I'm using monopoly roughly, because saying "market dominated" (as in not a complete monopoly) is both cheezy and irritating to rewrite.
and in sins the softcap will give you an asswalluping.

give me a countermeasure to explosive armor. thats a hard one to come around.
most anything that comes within range is obliterated quickly

but the point being all of these are really cheap, so while the victory will go to the person with better stuff, (or more people) it will always have to be in close range (unless some unforseen weapons completely change teh battlefield, which is possible)

hmmmm how about no amount of ships per battle cap for those who's computers can take it hehehehe.

I don't know.. what about a Vanguard-style diplomatic system?

Yeah, some kind of tag wierdness. I fixed it.

awesome.

there isn't an overall ship cap, and I dont think there are caps for ships/battle either.
although that has not been specified

I can't imagine that there would be. I don't think that the game actually distinguishes between "battles." It just sees a whole bunch of ships flying around the map and if they happen to be fighting with something, so be it.

yeah, its a very unlikely possibility

but then again, it IS possible. of course this would make for a very cheap defensive mechanism, just load up your planets with more cheap ships than the map can handle.

I dont mind if this game is more like a war RTS , or a diplomatic/war RTS , aslong as its a good game , im fine with it.

If it is diplomatic however , lets say 50% of the game can be diplomatic and trade related , its important to express that in the game. As it is , ive seen alot of warships and thats telling me , if your a warfarer you will love this game. If your more diplomatic , will you have as much fun?

The fun could be determined if the game has ships and stuff dedicated to diplomacy , or a not nessarily complicated diplomacy system but a very interesting and innovative system. The bounty thing forexample is great. I think trade ships would make for diplomacy fun.

I think supcom , 50% of the game if not more is eco management. Its not enjoyable because its monotonous , the only small innovation about it is the adjaceny bonuses which makes the game like a puzzle block game , where you mix and match different sections. I think this is why supcom suffered.

er so my suggestion is keep up the good work ic!

I prefer a war RTS with heavy diplomatic and economic capabilities. well, diplo will follow eco and mili. so just focusing on those two should be enough.

suggestions to you: please to include for me a cookie in the boxed set?

include for me a cookie in the download
and I dont mean a computer-cookie.

Schem if I didnt know better, I would say that that last line was actually hallarious.

As for the rest of this, guess I have to catch up... again... sigh....

[Suggestion]


I realize that youre hampered by practical concerns in this area and so much of this is wishful thinking, but...


In lieu of being able to design one's own ships in-game(a la Gc2), could a wide lattitude be given to the tolerance of harmless custom artistic content in Multiplayer games? What I mean is, as much as possible, allow us to use our own custom ship skins and models in multiplayer matches without tripping a cheat flag.


I would think custom skins to be completely harmless in any case (well, possibly offensive if someone skins their ship with Tubgirl, but thats a seperate issue), and models could *possibly* be used as a cheat, I guess, if you modeled a blank ship with no geometry to confuse the opponent...but really, that would be such a rare and quickly reported issue, I still think you gain much more by letting players use their own ships.


In any event, Im sure there are dozens of ingame issues with this that I havent considered...I just wanted to encourage as much lattitude as possible in this area to let players feel like they can play with their own "deck", even in official matches.


[Edit] To be absolutely clear, I know that Sins boasts a large capacity for game modding, thats not the point. But if the multiplayer and matching system is anything like Stardocks "metaverse", much custom content cant be used in "official" games, because it falls under the "anti-cheat" controls. Id just like to see in this case that from the outset harmless artistic modding can be seperated from changes with real cheat concerns, at least as much as possible.


Thanks for listening!

Greetings, I am a huge fan of space strategy genre games and have recently heard of SoaSE. I have a lot of suggestions, and even if they aren't used in the standard game, they would be great to be included for modding purposes. Here are my many suggestions for SoaSE (in perfect English, no less).

-shields: As shields take damage, there should be an increasing chance that weapon hits pierce them. Once shields have reached 100% damage, they disappear entirely. Maybe powerful weapons should have a small chance of piercing shields, even if they are undamaged to start with. This chance could be calculated based on total max shield power and present shield damage.

-modules: Engines, the bridge and other modules should be targetable. Ships with knocked out engines that are very close to planets and stars should be at risk of falling into them. Ships with knocked out Bridges should maneuver randomly and be at risk of collision.

-Scale: Ships/planets/stars should be as close to scale as possible without losing playability. It is a hard balance to manage, but I would rather the designers err on the side of 'Bigger and more Realistic'.

