Darvin3

Reply to New Guy in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="ZombiesRus5" reply="11" id="3629456"]When it comes to weapons tech upgrades it's really not worth the research cost for the 5% bump unless you've built a substantial amount of units to support that upgrade. For example research tier 1 lasers when you only have 10 Light Frigates may not be worth the initial investment compared to building another Light Frigate.[/quote] Indeed, and it should be noted that the laser upgrades are by far the cheapest damage upg

Reply to New Guy in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="Scartch" reply="9" id="3629421"] Thank you, but I don't understand.[/quote] What he means is that the normal AI difficulty does not cheat and has no special advantage over a human player. It starts with one homeworld just like you do and has to earn all its money normally. [quote]Actually got to colonize one planet and enjoying myself. Then the enemy ai hit like a swarm of red locusts. Left me thinking what "small fleet" actually meant.[/quote] Sma

Reply to Lost in Space... found a planet... hmmm Feudal Society..... DAMN!!!! How does it affect the planet!!!! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Personally, I find leaving planets unspecialized is the best option most of the time. The cost of specialization is pretty high, and as an economic investment it's passable. Industrial specialization is a superb late-game option on a planet that you've completely filled with trade ports, but it only really starts to shine once you're getting close to saturating your logistics capacity. Logistics upgrades are expensive, and you can get way more trade ports in tota

Reply to Beaten By Y Axis in Multiplayer in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

It does sound like you didn't have a whole lot of advanced warning when the Marza arrived. The entire point of the Marza is being able to quickly devastate enemy planets, and it sounds like - even ignoring the Y axis abuse - your opponent was in a position to leverage it very effectively against you. Not having seen the game, I'm not going to comment any further than that. As I said before, I'm not up to speed on the current multiplayer community so I can't speak for e

Reply to Beaten By Y Axis in Multiplayer in Sins Multiplayer Sins Forums

It's been a long time since I've been in the multiplayer scene, but back then the only Y Axis abuse was mostly considered something in bad taste and not outright cheating. The only thing that was a huge problem was people who exploited the starbase blindspots, which was considered cheating. That said, I think putting turrets around a planet was a misplay anyways. It takes 4 turrets to cover the perimeter of a full-sized planet and that cost you 1000 credits, 300

Reply to Moan about pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="GoaFan77" reply="5" id="3624154"] Rebellion pirates are just a bit stronger than they were in Entrenchment, certainly no where near Diplomacy 1.0 values. I don't remember how they were changed in later diplomacy patches. [/quote] The key learning point was that there was no sweet spot. Even at their insane Diplomacy 1.0 stats they could potentially be stopped on the 15 minute raid by an experienced player. Locking themselves into a head-on assault meant they

Reply to Moan about pirates in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The problem with pirates goes deeper than that. Pirates originally had the opposite issue; they were so weak that getting attacked by them was often a good thing that gave you additional opportunities to rack up experience. The developers tried various different levels of pirate strength, but there was no sweet spot. Pirates were either pushovers or planet-killers with no in between. If Ironclad does do pirates again in Sins 2, I hope they go in a very different direction fro

Reply to Questions from Single Player Newbie in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

The AI can still be a challenge for speed-running purposes even once you understand its flaws. Offensively it basically can't beat well-supported starbases, defensively it can't handle a critical mass of bombers, and economically its expansion is anemically slow. Put it together and a game plan of "grab key strategic choke points, fortify them, build up a powerful economy, then mass bombers" is pretty easy to pull off against any difficult AI in any scenario. However, if you're go

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion v1.83 Opt-In in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Couple of bugs I've noticed: * The Advent Rebel "Expulsion" tech appears to be triggering whenever friendly trade ships jumps away from the planet, which effectively means the bonus is always active on planets with trade ports. * Neutral extractors in Ice Fields have a refinery quota of 0 instead of the expected quota of 4 that's standard for neutral uncolonizable wells.

Reply to A question about TEC weapon sound effects in Rebellion vs original Sins of a Solar Empire in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

It's a bug with the 1.83 version that is preventing the sounds from playing correctly. The developers have acknowledged the issue, and presumably are working on a fix.

Reply to Any ETA for Rebellion 1.83 for Steam Users? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote who="GoaFan77" reply="2" id="3608610"]Now that we have two communities with the game, perhaps we can direct some more traffic back here. Basically a lot of the general game questions had moved to the steam forum since everyone had to be using steam, and much of the mod stuff is now squarely focused on Moddb. Quite sad really, for us old timers who spent a lot of time here.[/quote] I figured as much. I'll be cross-posting between these forums and the GOG forums any rel

Reply to Any ETA for Rebellion 1.83 for Steam Users? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Well, here's what Blair said on the GOG forums . Not exactly a hard date, but it does imply near future. Oh, and hello again everybody. It's been a while ^_^

Reply to And Stardock raises the white flag (to Valve) in PC Gaming Sins Forums

[quote]In all these discussions, I have never heard someone suggest what alternative should be used for the features Steamworks provides.[/quote] I've got nothing against you for your decision. You have every right - and the responsibility, for that matter - to make the best business decision for your company. For me as a consumer, I tried to support the competitors to Steam. Up until recently, that was you. Now I don't really see any competitors worth

