Hi, I'm new around here, and have only played Sins of a Solar Empire (Trinity) for a few months. This game has moved to the top of my list. I'm very excited to hear that another chapter is coming (Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion) and although I'm new, I wanted to share some things that my friends and I have agreed would be great enhancements in Diplomacy's successor. Here they are and I hope you like them.1. A no-fly zone option. Although we can define a path for ships to take when moving between gravity wells, sometimes we forget. This option would especially be useful for scouts when they are exploring, but pay no heed to the fact that their chosen path carries them through a pirate base or another faction's military base. and they end up getting destroyed as a result. This option would allow the player to select a gravity well and choose Restricted or Unrestricted. Something along those lines.2. An option to lock the panel so that the list doesn't jump. As ships phase in and out, the list on the left resizes, which often leads to misclicks. During a battle, the player is trying to click on ships in the list for targeting or special abilities. The list might jump before they click on the ship so they have to click again, or they click on a ship, choose the ability, and it jumps as they try to click another ship, so the wrong ship gets buffed or attacked. You get the idea. It also happens in non-combat situations while managing a gravity well. The option would prevent this jumpy behavior, locking the view on a particular gravity well, allowing for easier and more accurate empire control. In the current game, there are options to collapse gravity wells in the list which is great, but instead of having to collapse everything and then expand them again, this option would allow you to immediately lock the view, do what you need to do, and then unlock it to scroll through the list.3. There may be a good reason for this, but I notice that a planet supports 1 starbase, a wormhole supports 1, and a sun supports 4. I was wondering why not allow a wormhole to support 2? This would be a good progression (planet: 1, wormhole: 2, and sun: 4), but there may be a specific reason for not doing that. At the risk of critical reception, I wanted to suggest this. It would also challenge players who frequently travel via wormholes instead of stars. This is not a high hope, but just a thought. I'm honestly comfortable either way.More Radical Ideas:4. This is a suggestion coming from my friends and I wanted to include it because it would add another exciting element. Boarding ships. They would cost you an entire command crew (given the fact that they are designed to replace an enemy crew). The ship would allow forces to board a capital ship and take it over. It would not be instant as that would not be fair, but the ship would need to stay alive long enough to attach to the capital ship (so it would have high armor and hull points, but could be destroyed if the player hits it soon enough and with plenty of power). Once attached, it would take several minutes before the boarding party was either successful or not. If they are about to be successful, the narrator would inform the player: the boarding party has reached the bridge! The cap ship owner could either activate the self-destruct or not (with the idea of taking the ship back with their own boarding party). If the boarding party fails, the narrator would also inform: the intruders have been eliminated. Each capital ship could have a special ability or, better yet, military research for higher security (decreasing the chances of a successful takeover). Like Piracy, Ship Capture could be turned on and off in the pre-game options.5. Defined claims and restricted space with allies. This was another idea from my friends where the player could stake claim to worlds and their allies would leave those planets alone. The allies could, however, violate that agreement at the cost of reputation. Also, going hand in hand with this, you and I may be allied with a cease fire, but I may not want your ships in certain wells controlled by me, so I could define restricted space for a limited number of gravity wells. You may violate that, but again at the cost of reputation. Some AIs would honor this and others would not. It might be a good idea to limit how often claims/restrictions are allowed. For simplicity, these 2 suggestions could be merged into 1 option that allows any gravity well to be restricted.6. I don't expect this to be implemented, but I wanted to suggest it anyway. Perhaps something like this is planned and my idea gives you another idea or maybe an entirely different idea will be inspired by this. An Intelligence/Counter Intelligence screen. It would require research and, once researched, the player could send a spy to either gather information, destroy a specific facility, or take out a high profile target in order to hurt culture.Information that could be gathered includes ships currently in production, the empire's income/resource amounts, most frequently created ship, number of labs, completed research (to let the player know what research has not been completed, revealing weaknesses), locations of super weapons, and so on. I know that some of these can be determined by scouting, but it would be another method.The spy would not be cheap, the mission would require at least 15 minutes to complete, and have a high chance of failure which would be even higher if the enemy has done counter intelligence research on information, facilities, or high profile figures. The chance of success would be a little better if the factions are allied. It's a trade off - as allies, factions share the benefits of various pacts, but can also keep a closer eye on each other or secretly disrupt operations with a slightly greater chance of success. Once counter-intelligence research is completed, the Counter Intelligence screen would allow misinformation to be sent (with a chance of failure), facility security to be increased, and public figures to be better protected. If a spy is caught then there is a very small chance that they will tell the player who sent them, but still a chance. Like Piracy, Spying could be turned on and off in the pre-game options.Thank you for letting me share and thank you for bringing us Sins of a Solar Empire. I have no doubt that the next one will be as captivating as the current.
1. Agreed. Has been asked for many times. Especially because of the pirate bases.
2. Would be nice to fix this completely, for now suggest unpinning everything but your fleet and key planets. Helps with the jumping issue.
