lbgsloan

New to online, not to Sins...is online play really this terrible? in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

So my friend and I decided the AI isn't quite giving us the challenge we need anymore, and ventured online. Out of three games we played it was the same crap every game. LRM spam, LRM spam, and LRM spam. Even though we won 2 out of three games due to my hard teching to Kodiaks, it was ironically LESS interesting than playing against AIs. There was no strategy from people, no tactics, only spam and right-click on cap ships every battle. Watching a replay, one guy

Reply to To smurf, or not to smurf... in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

See I don't get the whole, "I can't try new things on my main account, I might get a LOSS. The whole community will laugh at me!" Uh huh. There's no ladder or ranking system in Sins. A few loses are not going to matter. I mean, if you're 'trying new things', don't you WANT people to play normally against you? If you succeed in making them think you're a newb, they might go easy on you and your 'new strategy' will not get proper testing. There are very

Reply to Armada 2526 in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Sounds like the game was a victim of 'Holiday Release Rush'. It clearly could have used a couple more months of work to hammer out all the bugs, but the publisher said 'too bad, ship it NOW'. If Impulse is withholding on carrying it because they were not satisfied the release version meets standards, then that's another point for Impulse in my books. Patch support for small independent companies is going to be dubious at best, so I am glad to see Impulse denying them 'shelf

Reply to PC game developers mainstreaming themselves into oblivion? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

IMO, the market will eventually split entirely if it hasn't already. People say PC gaming is 'dying' but in reality it's just gone back to the way is was in the earlier days of gaming. All the simple, flashy action games will become console only. PC will mainly shift to RTS, turn based strategy, adventure and complex RPGs; games that take advantage of the greater RAM and keyboard & mouse style controls. Just like it was when PC gaming was ruled by games like X-Com,

Reply to FPS Genre: Is It Going Downhill? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Multiplayer focused FPS' are fine. Unreal Tournament 2004 is my all-time favorite FPS and it has NO single player beyond bot-matches (against admittedly decent AI). Single player doesn't get focused on for one major reason: piracy. If you focus entirely on making an epic single player experience with some multiplayer thrown it, it greatly increases the rate of piracy. I for once I can't really blame pirates. I'm not paying $50 for an 8-hour single player experien

Reply to Digital Distribution market share in PC Gaming Sins Forums

I'm not sure Steam CAN be beaten at this point unless they start beating themselves. Since they're by far the biggest, they can pull a Microsoft and blackmail companies into exlusive contracts with them for big name titles. That's a wall Impulse can never really overcome. Even if you hate using Steam and refuse to buy from them, if you want a copy of, say MW2, your only other option is go retail. Impulse still loses. And of course there's the matter of people who

Reply to Who's buying Diplomacy in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Personally, I don't have any interest in Diplomacy. However, if the bulk of the online multiplayer crowd buys it and plays it exclusively then I'll have little choice but to purchase it if I want to keep playing online. I am hoping that online players can get together and agree NOT to get it for two reasons. (1) From what I can tell, it's not going to do much to appreciably improve the online game and might worsen the game. (2) It will just further subd

Explore Planet, what's it good for? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Not a literal question, but a balance one. Explore planet. Or as my friend and I call it, the Gamble Button. Maybe you'll find an awesome artifact or hidden planet bonus. Or maybe you'll just waste a fair chunk of resources on nothing, or useless bonuses. The main problem with this is the cost. Specifically, no one can afford to do it as there are far more important things to get. The only TEC or Visari can afford to do this is late game, when the min

Reply to A Radical Suggestion: AI Personalities in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

I find that singleplayer Advent AI is badly broken in the current version, as the AI Drone Hosts fail to produce strikecraft once mines are researched... does this affect anyone else? Yeah, I've noticed this too. I tend to avoid using Advent AIs because of this. Visari too, due to their total inability to deal with starbases. TEC is really the only AI in Entrenchment that has any sort of chance to beat a human player at the moment. <

Reply to [Feature request]Limited ressource quantities available at Black Market & more price fluctuation in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

I beleive the black market did use to be uncapped, or at least had a higher cap early on in Sins. It was then tweaked to the current system. Why? TEC wins due to getting all the crystal first. You'd have to give everyone access to Trade Ports at the same time in order for something like this to work.

Preferred maps? in Multiplayer Organizer Sins Forums

So my friend and I have finally gotten bored of co-op vs the AI and have started venturing online. My question is what maps (2v2 and 3v3) do people prefer to play on? Or failing that, maps people do NOT like at all? We don't want to pick maps nobody likes when hosting games.

