Smacksim

Reply to Having trouble completing missions. in Strategy Sins Forums

OK, that's enough that you can attack 1 and have the other 2 reward you for your efforts, but it'll be close. Generally, the idea is to pick a single front and keep attacking/attriting that enemy until they are dead and their planets are yours. Makes strategic sense, and the mission system supports it. There is something that triggers the AI offering harrassment missions against another AI, and I think it has to do with combat-ship contact with said enemy. So, if all your comba

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire v1.03 full change log in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

This is going to be a very different game! I think the LRM changes look interesting and possibly very good. We'll have to see how the games go with the changes. I really don't get the siege changes. I have to agree that they seem nearly worthless now. The other changes look immense. This is a major update and I think the whole game will take re-learning, especially in SP. This is great, as I think the majority of early-adopters have exhausted the SP game as it was. The listed c

Reply to Having trouble completing missions. in Strategy Sins Forums

Gahtren, How many enemy AI are you facing? What kind of map are you playing? These greatly influence how to handle diplomacy...

Reply to Pirate Bidding Strategy in Strategy Sins Forums

Do you really want to know? Kinda makes the game too easy if you do. **********spoiler***************** Really. **********spoiler!***************** Either: 1. Bid x+250 on two different factions at once. They'll continue to bid each other up, instead of you. X is the value of the current bounty on you. or 2. Bid a massive amount, all at once, on a single AI. Early game: 1000-2000 should do. Mid-game maybe 2500-4000. Also, the AI

Reply to Vasari RA, TEC insurgents, Advent....... in Strategy Sins Forums

I think the devs tried to balance the factions more subtly, not on a per-unit or per-tech-level manner. Advent might be better at defense, but this is an offensive capacity: less fleet have to stay home to defend. Likewise, maybe their tier 8 abilities are not as economically solid as others, but they suit Advent strengths very well. Balance in total, not per tech.

Reply to About the capital ship factory... in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]As far as how I'm going to test the scuttling strategy, I'm going to start out on a larger map, with no pirates, and a fortify AI so that I don't have to deal with enemy ships, I just want to test the economic engine.After the game starts and I build my first Cap colony ship, I'm going to save the game so that both simulations have the same resource distribution. [B]The first game I will not scuttle, and see how long it takes to get the second capital ship up and running.[/B]

Reply to It a question of Pirate Economy... in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Here's yet another pirate economy idea: All player ships have a chance of [B]mutiny[/B] (maybe except Caps). The chance increases based on several factors: 1. Allegiance of current system. 2. Chance to 'sneak away' (proximity to other ships in the fleet). 3. Facing overwhelming odds or great and repeated losses. Bounty allows pirates to develop their homeworld, bribe nearby ships / systems. Pirates don't bother with mines, but do actively go after trade and ref

AI Tactical or Strategic Moves that Surprised You? in Strategy Sins Forums

I almost exclusively play large random maps with all hard AI (random types, unlocked teams). Recently I had a TEC AI scout me with a Sova Carrier that didn't launch squadrons for about 20 minutes. That really surprised me. I paniced at first as it really looked like he was heading to seige my home planet. But he got there and turned around and headed back to a wormhole where he lollygagged for some time and then re-scouted me. Later, his fleet showed up at the wormhole, waited a bit, the

Reply to About the capital ship factory... in Strategy Sins Forums

Looking forward to it, and to how you calculate it Krauser :)

Reply to About the capital ship factory... in Strategy Sins Forums

Its moving the capship yard that can be the tipping point on some maps. Ever have your homeworld 4 or 5 jumps from the star on an interstellar map? You want your caps to get built close to the action because they take so long to jump / cross systems. Yes, early resources are magnified over time, but can you really predict the impact of a paltry early scuttle? There's too much variation, unless you play a very strict build order for some map you are familiar with, IMO. I can definitely s

Reply to About the capital ship factory... in Strategy Sins Forums

The only reasons I scuttle the factory are: moving it to a better location, or I really need the extra logistics slots on the home planet and I can also move it forward. The economic boost does make some sense, but you get back less than the cost of a colony ship FFS. It'd have to be a fast game to be worthwhile really, in which case rebuilding it makes less sense.

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

Sorry, kind of a double post. I forgot that I'd replied to this before! [quote]Damage types are still more important. You dont want all ships targeting one, instead its better to have anti-light target light ships, anti medium target medium ships and so forth.[/quote] I think you're missing the point Astax. We're not talking about force-firing against 'wrong type' targets, but amongst appropriate targets, either in a mixed fleet, or a 'spam' fleet of 1 or 2 types. 10 LRM

Reply to Newbie tips? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]I spent a lot of my time 'waiting' for something to happen. The big problem was that I wanted to take out the stupid pirate fleet, and I needed more ships and research to do it. I'll keep playing. I wish the game wasn't so 'hardcore'. It's a great engine and design... just not much put in a functional tutorial. WC3's tutorial was basically the entire human campaign, and even then they had 'tutorial' missions throughout. That's a good way to do it. It just seems like the game throws everyt

Reply to Sova Carrier's Bug? in Technical Sins Forums

Put this on the infocard: "Improves Platform". Otherwise it looks like a bug.

