Therax

I like the idea for torpedo bombers, but again it depends on the ability for incoming missiles to be shot down by ship weapons. I don't really like the above stated role for interceptors. When I think of interceptors from reallife air forces, I think of large, fast, heavily armed fighters designed to quickly reach and destroy enemy bombers before they can launch their weapons. Being large, they tend to be less maneuverable than smaller general purpose fighters, and hence less capable

Another factor that's incorporated into the released mod (in an early form) is the importance of supply. A significant factor in the destruction of the Gauthloth in Seikai no Monshou is that she is caught with only 4 mines onboard instead of her standard load of 10. The fight might have gone very differently if those other 6 mines had been available to take out 4 or 5 more of the United Mankind's missile frigates from long range. A line ship with empty mine bays is just

nice, I'll definitely try it out once I get the game. I'm a big fan of the anime and the novel. Glad to see another Seikai fan. The series has such depth that I've been trying to mod it into various games for a while now, but Sins is the first one that I think has a real shot at that "you are running an empire" feel. There's a Homeworld 2 mod stalled at AbhNation, and I hope to borrow some of their models once the Sins mod tools are available. <div clas

So far the game pace has sped up a whole bunch. I was able to colonize 8 planets before I ran into the enemy, but there was only one other. The former scout frigate weapons have been noticeable increased. Yes, the basic destroyer packs a definite punch. I'm intending to move it down the tech tree a ways, and introduce a smaller, cheaper, less powerful ship to serve as the opening scout. Another important part of the balancing for opening game pacing is the

Anyone given this a try yet and have some feedback to offer? Since I'm likely going to have to rewrite it for beta 2, I'd love to know what you'd like changed in the process. Dreadnoughts too powerful? Kodiaks too weak? (I expect them to be, since they're totally unchanged!) How do you like the early game pacing, now that you actually need to build colony ships?

To get back on topic, any word for those of us with mod ambitions? I noticed in the patch notes that more mod functionality has been creeping in throughout beta 1, and I hope beta 2 blows me away with added functionality. (I would love it if missiles and other projectiles that can be intercepted are in, so I don't have to kludge them into place as kamikaze frigates in <a href="https://forums.stard

Give this a try: http://rapidshare.com/files/36750933/Kin_of_the_Stars_20060610T1846.zip.html

It's a brand new domain; maybe the domain record hasn't made it around to all the various DNS servers in the world. If your ISP is having problems with getting DNS updates, then you would have no trouble visiting sites that have been around for a while, but wouldn't be able to get to brand-new domains, like mine. I'll upload to another site for those having trouble accessing the domain.

What kind of error (if any) do you get? What browser are you using? I've just now tested in Firefox 2.0.0.4 and IE 6.0. It even works in Firefox with JavaScript disabled.

Nice ill try it but the link doesnt seem to work tho Were you able to get your download to work? I was just able to do it from here.

Screenshots for all! An enemy carrier under heavy beam attack from nearby escorts. Those aren't the problem; the problem is the cruiser in the foreground. Observe the railgun shots (in bright white) about to hit the carrier. <img s

Kin of the Stars is a gameplay modification for Sins of a Solar Empire, based on the Seikai series of science-fiction novels by Hiroyuki Morioka. This series is more widely known in the English-speaking world by the translated name of the first novel, Crest of the Stars. It has spawned comic book and animated versions by Bandai Visual, and video game adaptations on Playstation, Playstation 2, and Windows PC. And the mod is available now for Sins beta-testers! See <a href="http://h

Here is another screenshot showing just how much information you can get from the Empire List while using your main view to admire one of your capital ships: http://www.bkorion.dk/sins/beta1/Sins%20of%20a%20Solar%20Empire%202007-05-31%2001-08-58-95.jpg

The whole game really helps you in this aspect, with smooth strategic zooming. As you zoom out, individual units are first indicated by icons, then disappear entirely into their respective planetary systems. When at this high level of zoom, each planet has a trio of display bars that shows the relative number of friendly ships, enemy ships, and structures. Mousing over these bars shows a detailed breakdown by ship type, damage status, and owning team. There is also the "Empire List,"

I have to say that I'm generally in the opposite camp. In most RTS's, units move so quickly across the map that unit positioning becomes much less important. In other words, if you keep a blob of forces near the middle of the map, you can usually respond to any threat with little trouble. Sins isn't like that. If you're blindsided by an enemy fleet and you don't have forces within a jump or two, you're going to lose the planet under attack. I love this. <img src="http://images.star

I have learned a lot about the Ability and Buff entity types, and used them to implement a whole bunch of interesting gameplay tweaks. I'm working on packaging up my changes now.

Cost checking is > instead of >= Trying to buy a technology with cost 25 crystals when you have exactly 25 crystals in the bank fails. You need 26 crystals availble. This is a real annoyance, particularly in the early game when incomes are tiny, and I reflexively click the button for an upgrade the instant my resource total hits the listed cost, only to have it fail. I've noticed that it is sometimes possible to purchase when the UI sh

Rise of Nations had handicapping in an RTS context. It was very rarely used for online pickup games with random people, but it was handy for games with friends where you could get a feel for relative skill. Naturally, the functionality was disabled for ranked competitive games.

the 100 point loss is meant to be there, as is the ability to jump with less than 100 AM you missed the very large debate about this. I'm totally fine with whatever gameplay decisions are made by Ironclad for stock Sins gameplay. I just want to make sure that the knobs are there for modders to make different decisions. For example, in my mod, ships don't have "special" abilities. Instead, AM is used to represent ammunition, particularly heavy long-

Re: hyperspace cost I just found the global cost modifier in PlayerTech.entity. Oops. I would, however, still like to see this quantity be moddable on a ship-by-ship basis, as well as the charge-up time. Concept: a zippy little scout with no combat ability but hard to catch unless you have inhibitors.

Ships seem to fixate on their designated target, to the exclusion of all others, even when certain guns cannot fire on the designated target, but they have other targets available in range. It does not seem to matter whether the designated target was player-selected or chosen by "auto-attack." This is most noticable with the Kol battleship, which has autocannon facing all directions, but the left, right, and rear guns seldom fire at other targets while the Kol is engaging a forward tar

I've been meaning to post this up for a while. Some of this pertains to modding, but I'm posting it here instead of the technical feedback thread because that thread seems more oriented towards graphics engine issues. Modding Damage types There is ample modification for changing how weapons perform against different ships with AttackType and ArmorType , and the DamageData structure in Gamepl

Thank you for that input, Yarlen. I wasn't expecting the texture quality settings to have such a dramatic impact. Here are my observed process sizes for Sins, just sitting at the main menu (rendering the planet in the background): [code] Real memory usage in MB / VM size in MB Low: 405 / 465 Medium: 420 / 480 High: 480 / 540 Highest: 711 / 771 All at 1280x

A way to capture the WZ2100 style of tech advancement is to have some techs with many levels with a small effect with others with large effect, but only 1 level and high research costs and times. Carrying on the projectile weapons example: High-Density Gauss Shells +10% gauss damage per level max 20 levels Superconducting Railgun Magnets requires level 3 High-Density Gauss Shells +100% gauss damage +50% gauss range max 1 level

One example of a great tech tree I like to use is Warzone 2100, an older RTS title that most people missed. The tech tree is very deep, and composed of small logical upgrade steps. You can browse the whole tech tree here . Here's the link to the technologies necessary for the best projectile weapon, the <a href="http://members.shaw.ca/kgmetcalfe/WarZoneTechTreenogfx/Tech_Database/turrets/items/Gaus