badken

I can get an RSS feed from the General forum, but the Diplomacy forum gives me a feedburner error page.

For those who have no problem with the latest patch to Diplomacy: Pirates of a Solar Empire, I'd like to see a replay against 3 or more AIs set to Hard or harder difficulty. I want to see just how easy it is to defend against these pirates in the middle and end game. No mods for the replay, please, so that anyone can watch it. For my part, I'm curious why I find Hard difficulty challenging in Entrenchment, but in Diplomacy, I can barely hold my own against Normal difficulty AI. I end

I ran into this problem this past weekend trying to get a game going with some friends. One thing that we found for those who purchased via SDC, doing an uninstall and reinstall of the game *does* get you the latest version. So that's an option, albeit a time consuming option.

That above directory should read C:\Users\(yourUsername)\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Also note that AppData is a hidden folder, so you'll have to set the Views advanced setting in Folder Options control panel to show hidden files & folders.

On Vista, replays are found in: C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\ The AutoRecord-SinglePlayer directory has all your auto-recorded replays. To post here on the board, you'll need to find a place to host the file. Replays aren't very large, so most any free host will do. There's a section on WinCustomize.com for replays, too, I think. Once you have your replay uploaded to a host, get a URL to it and post that in a mess

1.04 patch notes say: -Fixed bug where joining a multiplayer game in a slot that was previously held by an AI player would have the AI still be enabled when you started the game. However this bug is not fixed. We had it happen to us this weekend in a game. We were playing 4v4, 4 people vs. 4 AI, and one of the people dropped. We saved and continued, and shortly thereafter found another person to join the game. After sending the save file to that person, we hosted it up and contin

The problem appears to be with the AOE damage Advent cap ships use. I played through the save a few more times and *did* see some total freezes, lasting 20-30 seconds. The difference seemed to be whenever Malice was cast, I could see the AOE light up and then everything froze. When I monitored CPU usage with Resource Monitor, it looked pretty spiky. I didn't see any disk activity during the freezes, and I had about 10% free physical memory during the whole run. Graphics settings don't seem to ma

I tried out the save. It was choppy and froze for a few seconds near the start of the fight, but gradually got better as ships were destroyed. I was able to micromanage stuff using the empire side bar, and ended up killing several enemy cap ships and the majority of the attacking fleet before they bugged out. I lost all defending frigates and a single cap ship, and was able to apply numerous cap ship upgrades during the fight. I wouldn't describe the experience as enjoyable, but at leas

[quote]The fact is that the big majority of players has no clue of the finer strategly nuances possible in the game. This is the same for every game ever released: Only a small minority really gets into it and only this small minority actually as a clue what they are talking about when suggesting multiplayer changes.[/quote] This sentiment completely ignores the fact that very frequently, changes made for "competitive" play make things miserable for other players. As a recent example, t

I understand the complaint but I disagree that it's a "legitimate beef for serious players." Everyone is laboring under the same constraints. This is like complaining that some maps have no volcanic planets on them, so it's hard to get metal on those maps. Some maps have extra resources, some have less resources, some let you make lots of trade income with big juicy chains of trade ports, other maps put dead asteroids in your path. Variety, spice of life, all that...

[link="https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/306735#15"]Yarlen said last week...[/link]

What really infuriates me about the map editor in 1.03 is that you used to be able to place all the little towers and spaceships on every planet and then they TOOK THAT OUT and now I have to watch RANDOM towers and RANDOM spaceships every time I zoom in to my HOMEWORLD!

If there were a faster option in multiplayer, the vast majority of multiplayer games would be played at the faster speed. It'd ruin the pacing and the feel of the game and turn it into yet another RTS clickfest. No thank you.

Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe the top tier techs are very powerful by design? Maybe they're intended to be game-ending, to avoid boring stalemated games that go on forever. I remember these exact debates coming up with the top level research in Rise of Nations, and Brian Reynolds' answer was just that... at some point the game has to end. If it's gone on long enough that someone has teched up that high, it's time to end this game and start a new one! Insurg

[quote]Consider the El Dorado, the iconic pickup-truck/car out of the 1970's.[/quote] I think you mean the [link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_El_Camino"]El Camino[/link], but I get your drift. Great analogy. At least Sins isn't the AMC Pacer of strategy games!

[quote]The most prompt way to handle the game's balance would be to listen to what the online players think is bad.[/quote] Actually, no. Competitive players have specific needs for a game. They need it to move relatively quickly so they can achieve and hold a rank in a reasonable length of time. Balancing the game strictly for a fast, competitive, online style of play would tend to harm those who prefer a more relaxed, multi-session offline style of play, perhaps against numer

[quote]LOL. Why defend it?[/quote] You're right. There's no tactical AI to speak of, because there is no tactical GAME here to speak of. People who are looking for tactical gameplay in Sins are barking up the wrong game. It's not about that. You don't play Civilization for the squad warfare, do you?

[quote]Frogboy assured me that combat depth was the reason that the game is so lacking in empire management depth. Now people seem to be telling me that the game is lacking combat depth as a concession to empire management depth. Fascinating.[/quote] There's plenty of strategic depth to combat, just not micromanagey tactical depth. And thank goodness for that, because I for one do not want to micromanage hundreds of ships at once, thank you very much.

[quote]Veterans, feel free to mock those ideas mirthlessly if they're wrong, they're just the things that I've noticed playing the game.[/quote] No, you're right, and people who are looking for combat tactics and micromanagement are looking in the wrong place. This game is not only about the combat! Combat is only one part of the strategy of the game, and anyone spending a lot of time micromanaging combat is likely missing out on more important macro issues.

[quote]None of the better players have been playing seriously, or at all, in 1.03 due to balance issues.[/quote] Translation: the "better" players relied on features which the developers have since changed to be more in line with their idea of what makes a fair, fun game.

[quote]Maybe they should make the flagship like a nuke too. Would be much more fun to blow it up somewhere then[/quote] Not... the Omega Thirteen Device!?!?!

[quote]Why can't you just ignore the pirate base even existing? If they're not raiding, then that seems just fine. Leave the pirate base there for an experience bump and heavily fortified place for a player to try to take over. There's very few maps where the pirate base is unavoidable. In cases where you battle the AI, the pirate base is like a virtual wall.[/quote] I don't want any pirates! They're in my way. I don't want to get experience from them. I don't want them there,

Please give us back the no-pirates random map. I really really don't want to play with pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire. I know the designer has a woodie for pirates and ebay bounty auctions, but those things make the game a lot less fun for me. This "inactive pirates" option has other problems, too. Not only do you still get pirates clogging up the space lanes, but you can still set bounties! They don't do anything, but you can throw your money away...

[quote]I edited the title of the thread to reflect the change in direction. It seems to be becoming a global location for people to express their love and hate for the pirates.[/quote] Wow, I have no words to express my disgust. I'm through with this forum, and through with your game.

[quote]I encourage everyone to realize that the AI was made difficult purposefully, and that new players should not expect to be able to beat it right off the bat.[/quote] If that's the case with the Easy AI, then this game has a serious problem. The last thing I want when I'm learning the mechanics of a game is to be beaten to a pulp by an overachieving AI. Sometimes you just want a nice relaxing game where you stomp everything in sight. What's wrong with that? Brutal