Reply to Gordian Knot of a problem... in Strategy Sins Forums

Send in a mass of LRMs and take out the Assailants, then the turrets, retreating or repairing LRMs as needed. With enough time, the repair bays will use up their antimatter. Also could send in a few flaks first to pester the assailants and keep them off your own LRMs. Flaks have good resistance to LRMs and generally good hull strength. This puts the enemy in a dilemma: Start losing assailants to flaks, or focus on the flaks with the turrets and try to ignore the missiles inbound. Your advantage

Reply to N00b Question: How do you mine where the planet is uninhabitable in Strategy Sins Forums

Colony Frigates can capture mines in these sectors. Or if Vasari, the scout has the capture ability.

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote] Astax: Damage types are still more important. You dont want all ships targeting one, instead its better to have anti-light target light ships, anti medium target medium ships and so forth.[/quote] Of course. I should have mentioned this, but thought it would be assumed. In a mixed fleet you have several focus-fire targets, if the enemy also has a mixed fleet. [quote] Sideshow: It looks to me that the AI will automatically do an economical focus-fire with a fleet of LRM

Reply to Is the third dimension anything more than cosmetic? in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Its annoying, but makes for an interesting tactical variation otherwise, because the phase lanes work much differently between the vertically aligned planets.I haven't had this happen yet, how do they work differently?[/quote] When you phase-jump a ship vertically, it has to travel to the middle of the x/y axis to jump, and it comes out on the other side on a random point at the edge of the gravity well. It makes point defenses very difficult, but it also makes attacks c

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

"there is a one to one correspondence between a ship's Hull point level and mitigation level" Wait wait. You're saying that mitigation increases as hull decreases? Then focus firing is still attractive for all the usual reasons, as every ship is going to have high mitigation as it dies. But then you say "shield mitigation increases over damage taken". Well, OK, but that is quite different than above. .... Its far too easy to saturate a target

Reply to Moving a capital in Strategy Sins Forums

[quote]Culture can also influence whether or not it's a good idea to move your capital. Moving the capital changes the max alllegiance value for each colony, leaving the actual values to slowly shift to the new equillibrium.If you've flooded your empire with culture, however, you get to cheat a little: the allegiance values that are lower than their new caps rise quickly (.05% / s), whereas the allegiance values of your old core-worlds float downward more slowly (.02% / s). So with culture, mo

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

Your point, Krauser, is good in that it points out that Focus Fire isn't black and white. Its often a good tactic. More than often. But of course you wouldn't force fire your fighters onto a capital unless you absolutely needed the extra umph, or that LRM was never a threat anyway and you can clean it up while passing by to phase jump. Transitive, "shield mitigation is NOT a mechanic to discourage focus firing. it is mechanic to enable tactical management as a relevant factor in battle

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

Yeah, read that thread. But I don't think anyone went so far as to suggest that mitigation subsidizes focus fire. The poster in that thread who kept mentioning shield and hull repair was right, though neither of us have provided the mathematics. Do we need to? I don't think focus fire is debatable. But I do think that shield mitigation's effect on focus fire is more questionable (and mathematically interesting). Actually laying out a full fledged example with real numbers would be useful, but is

Reply to Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

That would make sense Jinx. It does give you a moment or two extra to pull the wounded ship or manually heal it.

Shield Mitigation Subsidizes and Promotes Focus Firing in Strategy Sins Forums

I don't know what the idea with shield mitigation is, but its current effect is not to limit the benefits of focus firing, but to insure that focus firing is the most viable solution in most cases. Hypothesis: Shield mitigation mechanics reward focus firing in most scenarios. I think we all know why focus firing, on its own, makes better tactical sense than ship-vs.-ship one on one firing: Reduce the DPS of the opponent faster to tilt the scales of the battle as soon as possible.<b

Reply to Moving a capital in Strategy Sins Forums

Its easy to get enough credits in most medium maps or larger. The limit is crystal or metal. By centralizing your HQ you can maximize resource outputs. This is especially true in multi-star empires where the phase jumps can really add up. Now, when does it pay off? I think you'd have to calculate like this: Sum (#mines (each mine weighed against allegiance)) in original layout vs (#mines (each mine weighed against allegiance)) in alternate layout. Then delta(output difference) x (X) = cost of ch