So far...

[tlmiller]

Ok, got the new version of SOAGE.  Seems to have lots of fixes.  Was able to build the supercapitals/titans, but ONLY if I set it to "autocast on".  If I tried to manually build, it would fail.  However, using the autocast it was able to build 4 Allegiance.

ISD-II still can't raise their abilities.  ISD-II-C and Tector can correctly.  Allegiance can also.

When you build a heavy constructor, the second ability is disabled saying that additional research is required, but I may researched EVERYTHING in EVERY category.  You also can't read the entire description of WHAT the second buildable starbase is.

No way I can find to build a supercap/titan shipyards.  I had a planet I wanted to build a second one on, and no way I could find to build it, wasn't in the logistics buildings or tactical buildings.  Unless it was the second ability of the heavy constructor that doesn't work.

Dauntless Cruiser seems a bit underpowered for something so large (I'm going entirely off the size and strength that it was in SW:  Rebellion where it humiliated an ISD-I, but in this mod my ISD-II crushed it, I haven't actually used one to know if it's right for it's price).

I'll post more comments as I find them.

[Lord Xizer]

Still seems to be bug riddled

[tlmiller]

Still quite a few, but it's significant improvements.

If I were to make any suggestions, it would be this:

Drop the ISD-II.  Make the ISD-II-C the ISD-II and get rid of the colonization ability (I keep not using it anyway because every other ability it has is so much better).  If you want a colonization ship, either make a VSD (which can land on planets so actually makes more sense anyway) or a Venator (same as the VSD, can land on planets so slightly more sense) and give them the colonization ability.

Since you've already got the ability to research upgraded fighters/bombers, I don't know how it would be able to be added due to size of the area, but be awesome if it would allow for 1 more step of research so that you could go Tie Fighter > Tie Interceptor > Tie Avenger and Tie Bomber > XG-1 Assault Gunboat > Missile Boat/Scimitar Assault Bomber/Tie Defender (can't think of which would make the most sense).

[Lavo]

Ok, got the new version of SOAGE.  Seems to have lots of fixes.  Was able to build the supercapitals/titans, but ONLY if I set it to "autocast on".  If I tried to manually build, it would fail.  However, using the autocast it was able to build 4 Allegiance.

That's odd. It should be able to manually fire; no idea why that's happening.

ISD-II still can't raise their abilities.

This is intentional; as noted in the "Known Bugs" section some ships cannot raise their levels by design.

When you build a heavy constructor, the second ability is disabled saying that additional research is required, but I may researched EVERYTHING in EVERY category.  You also can't read the entire description of WHAT the second buildable starbase is.

The second ability should be disabled; I have recently heard that the first ability is bugged, looking into it right now. Edit: The star base construction ability is functioning as intended. Human players are supposed to only be able to use the first ability, which constructs a regular star base. The second is for the AI, which constructs a starbase which already has upgrades, and thus costs resources to build, as the AI never upgrades it's SBs properly.

No way I can find to build a supercap/titan shipyards.  I had a planet I wanted to build a second one on, and no way I could find to build it, wasn't in the logistics buildings or tactical buildings.  

Also intentional; you cannot build one, your starting homeworld has one, and it's the only one you will have throughout the game. Edit: To further clarify, if one could build them and thus by extension have multiple ones at a planet, the whole buff system for supercap spawning would collapse on itself.

Dauntless Cruiser seems a bit underpowered for something so large (I'm going entirely off the size and strength that it was in SW:  Rebellion where it humiliated an ISD-I, but in this mod my ISD-II crushed it, I haven't actually used one to know if it's right for it's price).

In the mod it's the most powerful Rebel ship in terms of raw firepower outside of their supercaps. In SW:Rebellion the Dauntless was made to be the second most powerful ship in the Rebel arsenal, for gameplay purposes. At the end of the day, it's a converted luxury liner, not a dedicated warship like the ISD line.

Drop the ISD-II.  Make the ISD-II-C the ISD-II and get rid of the colonization ability (I keep not using it anyway because every other ability it has is so much better).

