Daily Feedback Roundup -- Beta 2 Edition

kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

July 31

Technical

+ Performance -- Stuttering with 8800GTX (Link)

What happens is the game is stuttering, going fine for a second then stopping. Mouse and graphics appear unnafected, though the tool-tips that the mouse brings up seem to be delayed everytime it stops (if I move the mouse right at the split-second "stop"). Only time I've seen anything like this was when I had a very large number of fighters sitting on a star as my "grand fleet" maneuvered to jump out to one of the local enemy planets.

+ UI -- Culture production rate always displays as zero? (Link)

Another thing, the info card for culture of a planet is broken. It always says "Culture generated 0.0/sec" even if I have 2-3 towers.

Gameplay

+ Request -- Cooldown on bombed planets before they can be recolonized (Link)

I'd like to see a cool down timer of sorts, once a planet is bombed, there should be at least a minute or two until it can be colonized. Heck I've seen my colony ships land BEFORE the planet was done being bombed....

+ Idea -- Show phase lanes to/from selected planet on empire tree (pics) (Link)

Well the phase lane idea, is to help you to know what planets are connected, so by clicking a small icon near the planet you would get the phase lanes shown on the empire tree like this

Ongoing Discussions

+ Good, Bad, and "Its beta, I forgive you" (Link)
+ Who wants more single point static defenses? (Link)
+ First impressions "book" (Link)
+ Culture preventing colonising is Good. Dont change it pls! (Link)
+ Radio chatter (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 1

Gameplay

+ Discussion -- Another 'building around suns' thread (Link)

+ Discussion -- Capitals and loylaty penalties (Link)

Agree. The current loyalty system is horrible for large games. Anything further away then 5 or 6 jumps is nearly useless and not worth colonizing/expanding since you'll get nearly nothing from it anyway.
And with multiple solar systems or large solar systems you get this kind of situation quite often (even if I move my capital planet to the best possible location).

+ Request -- Make the text notification area only scrollable when player has chat input open (Link)

This would be even worse than the problem we have now. It's more important to be able to select something through that area than to be able to zoom to it. I'd like to try the idea of only having it respond to scrolls when you press enter (and have your own chat box active).

+ Nitpick -- Relativistic factories description backwards? (Link)

One of the artifacts allows ships to be constructed faster by building them in a "relativistic frame of reference". Unless I'm mistaking then doing that would cause the ship to be built slower.
If you are moving at relativistic speeds then time slows down for YOU and NOT the observer. So building ships in such a frame would actually cause the build time to be longer.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Minor [research] UI suggestion... (Link)
+ Culture preventing colonising is Good. Dont change it pls! (Link)
+ chasing vs intercepting (Link)
+ Desgin: Layout of planetary and star systems is 2D - can it be 3D? (Link)
+ Empire Tree addon idea (Link)

Unsorted

+ A Completed, three-hour game and it's problems (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 2

Gameplay

+ Discussion -- Loylaty and jump-distance penalties (Link)

Currently, loyalty is based on distances from the capital, measured in numbers of jumps. Thus, it is possible that a planet in another solar system may actually be more loyal than a planet in the system you're in now.
This is as low as it goes, 15% loyalty for any other distance. But that's a killer on the empire-building, and I've been toying with the following ideas:

+ Request -- Clock on main UI (Link)

So, when Civ IV introduced the feature that displays the current time (and date!) from my system time and date, I really, really found that useful. Would it be possible to implement that idea - displaying the real system time and date - for Sins?

+ Idea -- Add logistic-slot options in tech tree (Link)

But why, I wonder, are there no options to use the tech tree and research to expand the number of logistic/defensive slots a system has? Or even just upgrade the number of times you can purchase the Log/Def upgrade from the planet, instead of adding an overall bonus to the whole empire for only the cost of the research?

+ Idea -- Make the game 'green'? (Link)

Could we pretty please have a 1 - 5 microsecond sleep in the main loop? This will stop the thing from consuming 100% CPU resources and should not impact the gameplay. It will reduce power usage and help save the environment (as well as our computers; running cooler = longer life).

Ongoing Discussions

+ Learn from past space game mistakes!!! (Link)
+ Empire Tree addon idea (Link)
+ Solar Research Station (Link)
+ Capitals Per System? (and supply and upkeep) (Link)
+ chasing vs intercepting (Link)
+ Ways to Deepen Strategy (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 3

Gameplay

+ Request -- Players-per-system option in custom galaxy creation (Link)

here is my request: A "Players per System" option. When distributing the player homeworlds, the system will automatically pass over a system that has x other players already starting in it, where x is whatever number the player cared to specify (higher than zero, capping out at the maximum number of players in the game.)

