Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion 1.50 BETA Change Log

Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion 1.50 BETA Change Log

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are very pleased to announce the release of version 1.5 BETA for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. This new update will be available as an opt-in Beta via the Steam client ahead of its final release so that we can get feedback from users on the changes.

NOTE: THE V1.50 UPDATE WILL BREAK SAVE GAMES!

[ Graphics ]

New high-res planet textures for Terran, Ice, Volcanic, Desert and Dwarf planet types.

[ Gameplay ]

Corvettes are now affected by Unstable Gas Pockets around Gas Giants.
The base relationship value for Pacts has been changed to 0.0 (fixes a possible crash bug).
All planet exploration costs have been reduced from 450/150/75 to 300/75/35 at level 1 and from 550/175/125 to 400/100/85 at level 2.
Changed Helium Atmosphere and Ionic Storms planet bonuses to no longer require planet exploration to detect. (Ship sensors can detect this from orbit.)
Increased change to find something via planet exploration from 40% to 60%, except on Competitive map types.
Titan research now grants certain bonuses on a per faction basis. See below for details.
All players now start with 2 frigate factories on game start. (This helps the AI tremendously.)
Fleet supply for all Envoy cruisers has been decreased from 8 to 4.
Artifacts Overhaul: Most Artifacts have been buffed to be of greater strategic value (i.e., game changing). The following are in addition/changed to/from current values:

Jump Drive Relic - Now makes all ships immune to phase jump inhibitors.
Data Archive - +15% Research Rate
Resilient Metaloids - +150% Passive HP Regen; +3.0 Base Armor; -10% Planet Bombing Damage Taken
Relativistic Factories - +4 Civilian Slots
Phase Accelerator - +33% Phase Jump Charge Rate; +25% Phase Gate Speed
Manifest Dominion - +4.00 Relationship Bonus; +0.10 Quest Reward Relationship Bonus; -0.05 Quest Failure Penalty to Relationship
Jump Field Generator - -75% Antimatter Lost from Phase Travel; -3% Phase Jump Exit Distance
Planetary Organic AI - +60% Population Growth Rate; +25% Maximum Planet Population
Matter Compressor - +25% Refinery Ship Capacity; +50% Cargo Ship Capacity
Power Core Relic - +20% Maximum Antimatter; +0.10 Passive Antimatter Regeneration in Culture
Ion Field Generator - +45% Planet Bombing Range

TEC

Ion Blast (Akkan Capitalship) will no longer affect enemy Flagships.
Garda Flak Frigate range increased from 3900 to 4400.
Long-Range Jumps research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4; cost adjusted.
Advanced Arctic Colonies research moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
Advanced Civic Design research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2; cost adjusted.
TEC Loyalists

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Shields.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Starbase HP.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Rate of Fire for all Lasers.
Disruption Matrix (Ankylon Titan) now disables enemy passive regeneration.
Group Shield (Ankylon Titan) duration increased from 30/35/40/45 to 40/50/60/70.
Inspire and Impair (Ankylon Titan) duration increased from 30/45 to 60/75; now affects Titans.
Battlefield Promotions research moved from Tier 5 to Tier 1; bonus increased from 5% to 10%; number of research levels decreased from 2 to 1; cost adjusted.
Updated map 'The Void' with correction for TEC Loyalists in Quick Start mode.

TEC Rebels

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Rate of Fire for all Autocannons.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Population killed from planetary bombardment.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants a -10% penalty to enemy empire's Culture build rate.

Advent

Defense Vessel range increased from 3900 to 4400.
Meteor Swarm (Starbase) will now deal AoE damage to Corvettes.
Deliverance Engine will no longer affect friendly planets with an allegiance penalty.
Distant Visualization research moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4; cost adjusted.
Psionic Scream (Discord Battleship) now properly affects Corvettes.
Advent Loyalists

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Beam weapon damage.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +0.50 global bonus to Base Armor.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +10% global bonus to Culture Resistance.
Repossession (Coronata Titan) planet upgrade cost bonus increased from 0%/-33% to -33%/-66%.
Planet for a Planet research moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.