While that's ultimately your choice, this will not be done. The regular ISD-II is both cheaper and uses less supply than the ISD-II-C. As mentioned in the FAQ, many ships used to be cruisers, however they were turned into capital ship entities in SoaSE:R for a number of reasons. These ships still retain their old, fixed level 1, abilities. The ISD-II is one of these ships.

As for colonization, one of the main reasons the ship has it is that the AI will literally die without a colonizing capital ship. Why is anybody's guess, but seeing as how the ISD-II always had a ground compliment with it makes it well suited to house an invasion force.

Since you've already got the ability to research upgraded fighters/bombers, I don't know how it would be able to be added due to size of the area, but be awesome if it would allow for 1 more step of research so that you could go Tie Fighter > Tie Interceptor > Tie Avenger and Tie Bomber > XG-1 Assault Gunboat > Missile Boat/Scimitar Assault Bomber/Tie Defender (can't think of which would make the most sense).

You cannot "upgrade" fighters in Sins like in EaW; the current system is the best that can be done within game limits.

[Lord Xizer]

Is the AI smarter than in ICW?

[Corey]

I've always preferred the Sins AI to the EaW AI, however the Sins AI is effectively untouchable so it can be messed up depending on what ways the gameplay has changed.

[Lord Xizer]

Those AIs are pesky things eh?

[tlmiller]

Also intentional; you cannot build one, your starting homeworld has one, and it's the only one you will have throughout the game. Edit: To further clarify, if one could build them and thus by extension have multiple ones at a planet, the whole buff system for supercap spawning would collapse on itself.

Is it indestructible then?  Because if not, it's somewhat unfair to not allow someone to reconstruct if they get attacked and lose their starting planet but are able to rebuild and now can't have titans.  Just make it so the shipyard is like the normal titan, max 1 at any time, and that way you wouldn't have to worry and you can rebuild.

While that's ultimately your choice, this will not be done. The regular ISD-II is both cheaper and uses less supply than the ISD-II-C. As mentioned in the FAQ, many ships used to be cruisers, however they were turned into capital ship entities in SoaSE:R for a number of reasons. These ships still retain their old, fixed level 1, abilities. The ISD-II is one of these ships.

As for colonization, one of the main reasons the ship has it is that the AI will literally die without a colonizing capital ship. Why is anybody's guess, but seeing as how the ISD-II always had a ground compliment with it makes it well suited to house an invasion force.

While it's your mod so your choice, definitely not something I'd like.  What's the point of a game that you get upgrades for capital ships if the mod doesn't allow you to upgrade your capital ships.  Seems like a step backwards from the stock game.

Is the AI smarter than in ICW?

I honestly wouldn't say it's smarter, just a lot more aggressive.  Even in the little time I've played I've seen it do some seriously dumb things (like never colonize systems that are CHOCK full of resource asteroids in the system right beside it, while fighting tooth and nail for a system 6 systems away.

[JC123]

The Sins AI can be relatively hard from the typical AI standpoint (spam) and I've been able to take advantage of EAW AI far more often than Sins AI.

Just to mention, and this isn't an AI thing, but the ship path-finding finally allows large vessels to be fun so that I don't have to curse and micromanage every route for every ship.  That said, I miss being more engaged in fights and using tactics as opposed to sending in simple fleet combinations to counter other fleet combinations.  Oh well, it's not like every space RTS game is the same.

[Lavo]

Is it indestructible then?  Because if not, it's somewhat unfair to not allow someone to reconstruct if they get attacked and lose their starting planet but are able to rebuild and now can't have titans.  Just make it so the shipyard is like the normal titan, max 1 at any time, and that way you wouldn't have to worry and you can rebuild.

No it is not. You can attack the planet and destroy the shipyard. It's also impossible to put in such a cap on structures; that's the primary reason behind having only 1 at your starting planet in the first place. Further, if it was invulnerable, if a player lost their starting homeworld for whatever reason, and still existed (say in another system of a multi-system map), then said player could spawn supercaps well behind the front lines of the current controller of the homeworld, and the controller could not do a single thing to stop them. While it is somewhat unfair that one cannot rebuild a factory, this situation is even more unfair, and is even exploitable under extreme conditions.

While it's your mod so your choice, definitely not something I'd like.  What's the point of a game that you get upgrades for capital ships if the mod doesn't allow you to upgrade your capital ships.  Seems like a step backwards from the stock game.

