We are working on the mod as you type. Rest assured that we intend to add said factions .
Spamming is not necessarily due to a lack of tactical thinking. In fact, for many mods (including the first Entrenchment release for thisone) it is among the best tactics.
One or two ships for each faction will always be the most effective in combat for your supply points/money. The only way to make people change their line-up more is to have special abilities. Just look at the Vanilla Sins, which in many ways belies the "Vanilla" nickname. Each faction has multiple cruisers; basically one for heavy combat, one for long-range, one for healing, and one for sabotage. In addition, you have the freebie ship and the bomber. All those unique roles and abilities force people to create a ballanced fleet to take advantage of each ship's strengths.
Alternatively, if you look at the first Entrenchment release of this mod, each faction had a preferable ship. For the Feds, it was by far the Akira; no combination of other Fed ships (besides cap ships) could triumph over a fleet of Akiras for the same supply points. There was no reason to add other ships to the mix since it only diluted your firepower and HP/SP. The Klinons had the D-24 and/or Vor'Cha, which were quite similar in damange and HP/SP for the supply. Other ships simply don't make any sense to build (once you have the research) b/c they don't bring the same bang for the buck. Thus, if you're like me (an engineer and a mathmatical strategist at heart), spamming is much more nuanced and does not necessarily imply a lack of tactical thinking.
If you want to put an end to spamming as an effective strategy, insert special abilities (including fighters/bombers). For example, if a Fed ship had the ability to regen the shields of a nearby starship, it would become part of everyone's fleet. For the Klinons, maybe you make a heavy cruiser able to drop out mines in the midst of combat. Either of these would be sure to figure heavily in people's plans.
P.S. - I just noticed Darkshimmer's response. If Akrias are going to stay up at 48 supply, building them will remain noob territory (Intrepids/Steamrunners will own the equivalent Akira fleet on the basis of supply). Despite everyone's insistance that you have to think more about tactics in this mod (like firing arcs and torps vs. phasers), damage per second versus HP/SP (plus regen) and supply points still trumps in the long run (the casino never loses long-term). The only way around this is when you're attacking stationary objects and can get a bombing run or when you have enough torp damage to blow up your enemy's ships in a single torp volley before you mix it up. Once you're in the mix, it's all brutal math as to who will win.
Respect the calculator. If the wrong number shows up on the screen, it's because you pushed the wrong button.
lol the almighty calculator... respect it or it'll screw you bad
Personally, I'd rather have a mixed fleet of ships than a single ship dominating the battlefield. That is why I usually mix B'rels, K'vorts, Vor'chas, and Cap ships together to for my fleet. I'm all for the Akira having a small force of fighters though, as well as being able to attack for itself, as long as that doesn't break the game in any way. I think that would make up for the super high supply. However, its so strong in attack power, its almost like a Cap Ship without the levels in Cap ship research.
Any ETA on the next update???
Hey Grand Admiral Prawn (god your direct SW reference on that cracks me up !!), the string names for all the fleets ships were actually sent in by me a LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNG time ago, so I am not going to defend their naming just explain my reasons behind it.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/starfleet_ships1.htm
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/starfleet_ships2.htm
This is a well renowned trek fact site that I have used heavily (along with memory-alpha) to research and submit my recommendations. At these sites, you can directly reference where I pulled ship names for the fed fleet (obviously focusing on names for specific classes of Capitol ships since they would be the ones using them), as well as the other races. I specifically used the Merrimack because it was the name of a Nebula Class vessel (though so was the Monitor). Believe me if I could have put in MORE ship names I would have, but like Jtaylorpcs pointed out SoaSE is hardcoded to 3 races for ship names and each race has a certain amount of names allocated to them (that's also why there are romulan names with the klingon ships. I only did this because they had some of the closest named vessels phonetically).
If you want to suggest names by all means go ahead. I am just exstatic that they ACTUALLY used my stuff directly (thanks guys it makes me feel useful), so if anyone should be subject to your wrath in this area, by all means direct it at me .
Seriously!?!?!
