Actually, it may sound odd, or morbid, or even sadistic, but actually after i load the mod i have for adjusting the hull and shield/antimatter restore rates. Which is rather high, i go looking for pirates, and even made a map with like 9 pirate bases in one star system and looked in the game events to see if i could decrease the time between launches like to every two minutes , just to wade into battle and have fun.
It means for constant, and i do mean constant battle!
but the mod helps me stay alive and the ensuing battles are nothing less than fabulous to watch with hordes of ships descending on my 15 ship fleet. Haha... it may not be everyone's cup of tea. But actually I like having the pirates as often and as many as possible.
But yes, you can turn them off, and when i am not in my crazy phase, it is nice to turn them off and concentrate on building first... and then fighting.
-Teal
Pirate Race.
That and Starbases.
Oh, and the Carebears.
Oh, one more thing. Skarovas Enforcers' main weapons should be Phase Missiles. Pulse guns should be axed and replaced with Wave Cannons. This way the mightiest of the Vasari ships can wield the mightiest of the Vasari weapons, much like the Advent and TEC ships do.
I have always played RTS games as a turtle/steamroller and I have experienced Sins to be very against that.\
I think that there should be more ways to play like you can play more economically, forging trade agreements, buying ships and systems, bribes, et cetera.
Also my planets are never safe and it is absolutly nerve racking to me that I have to spread my fleet so thin to protect my empire and have to micromanage phase jumps all the time to systems that are getting attacked which gets really tedious after awhile. So many fleets to control/remember/worry about. And you have to do it all within this fleet cap and keep all of oyur defenses within these strict slot limits. Makes me crazy, this game gives me a headache sometimes.
I dunno, is it really that hard? if you plan cleverly, I'd say that most of the time you can make due with 2 - 3 defensive fleets, depending on map type. just place them at important points, so they can reach most planets with 1 or max. 2 jumps and that is usually fine. after all, if you are doing at least some job at recon you will see the enemy come early enough to have the flee there to meet them.
as for the other stuff: if you mean buying from other players, then yeah, that is definately something that should go in at some point in the expansion, but we heard more diplo content would be in the 2nd, so ,,,
it did give me another idea: how about a possibilty to directly buy the favor of those neutral colonies? rise of legends did this, the game gave you the choice to conquer neutral cities either with military power or through giving them some resources. also, prolonged trade helped reduce cost and in time would even bring them in for free. while the trade idea for this game would be great, I'd say that too many planets would be taken already by the time the network is up, plus it would give some races more of an advantage than others. but still, it would be cool and I have been wanting more non-military ways to play the game (including totaly different alternative victory conditions) for some time now.
I usually play RTS's as a turtler too, and I too was slightly disappointed that Sins wouldn't let you do that. But fortunetly, Entrenchment looks like it will fix that. No more will I have to leave a fleet at a planet, because now I can just put a starbase there!
You know for us turtlers all you need to do is max out all the tactical slots with hangers and then basic defense platforms. Use a 50/50 fighter/bomber force. That will buy you enough time to send reinforcments wil not having your fleet spread so thin.
Another trick is to base your fleet on one of the plenets nearest to the the star, that way when an enemy gathers you can deploy your forces to meet them faster at the planet they are jumping to.
I've been wondering about some new planet options. For instance building orbital elevaters could give a boost to production, ie faster but costlier shipyards, while a planet with enough trade (maybe 3+ trade ports)could be upgraded into a ecumenopolis, for large increases in trade,culture,taxes,ect.
The latter option could be a mid-game option only after the proper research and would have to be considered carefully. If the planet was destroyed or even embargoed, it would have a bad effect on your economy, due to the massive concentration of production lost. However, as long as you kept it safe, it would be a valuable asset.
