all the influence/culture tech is near worthless (except for actually getting the broadcast centers to start with)

Anything diplomacy/bounty related is a waste of time in my opinion.

I've never found a need for the TEC techs that speed up structure building or the one that protects freighters/refinery ships.

The Vasari Tech "Phasic Barrier" protecting orbital structures when under attack by shutting down the facility and upping defensive values. Great tech in theory but the Barrier won't deactivate after the threat is eliminated!

Now you have to check every facility, after the attack, to see which Barriers were activated and manually de-activate them. I found out that some planets had their extractors sitting idle for HOURS after the last attack because I didn't know the auto-cast for de-activate is seemingly glitched at the moment.

So until they fix that: Don't research that tech unless you're willing to do some serious micro-managing.

Nope. It means you culture spreads further, faster (Increasing allegiance, decreasing that of your enemy's). IT also gives you a bonus when you're fighting in your culture.

Civilian ship safety act (if you need that, it just tells me you are ready to fall apart)

Some of the beginning policy research options related to diplomacy as someone said

demo bots



I delay researching health bonuses, preferring to focus on armor/shields.

What where you taking about?

mmm, raider xenophobia can have its uses actually. Advanced players know that XP is over valued. Your capital ship shouldn't be farming XP, it should be leading your troops in conquering the enemy planets. I now deal with pirates solely by using canons.

Ofcourse, I can be really devious and just bid higher then other people. 1000 credits for 25 ships to attack a random enemy planet (to the death) is one heck of a deal. Sure his cap might level from it, but I will take some of his planets and use the money to build a bigger fleet that will wipe away his capital ship.

Weak low level capital ships are easy to destroy. The only useful thing about raider xenophobia is when the pirates are attacking a planet, where you don't have a fleet at. Most capital ships are around level 4(at max for some factions), while the super abilities are only unlocked after level 6. Yes they should lead the fleet, but a low level capital ships will only last for so long.

But on to the main part of these talkes(right now 1.03 is here).

Now even I find the siege frigates uesless

No decent player is realistically going to lose a planet to that.

Illuminators suck.

2 repairs and 1 or 2 guns is fine to stop pretty much all levels of pirates.

uh not really now that they've fixed culture and added a fast spread.

What they need to do now is not make 8 broadcasts get stopped by ONE or whatever many.
With less than 1 broadcast vs 3 (no tech) the culture should just spread right on past that planet and drop its allegance. If someone has 8 broadcasts on a planet next to your roid, you should need all 3 logic spots for broadcasts to fight it. I think that's only fare considering they have used EIGHT.

I agree, culture tech is much less useless in the new patch.

But while we're on the subject of useless units in the new patch, I've found refineries to be pretty useless now seeing as under the new black market system you never have to pay more than 300-400 credits for metal/crystal it's better and cheaper just to fill those slots up with trade ports instead and buy all the metal and crystal you need.

I agree. Of the three capitals that can colonize, the Progenitor Mothership is clearly the best, IMO. Malice is more useful in the later game, but shield restore is always handy. Pair the Mothership with a Radiance battleship and use the Radiance's Animosity ability to get everyone to attack it. Use the Mothership's shield restore to keep him alive and kicking. And if you really want to harm someone, get the Advent capital that can put the damage retaliation buff on a friendly. Put it on the Radiance, then use Animosity + Shield restore. That's a formula for putting down some pain in a hurry.

Yeah refineries are useless now. They where BARELY worth it in longish games before.

So now that everone has found a way to have planet defense counter pirate attacks, does any one find the raider xenophobia to be useful to the Vasari? Also do you guy think that there are any other useless techs that need to be fixed?

Harsh, but I think more than 1/2 of the techs are just filler. The core mechanics don't allow for much complexity, so, filler-time!. What is the filler? Culture upgrades: speed of spread, resistances, xenophobia and related one-off dampeners on pirates/missions. Things like the prereqs to RA: Really expensive 20% phase jump speed boosts? Much of the refinery techs/upgrades. Some of the weapons (wave comes to mind). Even things like 7, 14, etc. percent upgrades to crystal/metal harvesting. These all seem like filler to me. They are useful to a degree, but don't change the dynamics of play.

Some of the cruisers, while not useless, are not necessary and are often a bit questionable in terms of cost-benefit for researching them and their upgrades. As has been mentioned, a few special abilities seem either broken or not that useful.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game. I hope it continues to improve.

SmackSim Which cruisers do you find "not necessary", thougth there are abilities on some, like the Serevun Overseer's Mobile phase Dection which I find uesless after some tech upgrades. Also do you have any ideals to fix these fillers?

The only bad support cruiser is the overseerer, half of them are the best ships in the game.

You need Advents culture tech to win in a tough game, or at least it's very hard without it. +6% shield mitigation is insane.

VS Human players I'm sure cruisers can make or break battles. It is (was?) vs. the AI that I think they're a little questionable. IE, in balanced encounters the cruisers can be deciding factors, but when the AI is fielding spam frigates, why research and deploy all the support cruisers? These things take up supply spots and lower overall DPS/supply, so when you have an advantage already (economics, sheer numbers) it becomes less useful than simply overrunning the AI.

I find (pre 1.03) that by the time I research support cruisers, the game is in the bag vs. the AI. In a large map vs 8 hard AI, when I've wiped out one AI neigbor and have the second on the back foot, I know that I'm past the tipping point, so I just want to accelerate the end. Losing 10-15 frigates because I don't have Hoshikos, Overseers, Subverters, etc.. is no big deal. I will always take heavy cruisers though, because they require even less micro for the end-game. Just send a blob of 20 into a system and check back in a few minutes .

I like Guardians too. Advent really use them well.

Cruisers I think will be better with 1.03, as the AI will actually use them now, so countering will be worthwhile.



More diversity in infrastructure, resources, ship types, and strategic branches? Less impact of Trade Ports by themselves: first weaken them significantly so that taxes can be a larger part of the overall credit-base. Rework this so that research avenues open up a variety of economic possibilities: Unlockable planet upgrades that impact taxes, so that a player can make money without relying on trade ports.

How about researching planet-type specific credit income other than population? Then players could choose to focus on certain types of planets for their tax base, and this would actually be a sensible option?

Look at the X series of games for economic ideas. No need to get as complicated, but even adding 1 more resource to a game like this, and adding infrastructre around it, could improve the tech tree and the 4x side of the game. How about a refinery that combines metal and crystal and turns out a new resource? A resource that isn't required for ships, but for special abilities?

How about troop ships for capturing enemy ships and planets?

How about ships without jump drives, like hanger-based fighters, but of any small variety? Cheap system-bound ships would present a viable defensive option and leave players with tough choices. Could be a 2-level drive system with the second level being capable of inter-stellar jumps. To jump non-stellar ships they either need this drive or need to load onto carrier ships. (then increase stars/planets ratio for most maps).

The tech tree is just a little too simple at this point to support the 4x aspect of the game. Its an excellent RTS tree though! Some of the abilities and techs in the game are better than any other game out there.

Thanks for answering me back, SmackSim. Do you think that the reason "the game is in the bag" when you vs AI, is because it does not us it cruisers class well.

Also I would like the 4X side in sins to be a little stonger too.

One of the problems of the Defense Platforms, is there limit range(and they can't move), It would be nice and increase diversity, to have one faction only with hangers, another with mobile defense platforms, and one with attack troops that are powered by you culture.