Sins of a Solar Empire v1.04 Final Change Log

By Yarlen Posted April 9, 2008 17:20:17

As we get ready to release version 1.04, we figured it was time to post an updated change log.

Please note that save games and replays from v1.03 and earlier will not work with v1.04!

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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 58.5.
-Side banks damage decreased from 33.8 to 30.3.

-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%.

-Carriers
-Slight cost reductions for all carrier cruisers

-Returning Armada and General Fleet Spawning
-No longer possible to spawn ships past fleet point limit.
-Ship slot count updated after each spawn to prevent RA exploit (clicking multiple abilities at same time).
-Increased level 1 RA cooldown by 120 secs and level 2 RA cooldown by 60 secs

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

-Stilakus Subverter's Distortion Field ability will no longer cause it to micro phase jump towards targets travelling to other planets.
-Fix for problem where after playing Sins for 100000 seconds (27.7 hours) damage and various other systems wouldn't update correctly.
-Fix for strike craft squads being able to launch when they should be grounded.
-Phasic Barrier now toggles off more consistently when it's 'autocast off' conditions are satisfied.

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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 less likely to gang up on the leading player in Easy or Normal.
-Autocast logic for hull point restoring abilities no longer consider structures under construction as damaged.
-Fix for ships not auto-attacking after breaking alliances.
-Fix for AI difficulty settings not behaving correctly.
-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.
-Fixed bug where joining a multiplayer game in a slot that was previously held by an AI player would have the AI still be enabled when you started the game.
-When a human player drops and an AI replaces him, the AI now has his happiness set to the required amount for existing alliances so he doesn't drop them all instantly.

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UserInterface / HUD:
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-Fix map names for Backstab and Balance of power.
-Fixed bug where fleet pip clouds would not show up when loading a saved game.
-Fixed string label for IDS_COHESIONRANGE_FAR_NAME and IDS_COHESIONRANGE_FAR_DESCRIPTION.
-Changed artifacts researched stat to be "artifact discoveries"
-Tweaked some ability descriptions to improve their clarity.
-'Unit under attack' events are now suppressed for trade and refinery ships.

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Modding:
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-Entity name lookup is now case insensitve.
-New options to enable error messages. This can be turned on by modders in the user.setting file to simplify tracking down errors instead of mysteriously crashing.
-Fix num particles in the user.setting file not actually increasing and added user control over the number of particle simulations since this is another main limiter for those with uber computers who want to push things.

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

+9 Karma 117 Replies 55 Referrals

I'd love to see any personal pc costing less than a couple grand handling hundreds of thousands of units in Sins without crashing. (Honestly I'd love to see any pc capable of doing that without locking up)

The graphical developement of Sins is very good compared to other RTS games. A system with a market value of approx. $800 will meet the recommended system requirements, with which you are able to play flawless at full +2000 fleet cap.

If your system investement was greater than that market value and you have graphic problems with this game, than you did something wrong when setting up your system. There are hundrets of possible mistakes you can make.

In that case you are better off buying a pre-configured system from Dell or Alienware.

I meet and exceed the recommended system requirements in every field (it plays Crysis at max settings along with Unreal III and Front Lines Fuel of War) and have so far had a mostly flawless play experience with Sins (a couple mini dump errors but those are caused by mods not Sins coding) aside from when I messed around modding the carriers into bee hives.

I've played with higher unit caps on larger maps without any noticeable problem, but what I was saying was the post in question was talking hundreds of thousands (100,000's ) as a unit cap virtually unlimited, which is well more than 2000 and I;m pretty sure Sins could quite handle that many units

I too would enjoy seeing a larger unit cap on huge maps (twice as big would be wonderful) so a dynamically increasing unit cap would be nice to see. (or maybe just the default being set larger on bigger maps>

O.k., am I missing something here?

