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Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog

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Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog

from Sins Forums

The v1.2 BETA for Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy players is now available!  This update makes some changes to the game's engine and other core systems, so we're opting to release it as a beta before making it final.

IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH USING UN-FINISHED UPDATES, DO NOT INSTALL THE BETA.

Since this is a beta, it may be buggy and do unforeseen things. If you're not able/willing to help test this out and risk strange things happening, please wait until we release the final version. ;)

WARNING: THE BETA WILL INVALIDATE YOUR EXISTING SAVE GAMES!

 

BETA 4 HOTFIX CHANGE LOG

  • Novalith should no longer cause infinite stacking debuffs on targets.
  • Research screens should now properly show fleet supply numbers based on game options.
  • Fixed a bug where autocast would not work for many abilities.
  • Fixed a data error where the Destra Cruiser had the wrong fleet cost.

 

 

 

BETA 4 CHANGE LOG

[ GAMEPLAY ]

  • Advent
    • Destra Crusader heavy cruiser now costs the correct number of fleet points.
    • Communal Labor will now passively decrease module build time with a buff that stacks on the orbit body with every constructor ship. (Buff will disappear if the constructor ship(s) are destroyed.)
  • Pirates
    • Pirate raid level escalation has been slowed down slightly for better overall progression.
  • Diplomacy
    • AI players will now place bounty on one another based on many factors including diplomatic relationship level, overall threat level and simply avoiding the raid in general (like most human players). This makes Diplomacy much more dynamic in general as you can really play factions off one another.
    • Missions that target or are issued by players who are defeated during the mission timer are now automatically cleared with no penalty for non-completion to the other player.
  • General
    • Detect Mines range for all scouts has been increased to 6,000 from 5,000. This should make it easier to clear out mine fields, assuming your ship doesn't jump in right on top of one.
    • Added a new AIUseTargetCondition for AntimatterExceedsAmount. This is being used on ships that steal antimatter to prevent them from autocasting on targets that are out of antimatter. If there are other abilities that could use better or new AIUseTargetConditions, let us know
    • Some fixes to make AIUseTargetConditions more effective based on feedback.
    • More mesh file fixes based on community feedback (thanks to all). 
    • Various other minor tweaks.

 

We expect this to be the last beta update for v1.2 of Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy. Please let us know of any major issues asap. Beta 4 will be released later today (Thursday - 3/10)

 

 

 

BETA 3 CHANGE LOG

[ GAMEPLAY ]

  • TEC
    • Strikecraft destroyed by the Dunov's Magnetize ability now give XP as intended.
  • Vasari
    • Jarrasul capital ship's colonize ability adjusted to avoid crash issue. Thanks to ZombieRus5 on this.
    • Disruptor Nanites ability now stacks correctly off missile defense platforms. 
  • Advent
    • Defense Vessel fleet cost reduced back to 4 points from 5, as intended. Thanks to in-the-sun on this.
  • Pirates
    • After the fifth pirate raid, pirates will be able to purchase two upgrade levels per raid if they have sufficient credits. (This is a work in progress to adjust scaling of Pirate strength.)
    • Pirate planet's base population has been boosted slightly (for increased income).
    • Fixed a memory access error in the Pirate mission system.
  • General
    • Tips that weren't being properly loaded should now appear.
    • Various fixes for old crash bugs (thanks to the community on these).
    • Various fixes to mesh files (thanks to the community on these).

 

 

 

BETA 2 CHANGE LOG

[ GAMEPLAY ]

  • TEC
    • The Marza's Incendiary Shells ability will now correctly refresh itself with each shot and stack up to 3 times, as intended.
  • Vasari
    • Orkulus Phase Gate upgrade will now work at stars.
    • The construction boost passive of the Jarrasul colony capital ship now spawns extra construction ships over time, as opposed to all at once, to try and avoid crashes in the physics system.
  • General
    • Starbases with trade upgrades will now work properly at stars.
    • Resolved a case where ships set to auto-explore would attempt to travel to other stars without phase jumping. We'll need more info on this one if there are other instances where players see this happen.
  • Pirates
    • Fixed mission timer bug where the timer wasn't properly syncing up to reality (i.e., the timer said a player couldn't place another mission when they could.)
    • Pirates will now notify the player if they successfully complete a mission.
    • Fixed a problem with pirate raid defs that could cause odd behavior for high level raids.
  • Misc
    • Fixed some misspellings in various data files.