Advent Rebels

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Plasma weapon damage.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to maximum Antimatter.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants +1 strikecraft from Hangar Bays (tactical structure).
Wail of the Sacrificed will no longer function if enough labs aren't maintained.
Wail of the Sacrificed damage decreased from 20.0 per population point to 4.5/9.5; research levels increased from 1 to 2.
Increased damage particle duration on Wail of the Sacrificed from 10 seconds to 60.
Unyielding Will (Eradica Titan) duration reduced from 240 to 120.
Mass Communion research reduced from Tier 4 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
Fixed null pointer crash with Wail of the Sacrificed.

Vasari

Gravity Warhead (Jarrasul Evacuator) will no longer target Titans or affect enemy Flagships.
Phase Out Hull (Antorak Marauder) will no longer affect Flagships.
Sentinel range increased from 3900 to 4400.
Long Range Jumps research moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3; cost adjusted.
Increased Vasari Starbase weapon upgrade time from 25 to 45 seconds.
Vasari Loyalists

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to planetary bombardment damage.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Wave Cannon weapon damage.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to capital ship acceleration.
Desperation (Vorastra Titan) no longer affects Corvettes; duration decreased from 45 to 15.
The Maw (Vorastra Titan) no longer affects Corvettes; max target count reduced from unlimited to 15/30.

Vasari Rebels

Tier 1 Titan research now grants a +5% global bonus to Pulse Beam weapon damage.
Tier 2 Titan research now grants a +10% bonus to mission deadline times.
Tier 3 Titan research now grants a +0.10 bonus to your faction's relationship with other empires.
Dissever (Kultorask Titan) no longer damages Corvettes.
Starbase Mobilization now only allows Starbases to phase jump between active phase nodes.

[ AI ]

The AI has been significantly modified to allow it to put aside resources towards expensive projects (i.e., Titans and superweapons). This should prevent the AI from 'starving' from lack of resources when attempting to build expensive projects, appearing to do nothing.
Normal AI difficulty no longer gets any bonus resource income.
Increased resource bonus for Hard and Unfair AI types.
All AI types will now spend at least 50% of income on ships.

[ Misc ]

Fixed bug that prevented players with Cloud saves from joining a local save hosted game in multiplayer.
Fixed incorrect planet picture placement for one of the Asteroid planet meshes.
Optimized particle system file pathing.
Fixed crash bug in Flagship Victory system.
Fixed null pointer crash with Wail of the Sacrificed.
Converted some TGA texture files to DDS where it didn't adversely impact visuals, freeing up more memory.
Removed unused textures to free up memory.
Various string updates / changes.
Removed data files for the old Metal Pact - was causing some crashes.
Moved around various research techs (no Tier changes).
Removed unused DLL files.
Removed reference to MagneticCloudFair in GalaxyScenarioDef - entity never existed.
Fixed bug with some planet bonus Infocards not displaying values.
Added null checks to superweapons and titans to prevent possible crashes.
Made dwarf planet mesh with the huge crater more prevalent.
Improved Starbase Mobilization description.

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ARESIV

Quoting GrimFear,

reply 175

Still no AI love

The AI has been significantly modified to allow it to put aside resources towards expensive projects (i.e., Titans and superweapons). This should prevent the AI from 'starving' from lack of resources when attempting to build expensive projects, appearing to do nothing.

I don't know if its what you were referring to, but the AI clearly has been updated somewhat.

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Well I made a game with 3 other AIs and made it FFA, 2 of them even allied (hard difficulty).

Must say 2 things: the 3rd AI did have few worlds but when I started invading, every single colony of it has been destroyed when I entered the system. Still it had buildings there so I do not know what happened to all its worlds? Since it seemed the systems all still belonged to it.

Second: Even after having more then 90 % of all planets (all secured with starbases, planet defenses etc.) and having a huge cap ship fleet, the last AI only gave up when it had 2 worlds left (from about 40+). I think it should have offered capitulation before that point.

Both things seemed to run better before the patch, so perhaps the devs could take a closer look into the "new" AI

Still I like most of it and look forward to the future

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I can confirm eyelander and bellgoring's comments about the wormhole research/wormholes not working, in my test game on one of my testing maps that use the wormholes as pirate defences I can NOT even access the wormhole to expand into the contested part of the map that has the pirates.

harpo

correction, I am having issues with RandomColonizable planets not showing up therefor no phase lanes on SOME maps

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Quoting Yarlen,

reply 21

I'm not sure. My life hangs by a thread with the programmers as it is...

I bet the wormhole and star issue was just their revenge!

