TheRedMaw

I've done a ton of testing on this to satisfy my own curiosity, and to try to figure out how to best use these ships and abilities. Glad this thread has come back. Look out, this post isn't a short one, but hoping some of the other Advent players can benefit from it (already have a rough time against TEC's super economy and Vasari's Dark Armada, whatever helps the fight). To answer, reubenyap though, Malice causes all of the units hit by it to share a portion of the damage they take w

Returning Armada still functions with the destruction of Imperial Labs, and the gates can still summon reinforcements even if the planet itself is lost. I was under the impression that destroying the labs could stop it, but scuttling them (and even the planet they were based) on seemed to have no effect. I guess that rules out a Novalith solution, unless you can make enough to destroy every world simultaneously. Also, Maldon if you have the replay, I would love to see a good player

At least flak counters LRMs for some...bizarre reason. I understand the need for a counter, believe me I do, but Flaks seem like such an odd choice. And also, I agree. The Light Frigates seem to be designed as the close range fighters for the early game, but they're literally made obsolete by T1 or T2 military tech (which in many games is literally just minutes). I think in an ideal situation there would be room for both the Light Frigates and the LRMs, with the LRMs providing suppo

I would worry about things like Novaliths and Returning Armada on a map like this, but also with 15 Terran planets, assuming they have the standard Terran militias of 1-3 Kodiaks and a bunch of supporting ships, that also even give Advent a good chance. Advent's greatest assets are it's Capital abilities and fleet synergy, which on small maps it often doesn't get the chance to explore much with LRMs spamming your low level Capitals to death and your Disciples being meat for half the t

Wow, good news. So have there been significant changes since the 1.04 preview was given a couple weeks ago? Or have they just been tweaks to the notes given? I'm excited about this patch, though. Hoping there are other changes to the LRMs besides some minor speed ones mentioned that they are no longer the god-kings of the early and mid-game, but I guess we'll have to wait a couple days and see. Also, one step closer to 1.1...

For weapon research this is without a doubt true (those are all so expensive and climb in such little increments, the only one I look to with some regularity are the TEC missile ones because they're decent, and a stepping stone to the Novalith), but I wouldn't shrug off Shield and Hull research since it can impact the early game. I would always be striving to use my full fleet cap first (the 20 ships you mentioned generally would do it) but looking toward researching Hull and Shields early can

For one Deliverance Engine you can afford half a dozen Media/Broadcast Centers, and I've never seen worlds flipped without at least five Deliverance Engines due to how incredibly easy they are to counter, they're just inconvenient to any decent enemy (and for the cost the enemy can counter then and build fleets). You can try doing it without Deliverance Engines but because culture must spread along Phase Lines, it's easy to block at choke points, even if the enemy has significantly more centers

Options, Cinematic, Uncheck the "Show Opening Cinematic" box. The Ironclad and Stardock logos still appear, but they aren't intrusive like EA ones and force you to sit through, can just hit escape and get by them.

Last I read, Atari had the rights to Total Annihilation (both Cavedog and GT Interactive no longer exist, after all). They don't seem to be actually doing anything with the rights though, from all I've heard. A shame, it was such a gem, with probably the best expansion to any game I've ever played.

This troubles my little heart. I used to be a big fan of Gas Powered Games and had a prolonged love affair with Supreme Commander last year (which was released at about the same time as Sins of a Solar Empire, but a year earlier). But GPG's support really disappointed me, within 6 months of the game's release they were pointing towards Forged Alliance when asked if they were to fix the game's economy system or if there would be improvements and patches basically ground to a halt. <br/

Fielding a very heavy capital fleet can seem like a good idea, but it is just very vulnerable to a variety of tactics and ultimately isn't as effective as smaller ships. Most notably, Capitals, for their price are not swimming in hit points, and their damage per second they put out compared to an equal cost in smaller ships is usually significantly less (which most Capitals cannot even concentrate because not all of their weapons are forward mounted). It's not until they gain veteran

I can only answer the Advent ones well, so here goes... Rapture's Vertigo has a small area of effect (smaller than Malice, for example) but in a clustered fleet battle can effect a good number of ships. It only lasts 25 seconds, but it's cooldown is just 20 seconds, so it's easy to chain hit enemies with. Vengeance can be a more useful ability for the Rapture though and will often consume the Antimatter needed. Reverie is similar to the Ion Bolt, so yes. I'm not sure the exa

I am personally not a fan of any subscription type service (and the implication of commitment to it). I think that most gamers are relatively fickle beasts, and asking them to commit for a term to paying for content, even a very low fee (for example, five dollars a month for a six month period) is a turn off. If I don't use it for all of that six months, wander off, and come back later, there is some loss involved, or at least some is percieved. I would much rather go out and