BETA 1 CHANGE LOG

[ Engine ]

  • The game engine has been updated in order to free up more texture memory. Players should generally use no more than 1.3 GB of RAM on Huge maps with all races represented now. We're very interested to see what everyone's experiences are with this, so please post back and let us know. You can find the total by alt-tabbing out of the game and hitting Ctrl+Shift+Escape, select the Processes tab and look for Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy.exe.

[ Gameplay ]

  • Pirates
    • The Pirates system has been completely overhauled with this update. Rather than relying on random upgrades which could result in a huge power curve, the Pirates will now scale gradually in abilities, fleet size and power as a game progresses.
    • The size of the Pirate fleet is now based off of the current raid level (Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, Highest) and there are now preset fleet compositions for each.
    • Pirates now take into consideration the total amount of bounty on offer before sending out their fleets (at High and Highest raid levels). If there isn't enough booty on the table, the Pirates will send out a smaller fleet. This is to prevent 250 credit cheese scenarios that could spawn a massive Pirate incursion.
    • Pirates have the opportunity to purchase upgrades after every launched raid. There are 20 levels of upgrades available to them which include bonuses to Armor, HP, Weapon Strength, Weapon Range; plus special abilities including Intercept, Quick Jump Calculation, Timed Explosives, Heavy Fallout, Embargo Planet and Sabotage Reactor. Basically if you let the Pirates live in a really long game, they will become very nasty indeed!
    • The Pirate mission system via diplomacy has been updated. Players must now pay a pre-set credit amount to generate a raid (same fleet composition as for bounty-spawned raids). This eliminates the guesswork of paying too much/little and not quite knowing what you'll get (and makes issuing raids generally quicker).
    • The Pirate base's population upgrade will now properly increase population growth rate.
  • TEC Balance
    • Kol:
      • Gauss Blast: Reduced AM cost from 75 to 50/55/60; increased damage from 325/650/975 to 400/725/1050.
      • Flak Burst: Range changed from 2400/3000/3600 to 3000/3300/3600.
      • Finest Hour: AM regen reduced from 5 to 3; HP regen increased from 10 to 15.
    • Dunov:
      • EMP: Range increased from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500; AM cost changed from 100/90/80 to 90/90/90; cooldown reduced from 50/45/40 to 40/35/30.
      • Magnetize: Max affected strikecraft increased from 8/12/16 to 12/20/28.
    • Marza:
      • Incendiary Shells: Stacking limit increased from 1 to 3.
      • Missile Barrage: Range reduced from 10,000 to 8,000.
    • Hoshiko:
      • Demolition Bots: Changed needsToFaceTarget TRUE to FALSE.
    • Novalith Cannon:
      • Cannon shots now cause a planet to suffer 100% reduced trade income. This effect will no longer stack.
  • Advent Balance
    • Radiance:
      • Animosity: Increased max targets from 8/16/32 to 12/24/36; effect now channels every second over 20 seconds instead of being an instant action so new targets entering the AoE are hit; auto-cast will only activate if 3 or more enemy ships are in range.
      • Absorptive Armor: Increased armor bonus from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6.
    • Rapture:
      • Vertigo: Increased range from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500.
    • Revelation:
      • Guidance: Now a triggered, caster-based area of effect that affects friendly capital ships, frigates and structures. AM cost is now 90/100/110; range is 8000/8000/8000, cooldown is 50/50/50; buff applied grants 25%/25%/25% boost to ability cooldown rate, duration 20/30/40.
      • Clairvoyance: Duration increased from 90/120/150 to 90/150/210.
    • Communal Labor: Allows constructor ships to buff the rate of whatever a structure does (i.e., ship building) by flying within range of it. (NOTE: Sorry, this didn't make it into BETA 1.)
  • Vasari Balance
    • Jarrasul:
      • Colonize: Now grants additional constructor frigates instead of a structure build rate bonus. Gives 1/2/3 constructor frigates for 360/480/600 seconds.
    • Skirantra:
      • Scramble Bombers: Reduced expiry time from 120 to 75; reduced cooldown time from 35 to 30.
    • Antorak:
      • Distort Gravity: Reduced cooldown from 45 to 40.
    • Vulkoras:
      • Phase Missile Swarm: Increased range from 5000 to 6500; increased max targets from 3/5/7 to 4/8/12.
      • Assault Specialization: Increased bonus damage from 60/120/180 to 90/180/270.
    • Stilakus Subverter:
      • Shield Disruption: Reduced Phase Missile Block reduction from 25% to 20%; reduced Shield Mitigation Reduction from 10% to 8%.
      • Distortion Field: Reduced radius from 2000 to 1600.
    • Kostura Cannon:
      • Will no longer damage and stun enemy ships.
    • Orkulus:
      • Debris Vortex will now only activate when debris is in range of the effect.
      • Debris Vortex's second level will now unlock correctly.
    • Raider Xenophobia:  Tech moved to level 5; reduced from 2 upgrade levels to 1; will now reduce the Pirate fleet size sent against the player by 1 level (i.e., an Elevated level fleet size becomes a Guarded level fleet).
    • Pinpoint Bombardment: Increased range bonus from 0.1333 per level to 0.6667 per level.
  • Diplomacy System
    • The Aggressiveness Rating for all players has been changed to be a random value between -1.5 to +2 (from -2 to +2).
    • The calculation for Military Presence has been updated to look at the ratio of the players' used fleet points instead of just overall fleet points. This should make the overall diplomatic rating more balanced overall, especially at higher difficulty levels. We'll be looking for feedback on this.
    • Added a new Trade Bonus modifier for diplomatic relations. Players who have a Trade Alliance will slowly gain a positive diplomatic relations bonus with one another as trade ships reach foreign ports up to a maximum of +2. If the Trade Alliance is ended, this bonus will decrease gradually back to 0.