Reply to GameSpy: Preview of Rebellion in Sins Rebellion Sins Forums

[quote]I think you all are getting a bit too paranoid with Steam... My guess is that steam is only for the multiplayer.[/quote] Keyword is Steam[i]works[/i]. That means Steam is 100% mandatory, and must be running to play the game. [quote]What's with the Steam bitchfest?[/quote] To be entirely honest, I'm too tired at this point to even have the argument again. If you like Steam, that's great, it doesn't bother me.&nbs

Reply to GameSpy: Preview of Rebellion in Sins Rebellion Sins Forums

[quote]Great, another game becomes steam exclusive...[/quote] Well, if that's the way it's going to be, then this is where I part ways with Sins. [e digicons]:([/e] I'm gunna miss this community...

Reply to Why are the TEC capital ships so underwhelming? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]The Marza Level 6 Missile Barrage is probably the most powerful capital ship ability in the game. [/quote] It's been nerfed a few too many times, plus "Marza-first" is no longer even remotely viable as an opener, so the earliest point at which missile barrage is feasible in practice is [i]much[/i] later than it used to be. To be entirely honest, I don't think it deserves its fearsome reputation anymore, and is mostly relegated to comp stomps. That's not

Reply to Standard Fleet Structure in Strategy Sins Forums

First off, the Iconus Guardian has an [i]abysmally[/i] low rate of shield regeneration, to the point at which it's a single-use unit unless you have some way to restore shields. It's too expensive to be treated as a single-use unit, so you [i]need[/i] a Progenitor Mothership to use it effectively. You've also gone for drone hosts too early. The problem with carrier cruisers is two-fold; first they are the slowest unit in your fleet by a significant margin, and

Reply to How do you use the Rapture's Vertigo and the Dunov's Magnetize Hull abilities? in Strategy Sins Forums

For Vertigo, you more or less spam it at every opportunity against clusters or enemy units. Generally speaking, any enemy force that's worth using Vertigo on is a mortal threat to capital ships, so just use it as soon as the cooldown comes up on the biggest cluser of units within range while maneuvering the Rapture as best you can. Keep in mind that Vertigo has an exponential increase in performance as it levels up. It's somewhat lackluster at level 1, excellent at

Reply to Archaeologist achievement. in Strategy Sins Forums

Yup, it's a tiny little known detail to Sins achievements: anything you do after you win doesn't count. The Entrenchment expansion increased the number of artifacts from 9 to 12, so it went from being a convoluted luck-based achievement to just being implausible on any of the game's stock scenarios.

Reply to Micromanaging large fleets? in Strategy Sins Forums

A lot of things depend on fleet composition, but support cruisers are [i]incredibly powerful[/i], and the Stilakus Subverter, Hoshiko Robotics Cruiser, and Iconus Guardian are in particular quite deadly. These can disrupt the enemy's ability to attack or retreat and leave them sitting ducks to your forces. Casualties are normal and you should expect expensive support cruisers to die first, but their abilities are almost always worthwhile (the Domina Subjugator is the only real

Reply to novalith bombardment from fortified position in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]It's not true turtling in the sense you build up defenses around your planet and sit there. I would call it more aggressive turtling, in that you push out and colonize a planet close to their home system, preferrably at a choke point system and then backfill the other colonies while building that planet, as your fortress world.[/quote] So passive-aggressive pressure game? Yeah, that's totally different. Novaliths can definitely be used as a

Reply to Flagship Kol? in Strategy Sins Forums

The Kol is a very potent ship for dealing with large forces of strike craft, but it suffers from tyree key flaws. First, it's a one-trick pony so if the enemy fleet doesn't have a substantial strike craft contingent ([i]at least[/i] 20 squadrons) that's not going to add up to a whole lot. Second, the Kol is a late-bloomer, it needs lots of XP points to gain levels and become a substantial military contributor. Third, the Kol is a [i]major[/i] antimatter hog and i

Reply to novalith bombardment from fortified position in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]I was curious, is there much turtling in this game to build up for an ultimate weapon, such as the Novalith? [/quote] Not really; the problem is that turtling tends to result in your economy being smaller than the enemy's, so they will probably reach superweapons first if you do this. The most deadly way to use Novaliths on large scenarios is actually to spend [i]everything[/i] on economy and rely on allies for defense. Build up to a safe income (say 150 credi

Reply to Hoshikos vs. Iconus Guardians - Which is the best? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]1. How many ships are affected by a single Hoshiko? And do Hoshiko repairs stack? I thought I read somewhere that it didn't but I was just checking.[/quote] The effect lasts 15 seconds, and the Hoshiko can activate it once every 3 seconds, so it can affect a total of five ships at a time. Hoshikos do not stack for effect on a single ship. The biggest reason you have multiples of hoshikos is so that you don't run into antimatter issues, and they can't s

Reply to Advent Culture in Sins Rebellion Sins Forums

[quote]Personal guess, if advent culture takes over an enemy planet, you should colonise it at the same time, converting all current structures into yours, like a domination on a planetary level[/quote] That's no improvement at all; overtaking a planet by culture basically never happens because it's so slow and there are so many ways to stop it.