+ Request -- Make mining techs benefit refineries as well so they give a useful RoI (Link)

Suggestion: If this research improved the rate by which I obtained resources via refinery freighters as well then the research might then be worth investing in. -Perhaps mining research already does affect the efficiency of get resources via freighters, but I have not noticed.

+ Idea -- Minor AI civs to help or conquer (Link)

If you have played Age of empires 3 or Emperor:battle for dune (this is what i am basing my sugesstion on) civilizations can create allies with minor little civilisations. These mini civs can do much to add stradagy to the game, they have additional technology to research what does good to the entire civ and they have specail units that only you can have, these units should have only one purpose and scolding be a base of an army also their numbers should be limited. So what i am proposing is that you find a inhabited nutral planet who says that they will ally with you if you can give them tech, resources save from marauders ect.

+ Idea -- Single-player cheat toolbar... (Link)

So, here's what I propose. A more rudimentary form of game experiance customization toolbar to be provided within Sins itself; disabled by default, you can activate the bar from within the options menu - after recieving a fair and clear warning that this constitutes cheating, the bar will become available, by way of a button that appears at the top-right of the screen, under the crystal resource number..

+ Idea -- Reorganize tech tree into groups (ships, defenses, weapons, etc) (Link)

Layout: How about a wider or taller layout with either columns or rows based on hierarchy? Put all the new ships near each other. Put the defense and regeneration next to one another. Put the added damage items close to one another. I think there was an effort to do this overall, but if things don't relate, I think it is much clearer not to put them in the same row/column.

+ Idea -- Slow research to force hard choices (Link)

I think it would add a lot of dimension to the game if most of the time you can't get through even the majority of the tree and it would help to differentiate playing styles. It could add some interesting complexity to early choices in the game(when you have the time to choose and not just manage your fleets). For wont of better examples, make people choose armor OR lasers. Hangars OR gauss installations.

+ Idea -- Generate culture from all non-military orbitals (Link)

I think it would be much better integrated if culture came from all the "logistic" buildings. Why not just create two classes of building? military and cultural(economic? civilian?) rather than tactical and logistic. put all the offense/defense/building warships into military (maybe except for capitol shipyards, which could give a civilian bonus since they are the crowning achievements of a militaristic society) and develop the trade arm (and techs) of the game further.

+ Idea -- Disallow culture from spreading through enemy planets (Link)

If culture is left the way it is, I'd suggest limiting cultural growth to the connections one step outside your empire.
Then if/when that site (asteroid/planet) flips to you, your culture can expand from there. Culture decay following planet loss in the periphery vs in the interior of your empire would then automatically have worse effects - makes sense, right?

+ Idea -- Make dead asteroids uncolonizeable (Link)

How about getting rid of the possibility of colonizing dead asteroids - just leave them as empty gravity wells that play a strategic role. They will give an additional challenge for expansion and give some additional purpose to having probes. (you could increase the frequency of dead asteroids as well)

Ongoing Discussions

+ Learn from past space game mistakes!!! (Link)
+ should the cruisers have guns? (Link)
+ Corpses (Link)
+ chasing vs intercepting (Link)

Unsorted

+ My feedback (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 4-6

Gameplay

+ Idea -- Option to autopause when game is minimized (Link)

Btw. imho the game should change to pause when minimized. Sometimes I forgot to pause it, which then isn't that good for me.
hmmm, i disagree w/ you about the pausing, personally I like it not pausing. Maybe add an option?

+ Idea -- Allow assignment of players to specific stars in game creation (Link)

What I would like is the ability to place specific factions in specific systems. Since the player setup menu comes after the galaxy one, all you would need to do is have the number of systems carry over into a numerical option next to players.
I realize that you want a game to be balanced with the AI, but there is no reason to limit players to having to play that balanced if they don't want to. If a player wants to start in one galaxy and have everyone else start out in another galaxy, so be it. When we finally get access to the other races, we can recreate the Vasari or Advent invasion of TEC space.

