Note: This is nothing but a strategy post that I've worked up working on the beta the last few weeks.  This could change in the next patch without notice, but for those of you who are curious about alternative strategies, here it is.  It's long and only deals with the Feds, Klingons, and Romulans, because they're the most fleshed out now.  If you play online and don't at least know that these strategies are out there... don't say I didn't warn 'ya

Overall:

1. Pick the Race for your map:  Space stations and your race’s ability to destroy them is a big part of the game.  If you’re playing a map with a lot of choke points (e.g., Entanglement, Gateway, Hyperion’s Gates) you would be well-served to pick a race with good station damage (like the Klingons or Romulans).  On a map with more routes into your territory, stations will bog you down and you want a race with quick build times and low support costs for cruisers: the Romulans are your race.  The Federation straddles the middle here, with good damage and respectable ships for moderate supply.
2. Think Econ:  The Fed needs money for all their upgrades, but the upgrades for that money take time.  Thus, the Federation is somewhat weak and slow early on and thus vulnerable to rushing (bugs aside).  The Klingons, on the other hand, can have access to good econ upgrades starting with a single econ station and will spend less overall – a perfect race for someone wanting to play econ (esp. with their good capital ships).
3. Build military or econ stations first?  For the Fed, it’s a good idea to build at least one military station immediately b/c, unlike other races, they get a shield upgrade with just one station (Klingons/Romulans have to wait until they have 3).  That can help a lot if you run into the other guy’s capital ship early.  The Klingons and Romulans don’t have a lot to get on their military tech tree until they have at least two stations (for cruiser access) and the Romulans need 4 to get a really solid cruiser, so plan accordingly.
4. Cap Ship Abilities:  This is still a work in progress, but do think about what abilities are out there.  The Klingons currently have a wonderful suite of abilities at their disposal, including station-disabling abilities, call-to-battle, fleet co-ordination, and shield restore.  The Fed, while solid, focuses on defensive abilities (shield restore, Gemini Effect, Alabative Armor, and the abilities that need nerfed due to the bugs).  The Romulans aren’t fleshed out yet, so watch out – your Rom cap ship isn’t necessarily as tough as that Klink ship of the same level.  Remember that killing space stations and other cap ships are probably the most important things for a cap ship to do, so it would seem the Klingons have the upper hand at the moment.

Fed:

1. Tech is key:  More than any other race, technology is key to winning with the Federation.  Their incredibly useful support ships (e.g., Nova and Saber Classes) yield an amazing battle advantage, and repeated shield upgrades make Federation Starships among the best protected (however, see note below on HP).  Keep upgrading something at all times if possible: otherwise it will be tough to catch up.
2. Econ is clutch:  Based on the importance of upgrading tech and the high cost of the utility cruisers (in terms of metal and crystal), you will find that economic development is very important for the Federation to remain effective throughout a game.  Focus on every aspect, including planetary upgrades, chaining trade stations, and upgrading mining.  One tip to think on:  if you pack every planet’s gravity well with trade stations (at least those not being used for research stations), it pays for itself very quickly and is a huge boon afterward.
3. Don’t Rush:  Based on the two items above, the Federation tends to be a late bloomer.  Sure, you can also rush with the Federation, but it’s hard to rush people in general with this mod unless you are in a small map and/or destroy the other guy’s cap ship and frigate factories quickly.  Otherwise, they can churn out ships to fight you more quickly than you can get new ones into battle.  Thus, making only a cap ship or two for defense and filling in with capable smaller ships while you research is a good bet if you can pull it off.
4. HP?  What HP?:  Note that the Federation has terrible HP/SP.  Some of this is made up by their utility cruiser abilities and faster regen rates, but realize that you can’t mix it up with a similar-sized klink or rom fleet and expect to win unless you have a set strategy.
5. Specific Strategies:
   1. Galaxy Class: learn it, live it, love it:  Yeah, the Sovie is tougher one-on-one.  However, two-on-two, the Galaxy Class wins out due to the shield restore ability.  Two Galaxy Class starships can wipe the map with about anything using the same amount of supply or less due to swapping shield restores.
   2. Nebula: A Close Second (or maybe even better):  The Nebula doesn’t have quite the DPS or survivability of its larger cousins, the Galaxy and Sovereign Classes, but it has one thing they don’t: Gemini.  The Gemini Effect spell spells disaster for your opponents, as it forces them to waste much of their firepower on the phantom copies, regardless of whether they target the real ship.  In bulk, these things are an ungodly force on the map.
   3. Prime Directive: use support ships:  I won’t spoil the surprise on this one, but if you have the money try sending a fleet into battle with a similar-sized fleet when about ½ or more of your ships are support ships (i.e., Nova and Saber Class).  You will have fun.
   4. Wait…wait…wait…KILLKILLKILL:  After you’ve built your fleet, don’t be afraid to go hardcore.  The Akira has good survivability and great anti-structure damage, so you can take out even the toughest stations without too many losses.  A few cap ships help by being damage sponges, but you may want to leave your support ships behind during station battles due to their frailty.
   5. Mushroom-top Station:  The Fed starbase has its ups and downs.  On the downside, it does less damage and each of the damage upgrades is clutch (unlike klink/fed where each upgrade provides progressively less benefit).  However, this is balanced out by the Fed starbase’s increased range, which makes it great for defending planets and creating choke points.  Pair it up with warp disrupters (i.e., the tactical structure that makes jumping/warping take a long time) and it’s a great bulwark.

