DesConnor

If there are only two players left in the game then a huge disadvantage would indeed be a good basis for early AI resignation. However with several factions left in an FFA the AI should hang on if they have a titan, or a decent fleet, or at least one decent world. There are many maps where the AI's 'share' of the map before conflict begins is not much more than that. I have played mostly MP in the past, but I made both MP and SP maps and also I wanted to help o

My next game was a hard FFA on Kabel. The map seems quite good, it is a little cramped but then that's hardly a disadvantage with ten starting spots. Is it used at all for 5s in multiplayer? If not, why not? Anyway I randomed Advent and I got lucky, with four other Advents in the game, which also meant that the missions started appearing, maybe not thick and fast, but there all the same. This seems fairly reasonable, I hadn't developed my

It's not as if Vicious and Cruel AI would be a huge loss from the game, as they took almost no developer effort to create. I'm not sure why they don't alter the resource cheat pattern anyway, there's room to shuffle hard to 'normal plus' and make unfair the old hard and cruel the old unfair, it would seem to make much more sense. But the basic aim should be to make AIs that can play the strongest possible game on normal level anyway? If you just sup

Yeah there seem to be more new maps than I had considered. I know what artifacts can do though it is a risk to spend to hunt for them, it would just be better to work them into the game rather than remove them, its odd to release new planets with new bonuses then remove them for competitive purposes. Its never good to take elements away from a game, and removing the planet bonuses is going too far they are hardly game changing. I've had some good online battles over arti

Thanks for the updates. I was surprised by the Sins disc as there doesn't seem to have been much of an announcement for it, it just came up on AmazonUK. There's a music disc included as well, not that I have any use for it, as presumably I'll get to hear the music in-game. I had a quick go, well not that quick as I hadn't changed the speed setting! The new intro is good, but then the intros always were, and I can understand why Ironclad were pleased w

My last Sins games are from before the announcement Rebellion was only to be released in a digital format. Eighteen months later I have a brand new disc copy of Sins Rebellion with a brand new manual. That was a good decision, thanks guys. Eighteen months of threads is far too much to catch up on! So, what's been happening then? How do the Titans and corvettes influence gameplay? How is game balance between the

Wait until they begin to initiate conversations, Pygmalion: 'Are you lonely today?' or 'You seem tired.' It'll be the Sorrows of Young Werther all over again.

One problem with 1 vs 1 random maps is that they can be very imbalanced, and they also have a nasty tendency to choke atthe sun or pirate base. Even if this doesn't happen, there is very rarely any scope for manoeuvre, it becomes a push over a central key planet. With only a few planets the possibilities are limited. I just don't value the uncertainty as much as the potential cost- and as I have continually noted, having galactic space-faring factions unawa

Thanks for this Zombies. The playerAISharedDef looks especially enticing, I've had some success modding other games by playing with these sort of values, and I wasn't aware that this could be done for Sins, though I have to say that the options are very basic by comparison with other games. I dont suppose you could elaborate on what each does? Bounty- I presume this is basic pirate bounty, not applicable if pirates are off? Tactical- Static defence.. the AI

I just wondered whether it was technically feasible to mod the the game in that manner, is there a way to impose an am cost before a jump can be made? Jumps can be delayed in the current version but the jump routine cannot be prevented. As a straight mod I agree that it would be a non-starter, scouting would be too involved for another matter. You could impose the cost only on colony frigates, on the grounds that they have to have enough am to pay for colonists survival in p

The better players tend to colonise even the side roids fairly early with colony frigates. If colony frigates can be kept alive in the gravwell you can jump them earlier. I always wondered what the consequences would be for the game if it took 100AM to jump, rather than just depriving you of 100AM if you have 100AM or more. Can this be modded? I'm not sure that the second roid is an issue. Also, switching the roid and desert would m

It wasn't the inability to conjure new players out of thin air that I was trying to get at though, Star. There is another potential demotivational factor to the main ones you mentioned- low player counts, lag, minidumps- the issue of poor game balance, which alienated many experienced players. At least the balance is the best its been for a while, though it could use further work. While any online coaching efforts are always welcome, noon

I have played Storm Front for quite some time and for most of that time Vasari has been regarded as strong on the map because of the mid-neutrals. Also the map has a gas and a star at key points and this makes carriers even more effective compared to the single-star random games where they are still usually strong. Gas and star gravwells can make flak less effective against fighters which hurts the LRF based TEC fleets. The distance also makes a Sova embargo rush, the curren

