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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: .95 Feedback and minor bugs

« on: March 24, 2015, 11:19:53 PM »

I certainly don't MIND being able to get all the benefits of both stations on a planet when playing with locked teams; my friends and I usually wind up playing what essentially amounts to space-based trench warfare in base Sins; we love our stations. I just thought, for balance reasons, it was something to consider. But there being not much to do about it... well, I'm not complaining.  =)

Re: Defection rate: sorry. I need to remember that values are still being tweaked. Good to know that it's static, and will probably be a lower number on final release.  Too bad about Fleet Commander auras, but I kinda figured that idea would be too complicated to work. Thank you!

Re: ability research: interesting. That might explain why I had two or three ships with boarding party but no captured enemy vessels until very late-game.  Sorry for the confusion on the Assault Frigate.

Hubby: It took me a while to figure out how to use the Endurance, but oh, man, once I did, it was wonderful. Pali's right: they don't need a buff, they're fine just the way they are. The debuff they can lay on enemy strike craft is incredible, and I had three of them spaced through my formation throwing that out by turns (My formation included nearly twenty capital ships and a Viscount, just to give you some idea of scale).  It let my strike craft just WIN fighter duels and kept my weaker cruisers safe(-ish) from enemy bombers. In the fight I went into where they were most effective, the Empire had perhaps a 3-2 or 2-1 edge on me in TIES, but those TIES barely had enough time to scuff the paint on a Bothan Assault Cruiser before my A-Wings, V-Wings and X-Wings caught them.  Most of the ship abilities for the Republic are fantastic, and I love having them. I agree that the Nebula could use some love, though.

Was there a theme to the Nebula's ability design, or even to the ship class itself in Star Wars literature? I didn't read many stories that featured them, so I don't know what it might be a good idea to make them capable of. I'm not a huge fan of Overwhelm (I'd always rather keep my shields and fire at lower power), though "Target Hangar" is nifty in long fights.  I'd say give them Ion Bolt, but almost all the Mon Cal ships have that anyway, and (as hilarious as watching my fleet stun the entire enemy fleet might be) that'd probably be bad for balance. Perhaps something similar to the Kol Battleship might be suitable? Rename its Railgun ability as "Bombardment Turbolasers" and just give them a really high-damage shot with a cooldown? That sounds kinda boring, though... I'd say something to improve shield block rating or recharge efficiency, but again the Mon Cal ships have that in spades. The Unity battleship's abilities are no help, and I don't know the Vasari ship abilities at all.

Hmmm.  How about a tractor beam?  Blase, I know, but it is technically a variety of Star Destroyer. A debuff with a moderate duration that reduces the target ship's speed and maneuvering power (like, but less crippling than, the Gravity Screw ability from the Unity starbases in base Sins) might do the trick. In the movies, tractor beams are invisible, so you wouldn't have to worry about a visual.

Oh! Rescue teams! Nebula-class cruisers can send out shuttle teams to pick up nearby escape pods. (They don't actually have to send out shuttles; they just draw the Escape Pods to them, or even just give all nearby Escape Pods a buff to increase their speed.) If you want to make it a basic ability, give it a relatively short range and scale that up as it levels.  If you want to make it a capstone ability, give it a long range to start and have it increase the normal bonus from gathering escape pods. Either way lets Republic players feel like good people for picking it and makes retrieval in chaotic battles a little easier.

I forgot to mention in my original post: the new UI is beautiful and intuitive. Props to the designer(s). I kept getting a little freaked out looking for the "bribe the pirates" button and not finding it (any time my credits get over about 5k in base Sins I look for Bribe), but I'll get over that eventually.

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: .95 Feedback and minor bugs

« on: March 24, 2015, 04:06:21 AM »

I suppose it'd help if I read changelogs.  Disregard the parts relating to the tech trees.  They'll be polished when they're polished.

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Ascendancy Discussion / .95 Feedback and minor bugs

« on: March 24, 2015, 03:58:23 AM »

Just played through a solo round as the New Republic against the Empire on the Corellian 3-player recommended map.  The Empire fought tenaciously, but lost in the end.  I loved it; the game is beautiful and plays like a dream.

Now for the feedback!

First, the fixes to the Golan defense stations and the addition of planetary shields made for much more defensible borders.  Once I had a nice choke point, I just built up defensive stations, placed a fleet in orbit, and had a grand time farming capital ship XP as the Empire launched wave after wave of attacking ships at me.  It got hairy once when I forgot to upgrade my fleet capacity and they showed up with damn near the game's maximum number of ships, but their assaults weren't lightning-quick bombing runs to deny me planetary control this time; they were actual assaults.  Stripping control of a planet takes a lot of time and effort, regardless of how well defended it is, which I like.  So, thanks!

One odd thing about Golans, though: even playing as the Republic, I was building TIE fighters and TIE bombers on my Golan IIIs.  Was that intentional?

