Cykur

Marauder Subversion would be a nice component of an assailant rush, to slow down the enemy shipyards. It could certainly help, but I don't think it is a stand alone rush strategy like the Sova rush. On a small enough map, I suppose it could work if the HW's are almost right next to each other.

I would tend to agree with the OP. The Evacuator and the Progen are extremely powerful combat ships in addition to being able to colonize. It is really hard to not choose these ships as your first capital. The Akkan is probably where it should be in overall power / utility. Also, the colony caps ARE slower, but not much. In the first couple patches, they were slower than they are now, and it was very noticeable. LRF's were also faster, so in short, it was

[quote]Everyone knows that they are useless[/quote] !Beep! Wrong! They are all pretty nasty in their own way, and far from useless. I don't usually need them to win, but then again I don't usually need support or heavy cruisers either. But in large or long term games, they are very handy. Especially the Vasari Kostura cannon.

[quote]If i have loads of money at the end I make the superweapons and then scuttle the civic labs...[/quote] If you have loads of money, why scuttle?

You DO know the 1st expansion is all about defensive options, right? I think it will be out in the next month or two.

Grab a couple worlds, make repair bays, and turtle up as best you can. If your allies are in a really secure position, they should be able to feed you to keep you alive, or at least make you a tremendously costly pain to kill. Sometimes you will still die, but the point is to hold out long enough that your allies gain the upper hand. Basically, you die, but 2 of your opponents die to your allies. If, however, your allies suck....then you are probably dead. But

Yeah, I eyeballed it and think level 2 RA is a good value. Level 1 RA not so much because you might get a few ships you didn't really want.

[quote]PS. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't have many planets; I had no forward base with which to attack you. Therefore, turtle.[/quote] Of course...turtling was a good move, considering my team mate was about to die.

I was looking at the tech specs on the new Mac Book....it still has a Firewire 800 connection.

RA rushing will not be viable after 1.05. It will take some type of economy to support RA, which will effectively give you cheaper, but not free, ships.

The answer is..... YES! If you are far away from your enemies, probably civilian...unless there are deserts and terrans near you to colonize, then military. If you are close to the enemy players, going civilian first could get you killed, which can put you in a real bind if there is nothing else to colonize with out civic techs.

[quote]The 2nd one is a good skilled match. My starting position hosed me, so I had to do some turtling. This game shows what a little bit of team work can do, and some well placed defensive structures. [/quote] Please don't tell me this is the match we just played. The other two players insulted each other for 45 minutes....embarassing. (everyone rushes to download it now) ps. Your starting position wasn't that bad.

[quote]Nope. The Disciple, Illuminator, and Fighter/Bomber Squadrons(via the Aeria) have better DPS/price than their TEC counterparts. The Kodiak beats the Destra here, though. All the aforementioned Advent vessels top their respective categories as far as DPS/fleet-cap is concerned.[/quote] I eyeballed it...sho nuff, its true. The only one I was thinking about was the LRM, and it in fact WAS the best at one time...1.03 or 1.04, don't remember. Bu

[quote]Some Mac users are pretty unhappy that the latest Macbook doesn't include a Fireware connection. The article below shows how Apple has a long history of dropping technologies that are heading into the twilight:[/quote] Hmm...didn't realize this...might be a bad move on their part. In the film industry are a lot of people with firewire connecting hardware that will not be too happy.

[quote]I really like the neutral extractors and would appreciate more diversity for neutral structures. So how about neutral tradeports, frigate factories and research stations? Located in grav wells without a colonizable planet. All these 'freelance' structures could belong to pirates initially. Players can capture them thus competing with the pirates and each other.[/quote] This is a great idea

Actually, I think you'll find that TEC does pretty darn good DPS / price. Advent does good DPS / fleet capacity cost. Tragically, I won't crunch the numbers on this.

[quote]Oh and Cykur! Enough with the modesty.......you're a shark and you know it![/quote] I..I'm not a shark. I'm just a dolphin. NOM NOM NOM

[quote] 1) Are my resources and credits directly impacted by the Markets? In other words, if I have an abundance of Credits and I just can't seem to make enough Crystal, can I jack up my Crystal sale price on the Black Market? If my resources and the markets are directly related, this ~should~ effectively price me out of the Market. I'm not selling any of the Crystal I produce so my available Crystal should increase... however any credits I would nor

[quote]The issue that would exist with it is that since Sins is P2P, and simulated on all PCs, any lag from the observation deck would also lag the players too... Shame - it would be great for people to watch battles live from the lobby[/quote] Yep, I was making the assumption an observer would take a player slot. They would have to stay in sync so hopefully they are not laggy, but without their own ships, I don't think they would add much overhead to a

The closest thing to spectating is getting in a game that doesn't have locked teams, having everyone share vision with you, and you scuttle your own planet and ships. I think that will work as a kludgy sort of work around.... Spectate would be a nice option -- maybe we will get it in a future mini-expansion. I don't think it would be too hard to implement.

One time some of my ships shot at some of their ships. They shot back at me... There were explosions. It was cool...um...What was the question again? Oh Yeah! This one time at space camp......

[quote]But all those advantages are hogwash because the Advent have got moarr squadrons!!! While 1 Vasari Fighter Squad may be capable of neutralizing 1 Advent Fighter Squad, the Advent have an extra squadron in each carrier and each hangar that can fly without being contested.[/quote] Advent pay more for that extra squadron. I don't have the exact numbers, I'm on the road, but just wanted to point out they aren't free. As far as counters, in additio

[quote]I'll go big and call out Blair or Craig. They never got time to play a few matches with us like they were hoping towards the end of the beta, so they're pretty overdue...[/quote] It WOULD be pretty awesome to set up a 5v5 vs the Ironclad developers.....of course, they would have to stop working on Entrenchment for a few hours. =)

[quote]Remember those combats in those Dominion Wars episodes. I think that comes as close as what can be compare to modern day naval combat. [/quote] The Dominion War footage was pretty awesome...but have you noticed how hard it is to kill a Star Trek ship on any regular day? It was pretty funny how fast ships were dying in those fleet battles during Dominion Wars episodes.

One time on a big 5v5 map, I was doing some late game mop up of an Advent AI from a player that had quit or disconnected. I had built some Kostura's because I was bored, and they just help with the mop up stage. Well, one Kostura doesn't do much damage...you mostly just use it for the disabling effect, but I wanted to see if it was useful to use multiple Kostura's so I fired all 3 of mine at the world and made my assault. As my main battlefleet engaged the AI fleet,