So far my game with the AI is going pretty smooth, and wormholes seem to work for me(Map Implosion)

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Im running on the 1.5

Quoting ezeltje299,

reply 179

Quoting Yarlen, reply 21I'm not sure. My life hangs by a thread with the programmers as it is...

I bet the wormhole and star issue was just their revenge!

So far my game with the AI is going pretty smooth, and wormholes seem to work for me(Map Implosion)

Im running on 1.50 BETA i tryed reinstalling but worm holes and distant star systems are unable to get to.

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Quoting Eyelander,

reply 180

Im running on the 1.5
Quoting ezeltje299, reply 179

Quoting Yarlen, reply 21I'm not sure. My life hangs by a thread with the programmers as it is...

I bet the wormhole and star issue was just their revenge!

So far my game with the AI is going pretty smooth, and wormholes seem to work for me(Map Implosion)Im running on 1.50 BETA i tryed reinstalling but worm holes and distant star systems are unable to get to.

What map are you running on? Maybe it's related to a certain map type

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I just did a random 8 player large match with 3 star systems. i have the research, im going to start up another game.

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Yeah I've never really messed with other maps, always chosen Random.

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Choose a premade map(Non-random) and see if the problem is there as well, it might be related to something in the Random maps seeing how my Non-random map seemed to work fine with wormholes.

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I am getting missing planet(s) in both mapdesigner AND my own custom(galaxyforge) maps that use weightedcolonizable planets in 1.5b but in 1.041 these SAME maps are fully operating. I have not tried the forced planet type maps as I do not like knowing what and WHERE each planet is, I prefer the uncertainty of the planet groupages.

harpo

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Quoting GoaFan77,

reply 176

Quoting GrimFear, reply 175Still no AI love

The AI has been significantly modified to allow it to put aside resources towards expensive projects (i.e., Titans and superweapons). This should prevent the AI from 'starving' from lack of resources when attempting to build expensive projects, appearing to do nothing.

I don't know if its what you were referring to, but the AI clearly has been updated somewhat.

Its still going to mindless throw everything at a full upgraded SB and get slaughtered!

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I second this, at least with the wormholes.

Forces seem to stall at the edge of the centre (if that makes sense) of a wormhole and will not traverse through it. The research has been performed.

Seems like a bug to me.

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Quoting GrimFear,

reply 186

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 176
Quoting GrimFear, reply 175Still no AI love

The AI has been significantly modified to allow it to put aside resources towards expensive projects (i.e., Titans and superweapons). This should prevent the AI from 'starving' from lack of resources when attempting to build expensive projects, appearing to do nothing.

I don't know if its what you were referring to, but the AI clearly has been updated somewhat.

Its still going to mindless throw everything at a full upgraded SB and get slaughtered!

Yeah, that's just because the AI doesn't seem to change its threat perception based on the number of starbase upgrades. It treats an upgraded starbase the same as an unupgraded one. Play the unfair or harder TEC AIs though, they'll send so many Ogrov's that they'll completely overpower your starbases.

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axxo2

Join Date 10/2010

+56

well i think this update was awesome thank you stardock & ironclad the planets look awesome especially the ice planet - who ever did that one- good job! so i have a question so dose this new update include those other planets that were mentioned or thats coming june 8?

thanks once again guys!! the shadows and planet textures look awesome!

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Ryat

Join Date 06/2006

+429

Quoting axxo2,

reply 189

so i have a question so dose this new update include those other planets that were mentioned or thats coming june 8?

No, those are a seperate (and must be purchased) download/purchase.

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Random maps are not working well, in every try so far they acted like my made maps with small phase lanes, player sectors are isolated, only 1 route to the center (random medium, random large), and sometimes only connection is a NOT WORKING WORMHOLE... have to start the game over after discovering this is not good, but it would be awesome if wormholes worked

Grindstone map is broken. I tried several times a 2v2, every time it was an unfinished 8-winged star, if the teams are next to each other, the connection planet is missing and only way is through the other side (where other teams should be). One time I ended up in a totally isolated sector with my ally... I suggest checking every map to see if they are working well with 1.5 version.

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Quoting bignick277,

reply 149

Is it just me or does it seem like the AI has lost some of it's bite with this update? Possibly since they no longer get extra funds? The resistance they're giving me since this update is considerably more subdued.