Reply to Regrets. Regrets. Regrets. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

1) Warhammer Online: This one will be different from all the other MMOs, really! In fairness, it was; It was great running the same scenario over and over and over while the open PvP and questing parts of the game were totally devoid of life. Last time I'm ever going to bother with a MMO. 2) Devil May Cry 4: Was on sale for $20, so I figured I'd give it a chance. Uh, the graphics were nice (PC version)...and that's about the only good thing I can say about it. <

Reply to ---Consolidated list of improvements--- in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

It would really be nice if the AI learned how to make use of superweapons by the end of the beta. It really puts them at a handicap in long games.

Reply to This is what is wrong with gaming, and buying games, today. in PC Gaming Sins Forums

One of the big problems is greed. While this sounds like a 'duh' statement, I actually wouldn't mind minor and vanity DLC if they were priced sanely. I'd pay a dollar or two for alternate costumes if they looked really cool. I'd pay $5 for an extra, well-made dungeon or two that added at least several hours of gameplay. But it isn't working this way. Instead you're seeing $10 vanity packs and $15-20 add-on levels that might add a couple hours of gameplay. M

Reply to [suggestion] spy to steal technology in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Getting a research speed bonus would be pretty cool, and easy to implement.

Reply to Entrenchment research tree balance in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Advent Beam Range boosts turrets, does it not? And anything that boosts the best frigate in the game is automatically not worthless. The others you mentioned are pretty bad too. Anti-matter upgrades are okay on huge maps when you can afford to get 6+ cap ships. It is simply not worth it in any average 3v3 or smaller as you are much better off getting hull, shield, and weapon upgrades that boost ALL your units.

Entrenchment research tree balance in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

One of those things that seems to fall through the balance discussion cracks is research costs. While Diplomany will presumably help some of the worst offerenders (anything regarding pirates or missions), there are still some serious head scratchers. Advent Military: Unfettered Phase Jumps - Why is this so expensive? Phase Jump Inhibitors aren't exactly common, and even then scouts are so cheap that losing one is hardly game breaking. This should be tier 2-3

Reply to Sins: Diplomacy to Start Next Week! in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Eager to hear news on how the pirate changes affect things. They are so beyond useless right now I just turn them off.

Reply to Star Trek Online in PC Gaming Sins Forums

What lordkosc said. MMO clients should be at most $20. $15 for the first month, $5 for the DVD and manual. Paying $50 at launch at be a late beta tester is just foolish. No MMO has EVER been solid at launch. Usually at least 3-6 months to iron out server problems, major bugs, exploits, etc.

Reply to The LF/Scout fleet, a Response in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Again, some people seem to be missing that nerfing scouts will just lead to the LRM/flak show again. Heavy Cruisers are not a counter when they more or less require a feed to get to in time. What else counters LRMs? Fighters? Get 10 flak and your opponent just wasted thousands on his now useless carriers. LFs? LRMs own them. That leaves gettings LRMs yourself. Many are tired of this, and choose to spam scouts instead. Are Advent scouts a l

Reply to NEW Patch Stat Changes Forums [NEW TOPIC: CAPITAL SHIPS!! 1/2/10] in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Noticed the Visari Marauder's speed boost ability (forget what it's called at the moment, as I've used that ship like...twice) has a nasty tooltip bug at level 1. It still says the ability screws over enemy jump time, then at level 2 is seems like you're actually getting as downgrade as that effect is seemingly lost. For scouts: Yes, no to everything else. For skirmishers: Yes, no, no, yes.

Reply to The LF/Scout fleet, a Response in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Doesn't the entire root of the problem still stem from the fact that LRF spam is easy and effective, while being hard to counter? LRFs have never been totally balanced in this game. Not in Sins 1.00, not in Entrenchment 1.41. While TEC and Visari LRFs aren't nearly as bad, Illums (and Advent in general really) have always been a major thorn as they have high damage, long range AND are quite tough. People are scout rushing because they are sick and tired of the game being all

Reply to Rated M and AO Games, Will we be seeing more as digital distribution becomes more popular? in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Eh, there already are games with heavy sex content. They just aren't distributed through Steam or similar services and never will. I'm not going to mention any sites here, but I've been using several websites that specialize in these things for years and they continue to do well. No big name publisher is EVER going

Reply to So I've got this copy of Windows 7... in Personal Computing Sins Forums

Although like early DX10, until some good games come out that use it it's not worth thinking about. The 5770 is good value for money right now, but it's probably best to hold on the 5800 series until NVIDIA comes out with something new to force prices down.

Reply to Upgrade for gaming in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Unfortunately, the GTX260 costs more than the 4870 yet is equal in performance. NVIDIA really needs to pull their heads out of their asses and cut prices soon. ATI isn't a joke anymore.