This expansion is titled: 'Diplomacy'. It is not titled: 'WAAAAAH! Fix teh balanse!!!!!11'.

Shush already.

Anyway,

I can't wait to have some decent diplomacy in Sins, it will really upgrade the playing experience for me.

I agree,I always found diplomacy in Sins to be less than it could be...and in a game like this, diplomacy should be a strong component. Can't wait for this...

Yes, I can't wait for this as well...

But even more so for improved online experience!

Anyway, will pre-order and join beta as soon as available

You're fooling yourself if you think 1.03 is balanced. Just putting that out there.

I'm lookin forward to how this changes the game. Could be pretty dynamic. I just hope the requests for balance don't all on deaf ears. That's all.

Im confident they will address balance issues, cuz if they dont, all the work Ive put into the PSCF will be for nothing. And that would truely suck.

So how can we get into the beta?

I just hope it works with entrechment. I know ill be able to play with both st the same time, but when they came out with the second the moved around and add some stuff to the tech tree. i want to know how there goin to work this.

Personally I think it would be silly to do a balance update then roll out the next mini-expansion. First of all the expansion will assuredly change the dynamics of the game just like the previous expansion did. Then your balance changes becomes worthless as now you have new dynamics in each faction and therefore new issues arise concerning the new stuff along wioth the possibility of issues arising from the older stuff that now works differently or has become more/less useful and/or relevant.

If anything the beta would be the perfect time to do balance changes not before it. Why wash your clothes when your going to just jump in the mud right after?

I cant wait till the beta starts diplomacy was definitely one of the most needed features to be improved and expanded upon.

lol, our point is that balance is coming in the new expansion (or at least we hope so)

Pre-order what where when what becomes available?

If someone found any information in this or the neighboring thread that we hadn't already known, let me know. I can't see any.

Oh and btw, what's with that guy on the picture?
He looks like a poor TEC commander who's been screwed by the Advent psychos and by the look on his face - he's at least 24 hours dead. 
No matter how hard I look, I cannot see any connection between this picture and the term "diplomacy".

Advent style diplomacy?

you never know with those mind witches

And what do we do to witches?!?

Diplomacy will become pre-orderable at Impulse some point in the future. When it does, simply pre-order it, and you can download the beta version. Just a word of warning, during the Entrenchment beta, a full re-install was required after the beta ended, so if you're short on bandwidth, make a backup before downloading the beta.

We BURN THEM!

If we get through the repulse bubble.

Yeah, I know what use Diplomacy might bring to Soase.

*knock knock*
- Who's there?
- Greetings Advent Mistress. I am a tier-5 TEC diplomat. I'm bringing an offer for you.
- Wha? Let's see... hmm... 5000 credits for scuttling our guardians... I'm not really convinc-
* TEC player upgrades his diplomat*
-... well, on second thought, we'll scuttle our guardians so you can stand a tiny chance. We do have our OP illums anyway. Laters kid.
- Thank you, good mistress.

Quick question.

When they finish rolling out the third mini expansion, are they going to roll all of those expansions into one?  Because that is what I'm waiting for.

yes, at least that is what I have heard

:)  They're probably working overtime, on getting the new content and on balancing!!  They are probably trying to keep the community they have, but it seems we get pretty demanding sometimes, i mean, i bought the game, i enjoy the heck out of it, i got the $29 that i paid for it a couple hundred games ago. 

But im not here to remind anybody of anything, haha, im just trying to imagine myself as a dev, up to my eyebrows in trying to get multiple parts of several projects: Diplomacy... Next project gets overview/talk-brainstorm time... and Fixes the MP's want, the Campaign the SP's want, and still trying not to drink too much coffee or smoke too many cigarettes between the nervous twitches i would be developing between trying to do all these things at once. 

Give 'em some credit, they're probably working their tails off.

-Teal

p.s.  Oh, just an added thought, but if i was getting yelled at everytime i turned around, i might not want to say too much on the boards either. Just my opinion though. Im not the official cheerleader, haha, but im just trying to see these guys and girls as real people with feelings and stresses, instead of somebody to just tell what my next great request is. 

Cool, I can't wait for the Beta.

After learning from last time, I think Blair and the team will be able to switch between BETA and other versions.

Teal, I know they're busy but the balance we talk about is simple and will not be affected by diplomacy. Its Nerf Ilums, bost Lfs anti heavy by 25%(vas get 2 dps boost as well), nerf vas SB build time in enemy gravitywell a little, bost Enforcer, nerf replus,etc,etc... You see Raging Amish , JJ, EadTades and other people have charts of the imbalance and what to do about it. They see the problem, they got a plan and all that need done is simple changing of stats. But where are the Devs? NO where. I have yet to see a Dev chime in on the balance talk. Where are you guys?  

EmpReb, people will never be pleased. Once they'll change these requested stats, others will complain, and so on, and so forth. It just never ends.

Eventually you come to the inevitable conclusion that you can never please everyone and be done with it.

Sins is an excellent real time 4X game. And while it has multiplayer, you can clearly see from its gameplay that it was not designed to be a starcraft clone, and you people need to understand that before you spam all your 'ilums' ten minutes into the fricking game and then complain that their 'dps' is low compared to the hydralis...eh...Marzas. or whatever.

So PAX 2009 starts today at 10am (local time), have Brad and Blair got somekind of presentation slot we need to wait for before someone spills the beans?

True Gormoth. That doesn't explain, however, why someone couldn't use a calculator to figure out basic comparisons of stats between units. Nor why they've been mum on the issue of balance.

If a dev came out and said "balance is not the goal of sins", I'd be perfectly content. Truth be told this game spoiled me for it was the first time the devs gave direct feedback to the players. The fact that we hear nothing on the issue is what aggravates. Not that the game is imbalanced, but that the issue have never been mentioned by a dev.

Edit: "firt time the devs gave direct feedback in my experience"