3. An interesting thought. May bring this up in the Distant Stars mod for possible implementation.
4. An interesting idea. Has some merit in code already with Domination.
5. Would help reduce the backstabs that happen sometimes.
6. A thought though I don't think the current engine can do that.
@ point 3: Having four starbases per player on a sun max is because the gravity well of a sun is way larger than that of any other planet or special well in the game. I think being able to heavily fortify a wormhole with two starbases would be unfair, because it would almost be impossible for enemy ships to fly by without being decimated by the starbases. If you you would make the gravity well radius of a wormhole larger than that of a planet, having two starbases per faction in that well would be nice though.
@ point 4: I think being able to capture capital ships belonging to other factions would not be a nice feature, because it might result in you having every possible capital ship in game (including those of other races). They invented factions so you have to choose which ships to play with. Each faction supports various strategies. I see no point in being able to clash all factions ships together to create some sort of über army. If you want to play with all sorts of capital ships at the same time in one race, I advise to mod a single faction and add the capital ships of the other factions to it. But hey, that's just my opinion.
For the other points, I basically agree with Ryat more or less.
For (3) I'm fine the way things are now: aren't wormhole gravity wells the same size or smaller than many other gravity wells?
If a gravity well should be allowed to have more than 1 starbase, I think that gravity well should be the Gas Giant, which is huge.
(5) is interesting, it might give the AI a slightly better defense from being backstabbed by a human player.
(6) Space Empires much? While interesting I think many players will have more than enough on their plate already without adding yet another research-like screen..
Thanks for the feedback. I didn't think I would even get any. You guys are fast.@ Ryat, is Domination a mod?@ Sinperium, I like that - probe teams. If they did implement something like this, I would hope it's available for every faction, but I'm doubtful. #6 loosely translates to: "Wouldn't it be nice if" since such a system would probably require many months to code. I certainly don't want to be the person responsible for delaying the arrival of Rebellion. @ Teun, I didn't consider the wormhole size. That's a very valid point. I would still love to see 2 starbases, but only if the wormhole gravity well size was increased. On the topic of a boarding ship, I agree that one great aspect of Sins is playing to the strengths of a single empire. That's why capturing ships would be optional (could be turned on and off in the pre-game options). I would enjoy that layer of complexity because it adds yet another dimension of worry to the combat ("there's a boarding ship, bring it down!") and creates a whole new level of strategy. However you raise a valid point. Maybe a commandeer cap, limiting the number of ships that may be captured at a time, would be necessary to prevent someone from acquiring everything. Not everyone would enjoy this feature, but as a fellow sci-fiction military fan, I will tell you that the element of danger posed by a boarding team is very exciting to me.@ Wrath, you make a good point on #5. I considered this feature so AI wouldn't backstab humans, but I didn't consider the reverse of that. I'm sure that happens. Also, I'm not familiar with Space Empires, but now I'm curious. I did consider how many screens we already have, so this would be a feature that could be turned on and off for players who want to spy at the cost of another screen.Thanks again for the feedback. Please keep it coming!
Yeah, building alliances with the AI and then building starbases on all their worlds and then going to war and taking all their territory... is a very common tactic used against the AI, from what I've heard.
Simple solution is to code Hard level AI's or higher to do the same thing to their Allies
A very expensive one nonetheless.
@ Coridane: Always a pleasure! I think you and your friends did post some very interesting ideas. So keep up the good thinking and who knows, maybe we will see some of them back in Rebellion.
Nope, its the Ultimate ability for the Rapture Battlecruiser. Set to only effect Frigates (cruisers/frigates) and is very limited but the coding is there to expand upon.
And don't sweat the goofs.
Oh, I see. I'm still getting acquainted with the TEC so my experience is remarkably limited with Advent and Vasari. I look forward to learning all three eventually.
I think building starbases in an ally's territory should be considered hostile and reduce relationship points somewhat, just enough so that a starbase here and there to defend an ally can be mitigated by envoys, but building a ton would trigger break the alliance. Maybe if each starbase caused twice (or more) as much diplomatic damage as the previous. But coding AI's to do it would also be brilliant.
I've seen a good number of games where a defensive starbase built by another player (Vasari often) on an ally's front lines can mean the difference between that team's loss and a win.
More than one though in an "ally"'s gravity well could be easily considered hostile though.
1) DEFINITELY!!! Just in a previous play through I had my fleet run through the loaded pirate base when I swore I manually plotted their jump path around it. Fortunately, I only lost a few frigates while passing through.
2)I agree. Every time I find myself in a duel between my fleet and an enemy fleet of equal or superior power I hit the menu button then issue orders to my ships on who to shoot first (Caps and healers) and order my healers to stop fighting and save my Caps from blowing up. Seriously this pausing can be a feature for single player games against the AI. Maybe an elected few seconds pause for MP.
