Release Status: *** RELEASED ***
May’s flowers bring our Faith and Fire update to all loyal Sinners! This month we’re introducing new population orbital structures for the three races. These new buildings will enhance a planet’s population growth by encouraging immigration. The Advent receives another large balance pass this month, along with a new planetary Focus track to invest in. We’ve also added a number of new planet items for all races focused around the Hive Asteroid and the Oceanic planet. Planetary Shields have been overhauled in v1.42 as well. Planetary shields no longer provide invulnerability to a world and now behave like normal unit shields with health pools and shield burst mechanics, adding needed depth to planetary bombardment and superweapon counterplay.
In addition to balance and new content, we’ve made lots of new visual FX improvements/additions to the game. These along with some performance optimizations should make your battles better than ever. Last, but not least, we’ve added a new 1v1 map called ‘Cutthroat’ for all players. This map pits you in close quarters against your enemy in a largely devasted tiny solar system.
We have upgraded to the latest Discord SDK and enhanced our Rich Presence implementation. This allows you to showcase your activities in Sins of a Solar Empire II and invite your friends to join you!
When you’re playing, Sins II Discord users will be able to see what you’re up to:
When you start up Sins 2 the Discord overlay will invite you to play with your friends who are already in-game:
Once you have a lobby up, you can invite players individually or in our community Discord!
Once you hit that invite button Discord users will be given the option to join your match right in the chat:
We will provide further updates regarding our efforts to enhance the implementation of Discord support in later updates.
On Steam
Select ‘Sins of a Solar Empire II’ in your Steam Library.
Click the gear icon in the upper right.
Select Properties → Betas
Select one of the listed versions from the Beta Participation dropdown.
Steam will update you to those files.
Superweapon Gravity Well Limit added. A planet can now only support one Novalith or Deliverance Engine at a time.
Novalith base range reduced from 25 to 15.
Novalith cost increased from 5000/1000/1500 to 5000/1500/2000.
Novalith Exotic Cost increased from 3 Tauranite / 1 Quarnium to 3 Tauranite / 2 Quarnium.
Novalith Unlock tech cost changed from 1 Tauranite to 1 Quarnium.
Novalith Range tech cost increased from 2 Tauranite to 2 Tauranite and 1 Quarnium.
Fixed TEC Marza missile launchers from firing everything out of the one muzzle.
Fixed missing Chinese characters in font files.
Added in new faction population structures, providing a stacking 25% population growth bonus to the planet they are built at:
TEC Orbital Transit Hub
Vasari Labor Distribution Center
Advent Temple of Congregation
Added new map - Cutthroat: In this small system both players have very limited resources to compete with. What will you do? There are minor factions you could destroy, but then you’ll lose access to the markets. There’s a gas giant in the system, but you’ll need to tech up to colonize it. Hidden are two powerful artifacts which could decide it all, if you can find them first!
Changed Planetary Shields to no longer be invulnerable. Planet shields now use shield points, passive regeneration and shield burst like other units. While a planet still has Shield Points, any bombardment damage will be unable to kill population.
All Faction Starbase Planetary Shield item stats set to:
Shield Points: 10,000
Shield Regeneration: 100/s
Shield Burst Restore Cooldown: 30s
Shield Burst Restore Percentage: 50%
TEC Ankylon Planetary Shield item stats set to:
Shield Points: 5,000
Shield Regeneration: 250/s
Shield Burst Restore Cooldown: 15s
Shield Burst Restore Percentage: 100%
Ancient Starbase Planetary Shield item stats set to:
Shield Points: 25,000
Shield Regeneration: 500/s
Rebalanced Planetary Population:
Planets now start with higher population levels, especially homeworld archetype planets.
Planets now have slightly lower population growth rates.
Planet Track availability rebalanced to better reflect planet intended value and role. Commerce track levels in particular are more common on most planet types.
Commerce Planet Track now provides base credit income and per pop credit income at all levels. Commerce income rates are also higher on most planets.
