Proposition from newbie player

from Sins Forums

First of all : hey to all community as this is my first post.

Somewhere on this forum there was a thread from one of devs, about improvements to sins, but I just can't find it. Please feel free to move it to that topic.

Ok to the point now. I think there should be more in game information on games features. For exemple when I hover with my mouse over magnetic cloud there should be some frame that says "All special abbilities are disabled", when I'm choosing capship, and i hover over one of them there should be frame with its abbilities and I mean abilities with full description.

On tech menu there should be easier way to distiguish tech already possesed and those not - like red cross on them or some red border - something like that. Now it's hard to find out it.

When you create games (the menu on which you choose how hard are opponents) game should remember your choise, so that you don't need to change  for example 8 players from normal to hard each time you want to play. Maybe some button to change all comp players at once?

Manual is bad. This game is really complex and after reading it you don't know many things. For exemple  last game I won by diplomatic victory - I can't find any information what diplomatic victory is...

The final point is- not enough info to play efficiently. If i didn't read wiki and almoust all topics on this forum I would know almoust nothing about this game, and still i must remember many things that should be in game. This things makes the game unnecessary harder, and not in the difficult but in the tiring manner.

And i would really like some heavy penalty when someone breaks a treaty with you... I like to build my relatonships with other races and its sad that after hard work of getting them opponent can just say - oh i just don't need it anymore go to hell. Maybe some heavy penalty in cash. metal and crystal? The bigger the more pacts you have with that race?

 

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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

On tech menu there should be easier way to distiguish tech already possesed and those not - like red cross on them or some red border - something like that. Now it's hard to find out it.

Eh?  I think the metallic border completed techs have is pretty obvious as it is. 

Manual is bad. This game is really complex and after reading it you don't know many things. For exemple  last game I won by diplomatic victory - I can't find any information what diplomatic victory is...

The manual doesn't contain information about the two expansions, and Diplomatic victory was part of the Diplomacy expansion.  Presumably the manual will get rewritten for Rebellion.

The final point is- not enough info to play efficiently

I think larger issue is information overload, which is pretty pervasive in the strategy genre.  In order to be interesting, you require a wide range of tactical options, each with their own nuances.  There simply isn't an easy way to display all this info without having a mission mode that introduces each unit one at a time.  I don't think a big wall of text in the form of tooltips will help, and what's really needed is a comprehensive tutorial and quick-reference guide.

And i would really like some heavy penalty when someone breaks a treaty with you... I like to build my relatonships with other races and its sad that after hard work of getting them opponent can just say - oh i just don't need it anymore go to hell.

The bigger issue is backstabbing.  It's way to easy to set up some starbases at your ally's planets then backstab him.  Cutting off pacts?  That's just diplomatic duplicity which comes with the territory of unlocked teams.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

As far as the "not enough info to play efficiently", campaigns in games tend to do a good job of this.  Starting you off with very limited options and then having fine tuned missions to explore new technology as it is introduced.  Plus the story is usually interesting, if well written.  There are tutorials you can play, but that's not quite the same in my opinion, they do shed some light on some things though.  I'd personally like to see some sort of single player campaign, but it's not a huge deal.  In a way, each new expansion is like a new chapter in the story, I kind of like this approach. 

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

There is a Diplomacy manual, but it doesn't do very much.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I know you're a newbie but it's still funny to read that "This game is too difficult to learn because it's complex." in your post. I completely agree, when I started playing I had no idea what to do and I was already used to play RTS's and other types of strategy games. At that time it didn't exist a wiki of Sins, the only thing I had was the forums and getting experience while playing the games. If you want to learn more about the game keep playing it, better yet, play with other people and watch records of those plays, this is one of these games where you really learn how to play it by playing it. I'll have to admit, most of the stuff that came out from Diplomacy and Entrenchment, I only knew how they work because I had been constantly reading about them in the forums.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

The infocards were good enough for me 95% of the time. The rest is just trying everything out yourself, which you should do in every strategy game starting out anyways.