that's 240 fp. you're the expert, do you really think that is practical? I know, it's a balance question which is way early in this stage, but still. I mean, I used 4 of those guys to try and conquer a 70% roid and it has been taking ages. and that is still 96 fp. soo ... I would not say totally weak, but a little bit weak maybe. at least they are not very expensive to buy.

maybe there could be reserach topics to make this ability more efficient.

Oh, one more thing: the MENU MUSIC. Please change it. Put something like the original SINS menu music or something calmer and quieter to present an atmosphere of "understanding", or a brooding track... I dunno.

+1. Give metal/crystal would be interesting.

So, what is the outlook for Diplomacy and online multiplayer?  Do you think it will succeed as well as Entrenchment succeeded and become the default for online multiplayer, or do you think most people will end up sticking with Entrenchment?

Advent are masters of the psyche and its manipulation. They have many techs geared towards expressing this, such as their tier one ability to persuade pirates better and the later ability to make other empires less upset if they fail to complete a mission. It makes perfect sense that the reflect trees reflect the Advent's superior persuasion skills.

The Advent faction is presumably the one growing stronger with the addition of Diplomacy's extra rule set.

How about killing off an entrenched suicide position?  I've seen more than a few games where these guys just hold on to their homeworld the entire time because no one can bring the force to completely wipe them out.

Thirded.

I just dont get why anyone would waste early game resources which are scarce on creating embassies...

i'd rather rush sb then rush an embassy, to be honest, to get all the researches you need done for the embassys to really hurt somebody, a starbase might be more effective, as it will end up killing temples on that world.

I dumped the Entrenchment music, and popped in the original Sins menu music 2 months ago in Entrenchment. It's SO much better. I actually like it a lot.

The point that's being made is that starbases can be countered with low tech solutions.  Heck, if you have two factories on your homeworld you can actually fight off a starbase in construction before it finishes by spamming nothing but Cobalts or Disciples.  The embassy there is no real way to stop without high level civic techs yourself. 

That said, the biggest problem I see with this type of strategy is that if you can't project culture you can't "finish the job".  This would be a great way to finish off someone who is turtling up around a starbase, but not so much a way to turn back an aggressive attacker, since you probably can't get close to his homeworld with culture anyways.  At worst you can knock his income a bit, but he can always receive feed to counteract this.

It's a beta, they fully acknowledged that this would be the status for the first while.

I play locked teams only. I don't see the point in making allies if all I'm gonna do is kill them all eventually anyway. Btw I made a envoy cruiser, sent it to an enemy homeworld and it would'nt deploy, what am I doing wrong? Also a little dissapointed that the envoy cruiser looks ALOT like the Starbase constructor. Last but not least to the devs.....

Every race does not need the same units. I don't see why the Vasari or Advent have Envoy Cruisers they would not  want to talk their way out of this conflict. That's more of a human(tec) tactic. The new Vasari and Advent ships should have been something different. Otherwise still Sins is an all time game favorite, AI make superweapons!

What is the purpose of this--of splitting the Lobby?  I don't see how it could be good for the community in any sort of a way and people with Diplomacy won't be able to tell other online gamers to go buy it.

nightraider...  just please going take your unfunness somewhere else. Everyone knows its unfun... its the "unfun version" which is what the devs called it.

Go back to entrenchment and dont visit till 1.0