DesConnor

Reply to Does game really need major balance?? in Strategy Sins Forums

I'm not sure what the first post is supposed to mean- are you suggesting that it is not necessary for an RTS to be balanced as long as the backstory reflects that lack of balance? Or is your meaning that the factions do not have to be directly balanced across ship and technology types? No-one wants the factions to be made similar. However some of your comments seem poorly considered. If the TEC were to be unprepared for war, then logically they should be relatively w

Reply to Space Mines and More in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The title said 'Space Mines and More.' Now, had it said 'Space Mines and only Space Mines or a Self-appointed Resident Enforcer will turn up to give you a Slap', fair enough, but it didn't. It said 'Space Mines and More.' On mines, then. Even if Annatar's theory holds, for gameplay purposes I would still want a severe limit on mine deployment, with more powerful mines. It both would improve the AI use of mines and make mines a mo

Reply to Just bought it :( in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Your strategy seems to involve always outbidding the AI on pirates, so that the strength of the pirates is a plus? I would suggest that it only works in single player FFA, and because other features in the second expansion are broken. The AI are unable to gain so much as a truce between themselves, and the player is heavily favoured in relations. You could try the same strategy against teamed AIs, to see whether it was still effective. If the pirates were

Reply to Space Mines and More in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Taking the 'more' as a cue, here are some other areas of concern, most of which seem to require little more than some tweaking of numbers: Trade ships/refinery ships: why do these rebuild so fast? They have to have phase drives, yet they rebuild far faster that constructors. Is the bounty for destroying them working- do they even have any reason for existence at all? Could we consider slowing them down to perhaps half speed to make them easier to interdict

Reply to By what meter are Advent Disciple Vessels front-line vessels!? in Strategy Sins Forums

From the original post I assume you want advice on the early game, so you mean militia heavies. Capital ships are appropriate to deal with them, though I wouldn't send a single unsupported capital ship into a system with more than one militia heavy cruiser. I wouldn't use fleets that early in a game, it isn't necessary. There are two methods of capturing planets at the start of the game. If you have a colony capital you can take out the siege frigates

Reply to Space Mines and More in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Mines were always much more of a defensive weapon than an offensive weapon, unless in exceptional circumstances like the Russo-Japanese War which was essentially a war-long blockade of one harbour. Even given years, and with the area to be mined mostly two-dimensional with a very restricted third dimension, it was difficult and expensive to do more than maintain the defence of harbour approaches, even given years. Space, genuinely three-dimensional, might be too difficul

Reply to Diplomacy v1.2 Preview in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

Thanks for the update. I've always considered it odd that the size of pirate raids was strongly dependent upon the number of planets the target owned, rather than on the size of bounty offered. There seemed to me to be enough scope within the existing system to achieve what you have suggested, without adding a further layer, as there was already a scale in place. However if you've made an improvement with the new method, then that would be beside the point. Will

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

I've still not seen the Dunov used as a hard counter to carrier capitals, even in this carrier capital dominated version of the game. I'm inclined to believe that the Dunov being a hard counter to carriers is a myth. The LF special ability is useful against capitals in theory, but again I've not seen it work in practice in any games I've been in or any of the replays I've watched. I'm not sure that it autocasts properly, and it would be a pain to micro.</

Reply to First Impressions and Questions in Demigod Demigod Forums

Thanks pacov, I'll add you. I haven't got voice chat though. Still a little lost on the higher level items and the artifacts, as most of the AI games don't get that far. With the citadel upgrades, what should I buy beyond structure health and currency? Would Pantheon need a patch or could it be changed independently?

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

I heard much the same story about carrier cruisers and LRF- that carrier cruisers could kite LRF until one of the developers tried to use LRF against carrier cruisers rather than build any LF. Carrier capitals, of course, can still kite LRF. I would have capitals pay AM for strikecraft replenishment, nothing should be free. As capitals should still have advantages you might make it 25%-33% of the rate, just not completely free. I'm not sure about the 'pun

Reply to First Impressions and Questions in Demigod Demigod Forums

Thanks Pacov and Zex, I've found the chat and armour ratings. Noone seems to use chat though. Can you send a pm from the chat screen? The [no text] bug has occurred on two separate occasions, and the multiplayer seems very lag-prone, with several drops and some critical errors. If this is the general experience then I'm not surprised that multiplayer is dwindling. Is it because of the connection method used for the game? It's disappointing to he

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

When the carrier capitals were all buffed players were excited because they hoped that it would bring more variety into the game, instead it dumbed it down. I wouldn't want to go back to the old carrier capitals, but the subsequent buffs to both the Halcyon and Skirantra were completely detrimental. The Halcyon should be reverted to the old extra strikecraft rather than extra squadrons system, and the Skirantra reverted to 1.18. Much as I dislike Spamble Bombers, the Halcyon

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

I watched the replay up until the hour mark when JB had lost his home and the game was effectively over. JB had the start I always get when I'm not roided, with the one roid and the volcanic and surrounded, but Polnar on one side and Fresh Apricot on the other didn't have much more. They got feed from SB_Rat, however, and Polnar was able to hold off Auqia while JB went down to Apricot. SB_Rat expanded quickly, gave his allies about three times the resources of the opp

