theRetroboy

Reply to STUPID presets ( AutoCAST ON ) on cap ships & target priority in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

It's a fair point, just rudely expressed. A simple solution would be to create a 3-second cooldown when purchasing new autocast-enabled capship powers. That gives you the right to pop over to the other menu and toggle autocast off. -- Retro

Reply to [MOD] Bailknight`s Graphic Mod for Entrenchment ver 1.02 Fixed 1 in Sins Modding Sins Forums

*snagging! -- Retro

Reply to Honor Harrington mod? in Sins Modding Sins Forums

Yes. We were toying with building a HH-universe mod in the Homeworld 2 game engine. SoaSE doesn't really lend itself well to a HH-universe mod in terms of the combat, though. There's no shield facings which is critical to their style of combat, ships don't accelerate/decelerate when fighting, there are no counter-missiles. All of that stuff can likely be coded/modded in, but generally the HH universe ships themselves are butt ugly, looking like giant hotdogs with eight-sided dice screwe

Reply to Help: I'm stuck with an ugly face! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If the portraits *really* bug you that much, check the mods section of the forums for some complete replacement portraits. -- Retro

Reply to The learning curve, in my opinion, is *punishing* =( in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Usually (not always) that function is provided by the campaign. Firs tfew maps are an easy slide into introductory gameplay. The tutorials were okay, but didn't give an overriding introduction to how the economy really works most effectively, which is crucial to get at least approximately right at the game's start. -- Retro

Reply to Does the Hard computer AI cheat? Or am I still too green? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]Setting prices allows you to undercut other human players so that yours get bought before theirs. But when you're playing against the AI, it doesn't matter [/quote]Not quite true: selling resources yourself gets you loads more money because the Black Market isn't taking their cut. The Black Market gets you 230 or so cash for each 100 you sell, but you get paid IMMEDIATELY. Medium-skill AI doesn't use the market for much, but they eventually (and way too late) will get around to buying wha

Reply to What am I doing wrong? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I can't really comment on #1 other than to note that you might wish to try move players on Hard AI. On point #2, I think you're concentrating on the speed to get through the game rather than sitting back and enjoying the visuals, and that's interfering somewhat with your level of fun. I'm finding the bigger space battles are like candy that keeps me so busy juggling my capship abilities and manipulating fleet locations, and unless you're an elite RTS player that grew up on Starcraft, t

Reply to Suggestion: progressive AI in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I'll add that I just played a Medium random map, and the enemy didn't attack for almost an hour after I'd built up my defenses. This strategy would make the originally chicken AI at least overcome his reticence after I took out the first AI's faction at least. -- Retro

Reply to Suggestion: progressive AI in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Durikkan, I thought of that too, and there's really no way to actually stop the player once he reaches a certain level of arms build-up. But in a player versus 9 game, I've seen the AI "lock away" other AI players by shutting down their access to the map, and that would trigger the increase in their skill as well. So the aim of this type of play is to [I]postpone[/I] the player's ability to step up and completely dominate the playground, not to stop it. -- Retro

Reply to Suggestion: progressive AI in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I'm thinking it would help out more in the "middle" of the game when you've conquered your neighbours but the largest AI foe is likely still kicking around unless he's allied to you. -- Retro

Suggestion: progressive AI in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

(Apologies if this is a duplicate thread. Frankly, I'm getting a little ticked off at the number of posts that this forum appears to eat whenever I try and contribute here). So I'm playing a big map on medium, and win handily. AI's pretty slow. Then I try Hard, and get kerschwalloped by a swarm of AI allies. Ouch. This got me thinking about an intermediate setting for large maps and multiple AI's - "AI that learns" mode, possibly as a switch on the screen when you're selecting your pa

Reply to Sins of a Solar Empire v1.04 released! in Sins News Sins Forums

Hey, you also fixed the empire tree scrollbar while paused! YAY! -- Retro

Reply to The learning curve, in my opinion, is *punishing* =( in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

For the struggling starting player, this is the best advice. [quote]2. Use the pause button on your keyboard any time you feel overwhelmed. [/quote]Except I'd say "frequently and see what you're doing." rather than just when you're feeling overwhelmed. Look at your resources - are you completely overloaded on one type that you can sell on the black market? How's your fleet supply? Do some of your planets need more defenses? -- Retro

Reply to Gaming 2.0 in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

You should pay me to post my wisdom. Humorous analogy aside, the point my little joke makes is valid. People make those mods because it's a hobby that they enjoy exercising. It's not enough to be entertained by someone else's creativity, they get more satisfaction out of providing their own to us. So I don't and can't expect to see them *EXPECT* to get paid for it. What I [I]can[/I] do is understand that really good modders might wish to be hired by the ironclads of the world.