+ Idea -- Reports on bounty payouts (Link)

I've been thinking, I place a Bounty of XXXX credits on an enemy, as time goes by it goes back down to 0 for them. Who attacked them? Where did they get attacked? What was destroyed?
Things like this would be helpful, as I would then know where my enemy just got weakened by the pirates. Maybe a type of espionage research could be added to the game to get such reports.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Trade ships not crossing interstellar distances? (Link)
+ Desgin: Layout of planetary and star systems is 2D - can it be 3D? (Link)
+ Automatic replacement of lost ships defending a system (Link)
+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)
+ Good, Bad, and "Its beta, I forgive you" (Link)
+ My feedback (surrenders) (Link)
+ Capitals Per System? (Link)
+ Ways to Deepen Strategy (Link)
+ census about the pirates... (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)

Unsorted

+ Observations (Link)
+ Several GUI Improvement Ideas. (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 7

Ongoing Discussions

+ Should micromanagement of battles be more advantageous? (Link)
+ Everyone happy [with the beta so far]? (Link)
+ What I really like in single player only games (Link)
+ Corpses (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)
+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 8

Gameplay

+ Idea -- More types of locations with special features (Link)

Hi. Ironclad made a great job of adding anomolies and random stuff in space that makes the game more realistic. But somethings that they reeeally need are ice clouds, mining clouds, and wormholes (i'm talking random ones that are like in a sci-fi show that can fit a spaceship but glow like a vortex).

Ongoing Discussions

+ Cultural Espionage and Pirate Incursion Reports... (Link)
+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)
+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Soundtrack (Link)
+ My feedback (surrenders) (Link)
+ Kol as too... sissy. (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 9

Technical

+ Performance issues in mid-late game (Link)

Its like the game would be paused for a fraction of a second, every second. It wouldn't effect the mouse movement or panning, but would effect tooltip popups. And, I think it might effect mouse clicks. Wasn't able to prove that, and it may just be a separate issue (if you click on a button then move the mouse to another icon really fast (say to que up 1 fighter and 1 bomber on a hangar) sometimes the first click will end up registering on the second icon.

Gameplay

+ Request -- Differentiate between pirate and player attacks in audio alerts (IC) (Link)

It would be useful if when attacked by Pirates the announcer indicated it was pirates. Something imaginative like "we are being attacked by pirates" That way the player could tell right from the gitgo if he/she was being pestered by pirates or attacked by the ai.

+ Idea -- Salvage enemy/alien debris to accelrate research (Link)

I imagine it could work something like this: first you have to have the ability and knack to salvage and reverse engineer space debris (the beginning of a separate tech tree, which the TEC would have an advantage). However, the chance of finding a decent piece of workable equipment would be fairly small (say, 1-5% per battle). You could then use the level of found tech be the basis of how often you would find/recognize a piece of intact equipment (5% if levels of tech are somewhat similar, 1% if the tech levels are farther apart).

Ongoing Discussions

+ Kol as too... sissy. (Link)
+ My feedback (surrenders) (Link)
+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Soundtrack (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)
+ Ice clouds and hyper research stations (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 10

Gameplay

+ Request -- Select flagship class at game start (Link)

Currently, all the capships we've seen are (theoretically) all equally valuable. While I know some people want to change that, I think keeping them flat-priced has some advantages. For example, might it be possible (particularly in MP) to choose which class you want as your capital ship? Might add a bit of variety, particularly to the early game... (do I go for the firepower of the Kol, the early colonizing of the Akkan, etc).

+ Idea -- Build capships at any time, but research components piecemeal (Link)

Give each race a seperate "Capital Ships" research panel. This panel will be divided between the types of capital ships available. Now, you won't have to research the ships themselves - everyone knows how to make a big friggin' ship! It's just a big ship!

What you're researching is unique subsystem upgrades that are neither active nor passive leveled abilities. For example... The Kol's ion cannon beams would be a good example. Before you research this, those spots are simply regular laser turrets. Research the ion beams, and they become the ion prongs of doom we know and love to watch dig into our enemies.

+ Idea -- Thoughts on interstellar phase lanes (Link)

Personally, I like both ideas: A <-> B <-> C
1) The idea of having a series of star systems be connected by "jump-pathways", whereas ships with jump go from A to B, but can't go from A to C.

2) The idea of having "special jump-drive" ships be able to go from A to C without hitting B. These ships would of course be more expensive, off-jump-lane travel could be slower, you could take damage while moving off-jump-lane, etc.

My question becomes, why can't we have the best of both worlds?