I don't know if I am missing something, but where does the actual GALAXY format file go if I want to play this?
galaxy files if made by galaxyforge should be in a folder called GalaxyForge next to the mods folders in the user sins area
if made by map designer should be placed in the mapdesigner folder
harpo
I agree I'd rather have a mixed fleet. It's just that I'm going to use the most effective fleet that my money can buy. until they put in some abilities, the most effective fleet will remain a spam fleet. Based on what the forums say is planned, it won't remain that way for long though, so we will all have to learn what mix to use. Attack craft and abilities are coming, I don't intend to rest on my spam-laurels (spam-laurels? What have I reduced myself to!?!).
If the supply cost for the Akira remains 6X the Steamrunner and ~5X the Intrepid, it's going to need some awesome abilities and strike craft to make up for it. I've found the Steamrunner to be an excellent spam ship pending that revision...
Good to know my closet Star Wars humor is appreciated. I was, of course, being a little facetious about being offended by the Merimack, but it's all in good fun.
I think the Akira is powerful enough as is, so I'd think its abilities should be based around its squadrons of fighters (Assuming they add these), rather than making the ship itself more powerful. Perhaps something like making them more powerful, or instant production of them or something.
If the fighters/bombers get added in, a small force of several Akiras would still be able to do significant damage, even with the upkeep cost, and even then they could be supported by a fleet of Steamrunners and Intrepids. Of course, they'd be able to pound things themselves.
Great mod guys! I've been following the mod for a while now and this is even better then I thought it would be. Only one minidump after 12+ hours of play.
One thing I noticed though was that the Fed's tech tree was quite conjested and really, well, messy. So this afternoon and into the night I redesigned the tech tree just for the hell of it. Almost everything is the same as far as tier level goes, I think only one or two techs changed. I did remove one level of pusle cannon upgrades. The major thing I did was change pre-reqs. Most of the techs still have the previous pre-reqs but I have added a lot more and split the Defiant and Soverign to the end of the two seperate tech branches. Also note that the first two phaser upgrades at the bottem are pre-reqs for the Steamrunner and Galaxy, but sins wont show the arrows.
In the end I thought it turned out really good and thought maybe the team would like to use it. I would have sent it to the email but I couldnt find it.
Note, ships have the same armor type as their damage classifications. The Vorcha is both Vheavy armor type and anti-Vheavy weapons. A medium armor ship with anti-medium weapons, the Excelsior for instance, does 75% damage, while taking 50%. This means that Excelsiors are a 72 damage ship, while Vorcha's are only 82.5. The two lighter cruisers on the other hand are heavy and anti-heavy, so both ships do 50% damage to each other, putting the Steamrunner at 57 damage, and the Intrepid at 65.5.
Costwise it's a no brainer, the fleet usage sucks though. Use the armor types to your advantage, Vheavy sucks against everything below heavy. The light frigates are, unfortunately, utter crap against anything but each other, but mediums are your friend.
@ myles,
Your tree is nicely done, however its unusable for the mod. The ambassador must be free to build by the AI at anytime or it delays in building ships. the last two phaser upgrades must be researched prior to the ship being built to follow trek lore and the defiant must be research before the sovereign. The feds will be getting another revision in the next patch.
@ psychoak,
Thanks for pointing that out now i remember what i needed to update last time and i forgot. Also this will trigger new changes to the tech trees. There's also been a change in the weapon strength's weaknesses against classes, so your numbers are completely off.
@ Ryugi
Yes i agree the akira is strong enough without further ship upgrades other than strike craft, but currently there are no plans to use strike craft on ships, although some ships have the ability to use them. For now strike craft will only be used in stations.
@ Just_Jim
There is currently no ETA on the next patch. there is alot of work to be done and tested on the Romulans!
@ Prawn
Akira's are no noob access ships. I should clip your claws with gigantic rubber bands for saying so. just like anti module ships, a group of 5 are deadly enough to take out some ships. You should use them as anti caps. Vorchas will be updated in the next patch with a new ability that will also make it a 48 supply ship.
@ everyone else
anyone else noticed that upgrading your cap ship is pointless becuase you get no bonuses! but you can upgrade some abilities. Any one notice that the feklhr is multibeaming (banks) as it fires in a group?
@ Micael456
enter an enhancement request
@ mod upgrade issues
Did you enter a ticket or read the wiki page?