Mining Tracks now only provide base income values when a planet has only one resource type available, otherwise they provide per pop income only. Base income, when present, now scales with track level. For example, a Terran planet provides both Metal and Crystal per pop, but no base income. A Volcanic planet provides both base and per pop Metal income, but no Crystal income of any sort. A Crystalline planet provides both base and per pop Crystal income, but no Metal income of any sort.
Mining ratios have now been assigned based on faction bias instead of arbitrary Metal bias. This means that instead of Metal bringing in more income than Crystal in all cases, each faction brings in a higher rate from their preferred resource. This should better align the faction economies to match their intended and expected resource profiles, generating shortages and surpluses along factional lines instead of universally generating a Metal surplus and a Crystal and Credit shortage.
TEC Metal and Crystal incomes no longer vary.
Vasari now collect Metal at a higher rate than Crystal (functionally no change from previous patch resource income ratio).
Advent now collect Crystal at a higher rate than Metal (inverted compared to previous patch resource income ratio).
Planet Track level maximum values no longer vary with faction (with the exception of Commerce being unavailable to Vasari and Focus being available only to Advent). This will help planet types retain their identity consistently, especially with so many more planet types now present.
Additional Item slots added to several planet types to accommodate the greater number of planet items in the game.
Increased base Max Allegiance from 20% to 50%. This should incur more cases of needing to convert enemy allegiant pops when dealing with contested planets.
Reduced Allied Pop bonus scalar from 1.0 to 0.5, which means that at 50% Allegiant Population on a planet will receive 25% bonus income from population sources.
Advent
Added three new ship items:
Consecration Inducer - rapidly regenerates shield points, especially when empowered by a high Psi Power.
Structural Force Field - grants bonus hull points and an active instant hull point repair.
Votary Siphon - a new consumable item that provides a small amount of Psi Power passively and a large amount when activated. The Votary Siphon replaces the Psintegrat Choir as the free starting item for the Advent.
Added one new planet item for the Hive asteroid:
Neural Stimulator - grants bonus Max Focus and Focus regeneration per population.
Added one new planet item for the Oceanic planet:
Pelagic Interface Relay - grants bonus Max Focus and Focus regeneration.
Added new Advent planet track for Focus. Planets now act as the primary source of Focus for Unity abilities, granting Max Focus based on Focus track level and Focus Regeneration based on population and Focus Track level. Planets favored by the Advent, such as Desert, Barren and Geomagnetic all have higher available Focus Track levels. Focus Track now also acts as a prerequisite for construction of Unity Temple structures, at a rate of 1 Temple available per Focus Track level completed on the planet.
Advent homeworld starting bonus now includes Focus track at level 2.
Base Focus reduced from 1,000 to 100.
Base Focus regeneration reduced from 0.5 to 0.1.
Focus research subjects now give double the previous max. Focus points, but lower Focus regeneration rates. Focus windfall bonuses have also been increased.
Cynosural Reservoir planet item - decreased Max Focus point bonus from 200 to 100.
NeuroAugment Center planet item - effect changed from +0.3 Focus Regeneration to +30% Focus per population.
NeuroPsion Purifier planet item - decreased empire wide Focus regeneration rate bonus from 15% to 10%.
Rebalanced Advent Unity abilities: Focus capacity and regeneration is now more dynamic and generally more abundant, requiring Unity abilities to cost more Focus overall. Cooldowns have also been increased, and are now a factor with leveling to provide some additional incentive to level abilities that provide most of their function at level 1 (like Recall). Max level Unity abilities remain largely rate limited by Focus expenditure and throughput however.
Added Sacrifice Unity ability to Advent Reborn. A remake of the classic Wail of the Sacrificed function from Rebellion. This ability allows the Reborn to sacrifice all of their allegiant population on a planet to generate a large damage wave at that planet and all adjacent planets, dealing more damage for each pop sacrificed - but beware! It deals friendly fire damage as well!
Re-Added Conversion Unity ability to Advent Wrath:
Requires 50% Allegiant population to activate.
Level upgrade requirements decreased from 3/7/12 to 3/6/9 Unity points
Focus cost increased from 100/200/300 to 1000/1000/1000.