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)
+ Ice clouds and hyper research stations (Link)
+ Soundtrack (Link)

Unsorted

+ Suggestion List From a fellow VGAP player... (IC) (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 11-13

Technical

+ UI -- Income infocard issues with many planets (Link)

Currently playing a game with 2 galaxies with 100 planets. It's coming towards the end of the game and I own all of one galaxy.

At this stage of the game the lists that show the collection rates for Credits, Metal and Crystal go a bit weird. Check out these screenshots.

+ Graphics -- Missing effects (Link)

1. When loading a save game, all my space elevator stations on a planet disappear... no new such stations ever re-appear in the game. You know the little buildings where the 'trafic' fly through.

2. Sometimes ships in transit via phase jump will have no phase jump special effect, even at max zoom, thus the ship simply looks stationary but is actually moving quite fast of course. Also sometimes grouped ships will have a phase effect for some but not others at different zooms, that gets annoying but I don't think that is a glitch.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Cutscenes? (Link)
+ Corporate Espionage (Link)
+ Kol as too... sissy (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)
+ Choose the class of your Flagship? (Link)

Unsorted

+ Suggestions for the game!! (Link)
+ Thoughts/questions (Link)
+ A bunch of ideas.... (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 14

Gameplay

+ Feedback -- Thoughts on pacing and activity, and request for adjustable game speed (Link)

Plus and minus signs having that wonderful time dialation function would be a real big help. Over all though, the game is just abysmally boring inbetween combats.

+ Request -- Option for mutually exclusive ctrl-group membership (Link)

When creating fleets with ctrl-#, any ships that currently belong to another fleet, will remain with that fleet when assigned to the new fleet, giving them dual membership. Is there a way to assign a set of ships to a new fleet, while at the same time having then drop ownership in their old fleet?

+ Request -- Show queued research/production in a list (IC) (Link)

An alternative would be to have a listing on the side of the research screen of the current and future research topics in the sequence to be researched.

+ Idea -- Minefields (Link)

a great idea could be a mine that is inactive untill a passing ship gets within a certain proximity of it, and it magnitises and latches to the ship and explodes. this would be really kewl if there was a feild of them, making it a deathtrap for passing ships. the fields could be placed in important routes making it easyer to manage ur fleet, thinking that the enemy wouldnt go there.

+ Idea -- Varied jump coordination and phase damage (Link)

1) make a slight variation in between the coordinated jumps of a group jump (like in starwars, where the jumps are closely grouped, but not simultaneous). this makes jumps more cinematic, and entrances much cooler
2) something needs to be done about cap ships being able to hyperspace away in a blink when they're so close to dead. my own suggestion being that ships in hyperspace take attrition damage if they dont have a functional shield up. yes you should be able to retreat, but not when your 5000 health cap ship is in sub-200 health ranges.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Rogue Comets and Human Error (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)

Unsorted

+ A few things i thought of the beta (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 15

Technical

+ Graphics -- Missing effects (Link)

1. Disappearing tether/traffic stations happens rarely, even if the game is not a save game, when it is a save game, they all just disappear forever...

2. Ship explosions not happening, tends to happen when their is an excessive amount of firepower, the ship dies and disappears it does not explode.

Gameplay

+ Idea -- More detailed audio alerts (Link)

The one thing that I think is my best idea is to have a unique preamble for the ship alerts based on grouping. So if you set a ship group with CTRL+1 and they find an enemy they should say something like, "First Fleet, engaging hostile pirate". That way I know immediately what's going on and don't have to look away from whatever I'm doing.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)
+ Choose the class of your Flagship? (Link)
+ Planetary Defense Rethink (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 16: Need-the-new-patch-so-there's-something-to-talk-about Edition

Gameplay

+ Feedback/Idea -- Thoughts on bounty (Link)

Right now bounties are entertaining, but you really only have one option. If you want to reduce the incentive other groups have in attacking you your only choice is to increase the bounty on another empire. This provides the player with only one option for this system that is heavily ingrained in the game.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 17

Gameplay

+ Feedback -- What do you guys (other beta testers) think? (Link)

Ongoing Discussions

+ Capital Ships: Should they be researched? (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 18-20

Gameplay

+ Discussion -- How to spice up the mid-late game? (Link)

this point in the game is a huge gap, when the empires have all been stable for a little while, your research is maxed out, your ship limit reached and all your planets are as strong and as upgraded as possible. all of your options are really cut and all thats left to do is to decide how to attack (and what to cut in the process).

now, attacking is fine, but it takes a while. so I'm here to brainstorm what we can do for the mid and late game time, when nothing is really "going on".