There's actually a good amount of reasons. Whenever a frigate has planet bombing capabilities, it rushes to siege the planet, regardless of it's frigateRoleType (aka. what the AI uses the ship as). Capital ships do not have this problem. If these ships were left as regular frigates (note: there is no "cruiser" entity in Sins), the AI would make fleets of ISDs which wouldn't attack other ships, until a planet was destroyed; this was observed before the current setup was implemented, which resulted in an utterly incompetent AI. Further more, one can mess with the AI which results in them spamming capital ships, which SoGE has done, resulting in a more adept AI. It allows for abilities to effect frigates and capital ships differently; admittedly SoGE has not made use of this at the current point in time, though there is a definite chance that we will. Additionally, even though these "regular" capital ships do not get abilities that can be upgraded like the "elite" ones do, these ships do benefit from leveling up, in terms of health and firepower boosts.

I honestly wouldn't say it's smarter, just a lot more aggressive.  Even in the little time I've played I've seen it do some seriously dumb things (like never colonize systems that are CHOCK full of resource asteroids in the system right beside it, while fighting tooth and nail for a system 6 systems away.

Some AI types, such as the Aggressive AI, seem to be less adapt to colonizing planets than the other AI types. That and at times the AI does not have the proper colonization tech researched in order to actually colonize planets.

[tlmiller]

No it is not. You can attack the planet and destroy the shipyard. It's also impossible to put in such a cap on structures; that's the primary reason behind having only 1 at your starting planet in the first place. Further, if it was invulnerable, if a player lost their starting homeworld for whatever reason, and still existed (say in another system of a multi-system map), then said player could spawn supercaps well behind the front lines of the current controller of the homeworld, and the controller could not do a single thing to stop them. While it is somewhat unfair that one cannot rebuild a factory, this situation is even more unfair, and is even exploitable under extreme conditions.

That sucks.  For me personally, relegates this mod to the realm of "could be good" though.  Neat mod, I'm sure I'll still try out the new release every time just to see how it's going, but just the risk that I could lose the supercap facility and not be allowed to rebuild...just would kill the fun.  Sure, likelihood of it ever happening is low.  But there's still that chance.  Let us know when you release new versions so that I know to try it out at least.

There's actually a good amount of reasons. Whenever a frigate has planet bombing capabilities, it rushes to siege the planet, regardless of it's frigateRoleType (aka. what the AI uses the ship as). Capital ships do not have this problem. If these ships were left as regular frigates (note: there is no "cruiser" entity in Sins), the AI would make fleets of ISDs which wouldn't attack other ships, until a planet was destroyed; this was observed before the current setup was implemented, which resulted in an utterly incompetent AI. Further more, one can mess with the AI which results in them spamming capital ships, which SoGE has done, resulting in a more adept AI. It allows for abilities to effect frigates and capital ships differently; admittedly SoGE has not made use of this at the current point in time, though there is a definite chance that we will. Additionally, even though these "regular" capital ships do not get abilities that can be upgraded like the "elite" ones do, these ships do benefit from leveling up, in terms of health and firepower boosts.

Yeah, I knew they still had those advantages from leveling up.  Didn't know that AI would refuse to use them as a combat ship if they had "x" abilities.  Makes sense then.

[Lavo]

Yeah, I knew they still had those advantages from leveling up.  Didn't know that AI would refuse to use them as a combat ship if they had "x" abilities.  Makes sense then.

Nah, what I'm saying is that in old versions of SoGE, those ships were frigate entities, and not capital ship entities. Making them into capital ships eliminated issues with those ships being frigate entities.

That sucks.  For me personally, relegates this mod to the realm of "could be good" though.  Neat mod, I'm sure I'll still try out the new release every time just to see how it's going, but just the risk that I could lose the supercap facility and not be allowed to rebuild...just would kill the fun.  Sure, likelihood of it ever happening is low.  But there's still that chance.  Let us know when you release new versions so that I know to try it out at least.

You can survive without supercaps. Though, if it's really such an issue, I believe making an invincible supercap factories addon can be arranged, which would allow you to change this.