[ AI ]

  • The AI will no longer max out all of its gravity wells with mines. Mine building is now based on AI type. This should help reduce memory use and improve performance.
  • Fixed bug where the AI would form a Pact, break it, and then immediately reform it if the players' relationship value dropped to a certain level repeatedly.
  • The AI will no longer send Envoys to non-aligned gravity wells where the player controls a resource (i.e., if you controlled a neutral extractor at an asteroid belt).
  • AI players will no longer "spam" the player with mission requests after a mission has been rejected. Each rejection will cause the AI to wait four minutes before offering another mission (culmulative up to 10 times for each consecutive rejection).

[ Interface ]

  • The far planet icons that show up when far stars are visible are now turned off by default. Hovering your mouse over the far star icon will now show the far planet icons (if visible). Alternatively, holding down ALT will now show all visible far planet icons.

[ Misc. ]

  • Fixed a couple errors in the entity files that would cause the game to crash.
  • Ability PhaseOutHull will now play the proper sound effect.
  • Adjusted max dot for graphics to 0.95 from 1. This should largely eliminate the strange white lines that would appear for some players on the edges of ships/structures. Special thanks to Aractain and Kitkun for this info!
  • Missions can now be rejected so long as there's at least half the original mission time remaining.

 

 

To update to the BETA, run the Impulse client and once you're logged in, click the blue button in the upper-left corner.  Check "Show pre-release versions" and that will display the beta update. Update the game via the Update or My Games tab and that's it.

How to provide feedback

For gameplay related feedback, please post it in a new thread on these forums. One issue per thread, please - that'll make it easier to keep track of things.