Also, when the MC80 colonized a planet with a ranked-up Colonize ability, it would spawn an extra constructor (as intended), except that instead of a tug, it spawned a Vasari construction vehicle. On the plus side, tugs spawned properly after the first colonization (ie, with appropriate planetary upgrades), and the Vasari constructors would eventually just disappear.

There were several ships and technologies available to the New Republic BEFORE their research in the tech tree. Assault Frigates start out constructable, despite not being researched. Force Pull and Force Push both have research points in the tech tree, but both abilities are available without doing the research, and neither research seems to unlock anything. Are these researches simply to improve the ships or abilities in question, or are they supposed to be unlocking things?

I liked the split between civil and military stations.  One thing, though: When playing multiplayer, will teamed players with disgusting amounts of money will be able to construct stations over each others' planets, as in base Sins?  If so, it's still possible to get all the station benefits on one planet: simply build civilian stations over your own planet (for the government-in-orbit, max-allegiance-increase, and trade), and military stations over your ally's planets (to actually blow stuff up). If you trust your ally (or have locked teams), then you get all the station benefits over your most important planets.

I'm sure you know this part: The Viscount Star Defender still only has one ability to select at levelup, which is sad. I had 4 points just sitting there, unused, taunting me every time I looked at my fleet composition.

I turned the Galaxy Gun off for my playthrough, as I hate racing to destroy them just to preserve my planets.  How does the Galaxy Gun interact with planetary shields and health upgrades?  Is it an instant destruction, or does the projectile have a damage value that can be mitigated?

One last thing, an issue I ran into during a playthrough just before this patch: My roommate and I were playing NR on a galaxy-spanning map, with a team of enemy NR computer factions and a team of enemy IR computer factions.  The IR factions were building Galaxy Guns like crazy, but neither of us could get a fleet out there to destroy them: the enemy NR had us hemmed in, and trying to trek through their territory to destroy the Guns was a great way to lose fleets.  Our ships were defecting left and right to the enemy NR factions, which kinda sucked.

Don't get me wrong, I love that passive (10% chance for ships to defect when they leave your gravity well), as it forces the enemy to engage you one planet at a time.  But when strategy demands a lightning strike deep in enemy territory, it's just too damn powerful a defense to overcome.  Even three planets in and it can strip an invader of half their fleet.  Great when they're defecting to me; awful when my ships defect to someone else.

Can Fleet Commander auras be made to lessen the defection chance?

Again, many thanks!

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Planet Defensibility

« on: February 08, 2015, 01:54:53 AM »

Very cool and good to know, thank you!  You guys are awesome and on top of it already.     

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Tech Tree Suggestions

« on: February 07, 2015, 12:02:01 AM »

Something to help fill out the Defense tech trees:

  Improved Targeting Computers:  Golan Space Defense Platforms can target 2 / 3 ships at a time.

  Quad-Laser Batteries:  All levels of Golan Space Defense Platforms gain a battery of mid-range point-defense lasers.

  Shielded Stations:  All Golan Space Defense Platforms gain energy shields.  (should they just have these without requiring research?  Most combat-rated things in Star Wars do, barring TIE fighters...)

  Invasion Protocols / Planetary Shields:  Preparing for enemy invasions increases the likelihood of surviving them.  All planets take 5% / 10% / 15% reduced bombing damage from enemy ships.

 

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6

Ascendancy Discussion / Planet Defensibility

« on: February 06, 2015, 11:48:21 PM »

My friend and I just had to cut short a multiplayer game as he had a work meeting.

For our first map, we started off with the full galaxy map on 2v2v2v2v2 with locked teams, large fleet sizes, and fast resource generation.  Perhaps not the best of ideas, but we survived until he remembered his work meeting (a good... what, 5 hours later, I think), so we did OK.  Even if our Sins experience didn't directly translate, it carried over moderately well.

Let me start this off by saying that the mod is wonderful.  The models and effects are gorgeous, the gameplay is engaging and fun, and we greatly enjoyed watching Viscount-led fleets come face-to-face with Executor-led Star Destroyer squadrons.

We eventually ran into an issue with planet vulnerability, though.

Enormous enemy fleets would hyper into planets with maximized Golan defenses and planetary defenses (HP) but little to no waiting fleet (as our fleets were, if not completely concentrated, then at least clustered; I had mine broken into three groups of about 10-12 capital ships apiece plus support).  These enemies would proceed to ignore the Golan defenses, bombard the planet, and flee, all before forces even one jump away could get there to defend.  The Golans would inflict minimal losses and take immense damage in each action, and any infrastructure damage to the system would be irreparable until we could get a colonizer back in-system.

The real problem, however, came after a planet fell the first time.  After a planet fell once, enemies would continue hit-and-fade attacks with their enormous fleets.  Any time you colonized the planet, a swarm of Star Destroyers or Mon Calamari Cruisers would return, nuke the still-regenerating planet with its reduced HP cap (since you lose all researched defenses every time the planet bites it), and retreat again.  Eventually I was having to push PAST contested planets, forcing the contest into enemy territory just to be able to colonize planets at least one jump behind the protection of my fleets.

