Can the game actually be modded to have fleet supply tax a function of currently used supply instead of researched "max supply?" I also would think that something as radical as changing the fleet supply cost from a tax rate (percentage of all income) to a constant cost/supply/unit time (i.e., the supply cost is the same absolute amount whether your income is 10/sec or 200/sec) would be pretty difficult to mod. This change would be a great benefit to larger empires, and I do see how that might be a serious problem.

Regarding rushing, the only impact I can see of changing tax rate based on used supply instead of max supply is that a rushing player who loses his fleet will now have (presumably) a small economy with a large tax burden, a daunting situation indeed. The change would no do much to make rushing easier during the rush, however.

Honestly, I think a lot of these game mechanics that provide penalties for large fleets and empires(allegiance penalty) are based on limitations of the engine. If Sins 2 can support larger fleets and more planets (the wonders of concurrent programming), I wouldn't be surprised if some of these limitations are relaxed.

I don't think stealth mechanics/fog of war would be easy to implement in the current engine. To add another idea, non-circular gravity wells would work well with a limited line of sight. Take an "asteroid belt" that is perhaps 4 or 5 times as long as a regular asteroid field. If would be good if your ships did not have vision all the way to the other end of this elongated gravity well. Interesting tactical gameplay might result, but I seriously doubt it could/would be done on this engine.

I think his concern isn't with building too much fleet initially but what happens you lose most of a big fleet. You've basically lost the game in that case with the present mechanics because your econ is just as crushed with 0/800 fleet capacity used as it is with 800/800. This is why conserving your fleet [once built] is so important and why top players like Grimm or Doci (watch their 1v1 posted here!) basically avoid all-out fleet battles at all cost (unless they have a crushing advantage). So the game as designed [if played close to optimal] turns into a long series of mutual raids intended to cripple the enemy's econ while preserving your fleet.

I don't know if the devs realize it, but the best strategy that emerges from their design is basically the space equivalent of a mutual unrestricted submarine warfare or mutual strategic bombing [sans defense] with almost no actual fleet vs. fleet battles (save for cap ship hunting). Watch Doci v. Grimm and try playing like that vs. yourself or another player who groks the strategy (and also vs. one who doesn't or simulate one yourself), if you don't believe me this strategy is the trump card in Sins. Grimm even says it somewhere in his guide that's basically preferable to lose planets than to lose your fleet. (True most of the time unless you're about to lose your HW and have little else generating credits.)

Lol, no. But unlike other games with a [more] serious MP cult following (faforever etc.) there's little in the way of recordings for Sins available on the web, either as in-game format or videos. So it's hard for me to provide a more diversified set of references that others can access/check... especially for 1v1 Sins MP games. Do you want me to discuss GoaFan77 vs ChronosePrime (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7rfP2qMWqI) from when the Vasari DN was so OP, which wasn't so long ago? [Never mind the blurry, non-HD vid]. Because that's all I could find in terms of reasonably recent semi-serious 1v1 Sins:R play on youtube. Maybe this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRI_nxmpGWU [even more blurry] video from 2012 proves the point that TEC SBs suck as spam? Worth mentioning? Do you post any recordings of your games here or [as vids] on youtube?

This forum having its [above average, IMO] share of trolling and [more or less tongue-in-cheek] deliberately deceitful posts [which aren't shown this much tolerance in other game's fora] doesn't make the situation better when it comes down to providing/linking to good info, by the way. At least Grimm and Doci don't troll this forum, so yeah I'll point to their posts/recordings with less hesitation than for others' posts...

Is this meant to be a troll post?

yeah, I can support the idea of ETAs and split-screen/multi-display.

In fact, I'd love to have my second screen set to a overview 'sensor' display like you could in Supcom so I can keep an eye on my empire while I'm micro managing a battle or whatever.

WTF I thought Seleuceia was a girl??!!!?

Certainly some nice ideas... and while we're at it in digging up stuff (well, this one wasn't so old ), an old thread of my own that received no comments... I think in part because I posted it in the wrong section or something... it wasn't visible except via some convoluted method.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/433718/page/1/

I guess I am slow to the party, but I never realized there were so many late replies to my thread... I just bought Ashes and noticed.

I still think SoaSE II is my most anticipated game, only rivalled by a Command and Conquer reboot, if such a thing were likely. Ironclad needs to finish that MOBA and get working on a REAL 4X space game.

I like your idea of more advanced UI options for fleet management, furyofthestars. The developers would have to think carefully about how fleets deduct money for automatically constructing replacement ships, but your idea could be fun.