+ Feedback -- AI diplomacy too fickle (Link)

In the beta, the other races go in and out of favor too quickly. It doesn't seem real enough. It seems to me that IF you break an alliance, you should pay some type of penalty. Maybe, and it may already be this way, the other races frown upon those that break pacts?? Dunno. In the first game I played, one of the races I had a cease fire pact with kept asking me for help, but I was aligned with his enemy also. Perhaps he sensed that and broke the accord, but something needs to be tweaked I think. Diplomacy is like a MAJOR biggie in computer sims these days and it is a MAJOR reason I chose this game.

+ Feedback -- 1-10 ratings on the beta so far... (Link)

Can the beta/pre-order people rank the game from a 1 to 10. One being horendous, and ten being stupendous. This will give people an idea and give Stardock and idea on their game and its current state.

+ Feedback -- Pacing/travel too slow (Link)

The time it takes to play the game is far too long, and the pace is too slow. It takes 'forever' to get a fleet 3 or 4 jump planets away, and the antimatter build up time is too slow... I guess that's the operative expression -- too slow. Even a small galaxy developed against 3 or 4 opponents required over 10 hours of play once the pirates started taking on my planets too. And sending aid was just too slow. If I wanted to change anything it would be distance travel time would decrease. I can't imagine playing a large galaxy game structure.

+ Request -- Tweak fighter/bomber sizes (Link)

I was wondering if anyone else felt this way, I think the fighter and the bomber models should be switched, or at least have the sizes changed. I think its a little odd that the fighters are a bit bigger than the bombers. The bombers just look like they are faster and more manueverable than the fighters, but thats just my opinion. Also, the missiles they shoot out are just huge compared to their ships.

+ Idea -- Relic-gathering win condition for multiplayer (Link)

In the "long games" ie 5-10 solar systems in multiplayer , there could be a game mode like "relic hunter"

Although I hanvent thought about the specific details , the game would revolve around each solar system containing a Relic. And players have two choices to win , they can just eliminate all opponents or they can collect all the relics. A 9 solar system map would have 9 relics all together.

+ Idea -- Vary research options for replayability (IC) (Link)

Why not make a base stock of research, and some others random, ie: you will have better shield in this game etc.

It adds replayability, and to be honest the set research system is unrealistic.
In reality sometimes things don't work out, research has dead ends etc. The standard research tree aspect of strategy game is boring and so old it isn't funny.

Ongoing Discussions

+ What do you guys (other beta testers) think? (Link)
+ culture too powerful in a large galaxy (Link)
+ Kol as too... sissy. (Link)
+ Fleet prefixed audio alerts and standing orders (Link)
+ Bounty Suggestions (Link)
+ What I think of this game (Link)

Unsorted

+ Another Opinion (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 21

Gameplay

+ Idea -- Fleet management and unit AI stances (Link)

Fleet Management is integral to any game of SINS caliber, particularly as its late game is focused around extremely large masses of ships of war of half a dozen or more classes. FM (Fleet Management), properly implemented, would allow the player the ability to choose the aggressiveness of the fleet, how willing it will expose itself to damage, when it should flee, what priority targets it would select and in broad strokes what its priorities are.

Ongoing Discussions

+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)
+ What is this community's opinion of competitive multiplayer? (Link)
+ Another Opinion (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 22

Mostly off-topic talk today, aside from the discussion about the massive changelog for the coming patch... (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 23

Gameplay

+ Idea -- Arc ships smoothly around intermediate waypoints on their way to another (IC) (Link)

Anybody else find the Waypoint movements to be clunky. I tried to waypoint an orbit around a planet with a group of frigates. Each time they came to a waypoint they would stop, turn and continue.
I would like to see them make the arc turn without stopping.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Sins Beta 2 Change Log (Link)
+ Fighter/Bomber Model (Link)
+ What I think of this game (Link)
+ Another Opinion (Link)
+ culture too powerful in a large galaxy (Link)
+ Bounty Suggestions (Link)

Unsorted

+ My take on the Game (IC) (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 24

Ongoing Discussions

+ My take on the Game (Link)
+ Ship to Ship Ramming or Self-Destruct Damage (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 25-27

Technical

+ Performance -- Periodic stuttering (Link)

I have a Toshiba Satellite P105 (2 GHz, 2 Gig RAM; running Vista) and when I run Sins I get sporadic episodes of the program/music stuttering (like a small seizure). When running Sins I am not actively running other programs; however, I do have Norton 360 running in the background). I don't have any such problem with my somewhat older computer running WinXP. I will admit I have not tried systematically disabling programs but I was wondering if there was a fix for this which did not involve disabling select programs.