Klingons:

1. KillKillKill:  More than anyone else, the Klingons are overpowered killers.  Even the cruisers in the utility slots are killers.  Capital ships are, wait for it, KILLERS.  Pick the best buy among the cruisers (often the Fek’Lhr) and be willing to spam while you wait for other alternatives to look at.
2. You have an advantage with Econ:  Believe it or not, the Klingons have some of the best econ due to the fact that they are based on the TEC and get access to metal upgrades with 1 station and crystal with 2.  That means a lot less money overall is spent on upgrading your metal and crystal extraction rates compared with the Federation.
3. Pick Cap Ships well:  Some of the Klingon cap ships have limited virtues.  The Neg’Var is a solid ship due to DPS and HP/SP.  However, it takes a long time to get and the colonizer cap ship has amazing alternative abilities too.  Make sure to look at abilities before researching, as it’s pretty hard to top that initial colonizer.
4. Specific Strategies:
   1. Today is (not) a good day to die:  Perhaps it is a good day to die, but it won’t be for the guys left behind to fight.  Stow the honor and avoid losing the fight: avoid charging into a fight you can’t win, because the build times to replace your fleet will be painful.  Unlike the Federation and Romulans, the Klinks are a little slow to build (but powerful when done right).  This also means constant construction is a must.
   2. Support your allies:  Klingons may be proud, but they work better in teams.  The Klingons are a natural compliment to the Federation with their solid HP/SP and damage, and a joint fleet of Fed/Klingons is quite potent.
   3. Station ‘thumpin’:  Klingons are good at thumpin’ stations.  High damage, HP/SP, and armor are helpful for this.  Plus, the Nev’Var and Colonizer cap ship have the station crippling ability.  Help a Rommie partner out and get rid of that space station in his way.  It’s okay to be a blunt instrument.
   4. Stations = survival:  The Klingon station has a lot of base DPS, but the subsequent damage upgrades don’t give you as much.  Focus on the HP/SP upgrades at first.

Romulans:

1. One word: Supply:  The Romulans have an advantage in lower supply (or, alternatively, ships of similar to supply to the feds/klinks are more capable).  This allows you to build more a more effective fleet for the same upkeep penalty.  Use this to your advantage, but don’t let it keep you from upping your supply when you should: it may be too late to recover if you do.
2. Micromanagement isn’t such a bad thing:  Cloaking may disable passive regeneration (both SP and HP), but it keeps damaged ships alive to fight another day.  During a deep push into enemy territory, this is important.  The only downside is you need to individually cloak/uncloak ships, since the AI isn’t smart enough to figure this out on its own.
3. Don’t Overlook the Colonizer Cap Ship:  The D’Deridex and Norexan Warbirds may look like the awesome deals (due to HP/SP and damage), but don’t forget to look at the D’Verix’s awesome armor.  It’s high enough that even if you lose shields, it’s a tough beast to kill.  The up-front advantage of being able to colonize with your cap ship is also nice, and to top it off, the D’Verix has an excellent ability to disable stations and enemy ship.  Use that ability in a full fleet of enemies and you can mop up.
4. Watch out for bad buys:  Some of the cruisers are bad buys (e.g., White Wind does little damage), but others are hidden gems.  For instance, the V-8 (Veggie ship!) actually messes structures up something fierce even though the DPS appears quite low and it doesn’t have a special “anti-structure ability” like the Akira does.  The planet bomber is also deceptively useful due to its respectable DPS.
5. Specific Strategies:
   1. Colonize, Upsize, and COLONize (yes, you read that right!):  Start with that lovely colonizer recommended for your cap ship, and get a few planets.  Once you’re developing, up your fleet supply and go after the other guy before he gets stations built.  The Roms have problems attacking well-entrenched enemies without a massive fleet, but before then all is good.  The supply advantage allows you to overpower people, and then you can tear them a new…
   2. Avoid the V-8 Spam (two foods that DO NOT MIX):  The V-8 is a capable anti-structure ship, despite having no ship-to-ship attack and a seemingly low DPS.  This is because the damage type it does winds up doing a lot more damage to stations than a ship with a much larger DPS number displayed on screen.  However, be sure not to spam too many V-8s when attacking a station.  Despite the fact that the V-8 is an anti-structure ship, stations automatically target cap ships and cruisers first; so in a balanced fleet of cap ships, cruisers, and V-8s, you actually do better because the cap ships and cruisers soak up the damage while the more vulnerable V-8s sail through unscathed on one bombing run after another.
   3. Use unconventional warfare:  Given the Romulans low supply costs and the ability to cloak, you can do things you wouldn’t otherwise.  For instance, send in a fleet to attack an enemy’s plant.  As soon as your enemy’s ships hit the system, send a second fleet (that you can afford due to low upkeep) into a different system of his.  When he starts to trounce your first fleet, cloak them all!  He’ll be torn as to whether to try to wait out your cloaks or tackle the other fleet.
   4. Stations (Round 2):  Similar to the Klingons, the Romulan stations do a lot of damage as soon as built, but the damage upgrades aren’t as helpful.  Start out with a couple HP/SP upgrades.

