Vitamin J

Reply to Newb Trade Route Query in Strategy Sins Forums

Also, every trade port gets more valuable when the chain gets longer. No trade port is worth more than any other. So as long as you have 1 on every port on the longest route, it doesn't matter where you build any future ports (unless doing so shortens the route). To find the longest route, you can't just think of it as a longest distance thing. You have to think of it as a shortest longest distance thing. You get a bonus for the longest trade route. However, people are smart (think th

Reply to Turning Point in a Game. in Strategy Sins Forums

You might also try playing against more than one opponent. This assures that you'll have at least a couple full fleets to deal with.

Reply to The economics of expansion? in Strategy Sins Forums

I think darvin is really hitting at the heart of the matter. Expanding is only one of many ways to increase your income. In the long run, it's usually the best way (especially for resource income), but it is very detrimental in the short run, all economic investments are essentially this tradeoff between short run and long run, but expansion is just the mother of all these choices (the largest short term drain, but usually also the largest net gain). Therefore, factors like choke fortificatio

Reply to Mazara vs. Desolator in Strategy Sins Forums

Just putting a cap on the targets would nerf the ability because the damage output is very slow (3000 over almost 30 seconds I think). This would then be worse than Desolator's phase missles, which is not even an ultimate ability.

Reply to Why all the TEC hate? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="huhwhozat" reply="16" id="2103141"]From personal experience (guys in my dorm) my Hoshis get eaten alive by my friends' fleet, especially Advent. With Disciples draining antimatter, Illums DPSing and Drone Hosts bombing the crap out of me, my poor Hoshis are too busy trying to heal themselves to repair the rest of my fleet. TEC were the first civ I played and became my main civ, but spamming Hoshis does not win games. IMO spamming anything won't win unless you are

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

Your original proposal included buying level 6. Though it was later edited out, Darvin3 quoted you as saying: "2> Reduce the cost a little bit and SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the time for buying levelup for capital ship. And set the max as level 6." And eventually you edited another post to say: ..."Edit: Woot! I guess access to level 6 is not that great idea in the end, maybe level 5.5 (level 5 + some extra experience) is more suitable, but not 6.<br /

Reply to Creditless Advent in Strategy Sins Forums

I'm pretty sure I've had negative credit growth. The opps took over everything I had, I still had a crystal extractor, and one of my allies scuttled an asteroid for me to take over. I didn't have enough credits for an upgrade and my credits drained to zero. They loaned me 1000 crystal and I quickly bought the upgrade before it drained again.

Reply to Are structure killers [starfish , torp frig] powerful enough in Strategy Sins Forums

If the Vasari SB is going after your ogrovs, then the rest of your fleet can tear it up from behind. Without frontal shields, vasari SB goes down (relatively) easily.

Reply to Subtleties and Balanced Fleets in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="garv222" reply="8" id="2091575"]I thought mitigation was a simple calculation based on how badly the shields were damaged. Pretty sure I read somewhere that it didn't matter if 1000 ships or 1 ship was firing at a single ship. As long as a certain amount of damage had been dealt to the target, mitigation would rise.[/quote] That's half true. It doesn't technically matter how many ships are firing, but the more ships that are firing, the more damage it's taking,

Reply to why use starbases on chokepoints? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Agent of Kharma" reply="7" id="2096488"] If you make a "hard choke" two decent players will play forever. Two perfect players who always make perfect decisions will always play forever on a balanced game. That's with a hard choke, or without a hard choke. The choke has nothing to do with it. So, it boils down to what kind of game you want - a game with a more "open" flavor, or a game with a more "closed" flavor. I'd choose the closed, you'd probab

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

Yeah. Caps totally need layaway. I want to break out my Visa and order a world of hurt.

Reply to Capital Ships NEED major rework: here is proposal. (Updated 3/23/09 again) in Strategy Sins Forums

I don't think it's the case that Capital ships need buffing. The fact that they get targeted should tell you that they are powerful units for the supply. They are a huge investment, and should therefore be made carefully, but if done correctly they add a huge boost to your military might. Obviously the risk is that they will be destroyed before they can level, but the reward (a level 6 ability) is well worth it in many circumstances. I also do not believe there is a huge disparity bet

Reply to Trade routes in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

This seems like it will give a rather hefty advantage to the TEC, since they can put a trade port on a dead asteroid whereas other races cannot (unless they now have something similar to development mandate for the other factions in Entrenchment).