Cooldown time changed from 180/120/60 to 480/300/120.
No longer increases population loss from bombardment; increases bombing damage to 50/100/150.
For enemy planets:
Removed detection constraint (i.e., visibility)
Added requirement that planet must have 50% allied population.
For neutral planets:
Removed detection constraint
Added requirement that planet must be within dominant culture of the Advent player or an ally.
Avatar Unity ability:
Cooldown increased from 30 sec to 240/150/60 sec.
Focus cost from 200 to 500.
Chastise Unity ability:
Cooldown changed from 120 sec to 360/225/90 sec.
Focus cost from 200 to 300.
Ship Max Speed values from 30/45/60 to 15/22.5/30.
Missile Max Speed values from 60/90/120 to 30/45/60.
Cleanse Unity ability:
Increased Focus cost from 100 to 200.
Cooldown increased from 30 sec. to 240/150/60 sec.
Hull restore increased from 0.3/0.45/0.6 to 0.6/0.75/0.9.
Clairvoyance Unity ability:
Cooldown changed from 60 sec to 120/75/30 sec.
Focus cost from 75 to 100.
Fury Unity ability:
Focus cost increased from 300 to 900
Cooldown changed from 150 sec. to 420/240/90 sec.
Duration changed from 30/45/60 sec. to 45/45/45 sec.
Damage bonus increased from 15/20/25 to 20/30/40.
Penetration increased from 500 to 1000.
Proselytize Unity ability:
Focus cost increased from 75 to 200.
Cooldown changed from 120 sec. to 360/225/90 sec.
Duration changed from 30/60/90 sec. to 30/45/60 sec.
Culture rate changed from 3/6/9 to 3/4/5.
Now provides a bonus to population assimilation of 30%/40%/50%.
Recall Unity ability:
Focus cost increased from 200 to 300.
Cooldown changed from 60 to 360/225/90 sec.
Hull point restoration decreased from 33%/66%/100% to 30%/45%/60% of max.
Armor point restoration decreased from 33%/66%/100% to 30%/45%/60% of max.
Shield point restoration decreased from 33%/66%/100% to 30%/45%/60% of max.
While Recall is charging, Weapons, Phase Jump and Abilities are all disabled.
Resurrection Unity ability:
Added requirement that targets be in dominant culture of the Advent player or an ally.
Cooldown increased from 60 to 480/300/120 sec.
Ability changed from random chance to Max Fleet Supply per cast of 20/30/40 per second for 15 seconds, for a maximum potential of 300/450/600 resurrected supply per cast.
Sanctify Unity ability:
Cooldown time changed from 90 sec. to 300/180/60 sec.
Removed detection constraint.
Refined Warheads research moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2.
Kinetic Focusing research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3.
Kinetic Cascade research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4.
Anima Redirection research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3.
Rapture and Revelation missile Pierce values changed from 150 to 200.
Transcencia Starbase and Eradica Titan missile Pierce changed from 300 to 400.
Rebalanced Advent Consumable Items:
Plasma Nova Generator is now an aura attached to the casting ship, allowing the enemy to escape its effects by moving away, similar to how Radiation Bomb and Subspace Rupture function.
All Advent consumable items now grant a passive effect while equipped to the ship. This bonus is lost when the item is fully consumed.
Antimatter Pod - 20% Antimatter regeneration rate.
Plasma Nova Generator - -10% Plasma weapon and Plasma planet bombing reload.
Shield Battery - 20% Shield regeneration rate.
Rebalanced Advent Psi Power scaling on items:
Brilliance Array Antimatter regeneration Psi Power ratio changed from 0.001 to 0.003.
PsiKinetic Plating Armor point bonus increased from +25% to +50%; Armor strength Psi Power ratio increased from 0.25 to 0.3.
Vex Amplifier weapon cooldown bonus Psi Power ratio changed from -0.002 to -0.003r.
Synchronous Shield item rebalanced:
Max Shield point bonus increased from 15%/25% to 35%/50%.