For map revamp, I would support the ideas of
1: making ship/structure/planet scale more appropriate
2: Solar systems more realistic
a: moons
b: 3 to 6 planets per solar system
c: planets rotate around the star making traveling between planets realistic
d: asteriods would now be belts that go all the way around the star, so there would be only mining operations and an occational giant asteriod that can be colonized but it will be very rare
3: Gas giants should be able to colonize
a: you get ship production bonuses
b: skymining which improves speed of ships and phase lane speeds
For game play
1: More better designed ships some of this ships now just don't look right or the factions designs, kodiak cruisers look more like pirate ships than TEC
2: More civilian ships
3: Of course more pirates and rebels
3: Thank god they brought in starbases
4: A political govermental System
5: More planetary options
6: Ship Tactics
I want more ways to manage the populations on your planet. For me who is a Valsari player the thought of enslaving my subjects is not appealing, I would rather win their loyalty and as a result do not ever research the Slavery option.
Also more ways to customize your planets such as terriforming or customizing the cities. Climate control would be awesome too, turn an ice/desert world into a terran planet would be sweet!
I want to play as the pirates and start their missions from that pirate base, also the Pirate base should have a pop of 100 or so.
Sorry to burst your bubble Polistes but to have terraforming in an rts game is merely pointles and will take forever and cost a lot.
However I do like you pirate campaign idea and customizing the cities.
I max out my tactical slots every time, but defences shouldn't just be there to buy time for reinforcements to come. If I fill every one of my tactical slots with defences, I want them to be able to detroy anything except the most massive of fleets.
More ideas:
1) Subverters will not subvert an enemy where the AoE circle includes 50% already-subverted ships (unless subversion is made stackable)
2) Subverters will not subvert an anemy who is within AoE subversion range of another subverter who is about to use Distortion Field
3) No two squads of fighters will target the same squad of bombers unless there are more fighter quads than bombers
4) No two squads of fighters will target the same squad of fighters unless there there are more fighter squads than enemy fighter squads.
5) Skirantra Carriers will stop spamming Repair Cloud unless someone within the AoE range is ACTUALLY DAMAGED!
6) Antronak Marauders will stop spamming Distort Gravity unless they are MOVING.
7) Reintegration will autocast at 70% HP rather than 50%.
8) Abilities will be upgradable. Phase Missile Swarm will be effected by phase missile research, Missile Barrage by missile research, Cleansing Brilliance by beam research, ect. This might prove too powerful though so extensive testing will be needed.
9) One extra tier for each ability except the level 6 uber-abilities. At level 10 you gain two ability points so you can truely customize your cap.
Well I actually just got around to trying out the demo for the game and am definitely gonna invest in it! Im a huge GalCiv2 fan, but I have always preferred Real-Time Strategy over Turn-based. So when I heard of a 4X RTS I was really excited!
I like a lot of the ideas expressed in this forum so far and thought I'd include my two cents to the matter, however please do realize i have only played the demo and so input on any mistakes I make would greatly be appreciated thanks
1) PIRATES: <("Avast ye filthy space lubbers") One of the things that always frustrated me about Galactic Civilizations is that Pirates appeared out of nowhere... and in a random medium map in Sins just now I went up against a huge pirate fleet that came out of where you ask? NOWHERE. But then again I haven't played the extended game and I didn't exactly get to exploring the entire galaxy yet. Maybe there is a Pirate Home world out there where all those frigtates were created?
- I also agree that watching the Pirate screen to see if I have a bounty on my head at the moment is disappointing. I think pirates shouldn't be going after fleets of other nations not for a "bounty" but rather personal gain... much in the same way current races already do. Attempting to expand there influence into systems surrounding themselves and building their fleets in the same way current players do as well!
- I saw that planets have a Allegiance percentage based on how far away they are from your homeworld, perhaps if Allegiance isn't high and the military presence in the area is not very high either, then civilian ships may start leaving and population drops and they head to colonize their own planet, and thus becoming there own faction (or Pirates and perform as such)
2) SPACE TRAFFIC: Which leads me to my next point, and I read a few times in the forum and I like this idea very much. As I stated earlier I think that if a colony is unhappy, then colonists might go searching for a better life out there. But this would not be the limit to civilian traffic, perhaps you could have transports transporting slaves, or redirecting citizens or supplies. Or individual planets trading with other races close to them if a trade agreement is present. All of this, that is, what is done by the citizenry would be out of your control but you would see the benefit in the form of a cut of the credits In truth I think there needs to be more of an aspect on a Civilization other than just military expansion for resources... I will try to discuss more in depth later.
