Sakhari

In this thread, we defend the honor of inanimate objects that have had their feelings hurt. Sins has clearly never seen Spaceballs.

Exiting this topic at ludicrous speed!

[quote]Whether or not people admit it, I think they'd rather have no fleshed out story line than an afterthought or a poorly-developed one.[/quote] Oh, I'll admit it in a heartbeat. If you're going to half-ass a campaign (I'm looking at you, Soulstorm), I say just take that extra time and add some more features to the general skirmish/multiplayer game instead. Odds are, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck from players in that department. If there's one thing I can't stan

I understand the concern but looking at FA, on most every forum I've looked at, the consensus is that the expansion made the game a hell of a lot better in many ways. It's a shame that the community has to get fractured by hangers-on who insist that nothing needs changing but honestly, given the choice between keeping all of the inherent flaws and making some radical changes, I'll always go for the latter.

[quote]That makes no sense. Shouldn't a verteran player be able to face off against AI in 1v1 and still be challenged?[/quote] Just a guess but I think he read your post as saying that one game took two weeks to complete. If I'm wrong, then yeah. I don't get it either. And I won't rehash what's been talked to death around here but I agree. It would be nice to see some improvement in this department. The AI makes a point of sending scouts all over the place but it doesn't

The Kostura Cannon deals a certain amount of damage to everything in the gravity well of the planet it hits and shuts things down for a period of time. It's not a planet-buster like the Novalith. And yes, the consequence of losing research labs is normal. Perhaps, in reality, completed research would be kept on-hand with or without a lab (then again, maybe the lab is providing some kind of necessary support for the new weapons and whatnot. Who knows) but in-game, the way it currently

[quote]Am I the only RTS player on Earth that regards linear, "story based" lead-you-by-the-nose campaigns in RTS games as boring, pointless, and unplayable?[/quote] Much as I enjoyed Blizzard's campaigns, no. You're not. Very few RTS titles (World in Conflict being the only one in my recent memory) put enough effort into getting a campaign 'right'. I wouldn't argue with seeing a campaign but I can't imagine it'll add more than a day or two of play-time to a game that I'm alr

[quote]is TEC in 1.03 become extremely powerful.[/quote] Due to the way the black market functions at the moment, credits are extremely powerful in 1.03 and the TEC get earlier access to trade ports (as well as trade-boosting research) than the other factions. They also get research that improves black market trade rates. They aren't unstoppable but they do have a fairly large economic advantage. [quote]I heard the vasari's returning armada got nerfed in 1.03 and it i

Is this a "wouldn't it be cool if..." kind of suggestion or are you looking for a way to make siege frigates worth using? If it's the former, then sure. Why not. I'm sure game balance would allow for something like this although I personally think it's already pretty easy to take down cap ships and structures with the tools we have. If it's the latter, siege frigates just need to be better at their actual job: sieging planets. The problem right now is that, for cost and flee

[quote]How exactly does culture effect planets?[/quote] It raises the allegiance cap of affected planets by 10% and increases the rate at which your allegiance rises to to match that cap. Higher allegiance nets you a higher percentage of the resources a planet and surrounding metal/crystal deposits can possibly offer (100% allegiance = 100% of possible resource income). [quote]What would the benifit of immersing an enemy planet in your culture?[/quote] If an enemy pla

[quote]Can really competitive players afford to have three thousand sitting around doing nothing in early- or mid-game, let alone several hundred crystal and metal?[/quote] Siege ships are used when you're already pressing an advantage. If you have time to sit around waiting on the resources to put together any kind of decent siege fleet, I don't see how waiting on an equal sum for a cap ship would be any different. Unless, of course, you're planning to go sieging with less

Are you just talking about a normal jump between stars? That's just how it works once you have the appropriate research. You won't see a phase lane for it but all stars in a given map are 'connected' to one another.

Once you research the appropriate tech in the civilian branch, you'll be able to travel between stars (any star. They're all connected) as though there were phase lanes between them. You won't actually see a phase lane on the map but if you tell your units to travel to another star, they'll behave accordingly.

Yes. On maps where wormholes are available, there will be two or more wormhole zones that you can jump to. They're just separate uncolonizable zones much like gas clouds and whatnot (except, with no resources). They won't be available on every map.

A couple of corrections... 1) Once you find an artifact using the 'explore planet' upgrade, it becomes active. You don't have to research it. It automatically grants you a passive benefit. 2) Travel between starts only occurs between stars. If someone uses a long range jump, they'll land at the star in the system they're jumping to. Wormholes are completely separate from this and each wormhole only goes to one destination.

As fast as the game has been changing (patches have been cranked out fairly quickly since release), it's a bit difficult to nail down specific strategies long enough to be worth writing a guide for. I'm having trouble finding them at the moment but on the subject of build orders, HuntingX (a regular poster around here) had several threads that outlined effective starting strategies but they may already be outdated and we're getting a new patch again next week (last I heard) which is m

If the planet health hits 0, you lose the planet. If the population hits 0, you simply don't get any tax income until it recovers. Some planets (dead asteroids, pirate bases) even have 0 by default.

[quote]Reverie just gives your opponent a disabled but invincible ship.[/quote] Reverie doesn't make your ship invincible. It simply breaks after your ship takes a certain amount of damage.

Until 1.04 hits, no. Not really. A trade port will almost always be the more lucrative way to go.

A handful of turrets and a pair of repair bays are all you need to ward off a pirate raid at any stage of the game. If you're likely to be attacked and you have some idea where they're going to go (they go after the nearest lightly/undefended planet), just throw a few turrets up on the side of the planet they'll be approaching from and go do something else. Honestly, once you learn to expect them, they're never more than a nuisance. More often than not, I don't even pay atte

1) For the most part, I think the mechanics of the current system are sound. The problem is simply in the prices. Right now, during a boom, the price of metal/crystal is never going to go above the 550-575 range. At any given point during a game, your credit production is most likely to be 5-10x that of your resource production so at the absolute worst price, 550 for a stack of 100 is a fair trade. At any other time, 300-350 for a stack of 100 is a steal. On the flip side, it's almost poin

Odd... I thought this place was pretty tame compared to my usual haunts. Clearly, I've spent too much time around GameFAQ's. Ah well. If changes must be made, I just hope you guys won't go all GUcomics on us.

[quote]I think it's not so much the support play, but the fact its supported play with 1 copy of the game needed, rather than all of you buying your own copy and cd-key[/quote] Well, technically, this is also supported by all but a handful of multiplayer PC games I've played though the methods, I suppose, could be questionable (or perhaps not. I don't make a habit of reading license agreements). And just to ward off any righteous fury on the subject, I'm talking about a simple

[quote]- LAN supported multiplay. (extra high marks for this)[/quote] Not that I disagree with the post but on this point, who, especially in the RTS category, has 'not' supported LAN play?

Building a refinery will essentially increase the output of extractors in the sytem it's placed in and neighboring systems. Each extractor can be affected by 3 refineries before you get no further bonus. That number simply shows you how many refineries are currently affecting the extractor you're looking at.