Hello All,

I've noticed a few people bring this subject up in different threads. Unfortunately I can't get the search to work in the forums so I don't know if there is a similar thread.

Down to business. There is a common problem in many RTS's where the best strategy is to ball all units together and steam roll over the enemy. Unfortunately this makes for a game less about strategic placement and more about who can build the biggest baddest fleet (ie produce the most units).  I would agree that having the most units should play an integral roll in strategy, but I would counter by saying it shouldn't be the end all is all that we see in most RTS's.

As Kruppe points out below "skill being equal(Napoleon vs Nepolen) would result in a who has most the most units."

So my question to all of you is: "How can we make Sins more focused on multiples smaller fleets rather than just 1 or 2 large fleets?"

Here are some of my suggestions from another thread. Please share your critiques of these ideas and any of your own suggestions. If possible keep them within modding limits of the game rather than a complete rehaul. If you feel that a complete rehaul is the only possible answer, well lets hear why!

Would doing the following help in creating more fleets scattered throughout an empire rather than one big fleet?

1. Make planets die faster but with mitigation so that more ships on one planet isn't as productive as few ships on many planets - Might be tough to implement but could work. If someone sends out one big fleet and has to wait a similar time to kill a planet, it would hopefully encourage people to attack with mutliple fleets across many planets.

2. Make ships jump slower - I'm worried about this because it could slow the game down when I feel the game is already a good pace, if not a bit slow.

3. Design maps around the stars rather than planets (I've done this in galaxy forge with some really fun results) - make everything in a star connected to one another. Only a couple planets per star (3 max). Many stars (5-10)

This one is the only one I've tested and I've had really good results. A typical map in sins may have tons of  jumps between homeworlds but everything boils down to a couple choke point planets. This focuses the battle on  one area which allows easy massing of fleets and encourages spamming large numbers.  

By having many stars and few planets for each, an attack can come to any of your worlds quite easily as there are  many points of entrance. By having solar systems completely connected it makes traveling easier within and if  you have a fleet stationed within the solar system it can jump to the needed locations quickly and efficiently.  Having just one fleet though, it can be very difficult to have to jump from your attack location all the way back to  a undefended star system.

Some issues I found originally was that jumping between stars was time consuming, so I've placed the stars  much closer to one another. In addition I've created some choke points by creating layers within a solar system,  but having most of the colonizables connected to one another and the star. This creates diversity in the game by  having choke points in strategic locations only, rather than everywhere on the map.**

4. Make the game more capital ship intensive (cheaper and slightly more available). I've seen people argue that caps will become overpowered if they are cheaper, but the neat thing with caps is that they have a maximum amount. As long as they aren't made unreasonably cheap, they will just become more prevalent as you can only build a certain amount of them. something like 2300 credits, 250 metal and 150 crystal as a minimum and 2600 credits, 300 metal, 200 crystal as a maximum.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/329761

**side note, only read if you have spare time as this is off topic: I do find it odd in sins that the game is quite linear in map design. A traditional strategy game like Age of Empires, Rise of Nations or Command and Conquer, attacks would come from one direction of the map (the opposite side) but could come from almost anywhere in that direction. The big fear with space strategy is that space is 3D and attacks could come from anywhere and make things really messy. Sins almost takes it too far in the opposite direction by placing everything around phase lanes. All attacks are coming from one or two directions with little freedom.