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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.03 full change log

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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.03 full change log

Smarter AI, better multiplayer, new game setup options and lots more...

from Sins Forums

Greetings! Ironclad has been hard at work on an update to Sins based on player feedback. We've got lots of new features in this build that we hope you find compelling.

Version 1.03 will be released later this week. We can assure you that we are intensively play testing this new update over. And over. And over. Because we love you guys, we are going that extra mile in making sure the update is just right by playing it all day and all night sometimes. That's the kind of sacrifice we are willing to make just for you! :)

Here is the full list of changes:

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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.03 Changelist
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Gameplay / Balance:
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-New Game Options Screen:
-Locked/Unlocked Teams
-Fleet Size
-Pirates or No Pirates (arrrr!)
-Income Rate Speed
-Build Speed
-Ship Speed
-Research Speed
-Culture Speed

***REMINDER***
-In singleplayer you can accelerate / deccelerate time by pressing the +/- buttons respectively. I'm mentionning it again because this request is coming up a lot even though it was implemented in the v1.02 patch.

-New Market System:
Highlights:
-Random fluctuations in addition to user influence on price.
-Can cause crash or boom by selling/buying too much.
-Known exploits removed.
-Can now buy and sell resources on the market in large increments again.

-Improved Group Phase Jumping for large groups of ships. The group will only wait for 90% of the value of the ships to be ready. The stragglers will follow shortly after. Typically, its only a couple ships that cause the whole operation to stall so this should eliminate the majority of problems.

-Research subjects queued in different fields can now upgrade in parallel.
-Overseer's Nanite Reactive Armor ability can now properly stack heals (but not the armor and max HP bonus).
-Kostura Cannon now only disables enemy units and structures at the target planet as originally intended.
-Autocast for many disabling abilities improved.
-Disciple's Transfer Antimatter no longer targets other Disciples when autocasting.
-Transfer Antimatter can no longer target entities with full antimatter.
-Can't attack unbuilt structures anymore.
-You can now change game options when loading save games.
-Defeated players can no longer give or be given resources in unlocked teams games.
-Defeated players can no longer place bounties in unlocked teams games.
-Fixed unintended halving of galaxy culture coverage in the game statistics. Pop Idol achievement is now actually achievable.
-No pirate maps removed due to new game option to remove pirates.
-Large and Huge random maps split into single and multi star system variants.

-Mission durations increased by 10 mins.
-Mission failure penalties to happiness reduced.
-Rebalanced happiness losses for killing various items (Killing enemy scouts no longer causes a loss of happiness).
-Phase Jump Inhibitors:
-cost reduced slightly.
-slot cost reduced from 3 to 2.
-jump charge rate penalty increase from -250% to -700%.
-Passive allegiance shift rates increased by 100%.
-Allegiance shift rates from culture increased 25%.
-Illuminator, Javelis, Assailant:
-Increased credit cost by approx 10%.
-Increased resource cost by approx 20%.
-Increased range by approx 30%.
-Illuminator and Assailant survivability tuned to be proportional to Javelis's on a per supply basis.
-Siege Frigates:
-Survivability reduced by ~20%.
-Build cost increased by ~25%.
-Supply cost increased from 12 to 15.
-Development Mandate research subject's max level reduced from 2 to 1.
-Tier 1 research times increased approx 40%
-Tier 2 research times increased approx 20%
-All other tiers research times increased 5%


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Graphics:
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-Fixed sometimes drastic frame rate drop when chat messages are displayed.


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Sound / Music:
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-Sins handles no soundcard now.
-Added sound option for varying music vol in battle.

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AI:
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-AI now knows how to surrender (based on time elapsed, relative economy, relative fleet value, resource reserves, and allied strength). Also, an AI player will not surrender if he has a human ally.
-AI is now smarter about retreating and is willing to commit local suicide or accept local Phyrric victories if the global gain is higher and will also factor in local allied forces.
-Fixed various AI researching and building stall outs for the various trees (military in particular).
-Rewrote AI siege building and attack logic.
-Improved AI use of Black Market.
-Autocast for many disabling abilities improved.
-New AI Difficulty "Unfair" that gives the AI a tax income bonus and resource income bonus from resource asteroids (there is no other AI cheating in the game even at the Unfair difficulty level).
-Wide variety of AI upgrades.
-Improve AI taunting.

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Networking / Multiplayer:
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-AI will now take over for dropped players.
-You no longer have to kill all a dropped player's planets to win even when the AI takes over for him.