Shield Burst restore bonus increased from 15%/25% to 35%/50%.
Reworked Advent Rapture Battlecruiser’s Malice ability to have a max target count. This was a necessary change as the ability was heavily degrading performance. Malice duration reduced from 30 to 20 sec.; radius reduced from 3000 to 2500; damage increased from 0.03 to 0.3 per damage inflicted with a Psi Power ratio of 0.001.
Progenitor Mothership Colonize ability bonus changed from granting free Research tracks to Focus tracks.
Updated Hydrostatic Shield Dome Max Population point bonus from 150 to 75/175.
Added Kinetic Dampening Tech to Advent (upgrade for the Hydrostatic Dome).
Wrath Global Unity tech now provides Culture Rate when a planet reaches Focus Track level of 3.
Destra Crusader Super Heavy Plasma damage per shot increased from 140 to 175.
TEC
Added one new ship item:
Core Systems Armor - providing improvements to Hull and Armor points.
Added two new planet items to the Hive Asteroid:
Xeno Emporium - providing Import points.
Xeno Tech Lab - providing both civilian and military research points.
Added two new planet items to the Oceanic planet:
Resort Complex - providing significant bonus Influence and Influence recharge rate.
Aquaculture Harvester - providing improvements to Population growth rate and Credit export points.
Homeworld starting Commerce Track level decreased from 4 to 3; starting Mining Track level decreased from 2 to 1.
Asteroid Commerce Mandate research bonus decreased from 50% to 25%.
Terran Commerce Mandate research bonus decreased from 25% to 10%.
Increased Novalith Range from 15/20 to 25/40. At 25 AU (base range before upgrade) it should now be able to attack roughly a quarter of the Random 10 Player map. At 40 AU it can attack roughly half of the map, or if built in the center of the map, almost the entire map.
Rebalanced ship items costs to enable more variety and better scaling for capital ships - most notably Heavy Gauss Slugs.
Ablative Armor Ship Item:
Ablative Armor is intended to be a more niche, conditional selection for TEC capital ships to use when faced with mass Exoria Illuminator or Beam Modulator Vasari capitals. Therefore, it has been made cheaper to access (tier 2) and better at resisting beams specifically, but provides a lesser universal bonus (Armor Strength) compared to its counterpart.
Research unlock moved from tier 3 to tier 2.
Raw damage prevented increased from 20% to 50% per point dealt.
Removed max Armor point bonus.
Adds 25 points to Armor Strength.
Reactive Plating Ship Item
Reactive Plating is intended to be somewhat more universally useful compared to its counterpart Ablative Armor, therefore it has been given an improved Armor Strength bonus to ensure it is useful even when faced with non-missile attacks.
Research unlock moved from tier 2 to tier 4.
Removed Max Armor point bonus.
Adds 50 points to Armor Strength.
Radiation Bomb Unit Item
Now applies a Shield, Hull and Armor Regeneration penalty of 25/50%.
Damage increased from 10/15 to 15/15.
Duration decreased from 45/60 to 45/45 sec.
Armor Pierce increased from 250 to 500.
Armor Patch Kit Unit Item
Armor point restore rate increased from 15 to 20 per sec.
Vasari
Inertial Anchor - slows missile and strikecraft speed and acceleration significantly near the ship while active.
Added four new planet items to the Hive asteroid:
Cloning Vats - Increases the Population and Population growth rate of the Hive Asteroid.
Closed Cycle Refinery - Allows the Hive asteroid to function as an Exotic Refinery.
Compliance Inducer - Increases the maximum Allegiance, population assimilation rate and Culture resistance of the Hive asteroid.
Industrial Nanoforge - Increases the build rate of ship factories at the Hive asteroid.
City Planet Core Strip value increased from 15,000 Metal and 5,000 Crystal to 25,000 Metal and 10,000 Crystal.
Deconstruction Nanites Planet Item Base Metal income rate increased from 3.6 to 4.8, but can no longer be built on Hive Asteroids or Ship Graveyards. This should increase the relative value of the City Planet for the Vasari, while ensuring that the presence of a Hive asteroid or Ship Graveyard doesn’t give them an extreme economic power spike - especially now that the Hive asteroid provides other forms of Vasari specific items.