3) FLEET STRENGTH AND HARDPOINTS: One thing I noticed fairly early on was how long it took for fleet battles to take place. I watched a frigate taking damage from my Capital Ship and was thinking that little thing wouldn't last a second under that kinda fire... I like how this was handled in Empire at War personally, although I didn't really like the ground combat and thus the game as a whole, but I thought that the space battles were very engaging. This was in part due to the use of hardpoints on the hulls of ships (such as its engine, shield generator and laser cannons) and I think Sins would benefit greatly from a similar set-up. That after shields are drained the ship won't be able to sustain much more fire before its neutralized. This would speed up play in a certain regard and keep fleet numbers down (I personally feel that they get a little large and it hurts performance at times)
- I also like how ships in Empire at War would fall apart as their damage increased, with parts of the hull breaking off and floating through space, and you would see the area around the ships ripple as it was being destroyed. I mean a stupid game like Empire at War did it! I definitely think that Sins could!
4) BOARDING PARTIES AND INVASIONS: I think it would add a new level of strategy if the game incorporated the use of soldiers in different ways. Such as ships being launched from a Cruiser (much like fighters and bombers do from capital ships) that could board an enemy ship whose shields had been terminated and then attempt to turn it over and use it against the enemy. Kinda like this:
- Of course this idea would be more useful if the ships could be customized, and thus one enemy ship might be a major target to attempt to overtake, but I understand that custom ships would be very hard in a game like this and wouldn't help with micro-managment, unless you could tell shipyard governors to focus on a certain type of ship based on current technology? and they just make new versions or models of current ships? Ooo! we may be onto something here? Probably not, but hey I tried.
- Also planetary invasions would be a nice addition, and I would not be upset with a similar set up as Galctic Civilizations. Because I've found that planetary invasions can be very tedious endeavors. So just a simple set-up based on morale, technology, soldiering ability and chance would be nice. Of course in an RTS the effects would be more drawn out other than an entire planet being taken over in just one turn!
- Of course, there would then be a new military tech tree featuring soldier progression such as new weapons and strategies that would automatically add to soldiering ability.
5) DIPLOMACY: One thing that has always really frustrated me about Real-Time Strategies was how diplomacy always took a hit in its design. I suppose I don't understand game design but I don't quite understand why a similar design to that of Civilization and Galactic Civilizations is not possible. Yes I could see how a race suddenly popping up while your trying to engage their fleet might be annoying, but what about requesting your audience?
- I think its silly that the other races give you "missions" or whatever they are called, and if you complete them then that is the only way to gain their trust and eventually make peace. It makes me feel inferior... like some sort of minor race even if I could kick their butts. I think it would be better as a threat "give us X amount of credits or else..."
- I think everyone should start out in peace and war becomes a later option, based on your current strategy and location etc. etc.
- I also believe that the exchange of planets and/or ships, technology, and artifacts should be included in diplomacy as well. You could get hardcore, and say that you will send population from your planet to one of theirs for money, much like a slave trade but micro-managment might get too heavy.
- In truth I do not believe this would be any more demanding than the current set-up
6) FROM CIVILIZATION TO EMPIRE: As I stated earlier, I believe that any game of this caliber should focus on more than just shoot, dominate, and destroy. I think every action you take should be a thought as to the repercussions it will have on your empire as a whole. "Do I go to war with this faction, knowing that my planet A does a lot of trading with their planet B and risk my population becoming unhappy and deserting me because their trading economy is being challenged?" "Do I attempt to take a planet that has an artifact I need, knowing that if I declare war, I might lose the trust and support of the people on a principle and influential planet whose many children are now running my fleets?"