-Unified the in-game and ico chat system. They now share the same irc/wow like commands. Full autocomplete with tab/shift-tab. Autocomplete will attempt to either complete the name field or cycle through the available names.

/r - doesn't take in a name for the second parameter, will send automatically to the last player who send a whisper
in-game same as ico

/wr - allows you to autocomplete with

-You can now send whispers to players with spaces in their names by using quotes. Autocomplete properly handles these names.

-Rewrite of ico friend status. all clients are now kept up to date on the current status of every friend at all times. This allows for a more friendly ui, the friend list is colored to show who is logged in/playing games. There are globbal events to notify the user of what friends are doing. This can be disabled like the channel notifications.

-Channel name list now saves the visual and selected state on any change, so it is now possible to select players on busy channels.
-There is now a setting for if the user wants to see "


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UserInterface / HUD:
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-Added culture flipping planet event.
-Made the use of 'strike craft' when refering to both fighters and bombers more consistent (often just fighters before).
-Various text color updates.
-Improved description of Development Mandate research.


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Modding:
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-Can now mod in different textures without copying the entire texture directory.
-Fixed corrupt particle effects when loading mods up in-game.


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Misc:
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-Various crash fixes.
-Game stats infocards now sort by value.
-Game stats now track the number of active units instead of built so that the graphs are more interesting.
-Game stats no longer tracks the number of units lost in combat as this was confusing with number of units killed and the information is now apparent from the number of active units stats.
-Scenario names are now localized, no longer use the filename, but instead use a string inside the file.
-Removed no pirate maps (not needed as its a game option now).
-Other very minor additions and changes.

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End
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The next stop is the demo version and then it's on to v1.04.





[ 1.02 changelog ]
163,112 views 137 replies
Reply #51 from Sins Forums Top
The data (ICO stats and singleplayer commentary) says siege is being used as a massed strike force (and in many cases, multiple strike forces). Its obvious why too: the cost and supply usage is low and you can't kill them quick enough to stop them (nor can you strike at them elsewhere in time). Thus they cost more and are more easily killed - we really want players to have to choose whether they go heavy siege and when and where they should strike with them. But if there is serious problems 1.04 is just around the corner (aka all the stuff that didn't quite make 1.03) so based on this we may end up meeting in the middle between 1.02 and 1.03. It's an iterative process. Regardless, we here at Ironclad are having more fun with it than with 1.02.
End of quote


Blair,

I totally agree, they are too hard to kill. It is upsetting to me to split fleets to deal with the situation to describe and I can't kill the damn things fast enough. I had a multiplayer game recently with a player who starting making only siege and just sending them everwhere. It was annoying, and I killed that player off, but I lost worlds because the siege just don't die fast enough.

That said, I still think 15 cap for a siege unit is crazy. Make them weaker and easier to kill....they should be protected by other ships. I think a lot of people who actually get eliminated to mass siege could be killed a dozen ways. I agree, it is really annoying, but unless you are already losing badly, you should be able to destroy the other player if he doesn't build defenses. I would love to siege pop because it flies around undefended, that I agree with.
Reply #52 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks you guys!  :CONGRAT: This update looks great.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #53 from Sins Forums Top
Sieges were balanced quite well as of 1.02. I don't understand the changes there.

Not sure what to think of LRM/assailant/illus changes quite yet.
Reply #54 from Sins Forums Top
I like the changes. Can't wait for the update. I'm looking forward to the upgraded AI.
Reply #55 from Sins Forums Top
I'm pretty glad about the siege frigate nerf. It's not right that someone can roll 15 of these little crap vessels into your system and completely destroy your planet before your entire defense grid can take out more than three of them. That then costs a ridiculous amount of money to re-build all your logistics slots, infrastructure, etc. And they can just rove around your entire empire, draining tens of thousands of credits and resources in this manner with virtually no effort and no cost to themselves.

Remember kids, only communists use siege frigates. You're not a COMMIE, are you? >:o(
Reply #56 from Sins Forums Top
AI is now smarter about retreating and is willing to commit local suicide or accept local Phyrric victories if the global gain is higher and will also factor in local allied forces.
End of quote


Let's hope this keeps the AI from running away all the time.
Reply #57 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks for the wonderful info on the upcomign patch. Kudos to the dev team!

one question.. i didnt see it addressed in the patch.

When i team up with an AI. THe vast majority of the missions i recieve are for me to attack my co-op AI. Which i can not do even if i wanted to.

Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
Reply #58 from Sins Forums Top
Darn! Saw this post, and thought 1.3 was out. What a bummer when I saw 1.2 still on the update page.  :SNIFF!: 

So basically, Seige is now more expensive, and "bigger" in that it takes up more cap? That squiggle "`" makes it difficult to tell if it's minus, or just a squiggle.

And I also can't tell about the LRM ships. They are obviously more expensive now, but 30% more range, yikes. I heard/read lots of people complaining how they can hit and run caps and planets as they are, I'm guessing +30% range is a pretty huge bonus to that ability on top of that. Does the description mean they are now more fragile or harder to kill?

Can't wait for the AI changes, tried yet another game today on Hard; spent the entire time watching the AI retreat every time I entered his gravity well, it was darned borring. It's like the current AI was programed with it's tail super-glued between it's legs. Sounds like the new AI may actually finally take a swing or two back.

It all sounds like you guys did great work, and very promissing.




Reply #59 from Sins Forums Top

I have a quick question about downloading v.1.03. I have the Sins Plus mod downloaded and enabled, will I be able to download v.1.03 without any problems? Please respond.
Reply #60 from Sins Forums Top
If you can DL the latest patch, 1.02 you shouldnt have any problems Downloading 1.03, which should be out in a couple days.
Reply #61 from Sins Forums Top
Damn, I already found sieges next to useless, now I will have no reason to ever build them. 3 Sieges for the supply cost of a capital ship, the capital ship does 94% of the bombardment damage per second as the 3 sieges, not to mention all of the other advantages a capital ship has over 3 sieges. Siege frigates are now completely worthless in my eyes.
Reply #62 from Sins Forums Top
PurplePaladin, from what I can figure, the LRMs, at least Vasari's and Advents are going to be harder to kill to help match their higher population cost compared to TEC's (although Advent's is pretty irrelevant, since using Illuminators against LRM spam of the other two factions is less than stellar).

From the numbers, it should look something like this (the numbers will probably be rounded though, I'm guessing).

TEC Javelis
250 Credits --> 275 Credits
40 Metal --> 48 Metal
20 Crystal --> 24 Crystal

30% Range Increase.

Vasari Assailant
360 Credits --> 396 Credits
55 Metal --> 66 Metal
35 Crystal - 42 Crytal

30% Range Increase.

The Assailant should be getting a nice boost to it's armor/shields, if it's tune just on a supply point basis maybe as much as 50% more, but I'm not sure how to analyze it because Vasari and Advent have a higher base armor than the TEC unit.

Advent Illuminator
350 Credits --> 385 Credits
50 Metal --> 60 Metal
40 Crystal --> 48 Crsytal

30% Range Increase.

The Illuminator should be getting a nice boost to it's armor/shields, if it's tune just on a supply point basis maybe as much as 50% more, but I'm not sure how to analyze it because Vasari and Advent have a higher base armor than the TEC unit.

From the way I'm interpeting it, this is good news for Vasari (who can almost match TEC in an LRM arms race right now) decent news for TEC (benefiting most from range) and bad news for Advent, since theirs has the shortest range as it is and already cannot go toe to toe with the others. Advent's and Vasari's will become harder to kill with an increase in their range, TEC's will only get an increase in range, and each will get a small increase in price.

Doesn't look like good news for Advent, though. Circle-stafing LRM's with flaks will still work (although you'll take the first hits even further out) but no decent players will sit around and wait for your flaks to whittle down the ships, and if your flaks actually win, they will get killed by virtually every other ship in game, since they have nowhere near the flexibility of the LRM. In theory Advent's Capital Ship special abilities (namely Malice) could stop some of this, but good players just focus fire and down those caps insanely fast. It's already quite difficult to match well executed LRM rush with Advent, it looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Reply #63 from Sins Forums Top
If you can DL the latest patch, 1.02 you shouldnt have any problems Downloading 1.03, which should be out in a couple days.
End of quote


I downloaded the mod after I downloaded 1.02, so what I am asking is will it effect me now, when I go to download this patch?
Reply #64 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks Wind. Well most everything about the patch sounds great, but I'm still puzzling over the Seige & LRM changes. I don't usually number-crunch stats, but every time I playtest the changes in my head, they just don't seem to work out. I just would'a taken about 20% of the health seiges, and/or made flacks a better counter to LRMs. But since they say they are playtesting it a bunch, maybe it's like cake batter: it all makes sence after you cook it. . .

