DarkMadMax

Well I bought the game, but after playing around, beating 3 teamed hard AI 1vs3, 20 MP matches (in which I was undefeated in 1 vs1), it seems like I probably should not have bought it . Well at least ironclad is a small dev which distributes online without copy protection so money is not lost ( I support devs like that in principle) . So what is wrong? -Simple game is MP only basically and in MP is the average game time. A good ,fast 1vs1 on small map takes any

Well the thing is Vasari also have have cost reduction tech (slave labour) and pretty good effeciency improvement tech. It is funny but in all 10 of 1 vs1 game (which all I won as Vasari) I was #1 economy wise. Some of it partially due to scouts being able to capture resources, but I am sure other thing play part as well. The imbalance could be that in the Early game Vasari are weaker, but that is why it is important to expand and tech up very fast And geez stop whining abo

Nothing really special -expand, research and exterminate. I never go for dark armada - my games do not last that long , I research 4 levels of phasic missiles and go either with assailants and/or carriers. I use Skirrantra carriers as my cap ships almost exclusively .Hangar defences and repair bays only

Dark Armad imho is useless on small maps. For the amount of resources it takes to tech up and build those phase gates you could have won game twice already. And big maps... anyone really play them?- because I havetn seen a single game in mp on big map ending succesfully (either host crashes, either people drop out - all because It last shitload of time and is very boring) .

[quote]Adding a Vasari build for small map 1v1: [/quote] That is pretty much a strat I use sometime. Except I start teching up early if the map is decent size (e.g. small random map is plenty big ,but something like point blank map is not). If I do assailant spam I research 4 levels of phasic missilies and charged missiles. Plus hp and armor. I usually split the forces for taking over systems(1 is cap, another is frigs ). I dont see beneficial of spamming light fr

Agreed. Currently game last way too long (3 hours for small 1vs1 is on everything fast is common -unless opponent quits first).

Heh well I wish to play 1 vs 1 against competent player .I won all of my 10 1 vs1 games playing as a vasari , so for all the say that they suck I didnt see the suck yet (maybe they do but I never saw anyoone competent enough to defeat me) .

Played exclusively as vasari I can say that this is THE weapon tech to max out. Assailants/bombers do sick damage with and you can generally kill caps very fast .Especially true for advent. Once you get subverters mixed in you have immensely powerefull fleet (subverters with 1 upgrade can disable ships on top of providing additional mitgation bypass) .

I several mp games and won all 1v1, some vs decent players using the illum spam strat. I play as vassari , my first cap is either colonizer either carrier. I tech up to carrier and do 4 missile upgrades and armor. If enemy is lrm heavy I make lots of sentinels otherwise carriers all the way. I get 2nd cap somewhere (either 2nd carrier either first one). 2 carriers are awesome since they heal each other. And I do build a lot of defences on a border worlds (5-6 hangers) .

[quote] I don't suppose you read my post (#30) on page on of this thread? the Monk [/quote] Ohh my bad. thanks for info!- I dont allow ping on wan side either that is why I got the message!

Hmm looks like cap will be overpowered with all those changes. Have you though about that at some point it doesnt make sens to have support ships -just build all caps if they are so powerefull.

Well the game keep telling me that "most people wont be able to see your game". I done all the stuff and tested whether port forward correctly - I am net admin myself and know how to configure routers/ firewall, of course including my home one (linksys with ddwrt firmware). I can host CS:S game no problesm for example.

Vasari are about shield mitigation :) -their LRM and bombers upgraded can do sick damage if researched . theit carriers cap are also very good (with repair cloud ability). For late game their support (subverters )are also great - completely disable enemy ships.

Lol it is funny that people bring up all carrier fleet as weak, yet I never said it is ALL carrier. I play vassari and here is what I use 2 Sova Carriers with repair cloud maxed out and LRM and subverters as support . Subverters disable ships pretty good - including flaks (they also good to prevent people running away).I rarely lose ships . With maxed out shield ignore tech bombers take out caps in 10 sec flat.

I found out that after you reach some critical mass of bombers in your fleet(20-30+)and some support you basically become unstoppable .Reason being that bombers cost nothing , fly very fast and 30 of them can kill any capital ship very fast. You attack basically as soon as you enter the well, while other ships have to travel to you first. Flak frigs or no flags it doesnt really matter -you take out caps in first minutes of a fight and you may lose some bombers which will regenerate anyway<br

Frigs do not require crystal so they are good option for crystal tight maps .Plus they get some nice abilities down the line. But essentially I agree missile>frig.

[B]General[/B] -Add "faster" and turbo option to current speed setting (at 1.5x and 2x speed of current fast) -add 16x and 32x time speed up options for replays. [B]Small UI things[/B] -ability to drag and drop ships between fleets in empire tree window .Also ability to add ships to the fleet and designate leader without reforming the fleet -add numbers and/or names to fleets and ability to rename fleets (colors are nice but often hard to tell apart

Defense is not useless. It cant fend off a large fleet, but fully developed it can holds its own against 90% of pirate attacks and be a real help to defendding fleet wehn larger forces attack. I usually build 4-6 hangers,1-2 repair bays and rest are turrets

Are you even reading what I wrote? I do not talk about removing current speed options -just adding a few additional ones. There is a setting you know for game speed so if you want slow game you may set it this way.

[quote]Nope i don't agree, it's fine the way it is, this game isn't starcraft. [/quote] I didnt say throw the current speed out - just add faster options for people who do not want to spend 5 hours for a medium game . I cant even think about larger games with such snail crawling pace. 2x and 4x imho is much more of a reasonable game speed. [quote] how could you even manage your empire when going that quickly... [/quote] There is not a lot to manage frankly.

I think here is a suggestion most people will agree with : please mark current fast as "slow", normal as 2x, and fast as 4x of current fast speed. current normal and slow should be delegated to "slowest" and "turtle" - dont know if anyone will play them though :) Add ability to speed up time in replays by 16x and 32x. Add ability to single player to speed up over current default speed ( up to 8x-16x would be good) .

I got a few of interface suggestions which imho are pretty easy to implement and will add to game-play. -ability to drag and drop ships between fleets in empire tree window -add numbers and/or names to fleets and ability to rename fleets (colors are nice but often hard to tell apart) -ability to make subgroups inside fleets with separate attack distance, group distance option (e.g I want to order carriers to stay tight and do not attack, while I might let my cannon fo

[quote]I'm finding similar problems with the AI... It just seems to stop researching once it gets to a certain number of techs. It also stops upgrading fleet logistics, so it's stuck with an outnumbered navy after a few hours of gameplay. I thought this would be limited to the easy AI, but I've observed it with medium AI as well. Combine that with the post above and you get an under performing AI all around, which is disappointing. [/quote] I think those observations are spot on. A

I start to think it is possible to make the game really hard, in fact I wasnt able to advance so far :) - 4 and more player game and make all AI same team with locked option.

I actually found AI is much more competent that it was in beta (though I didn't play beta past stage 2 or 3 ) . In fact I got my ass handed to me first 6 times. In my last game ,though, I was able to hold and inch by inch crawl to dominance - it was very slow with systems changing hands multiple times and I am defending most of the time. I try to expand very fast in the beginning and I grabbed around 9 systems in the beginning. Lost all but three shortly after :) It was all