Ok, so in essence, you're counting Akiras and Vor'chas as "Cap Level Ships" without having to do the research in Cap Ships to acquire them, and only the fleet cap? That's understandable, actually, as both of them are major ships for their empires.
Ah. By that I take it you can only give the scout ability to one ship at a time in Entrenchment? That's a pain. If that is the case then yeah I'll send them an email to request it. Or do you mean that you want me to enter an enhancement request on your mod site? Sorry I'm a bit blonde this morning, too tired .
It was made using the galaxy forge, so it should be placed in
C:\Users\####\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\GalaxyForge
(for vista anyway)
I actually didn't know that was how you played custom maps for Entrenchment, so thanks for the info !
I like what you have done here with your planetary travel between star systems, it seems to work very well for the game systems mechanics.
My only gripe comes from the fact that in order to get from one star system to the next, there is no real freedom in travel since you have to travel through certain phase lanes (this also makes certain researchs pointless). I also really like the .tga file for your map, how did you create it? Also, you should consider making starting locations random (since always starting on earth is kinda pointless, especially for Klinks like me).
Other than that, stupendous work and I give it .
I think he's talking about submitting it as a suggestion at the wiki site .
[quote who="@ Micael456" reply="993" id="2367305"]I actually didn't know that was how you played custom maps for Entrenchment, so thanks for the info !I like what you have done here with your planetary travel between star systems, it seems to work very well for the game systems mechanics. My only gripe comes from the fact that in order to get from one star system to the next, there is no real freedom in travel since you have to travel through certain phase lanes (this also makes certain researchs pointless). I also really like the .tga file for your map, how did you create it? Also, you should consider making starting locations random (since always starting on earth is kinda pointless, especially for Klinks like me).Other than that, stupendous work and I give it . .[/quote]
Thanks for the comments it might sound lame but i was just trying to make a map worthy of this mod.I removed travelling between stars because I found players from the gamma quadrant could travel to the alpha without the wormhole. As a player preference I like chokepoints where empires could fight for contol of strategic points, however that is how I like to play.So I thought about what you said about the phase lanes and have placed more lanes for more freedom and a different tactical approach.Orginial releasehttp://www.filefront.com/14503655/Fortune%20Favours%20the%20Bold%20v.1.rarOrginial with random starting positions http://www.filefront.com/14503659/Fortune%20Favours%20the%20Bold%20-%20Random.rarAdded Phase lanes and random starting positions http://www.filefront.com/14503667/Fortune%20Favours%20the%20Bold%20v.2%20-%20Random.rarinstall.galaxy file inC:\Users\####\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\GalaxyForge.tga file inC:\Users\####\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\GalaxyForge\Mods-Entrenchment v1.03\SoA203E1\Textures@soa2team - is it alright if i put this here? don't want to annoy the proper modders
Has the bik, unzip bug been worked up?
I recently redownloaded the mod, using the links above and I still got the errors in extracting the mod. and after I extract the patch, and then patch over the base...none of the icons show up.
BTW, I am using izArc so and no problem opening or downloading the mod.
Well, this Akira-debate is getting pointless...
Anyway, it's a simple text file folks, try to edit it and see if it works or not. That's the point of modding.
For me, they work brilliantly with 4 bomber squadrons added, and they well worth the 48 supply points.
Especially that no Klingon ships have anti-fighter weapons
lol, don't make me raugh cszolee, how is the akira topic pointless yet your still talking about it in the rest of your post?
any shot at a Full download for the patched game instead of an incremental patch?
Figure it would just make it far more simple for many people.
Perhaps a self-installer for the patch would be easier rather than the mod team having to upload the entire thing again?
Been trying to get a batch file to do this, but bleh- my days of writing batch files in secondary school are over.
so i just had a omg moment. playing vrs one unfair ai on a custom map i made. anyhow its gething later in the game i decided to wate till i was neer full reserch to atack....aprantly that was a bad idea.i warp to the first planet they have. well let just say all my ships died at once. on the warp in point there where quite a few mines and then a station right behind them.....dident realise ai where that smart... anywho yeah so i lost like 1500 supply worty of ships and 6 caps only cap that lived whas my sov and it died trying to warp out. everything elts died on land.......that was not cool lol.
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