They can fire between stars, but you have to be very careful. The rounds travel much slower than ships passing between stars, literally to shoot across a Large Multi-System map you can be looking at 10 to 15 minutes transit time. For the Deliverance Engine or the Kastura Cannon, this won't matter much since hitting the wrong spot, or a spot you already colonized won't negatively effect you. But the Novalith will kill your own colonies if it hits them, so if launched an attack after yo

It's not a game, but Star Wars? Star Destroyers had a habit of racing behind smaller cruiser/frigate type vessels (even the Millennium Falcon, a small freighter characterized by it's speed). Despite their size they seemed more than capable of such speeds, if not maneuverability. But for this game, I think it makes sense, at least. LRMs are currently quite strange, most people agree they're just much too strong, their ability to take down Capitals so fast by focus firing is

I did a quick test. I did some of the adding of the units on paper, so if anyone spots an error say so, so I can go back and recalculate. This is with the second level of Returning Armada researched. A Phase Gate costs 1,500 Credits, 200 Metal, and 300 Crystal on your homeworld. One all other worlds you have to develop Tactical Slots once to have enough, so the effective cost is 1950 Credits, 350 Metal, 375 Crystal. The first group of ships that came to my homeworld (3 Enfor

Itharus, my point is that if two players are totally evenly matched in ability (an ideal situation, can lead to great tug-of-war, constantly teching matches) that Returning Armada allows one to get an "I Win" Button and prove to be the winner while the other has to put on a sad face and walk away, despite there being no substantive difference between them. Something is wrong when the faction alone turns a game from two evenly matched players to one player slaughtering the other. <

I wouldn't underestimate the potency of Guardians when up against a mass number of Heavy Cruisers. Heavy Cruisers are probably the strongest unit that can be totally outranged by the Guardian's Repel ability (Capitals too, but they have wings of Strikecraft that can still come through, unless you have a Halcyon with Telekinetic Push, in which case things can get amusing). Guardians with Repel effectively allow you to chose when to engage the Heavy Cruisers and when you want to have b

If they're meant to be game ending, then TEC and Advent's are grossly underpowered. Insurgency can be countered by a couple hangers and repair bay on each world...it's costly proposition for a big empire, but also very counter-able due to how late it is. Insurgency is more of a pain and a distraction than a empire wrecker. Advent's Mass Transcendence that auto-levels Capital Ships to Level 4 (as well as gives them a bonus to the experience they receive in battle) is nice, but

I would just like to say that I didn't stop playing Supreme Commander because the community was fractured, but because the developers (who I loved to death) abandoned their original product altogether within 6 months of release to get you to buy the new one. All of the existing balance issues and problems are left to forever exist, and if you want them fixed, the best you can do is go out and buy an expansion. As innociv said though, there are no game-breaking overall concepts like mas

LRMs are kind of stupid strong right now considering their tech level, cost and versatility. A Sova rush can be difficult for even a decent human player to counter if they are not expecting it (it makes me scared to do a Progenitor Mothership, since a Radiance with Detonate Anti-Matter is needed to make sure it can't cause you trouble). TEC is currently the strongest faction, with their brutal early game and killer economy. And finally, you're a human and capable of thought and actual strateg

mchinsky, you don't have to necessarily rush towards Returning Armada, as JinxOfSin was talking about. Even if you just steadily progress at the same level as your opponent (who would be researching either Culture if they were Advent or Trade bonuses as TEC) as you do Phase Stabilizers and Returning Armada the result is ultimately slaughter. All a Vasari has to be is as good as their opponent and match them, and they can get to the threshold of Returning Armada and unleash the torrent

Returning Armada hasn't been nerfed, although usually it can only be used later in game because of how dangerous and expensive rushing it can be (although with allies helping and shielding it can be stupid powerful). Advent ships are fairly weak Armor wise, but they have very good shielding (and with research quite a nice bit of Mitigation to it). A well balanced Advent fleet though can be very hard to start killing units in due to the strength of the support ships and the various abil

That seems like a shaky argument, because the developers have not fixed it yet, it must be balanced? By that same train of thought, wouldn't there be no remaining technical issues (like hosting problems) just because the developers have not yet fixed them, if they're not fixed yet, they must not be an issue? There are other balance issues remaining with the game as well (LRMs, current economy heavily favoring TEC due to Credits being the most important resource, etc). I assu

It would be neat to give Siege Frigates more use, especially after the hits they've taken in price and population that make them just not terribly feasible compared to capital ships. But Capital Ships themselves have issues with being downed so fast to focus fire by relatively cheap ships, even fairly early in the game (I love the Guardian later in game, the Repel Ability really can help to save capitals from the insane focus fire they catch in most large battles against people). <b