SmellyTerror

Reply to Returning Armada overpowered in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Haven't seen the replay yet, but... ...what's to stop them building support cruisers (not that Vasari ones are worth much)? They have the bulk of their force built from free ships, doesn't that make research and building *easier*? My point stands, that Vasari are poor enough early game that returning armada needs to be pretty damn good, but having their only hope right at the end of a tech tree is a bit harsh. I'm amazed 3 Vasari got to RA against 2 Advent and a TEC - and if they did, I

Reply to Why is the player galactic enemy number 1? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Strange - usually my FFA (unlocked) games are a bit easy because the AIs are always murdering each other. Perhaps you were unlucky? Or did you have a much smaller fleet than anyone else? I'm not sure, but it seems that the AIs like to hit side who are weaker than them, which makes sense, really - the problem being that they all tend to slam the same person. Try not to be the weakest. Also "encourage" wars. Use the pirates to hit the stronger in an AI on AI fight, or send the weaker some

Reply to Returning Armada overpowered in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Well, Vasari does have a very hard time early on, so it's reasonable to expect they'll have something to turn the tide in the late game. But I'd agree that returning armada is a bit much - just that any nerf would have to come at a buff for their early game.

Reply to Is it just me or is the barrier to entry really high to SoaSE? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Yeah, capital ships have far less firepower than the same popcap of littlies. Capships are for their abilities, not their firepower.

Reply to frustrating AI in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Improvements in the AI expected in the next patch. I don't doubt this'll be fixed.

Vasari Assailant Charged Missiles - worse than useless in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

The Vasari Assailant (LRM) Frigate has, at level 4 military tech, the ability to toggle to charged missiles. This makes the assailant unable to move, turn at a vastly slower rate, in return for extra range and an attack that hits multiple targets. You would expect this to be a good thing. </FONT

Reply to Is it just me or is the barrier to entry really high to SoaSE? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Have you read the manual? There are also a few "I'm a newbie, please help" threads around here - have a rummage around. Otherwise, the game is pretty intuitive - just mess about and it should all become clear.

Reply to A bad whoppin (Advice on on defending aganst massive AI Armys). in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Not enough defense. Hangers = no. The AI sucks at takling planetary defence - they blunder straight into it. So make use of this and put all your turrets crammed together at the planet's edge, closest to the direction they're coming from (make sure the range circle gets the edge of the planet, so you can kill siege frigates). For each hanger you could have built 4 turrets. You don't need hangers against the AI - they rarely build many fighters, and they don't simply go around t

Reply to Complete noob's first game review in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

There's very very little advantage to be gained from movement in the z axis anyway, unless I'm missing something. It could help spread you out if your micro was crazy-good, but that's about it. Which is good, because I'm busy running an empire! I'd hate to have to stare with an unblinking gaze at every battle.

Reply to Question about AI spending in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

[quote]it makes solving the OP's enigma even more difficult [/quote] Not really (IMO). First, look at even Hard AI's buildings at almost any state of the game - they rarely use even half of their building slots, and frquently fail to research heaps of their possible techs, if they even build their labs. Second, these are Normal AIs, who get some "inefficiencies" built in.

Reply to Weird and Funs things in Sins? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Errr, there's no diplomacy with locked teams. Locked teams means one single force of 7 AI players vs you. The only things keeping me going are absolute control of the pirates, chicken AI fleets, and sweet, sweet Phase Gates (my defending fleets are always either fighting or jumping to a new fight).

Reply to Capital Ships vs Frigates/Cruisers in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

[quote]And, what does it mean? You need escorts for your caps! Nobody who knows what he is doing sends a lvl 10 capital flying alone but only with a decent amount of protection.[/quote] 1. The OP was asking about doing just that - using nothing but capital ships. 2. It's not really an issue of escorts - there's nothing you can do to stop an enemy fleet focussing on your level 10 capship. By late game fleets are easily big enough to pop a capship in a dozen seconds or less. Forw

Reply to King of the N00bs Review in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Imagine if the game had battles as micro-intensive as homeworld. How would you possibly have time to run your empire as well? You'd leave the battle to build up some colonies and do some research, and your whole fleet would be dead by the time you get back. The battles are slow and static because players are [B]not[/B] expected to sit perched over every fight. You sometimes have multiple fights going on, and you always have other things to be doing - this is a 4X game, not just 1X (eXte

Reply to Question about AI spending in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

The AI does some really weird stuff at the moment, and I'm expecting a pretty serious overhaul in the patch (due fairly soon).

