NR New Player questions.

[GreyStar]

First times Sins player because I heard it was pretty good and also play ICW so of course wanted to get the Thrawn's Revenge mod for it because why not?

Questions:

1. Level cap for capital ships?
I'm a huge Warcraft 3 fan, so of course the idea of upgradable capital ships is something I am absolutely in love with due to my experiences in WC3, but I've heard the level cap for ships in Sins is 10 WC3 but they don't have all of their abilities fully upgradable? Is this changed for TR?

2. Recommended way to do research.
I've already played ICW and fell in love with the NR, just want to know more about the specifics of their culture due to not having yet had the time to take a look at the tree and actually play Ascendancy.

3. Recommended ship composition.
I know the NR is micro heavy and favors quality over quantity (MC line much?) But I ask what units should I focus on as my composition, and no, I'm not going to specialize in boarding parties.

4. Capital Ships?
As far as I know in ICW you focus on phasing out ISDs for ISD2s and same for MC80s for 80Bs, and then for 90s, and then a decision between Nebulas, 90s, and Majestics, with 90% of people going with the Nebulas, 9% going with the 90s as something other then defense, and 1% going with sniper Majestics. But apparently in this the MC80 (and maybe Republic Star Destroyer) are the colonizer capital ships style from Sins?

5. Different ship comp?
A minor question I would know the answer to if I played one game of Ascendancy, but are the ship types locked to their canon style fighter compliments or can I change them to what I want?

[tlmiller]

First times Sins player because I heard it was pretty good and also play ICW so of course wanted to get the Thrawn's Revenge mod for it because why not?

Questions:

1. Level cap for capital ships?
I'm a huge Warcraft 3 fan, so of course the idea of upgradable capital ships is something I am absolutely in love with due to my experiences in WC3, but I've heard the level cap for ships in Sins is 10 WC3 but they don't have all of their abilities fully upgradable? Is this changed for TR?

Not yet, and I don't BELIEVE Corey has any plans to do so, if it's even possible

2. Recommended way to do research.
I've already played ICW and fell in love with the NR, just want to know more about the specifics of their culture due to not having yet had the time to take a look at the tree and actually play Ascendancy.

Whatever works for you.  We have multiple different styles in just the testers, and that's only a few of us.

3. Recommended ship composition.
I know the NR is micro heavy and favors quality over quantity (MC line much?) But I ask what units should I focus on as my composition, and no, I'm not going to specialize in boarding parties.

Whatever works for you.  Again, we have several different styles just in the few testers.

4. Capital Ships?
As far as I know in ICW you focus on phasing out ISDs for ISD2s and same for MC80s for 80Bs, and then for 90s, and then a decision between Nebulas, 90s, and Majestics, with 90% of people going with the Nebulas, 9% going with the 90s as something other then defense, and 1% going with sniper Majestics. But apparently in this the MC80 (and maybe Republic Star Destroyer) are the colonizer capital ships style from Sins?

Less true in Ascendency than in ICW.  The special abilities of certain ships keep them in your lineup past what would otherwise be their useful lifetime.  Such as, ISD-I's can colonize, none of the other IR capital ships can.

5. Different ship comp?
A minor question I would know the answer to if I played one game of Ascendancy, but are the ship types locked to their canon style fighter compliments or can I change them to what I want?

They are locked to having certain available, but you're able choose the compliments (IE - ISD-I has the choice of Tie/Ln, Tie/In, Tie/Sa, Scimitar A/B, but you choose which ones you want that you've researched, by comparison the ISD-II has Tie/Ln, Tie/In, Tie/Sa, Tie/D Defender

[Corey]

1. Level cap for capital ships?
I'm a huge Warcraft 3 fan, so of course the idea of upgradable capital ships is something I am absolutely in love with due to my experiences in WC3, but I've heard the level cap for ships in Sins is 10 WC3 but they don't have all of their abilities fully upgradable? Is this changed for TR?

The level cap is locked at ten (which is actually not super common to reach with most ships). Typically capital ships have 4 abilities with 4 ranks. Some ships have 4 abilities with one or two abilities maxing at level 2. Essentially, you're two either specialize in 2, or make it a generalist ship with level 2 or 3 in everything. Honestly, I wouldn't change this even if we could.

But I ask what units should I focus on as my composition

Miller answered most of the rest of this, but don't sleep on Dauntless and Endurances. Their abilities make them a lot more powerful than they may seem up front.

[Mr.Puerto]

The level cap is locked at ten (which is actually not super common to reach with most ships). Typically capital ships have 4 abilities with 4 ranks. Some ships have 4 abilities with one or two abilities maxing at level 2. Essentially, you're two either specialize in 2, or make it a generalist ship with level 2 or 3 in everything. Honestly, I wouldn't change this even if we could.

Miller answered most of the rest of this, but don't sleep on Dauntless and Endurances. Their abilities make them a lot more powerful than they may seem up front.