Rebalanced economic tech and items to favor boosting base values in several cases, which should enable a slightly less pop dependent playstyle for the Vasari.
Rebalanced beam tech and items to apply to planetary bombardment beams.
Numerous tooltip improvements.
(Paths to Power) Updated Treasure Hunt scenario to display “Enemies Eliminated”.
(Paths to Power) Updated Last Stand to be easier in the first 20 waves.
(Paths to Power) Added button to Escape menu to re-display scenario details.
Added per population research point stats to research planet track.
Added UI and text for new stats.
Added scalar for priority targets range. Allows a unit (which must be able to move) to seek priority targets based on a multiplier of max weapon range. This should ensure that units engage preferred targets more reliably instead of getting distracted with whatever is in range.
Removed ability disable from Magnetic Cloud and replaced it with ability cost and cooldown penalties of 50%.
Adjusted planet_phase_lane_max_distance_radius_scalar on the Random 10 Player map to greatly reduce instances of unintended phase lane layouts in homeworld clusters.
planet_phase_lane_max_distance_radius_scalar
Added Primordial planets to the random rich spawn list. They should now appear about as often as Ferrous and Crystalline planets.
Added initial Discord social SDK features.
Optimized memory pool sizes for visual effects, mesh instances, buffs and unit items.
Made optimizations to RAM usage.
Updated auction notifications so that they appear and stay fixed to the left side of the notification area.
Fixed bug where max population was using base max population instead of max population for planet modifiers.
Optimized ‘Privateer' achievement to be less CPU intensive. This should improve performance overall in the early game.
Fixed but that caused random factions to be selected when loading a multiplayer save game.
Updated Shield Burst point buffs to be green when positive in tooltips.
Fixed some Alert messages from appearing in mod games that were built on older data.
Updated Korean translations (thanks to everyone who’s helping with this!).
(Paths to Power) Fixed issue so that scenario settings don’t change general user prefs.
(Paths to Power) Fixed bug that allowed humans to hot join and/or takeover AI lobby slots in Last Stand multiplayer.
(Paths to Power) Fixed bug that allowed players to change AI difficulty levels when the scenario called for certain difficulties to be blocked.
(Paths to Power) Fixed unique scenario MP games using the last used lobby options. Allowed certain settings to be overridden.
(Paths to Power) Added homeworld victory to Last Stand scenario. It’s intended that if a player’s homeworld is destroyed, the game is over.
(Paths to Power) Fixed View Leaderboard button displaying when there’s no Leaderboard for a scenario.
(Paths to Power) Fixed Scenario Details button in Last Stand breaking pausing and causing the game movement to stutter.
(Paths to Power) Added button to Escape menu to show the full scenario details dialog for reference.
(Paths to Power) Added description to the Vasari ‘Mad Titan’ tooltip.
(Paths to Power) Fixed bug that prevented the Vasari ‘Mad Titan’ from spawning on loaded games.
Updated TEC Sova ambient vfx.
Updated TEC Dunov Magnetic Singularity vfx.
Added Advent Consecration Inducer vfx.
Added Advent Votary Siphon vfx.
Updated TEC Ragnarov Piercing Shot vfx.
Updated TEC Ragnarov Explosive Shot vfx.
Updated Advent Reborn Chastic Burst vfx.
Updated TEC Dunov Concussion Charge vfx.
Updated TEC Dunov EMP vfx.
Updated TEC Dunov Overcharge vfx.
Updated TEC Marza Concussion Charge muzzle vfx.
Updated TEC Kol Adaptive Forcefield vfx.
Added Vasari Loyalist titan Desperation vfx.
Added Advent starbase planetary shield vfx.
Updated/optimized Pirate point defense vfx.
Added Vasari starbase planetary shield vfx.
Added TEC starbase planetary shield vfx.
Updated/optimized TEC autocannon muzzle vfx.
Updated/optimized TEC gauss cannon vfx.