What this all boils down to is that planets are ridiculously vulnerable and difficult to defend, as compared to base Sins.  With no available static defenses that can effectively fend off enemy fighters and bombers (IE, no hangar defenses), no planetary shields and no planet-hardening upgrades, the fight between us and our neighbors became a roiling furball across two or three uncolonized systems; colonizing them before we drove the enemy at least two systems away was a complete waste of money and time, so we just made sure that our enemies COULDN'T hold them and then just drove deeper.  My strategy of advance for base Sins was always far more deliberate (move into a system, destroy the enemy's defenses, take the system, build my own defenses, and THEN move on) than this state of affairs allows for.

I know you wanted to reduce fighter/bomber spam from regular Sins, and as a Unity player I can appreciate why.  A full Unity fleet deploying all its strike craft at once will make even extremely powerful graphics cards overheat.  I don't cry for the loss of hangar defenses, except insofar as they offered ways to defend against enemy strike craft (I believe the TEC hangars had flak cannons as a researchable thing, and the Vasari hangars had... something).

The Golans are awesome, but do not have the firepower to make up for their much smaller numbers (as compared to base Sins' Rail Guns (TEC) or Beam Turrets (Unity).  When building planetary defenses, we were ringing our planets with Golan 3s, and filling in with a Golan 2 to hit the tactical slot cap, and it just wasn't enough; the enemy would come into a system with enough ships to outnumber our stations 4:1 or 5:1 and just ignore them.

The Defense tree for the New Republic was rather sparse.  Perhaps adding flak cannon upgrades to the Golans, and borrowing the "stations can engage multiple targets at once" upgrade from Sins' space stations for the Golans could help make up for this.  In addition, methods of planet-hardening would be nice.  Planetary shields, bombing damage reducers...  Something to bring planets back from the ragged edge of vulnerability we found them at.

Thanks!  And again, despite all those critical words, we really did enjoy ourselves.

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Ascendancy Discussion / Re: Tech Tree Suggestions

« on: March 22, 2014, 10:17:26 PM »

Some possible New Republic-specific techs, if you're looking for faction-specific things

Mon Calamari Construction Protocols: Increase capital ship, cruiser and frigate shield strength and regen by 5% / 10% / 15%, at the cost of 10% / 20% / 30% construction speed.
  The New Republic was never the fastest at bringing new ships or ship classes online, but when it did, they had some of the best and most powerful shields in the galaxy.  Mon Remonda went toe-to-toe with Iron Fist several times, despite its much smaller size, and survived several of those encounters at least in part through canny use of its shielding capabilities.

Legacy of Rogue Squadron: Increase starfighter and bomber shield strength and damage by 3% / 6% / 10%, at the cost of 6% / 12% / 20% fighter and bomber construction speeds.
  The New Republic relied on starfighter superiority, and much of their advantage in that area came from grueling training regimens and exhaustive testing of new pilots BEFORE they were allowed on the front lines.

Hold the Line: In any gravity well where the Alliance / New Republic holds a cultural majority, increase damage output and hit points of all ships by 2% / 4% / 6%.
  The Alliance and New Republic fought to defend their freedom from the tyranny of the Empire.  When that freedom was on the line, they fought all the more tenaciously.

Of course, I'm a huge fan of factions that emphasize victory through the strength of the elite few, so of COURSE those are the things I'd want to buff.


Perhaps, taking a page from Meo's organizational technique, I might suggest the following Fleet Doctrines:

We Have Reserves: 10% / 20% / 30% overall fleet supply; 5% / 10% / 15% ship HP and / or damage.
Forced Conscription: Reduce cost of all unit recruitment, but increase how much planetary allegiance falls off with distance from capital
Replaceable Parts: Increase regeneration rate of all capital ship, frigate and cruiser hit point pools by 3% / 6% / 10%, and increase rate of starfighter and bomber construction by 6% / 13% / 20%.
Darken the Skies: Ships in a gravity well of enemy culture will convert it more quickly; ships in a gravity well of friendly culture will provide additional pushback against invading enemy culture.

Opposed by:

Leave No Man Behind: 5% / 10% / 15% shield HP and regen for all craft; 10% / 20% / 30% construction speed for all craft.
Volunteer Army: Decrease planetary allegiance falloff with distance from capital, but increase all unit recruitment costs.
Individuality: Increase damage output of starfighters and bombers by 3% / 6% / 10%, and increase HP pools for Capital ships, Frigates and Cruisers by 2% / 4% / 6%.
For Our People: Ships fight more effectively in friendly cultural zones.

Individuality: Increase damage output of starfighters and bombers by 3% / 6% / 10%, and increase HP pools for Capital ships, Frigates and Cruisers by 2% / 4% / 6%.

That was supposed to read:

Individuality: Increase damage output of starfighters and bombers by 3% / 6% / 10%, and increase HP pools for Capital ships, Frigates and Cruisers by 2% / 4% / 6%.

Sorry.  Proofreading fail.  And I also failed to notice that I wasn't logged in when I hit "post".  Whoops.

[Fixed that for you - Corey]

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