WindsweptStone

I would like to jump in here for a moment if no one minds, just because I've been a big fan of World in Conflict (although I had about half the games played as Krugelor, checking the stats on my old profile there). Anyway, teamwork is also incredibly, incredibly important in World in Conflict, with some roles really depending on one another. I used to play the game quite a bit (got as high as 2nd on the Armor leaderboard, once upon a time). But the game eventually got frus

Wow, that is great news, both for the game and for the distribution strategies employed. Hopefully if sales continue this can ensure us continued support (and hopefully expansions) and with luck the online community will grow, since right now it is rather small. For the piracy stuff, again, good stuff. Sins had a very simple installation process and without the copyright stuff made it very easy. Especially when compared to Bioshock, which so many people have brought up here.

I would definitely take out those pirates, especially if they're connected with the star and could be used by an enemy fleet to get into your system. Pirates also make for great experience for Capital Ships, so taking them out before an offensive could give some of your ships a little boost. Spamming defensive turrets, a few repair platforms and a couple hangers at each planet that is connected to your star will probably be enough to ward off most offensives an enemy may launch. The A

The only game where I've seen (and somewhat experienced) a lot of scouting in even fast paced, toe-to-toe games was Supreme Commander, at least in the Vanilla version. I don't mean an occasional LAB running around early game trying to see what's going on, but dedicated, constant, and relentless scouting. This was because scouts were dirt cheap, effective, and required virtually no micro. If a game wasn't going to end in 10 minutes it wasn't uncommon to see a player set up an Aircraft

I think it's mostly because how good the Radiance can be in early confrontations rather than the Revelation being all that bad. The Radiance gets Detonate Anti-Matter which is useful early, but also Energy Absorptive Armor, which being a passive ability is very nice to have since it not only helps armor but feeds the Anti-Matter pool. Combine that with Animosity and it can be pretty good at drawing fire. If the Radiance survives to Level 6 too, it gets the Cleansing Brilliance, which

Good news, that. It's been so good to see the positive reviews too, I was going to feel pretty dumb for talking up the game so much before release if it turned out otherwise. On Games for Windows though, the whole idea is pretty flawed, but at least it's an attempt to help PC gaming, which as a whole, in it's current state isn't doing too great (even the industry realizes this, if there's need for a "PC Gaming Alliance" there's issues going on). But trying to just port an X-Box Live t

Most Capital Ships aren't so much about their combat abilities as they are their special abilities that they earn as they gain veterancy. The Dunov and Akkan are both Support ships, which makes them more reliant on them than a Battleship or Carrier. The Dunov is good at direct combat aiding. It has Shield Restore, which gives a significant boost to the shield of a single ship in the area that you select, a near instant 350 boost can help another ship survive a death strike or escape a

I did some tests on a save game and it does not appear to. I have a saved game against an AI right before I sent my small Capital Ship fleet against a swarm of enemy ships (55 Disciples and 3 Capital Ships). I thought this would be a good game to check, since the Radiance Battleships I had sported Cleansing Brilliance, a fairly controllable weapon with pretty reliable damage output. I used the same target during all the tests, a level 3 Capital Ship since it would always sur

I think the game would be much more interesting, at least with Free For Alls, if the default stand towards all other players was War and the AI's didn't continue their perpetual vendetta against anything with a heartbeat. All of the Free For Alls with unlocked teams I've tried (3, 4 and 5 player ones) have all gone along similar lines. I tend to end up tangling with the first AI who is close, and their annihilation is usually paramount since I need their territory. I don't mind being

I'm not a fan of most super-weapons in games, at least the ones that come in the form of artillery/nuclear weapons. If they're movable units though that get into direct combat with enemies I tend to feel very different about them though. I don't mind many of them in a game like Supreme Commander, the walking/flying Experimentals mostly, the ones that are superweapons but also not just a big gun that sits behind the lines and kills things; a MonkeyLord leading a Loyalist charge is beaut

What faction was the attacking player? Advent in particular has incredibly effective Support ships. Guardians and Progenitor Motherships can keep not only a fleet from annihilation, but with smart use of the abilities can even prevent a fleet from taking losses at all. This is especially true in a prolonged battle where they have time to recharge Anti-Matter and maintain their shields. It really depends on the units and faction you were up against (and what you had) to figure

For those first worlds, depending on the militia, it can be rather difficult to just take with Light Frigates at the start, and it can be an expensive proposition. Many gravity wells (asteroids usually) just have that very standard one Siege Frigate and one Light Frigate militia, which around four Light Frigates can take out without losses last I checked. For worlds like that four Light Frigates isn't a bad way to go at times. But if you're lucky enough to have a nearby Te