- Yes I know you protect your planets, I know you protect your resources, but have you ever stopped to consider the people? Or how about the culture- developed by the very same people you have been disregarding- that you are exuding into the galaxy around you? I believe that this is the biggest thing that RTS's tend to disregard, and many games do overall. I know it might be hard to implement, but I think people need to have a voice, and shouldn't always support my calls for war, and if I push too much they just might pull away... <(WAR!!)
In Conclusion, I thoroughly agree with more races, more individuality between those races, and if possible more customization in strategies such as one ship being good against another based on its design (Remember the governors ) However I love what I saw from this game, I just think its so close to being the absolutely perfect, why not go the whole way?!? Thanks for listening, I would love to hear from you guys concerning my post whether you agree or disagree with any of my points!
Shields When I zoom in close to a cap ship that's being pummeled by my fleet, I can see the shield that surrounds the ship taking most of the abuse. However, that shield still appears around the ship even after the ship stats say that the shield is gone. I'd like the shield to disappear after it's gone.
Enslavement - If I remember correctly, the Vassari make their way from planet to planet, enslaving the local populace. Why, then, must the Vassari race bomb a planet's poplation to zero before it can colonise a planet? I'd like to see some option for the Vassari to capture some percentage of the local population. Percentage could be based upon planet allegiance -- if the planet is highly allegiant to the home planet, then they would fight harder and the Vassari would have to eliminate more of them. If there is low allegiance, then fewer would fight and more would come over to the Vassari.
A Destroyer class of ships.
that is really just a name. what would you expect from such a vessel? stronger than cruiser? stronger than capital ship? direct combat or special operations? long range or short range? I do not want or need more ships as long as they do not accomplish something specific, if they do not have a clear function that other ships can not yet fill to any degree.
destroyer ships could come in when if have something like stealth ships, because from what I understand, that was their role so far in history. not that realism needs to be any indicator for games.
to sum it up my view: first, think of a function, something that needs to be done, a hole in fleet configuration. then you can decide on ship design.
Wow!! This i like ALOT!! a moving universe. I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it, but yes, that would be very very nice! And also just to throw in a request for LARGER, as someone else mentioned. Planets should be way way bigger, and ships even, it would be nice to have the "person-sized" perspective alongside a ship, and have it appear 5 stories long. Or ten stories tall. I wouldn't mind losing the zoom control just to be dropped into a real sized universe!
And Movement!! sorry, im getting carried away, but i wholeheartedly agree with those who have mentioned these.
Nice idea!!
I should have clarified my earlier post a bit. Here are some ideas for destroyers.
Hunter Killers -These would be really good for attacking the enemys economy(ie trade ships, ports ect), fast with a cloaking system upgrade to boot. Really useful when supporting upgraded scouts or a Sova.
Assault Destroyers - These would launch assault craft to capture disabled enemy ships, building ect.If we get land invasions, they would also provide fire support and troops.
All of these destroyers would be lightly armored, relying mostly on their shields and speed for protection.
Heavy Destroyers- Would be best used as escorts for capital ships. They would provide jamming and point defense. Aside from Cruisers, these would be the most powerful(and costly)noncapital ships.
???Destroyer- Each faction would have it's own specialized destroyer for a unique purpose. What that is for each faction is something I can't think of right now.
hmm, electronic warfare. and consequently counter ecm measures. not bad.
One thing i noticed in combat was that most ships cannot seem to fire, turn, and move foreward at the same time. Generally, with a Ship that has a Crew of say...1...they would be able to do so. I played today, and i noticed that even the Fighters, if they have to make sharp turns to pursue enemy bombers, stop completely, turn, and than go foreward. (granted, i have used this minor exploit to round up an armada of Pirate vessels, than sent in a fleet to bombard and destroy their base) but really? why cant ships turn, fire, and move at the same time?
I believe it would be awesome if I haven't stated this before to be able to go onto the planet, im not sure what you could do on it but it would still be cool!
A fourth race would be nice...
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