You could say that you need to Endure on these classes teehee

[Revanchist]

2. Recommended way to do research.
I've already played ICW and fell in love with the NR, just want to know more about the specifics of their culture due to not having yet had the time to take a look at the tree and actually play Ascendancy.

As has been mentioned there are a variety of tech progressions one could take. Some things to note about the NR though is they can build a very strong economy very quickly. They also get a lot of culture spread bonuses and advantages when fighting in their culture. One general piece of advice that I follow is to avoid grabbing the X% damage increase, shield increase, or rate of fire increase techs until you have a stable economy and a decent fleet. Early game it's generally better to focus on building more ships or strengthening your economy over those.

3. Recommended ship composition.
I know the NR is micro heavy and favors quality over quantity (MC line much?) But I ask what units should I focus on as my composition, and no, I'm not going to specialize in boarding parties.

4. Capital Ships?
As far as I know in ICW you focus on phasing out ISDs for ISD2s and same for MC80s for 80Bs, and then for 90s, and then a decision between Nebulas, 90s, and Majestics, with 90% of people going with the Nebulas, 9% going with the 90s as something other then defense, and 1% going with sniper Majestics. But apparently in this the MC80 (and maybe Republic Star Destroyer) are the colonizer capital ships style from Sins?

I'll echo again that it varies. MC-40s are a good early game ship, and they're decently survivable because Power to Shields. Dauntless are excellent cruisers, and of course BACs when you get them. Cap ships you definitely want some of each: Endurance provides buffs/debuffs, Nebulas and MC 90s are the heavy hitters, MC 80bs reflect damage and have Ion Bolt, and MC 80s are colonizers. Even if you don't want to specialize in Boarding Parties I would strongly recommend having at least a couple MC 80s with it. The NR has no Interdictor units, so Boarding Party lets you capture them. Boarding Party also works against capital ships, meaning you can capture ISD 2s, Praetors, Secutors, Phalanxes, you name it. You could probably even capture World Devastators, though I've never gotten the chance. This gives the NR the potential to have the most diverse set of abilities in the game.

[GreyStar]

Well aside from a few general bugs the New Republic plays pretty self explanatory. Good job team. You'be literally made me cry with this mod, that good.

Though now I understand why Corey and co keep working on ICW.

Edit: Also, building upgrades affect buildings already produced but ship upgrades don't affect ships produced pre-upgraded right?

Further Edit: A. Is it a bug that my capital ships were saying 0.0 culture being removed? Or was enemy culture so strong it was overly repelling my own?

B. What's the idea of the Rebellion reborn upgrade? It really doesn't make sense as someone losing all of their planets should have probably lost their fleets as well, I understand in Ascendencey you need to have multiple rapid response fleets but chances are ingame if you're down to one of your fleets chances are you don't have any seige Frigates in there, making it hard to capture a planet and start anew.

C. Is it intentional design that there's self cancelling upgrades in the NR tree? Upgrades that reduce population tax to increase trade good taxes, and then upgrades that increase population to increase taxes on them. Though funnily enough I find they work surprisingly well together.

Even Further Edit: Are Fleet Commander Capital ships in the mod, or am I just missing them?

Edit 4: WHy is it you research Endurnaces and then Nebulas when the Endurance was modeled off the Nebula's design?

[Revanchist]

Building upgrades affect buildings already produced but ship upgrades don't affect ships produced pre-upgraded right?

Depends on the ship upgrade. If it doesn't affect ships produced pre-upgraded it usually says so.

Further Edit: A. Is it a bug that my capital ships were saying 0.0 culture being removed? Or was enemy culture so strong it was overly repelling my own?

Not sure on this one

B. What's the idea of the Rebellion reborn upgrade? It really doesn't make sense as someone losing all of their planets should have probably lost their fleets as well, I understand in Ascendencey you need to have multiple rapid response fleets but chances are ingame if you're down to one of your fleets chances are you don't have any seige Frigates in there, making it hard to capture a planet and start anew.

With the Galaxy Gun in play it is actually in theory possible to lose all your planets without losing your fleet. It also is theoretically useful in multiplayer scenarios with allies, where you may get focused down but can still stay in the game and rebound.

C. Is it intentional design that there's self cancelling upgrades in the NR tree? Upgrades that reduce population tax to increase trade good taxes, and then upgrades that increase population to increase taxes on them. Though funnily enough I find they work surprisingly well together.

This is intentional.

Even Further Edit: Are Fleet Commander Capital ships in the mod, or am I just missing them?

They are not in the mod. If I recall the AI didn't have a clue how to use them or some such, and they didn't do what the team wanted them to do. Instead we will be getting the Hero system in the next version.

Edit 4: WHy is it you research Endurnaces and then Nebulas when the Endurance was modeled off the Nebula's design?

Power differences. The Nebula is the strongest capital ship the NR has, and so it's locked farther down the research tree. The Endurance, while a wonderful ship, is much weaker as it is not meant for the pew pew action of the Neb.