SageWon

Yeah, do exactly what Deceiver says (in almost any non Quick Start non Entrenchment game). But there a couple unique features of the the Close Encounters map that you can take advantage of as well. 1. There are always 2 neutral asteroid belts between you and your opponent. As TEC, use your colonizer to capture those free, very productive crystal & metal mines. (Build an extra colonizer if you need, (&) to help hold them.) 2. Your

If you scuttle an unupgraded Star Base there is no (0) salvage value. The zero value also shows when you hover over the scuttle button. But when you buy upgrades, then some salvage value does appear, for each of the upgrades. I tested on both Vasari & TEC star bases. No salvage value for the star base itself might have been intentional, but seems kinda harsh considering how expensive the darn things are!

[quote]Two 'dead end' planets either side had four broadcast centres each[/quote] Dead end planet spread their culture most effectively. It is all going in one direction. It isn't split in halfs, thirds, etc as it spreads to adjoining planets, depending upon the number of phase lanes there. Here's a strategy I've used on a dead end planet for crushing culture spread. Sneak an Advent Star Base onto to a dead end planet behind their Home World with the Cul

[quote]a complete lack of wanting to open every single map just to see what it looks like (although that would have been quicker), [/quote] Yeah. Here's a tip. Open the map, then "Surrender" and "Keep Playing", and you can see the whole lay-out instantly. (You don't have to wait for scouts to explore everything, and only show a partial, incomplete image).

[quote]What gives? -TS-[/quote] You can find all 12. I've done it. Here is a picture to prove it. Your best bet is the largest map. The Huge Random Multi-Star. Tip: To see if there are actually 12 or more artifacts at the very start: Save, then Surrender, but hit Keep Playing, to instantly see all artifact locations on that map, and count to see if there are enough. Then ReLoad.

[quote]30%percent salvage isnt too bad, and I believe you can upgrade higher with vasari.[/quote] Yeah, Vasari can upgrade it to 50% salvage returned. BUT... scuttling the Starbase itself DOESN'T return any money! You only receive salvage money for the upgrades. So that large original investment in the SB's is lost forever, but it is possible to salvage some of the value from upgrades. I don't know if this is a Bug? It seems intentional. A

Amish, I agree with just about everything you say. But like Valkya, also disagree about Quick Start. I think it is the best thing that happened in Entrenchment. I also have some comments on "Starbase Spam" later. Since

Azrak & Greyfox, if we can believe you, and those are the only names (smurfs) that you use, then I applaud you. I also really appreciate that you use the same message board name. Kudos & Karma to both of you too. (Sorry about the delay, the Karma button has been broken for the last few days). Smurfs aren't the problem. The problem is the unreliable records. Some other means of ranking should be added. Unfortunately, people can chea

Keep in mind though that MP is almost an entirely different game. SP is all about Econ (because the AI cheats at econ). MP is all about Fleet, and rush, rush to superior numbers, and units. That's one my biggest gripes about the balance of Multiplayer. Economic upgrades are just too trivial or insignificant! You'll get yourself overrun by superior military, before any of the econo

[quote]Keep in mind though that MP is almost an entirely different game.[/quote] I agree with Kerrek, and Jixra. SP is all about Econ (because the AI cheats at econ). MP is all about Fleet, and rush, rush to superior numbers, and units. That's one my biggest gripes about the balance of Multiplayer. Economic upgrades are just too trivial or insignificant! You'll get yourself overrun by superior military, before any of the economic research pays off.&nbsp

[quote]And all starbases you can simply bypass, that is if you don't mind your fleet being robbed of all its AM and taking 20+% damage to their hulls. Throw some well placed mines in and it becomes much more costly.[/quote] Actually, its 30% damage to hulls & sheilds, with all anti matter removed. And you forgot to mention the TEC ability that you can research: which upgrades this to -50%! IMHO, a superior ability. Imagine having starbases back to back

[quote]Is it possible ? If yes would anyone be so kind as to provide a procedure ?[/quote] Yes! Its possible. Its easy. You can even do it with a single purchased copy on 2 computers! Just chose "Multi Player" on the opening screen (after you've hooked up the 2 computers by LAN). Then create a "New Game", then have the other computer "Join Game". That's it.

