Sins 1.04 preview

By Frogboy Posted March 25, 2008 22:22:27

As some of you know, 1.04 has been split into two updates in order to get an update out sooner that has taken recent feedback from players and evaluated what changes should be made.

Here is a preview of what we have:

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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.04 Changelist
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Gameplay / Balance:
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-Market value changes:
-Ratio of buy/sell is now 2:1 instead of 3:1.
-Min price now 200 instead of 80.
-Boom/crashes now last ~twice as long.

-Multiple instances of the Embargo planet debuff from the same player no longer stack.

- Capital ships
-All non-Colony capital ship top speeds increased from 500 to 525.
-All Colony capital ship top speeds increased from 400 to 475.

- Siege Frigates:
-Build costs decreased by ~15%.

- Javelis, Illuminator, Assailant:
-Linear acceleration decreased from 200 to 150.
-Top speed decreased from 800 to 500.
-Range decreased from 130% to 115% of 1.02 ranges.

- Illuminator:
-Hull points increased from 520 to 620.
-Shield points increased from 450 to 550.
-Attack type changed from CAPITALSHIP to ANTIMEDIUM.
-Front bank damage increased from 33.8 to 65.
-Side banks damage decreased from 33.8 to 26.

- Defense Vessel:
-Reduced cooldown by 45%, damage reduced proportionally to maintain DPS.
-Fleet supply increased from 3 to 4.
-Now properly benefits from Advent laser research topics.

-Attack types
-AntiVeryLight chance to hit bombers decreased from 85% to 75%.
-AntiVeryLight damage vs Light armor decreased from 100% to 75%.

-Map Balance of Power fixed to have less Heavies and populated desert worlds.

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Graphics:
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Sound / Music:
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AI:
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-Fixed minor bug in Unfair AI not behaving quite correctly.
-Fix bug where AI would retreat from his homeworld or last planet.
-AI is likely to gang up on the leading player in Easy or Normal.
-Misc tweaks.

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Networking / Multiplayer:
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-Fixed minor bug in ico-join game screen where fleet size display was incorrect.
-Improved in-game chat text entry:
-Escape no longer clears the chat buffer when closing the window.
-Sending whispers is remembered (don't have to retype the whisper when sending again).
-Sending to allies is remembered (don't have to retype /a when sending again).
-Chat string and colors changed.

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UserInterface / HUD:
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-Fix map names for Backstab and Balance of power.

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Modding:
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-Entity name lookup is now case insensitve.

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Misc:
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-Fix for saved games not respecting custom game options.

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End
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Now, bear in mind, this isn't the end-all be all update. The goal is to get something out, possibly this week and then do more later.

For single player games, the main change is in the computer AI not being quite so nasty at easy levels but being tougher at harder levels.

Most of the rest will affect multiplayer where unit balance between the 3 races is more sensitive.

+26 Karma 222 Replies 48 Referrals

Wooooooot!

Heh. A week. What a pleasure!

I'm used to the endless waits for World of Warcraft patches.

Nice job, Brad. I bought the game a week ago and haven't played anything else since. I do both single and multi, so thanks for the considerations.

Sounds excellent.

Please take a harder look at the supply costs on siege frigates. There is zero reason to build 3 siege frigates when it only costs twice as much to build a 50 supply siege capital ship. High cost, low survivability is fine, but 15 supply makes them pointless until you hit 10 planet economy.

Oh yeah, the rest of the changes are great.

eh... what.. why?

The illums cap damage and spread made it unique (albeit bad early game.) It was unliek hte other lrms.

And I don't see how those changes to lrms are going to alleviate their overusefulness.

And the defense vessal supply increase.. Uhm.. Advent is still going to need flak to counter lrms or they're screwed. IT's the only thing that stops them from dying in the first 20 minutes of the game, and nowit's enrfed hard.

Illums being buffed to work better against other LRMS isn't going to help them as it's mil 3.

Then you have flaks damage against lrms nerfed.. So effectively, LRMs are buffed. The slowing down is going to be more an annoyance than a nerf I Think. What would be so bad about increased supply and less damage to caps and buildings? That way they are still good against LIGHT FRIGS like their description says, but not good at practically everything and the most useful things.

So.
1.04 patch notes:
Vasari is back after being removed in 1.03. Advent removed this time. Siege frigs are still removed from the game.
:/

I don't think the devs really get it now..
Or more it's that they're playing a different game from us.

only a 15% decrease in cost?

And yeah, was playing a comp stomp with a friend, comp siege frig rushed me, lost a planet, rebuilt it in 5 seconds with my 4x credit income of everyone else, then rolled right over that comp.

Change its build priorities, that comp had crippled itself with such a massive waste of resources. And yeah, I guess I see how people new to the game could whine about OP siege frigs, but they're not. Oh no, I lost a planet~ *shrug*

Yeah, they need to be buffed, and price decreased to the rest of the frigates. 15 supply is ridiculous.

15 supply would be okay but siege caps are 50 and equal to 6-8 siege frigs(which would be 90-120 supply of siege frigs)

Ugh.. this is just silly.

These changes are terrible. Time will prove me right.

Sry to spam, but why the anti verylight damage v. light nerf? Fighters were owning lights too much? I mean, fighters were almost a counter to LRM spam, and defense vessels were viable tanks against LRM spam. Everyone whines about LRM spam, but then you weaken the counter? By reducing anti very light performance you make fighters and defense vessels less viable overall, but who was complaining about defense vessel and fighter spam? Talk about two easily countered units. Fighters and defense vessels have easily accessible HARD counters, defense vessels and light frigates. So ... not seeing the justification for removing a semi-viable counter to LRM massing.

