Sakhari

[quote]Controling player is immune from getting attacked by Pirates (Money can't be put down against.)[/quote] Pirates aren't the only aspect of the game influenced by the bounty. I vote a definite 'No!' on this part. Personally, I'm not a fan of the idea. I think there are probably easier ways to encourage battles for specific planets than making a mess of the pirate mechanics. And really, unless you're just screwing around with the AI or some newbie who has no chance of w

[quote]Usually the AI will retreat to a better fortified planet and fight there, which is a realistic strategy.[/quote] In my experience, the AI usually retreats to the last asteroid left alive behind its homeworld and won't actually turn around and fight until you've already commenced bombing. Retreating to meet up with reinforcements or to make a stand on a fortified planet would be 'realistic' but I rarely, if ever, see the AI do either one of these things. Perhaps after th

It means that the team settings you arrange going into the game can't be altered during the game. If you set two teams of three players each, those players will be locked into those teams for the duration of the game. In a game against the AI, it also disables diplomacy.

[quote]I was really expecting nothing but so-called flaming and back-lash.[/quote] Well, since you weren't pointing fingers at anyone specific, nobody's likely to jump to the defense of their own idiocy. At least, I'd certainly hope not...

1) The coming 1.1 patch sounds like it'll make some interesting changes which'll bring me back for a while but as it stands now, I played for about a month after release and followed with about 3 days after each patch to see what changed. There are several areas where I personally am disappointed but it was well worth the $40 I spent on it and if you're interested in getting involved with the online multiplayer community, you could probably get a lot more out of it. 2) The AI

'Turrent' is not now, nor was it ever, an actual word. Please drop it from your vocabulary. Thanks!

Best ever? Based on what criteria? Sure, it's functional but I don't see anything particularly amazing about it. For overall utility, I'd just as soon give that award to Supreme Commander (especially when using two monitors).

Opposite of win. I don't think I've ever seen it spelled properly on a forum and again, lord only knows where 'turrent' came from.

"There is no rushing." That depends entirely on the size of the map. Rushing with ships in the early game is a whole lot easier than putting up the appropriate defenses to counter them. Turrets may be cheap but you're not going to be surrounding your planet with them right off the bat (especially if a carrier with Embargo rolls in as soon as you're getting started). And just out of curiousity, is 'lose' commonly spelled 'loose' over in Europe or is it simply that nob

[quote]For me its not that Sins is losing interest , but other games are gaining interest.[/quote] Pretty much. The only reason I'm still looking at Sins at all right now is because no other worthwhile game (in the RTS category specifically) has released in months.

Culture is one of the select few details that separates this game from the rest of the genre. Get rid of that and we're just one step closer to having yet another generic RTS. As has been said, it's really not 'that' hard to counter and unless you're playing on a small map, losing one planet generally isn't going to break you.

[quote]The kosturas purpose was never to kill the structures, I think.[/quote] Of course not but trying to stun a moving target from a star-system away is... unreliable at best. Under ideal circumstances, sure. It 'could' be useful (whether or not it's more useful than its weight in credits/resources applied to more ships in your fleet is certainly debatable) but by and large, the other two superweapons are far more reliable when it comes to having their intended effect (with

Like I said, the damage from the Kostura doesn't seem to stack properly. If 5 shots hit a planet in the space of a few seconds or so, only one of them appears to actually do any damage. The rest just make the glowy effect and do absolutely nothing that I can tell. If the thing actually had a chance to reliably shred a few structures, that would quickly boost it right up to the 'useful' category.

[quote]I'm pretty sure the weapon bonus is specific to the Deliverance Engine effect, not to culture overall.[/quote] Are we sure that there 'is' a weapon bonus effect because this is the first I've heard of it. The thing, by all documentation (and effects that I've seen), is just supposed to be a long-range culture package. That certainly doesn't mean it's not true but I've never noticed it and I'm surprised it's never come up in any of the threads I've seen around here.

When did the Advent start getting a weapons bonus for culture? Last I checked, their culture buff was only an increase in mitigation. Personally, I much prefer using the Deliverance engine in protracted multi-star games (which is generally the only time I see superweapons used at all unless I'm just screwing with an AI). It hinders the opponent's economy, gives you a good look at their empire (provided you have the appropriate research), supports your fleet, removes culture buffs from

Is your friend incapable of understanding anything that isn't placed in terms of Starcraft? Has he not played any other RTS? Beyond vague aesthetic similarities between the races (and even that's a stretch), the games play very differently. Tell him about the separate battlefields around each planet. The heavier emphasis on economy and culture. The much larger scale. The focus on macro rather than micro in larger games. These traits aren't incomprehensible and if you j

[quote]You've complained about Returning Armada while ignoring the fact that RA is the only real reason to play Vasari at all...[/quote] If that's the case, then I think it speaks of much larger problems with the race. No faction should be made viable by a single tier 8 research option. If that were the case, then it wouldn't be much of an 'option' at all.

Holding D works fine for me. You should see a little yellow line that highlights the path of your ship. While holding D, you can adjust this line. It's awkward but it does work. If that doesn't do it for you, I'm not sure what the problem is though honestly, it's almost purely aesthetic. There's really little to no tactical purpose for it in this game.

Once you build a capital ship facility, the first ship you build will be free of charge.

In a 'fair' fight (as in, a 1-1 fight without a half-dozen opponents trying to gangbeat you), no. It's not terribly challenging if you're a competent player who's trying to win. It's about as predictable as it ever was. Improvements have been made but if you were trouncing it before, that's not likely to change.

[quote]You seriously trust game magazine reviews? Have you not seen all the scandals and shady advertising issues that have been in existence almost as long as the reviewers themselves?[/quote] You know, for all that's made of these oh-so-scandilous incidents, I've still gotten plenty of good information from reviews in all my years of reading. Yes, some sites have their occasional issues and yes, those games that appeal to everyone else in the free world just might not be your cup of

Perhaps, in the future, other 4X features will be added (things to spend money on 'besides' combat, that is) that will reduce the runaway economy players tend to wind up with late in the game. I also dislike the upkeep system the way it is. I just don't feel that permanent, unchangable economic killers make sense. A real empire would simply mothball these sorts of mainanence facilities if they no longer had the funds to support them.

[quote]The fuel in the game is Antimatter. If you run out of it you can't jump to other planets or systems...[/quote] Antimatter has no effect on whether or not you can phase jump. You lose a chunk of what you have when you do but if you don't have any antimatter, you can still jump.

Don't the numbers in-game represent total damage per-second? If that's the case, the assailant fires much slower than one shot per second so you're going to see more than 13 damage for each shot.

[quote]Any kind of failed attack can simply provide your enemy with experience.[/quote] Yes, but in a game between two people, there's a difference between a player making a mistake and the game randomly throwing free kills someone's way. I know I'd be a little annoyed if I spent all that time researching a tier 8 ability only to have it randomly do more harm than good. This just sounds like more of a nuisance than a help to me. I wouldn't want my actions being determined by