Gameplay

+ Feedback -- Music changes too frequently/suddenly (Link)

Regardless, I need to complain. The scores themselves seem to switch too much and its pretty much a battle-break type deal when the tracks change or the ones I like dont play but for 5 seconds because the universe at large has changed somehow.

+ Idea -- Medical ships to assist population growth (Link)

How about the addition of a Medical Ship to Sins? It would be a ship dedicated to helping planets that have just been bombarded to quickly reestablish it population or can also be used to keep a planet's population numbers up while it is being bombed.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Learn from past space game mistakes!!! (Link)
+ here is another stupid thing i have feed back on (ship movement in battle, again) (Link)
+ Ship to Ship Ramming or Self-Destruct Damage (Link)
+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)
+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)

Unsorted

+ Feedback on Beta 2 (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 28

Technical

+ Clipping -- Ships passing through each other in phase space? (Link)

So I decided to attack the AI with just a Kol and 2 Donovs (wasn't much defense). During Phase space or whatever it is the Kol was to the right of both the Donovs but it drifted into one and kept drifting until it was out of it. I'm sure that if that route was longer it would have drifted into the other Donov.

Ongoing Discussions

+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)
+ Ship to Ship Ramming or Self-Destruct Damage (Link)
+ Feedback on Beta 2 (Link)
+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 29 -- The calm before the patch?

Ongoing Discussions

+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)
+ True Size of the Universe (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 30

Ongoing Discussions

+ Distance through loyalty killing the "Empire" in Sins, and how to fix it (Link)
+ Colonizing defeated planets (Link)
+ Feedback on Beta 2 (Link)
+ Stronger shields weaker hulls! (Link)
+ Learn from past space game mistakes!!! (Link)
+ Little things to tweak phasespace (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

August 31 - "Beta 2.5" arrives!

Technical

+ Crash/Freeze -- Some with, some without minidumps (IC) (Warning, necro'ed thread!) (Link)

I get this error as well with the new patch as of 8/30/07. My minidump occurs after the game has been running for a prolonged period, say an hour or so. then my whole comp freezes and i have to use the task manager to stop sins. I am using win xp. Unfortunately I can't send the info to ironclad because the comp freezes so bad i can't access the minidump window and when i force quit sins, the minidump window closes too.

oh and i get a game crash too, but no dump file is created as the game just locks up.

same random crash and no minidump

+ Tradeship AI -- Traffic jam at jump lane entry (IC) (Link)

(screenshot)

Gameplay

+ Request -- ETA countdown for phasing fleets (Link)

I think the computer has a distinct advantage when traveling into battle. It no doubt has the eta's clocked, but the player has no option to show the eta of a deployment.

+ Request -- Drop-down menus needed in player-assignment screen (Link)

Something that has been bugging me for awhile about the Beta is the clumsiness of the game setup menus. in order to change anything you have to click the button repeatedly till you get the option that you want (except for your faction icon). If the option you are changing is your faction color, you can't even go back a color because the list seems to randomize each time you click. Could we get some simple drop down menus for selecting options instead of the button mashing option?

+ Ideas -- More special planet features (Link)

the current patch has brought in a new idea, search based planet bonuses. currently there are a few (and they arent bad, I like porous core!) but theres no harm in throwing together some ideas for the devs. so here are a few of my own

Ongoing Discussions

+ Possible Solution to Loyalty Problem in other Star Systems (Link)
+ Little things to tweak phasespace (Link)
+ Feedback on Beta 2 (Link)
+ just an idea (Link)
+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)

Unsorted

+ Patch 0.78.022 is released (assorted feedback) (Link)
+ My impressions of the new patch (Link)

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

September 1-4

Technical

+ Exploit -- Cancelling flagship construction returns the resources it would normally have cost (Link)

I'm not sure if anyone else has reported this(a quick search didn't find anything), but repeatedly starting and canceling the build order for the starting capital ship gives the resources required to build the ship, if it wasn't free.