Was it to improve siege frigate survivability vs hangars? In that case you should just un-nerf siege frigate health rather than tone down fighter performance against light armor.

Good changes, I agree a little with Innociv that LRM's shouldn't be so versatile, and the speed decrease is probably just going to be annoying, but think about it.

One thing I must say before I go on to things I like: Flak now do even less damage to fighters, bombers, and long range frigates. Advent flaks have higher cost. I'm afraid there might be no incentive to buy them now, but I'll see.

However, with the speed decrease in long range frigates means that they can't chase carriers around, and with the flak decrease to fighters means that fighters can live long enough to kill the long range frigates. Now carriers SHOULD be a viable counter to long range frigates.

I also agree that siege frigates need to be buffed more.

Thanks for the update though, I can't wait 'til the patch.

Edit: Jason Wolf, fighters are "Anti-Light" not "Anti-Very light". They did not get debuffed. Only flak did, which I don't understand.

Flak damage against fighters is uncahnged.

Fighters are VeryLight

Siege, Scouts, bombers, and LRMS are Light armor. Flak is nerfed against them.

Bobmer survivability would of been better solved with lower hit chance and/or more bomber HP..
30%ish less damage done to bombers isn't going to help them enough either. Flak kills a whole bomber squad long before they get to fire a second shot.
In the process flak have been nerfed against lrms..

I stayed cool during 1.03 because I didn't think they where going to make balance even worse.

The LRM speed decrease has some positive thigns yeah.. They can't chase caps as well or carriers. But it's not going to stop them from eating caps and buildings aswell as everything else with their OVERPOWERED DAMAGE TYPE combined with very high dps.

Thanks for preview. I like what I see so far, but I have not played multiplayer yet. Looks like I only have a week to finish my 102 planet 1vs9 hard game with locked teams, since we cannot play older games after patching (which is fine and very understandable). I might have to delay installing the update. Keep up the great work!

Oh I misread, I thought chances to hit ALL strike craft got reduce not just bombers. I have less faith in this patch now

I think it's fake patch preview notes, a joke to enrage us..

After all, it doesn't effect people that don't know how to play. No changes ever did.

Nice patch notes, but hopefully 1.5 won't be another quick-fix!

Contrary to other opinions, I think this was a well done patch.

Good job, with a few more incremental patches, we'll be in good shape.

HuntingX just hates advent.

Sry to spam, but why the anti verylight damage v. light nerf? Fighters were owning lights too much? I mean, fighters were almost a counter to LRM spam, and defense vessels were viable tanks against LRM spam. Everyone whines about LRM spam, but then you weaken the counter? By reducing anti very light performance you make fighters and defense vessels less viable overall, but who was complaining about defense vessel and fighter spam? Talk about two easily countered units. Fighters and defense vessels have easily accessible HARD counters, defense vessels and light frigates. So ... not seeing the justification for removing a semi-viable counter to LRM massing.Was it to improve siege frigate survivability vs hangars? In that case you should just un-nerf siege frigate health rather than tone down fighter performance against light armor.

This nerfs flak more than fighters!

Good changes, I agree a little with Innociv that LRM's shouldn't be so versatile, and the speed decrease is probably just going to be annoying, but think about it.One thing I must say before I go on to things I like: Flak now do even less damage to fighters, bombers, and long range frigates. Advent flaks have higher cost. I'm afraid there might be no incentive to buy them now, but I'll see.However, with the speed decrease in long range frigates means that they can't chase carriers around, and with the flak decrease to fighters means that fighters can live long enough to kill the long range frigates. Now carriers SHOULD be a viable counter to long range frigates.I also agree that siege frigates need to be buffed more.Thanks for the update though, I can't wait 'til the patch.Edit: Jason Wolf, fighters are "Anti-Light" not "Anti-Very light". They did not get debuffed. Only flak did, which I don't understand.

Whoops. Only defense frigates got nerfed. Yay, my fighter squads are safe! Gogo anti light damage. Still, why the defense frigate damage reduction? They were a semi-viable counter to LRM, and now flaks are even more pigeon holed into fighting strike craft. Yet flaks also get a nerf vs bombers (this makes fighters better by comparison)? Still confused as to why.

Fighters are AntiLight damage.

Flak is the only unit with AntiVeryLight.

Bombers did need a buff in survivability but at the cost of flaks effectiveness as a counter to lrms..

i'm glad to hear cap ships will move faster, and the 2:1 market ratio makes me happy.

Nice advent buffs there. I was hoping for some advent skill tree changes or at least making culture have a more desirable effect.

Buffs?

I could be wrong but I don't see how illums will have any use compared to the others lrms now.

Sure they have 18 dps instead of 15.6, 10 on the front beam (compared to 11 for javs, 13 for assailants, but assailants get awesome phase missiles.).
But they are mil 3.
But they cost a ton of crystal, and resources in general.
But now they no longer do 100% to heavy cruisers(the damage increase somewhat offsets this, but 18 isn't 25% more than 15.6)

The change to having the front beam do the majority of the damage is good but the rest is ugh.

The capital damage made it unique, and better late game.
It's STILL going to be the worst LRM early and mid game I'm quite sure.