3) This could be good for empty gravity wells too. That way the AI can't sneak a colony frigate or Vasari Seeker to tag my mineral nodes. Also its embarassing when the enemy can take out my fully armed, armored, and advent meteorx2 starbase with just 2 Dunovs and 1 Sova Caps.
4) Capturing Ships. Why not? Advent can capture frigates with "Dominate" ability. Not sure about Caps. Though perhaps you could use such boarding teams for sabotage/demolish of enemy ships or structures too.
5) One of the reasons I play only FFA. I hate seeing my allies take and colonize worlds that I wanted myself. So yes please.
6) Espionage: How about agents instead? These are individuals whom come to your empire randomly and you can hire. 12 is the max. These agents you can send on scouting missions to eyeball gravity wells and can sabotage enemy ships and structures. You get to choose what you want them to destroy. High level ones being able to take out Starbases! They, also, gain experience with use. [Based off of Imperium Galactica 2: Alliances]
This is already possible. The Pause/Break key (I think) is by default bound to Pause, which works in both single-player and multiplayer.
Jikarta Navigator is the word you're looking for.
A starbase on its own is no threat, unless you defend it with at least a moderate fleet it's quite vulnerable!
Then play with Locked Teams and rush for the planets you want? When playing with AI at least I often rush for the planets closest to my allies so I can control them instead (and make more use of them). If I can't get it in time the planet was probably way too close to my other ally anyway.
You do know how to expand and colonize quickly right? Kill siege / colonize / build turret / have fleet move on?
here's a mod that allows two starbases in wormholes.
http://www.moddb.com/games/sins-of-a-solar-empire/downloads/two-starbases-in-wormholes
A video with 125 starbases in a usual gravity wheel... if they are "mobiles", like Vasari starbase, they stack very well in the Z axis : http://www.love-from-russia.be/g4_swarm-6.25_million_poly.avi
As the "Boarding ship", i was implemented in the now dead tri-pirate mod... not sure about it but i think that the Halo mod have something similar planned with flood capturing ship... in the 7DS mod, rogue race can capture frigate/cruiser ( not sure about capital )...
Point is that some of your request for rebellion don't need rebellion for have it implemented... it is already possible now !!!
That's true. Though I hope to see even the suggestions available in various mods implemented in the un-modded version. Fingers crossed!
On another note, I didn't know there was a Halo mod. That's cool.
Well, it have already happen in the past... by example, some elements from the TSOP mod was included in one of the patch...
And sins devs certainly read what is post on these forum... some request from player/modders was integrated in various patch/add-on... well, they cannot please everybody but they make a good job until now... pretty sure that some more heavy request like by example "firing angle" for weapons can be addressed in a futur SOASE II with new iron engine...
Entrenchment, Diplomacy and now Rebellion are only a new layer on the old iron engine... soon of later, some real limit will push Ironclad/Stardock to make something fully new, and then, it will be the right time for request heavy feature change...
http://www.moddb.com/mods/halo-sins-of-the-prophets
Well, you have sins mod for almost all sci-fi series... Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star War, Halo, Battlestar Galactica, etc...
And there is plenty of other mods, at various development stage who like very promising... a good example is the "Dawn of Victory" mod ( http://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-victory )... scroll down the moddb page and launch the latest video... in some way, the use of tactical icon for ship/structure can resolve your second point... when everything is so clear on screen, who need a tiny side tree who is always jumping...
Yeah, we'll see what happens. I'll enjoy the game either way, but if they like even one of my suggestions and implement it in Rebellion or another future release, I'll be ecstatic. Not only would it add value to the game for some, but it would feel good to know that I helped make that happen.
I knew there were a lot of various mods (Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, FreeSpace, etc.), but I didn't know about Halo. That's cool. I'm not a huge Halo fan, but I enjoyed the game.
2) Thanks for letting me know about that!
3) Yes that. I don't play Vasari too often. Voice work is painful for me to listen to.
4) I have seen my starbases, alone, take on entire fleets before and win by the skin of their teeth when fully upgraded and at max tech. Taking them out at 100% shields and hull with a dozen Ogrovs is understandable. Taking them out with only 3 Caps is just insulting.
5) Erm... I meant at late game, for example, when planets can be stronghold fortress worlds. Worlds that need a lot of firepower to take. I can take them in a blitzkrieg if I'm in a land-grab race. Also, I do boom expand at the game start then turtle a bit to establish an economy if that's what you meant.
If you play against opponents with silicon instead of a brain capable of strategic decisions, they're going to suicide their fleets on your starbases. I don't think Sins should be built around that.
Play the game with actual humans! It adds a whole new dimension to the game.
Building on the 2 starbase on wormhole idea. How about multiple starbases arround gas giants also?
i think the boarding idea is great, it's just something sins has been lacking, the ability to board capital ships
I like 1, 2, 5, and 6. maybe the wormhole one with some grav well tweaks..
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