Reply to Weird and Funs things in Sins? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Doing the Achievements are probably worth while, as long as you don't wuss-out and play against easy AIs to do most of them (it really should record the conditions for each). I'm playing alone against 7 lock-team hard AIs. That's been pretty intense.

Reply to Follow ship command? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Double click on a unit to lock the camera to it, then zoom until you're looking out the front. If there is a way to get a proper cockpit-type view, I don't know what it is...

Reply to Bumbs in the road in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

1. You will often have too much of one resource - just look on the map for areas where you can get more of what you need, and invade that. Otherwise, yeah, black market, as much as that hurts. Try getting lots of trade ports for more money, and if you are strong in one resource, sell some of it to buy the other. 2. Groups work quite well, yeah. Ships tend to have a favoured target, so having different ship types in different groups makes focus firing a lot easier.

Reply to Capital Ships vs Frigates/Cruisers in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Nope. Well, not in a stand up fight. Frigates and cruisers have far more damage and health for the same amount of popcap. So in a gunnery fight, no, not even close. However, there are pretty funky ability combos you can pull off with capital ships. The Advent are especially good at it. Depending on just how badly outnumbered you are, it is possible to win with abilities - at least against the AI. Humans will generally be harder to trick.

Reply to newbie needs help getting started in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Welcome. :) I know people play in about a million different ways, so these walkthroughs aren't the be-all and end-all, but I always find a stupidly detailed guide helps me by catching the little things I may never have thought of.

Reply to Suggestions for AI improvements in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Yeah, good additions - resource extractors and better fleet makeup. Perhaps some "best case" fleet makeups, preselected? Again, I know this is cheesy, and some random / experience variation could be added, along with some really random builds, but it seems a good way to make sure computer players have fleets that make sense. So, for example, a "carrier" fleet builder goes for something like 40% carriers, 15% cruisers, 10% lrms, 10% capitals and 5% siege frigates, 20% anti-whatever-the-e

Reply to Horrible game....What am I missing?? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Pesky: first, we were talking about the AI, who doesn't hunt down builders. Second, for anti-human, keep in mind how long it takes to build a turret. If you get there fast enough you'll pop the nascent turret in one hit. If you don't, you've still got ages to nail the builder. And if they've got a fully upgraded planet then you really should have a pretty sizable force to hit it with. Third, especially for humans, humans go 'round. You will never need to kill all the turrets at

Reply to newbie needs help getting started in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Here's a short custom walkthrough, just for you! This is a Dreaded Build Order, which you will of course completely ignore once you have a few wins under your belt. I know from experience that this'll beat 4 lock-teamed hard AIs (if played a touch more defensively), and I'm trying it against 7 right now. Not necessarily great against a human, but it should get you started. Ok, this will assume you're Vasari, since I'm at work and it's the only side I know well enough do talk about witho

Reply to Can we be honorable warriors in Sins....... in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

[quote]However these enemies are not human. It makes no sense to apply the same rules to them. [/quote] Yes, they are. This is TEC space, and most of the populations are TEC humans. Read the Vasari and Advent civ upgrades - they are ways of opressing or converting more of the native populations. In fact, just read my posts above.

Reply to Suggestions for AI improvements in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Better? :) Thanks for pointing that out - I'm in the TGN version, so it's a white background.

Reply to Horrible game....What am I missing?? in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Right, so you see the problem? We went from a thread about the game being hard, with advice being given to make it easier and perhaps a discussion about whether or not it is actually too hard and what might be done about it... ...to a discussion over whether or not it's boring, which has nothing to do with what we were talking about. This is called hijacking the thread. It's rude. If you want to talk about the game being boring, start a thread about the game being boring. Of co