Phase Lane Technology Ideas for Tech and Advent

from Sins Forums

By sins 2, or w/e the next Sins expansion will be (ie, Sins 1.75 :P), It won't seem realistic if the TEC and Advent haven't made strides in Phase Space technology. I mean, come on...if we look at the lore (I know, im being a total geek here), the TEC have been aware of Vasari phase lane tech for a long time. This has had to make them curious, to say nothing of the huge advantage the Vasari have by being so mobile.

 

I'm outlining here what I think should be their answer to Vasari phase technology.If you like it, make some noise. If they suck, so be it :P.

 

Faction: TEC Loyalist

Name: Phase Lane Gateway

Type: Super Weapon

Description: A massive structure that the player builds..will require the same number of tactical slots as Nov cannon. Once fully constructed, the player chooses one of the gravity well's phase lanes for the gateway to inhabit. The gateway then flies through the phase lane as normal, barring one exception: It stops half way.


The player's opponents would get a warning that someone is building the gateway, but they will have NO way of knowing which phase lane has been booby trapped as the Gateway is not visible to them at all. 


So what's the trap? When an enemy moves a fleet into the phase lane, the gateway collects up to 20 frigates, 4 capital ships and 1 titan. All other ships go through as normal. The Gateway owner then gets to select ANY explored gravity well to route the ships to. Not only that, but they can hold the ships for up to 5 min, maximizing the strategic advantage. They send the ships to a pirate stronghold, another enemy's gravity well with Phase Inhibitor, or even one of their own super-entrenched worlds. (to create an experience point grinder)

The victim of the gateway gets NO notice that their ships didn't arrive as expected. It's up to them to be vigilant and take notice that something is wrong.

"Where's my Titan!?!?!?"

Nerfs:

-As TEC phase technology is not up to par with the Vasari, the Gateway takes damage while phased out. Consequently, every 10 minutes it must move back into its gravity well and VERY slowly meander to the nearest repair bay. Once its full of HP, it moves ponderously back into the phase lane. I'm talkin' slower than a Vasari space station. This is the ONLY opportunity opponents will have to destroy this thing. I suppose they'll have to keep a constant fleet of scout ships in the enemy gravity well to know when to strike, but they should be able to destroy the gateway with focus fire via 30 bombers or so.

-One Gateway at a time. No scuttle & move.

 

Strategy: Obviously, you would want to choose your gravity well carefully. I'm sure you can see the possibilities.

 

Of course it will be easily countered when people figure out which phase lane is booby trapped, but TEC can counter by entrenching the hell out of all other adjacent grav wells.

 

Faction: Advent Loyalist

Name: Righteous Conscription

Type: Ability

Description: Once fully researched, all phase lanes within the Advent empire are doubled. Two-lanes. The effect starts at the home world, and slowly spreads, just like culture. While the ability is active, any frigate that you send through one of their phase lanes will be duplicated and sent back to you through the second lane. It will be a copy of your ship, but it will be hostile to you. I hope I'm making sense. Your ship will still land in the Advent gravity well, but a perfect copy will be sent back through the mirror phase lane, and will attack your own gravity well when it gets there. This ability will have a very short duration and a very long cool down. The duplicated ships are persistent..they last until you destroy them.


To be clear, they don't just jump back one phase lane..they take the same route the original frigate did..whether it was one phase lane or 10. It's a mirror universe duplicate :P.

 

Nerfs: None needed..just needs a reasonable cool down and very short duration...also, tier 8.

This is the ultimate expression of Advent energy manipulation and mind control.

 

Faction: TEC Rebel

Name: Phase Lane Energy Ribbon


Type: Super weapon/ Novelith Cannon upgrade

Description: The Nov cannon fires an energy wave into the nearest phase lane. This causes an  permanent entity, the "ribbon," to spawn within it. This ribbon travels slowly from phase lane to phase lane in a random fashion doing massive damage to the shields of any faction other than TEC rebel and its allies when their ships fly through it. The Ribbon also immediately destroys cargo ships and trade ships, effecting every other faction's economy over time.

The ribbon is visible to all players.

A savvy TEC rebel player could wait for the ribbon to enter an opponent's supply lane and then invade, knowing that he would be foolish to send reinforcements while the ribbon is in the phase lane. Alternatively, he or she could simply sit back and be content to let the ribbon to damage to everyone over time.

 The ribbon would always be causing grief for someone, forcing them to make additional jumps to reach their destination...or if the unwary player sends ships into the phase lane containing the ribbon and notices too late.

 

9,541 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I don't want to be rude but these suggestions are not even doable with the limited capabilities the old Iron Engine has.

Besides that, they are most certainly game breaking overpowered. Sending a mirror fleet each time an enemy moves in a massive fleet would just make an entrenched Advent player indominable for example...

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

That's why it would have a very short duration and a long cool down. It would be balanced with the other abilities. Of course, the devs could nerf it to x frigates spawned as necessary. Its also inherently random, which helps. If no one attacks while the ability is active, the ability does no damage.

I did say it would most likely have to be for Sins 2.

 

Nothing is "game breaking overpowered" as long as you counter it with something else for another faction.