-Bottlenecks: I hope that there are NO Phase Drive bottlenecks that force you to go through several systems to reach your target. It is much better and realistic to be able to make your own grand strategy fleet deployments. Bottlenecks would turn this game into World War I Western Front trench warfare in space. Games like the Space Empires series suck precisely because of its forced warp point bottlenecks and trench warfare mentality.

-Fleet Orders while in Phase Space: Fleets in Phase Space transit should not be allowed to receive new heading orders. Since they can't interact with reality while in Phase space, it doesn't make sense for them to be able to receive new orders while phased. This will make the game more strategic as players will really need to think before they send off their fleets. Also, it will prevent elite players from permanently bouncing huge rapid reaction fleets around in the void between their systems, which would halve the time it would take to reinforce any 1 system that comes under attack (this lame trick could also be used offensively).

-Transit time between star systems: 10 minutes average transit time is great. I hope that the transit time increases the further away the target star system is.

-Wide screen monitor support: Gamers are really starting to flock to the less expensive, but greater viewing area, wide screen monitors (I am even about to do so myself). I hope there will be wide screen display support included in this game.

-Rushing Tactics: Early rushing tactics should be allowed in game, but in a balanced manner. So, for example, this strategy might be very effective when used against a player who tends to play an 'early research focus' game, but would not be as effective against a more balanced player.

-Sensors: Sensors and fog of war should play a large part in the game. Increases in sensor tech should increase range and reliability of sensor info. Also, asteroids, planets and stars should help hide ships from sensor detection if they are located behind them.

-Anti Sensors: Devices that mess with sensor info should also play a part. Effectiveness of these Anti Sensors should be determined by tech level, range and the tech level of the oppositions sensors.

-EMP type weapons: I believe that there is already some kind of disabling/energy draining weapon similar to the EMP from the Homeworld series. If not, then one should be included.

-Allies: Allies should be able to share sensor information and donate/use each others ships.

-Gravity Well Projectors: I hope all races can build these devices to prevent/delay Phase space escape. Maybe some of the races might be able to build better ones than others.

-Cloaking/Ramming/Capturing: I hope ships with these abilities can be built into the game. Even if they aren't part of the campaign/standard game, there are a lot of modders who would love to see the inclusion of these abilities.

-Modding concerning strike craft: I also hope that modders will be able to make strike craft able to travel in Phase Space without carrier support. I am specifically thinking here of EvilleJedi's Homeworld 2 Star Wars models as there is some interest in transferring that mod into SoaSE. To do so successfully, Rebel fighters will need to be able to use Phase Space without carriers.

-Modding multiplayer: I would also like to see some support from Ironclad for modded multiplayer games. Perhaps a LAN/Internet multiplayer system like that found in Homeworld 2 would be good enough for players who want to play a modded game outside of the Ironclad server (if it turns out that Ironclad servers can't support modded multiplayer games). Of course, some type of game file size/content check would be required to prevent cheating.

That is it for my thoughts and ideas. I am looking forward to this game more than I've done for any other...ever! Good luck guys and you can count on my $$$.


Note: Kudos to Ironclad for definitely using the following in SoaSE:

-an upkeep system in place of a forced ship cap limit.

-real 3D space instead of the lame 2D and 2.5D many present day space games use.

-directional firing arcs for ship weapons.

-that Hull Magnetizing Gun has to be mentioned simply because it is so cool.

-plenty of fleet/ship tactics.

-and the list goes on and on.

nope, the entire opposite    Shields get STRONGER as they get damaged (YES!!!)

not possible. I already asked.

certain modules (unknown which) are on the biggest of ships. nothing on smaller ships (frigs on down)

doubtable.

they've already adressed this. any bigger and the gameplay slows down dramatically, halting the game.

asked, and currently unknown.
but your logic doesnt make much sense, because you could just send a message thru phasespace.

AM regen will stop this. also will allow limited bottlenecks (because your enemy wont be able to pierce right on thru all of your planets on one tank of AM gas)

nope.
although you can hide them if your foe isnt paying attention (much like you can sneak up on somebody from their front if they aren't paying attention)

nope.
sensors are always in the gravity well of the planet, outside that there isnt anything to see. you cannot see into gravity wells that you do not occupy (i.e. if you dont have a ship at that planet, you dont see anything)

unknown. but its probably somebody's special ability (TEC?)

not sure about ship donating, but sharing does not occur. sensors are probably shared, but thats speculation.

Vasari has a special ability blocking phase escape. but who knows for the rest.

Possible/Unlikely/No
I think ramming has been denied (but there should at least be contact damage) cloaking is in the wind.

