DesConnor

Ceasefires are the real issue, they are just too powerful in unlocked FFA, once either you or an AI faction has one there are so many options to reinforce it. A slightly higher initial threshold required might work better, perhaps 4.5 rather than the current 3.5. To go with this a slightly higher AI boost, as in 1.31, would be an improvement. Both the envoy and mission rewards need better balancing. However what the system also lacks at the moment are me

The download/upload section of this site works well these days. It is still disguised by the tag 'media' but I suppose anyone who has GalaxyForge knows where it is! It seems unfortunate that the original multiplayer compilation never made it to the official site. However it is possibly the wrong time for a revival, with a new version of GalaxyForge imminent it might be better to wait for that to begin a new compilation? If there are new maps just up

Just as we foresaw... I haven't really had any experience of having to play the AI this far into the game, this is the first time I've known them have substantial empires. I had no particular objectives this session, there was no real pressure so I wanted to examine what was happening in the game while I filled the Rasaeida empire with starbases. I also decided to ask Rasaieda to take the Adjun dead roids in the Adjun system, my plan was to get the two equal-sized AIs deep

This session I wanted to end the Provian War, perhaps slightly more ambitious than my last objective of taking a single dead roid, but then again the situation was more favourable. Lets consider my advantages at this stage, even in a Vicious game- -I can go up to the penultimate supply stage, making the advantage that a Vicious AI gets that much more marginal. Simply being able to replace ships quickly just drags the game out once the AI has no advantage in numbe

My objectives for this session were to explore a means of turning Lexmada against Adjun, to bolster my defences and build up to my supply limit including a sixth capital, to get the final flat rate relations boost and finally to take the Provian dead roid nearest the pirates which seems to have an artifact on it- and I will also search my own holdings once I have scrying. With the dead roid in my hands it should be easier to maintain a starbase in the plasma storm. I have rai

There would also have to be no enemy factions with a Titan, and for the Kostura move to win the enemy would have to be down to their last artifact. However it is a consideration, and I have asked for posts to highlight potential problems. The 'hold artifact' aspect is partly to allow enemy factions time to complete their own Titan, so any potential reduction of that time is significant. Of course, the Vasari can just Kostura to where the enemy Titan is being construc

I'm not sure that I agree, having had more experience with them the 1.32 changes might be good enough. Certainly with the AI boost at 2 max, that still represents quite a few completed missions. A great deal might depend on the starting positions. If you've got time, could you try this map 'Sedition', with unlocked Vicious AI? I imagine the positions are closer than is typical, which might help? Cruel AI might not work, though I&nbs

Well rest assured that it takes me longer to write than it takes to read! My attempts to play-test the game have made me more aware what a mammoth task a proper playtest would be, I can't see how it is even possible to do a proper job. Compare it to Starcraft 2 where there is much less variation, and even then it is constantly cut down, and their custom maps all tend to an ideal configuration, whereas the maps of Sins differ wildly. Also there is no FFA aspect

It's not impossible to make maps that retain the element of randomness- after all, the basic Sins random maps can be viewed and edited in GalaxyForge. My earliest maps were 5 player random FFAs, after I noticed that if you used a six player map with five players, two of the players ha

Well I played another session of this, though it has become something of a chore, the Vicious AI fills every gravwell with mines very early on and Advent aren't the best at sieging- unless the enemy fails to deploy culture. I researched the meteor upgrade and with 2 levels of upgrade my bigger starbases can hold entire AI fleets. THe AM cost is negligible. With all the fuss about phasic traps I wondered whether Advent starbases will become nerf flavour of the month som

No... thats not how it would work, you don't need an artifact as well to win. If there was the prospect of a 'Titan rush' then the Titan victory might not be viable, however an empire with 5-6 planets already has a very good chance of containing an artifact planet. Perhaps you should have to have an artifact of your own to win, however the order would then be search world then build Titan (or vice versa) and insta win only if noone else has an artifa

To be clear, what I am proposing is a short game where you win if you have built a Titan and the opposition have no Titan and own no artifact, not a game where players start with a Titan. Regicide might not be a bad way to play Sins though. It doesn't have to be hard to implement. Just have a five-ten minute period of grace from the start of the game, and after that any side without any capitals or Titans is out. It might be much easier to have the ownership of

