As far as I've been able to tell, it is split between the cap ships in the system.

Hmmm, I think capital ships are already pretty balanced with the high costs and more importantly, the 40 Fleet Points they require. NOTE: There should be a tiny difference between cost & Fleet Point requirements for each capital ship based on usefulness/purpose.

For example, the Arkan 'Battlecruiser' has to support colonists and the Sova Carrier has to support a ton of strike craft. So maybe these two ships should require 45 Fleet Points instead of 40.

Anyway, Capital Ships just need to be included in the research tree and all will be fine.

Also, it seems some of you guys have been using high % capital ship fleets and have been doing extremely well against the PRESENT AI. Some of these guys are now complaining that Capital Ships are too powerful and unbalanced.

I just have to say that if you try using capital ship only fleets in multiplayer, you are going to get so SMOKED by the rest of us.

Hey Xerxes712, notice I said "PRESENT AI". The finished version AI will cut your Cap Ship only fleets to ribbons.

Hehe, no offense taken - that's what beta is all about

I'm pretty much the same. It's good to hear that in MP balanced fleets already rule, now for that AI...

I only have a few problems with beta 2, the first and foremost of which is -

1) Pirates. What the heck is up with these guys? They went from ignorable wimps to psycho rampaging badasses in one beta. I'm playing on medium and I'm having a WAY harder time dealing with the pirates then the two ais teamed up against me. They constantly hit my systems with fleets of over 40 ships (I'm guessing this is because my bounty is over 70,000? but it's still ridiculous). Though my defense network present in all of my systems can wipe them out with no ship support required(I'm a defense nut - all my systems max out tactical right after I get them, I take immense pleasure in building the nastiest defense grids possible), it's still quite ridiculous.

2) Culture. It's immensely irritating taking over a system and then having to wait 20+ minutes to colonize it because of enemy culture. I found it was far more practical to just completely wipe out an ai and get rid of all their culture, instead of taking one system at a time and then waiting FOREVER to colonize it. Please make culture spread way faster then it currently does, or at least let me colonize planets in an enemy culture zone. I loath the current system.

3) Cruisers are worthless, with the exception of the carrier cruiser and possibly the kodiak cruiser, which is totally awesome. I fought the ai 2vs1, and never lost a single capital ship the entire game. They built fleets comprised almost entirely of cruisers, while I simply massed frigates and utterly destroyed their more expensive fleets while taking minimal losses.

4) Economic research could be improved.

5) Stuff takes way too long to do. This is without a doubt the most frustrating thing about Sins. I HATE waiting on things. I constantly find myself sitting and twiddling my thumbs while waiting on culture to gather or resources to gather.

Even with my grips, im still incredibly addicted to the game, great job guys!

As I've said many, many times before - no motherships.

Yep, since shield mitigation is on a per damage basis, it wouldn't change a thing.

shieldAbsorbGrowthPerDamage 0.001

Btw. please also change the Kol's beam weapon synchronized targeting to false. It looks so much better.

SynchronizedTargeting TRUE

Hmm, are you patched to the latest version? Pirates were toned down considerably since the initial beta 2 release.

Yes, I also like the crazy autocannon fire, I'm glad he took the time to show me By all means, everyone who is interested should mod the game and show us what they think is better for Sins (graphically or balance-wise), it can be very convincing to see something tangible.

(One of many) Tech research items that needs to have it's cost changed:

Modular Architecture
Level 1 costs 600 credits (ignoring metal and crystals for a minute) and reduces the cost of mines, light factories and capitol ship factories by 8%.

Mines cost 250, 8% reduction = 230 cost. You need to build 30 mines before level 1 ever pays for itself. Light factories cost 600 for a reduction of 48 credits, 12 factories before break even and capitol factories save you 80 credits. Cost of researching needs to be cut drastically.

Repair priority: I don't know if the hoshiko's have the same problem, but I just had a repair facility spend its 20 antimatter on a nearly full up guass turret (as in during the few seconds it took me to find the one it was doing, it was fully repaired), while one with several thousand HP down went unrepaired.

Ships are fully capable until destroyed. And, ATM, there are no individual systems to take out.

That said, I do have a bit of gameplay feedback: Make trade ships interstellar, rather than intrastellar. As things stand, refinery ships will travel between the stars, but the trade ships will just stay in-system, even if there is just one planet there.

Edit:

Another useful bit of AI feedback: Sometimes it'll ping a planet I don't know, and all I get is an ? when I try to find it. Make AI's asking for help more open to intelligence packs, or something.

Edit:

You might want to look at re-evealuating unit priorities for targeting, too. Given the choice between killing the light frigates and the several hoshiko's supporting them, the hoshiko's really need to go first to keep them from repairing the light frigates.

Yet Another Edit:

Also, consider having the AI periodicly re-consider the defensive structures in its systems, especially core systems. Having it place a dozen or so gauss cannons on a phase lane that leads to an asteroid system "dead end" is... a complete and utter waste.