Reply to I want to demonstrate carrier counters to you [Updated 2/27] in Strategy Sins Forums

One way to micro the fighters would be to have 1/10th of your fighters hotkeyed to each number, and have them go in waves, that way you're guaranteed not to lose more than 1/10th at a time to the kol flak burst. If you've got enough and you wave against the Kol, you can probably take it out. I don't know if this would be a good idea, but it's a way to avoid being raped by the flak burst.

Reply to Sieges - Does anyone even use them online? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Cykur" reply="15" id="2071727"] Kharma, I think you are overreacting a bit. I don't know what it was like in 1.0, but even if seiges were twice as strong as they are now, that strategy would easily be countered just by massing LFs, upgrading emergency facilities, and rapid expanding. It actually was a pain to hunt down the siege frigates in the old days. Sure, you could kill them, but because it took longer, they were knocking out worlds at the sa

Reply to How to win a 2vs3 ? in Strategy Sins Forums

Well done, Doctor. [e digicons]:grin:[/e] I tend to underestimate the usefulness of beam turrets (because real people can just stay out of their range until the battle is won) but I forget how useful they are against AI, even just as a deterrant.

Reply to I want to demonstrate carrier counters to you [Updated 2/27] in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Flipkik" reply="19" id="2070196"] Quoting Darvin3, reply 18 I just said defeating players of significantly lesser skill levels is meaningless. Not in this case for if carriers where so OP as some claim it would have too totaly make up for their lower skill lvl. If it doesn't carriers aren't that OP, don't you agree? Things that are trully OP are things that make experience partialy or fully useless against players that don't

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire v1.14 Change Log in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Thanks, my update worked fine after impulse starting working properly. Also I had no maps, mods, or entrenchment, so sins update worked fine.

Reply to Effects of culture in Strategy Sins Forums

I think advent also has an ability that lets you see into hostile planets if your culture pervades it.

Reply to I want to demonstrate carrier counters to you [Updated 2/27] in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Astax" reply="11" id="2068986"]But Vitamin J that's the point thou. If the Carrier is so overpowered as claimed, they should believe they will win no matter what the other team fields, simply by virtue of having carriers.[/quote] As I said before, I don't believe many players think carrier spam = instant win. My point is that carriers make up a disproprtionate size of an "optimal" fleet.

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire v1.14 Change Log in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The update option is not available on my Impulse (I am still on 1.13). Anyone know what might be going on?

Reply to Carrier's are NOT over-powered in Strategy Sins Forums

Also, if that is your logic, then why wouldn't the AI build the carrier counter if I had 60% carriers?

Reply to Carrier's are NOT over-powered in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote who="Howdidudothat" reply="8" id="2067848"] If you want proof that carriers are somewhat OP, just look at the AI. A friend and I have run simulations with varying fleets without micro and it seems like the optimal number of carriers of a early/mid-game fleet (no HC or cielo-equivalent) is around 60%, and is almost 50% when you allow all ships ( Is it not possible that the AI built a fleet to counter yours? If you had high numbers of LRFs in your fleet, it would be fair

Reply to I want to demonstrate carrier counters to you [Updated 2/27] in Strategy Sins Forums

I think the biggest problem with the experiment is not the possible skill disparity, but that the carrier killing team knows exactly what the other team is going to do (they pretty much have to be definition, why even bother scouting!?) whereas the carrier spamming team has no idea what the other team is going to field, as there are multiple ways to counter a carrier spam.

Reply to Carrier's are NOT over-powered in Strategy Sins Forums

I don't think many people are arguing that a rush to carriers + carrier span = win, at least not in a good game. There are three main problems that are leading to a lot of confusion. 1.) Carriers are easily exploitable since they have expendable strikecraft and are fast enough to stay out of battles, making them hard for people unfamiliar with the mechanics of Sins to deal with. 2.) Carriers don't have a single-unit hard counter the way other units do (you need anti-sc + anti-carrier).