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

I want Scramble Bombers fully reverted to the 1.18 version, it was useful even then, though it had to be combined with repair for Vasari to gain superiority in strikecraft. The current version is completely skill-free. Pacts might be an issue, but if they are then you have to explain why. However most of the elements of the second expansion were just rubbish, so I'm prepared for pacts to be. The TEC envoy cruiser was as bad as Scramble Bombers at

Reply to First Impressions and Questions in Demigod Demigod Forums

Never post to game forums and you won't have any problems. Yet, I chose in my blindness to ignore this timeless sage advice and am afflicted with the [no text] map load issue, on a map which had worked previously. Oh the joy of reinstallation. So.. how does armour +500 translate into damage reduction % then? It is just auto and tower? Not creep? Not skills? Also, how can you pm in-game without being in a game lobby? The all-chat m

First Impressions and Questions in Demigod Demigod Forums

After the praise I gave Demigod as being a far more nearly finished game than Sins, it occurred to me that I hadn't tried out online yet, so I decided to give it a blitz when I had some spare time over the holidays. The online community seems about the same size, though it was much quicker to get games with Demigod, perhaps because the Sins community is obsessed with 5v5 at the expense of other matchups, while the biggest Demigod game I had was 3v3. Though I avoided the 'no noob

Reply to Counters to vasari uberness. in Strategy Sins Forums

Carrier capitals are too powerful and Skirantras are the worst offenders. Phase missiles are absurdly effective compared to other upgrades and come far too early in the technology tree. Plus they then fit onto fighters and flak as well- ever had a capital taken down by Vasari fighters? When Vasari have the most durable strikecraft and in the ridiculous numbers produced by Skirantras, they combine fleets with their starbases far too effectively.

Reply to Pirate Dilemma in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

If you examine the last Stardock posts in this thread https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/381255 then it becomes clear that the second expansion was aimed primarily at the singleplayer game. However I'd still like your reasons for considering it perfect for multiplayer? If you've played much multiplayer the diplomatic victory is almost always off, as it is extremely arbitrary in the multipla

Reply to 2011 PC Gaming is dead in PC Gaming Sins Forums

No Storm of War, the IL-2 Sturmovik follow-up? IL-2 is hardly a small franchise, isn't it due next year? Also, this is a Stardock board, any Stardock games in preparation for 2011? 2010 seems to have been a fairly awful year for Stardock. I was okay for the second Sins expansion to be rushed out as I was confident that it would be given the multiple patches it desperately required, but that just never happened. Elemental even without the issues i

Reply to It’s not the game’s problem, it’s a player problem in PC Gaming Sins Forums

Except that when StarCraft is played professionally, in the tournaments, it is played like that , with a match taking place over a number of sets , so that defeat in the first one isn't conclusive, and you get the chance to start again without any hindrance to your ability to fight back. Perhaps there should be a special league for players willing to play 3-set matches? Other than that, even if you have to play a few short poor matches to get one

Reply to Pirate Dilemma in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

And with the unfair AI nothing changes. I can get 170 points towards the 525 required without the AI having scored any points at all. None of the AI have been able to establish a relationship with any other; none have any diplomatic research points or envoys. It is very easy for a player to win an FFA game where they are the only active diplomatic element- that is, not only in terms of 'victory points' but in terms of gaining a truce with another faction, in order to co

Reply to what's happening in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

This is such an improbable thread that I have come to the conclusion that it must be some form of deadpan humour. Dragon Age Origins is an RTS? 'The mathematical algorithms used seem to ensure a matching or equalisation process occurs with a variable'? There is an extent to which by helping one new player we can help all new players who read the thread, but this thread is absurd, and isn't even titled appropriately, which is probably just as well. The concept u

Reply to Pirate Dilemma in Sins Diplomacy Sins Forums

I've tried this again with the Hard AI rather than the normal AI. The only significant difference seems to be that I lost three points with all of the AI on the basis of 'fleet strength' at the beginning, but after a while this became 0 or some insignificant figure like -0.02 or -0.08, which I was able to maintain with my free capital ship and by building cobalts up to the maximum of the second level of supply. Again the AI hate each other from the start, and are not able t

Reply to what's happening in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

What RTS games have you played before this? While there may be RTS games that send out forces in timed waves in the manner you have indicated, this game is not one of them. Also, you need to take at least half the map to be rolling in resources compared to the AI, not a couple of asteroids and a volcanic. When we say expand quickly, we mean defeat the militia and move straight on to the next planet or asteroid. Build at least 30 Javelis LRF before the enemy attacks i

Reply to what's happening in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

What you have done there is to cripple your own economy by spending your early income on defensive structures that won't be used for a long time, as well as leave your fleet dawdling at your home planet. There are no RTS games that I am aware of where you could win like that. You need to grab more resources earlier. No player of any experience would do anything but build all the home metal and crystal extractors first, if they began on normal start. Th