Yarlen Yarlen

Diplomacy v1.2 Preview

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Diplomacy v1.2 Preview

from Sins Forums

Happy 2011 to all the Sins players out there! :)   It's been quiet on the Sins' front for a while now due to other business, but as I promised late last year, we're working on a new Diplomacy update for everyone.  The update will be released in beta first due to a number of changes we're making in the game, probably in the next two weeks.  Once we're happy that everything is working as expected, we'll release a final version for everyone.

So what's going to be in the update?

  • Balance changes:  We're making a number of gameplay balance tweaks based on player feedback. These will include changes to both ships and tech tree items.
  • Various bug fixes from reported issues.
  • New Pirate System:  This is a pretty big one, so I'll detail it a bit more below.
  • Memory optimizations:  This is one of the key reasons for starting this update as a beta.  We'll be tweaking the game's memory use for greater performance.

Currently the Pirates can either be non-factors or incredibly nasty early on given how their upgrade system works and how their fleets are composed. If you get a streak of bad luck, you end up with Pirates that have an insane power curve that makes the game very unfun, very quickly. To fix this, we're switching the Pirates to a series of fixed fleet compositions and upgrade paths.  What this means is that early on, if you get tagged with a Pirate raid from bounty, you'll find them annoying but easy to deal with.  As the game progresses, the Pirates abilities and toughness will scale over time based on the amount of credits they collect from missions, bounty, their planet, etc.  The Pirates will no longer simply scale in power, either!  We're giving them unlockable special abilities that will give them an edge in late game situations. ;)   On the flip side, we don't want situations where in the late game, a player can send a massive Pirate fleet at another player by simply dropping 100 total credits on bounty.  So we're adding in a new system that will scale back Pirate raids levels if the bounty isn't high enough to warrant a big deployment.

Basically, the Pirate bounty system will be a bludgeon, whereas giving the Pirates missions via Diplomacy will be a scalpel. ;)

328,389 views 188 replies
Reply #101 from Sins Forums Top

Not sure what you're referring to. The Vasari starbase has a tech upgrade that allows it to build faster. That's by design since it's mobile and designed for offense.

Sorry, let me be more clear. I mean in star bases being built over the course of a game. I've played games against Vasari where it built little to no starbases for whatever reason. It could be as Darvin pointed out a budgeting issue and never has free sums enough to lay down a starbase or an issue with the dual colonizer/star base role or a combination of both.

I've not seen this occur with Advent or TEC which regularaly have star bases constructed at all points in the game at any difficulty level.

 

Reply #102 from Sins Forums Top

Just to let you guys know. 

Trinity mesh file problem still exists and people cannot join. >:(

Yes fix is posted on this forums but some people don't know these forums exists or they just don't know enough about computers to solve the problem. So if this update can fix this problem as well MP base would grew.....

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #103 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 100

Is there any chance that the patch could also include a fix to eliminate the mesh error problem that Trinity purchasers experience when they try to play online?

.....

We haven't heard/seen this before.  We'll need more info in order to look into it.

 

The mesh error is described in this older post.  Which referred to an older fix written by Blair in a pinned post dated 2/27/2009:

Fix for "Your mesh files differ from the host".

By Blair Fraser on February 27, 2009 6:01:01 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

If get the message that your meshes don't match when you try to join a mutiplayer game ("Your mesh files differ from the host"), you may need to uninstall, delete your Sins folder entirely (do this manually!) and reinstall.

A quicker alternative that may work in *some* cases is to just delete the following files from your regular Sins Mesh folder (not the Entrenchment Mesh folder).

SupportShip_PsiGunship.mesh
SupportShip_PsiDecoyFighter.mesh
SupportShip_PhaseGunship.mesh

These are located in something like the following:

C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mesh

Reply #104 from Sins Forums Top

while that is how one is to get around the problem, the problem still exists.

Untill it is a fixed in a mandatory patch, it will always be an issue.

Besides, sometimes people are not computer literate enough to do it on their own... and require considerable handholding to get it done... and if a helpfull individual isnt in the lobby (in game doenst help) at the exact same time the newbie is having problems... well, then we have issues. 

I had a guy rage quite on me seconds before i hit the enter key with the message expaining to him his problem... because he had been in the lobby for quite some time, and i join in as he was leaving.

 

 

Besides. the stickies for this problem are so hidden... and the % of users vs forum readers so low... and the stickies we do have are so often so horribly out of date... ehh.... darvin3 for mod!