 Hello G-ADM_Prawn can you upload the replays please thx for the tips.

Heya Prawn.  I like your guide here, it is very well written and concise (do you do that for a living?).

i have a short question for the modders out here (not neccecarily the soa team)

where and how can i edit the damage of the beam platforms of the dominion?

or maybe someone can do it for me (from 20 to ~120) so that they are on par with other races.

PLANETMODULE_DOMINIONORBITALBEAMDEFENSE   , edit the line of code that has the weapon damage value. This has been corrected with the upcoming patch which should be out today. Stay tuned all

nevermind

nice i am willing to wait

muchas gracias

This is just simply amazing. Bugs and balance's aside, this is amazing. You guys have done such a great job!

*Edit* Didn't mean anything negative about the bugs and balances, this mod totally rocks no matter what.

I just had an idea for an ability that each race could have.  It would be nice to have the ability to take over the other races starbases.  I don't know how sins abilities are set, but i was wondering if you could modify the assimilate ability that is given to the borg so that you could only use it if the target's shields were down (simulate not being able to beam aboard a ship who's shields were up).  I was also wondering if you could make it so that there was a random chance of it happening so that it would simulate that boarding parties do not always succeed.  You could then give this ability to one cap ship per race and that way you could simulate the ability to take over damaged Starbases.  Like I said, I don't know if that if possbile, but I was wondering.

patch... today...?  

ITS A MIRACLE!!!  

jk, i really cant say how much i love this mod  

The Great Admiral Rain  

'We are the Borg, you will be assimilated'  

since jtaylorpcs posted that the patch will arrive today i am pressing the refresh button

isn't the refresh button great?  

I'm guessing it'll be closer to EST 12:00 AM, so it might be alright if we all just go play the mod or something for awhile yet.

12:00AM...   

it is 12:00 in 5 minutes

the only problem: not est

arggghh

Is it going to be a patch (copy and paste), patch install, or full install for the next update.

i have one request, could you make it to where the scout cubes, can actually scout  

I did that myself, just add the ability to the Scout Cube Entity file.  It's easy

@ I_LOVE_YOU - I didn't record last weekend, but I'll be sure to start.

@ Quicktodraw - I was tempted to make a wisecrack about being a professional @sshole, but then I realized I was a little honored.  If you must know, I don't write reviews, but I do technical writing as part of my job.  Compared to what I have to describe in that, this is easy stuff.

We are working on getting the newest version of Soa2 out the door asap. This will be a full install. Too much has changed, to just patch. sorry but for the best.

thanks jtaylorpcs

Well it definitly shows in your work prawn, because I like how you can include little bits of treknobabble in your guide which is what makes it seem professional to me.

Wow, you guys were further along than I thought you were.  It seems like you have assembled a very efficient team jtaylor .

Thanks   Lets just say they all got Assimilated .  Update We had some issues earlier today that are delaying us from releasing the update as planned but we are currently in the process of packaging the mod for upload please stand bye.

thanks jtaylorpcs

I was the issues.

Okay, I was going to make a pass on all of the unit responses but as it turns out Audition's script recording is really awful and it just goes LOL SCRIPT STOPPED when I try to make a batch file with it. Also, the noise reduction has something against these sounds and doesn't want to completely remove the fuzz.

But whatever.

I removed fuzz from three particularly notable engine sounds. You can still kind of hear it a little bit but not nearly as much - any deeper of a reduction and the engine would get distorted. Did some EQ magic on several weapons. The difference may not be wholly noticable if you listen to them on their own, but I assure that it is there. Listen to them side-by-side, especially the Romulan torpedo. It is a different sound, though. I tried to avoid making them sound too different, just adding more depth (they were "flat" and had little upper-end fidelity). Also, since I removed some sound, I could also cut off/rebuild tails on the reverb and this reduced the length of the audio. Shorter files means more can play faster because they don't chew through sound channels. Though the difference is minimal, I got into the habit of doing that in Starcraft which is limited to 8 channels for everything.

http://www.gameproc.com/meskstuff/edit.rar

This is just the edited sounds. Use in combination with my fixed sound pack for great justice.

You wish . . . that would make you feel REAL important LOLZ !