In every update to SoaSE someone played around with the unit configuration. Updates are supposed to focus on correcting general software issues that were not discovered in pre retail versions. These updates just show me how little effort was spent on creating properly configured units, shoot, the whole game is constantly being reconfigured.
What gives? Are users to dumb to play on the level which developers had hoped on? I'm tired of being a beta tester.
Yeah, yeah, I read the super-long post about how hard and difficult software development is and now I'm a whiner. Fact is that obviously people (including me) don't like aspects of the game. Though luck, I can deal with that, but when you keep on changing stuff you're admitting fault and destroying your credibility.
Why don't they just make everyone happy and release a configuration pack? At least I learned my lesson not to fall victim to the hype again.
Happy experimenting guys!

if you don't like it change it. Modding unit stats isn't that hard really, just a little time consuming.

Then you;ve got your version of "perfect game balance" and you can play with anyone else who agrees with you and runs your mod, can't get much easier than that.

They;re changing things because well, people are finding exploits or tactics that render some units pointless and the devs obviously want to have all of the units in the game useful. (It's hard for a dev team of 50 or so test every possible strategy thousands of online gamers will invent in order to get quick easy wins)

I'd much rather they change it until it reaches game balance then just ignore the issues entirely.

On a side note they're not the only company that makes continual unit changes with every patch. Here's a list of other popular games that make unit changes nearly every patch.

C&C 3 Tiberium Wars: Loads of changes to unit balance and structures from .01 up to .09 the latest version plays nothing like the original balance wise.

World In Conflict: Many changes from .01 through .05 and onward to unit balance and abilities.

Lords of the Rings Battle For Middle Earth II: Drastic and sweeping changes from .01 through .06, including drastic changes to unit armor health, damage types etc..

(and I could go on but I've made the point I was after)

Edit: this also isn't any new trend in rts style games, War Hammer 40k Dawn of War and Warcraft III went through similar drastic changes during each patch.

Good luck finding a rts game that hasn't had significant changes for each patch to game play.

All true. Well let me scrap my savegames and see how this one plays. I do believe that when one day everything will be "tuned" right we can all have fun.

Are these patches cumulative???

These changes to Illuminators now sound like they'll actually make them comparable to the other LRMS, maybe even the best(they are tech3 and the most costly, why shouldn't they be the best?)/edit Crap. I thought you made the side beams do 30.3 while keeping the front beam at the 65 proposed earlier.Yeah nevermind.. I guess I'll see ingame. Surely javs will be better.I don't think the RA changes are the right ones, but I guess are okay temporarily.The problem with RA is that your eco and all your other teching doesn't matter, only your ability to just get RA and phase stabs.It should scale based on your income or something so it's not as good early game, and so that it's BETTER late game.

i guess ur wrong they are over powerd now

As I said way back before the patch even came out, illums will (and now are) the new LRM spam of 1.04. Fortunately, it's a easier to counter than the lrm spam of old.

-'Unit under attack' events are now suppressed for trade and refinery ships.

i hope this its just the played sound thats suppressed - i still would want to know if there is piracy on the high seas in some uncolonized system.
Especially since i like tradeships to alter dynamically fleet support

Would it be possible to have a separate strings file for modding that appends it content to the base game - else updating mods is a really pain (updating 135 research entries plus the entries for the structures and ships is NOT FUNNY)

well GJ anyway

Dari, you still get the "fresh fer the takin'" text message at screen bottom when the pirates arrive at one of your planets, plus the custom verbal statement "Pirate raiders are attacking our base" or equivalent.

-- Retro

this looks like a good fix on ia. system

thanks

The patch doesn't seem to work.

The patch works fine - what problems are you having with it?

yo wuz up

if you don't like it change it. Modding unit stats isn't that hard really, just a little time consuming.

Like in every other RTS, that means that you cant play online anymore the second you alter a file. Thats why people care about official patch changes, because they/we want to play online, since we paid for that functionality.
And if some change in a new patch is outright stupid and gamebreaking (which i do NOT think in this case btw, just an example), its the same thing as ruining onlineplay which you funded yourself by buying the game.

Thats why ppl cry out even tough the game is easily moddable.
C&C3 is prolly the best example, some big balance changes in every patch, and ppl go berzerk. But with good reason, as soon as you alter 1 tiny value, you are locked out from online matches unless you manage to get random strangers to download your mod lol.

Jesus christ. They didn't downgrade the pirates? Why the hell not?

I think its good that the bombers got improved...
bombers are BOMBERS!!!They are ment to DESTROY things quickly... Fighters are meant to kill the bombers
its as simple as that