Stress & Co, Please don't forget the cardinal rule of internet message boards: don't feed the trolls. I know it's frustrating, but over 90% of all of the replies you get on these threads are about how great this mod is, how excellent it is compared to other mods, and similar points. People who love the mod usually post a handful of times, though there are exceptions who keep hanging around. The haters get a perverse thrill out of trolling and only c
I haven't tested it in the Rebellion release, but in the last Diplomacy release, the Klingons were very smart about attacking the Borg. Specifically, they would spam their special anti-borg ship (the Fehk'Lhr) and throw a fleet of them at the borg starbases. Unlike the Intrepid's anti-nanite virus, the Klink's anti-borg ability (borg assault team) can stack up to 16 times. The damage is much lower than the Intrepid's ability (20 DPS vice 500 DPS), but eac
[quote who="myfist0" reply="4147" id="3378644"]I always leave the assimilated ships and kill the Borg ships that cast the regen or assim abilities, if your fleet is not big enough for this, retreat. Akiras seem to get assimilated very easy, I don't use them fighting Borg fleets. I use Sovs and Galaxies with a pile of Novas and Intrepids to kill their fleet, some Miradas and Excelsiors for meat shields and regen, then replace losses with Akiras to kill starbases and structures.[
I've played a handful of games with the new Rebellion Mod. I'm rather floored at how much better the AI seems - not sure if it was the team's work on role type, stat types, or something in Rebellion, but the enemy AI is much improved for a given difficult setting compared to previous Diplomacy releases. A few thoughts: Watch out when increasing the income rates in the Game Options. It's tempting to jack them up all the way, but SOA2 ships a
Artificial gravity never fails because it would exceed the $200k/episode limit on FX [e digicons]:P[/e] And the jump to warp speed, it's only "inertia-free" because of inertial dampers (which also cancel out the effects of time compression at relativistic speeds). Gosh, I can't believe you guys don't know this... It's like none of you actually whined long enough to convince your parents to buy you
Given how small cloaking devices were depicted (between TOS episode where Kirk steals one, the DS9 episode where Qwark and Rom steal one, plus the DS9 episode where they reveal that a small cloak is about the size of a bowling ball), you would think that you would just cloak a ship and put a tiny cloak on a missile with a fission-nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, TNG and DS9 were never that imaginative. Let's be honest, if "real" physics applied, you could do way more damage l
psychoak and Stress hit the nail on the head - the producers of TNG were pressed for budget and few ships were made because every new ship design had to be created the "old way," which involved having artists sketch it on paper, mold it in (clay I think?), and then move on to making molds, molding it in plastic, wiring it up with lights, and painting it. The average cost of special effects for TNG was $200k/episode, but that wasn't much given that computerized special effects
I see Stress offered some more tips on the Dominion (and I know I've gone back and forth with psychoak about 3 times on this), but I still can only make the Doms work as a support race (and effectively then only with human partners or pliant AI). The Barkus class is a great support ship to spam and have follow your allies into combat for repair, and it acts as a focal point for enemy fire, diverting it from your high-damage allies (almost as much as a planet bomber, though I don&#
[quote who="myfist0" reply="3641" id="3310465"]The Borg are really not meant to be played. The slot and research requirements are there so you don't get stomped by Borg every single game. They are already uber and you should win easily without doing much research at all.[/quote] Granted, I wasn't on the mod team when the Borg were added, but I wouldn't say they can't or shouldn't be played; you just have to remember that they are overpowered. I typically play
[quote who="Timmaigh" reply="22" id="3149518"]Actually, MicroPhase Jump is pretty cool ability. It has potential to save the Titan, when being under heavy fire and it has very nice "synergy" with the Maw ability. [/quote] My philosophy is that in-system phase jump is a great ability - for an interceptor cruiser (as the Vasari already have). If you need to get your Titan out of a fight in a hurry, you didn't do a very good job managing the battle and don't necessarily des
If you are willing to do a little coding, you can just splice the Vasari titans right into the tech trees of the other races, allowing you to take them for a spin. Just swap out the names and research prerequisites. That said, I can see why they haven't released them yet: their Titans are still a work in progress. They don't have the impressive capabilities that the other races have (in-system phase jump? Really?). We'll see them in an official rele
I have to say, having played the Rebellion Beta for a week now, and I'm of the opinion that the SoA2 team would be well advised to sit it out unless there is some programming advantage I'm not aware of. Graphics and gameplay are effectively unchanged from Diplomacy; the game merely has the new "factions," the Titans (of course), and corvettes. Given that SoA2 already has: 5 Factions, fighter motion on the ships (which was implemented for Corvette
Titans are obviously a mixed bag in the current version. The TEC loyalist Titan (the Athena Class pictured above in the header) is nigh indestructible, as its abilities focus on survivability. Further, it can drastically reduce damage to other ships in your fleet as it levels up. None of the other Titans are nearly as dangerous, as they can't preserve your entire fleet. I smell a need for a tweak, or everyone will be TEC loyalists. Worth noting is that th
It took me a while to realize they can even do this, but I agree that it's silly for Titans (or cap ships) to be "resurrected." What's the point in blowing one up? Sure, it takes 375 seconds or whatever to build - that's 6 minutes. Sure it takes money - which anyone who is expanding late in the game has. There should be a substantial penalty for this; even a couple of levels isn't enough in my book.
