@Leu: that actually was an idea we had for the mod, but it was eventually dropped because it would be best to just buff the capitals a bit. Research would never be used unless in the case of capital ship spam of the same type. Ie the Advent would research the carrier one so they could rush Halcyons all day long.
@Zero: Pretty much the way I feel. However, Diplomacy is going to be the last micro-expansion, which leaves a few options:
- A full fledged expansion (possibly having whatever is chasing the Vasari added as a race)
- Sins II
- A brand new title.
Now, I personally don't know what they will do, but I doubt they would go with 3 as it would mean that IC is abandoning a very well selling title. 1 would be nice, but I don't think it will happen. The game is three years old, expansions won't come out forever. Instead, I find it likely that for a time they will continue to balance it before officially announcing Sins II. Once they bring out Sins II, they will kill Sins I usage, but I've got a feeling it will be very similar.
More than likely, most capitals and frigates will be the same, but I think a few things would get switched around. What? I'm not entirely sure since just about everything is just about as good as it can get. I suppose the only real option would be to add more ships or have researchables for super-frigates. For instance, in my mod, there is the Defense Cruiser. Only available late game (its tier VII-VIII) it is made to deal with just about anything. Its primary use is an anti-sc gunboat, but it also has a heavier weapon made for ripping apart light targets (aka LRF).
So perhaps a higher research tree? Maybe have it go up to tier XVI instead so that if games drag on you can really bring out big guns? Idk.. But its an idea.. Aside from that, really the only thing I know that needs adjustment (aside from bug fixing of course) is the AI. It needs priorities and needs to know to level ships up in certain ways under certain conditions. Make it go with capitals that are actually going to fill a niche, and not just provide experience for the player.
I still like the idea of using a learning computer to watch JJ's replays to derive parameters from it for different actions. The end result is that it is going to learn how to kill most people. In this case of course, easy would be when you have an income bonus of +1000%. (This is just a joke idea as I simply find it funny.. Its not going to happen...)
At any rate, there is a thread like this that if you wish to discuss what will happen to sins after Diplomacy, you can.