MasterDave

I played my first 1.03 single player game yesterday, trying out a large one system map with 7 hard AI economists. At first when I read the change log, I thought that the diplomacy changes seemed like good ideas (longer mission times, smaller penalties for failure) . However, in practice, I think they may have gone a little too far in making diplomacy easier to succeed. With the extra time for each mission, I was very easily able to get peace treaties w

This one needs a nerf badly. Otherwise everyone in MP is going to be a Vasari soon, boooring! (Sorry Astax) Perhaps only two or three gates should be able to summon at a given time, the rest being locked on disabled unless one of the active gates is disabled. That would slow the flow of free ships to a reasonable rate, while still being worth learning all of the techs. Right now the combination of a horde of free ships combined with the ability to use the phase gates to assemble th

I think the Revelation BC level 6 ability has to be one of the coolest in the game. It takes down enemy planets very quickly and with great style (screaming skulls that give my wife the heebie-jeebies). The Mezmerize ability on the ship can also be extremely useful, although it can also cause trouble if not carefully monitored.

Dark fleet = Vasari victory button. Maybe a 1v1 is a little too close quarters for that to work, but in larger games, if you give a Vasari any breathing room, they will dominate the mid to late game with their ever recharging horde of free ships. This seriously needs a nerf in 1.03 Only people who regularly play Vasari might disagree.

The diplomacy in EUIII is a lot less predictable and more random seeming than in Sins. In fact the Sins diplomacy model, while certainly new and different from other games may be a bit too predictable. You know that you are always going to get a cease fire at 50% happiness, it will be broken if they fall to 25%, and you can get a peace treaty at 90%. I do agree that the all-or-nothing aspect of the missions can be a bit frustrating at times. Especially the "destroy tactical stru

My wife says that the scouts sound like Harvey Wienstein and the support ships are voiced by Emperor Palpatine. All of the Vasari voices get old after an hour or two in a game...

I do think that all the free ships, added to the ability to move them to any planet in your empire with a phase gate in one jump is a huge advantage and somewhat unbalancing. If a Vasari player is left alone long enough (and it really does not take that long to get the tech if you beeline for it and ignore your military techs until RA is finished). They can really dominate a multiplayer game with their huge fleets. I am about to win a game with 8 hard AI's and it was really easy once the da

I have played a lot of Supreme commander, COH, homeworld2,Rise of Nations, and many other RTS's online and they do usually play at a faster pace, but Sins is a different kind of game targeting the 4X audience, that may be smaller but enjoyed a more strategic/economic experience to the clickfest. I also play a lot of civ4 and other Turn based games online and those can take three or four hours or longer to reach resolution as well. I think that Sins is a great online experience, even

I personally prefer the unpredictability of the FFA over the typical team game where three or four clan guys who know each other and have experience as a team beat up on four random noobs. I have seen some pretty funny things happen in my couple of weeks playing. I was the .25 in the 6 vs 1.25 alliance Fearchicken was talking about. He was right that I was a newb at the time (I think it was my second or third online game), but what he did not mention that I already had a taste of a

I liked all three of the Homeworld games, although the only one I played multiplayer was HW2 (I played a LOT of HW 2 multiplayer off and on for about 18 months!). I thought HW1 had the best single player story (and music) by far, but the story in Cataclysm wasn't bad either. Although I probably liked the gameplay of HW2 the best of the three, I thought the story was pretty cookie-cutter Sci fi fare... Nexus the Jupiter Incident was a very cool game also, but I thought the gamep

[quote]I must admit that this game is far too linear. You either slowly win, or slowly lose; that is what makes this a fairly boring game.In RTS' like Company of Heroes you could be losing the first half of the game, then come back and destroy the enemy in the second half. There isn't much of that in this game, so why should players stay in the game another 2 hours if they are just going to get "slowly" destroyed?[/quote] I agree for a 1v1 game, that it is fairly liner but in a gam

The best way to learn how to really play a game is to lose a few and observe how you are getting beat, maybe even ask questions (ex: so do 12 assailaints always kill 2 cap ships? etc). I do not mind losing, although I do detest trash talk, or accusation of cheating by people who are losing. I have found that most of the Sins people online have been reasonable mature, I have not as much trash talk (or accusations of being "gay") as in games with wider audiences, such as Company of He

If you voluntarily exit a game (by quitting rather than surrendering) you should get a loss on your record. That is really the only way the devs can encourage people to try to salvage a losing situation. I suppose people could disconnect by rebooting instead, but that at least costs them some time rebooting (they are not in another game 10 seconds later like now). My problem is that the muliplayer games have been dumping (maybe its the host dumping, not sure when it says everyone i

I think Sins is a great game, and playing against humans is a great experience. However, I am experiencing some trouble staying connected during long games and have disconnected after about 2-3 hours in both of the last epic games. This is very irritating because I always seem to disconnect just as I am closing on an enemy homeworld after winning many hard fought battles. I have played many, many games multiplayer and rarely disconnect. Hopefully ICO will take seriously posts

This means that I am the one that disconnected, right? Or is it the host that disconnected when you get this message? This has happened now in two out of the three epic games with eight players I have been in after about two hours of playing (maybe more like three hours the first time). Both games I was rolling over my enemies, so this is a bit frustrating. I have been playing multiplayer games that run all day for a long time (mmorpg's, civ 4, supreme com

I am a dork. I have played Kohan II, Moo1,2 and 3 and Homeworld one and Two. From what I have seen from Sins so far, is that it really is not that much like homeworld tactically because it has been reduced to two dimensions. Kohan II was a great game, but never really had enough players to form a multiplayer community. Kohan II is quite different in that it is more about formations (battlefield tactics) and leaders getting experience, where Sins is more about building an e

[quote] Why is it unfair? X3 is a 4x game as well...set in space. With much, much more going on than in Sins. Much older game as well. Even Sword of the Stars had more details in the models. So...I dont think its unfair to compare...especialy when I am bringing these up as some things devs can get some feedback from. Not saying Sins should LOOK like another game, just some ideas... Interesting, everywhere I go, x3 reunion is labeled

I think its unfair to compare this game with x3 Reunion , in the same way is unfair to compare a soldier in Unreal to a single soldier in command and conquer. FPS > RTS in candy eveytime, simply because RTS have other complexities. [/quote] Not neccessarily, I can think of several RTS's that have superior graphics to what we are seeing in Sins, namely Homeworld 2 (much older game, superior graphics, especially the way fighters move around, and the look and feel of the io