Reply #65 from Stardock Forums Top
Thankfully the cost of long range units is increased. Seems like a good haul to me. Lots of good improvements I feel. Looking forward to how it all hangs together, like Paladin said.
Reply #66 from Sins Forums Top
Genius!

Uber thanks for all and keep up the great work :CONGRAT:
Reply #67 from Stardock Forums Top
All due respect to the team (and there is MUCH respect due), I'm a little baffled about the LRM buffs. The Javlis, and to a lesser extent the Assailant, were hands down the only ships worth building early game. They were the Big Issue, being spammed in every game (at least, by the players who didn't lose horribly). Now they're better.

...ubuh?

Seems to me the Javelis needed nerfing down to the level of the other two (and then some), not the other two being buffed to the Javelis.
Reply #68 from Sins Forums Top
Nice changes.

Nevertheless I would like to see other things a a near future.*
The game is nice but missing a few things for me.

- More diplomatic options. The possiblity of creating also an ambassy on foreign planets.
- Special characters that you could hire for diverse bonuses (diplomats, engineers, spies, admirals...)
- A new spy/intelligence branch to the game (like in "Imeprium galactica 2 Alliances). You could sabotage structures, get information, assasinate leaders etc...
- The possibility of invading planets with ground forces.
- Possiblity of winning the game by alliances, culture, diplomacy in a certain number of turns.
- Moons (why no Moons)
- More objects in space... and more interactive (see homeworld like vast ship graveyards).
- Special events

voilà for me.
Reply #69 from Sins Forums Top
Thoughts, suggestions (when is 1.04 btw ;) ):

-New Market System:

Looks interesting. Could a propagation delay be added for your influence on the market to other players? At the start of the game it's pretty common to buy 200 crystal on the black market, and as it stands the first player to act (which I think is most likely the one with the fastest computer) will get to do it first and therefor get it cheaper. Adding a delay (say 5-10 seconds) between your actions on the BM and the effect it has on other players costs (but not your own) should fix this. 'Course, you could make it more complex and have the delay based on the distance between the player's planets.


-Research subjects queued in different fields can now upgrade in parallel.

This should significantly increase teching, and therefor reduce game duration, yes? Not sure how that'll play, but I like the idea. A common task I have in the tech trees is to insert an urgent item to start researching *now*, which involves de-queueing everything I have waiting, starting the one I want, and then re-queueing everything else. Could there be a way add an item to the research queue with high priority, say by shift-clicking it. If you shift-click then that item starts researching immediately, and after it's done the queue continues as normal. Multiple shift-clicks would insert items in the order clicked.


-Can't attack unbuilt structures anymore.

So if a fleet jumps into my unprotected system, I can spam some turrets for defense and the fleet can't kill them until they are complete? Isn't that kinda daft? I guess it'll make attacking the builder units more important, but it feels like a terribly artificial limitation.


Patch in general looks good, nice work! Looking forward to going home and getting a game.
Reply #70 from Sins Forums Top
.-Can't attack unbuilt structures anymore.

So if a fleet jumps into my unprotected system, I can spam some turrets for defense and the fleet can't kill them until they are complete? Isn't that kinda daft? I guess it'll make attacking the builder units more important, but it feels like a terribly artificial limitation.
End of quote


Nope that's not it at all. You can no longer damage structures that are at 0% completed.

Reply #71 from Stardock Forums Top
- Moons (why no Moons)
End of quote


Replace the text "Asteroid" on half the asteroids in the game with the word "Moon". Fixed.
Reply #72 from Sins Forums Top
Ah, I see. So as soon as the builder gets there and starts building it you can blow it to pieces? That makes sense. Also, disregard my final sentence, I clearly can't read intro paragraphs.
Reply #73 from Sins Forums Top
Don't mean to sound like a broken record but I don't seem to be able to go back and edit the last bitch about this, but:

If you increase the cost of any unit for LRM style units or any others for future balancing issues, aren't you making the free units from RA even more valuable in comparison?
Reply #74 from Sins Forums Top
You can no longer damage structures that are at 0% completed.
End of quote


Phew! That is a lot less bad than it sounded :CONGRAT:
Reply #75 from Sins Forums Top
With regard to the 'can't attack unbuilt structures' item, why can other players even SEE the 'blueprint' of a 0% structure? It doesn't even exist, it's just a note on a clipboard somewhere. It shouldn't even be visible until a constructor drives over and starts building it, which would prevent the enemy magically knowing as soon as you order buildings exactly were they'll be once completed.