 

Besides, VL ninja omnom is kind of game breaking overpowered as it is. Phase lane tech for TEC and Advent would solve that. You can eat my planet if I can send your Titan into the jaws of hell for my entertainment.

 

 

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Codexehow, reply 2
Besides, VL ninja omnom is kind of game breaking overpowered as it is. Phase lane tech for TEC and Advent would solve that. You can eat my planet if I can send your Titan into the jaws of hell for my entertainment.
End of Codexehow's quote
Well, in a normal multiplayer match a Vasari player would only be able to get SttC really fast if he spawns in an eco slot. If he consumes a lot of planets to support his team with a large fleet the downside is that he will not be able to feed his other teammates continuously like an Advent or TEC eco slot player would.

I think this is basically the idea behind SttC. It has a major trade off which is why it is not considered as game breakingly overpowered. If the enemy is able to kill the massive fleet the Vasari player created at the cost of his panets the game is basically lost for that player, as he would have to rely on his allies for feed.

A better example of an overpowered tech is the now well known Starbase Mobilization that the Vasari Rebels have. There is only a gain in this tech and no trade off. A good trade off for this faction specific tech was proposed by several players in the form of supply costs for each starbase built.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

  Honestly, these are all a bit OP.  I could see doing things like giving TEC and Advent the current Phase abilities of the Vasari, and giving Vasari a new ability about half as effective as these suggestions are.  They are definitely creative Ideas, but not something I personally would like to see in Sins in their current form.

  The Gateway would likely just go into phase space while it's active, not wait in the middle.  I could see having ships re-routed to a random planet(No more than 2 jumps away) with something like a 300 second cooldown, but then people would just jump 1 scout in to use it up and bypass it.  (Maybe make it auto-cast, OR an actively used ability?  IDK...

  Righteous Conscription is a bad Idea.  If a player realized you had this on one of your worlds, they could jump in a small portion of their fleet, leaving a massive fleet behind, and eat up the XP for their capitol ships.  It's just more useful to the enemy than it is to you.

  The Ribbon is particularly interesting, but it would need to be nerfed to do a set ammount of damage, not insta-kill cargo ships.  Although it does seem like it's a different version of the destabilization ability starbases have.  An alternate idea would be to build something that locks out a phase-lane altogether.  It would need to be something you build at both ends, and if one end is destroyed, the lane opens back up.  Make the building somewhat tough to kill, so it buys you time, but not super-irritating.  Maybe have it destabilize Phase Space like Starbases do too.

Not sure if the game engine could even do these suggestions, but they are a lot more in-line with game ballance.  Not that they're perfect either.

-Twi

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I agree about the balancing point.

 

I however still have to say that some of those ideas sound awesome. :D

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for your impressions, all. Just a few thoughts.

 

Twilight, I should have made it more clear that Conscription would be a passive ability..the opponent wouldn't know when it's on until its too late. This would make attacking the Advent a risky proposition. I don't know how sending in a fleet of unprotected capitals (Presumably they'd be attacking well defended front-line worlds..this would serve as just as much an experience grinder for the Advent, if not more so) is any kind of advantage. It would only serve as an experience grinder for the opponent if the Advent player is very, very bad.

With a well-defended world, I can sit there and focus-fire unsupported capital ships into oblivion all day.

There would be a high cost to even the VL player for sending a good number of his capitals off of other fronts to attack the Advent. Furthermore, because the ability is active for a short time and has a very long cool down, the opponent would be foolish to withhold his fleet because of it. He/she WILL have to commit at some point, and when they do, there's a chance of retribution, that's all. It can work out really well for the Advent, or not..it just depends on how things come together. 

Also, I said that the effect would be empire-wide. Not limited to one planet except for when its first researched. It would spread to each phase lane the Advent controls.

I get your points about OP and balance, but I think once you have the phase tech for each faction, its just about nerfing/buffing to find balance.

Another thing is strategy. The Tech Gateway may seem OP, but consider that once your opponents figure out which phase lane you installed it in, they can easily counter it. Your only recourse then would be to spend a lot of resources entrenching the gravity wells adjacent to your trap, to funnel them in to the gateway.


The good TEC Loyalist player would then learn how to create a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for their opponents.

I get that it probably wouldn't work with the current engine, but something like these techs should definitely be part of Sins 2. It's a logical progression. Anything less will seem flat, imho.


The game is a complex system, no doubt. Still, I think there's nothing that can't be balanced. For instance, the VL are unbalanced right now, but that could be fixed by extending the time it takes for Strip to Core to work + creating a specialized ship for it or assigning it to the Titan.


The TEC Loyalist's Twin Fortress tech could be made significant by creating a synergistic shielding system between the two stations if they're placed within a certain range of one another. As it is, a mobile VL player that's eaten a few Terrans or Volcanics can crush even a fully entrenched TEC Loyalist grav well with ease. So I guess my point is that the game is already kind of unbalanced. A good solution is to seriously buff the other races in the area in which Vasari is so far ahead: phase lane tech and mobility. 

 Anyway, I enjoy coming up with these ideas..its good for my brain :P.