I know it's not the mod itself, but...(and another question)

[tlmiller]

Is there anything that can be done about watching cruisers go drifting all over the map (sliding sideways)? I know this is present in the default game as well, so I'm assuming that there's nothing that can be done because it's a weakness of the sins engine, but I figure it can't hurt to ask since it looks really weird to watch this battle and see a bunch of Vindicator cruisers move forward and then spin to the side while still flying forward like they were Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious.

 

BTW, lots of good fixes on the new version, but WHAT is up with the difficulty levels? Even against an "easy" AI, when playing, I'll capture 2 planets, have enough resources to build a fleet of maybe 5 ships, and be attacked by a fleet of OVER 30 ships????? Since when did building 30 ships including at least 1/2 dozen capital ships in the time I takes me to build 2 caps and a few frigates constitute EASY??? I should note this only happens if there are more than 1 AI playing. Vs. 1 AI only, difficulty seems to work exactly as I'd expect (easy AI being, well, supremely easy to defeat, normal AI still being easty to defeat). But if I do 2 AI's, they seem to progress like there's no tomorrow regardless of the level setting.

 

One other question. Why the requirement for 7 civilian facilities to be able to research the whatchamacallit II that allows you to settle volcanic planets? In my experience, takes so long to get 7 facilities in most games that by the time you get them, you don't care anymore about settling any volcanic planets you've found.

[Lavo]

That behavior was intentionally added in by Ironclad in the original engine; can't be changed. You can micromanage your ships to stop and turn, but that's it.

 

Difficulty has nothing to do with the "skill" of the AI; difficulty just increases the amount of resources the AI generates per second, excluding the unsupported Cruel and Vicious difficulties. Easy actually gives the AI a resource penalty, iirc. If the AI has access to good planets, then you can be sure it will produce ships to hit you with. The random generator in Sins doesn't particularly help in this regard; one's starting position can determine entire games.

 

It's mainly to reflect the real difficulty in settling and controlling those planets. Plus, with the Extra Planets or Quick maps, you have a very solid logistics base to work with; 1-2 more planets can be all you need to get those labs. These planets can be useful for the sheer amount of resources they generate, or as a border/choke point to reinforce. Admittedly I did not design the planet system at all, that honor goes to NovaCameron.

[tlmiller]

That behavior was intentionally added in by Ironclad in the original engine; can't be changed. You can micromanage your ships to stop and turn, but that's it.

 

Figured as much. Still cool to play, just really looks odd when you see a kilometer+ long vessel drifting corners.

 

Difficulty has nothing to do with the "skill" of the AI; difficulty just increases the amount of resources the AI generates per second, excluding the unsupported Cruel and Vicious difficulties. Easy actually gives the AI a resource penalty, iirc. If the AI has access to good planets, then you can be sure it will produce ships to hit you with. The random generator in Sins doesn't particularly help in this regard; one's starting position can determine entire games.

 

Still seems too off. Normal is too difficult for a "normal" level IMO considering how many levels are still above it.

 

It's mainly to reflect the real difficulty in settling and controlling those planets. Plus, with the Extra Planets or Quick maps, you have a very solid logistics base to work with; 1-2 more planets can be all you need to get those labs. These planets can be useful for the sheer amount of resources they generate, or as a border/choke point to reinforce. Admittedly I did not design the planet system at all, that honor goes to NovaCameron.

 

OK, makes sense, although I think it would be more useful if it required 3 or 4 research facilities instead of 7. My opinion obviously. Such as a game today I played. I explored 8 systems, of them, 2 were nebulas, 4 required that research. So by the time I was able to colonize a SECOND planet, I LITERALLY had Dauntless cruisers attacking me. Obviously, absolutely NO chance to win when you can't colonize ANYTHING because EVEYRTHING on a random map requires 7 facilities before you can colonize. Any way to prevent the computer from creating so many planets that REQUIRE that as an alternative?

[tlmiller]

 

OK, makes sense, although I think it would be more useful if it required 3 or 4 research facilities instead of 7. My opinion obviously. Such as a game today I played. I explored 8 systems, of them, 2 were nebulas, 4 required that research. So by the time I was able to colonize a SECOND planet, I LITERALLY had Dauntless cruisers attacking me. Obviously, absolutely NO chance to win when you can't colonize ANYTHING because EVEYRTHING on a random map requires 7 facilities before you can colonize. Any way to prevent the computer from creating so many planets that REQUIRE that as an alternative?

 

On further experimentalization, it seems it's one particular map that does that (and no, I didn't write down which one, because that would be ENTIRELY too intelligent). I played the map that's NEARLY the same (medium, 29 planets instead of 28), and it didn't happen. So I started like 2 other games and played just long enough so that it would happen on that first map, and every time, no ultrastrong AI coming to destroy me. Not that he didn't destroy a ton of my fleets (I lost 3/4 of my Allegiances in 1 battle), but they weren't coming with supercaps already when I was still struggling to get a single fleet formed.

[Lavo]

You've been an unfortunate victim of the random generator of Sins. Stuff like this happens at times.

[Snowba11]

I would like to agree with the point on volcanic exploration and would argue that it would be suited a little lower in the tech tree but agin thats just my two cents and I know you guys have much more work to work on first rather than that.

[tlmiller]

You've been an unfortunate victim of the random generator of Sins. Stuff like this happens at times.

 

Ah, so that is an issue with default Sins. One weakness of my not being particularly fond of the unmodded game is that I'm also not familiar with it's bugs.

[Lavo]

I mean, one can reduce the possibility of a moon/crappy planet with high colonization tech spawning severely, even to 0, but that's it. If/when I get the time, I intend to do yet another series of random maps, one which does not have any planets high militia (ex. industrial, high terran) or high colonization requirements.