[quote]having 1000 games played on a single account.[/quote] Congrats on passing 1000 games on a single account. I recognize several of those old smurfs and recall that some of them had lots of games too. I'd bet you've played over 2000 games total. Also Kudos (and Karma to anyone) for revealing some of your old smurfs. I would encourage more people to do so. I'm gonna follow Ead's lead and do the same. Some of my old & current

Pbhead, You are correct. I was mistaken. I was going by what I read, and interpreted at the Wikia site (thru the External Link, "excluding the Rapture itself"). But that site is incorrect. The Rapture can target itself. I tested it too. [quote]is this information correct? i've never heard that before[/quote] No, apparently it is not, and has several erroneous assumptions.

[quote]vengeance affects all ships and not just one. is this information correct? i've never heard that before[/quote] What it means, is that you can cover the original Rapture as well, or both Raptures can cover each other, since the Vengeance ability can't be applied to oneself.

The following is a copy of a good comprehensive roundup by Transitive which was buried in the middle of an older post that didn't get much recognition. I think it is worthwhile repeating. (Note: again, I reordered the ships to match the above order: TEC>Advent>Vasari with Battleships>Carriers>Colonizer>Utility>Seige. TEC: <s

6/28/09, Updated to version 1.17 changes. Including: TEC Marza's Missile Barrage was nerfed slightly to deal slightly less damage over a longer period of time, and made graphics more noticeable, allowing afflicted units a greated chance to interupt or run away. In Entrenchment: the Vasari Antorak Maurader's Stabilize Phase Space ability is no longer channeling. And there is no longer a 30 second delay for some abilities to kick in, like the Advent Progenito

[quote]The problem is that multi-star maps are absolutely MASSIVE. There are no mid or small-sized multi-star maps.[/quote] There are some small-sized multi-star maps! Agamemnom's Bounty, the 9th small map for 2 players, has only 10 planets and 3 stars, (or 23 'gravity wells', including one hidden system accessible thru a wormhole). In Dopplegangers, up to four players start in their own solar system, (4 stars) of 8 "planets". In Systems o

[quote]IMO you can't judge fights like that soley on fleet capacity[/quote] Yeah, not on fleet slots alone. What about costs? You should also compare cost for similar fleet capacity. But that gets further complicated by varying values for metal & crystal.

Yeah, artifacts probably shouldn't be included. As far as I can tell, all the old ones still have the same function. After playing Entrenchment almost exclusively since its release, I've recently played several vanilla Sins games. And the original vanilla Sins does play quite a bit differently! (I tried both Single & Multi - player). One of the major differences that is not readily apparent is: the AI playstyle. Apparently, vanilla Sins <stro

[quote]The problem is Vasari. The Vasari answer is odd.[/quote] The Vasari answer IMO, is their starbase... They get it early - tier 2, it moves, it shreds, and yeah it's their OP unit. And you can rush with it.

There are obvious differences between Entrenchment and the vanilla version of Sins - like Starbases, and the Defense research trees. But, with all the debate raging about "unnerfing Carriers", I wonder if people forget that Carriers weren't changed in vanilla Sins, like they were in Entrenchment. If you don't like one version, go play the other (and then tell me if the nerf made a difference?). Some unseen differences, or not so obvious, and maybe unknown differe

[quote]ICO still keeps some people from seing games that are available to play[/quote] Don't you realize, those are games for the other version! (The one you're not playing). [quote]fixed so that Enrenchment players could join or at least see regular Sins games[/quote] Whip, you keep bringing this up. Don't you realize that they will most-likely always be incompatible. There are too many major differences: trade routes, superweapons, flak/c

[quote]Don't think their gonna add quick start to vanila sins[/quote] I don't think it would be hard to add. In fact, I've noted that if you host an Entrenchment game with quickstart, and then start a vanilla game without changing settings, it will include quickstart!

I just discovered that the start of Triumvirate is also bugged, when using Quickstart. So, I suppose there others that are bugged too, (I haven't played them all lately). It too, started with twice as many ships and structures in the homeworld as there should be (when u use quickstart).