Hmmm, while I've read this before, I still don't get the whole shields getting stronger from taking a pounding. I mean, does this mean that the first weapons that strike a shield transfer some of the damage through it? Does it then mean that as the shields take more damage, they get better at blocking damage that gets through?

For the developers to say shields get stronger the more they are damaged, there has to be some damage getting through (at least at the start of the fight). Otherwise, if shields just normally stop all damage up until they fail, why even bother saying "They get stronger"? It does seem that the shields are tied to your ships anti matter supply though.

As for Anti-Matter capacity preventing ships from staying out in between star systems, that is not entirely correct. If I can redirect my ships in Phase space, I could just bounce them around until they run out of fuel. They would then be out in between systems where they would take some time to refuel/recharge. Well, once they are recharged, I could just let them sit there until I needed them. Effectively, this would allow me to position them somewhere close to the halfway point between several of my systems.

Hmmm, of course there are risks with this strategy, such as what if someone shows up at my base while my ships are refueling in deep space or what if my ships can't reach a system fast enough to prevent its destruction.

yes, there is always a percentage of damage that transmits thru.

yup.

which is, from all we know. a very fast process.
look, your range can increase but the AM limit appears to be pretty damn heavy. and sitting in midspace isn't going to allow you to regen your AM all that fast.

then either thats a viable strategy, or the Devs will come up with some sort of counter (likely that they resume their target course.) that way if they run out of AM and you let them recharge they will be effectively useless as tehy cannot reach any planets to do anything anyhow
and if you did that you would have wasted lots of AM just on flight. in general a bad idea.

or just the fact that your fleets will be 1/2 way depleted by the time they arive.

Wait... this is whole thing with shields is confusing




From what I could tell, if theres 2 ships A and B. B's shields are at full, and A fires a shot that normally does 50 damage. B takes 20 damage and its shields drop to 50. A fires the same shot. B takes *less* damage (say 10) and its shields fail. Then A fires a shot and it does 50 damage. That doesn't seem to make sense...  

oho, but it does.

and I think the shield integrity is larger than that (or at least, I would hope)

Shields:
Shields have a capacity for damage. When they reach zero the hull of the ship starts taking damage. As shields are reduced they will become more effective at mitigating damage. They can't mitigate any damage once they have reached zero. The primary gameplay mechanic desired here to is to reduce the standard RTS micro-optimization of focus firing everything you have at single targets in turn. It is even more of a problem in 3d space because you can fit everything into a valid firing solution much easier than a ground based game.

Orders in Phase space:
You cannot tell a ship to change what he is currently doing while in Phase space. Once a ship has been sent to a target, it is locked. You can, however, change the orders he would have after he arrives (queued up orders).

Antimatter and Phase Jumping:
Phase jumping does not cost antimatter. The act of jumping has a negative effect on antimatter that renders portions of it unuseable effectively consuming it. Thus, a ship without any antimatter reserves can still make a jump.

Blair

umm... can we please upgrade our fighters for special shield operation squadron research facility test's?

ok good... i'll just send these squads with few ceptors and a load of anti fighter vettes to knock out that big ol' flag ships forcefield then regroup and send in the rest of our frigates to chew on that big ol' spaceship.

I think that the Advent have somekind of AM leaching ability.

I actually like this. it is more depthy than just absorbing AM.

as their power "decreases" and they begin to mitigate more damage, does that mean they are taking more damage and will therefore collapse sooner?

Think about it Schem and read the rest of his post.

From what I gather they will resist more of the damage as they get damaged more, or they resist more damage if that damage is high damaging. Resist meaning that they absorb more of the hit before losing a point of shiled(or precentage).

I am going to back TheGreatEmperor on this one. Look at what Blair says about shields.

"Shields have a capacity for damage. When they reach zero, the hull of the ship starts taking damage."

What he is saying here is that only once the shields fully fail does the hull start to take damage. This seems to mean that as long as the shields are up, the hull won't take any damage.

In the next sentence Blair says "As shields are reduced they will become more effective at mitigating damage."

Well, this obliviously doesn't relate to shield pass through damage percentages, because Blair said earlier that hulls only take damage once the shields fully fail. So this must mean that as shields get progressively damaged, the ratio of shield power loss to weapon damage improves for the defender.

Can't get any more clear than that.

I do hope for modding purposes, it will be possible to assign weapons 1) a % chance to totally bypass shields, and 2) a % for weapon pass through damage (ie: shields reduce weapon damage by %, but don't stop it entirely).