If you encounter a crash or a multiplayer desync we will need you to send in some information to [email protected].

For crashes: Send us your PC's dxdiag report, the Sins mini-dump file, and your latest save game. Please also provide us with any information or details you can about what was going on before the game crashed and if the issue is reproducible.

For desyncs: We will need the last saves for all the players involved and as detailed a description of what was going on at the time the desync occured. Also, please indicate if the desync is reproducible from your last save point.

1,625,482 views 716 replies
Reply #426 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darksxx, reply 423
I’m putting in a request here too, while we are at fixing the game, how about making the AI less prone too running away from fights and make them more aggressive at holding their ground.  Especially when it comes to being closer to their home worlds.  This really aggravates me when they cower out and run from fights.  Also it would be nice if the AI build more Capitalships in their fleets.  I’m so tired of only seeing 3 cap ships per fleet with the AI.  this is so BS.  Open up the AI a bit more and have them build those Capships.

I have to agree with the rest that this is usually the opposite problem for the AI. If you want to guarantee the destruction of an enemy fleet use phase jump inhibitors. If they are running while you are attacking one of their planets then your fleet is clearly better and you are still going to give a big blow to their income.

3 Capital ships is a very reasonable number for most fleets. I wouldn't complain about seeing that few unless the enemy fleet is above 1000 fleet supply.

Reply #427 from Sins Forums Top

a recent post on AI wishes. I think the point he was trying to make wasnt "the AI should commit suicide on my uber-fleet", but "the AI should realize that it's down to 1 or 2 planets and if it insists on going out in a blaze of glory, it shouldn't be running". The other argument is that the AI should surrender well before this point, when it has obviously lost already.

personally, I dont understand why the game doesnt allow modders to make a few simple scripts to tack onto the AI thinking process. Like maybe I think a better AI in the above situation would scuttle most of his structures on his 2nd to last planet, so that on his homeworld he can churn out a ton of light frigates/scouts for the final battle. so, i make a script with all that called AIendlosingstrat. when the AI gets to that scenario, it looks through the available scripts and chooses one at random (or could be seeded based off other factors in the other post).

But don't hold your breath.

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #428 from Sins Forums Top

Any updates on when the next version will come out? Will the next release be the final version?

Reply #429 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Stevo1982, reply 428
Any updates on when the next version will come out? Will the next release be the final version?
Not this week. And the next one probably wont be the last, but who knows?

Reply #430 from Sins Forums Top

I have a question for everyone. Is it possible to create a ship that can change its mesh color according to the background?

For example, a concept/prototype ship that is a stealth/reconnaissance ship that enters an asteroid field/plasma storm area and cannot be seen because the hull or shield is mimicing the background. The shield or hull (most likely the shield) will prevent the ship from being detected by most sensors unless they are researched and/or upgraded.

I think its possible but I am not sure. I think this would be a nice idea to add to gameplay if possible.

Reply #431 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Maxxedmk, reply 430
I have a question for everyone. Is it possible to create a ship that can change its mesh color according to the background?

For example, a concept/prototype ship that is a stealth/reconnaissance ship that enters an asteroid field/plasma storm area and cannot be seen because the hull or shield is mimicing the background. The shield or hull (most likely the shield) will prevent the ship from being detected by most sensors unless they are researched and/or upgraded.

I think its possible but I am not sure. I think this would be a nice idea to add to gameplay if possible.

Sadly stealth of any kind isn't possible not because of the mesh but because of the unit icons. The best you can do is not give the ship a mesh or an icon, which prevents the player from seeing them, but units will still auto target them which defeats the point.

Reply #432 from Sins Forums Top

Well, if the situation were setup the same as TEC, Advent would still be weak because Advent hp is mostly in shields (obviously not as bad; some trial and error would be need to see if its balanced), which get bypassed. However, we were discussing Subjugators possibly granting a phase missile block or something along these lines where we kill 2 birds with 1 kol.