Reply to Outrageous 1.4 AI must be fixed! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Playing vs 9 on hard, I had a map setup where expansion was difficult so I entrenched in my own little corner... uh, a little too long. THREE CLUSTERS OF non-mutually-agressive AI attacked my gateway planet, coming in within 30 seconds of each other. I got steamrolled by four capital ships to my two. So, yeah, the AI GOT MEAN. :D -- Retro

Reply to Long Term development ideas in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Agreed, innociv. But there's still an awful high percentage of gamers that [B]do not play online[/B], and subscription elements like tournaments and beta testing (which is essentially work-for-free) will simply not reach or appeal to them. They'll buy a substantial expansion pack with a single-player friendly element, but they won't buy a game that just upgrades their lobby. I'd really like to know the percentage of Sins purchasers are commonly found playing multiplayer on the web. That

Reply to OMG IMBA in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

This thread gets Retro's stamp of approval. :D -- me

Reply to Long Term development ideas in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

innociv, xbox live covers a [B]great many [/B]games that you can switch between after buying and your subscription benefits will follow you. It's an apples and oranges comparison. Sins is just one title (and maybe several titles in the future), and although I'll grant that it's an [I]amazing [/I]title, it doesn't have the same interest sustainability as support for a big library of games from different genres. ----------------------------------- Kruelgor, you didn't mention one very impo

Reply to Cap:Frigate ratio; Why build small ships at all? in Strategy Sins Forums

Another reason to build a mix: capital ship construction bays are very expensive and frigate constructors are not. You can easily and relatively cheaply reinforce your front lines by having local frigate bays churn out cannon fodder. -- Retro

Reply to Traveling to a different Star? What am I missing in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

All routes to other suns depart and arrive from the orbit of your own star as well, so if you didn't see anything happening and yet did the research, it was likely that your ships were going to the local star first. I'm guessing that's because the star has the strongest gravity well gradient and that level of power differential is what's necessary to power such a long jump. -- Retro

Reply to "This planet has been cleansed of heathens!" in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

You mean "the enema are restless"? :) Restless enemas are often the butt of jokes. Particularly when they're on the Advent colon-ization ship. (Sorry, li'l bit of toilet humor there.) -- Retro

Reply to Long Term development ideas in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I wouldn't pay $50 a year for a membership, sorry, and I'm NOT stupid. I always like to KNOW what I'm getting, even if it's from a trusted source, before I shell out my money. The recent subscription debacle with Hellgate:London is an example of why I'd much rather have standalone expansion packs. -- Retro

Reply to Thank you for 1.04 in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Yeah, it was REALLY relevant if you were to play BailKnight's graphical enhancements mod. Essentially, it was that some of the particle types in the missile effects family had an infinite lifetime and filled up the ceiling quickly, and of course the Vasari specialize in missiles. I'm looking forward to the 1.04 version of Bailknight's now that it's fixed.

Reply to What we want in patch 1.05 ;) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

If I were to guess, I'd say the whole Advent/desert thing is likely a tribute to Homeworld. That story started out with a strong female leader living on a desert world. -- Retro

Reply to What we want in patch 1.05 ;) in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I've played both, and Hegemonia (if that's the game you're referring to) had nice graphics, but it [I]sucked[/I] and it brought my computer to a standstill when it was released. Sins has great graphics, maybe not to the level of Hegemonia's, but it won't kill your average gaming rig and it supports a great number more ships on the screen before things begin to bog down. If SoaSE were released with a graphic level that brought my half-decent computer down to 4 fps, it wouldn't be nearly as enjoya