Added new Advent missile exhaust vfx.
Updated Vasari heavy beam weapon vfx.
Removed point light from point defense autocannon muzzles.
Updated Advent strikecraft exhaust vfx.
Updated titan level-up vfx.
Added new Suppression vfx.
Updated Dissever vfx.
Updated Nullify vfx.
Added planet elevator explosions.
Updated planet bombing vfx (all).
Added Plasma Nova Generator vfx.
Added Inertial Anchor vfx.
Planetary Shield System:
Planets can now have Shield Points, Shield Restore Rate as well as Shield Burst stats (cooldown and percentage) assigned to their innate Defense Track levels in factional .player files.
Planets still require the enable_can_have_shields_burst_restored unit mutation in order to gain Shield Burst.
enable_can_have_shields_burst_restored
Planetary shield stats can all be assigned via buffs, meaning that any Ability can be used to grant Shields to planets dynamically - including items and planet bonuses.
Sources of Planet Shields stack as long as the provider buffs applying them are allowed to stack, ensuring that a Planet Shield could potentially be made more powerful through multiple sources.
Focus Planet Track:
Supports mana_restore_rate, mana_restore_rate_per_population, bonus_max_mana, bonus_max_mana_per_population, and max_unity_provider_count, as well as the usual max_health_points provided by all planet tracks.
mana_restore_rate
mana_restore_rate_per_population
bonus_max_mana
bonus_max_mana_per_population
max_unity_provider_count
max_health_points
This track type is hidden if a faction does not make use of the Unity system.
Added scalar for priority targets range. Allows a unit (which must be able to move) to seek priority targets based on a multiplier of max weapon range.
Added new action_value_transform_type: per_planet_owner_allied_population_points
action_value_transform_type
per_planet_owner_allied_population_points
Added new planet modifier types: mana_restore_rate_per_population and bonus_max_mana_per_population
(Paths to Power) Added new unique scenario key to change a player’s starting assets - player_starting_assets
player_starting_assets
(Paths to Power) Added required_players to scenario info.
required_players
I'd just like to say that this update was one of the best in terms of consistency (at least from an advent player perspective). From the faction economy fixes, to the new advent unity/focus dynamic and to the simple but game changing planetary shields. Everything makes sense and ties perfectly with the total subjugation update (population mechanics update).
I find it really interesting that this game is relatively basic and simple from a content perspective (number of ship/structure models, number of factions, campaign, types of resources, story/lore, game modes, art) but quite deep and complex from a gameplay perspective (economy, combat, fleet management, minor faction diplomacy, expansion strategies, research paths) which is what games should be about, GAMEplay.
Suggestions for future updates:
1. Better Diplomacy:
2. Fix bugged Abilities and tooltip errors:
3. Useless research/items/abilities:
4. Add Research for more Capital/Titan Ship Item Slots
5. Quality of life improvements:
6. Unlock faction specific Homeplanet special items (e. g. the GREATER temples of pilgrimage/purification) for faction favoured planets (Desert/Terran/Ferrous Planets). It's disappointing that after scuttling the Home Planet's Greater Temple of Pilgrimage it is permanently lost.
Thank you for the game and frequent updates! I wish you all the best!
Kind regards!
Yay!
I agree this patch seems to have a heavy pro-Advent bent. As a mostly Vasari Alliance player it does seem like they're really getting the short end of the stick!!!
The TEC uses limited trade port slots to get bonus resources, and\or as an alternate to orbital mining.