A pirate base will generally have a lot of turrets (around 20 or so) as well a respectable compliment of ships hanging around (mostly Pirate Cutthroats and Corsairs, fairly beefy units, but also some Reapers and Pillagers). Overall though you can expect a good 30-40 pirate ships to respond to you when first enter the Gravity Well, and then the 20 or so Turrets stationed in a circle around the base. There can be more ships if you attack as a pirate raid is embarking, but all of the raids I've s

It might be because the game is still new, but I see a surprising number of strategies to employ for each faction, depending on the tech side you want to focus on (military or civil), the type of units (capital ship heavy, frigate/cruiser heavy) and what kinds of units to actually use. In most other RTS games I've played, each faction has one or two strategies that are actually viable to win with. Other strategies might be somewhat effective, but against one of winning strategies it's

As Advent I like to rely on a combination of static defenses and Drone Cruisers to guard systems that are at risk. For static defenses, I usually go for two Repair Stations and then see how many Hangers I can fit around them. Advent have a couple upgrades for their Hangers to increase the number of ships in each squadron that can increase their potency. After I fill up on Hangers I just put in however many Turrets I can fit before I run out of slots. Sometimes later in game I'll so

When you hover over the ability it will tell you if it's set to Autocast or not. If you right click while you're hovering over the ability, it will toggle it on/off, depending on what it is set to (different abilities are on Autocast or not by default). It's also usually a good idea to set your initial scouts to Auto-Explore by doing this, right clicking on the ability, and they go off without management and check out planets until something kills them. I'm a slow

I prefer to micromanage the offensive abilities. Things like Telekinetic Push, Cleansing Brilliance and Animosity I like to always make sure are not on Autocast. The AI doesn't always know when the best time to use the abilities, or what the best target is (don't need to use the Push when only a couple ships are around, or Cleansing Brilliance on a damaged Frigate). Using some abilities together, Animosity from the Progenitor Mothership and Cleansing Brilliance from the Radiance Battleship fo

I had this happen when one of my Research labs got knocked out. I needed just the number of research labs I had to research that tech, and when I lost a planet and it's orbital stations were destroyed, the research stopped dead since I no longer possessed the facilities necessary. Arctic Evangelism is a pretty early tech though, only requires two Research Stations, so I would be surprised if you lost one that early.

If the Infrastructure isn't upgraded, planets can be a drain on your economy, maybe that's it? As a rule once I take a planet I go right for the best Infrastructure it can handle and then the other upgrades as needed depending on the planet/asteroid's position (no reason to sink upgrades into Tactical slots if the planet will very soon be well behind the fighting, that kind of thing). Other than no infrastructure though, I'm curious as well how a planet can be a drain. A new planet, e

I find it funny and kind of ironic when the AI's cowardice ends up biting me in the rear. I'll jump from a world I've taken into the gravity well of an adjacent system, and run into a sizable but ultimately inferior AI fleet. It will decide to run in the direction I just came from, arrive at my lightly defended world (what use would I have for defenses if my main fleet was there and I was pushing forward) then proceed to bomb it into oblivion as my fleet races back to chase them off.

I didn't know that about the Progenitor Mothership, which is kind of sad, since one of the reasons I've gravitated toward the Advent was for the Progenitor's flexibility. Unlike the other two factions, the Advent's Progenitor is capable of both the Shield Restore ability as well as Colonization, which to me makes it very useful early in game to get out early and have it team up with my first Destroyer. For the other factions you need three Capital Ships to do the same thing, which is

I find Exploration a decent thing to do when playing Advent and I control a good number of worlds. Advent's Divination ability (fairly low level, Civic/Harmony ability) allows them to explore at more reasonable costs, for a fairly steep initial price, that is. To fully explore a world, you need to sink 1,000 credits, 325 metal, and 200 crystal into the project. Fully researching Divination (two steps) costs 1,700 credits, 225 metal, and 275 crystal, so not cheap at all. But it cuts t

Maybe just some kind of margin of error for how evenly matched the fleets are could help, or based on the remaining Hit Points of their ships? Right now it seems to know immediately if it's outmatched, even by a little the instant a fleet jumps into a system and encounters another, or the instant the tide seems to turn. Probably half the confrontations the AI fleet sticks around for, once I knock out the first Capital Ship, they all turn tail to get out of the system. Many of these ba