+ Crash/Freeze -- Widespread issues with lockups after loading saves (IC) (Link)

same thing happen to me when loading a saved game. the crash just freeze the game graphics and keyboard input (no ctrl-alt-del), though music and mouse cursor still work.

+ Freeze -- Lockup when AI is attempting to flee a battle (Link)

The screen showed the red lines indicating the new targets and a couple of them stretched off the screen. Tried getting a screenshot but nothing worked and I had to reboot my computer.

Done it twice now. Each time my ships are attacking enemy ships as they are jumping out.

Game totally locks up and nothing works. The last time I was able to kill it via Task Manager, but the two times before that I had to reboot the PC.

+ AI Players -- Still making illogical comments to the player (Link)

I received this message from an ally, but had no ideal where they were. Also, I get messages from Ally saying to the effect that they will hold one of my planets until I arrive. But there were no enemy ships near the planet.

Yeah, the AI is a little screwy at times Sometimes they'll ping the planet in question, sometimes they won't. Sometimes they'll need the help... sometimes they're just spamming you.

+ AI Players -- Fleets seen moving between planets at sublight, and fleeing from battle over its last world (Link)

Twice that I saw in this last game, the AI ran from a planet by way of its sublight engines instead of its Phase drive. The AI's ships followed the phaseline to the planet that it was going to and eventually went to phasejump after I left the ships alone and lost sight of them.

+ Graphics -- Space elevators disappear from planets after loading a save (Link)

load a save game, space elevators disappear, traffic ... dims? or rather loses dimensionality... seemed fine on some planets, and on other unless you viewed from a very specific angle there was no visible traffic.

+ Events -- Under-attack notifications incorrect (Link)

Computer announces "Scouting party under attack" when trade ships are attacked at an unowned planet. Computer announces "Fleet under attack" or "ship under attack" for a scout ship that is under attack.

+ Research -- Long range jump tech no longer needed? (Link)

After the last patch it seems the 'Long range jumps' research topic isn't needed anymore to travel to other stars. In a game with three computer opponents I saw scouts from all of them fly around my planets and when one of those opponents offered me an intelligence pact, I saw that that opponent was based in another star system (This was very early game by the way).

So, thinking 'What the heck...' I tried sending my fleet to another star without having researched 'Long range jumps' and it worked without a problem.

Gameplay

+ Discussions -- Concerns and questions about superweapons (Link) (Link) (Link)

+ Discussion -- Which cap makes the best flagship? (Link)

What, in your opinion, is the best FLAGSHIP (not cap ship). Mine is the Akkan because its also a colony ship and its pretty balanced.

+ Feedback -- Traders/refiners giving poor return? (Link)

Im just expressing my opinion that the value of trade and refinery values should go up...I really notice no difference when I have them and when I don't except in the long run in which case I would rather have the money to spend and an extra logistic spot...

+ Request -- Easy way to task strike craft with specific [guard] orders (Link)

One thing I wish we had was the ability to assign fighters to protect certain ships.

as it sits my fighters go off after bombers wherever they might be. Can it be set up that fighters protect a target from bombers rather then running after something else? I would like to keep a fighter squad (or more) in reserve to protect a certain cap ship from being plastered by bombers while in retreat. Perhaps a "protect target" mission button or setting?

+ Idea -- UI ideas to reduce clicks required to do things (Link)

Let's say, I want to build a new trade station. I have the resources, the research, just not the logistical points needed. But this is no problem since I can easily build the logistics upgrade on this planet and then start building of the station.

Quite a lot of work to just build a structure.

What I would like to have is the ability to just click on the little green icon in the lower left of my building, which automatically starts building the necessary logistic upgrade on the planet (if I have enough resources of course).

Ongoing Discussions

+ Patch 0.78.022 is released (capital crews feedback) (Link)
+ My impressions of the new patch (Link)
+ What should I do now... (mid-late game) (Link)
+ Radio chatter on the highway (Link)
+ Game Setup Options (Link)

Unsorted - Please make threads more focused on single areas of the game, so your posts can be summarized effectively and go in the appropriate section of the roundup!

+ Patch-- first impressions (Link)
+ Okay my take on it too (Link)
+ Version 0.78.022 ideas for improvement. (Link)
+ My feedback on the latest patch (8/30) (Link)
+ Interstellar Sublight Travel; Fleeing Fleets; Paused Fleets (Link)
+ Problems with new (8/30) version (Link)
+ Suggestions to make the game better (Link)
+ Thoughts on AI after latest update (Link)

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