[quote who="gamerlamb" reply="3460" id="3117432"]Actually I have found Dominion to be my best Anti Borg Fleet. The high end Cap ships have such high shield reserves that they can actually last long enough to do some real damage without being assimilated since assimilation requires all shields to be depleted. [/quote] That depends on the size of the fleet. For example, a respectable mid-level cube can do over 1500 DPS, and a Borg Assimilator can do over 1000. Even if you ha
Well, I think I manged to luck out finally and nail the Borg on vicious with a non-Rom race. The Federation are impossible to use due to their reliance on a few select cruisers for buffs that are quickly destroyed. The Dominion are too dependent on slow cap ships that can be assimilated. The best chance, oddly enough, is Klingons in a tiny map (like the smallest one with 7 planets). I set the Borg to researcher, then quickly sprinted to the K'Vort class.
[quote who="just_jim" reply="3454" id="3116305"] Cool! See if you notice what I did... that the Borg end up assimilating so many other ships they can't make cubes. If this is the case, it might be a problem, but also a way to beat them.[/quote] Well, it depends on what they assimilate. It seems all well and good when a bunch of puny Marquis raiders show up in your system. When four or five Ferangi cruisers (which are effectively capital ships) sh
I realize that the cloaking device would be an awesome military advantage in the Star Trek universe. To put it in a real-world perspective, it would be an even larger advantage than unrestricted submarine warfare at the start of WWI, since you can re-cloak, but WWI subs couldn't reliably lose pursuers once their location was known (and were frequently sunk as a result). This is one of the reasons it is completely implausible that the Federation would forgo cloaking technology
[quote who="just_jim" reply="3437" id="3114675"]Last night, I beat the Borg set to Vicious last night 1vs1[/quote] I'm vaguely jealous - what type of AI did you have the Borg set at? I find that as you increase the difficulty level, the AIs diverge more. A fortifier, for instance, just blows all of his cash on starbases that can be avoided by an enemy fleet and an econ player bends over backward to keep his supply low (which is silly for the Borg). I have to co
[quote who="Quiet_Man" reply="3424" id="3109056"]@G-ADM_Prawn: Very good writing. Not sure if I understand SOA2 that much, but with the Romulan fleet support bonus, their strong heavy cruiser and the D’Deridex ability to "spit out" (it looks so ) more cruisers, they can have an incredibly strong late game fleet.[/quote] It's true that a Romulan fleet mostly comprised of D'Deridex warbirds is a very, very powerful fleet that can romp right through enemy territory, but thi
I tend to agree with psychoak's reasoning for why Barkus cruisers shouldn't be able to help out unless there is hull damage. In the previous version of the mod, the Excelsior's healing ability had a similar control (I think the target had to be taking damage or something), but it seems like that one was balanced out in the current version by making the healing value more limited so that you can't just send a bunch of Excelsiors into battle and have them heal each other a
[quote who="Quiet_Man" reply="3424" id="3109056"]General question: The torpedo damage for most races looks relatively low compared to the other weapons. It seams really useless to research upgrades as a low number + X% is still a low number. Is there anything special I miss?[/quote] As psychoak noted, the torpedoes are very low DPS, but that's because they do heavy damage on an infrequent basis. What that means is that they are of relatively limited use in ship-to-ship comba
Grand Admiral Prawn's Specific Faction Impressions, Tips, and Advice: Federation: Type: Balanced fleet with many support capabilities across multiple classes
As noted in my last post, I've been too busy playing the thrilling "new daddy" game to spend any time modding or posting. That said, I finally freed up some time to check out the latest mod upgrade. I have to say, I'm quite impressed by the progress the SOA2 team has made. My first impressions are all positive: The mod’s previous version was easily the best Sins mod out there, and the recent update makes it even better. This mod can be enjo
(making my first post on these boards for months (yeah, having a kid will do that to you)): I'm not quite sure what the rebellion will bring to this particular mod. I haven't played it yet, but the big improvements that were billed by Stardock were the Titan ships and corvettes. Titans aren't really applicable to the Star Trek world (except for the Borg, which are nicely accommodated by expensive cap ships) and neither are corvettes. Perhaps it will bec