Waal Lil' Bosh, how in heck did ya and ya Trophy Bass 3D buddies end up in an RTS game? Shoot, ah like to cheel as much as any other dood. Jest ah cheel at a BBQ or ova nachos and fitball, or snipin me some crittas. Ya dig? RTS games seem to me to demand some kind of activity, just the nature of the beast I guess. You ever score much on Space Invaders with your laidback approach? 'Shoot, darn blown up again, anyone got a quarter?' I mean

It just surprises me that making a graphics mod entitles you to be a modder and making a new map for the game doesn't. It seems very elitist. Particle Forge is in and Galaxy Forge is out, obviously! Serious? However perhaps the 'mappers' should have their own team. Star released a map once, I can prove it.... Also.. watching the pretty explosions in a 3 vs 1 is so much better than watching the explosions in SP or a more even 4 vs 4?? I j

Storm Front is set up so that retreating fleets dont necessarily cross large spaces, though. Half of the 'home area' is composed of roids. Also, rather than cross the star or gas you could jump to a storm and traverse that instead. Another possible tactic is to set up a starbase to cover a retreat. What the skirmish space concept does do is to allow a retreating fleet a chance when it arrives at its destination, because it gets much more of an advanta

Hmm.. but then I'm not missing the point, surely? If it was a community fun thing then why watch the replay? Also, any player would play better with 3 vs 1 odds. And Auqia obviously cheated in the first game, it was blatant. He is his own best judge on the matter. If JJ is going to play you should make him captain of the modders, that'll be just like old times for him, welcome back. I'm sure he'll thank me for the suggestion, serves him ri

Storm Front. Ah, the best of all the maps that come with the game. I was going to write up a series on all the maps included with the game, but far too few of them are good enough to bother with, and why repeat the original error? Many people have posted about wanting easier download options for maps in Rebellion, but I want something far more radical, a vastly slimmed down map pool with

The 'other game' is a 1 vs 3 though? What could possibly be interesting about it? I hadn't much to say about the pro team because they weren't really trying, as your team weren't good enough to stop mass LRF. I dont want to be too critical, its an excellent idea to have organised games, the ICO community has done itself few favours with its persistent failure to support the game and help the developers. Tyr posted a few replays and Star organis

I watched about 40 minutes, which was more than enough. First of all this was a 4s on a 5s map, which means take all the worst features of random 5s (and there are many), and add a couple more. Had the teams been balanced, the modders side would still have struggled. Draak had a poor position against Auqia, with Auqia having 2 roids to start him off and Draak's roid being on the wrong side of his home. Krdax was in a better pos

Theres not many replays posted so I try to watch them all and provide some feedback especially 1 vs 1. However I wasn't impressed with the map, Wrathful is one of the many small 1 vs 1 maps I'd delete from the game if I had the power, it doesn't seem very well thought out. Play Storm Front instead. Though the game seemed to last a long time, on twenty minutes blue could have won with a direct attack on the orange home and orange's single factory, also blue

I finished my Vicious game, it was quite tame as Adjun had the only other fleet but they were defeated by culture. Rasaeida and Lexmada fought to their last planets, somewhat pointlessly. Many strategy games are fairly dull to have to finish off, but the epic scale of Sins makes for epic dullness in an obviously won game. Perhaps another option to consider would be some form of time limit when playing against the AI, or the game is drawn between the survivors. I

I'm just about finished my game, not quite. The Lexmada superweapon has taken the other pirates out so they have failed to return to base making some areas of space uninhabitable- I counted about 220 pirates around one neutral volcanic. The AI seems to have it in for the pirates, they have a limited lifespan once a TEC faction has a superweapon, why is this? It seems peculiar that surviving AI TEC factions should eliminate them easily and noone else does, why

The AI can be very hit-and-miss when it comes to volcanics, and though they are not very valuable very early on, not colonising them often seems to become an error. If I made a map specifically for AI I might cluster ice and volcanics in the centre and use a two-roid start rather than one roid plus ice or volcanic. However that sort of approach tends to leave the AI too distant from the player. Wormholes are a feature that don't seem to be used enough, and they are

Yeah, though it is difficult to recommend unlocked at the Cruel level in 1.32 on any map, I wondered if proximity might help, I'm pleased you had some fun! Other games tend to have many AARs or detailed commentaries, which have long been absent from this site, I wanted to do something about it as well as moan about it. However any FFA takes ages to play, it would be good to have a choice among several victory conditions. The multiplayer is rarely any mo