Though it has already been indicated that the existing shorter game victory condition is to be heavily revised, I wondered if we could consider an additional victory condition based on the new Titan feature. The Titans are super-powerful starships, but by their very scale they also remind me of the Wonders from Age of Empires. If you haven't played AoE, the first civilisation to construct a Wonder would win, if wonder victories were enabled and the Wonder stood for a suffici

I've always considered that the game needed more detailed commentary to help it improve. I wouldn't be too concerned with backporting, either, just get one version of the game right. I'm extremely pleased to learn of the unlamented demise of the Diplomatic Victory, though I'd like a few hints as to what you've gone for as a replacement, as I couldn't see how any points-based system could function without not only being crap but also draggi

I'll go into more detail with my attempt at the Vicious AI on Sedition. Setup is all random types of AI 2 Advent 2 Vasari 3 TEC, I am playing Advent. Unlocked FFA, normal fleets, quick start and faster speed, pirates on. My initial objectives are not to lose early- I am wary of what happened with the Cruel AI, a 5x production enemy

The Unity's vow of vengeance has at last been fulfilled, the Vicious AI next up. Finally having to face a Cruel AI 1v1 without the advantage of surprise, for the first time since the start of the game, prompted the feeling that it wasn't very good, really. And it isn't. At the start of the game the territory fought over is much smaller, allowing the AI to seem more focussed. The late-game Cruel AI isn't good at keeping its fleet together, wh

Well it was random AI, it just became obvious that it had produced a fortifier AI right next to me. A fortifier AI isn't a bad concept per se, but the AI places structures really badly in Sins. Even just instructing the AI to build all its structures as close together as it could would be a vast improvement. Also the fortifier AI might aim to conquer all worlds within two jumps from its home before it began to fortify, and then use starbases first. T

What sort of game are you playing- what map, what level AI and how many, what options? The classic and most basic defence against pirates is to have a regen unit and three turrets close together at the attacked planet, plus a trade port if possible. You allow the pirates to attack the turrets before attacking with your fleet. A trade port will split the pirates as some of them will chase the durable and quickly replaced trade ships. It may seem odd to have trade defe

I'm not sure that I follow your logic on adjacency, could you elaborate a little? It seems to me that it would be far better to make pacts with far-off empires that are not competing with you for the same resources or expanding into the same areas. Also, encouraging the AI to maintain a compact empire rather than fighting far away from its home is greatly to be desired. Another reason is to prevent players just stealing planets everywhere they can, this is something

One of my long-term Sins regrets is that the game fails to differentiate between games played against humans and against AI online when it compiles player stats. Despite the inevitable jibes, or perhaps because of them, my own record has been compiled entirely against humans, but I wonder whether playing new players 1v1 is a good introduction? What new players seem to need most is a conception of how to play the first twenty minutes of a game, which is difficult to provi

My AI tests have moved to the latest version 1.32. I'm using my own newest custom map, Sedition, which is a multistar. Game settings are unlocked FFA, no allied victors. I turned the pirates on because I feel they are usable now, while the Diplomatic Victory condition remains off until it is replaced, I can't see any future in the current version without drastic alterations. On Unfair I played Vasari and was able to overwhelm the nearest AI, an

Populous is older than all the RTS games you mention and used the infinite resource model, no? A. This seems weird logic.. so if your opponent controls more than half the resources you must attack as soon as possible or lose? B. I am not sure what you mean by turtling 'in the classic sense.' Turtling dominates competitive Sins multiplayer, the player who can afford to build fewer ships until later wins. Multiplayer team games had two speci

I considered different starting positions for this map but rejected them. The random option left the possibility of 1 vs 3 in each system which I wasn't keen on. Even with the extra phase lanes and wormholes I would expect a 4 vs 4 with each team in a different system would just choke up, as its far too easy to starbase the asteroids that are linked by the inter-system phase lanes. If I was to make a 4 vs 4 map of a similar size with each team in their own system, then I

My first new map in a while. I wanted to create a map that was a multistar for eight players but also of a reasonable size for multiplayer games. One problem with multistars is the choke at the star, I tried to counteract that by adding phase lanes and wormholes to link the systems and also by restricting the strategic value of what could be ac

I wouldn't disagree that Spain may well be a special case, however most 4x games tend to be about 'exploration' leading to a huge cultural and scientific gap, no..? The Dutch Empire was more about plunder too.. except spices rather than gold. The United States was created at a time when bulk transportation became far swifter and more reliable than it ever had been previously. I rather doubt Spanish nobles drank French wine though, unless they happened