Im not to worried about a new tec coming in to play with the devs.I think that if the sub gets fixed we will be lucky but giving advent pm block tec could completely even out all 3 races for vasari.Vasari should be a SOFT counter to advent , advent to tec ,and tec to vasari.With the nerf to subverters and the buff to hoshis this should be a bit more in line.Vasari vs advent was not even a contest.Would like to see a buff to celio main ability,overseers 2nd ability,and buff to subjugators 2nd.Possibly bring it up to 30 hp/sec.Fix fighters and game will be much better state.I dont really want all 3 races to be equal vs each other.I like the variation about this game.

Oh one more thing.Make scouts an extra supply count and longer build times.

Reply #433 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting MindsEye, reply 432
Vasari should be a SOFT counter to advent , advent to tec ,and tec to vasari.With the nerf to subverters and the buff to hoshis this should be a bit more in line.Vasari vs advent was not even a contest.

I believe I said something along these lines earlier in this thread. however, I feel that an advantage of 1 race over another should be able to be countered/nullified with the right research. I am most for phase missiles being affected by mitigation because then they have an advantage, but basic game mechanics have it on a leash. Also, Advent have lots of mitigation research in the civil tree that will be the way to even the score vs vasari. The trouble is that vs vasari, an advent player has to then grab that research in addition to fielding standard counters. So, I'd say that the vasari should need to do some form of research to to counter something of the Advent player. That might be culture, seeing as thats what Advent is now fielding to counter. However, culture isn't that formidable a weapon, imho.

Quoting MindsEye, reply 432
Would like to see a buff to celio main ability,overseers 2nd ability,and buff to subjugators 2nd.Possibly bring it up to 30 hp/sec.Fix fighters and game will be much better state.I dont really want all 3 races to be equal vs each other.I like the variation about this game.

yes to subjugators. would be great if they worked. Might get better autocasting for all ships in the process; depends how they fix it

Reply #434 from Sins Forums Top

Anyone else have massive issues getting Auto colonize to work?  It seems to work for a while with the Jarrasul Evacuater but after a few times it never uses it again.  I let it sit for a couple of hours at a planet that was colonizable and it never did it even though set to do so.

Reply #435 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Bazkur, reply 434
Anyone else have massive issues getting Auto colonize to work?  It seems to work for a while with the Jarrasul Evacuater but after a few times it never uses it again.  I let it sit for a couple of hours at a planet that was colonizable and it never did it even though set to do so.

Are you sure you researched ice/volcanic colonization and that enemy culture wasn't too strong?

Reply #436 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 435



Quoting Bazkur,
reply 434
Anyone else have massive issues getting Auto colonize to work?  It seems to work for a while with the Jarrasul Evacuater but after a few times it never uses it again.  I let it sit for a couple of hours at a planet that was colonizable and it never did it even though set to do so.


Are you sure you researched ice/volcanic colonization and that enemy culture wasn't too strong?

 

Positive. I've I can colonize manually without an issue.  They just don't auto colonize.  Not seen a particular pattern to it, sometime it works at the beginning of the game and quits later other times it doesn't work from the start.

Reply #437 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Bazkur, reply 434
Anyone else have massive issues getting Auto colonize to work?  It seems to work for a while with the Jarrasul Evacuater but after a few times it never uses it again.  I let it sit for a couple of hours at a planet that was colonizable and it never did it even though set to do so.

You already have a thread about this. Actually, in the original, you said it was just TEC. Now you're saying it's all of them?

I'm not sure where (I really did look for an obscene amount of time), but I did write somewhere that the above problem might be why the AI feels worse in the new beta (although, now that I think about it, its been better. maybe it was just a problem in beta 1?). I have had games where the AI wiped out a planet and left a colony ship there and nothing else, but (my theory) it can't colonize because of this auto-colonize bug. So, the AI doesn't rapidly expand and seems much worse.

Reply #438 from Sins Forums Top

Reading all these threads, it sounds like TEC is going to be the race to beat.  The funny thing is, is that they already were the best race in the last version of the game.  I say that, but I would like all of you to bear in mind that I was strictly a Vasari player for a VERY long time.