I've been noticing this to. In my first game I played against 2 Easys, 2 Normals, and 1 Hard. For most of the game, I hardly encountered much more than a scout or two. Even the Hard seems to be ignoring me. I am a few hops away from his capital and he hasn't so much as raided a single planet of mine. The only real combat I've had after about two hours of gameplay is against a single pirate raid.

I just started a second campaign, this time 2 Normals and three Hards, and I am again getting the feeling that the AI doesn't want to play with me and is just pretending like I am not there. [e digicons]:'([/e] Only about 30 minutes into this campaign, though.

Regardless, I have yet to break a sweat in either game. Don't know if it is because the AI is content to fight against itself (in the first campaign, the Hard AI seemed to go about destroying the lesser AIs while ignoring me) or something else, but I definitely agree with the "subdued" feeling.

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I have found the AI to be a fair bit less dangerous. I have played a couple of games verses hard AI and they have not been of any consequence.

I was playing a game with myself and a hard AI (Advent Loyalist) against three hard AI (Two Vasari Rebels and a TEC Loyalist). After about the hour mark and fending off one medium sized combined assault from two of the enemy AI, they went completely into remission and nothing more than a scout could be seen outside their borders (with very little going on inside).

An hour and a half after the assault I ventured forth from my defences to find two prime planets still with militia on them in the middle of the map.

In short, the AI seems to have suffered quite badly in this beta.

On the plus side, planets are looking pretty spiffy!

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Weird, in my last game I was being mauled by an AI. >.>

When you set their difficulty did you set the other option to Random? May have something to do with that.

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Lavo_2

Join Date 05/2010

+112

Quoting harpo99999,

reply 2

it looks like something BROKE in the map generating system with the addition of the extra planets.

The game is likely trying to use DLC planets which are not actually in the beta, and thus does not generate any planet. Odds are the DLC has to have it's own separate GSD from vanilla Sins which has the new planets included; this would likely solve the issue.

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I made a new game now with 4 hard AIs, and after some time they now act aggressive against me. 2 of them started simultanus attacks, including Titan, Capital ships and a large number of small ships. One of those fleets defeated my Carrier fleet, the other one crushed my planetary defenses and I lost a colony. Of course, I rebuilt and retook all

I think the AI plans more now and waits a bit more until it attacks. And it seems to use much math for this kind of attacks. One time they attacked a twin SB system, and destroyed one of my SBs exactly 5 seconds before they lost their last ship ^^

But can´t tell if it is much harder now or not. Will try more.

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Quoting kais246,

reply 193

An hour and a half after the assault I ventured forth from my defences to find two prime planets still with militia on them in the middle of the map.

That's what I noticed in my game, too. The Hard AI just left a bunch of militia planets alone that were right next to his capital.

Quoting nimiria,

But can´t tell if it is much harder now or not. Will try more.

Interesting. I did notice in my first boring game that the Hard AI was making ships according to the stats, but he seemed to be throwing them only at other AI players.

Something going on with this beta patch and the AI, that's for sure.

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A strange thing happened to me in a 2v2 (medium large random map), my unfair AI ally just stopped doing anything after a lost battle and after this he got wiped out without resistance by another unfair AI... is it supposed to happen? It wasn't building ANYTHING (ship), he was satisfied with having 2 capital ships and a light carrier... It wasn't a fun game because he died well before I was able to make a decisive strike on the other front and I don't like to go 1v2 against unfairs.

Anyone knows why an AI stops doing anything after a major lost battle? This thing rarely happened to me in previous versions of Rebellion. I doubt he was saving for a titan... he had only ~150 ship slots occupied (2 capital ships, a carrier and some other smaller ships) and enemy attacking 2 of his worlds (out of 5)... No action near his factories.. nothing built.. If it was saving for a titan it was a brutal mistake that ruined an otherwise fine game (my front was challenging and fun) because he made the game a 2unfair vs me match. My ally seemed to be defensive (it was randomized) as he put up some defense on all of his worlds without fielding a sufficient fleet.

Why only allied AI stops doing meaningful things in my games ((in other matches they failed very early against enemies))? Why not an enemy like others mentioned before?

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Is the AI too easy in the beta, i might switch out from beta to play a harder game. I have also noticed that the passed 3 games i played with 9 AIs on normal barley anything happened, their forces were very tiny even after about 7 hours of game play (Pirates were turned off).

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Quoting Turchany,

reply 198

Why not an enemy like others mentioned before?

The devs decided in a secret update to address the complaints about easy AI by only fixing the problem for hostile AIs.

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