[JC123]

Wow.  I didn't think I'd learn so much about SOAGE on these forums.  Thanks for bothering to post in-depth answers here, Lavo.  I probably wouldn't have seen them otherwise   This answers a lot of questions about odd quirks.

I can see how making the AI untouchable in Sins could be really problematic.

[Rovert10]

Well it seems like if you and I are in a game we don't stay on the same team for longer than 5 minutes, and locked teams are for casuals. They'd probably win because we both take each other out.

That's a first that I heard locked teams are for casuals.

The hardcore multiplayer guys on ICO always locked teams for "competitive" games if you can call them that.

[Lavo]

Those competitive people can really get their panties in a bunch at times.

Wow.  I didn't think I'd learn so much about SOAGE on these forums.  Thanks for bothering to post in-depth answers here, Lavo.  I probably wouldn't have seen them otherwise   This answers a lot of questions about odd quirks.

You guys tend to ask intelligent, and legitimate, questions. Ones that make me think at times even. I enjoy answering these sort of questions, it's a nice break from the swarm of "how do i install mod" and "mod keeps crashing 10 mins how to fix" (there's a file in the documentation about this) questions I'm getting. This is why I'd like to put out another reminder to the TR crew to bear in mind the memory limit of Sins... Unless you want to be ready to tell people how to enable a paging file and get swarms of tech support questions, keep the mod under even 1.5GB of RAM usage.

I can see how making the AI untouchable in Sins could be really problematic.

There really isn't much that can be done with the AI... The best that can be done with it is give it invisible (aka. humans cannot see) research items, which let us give it a few boosts to account for it's stupidity, and make a set of "AI driver" research which are a bunch of techs that eventually "consolidate" into a single tech which unlocks an off page frigate to encourage the AI to research everything. Having off grid research items also lets modders give ships' abilities special upgrades (such as a longer cooldown but costs less antimatter), or flat out unique abilities (see this thread), and perhaps the most extreme case which is what SoGE did with capital ships, which actually changed how the AI behaves.

[Corey]

That's a first that I heard locked teams are for casuals.

The hardcore multiplayer guys on ICO always locked teams for "competitive" games if you can call them that.

Anything that I don't like about anything is for casuals.

[JC123]

I have run into the minidump RAM error on other Sins mods and I just fixed that through "Large Address Aware".  For the record, I just run all the SOAGE stuff and typically hit almost 3G of RAM usage because I like having all the factions playing at once.  Still, I wouldn't want to explain how to do this to hoards of people on an individual basis.  I hope Ascendancy can pull off what they want under 1.5G but I won't begrudge them if they don't.  Personally I like large fancy mods

[Lavo]

tlmiller, here's a stackable addon that makes supercap factories invulnerable. To use it, put it in your mod order on top of all the factions.

I have run into the minidump RAM error on other Sins mods and I just fixed that through "Large Address Aware". 

You're one of the lucky few then. Some of our testers tried using LAA, but it didn't seem to do the job as well as a paging file. Really glad to hear a confirmation that LAA does in fact work in some capacity.

[JC123]

tlmiller, here's a stackable addon that makes supercap factories invulnerable. To use it, put it in your mod order on top of all the factions.
You're one of the lucky few then. Some of our testers tried using LAA, but it didn't seem to do the job as well as a paging file. Really glad to hear a confirmation that LAA does in fact work in some capacity.

I wish I could provide details.  It worked for me and I already had page files but it didn't work until LAA.  If anyone else is reading this and experiencing Sins crashes you should try this

[tlmiller]

One thing I'd love to know from the developers is why in this day and age they still developed a game that didn't have the ability to AT LEAST take advantage of a PAE (physical address extension, allows 32-bit to see and address 8 GB memory by using 36-bit memory addressing instead of 32) kernel (which the Win7/8 32-bit kernels support).  Considering 90%+ of their market probably will have Windows 7+, easy enough to make the program have the ability to do 36-bit memory.  Not that this has anything to do with either mod.

I generally do exactly like Lavo suggests and disable anything I'm not actively going to use.  I do not, however, modify the file, I do use the ingame mods management since it always works for me, and allows me to change what factions are active at the time of playing.  I also have paging active and haven't (yet) needed to consider enabling LAA and have had no issues in vanilla, SoaGE, or Requiem.