Vasari RA, TEC insurgents, Advent.......

All the 3 factions have 2 'super abilities', or Tier 8 non-superweapon technologies.

The TEC has Insurgency and Pervasive Economy. Insurgency isn't amazingly useful since it can be blocked by culture, and the Rebels attack the TEC as well(this is just stupid). Pervasive Economy does let them effectively print cash and therefore not have to worry at all about economy.

The Vasari has Returning Armada and Highly Attuned Sensors. RA is well known enough. Highly Attuned Sensors give the Vasari vision of all ships traveling through phase space, which is useful for tracking enemy fleet movements, but still requires you to send scouts to check on their gravity wells.

The Advent have Allure of the Unity and Mass Transcendence. Allure of the Unity gives them +10% allegiance, which obviously helps economy, and Mass Transcendence auto-levels every new capital ship they make to Level 4, and doubles the rate at which they gain experience.

Rofl. You get attacked by your own rebels? How....useless.

I think the devs tried to balance the factions more subtly, not on a per-unit or per-tech-level manner. Advent might be better at defense, but this is an offensive capacity: less fleet have to stay home to defend. Likewise, maybe their tier 8 abilities are not as economically solid as others, but they suit Advent strengths very well. Balance in total, not per tech.

I've never seen this

this game never tried to balance individual technologies. Instead, the whole faction is balanaced. Strategies that work for one faction don't work for another.

So far with dozens of victories under my belt, I am fine with playing every game (on, or offline) as "random" because I honestly don't see any faction as being "better". So that means that balancing works.

My own rebels attacked me too. That why I keep saying that the Insurgency needs to be fixed. First it can be blocked by culture, as your culture most control the planet(for a side not know for there culture powers). But most of all the rebel fleet is made up of no more then 6 ships, at a time when most players fleets are around 100 ships! Even the Pirate attacks are more powerful. To me Insurgency is a waste of time and energy.

Actually, your culture just needs to be there in some form, it doesn't need to be dominant. I have found my opponents insurgents attacking me in places where my culture was dominant, where I was fighting tec culture and currently winning.

Insurgents are just neutral ships that appear in enemy systems that have bits of TEC culture in them. Mostly, they just force opponents to turtle up all edge systems, which is why I think Advent aught to have a resourse free auto turtling capability. Insurgents may only be 6ish ships, but they are 6 ships, then 6 more, then 6 more, then 6 more...etc. However, I also feel it should be upped a bit in power, as I am of the opinion that high level techs aught to have game changing effects.

Capital ship quick leveling would have to work up to level 6 to match the utility of free units or free cash.

insurgents are HARASSMENT... sure they don't seem like much on a small map... the enemy main fleet will come in and kill them in seconds...

But the larger the map the more annoying it is... and they can do some damage to unprotected systems while the main fleet is engaged elsewhere...

Also... if the enemy spends 5 minutes moving his fleet and wiping out insurgents, thats 5 minutes he isn't expanding to new systems, and isn't building up his economic might.

If you jump into a gravity well with rebel (scum) they will attack you know matter who you are. They don't spawn at your planets.

Oh, that, yeah. They're not "yours", nor affiliated with your empire - they're just rebels The post made it sound like they actually spawn at your planets, that I would consider a bug

While as an Advent player, I'd love the extra boost, you gotta realize the power of the Advent comes from thier fleet, mostly capitals. Those 3 levels (plus uber extra xp) are so helpful, I try never to go a match without them. 2 extra drones, or energy cooldowns? Level 2 vengence and animosity? The list goes on. Those extra levels are helpful in ways hard to grasp from just talking about it.

I did the same thing when I first read the description, thinking it was utterly useless...

If Mass Transcendence brought ships to Level 6, where Cleansing Brilliance, Provoke Hysteria and Anima Tempest came to play, then it really would be a thing to be afraid of. With proper use and timing of special abilities, it could probably be stronger even than Dark Armada in some engagements.

But at present, it's just a nice thing to have. In a long game there's really no reason to not want to auto-level your ships, but the extra experience is even nicer they get from battle (since anyone can pay to level their ships, only Advent gets the extra experience). You also don't need to go through a lot of techs to get to, as soon as you have eight Temples of Hostility you can get it, if you can afford it. But frankly, most ships that late in game aren't going to survive large engagements long enough to really make much use of being at Level 4 or their extra experience. When the huge numbers of Carriers, LRMs or Heavy Cruisers come to play, the capital ships tend to go down just very fast, even at level 4.

I like the ability though, and I do find it useful. But usually your opponent doesn't even realize you have it or care. If the TEC you're up against has Insurgency, you know and are constantly swatting them, if the Vasari has Dark Armada you sure as hell know from the endless ships. If the Advent has Mass Transcendence, you might notice the capitals you might notice that the capitals you're fighting are a bit more experienced than normal. Not exactly on par with the others, I would venture to say.

I just wonder if putting it to level 6 would make it too powerful. I think it could be balanced, but...

Also, about the late game stuff, that's where their power really shows up. The Vengence/animoisty combo could (and will) kill off a lot of things attacking it. Add in an energy weapon cooldown, plus a level 2 sheild restoration on the battleship, you've just owned an entier armada of little ships.

jmuhly I need more info on what do you mean by "your culture just needs to be there in some form". Also sense it only 6 ships every 5 min, is it nothing more then a weak pirate raid every 5 min? I'm mean any system that has a defnse system to take care of pirates, should be able to fight a rebel attack forces.