Advent build Unity temples to gain special powers - recon, AoE DoT, AoE Slow etc. Current Advent Unity requirements are 2x3x(1+2+3)=36 points but the value varies significantly. A single point in Clairvoyance suffices for irregular recon while for 3x1 point you can basically keep 5 planets under permanent observation, assuming you have sufficient focus. Chastise tends to benefit more from 3x2 points going from 60 seconds of -15% speed & turn speed every 7 minutes to -45% every 90 seconds. With 3x2 points in Avatar you can keep one ship e.g. your titan, with permanent +30% energy weapon damage and +100 psi power. And with 3x3 points in Fury you get 45s of 40/s damage in a 4500 radius (9000 diameter) area with a 90 second cooldown. Then there's Conversion which is basically an Advent Novalith on steroids - 3x3 points means 150/s damage for 120 seconds which will wipe any world that isn't protected by a planetary shield - 10,000 HP + 100/s regen. Regen per second less damage per second leaves 50/s times 120 seconds worth of damage or 60% of a planetary shield. It requires 50% allegiance admittedly but Advent are supposed to be the culture specialists so that shouldn't really be a problem. Thus Advent can annihilate worlds without even sending a fleet in!
Vasari Phase Resonance feels both far more limited, and far far more expensive at 3x(1+2+3+4+5) = 45 points. At the base level you get what, 2 minutes of benefit after exiting a phase lane? Unlock phasic Strike (Tier 3) and you get another 2 minutes, and Resonance Master (Tier 4) extends this to a total of 6 minutes. Yes you can get the Tier 2 Resonance Amplifier Unlock (+200% Duration), but that requires resources - roughly akin to 3x Karrastra Destructors per item, and a ship slot. Late game Phase Resonance is great, assuming you can capture the roughly 25 planets you need to unlock everything, but on maps where you are restricted to 10, or less, you're forced to decide whether to prioritise speed, damage, or reduced antimatter costs and cooldowns, or ignore Phase Resonance entirely! Since it takes 30 seconds for a Lasurak Transporter to cross most of a tiny Dead Asteroid system, and note this is with a slight speed boost, and a full 60 seconds for a Jarrasul Evacuator to cross an Ice Field system, the basic buff vanishes very very quickly if you aren't simply transiting straight through a system, or exiting a phase lane straight into combat. If you enter a system with a large gravity well - and I'm not even meaning the planetary bonus\penalty kind, and the enemy fleet is on the opposite side, you can waste half the buff time just travelling to get to them, and the remainder will expire 3-10 salvos later depending on the weapon type - Heavy Wave Cannon or Beam versus Heavy Phase Missile. Late game you're less likely to be limited to 60 seconds of buffed combat, but it does mean it's borderline useless early game, and completely useless in anything other than offensive action - unless you go full turtle and can keep a defence force sitting in another system at the phase lane leading to your frontline system.
Advent Unity temple slots are also vastly more available than Phase Resonance slots. A quick look at the Replay of one match suggests an average of about 2.5 per planet to Phase Resonance's 1.5 per planet i.e. Vasari need more to unlock everything, but get less. It looks like Advent get 4x Unity temples for Desert and Barren worlds, 2 for Oceanic, 1 for Asteroid, 0 for Gas Giant, and 3 for other worlds. They also get up to 3 points per Mothership via the Unity Meditation ability which is a dump stat with Shield Regeneration and maybe Colonisation being the key abilities - the Jiskun Expeditionary Force's Level 1 Colony Seed Nanites turns any capital ship with a spare slot into the equivalent of an Akkan\Progenitor\Jarrasul with level 2 Colonise, or you can drag along a colony frigate. TEC do get an additional slot on some world types, but since Trade Port costs 2 orbital slots it's something of a trade off - more slots yes, but they have to sacrifice asteroid mining to get their Trade Ports, and Trade Ports cost more than asteroid mines. On the other hand once you've unlocked all your Unity powers, or Phase Resonance buffs, you don't need any more whereas you can just keep building Trade Ports to keep increasing the TEC's increasingly ridiculous economic advantage. And of course from what I've read it looks like the general consensus is Trade Ports are more profitable than asteroid mines even early game so if a TEC player can find the resources to build them rather than asteroid mines ...