Reply #439 from Sins Forums Top

TEC has some great early game combos, however, late game both of the other races should be able to roll over a TEC fleet with their special abilities.

Reply #440 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting rowanlad, reply 439
TEC has some great early game combos, however, late game both of the other races should be able to roll over a TEC fleet with their special abilities.

Incorrect.

All factions in a game should be equally viable in all stages of a game (early, mid, and late). It is lunacy to make a game where one faction must win by a certain stage because the other factions will beat them at a later (or earlier) stage. That is piss-poor game balancing, right there. Prime example: Horde sucked before and after tier 2 in Warcraft 3 for a very long time, as a result, you had to win in tier 2, and the game was crappy for Horde players.

Also... I keep seeing people saying that the Advent are obliterated almost dismissively by the Vasari in the late game. I will repeat that this has not been my experience. Each post like this I have seen attributes perfect game-play and ability usage to the Vasari, but is very discreet on spilling the game play of the Advent forces - let alone the balance of them. I think there is a lot of bias here, and that most of it is based on paper comparisons or on personal failings in game play.

I call again to not overreact with "balances". Certain forces are obviously too strong, and some obviously too weak. Slight tweaks to those... whether it's a 360 degree firing arc for dominas, or switching to pulse weapons for Vasari fighters and/or sentinels, directly or indirectly nerfing bombers, etc; should be administered and tested before anything more radical is done. The goal here isn't to make all three factions identical, or make each equally powerful in all situations. It's to address an overall balance. If IC were to blindly follow a lot of the more adamant demands for changes in these forums, we would simply see an endless cycle of rotating over-poweredness of an individual faction in any given patch cycle... and frankly... thats part of the Blizzard model that no one needs to follow.

-Itharus

Reply #441 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Bazkur, reply 436

Positive. I've I can colonize manually without an issue.  They just don't auto colonize.  Not seen a particular pattern to it, sometime it works at the beginning of the game and quits later other times it doesn't work from the start.

Weird, I might have to play Vasari to see if it does that for me. Are you using ZombieRus' patch so it won't crash?

Quoting Itharus, reply 440

Quoting rowanlad, reply 439TEC has some great early game combos, however, late game both of the other races should be able to roll over a TEC fleet with their special abilities.
Incorrect.

It is incorrect that a perfectly legitimate opinion is incorrect.

Reply #442 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Itharus, reply 440

I call again to not overreact with "balances".

Agreed. But thats the point of the betas. May as well start with something slightly on the overboard size so it's crystal clear how far a certain approach can go and what the unintended consequences are, then tone it back down if thats the way to go. if you try to nudge in a certain direction, you might be at it for 50 years with all the different approaches before you decide on something.

Reply #443 from Sins Forums Top



All factions in a game should be equally viable in all stages of a game (early, mid, and late). It is lunacy to make a game where one faction must win by a certain stage because the other factions will beat them at a later (or earlier) stage. 


Perhaps, but thats where its at. Many RTS games you will play show signs of this. And that is because we don't want three races who are basically the same. This particular symptom (races doing better in different stages of the game) comes 'part and parcel' with this variety.

Look at the most famous example, Starcraft. Zerg have the rush advantage early but let a Protoss player reach a late game strength and those numbers are for naught.

I'm sorry if this is the way you feel. But this is part of the gaming world and you will have to get used to it.  

Reply #444 from Sins Forums Top

The only problem with that is, AJ, that betas are mostly the result of the devs and some very dedicated gamers, and if those gamers generally approve of an over-reacted change, sometimes it can take a damned long time to get rid of it even if the general population hates it, because let's face it: Devs care more about their loyal testing crew than the general consumer (which is only natural). So basically... even going too overboard in a (public) beta can be disastrous.