Reply #105 from Sins Forums Top

Agreed; it took me several hours to help a friend through his mesh issues over messenger.  It needs to be addressed in a patch so it just works the first time.

Reply #107 from Sins Forums Top

hopefully before we get a flood of newbs trying to get on multiplayer of the 20th best game of the decade.

Reply #108 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting jpaa1701, reply 106
So any ideas on when this is actually coming out?

 

I had to start a new game yesterday  *_*

Reply #109 from Sins Forums Top

The mesh error is described in this older post. Which referred to an older fix written by Blair in a pinned post dated 2/27/2009:

Ah, thank you for the info. We need folks who are actively getting this issue to zip up the /mesh, /entrenchment/mesh and /diplomacy/mesh folders and email them to us.  Please send them to [email protected]. 

Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top

The problem with the meshes is that a patch will only add files and not delete those old unused meshes which were better left in the game and not used rather than deleting them from newer versions.

You need to put them back or the other option is create an executable that will do the work for the novice but you will still get people not doing it and just getting enraged that the game does not do multi-player.

If your going to delete files, better to gt rid of those bunch of texture files that load in the ram but dont do anything and take up way more space than a couple mesh files. 

Only n00bs will still have this issue still and good luck getting one of them to email those folders if they even read this. They cant even find the sticky to the fix.

I agree we need a moderator to update ALL the stickys and not do it per decade.

Reply #111 from Sins Forums Top

well, what we really need to do is get someone with the trinity box to do a fresh reinstall. that way someone would actually get the error, and would be able to send in the issue.

everyone on the forums... most likely knows what they hell they are doing and have already fixed the problem.

 

I would do it, but I dont have the box set.... though i prolly have a very very vanilla disk somewehres around here.

Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top

My Trinity box is in storage. X|

 

:fox:

Reply #113 from Sins Forums Top

Yarlen,

 

could you improve the AI ability of handling relations in this or a later patch? What I mean that it is only me who can manipulate diplomatic relations. The AI relations seems to me a simple statistical change by their actions. I don't remember I have seen any alliance between AI players due their actions improving their relation, or any intention to improve it.

Reply #114 from Sins Forums Top

It won't be in this first beta, but I do hope to make some diplomatic balance changes in this area.

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Reply #115 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Pbhead, reply 111
well, what we really need to do is get someone with the trinity box to do a fresh reinstall. that way someone would actually get the error, and would be able to send in the issue.

everyone on the forums... most likely knows what they hell they are doing and have already fixed the problem.

 

I would do it, but I dont have the box set.... though i prolly have a very very vanilla disk somewehres around here.

 

Hmmm, I just installed the box edition of Trinity, so did a friend, and neither of us had the mesh problem. So, I'm not sure if reinstalling it will reproduce the problem.

Reply #116 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Todd7912, reply 115
Hmmm, I just installed the box edition of Trinity, so did a friend, and neither of us had the mesh problem. So, I'm not sure if reinstalling it will reproduce the problem.

Were you and your friend able to join games that were hosted by people other than yourselves?  That's where it would show up.  Since you both installed from Trinity you would both have the extra meshes so you could play games hosted by one another.  However, if you try to join a 4v4 or 5v5 hosted by someone else you'll probably get the mesh error.  It's easy to fix, just follow this link:  http://tinyurl.com/Sins10

Reply #118 from Sins Forums Top

Will the diplomacy update break mods that have previously been developed???

Reply #119 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Stevo1982, reply 118
Will the diplomacy update break mods that have previously been developed???

Yep, but us modders are ready for it.

Reply #120 from Sins Forums Top

[quote]This issue desperatelly needs to be fixored:



https://forums.elementalgame.com/363293/



https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/374505/[/quote]

This is by Ironclad's design and we won't be mucking with it for now. ;)

Reply #121 from Sins Forums Top

<3   so many dev posts!

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Reply #122 from Sins Forums Top

I'm trying to be patient but any news on release date.

Reply #123 from Sins Forums Top

I'm actually with pb right now... It's nice to have the dev posts, although I'm getting anxious too for the beta.

Reply #124 from Sins Forums Top

BAM just remembered something:

 

Currently assailants give MUCH less exp on a per fleet supply basis than the other LRMS.  I do believe the exp they give should be 45, not 20.

Reply #125 from Sins Forums Top

Agreed.