Another issue that appears to be overlooked is that while the Vasari Alliance are supposed to be the diplomatic faction, that seems to be a purely early game benefit. The Vasari Alliance's Alliance Consulate grants +1 Influence, +36% recharge. The Alliance Xeno Settlement grants +1 Influence, +12% Recharge but is only buildable on Volcano or Ferrous planets. There's also the Vasari Administrative Uplink which grants +1 Influence, but increasing your influence cap doesn't change the recharge does it? (Still not sure how recharge calculations work) Oh!!! There's also the Alliance Embassy Unlock with +3 Influence, +18% Recharge. Have I ever built that? Given it's apparently restricted to City planets - not sure I've ever seen those, Desert planets - often only the homeworld of an Advent player, Oceanic planet - common but rarely in my area, Primordial planets - less common, and Terran planets - slightly more common than Desert planets but still rare ... Can we please have a Hoth Embassy option etc? 😁
The TEC get +15% recharge via Ice worlds' Ice Processing Facility, and now +3 Influence and +25% recharge via Oceanic worlds' Resort Complex. There's also +25% via the Tier 3 Ostentatious Displays tech. And the Tier 2 Media Conglomerate unlock both boosts culture, and grants +1 Influence per Broadcast Centre. There's also War Reporter but eh, who wastes the ship slot? Media Conglomerate + 1x Broadcast Centre per planet, plus the Ice Processing Facility - and Ice worlds are as common as Volcanic, mean the TEC has comparable Influence to the Vasari Alliance, and likely more given Trade Ports boost culture which generates influence.
Advent get the Telepathic Relay unlock at Tier 2 which offers +1 Influence, +10% recharge, +10% culture rate, and can either be built on every type of planet or close to it. While slightly weaker on paper than the the TEC options, those are locked to Ice or Oceanic worlds, or only increase the Influence, not the actual recharge rate - I'm still not clear on how that's calculated. And since Advent emphasise culture ... It's basically a Xeno Settlement that can be built on any planet rather than just Volcanic or Ferrous, and offers a culture rate boost, which spills over into bonus influence generation, rather than the population.
Per the midpoint in a recent match, an Advent player had 4x Telepathic Relays giving a +40% Generation Bonus from Infrastructure, and this is with half the planets having no item slots used, and the other half only having some slots used, while the Alliance was at +60% via 1x Ferrous homeworld with Alliance Consulate, 1x Volcanic world with Xeno Settlement, and no other possible worlds to build on. The Advent Generation Bonus from Culture however was ridiculous at +131% from 5x Temple of Communion in 5 different systems, with of course the 4x Telepathic Relays, and 1x Manifest Dominion - yes I get the +100% Culture Rate likely helped, but it's just ridiculous compared to the Alliance's +29% from 5x Xeno Relations Centres in 3 different systems. FWIW the Culture Rate was +48% prior to the capture of the Manifest Dominion world and took half an hour or so to rise - not quite sure why, suppression by surrounding enemy systems? To put it another way, it appears the Advent got more influence generation from culture than the Alliance with less culture generating infrastructure, and would have had more from infrastructure - almost double in fact, had Telepathic Relays been built in empty planetary slots!!! Should the Advent really have three times the influence generation capacity of the Alliance?
There's probably other points but this post is already more than long enough!!!
FWIW I do agree the diplomacy side of the game needs some TLC. If you don't get an ceasefire in the first few minutes of the game then it doesn't happen. SoaSE1 had somewhat more complex diplomacy, though to be fair that required an expansion, and other games are even more in depth.
Nope on the Titan proposal. 8 Slots is fine, but restricting it to 3 offense, 3 defence, 2 utility would be a pain! My standard loadout is the Kultorask Phase Missile Launchers when available (T5 now), 3x Weapon Boost - Beam Modulator + Wave Modulator + Phase Missile Augments, Enhanced Nano Emitters - probably utility, Gravity Stabilizer - speed enhancement so likely utility, and then a couple of other things that fit my fancy e.g. Aluxian Military Observers - More XP and maybe faster ability cooldowns, or the Weapon Symbiote or Kinetic Intensifier artifacts. So defensive options likely get ignored as killing power and speed is more important. Obviously YMMV.
It would be interesting if your T5 upgrade to 10 item slots suggestion was applied to Starbases.
Agree that an orphan unit finder - scouts, colony ships etc, could be very useful!
Thank you for the update.
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