ability that isn't dependent on the number of phase stabilizers you have would work wonders. In some situations, this may even be a net buff since the ability still functions at full capacity even if you only have 2 or 3 stabilizer

Reply to Cap ship classes earning respect. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]Since we are only looking at base performance the 6 strikecraft plus the carrier capitals own dps makes this an even wash.[/quote] A good point, though we'd have to account for the fact that battleships also get strike craft at higher levels on the other end of the calculation. Furthermore this isn't much use to a kiting carrier that doesn't get to use its weapons, though it's still a plus that shouldn't be ignored. [quote]Additionally in battles that 6 strikecraf

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

If you want to remove the cost from RA, the best way to do it would be to give it a global cooldown. That is to say, if you use RA at any one location, the ability goes on cooldown at all phase stabilizers. This means that building more stabilizers has no benefit to this ability, and it always provides the same steady stream of units. Rebalance its numbers accordingly. This means that RA would be viable even with a sparse stabilizer network (which in reality is all you

Reply to Cap ship classes earning respect. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Don't count special abilities, ZombieRus. [i]All[/i] capital ships get special abilities that make them awesome, this is their primary selling point. The point is to look at their [i]base[/i] performance before specials are applied.

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

[quote]Plasma storms are a good place to face an aggressive foe fielding lots of SC. [/quote] Not like such a foe will ever be caught dead fighting in a plasma storm. Even when the storm [i]does[/i] random as a choke point, blowing through it into the next gravity well is actually quite easy. That said, putting an Orkulus on one of these is [i]nasty[/i]. Very difficult to approach that beast until well into the late-game.

Reply to Cap ship classes earning respect. in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If we're going to determine a "break-even" level where battleships match heavies, we should probably compare this against the current performance of carrier caps. 50 command in carriers provides you with ~7.5 squads, and carrier capital ships only surpass this mark at level 10. However, carrier capital ships have other advantages, including not requiring antimatter for unit replacement and (of course) special abilities. I think we want battleships to mirror this; surpass the

Reply to Balance help for balance mod :) in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Why???? Damage done by Kostura is minimal at best. [/quote] The problem is not one Kostura, the problem is five or six Kosturas. Point them all at the same planet, and the entire defending fleet is instantly annihilated. Once you have enough kosturas, the enemy is no longer capable of defending because their fleet will get vapourized if it stands in one place for any length of time. This means that Vasari eventually have an "auto-win" button with sufficient Ko

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

[quote]and you have to start with either a carrier or colonizer ( maybe Marza or Vulkoras)...[/quote] I'm still a big Kortul fan. It's not as powerful as a Skirantra opener, but it's [i]viable[/i] at very least. [quote]nobody who's serious about game balance wants to remove phase missiles[/quote] Yup; as much as they're a balance nightmare, I have never once even suggested weakning phase missiles. This is Vasari's gimmick, and it shouldn't be t

Reply to Noob Haylp - Not Sure What I'm Doing in Strategy Sins Forums

I recommend turning pirates off when you're first learning the game. The game generally plays better without them. Unlike barbarians in Civilization, pirates will only attack one empire at a time, and for beginner players and lower-difficulty AI (note: [i]hard[/i] is considered lower-level) this can usually clinch the game if multiple consecutive raids hit the same victim. If you ever go for online multiplayer, virtually no one plays with pirates on. For capital ship

Reply to Sova carrier in Strategy Sins Forums

On bigger maps, I'd be more inclined to go with Akkan or Marza. Marza can clear militia faster and maxed out raze planet and (even better) missile barrage can be [i]invaluable[/i] assets for the first battle. Sova is great for clearing militia, but you don't exactly get a massive boon for raising one to high levels, which is what makes it a very dedicated rushing capital ship ship.

Reply to By what meter are Advent Disciple Vessels front-line vessels!? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Several of the militia ships often have antimatter[/quote] That's the Cobalt; this unit doesn't have any abilities until you perform the right research. [quote]Now I've taken to building a battleship[/quote] The battleship really only makes sense as an opener for Vasari, since the Kortul has some great abilities. Beyond this, the Progenitor actually has very good damage output that's similar to a battleship. The Radiance deals 51.5 damage per s

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

Heheh... can't wait to see what you guys have in store for us :-D

Reply to Space Mines and More in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

As much as I agree with the issues you bring up, Desconnor, the devs have asked for a response on the particular issue of mines in this thread. I hope these issues all get their day, but today in this thread, it's about mines. The one issue that slipped my mind earlier was the 3D exploit; it's [i]very[/i] easy to just go over or under mines, which means anyone who really wants to can ignore mines. Making their targeting a little more lax in the Z-axis alone would be quite

Reply to Need Assistance regarding TEC counter in Diplomacy 1.0 in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Can you please advise me on a good rush tactic, also how to Eco boom early with the Advent.[/quote] Early-game Advent vs TEC is just not favourable for you in [i]any[/i] circumstances. You [i]will[/i] lose early rush battles, and you [i]will[/i] fall behind economically. There's a reason Advent is the undisputed "weakest faction" right now, you know. On the other hand, Advent's fortunes reverse in the mid-game and if you can just stay competitive until you get