Better for more frequent smaller changes over fewer larger ones is all I'm trying to say; especially with Impulse being so handy at distributing them! :)

Rowanlad: Nope, I'm sorry, but I wont get used to designers making bad products. Essentially removing stages of a game from certain factions is just bad design, period. Your example is also flawed, in SC:BW all three factions were competitive in the three main stages of the game, yes they had different strengths at different stages, but they were not "beaten" by stage alone. And if you were referring to SC2: well, that game is just broken - not to mention incomplete.

Maybe you should, as a customer, demand better design rather than be content with slop ^_^.

-Itharus

PS: If you couldn't stop a zergling rush, you were bad ;)

Reply #445 from Sins Forums Top

Well, if you look at the game's update history, I think you'd see that what will probably happen isnt a zillion micro-patches. The game keeps getting patched and thats suprising; most companies would have moved on by now and I'm glad they're still working with it. but to keep that spirit, I prefer they do it their own way. Which, from what we've seen in the past, seems to be infrequent, bigger patches.

Reply #446 from Sins Forums Top

Reading all these threads, it sounds like TEC is going to be the race to beat.  The funny thing is, is that they already were the best race in the last version of the game.  I say that, but I would like all of you to bear in mind that I was strictly a Vasari player for a VERY long time.

This would depend on your range; if Vasari could get past the initial rush on relatively equal footing, then they were in the clear.  However, this was very difficult to do if the TEC player knew what he was doing and the range was favourable for him (which it generally was in a 4v4 or 5v5).  Nothing has changed here; the TEC rush game remains as vicious as it ever was, and the Vasari no longer have the Skirantra crutch.

We really do need to deal with TEC at a fundamental level, softening that brutal rush and giving them more staying power in the late-game.  Right now, TEC is all about striking fast and getting ahead early, then never letting the enemy recover (or just killing them outright).

Reply #447 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting SithLordAJ, reply 437


You already have a thread about this. Actually, in the original, you said it was just TEC. Now you're saying it's all of them?

I'm not sure where (I really did look for an obscene amount of time), but I did write somewhere that the above problem might be why the AI feels worse in the new beta (although, now that I think about it, its been better. maybe it was just a problem in beta 1?). I have had games where the AI wiped out a planet and left a colony ship there and nothing else, but (my theory) it can't colonize because of this auto-colonize bug. So, the AI doesn't rapidly expand and seems much worse.

Correct, I had forgetten about that post.  Yes, it appears to be all races.  I am not using any custom addons, just Diplomacy and the latest official Beta patch.

Reply #448 from Sins Forums Top

With the current change log, TEC definitely will be the dominant faction...however, I don't think directly nerfing the TEC early game is the way to go...

Weakening LRFs (mainly through the damage table) will inherently weaken TEC more than Advent, and if the skirmisher got a slight DPS boost (say, increase from 12 to 13), then that would give Vasari a better early game too...

This is a change I think should be made regardless of the faction balance as this patch will do nothing to change the LRF/Bomber spam...however, such a change will also inherently balance the factions more in the early game, and nothing else would really have to be done to the TEC (early game, at least)...

The buff to Novaliths is ridiculous...33% trade reduction is fine, maybe even 50%...but not 100%, that is just as bad the OP kostura...the hoshiko buff is perfectly fine if dominas get similar buffs and subverters aren't nerfed to hell...

So, in general, I think most of the changes of this patch are a step in the right direction....but some key things are missing that will give us the balance we really want...this patch is an attempt to bring better balance, but it isn't doing a good job of fostering diversity...LRMs, bombers, and carrier caps will still dominant...the same technologies will still not get researched, the same capital ships won't get built, and the same SB upgrades will be ignored...

Reply #449 from Sins Forums Top

I think some caps are more likely to be built. The Dunov and Radiance are looking better.

Reply #450 from Sins Forums Top

I advocate switching the Novalith's debuffs around, so that the pop reduction is the one that's 100%.

Also that flak get a hefty nerf vs fighters, since those things counter both bombers and lrf, and tend to just kind of vaporize currently.

 

:fox: