Yarlen Yarlen

Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy v1.3 Change Log

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Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy v1.3 Change Log

from Sins Forums

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to present the change log for Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy version 1.3!  This is a major gameplay update for Sins that practically rewrites much of the original design and balance for the game.

NOTE:  THIS UPDATE WILL BREAK SAVE GAMES AND REPLAYS

 [ Gameplay ]

  • Updated Diplomacy System - Substantially redesigned and rebalanced all the additions made in the Diplomacy expansion.
    • Relationship Factors: Changed to be more granular/randomized, based more on racial lore and take more internal gameplay actions into account.
      • Diplomatic Inclination:  Reduced to a range between -0.10 and +0.25, randomized on game start. This is a starting factor that represents pre-existing like/dislike between factions based on previous (lore) interactions.
      • Racial Inclination: Substantially revised to represent the amount of innate tension/hostility between the races at start of Diplomacy's timeline. Players of the same race will always like one another somewhat, whereas players of differing races will mistrust or hate one another to some degree based upon lore (i.e., Advent hate TEC, TEC hate Advent, Vasari tend to dislike other races to some extent as they're viewed as inferior).
      • Adjacent Territory: Penalty reduced based on distance between players.
      • Missions:  Updated Mission system (See below). Value varies based on conditions. Mission relationship bonuses can count over the +10.0 limit towards Pacts.
      • Mission Rejections:  Value decreased from -0.25 per rejection to -0.10; capped at -1.5.
      • Fleet Strength:  A ratio between each player's total to used fleet points. Formula revised to be less influential.
      • Military Actions:  Variable factor that is now immediately based on players' military actions.
        • Destroying another player's enemy's ships grants a bonus to relations (based on the fleet supply of the destroyed vessel).
        • Destroying another player's friend's ships gives a relations penalty (based on the fleet supply of the destroyed vessel).
        • Destroying enemy/friendly civilian or tactical structures or planets now grants a set relations bonus/penalty as appropriate. 
      • Diplomatic Actions: Variable bonus or penalty that now updates throughout the game based on the players' non-military actions. Becoming closer with another player's enemies will make that player like you less and vice versa.  Values are based on active treaties and pacts.
      • Resources Given:  No major changes.  Positive relations is based on the units provided with credits being worth the least and crystal the most. Resource relations bonuses degrade over time.
      • Envoy Bonus:  No major changes to what this includes. See below for Envoy ability changes. Envoy bonuses count over the +10.0 limit towards Pacts and will degrade if the Envoy leaves the gravity well.
      • Research Bonus:  Static relationship bonuses that now affect both the player doing the research and other players' opinions.  Values have been reduced per tech level. The Research Bonus can count over the +10.0 limit towards Pacts.
      • AI Relationship Bonus:  This value only affects AI players and gives AI to AI relations an increasing amount of relations over time, capped to a maximum.  The speed of the increase is based on the AI's difficulty level.
    • Envoy Changes:
      • All Envoy cruisers fleet supply cost reduced from 12 to 8.
      • Envoy cruiser build time reduced to 63 seconds.
      • TEC Envoy Abilities
        • Worthy Cause - Now decreases building costs within the gravity well by 15% for 60 seconds in exchange for a +0.03 relationship bonus per use.
        • Arbitrate Tariff - Now increases trade and refinery ship income by 15% for 60 seconds in exchange for a +0.05 relationship bonus per use.
        • Settlers (Passive) - Now increases the planet's maximum population by 25% for as long as the envoy is in the gravity well (bonus immediately vanishes otherwise) in exchange for a +0.10 relationship bonus.
      • Vasari Envoy Abilities
        • Mutual Threat - Changed to tech level 3. Now increases ship build rates and resource extraction rates within the gravity well by 25% for 60 seconds in exchange for a +0.03 relationship bonus per use.
        • Nanomedicine Outreach - Changed to tech level 4. Now heals planets by +25 HP/sec over 40 seconds in exchange for a 0.05 relationship bonus.
        • Grant Amnesty - Replaced (see below).
        • Xeno Defense (Passive) - Added to tech level 5. Grants the planet +1,000 HP in exchange for a +0.10 relationship bonus. These HP are immediately lost if the Envoy leaves the gravity well.
      • Advent Envoy Abilities
        • Cultural Assistance - Now decreases planetary upgrade costs by 10% and upgrade time by 5% (under Planetary Development) for 60 seconds in exchange for a +0.03 relationship bonus per use.
        • Sacrifice - Replaced (see below).
        • Harmony - Added to tech level 4. Grants the gravity well a 5% bonus to passive antimatter, shield, and HP regen rates for 120 seconds in exchange for a +0.05 relationship bonus per use.
        • Quell Unrest - Replaced (see below).
        • Cultural Integrity - Added to tech level 5. Makes the gravity well's planet immune to bombardment for 45 seconds in exchange for a +0.10 relationship bonus per use.
    • Pacts:
      • Pacts will now automatically break - without relationship penalty - if the relationship between both players drops below a certain threshold (typically 4.0 points below the amount needed to establish the pact).
      • Pacts that are intentionally canceled by a player will now incur a -3.0 relationship penalty.
      • Pacts now require that both players achieve the minimum required relationship level to form an agreement.
      • TEC Pacts -
        • Trade Pact: Relationship requirement reduced to 10.0. Now grants a 15% bonus to trade income, a 10% bonus to trade/refinery ship HP, and +2 to base armor for trade/refinery ships.
        • Metal Pact:  Discontinued (see below).
        • Efficiency Pact: Added to tech level 4; requires relationship of 11.0. Grants a 10% speed increase to structure and ship build rates.
        • Missile Pact: Discontinued (see below).
        • Armor Pact: Added to tech level 5; requires relationship of 13.0. Grants +2 to base armor, 20% bonus HP per Armor Point to a maximum of 200 HP. Affects ships and starbases only (does not affect squadrons).
        • Siege Pact: Requires relationship of 14.5.  Now increases planetary bombing damage by 10%, reduces bombing damage to owned planets by 10%, reduced population killed by bombing on owned planets by 10% and increases planetary bombing range by 5%.
        • Advanced Thrusters Pact:  Added to tech level 7; requires relationship of 16.0. Boosts capital ship speed and maneuverability by 15%.
        • Supply Pact: Requires relationship of 18.0. Now reduces fleet supply upkeep costs by 15% and increases fleet supply by 100.
      • Vasari Pacts -
        • Resource Pact: Requires relationship of 11.0. Now grants a 10% bonus to metal and crystal extraction rates and a 15% bonus to refinery ship cargo capacity.
        • Pricing Pact:  New Pact added to tech level 4; requires relationship level of 12.0. Grants a 10% reduction to purchase prices on the black market for metal/crystal.
        • Phase Pact: Requires relationship level of 14.0. Now grants the use of ally phase gate/stabilizer connections, gives a 10% reduction to phase space jump range (within the gravity well), and decreases phase jump charge times by 20%.
        • Nano Technology Pact:  Discontinued.
        • Tactical Pact: Requires a relationship of 15.0. Now gives a 10% bonus to base weapon damage from tactical structures, increases tactical structure HP by 5% and increases tactical structure base armor by +2.
        • Structure Pact:  Discontinued.
        • Pulse Pact:  Added to tech level 7; requires relationship of 18.0. Grants a 10% bonus to weapon cooldown for Wave, FlashBeam, Plasma, LaserPsi, PulseGun and LaserTech weapon types.
        • Armament Pact:  Requires relationship of 19.0. Now grants +1 targets per bank for all capital ships and starbases.
      • Advent Pacts -
        • Research Pact: Requires relationship of 10.5. Now grants a 15% bonus to research speed and reduces research costs by 5%.
        • Culture Pact: Moved to tech level 5; requires relationship of 11.5. Now grants a 5% bonus to maximum planet allegiance from culture, a 5% bonus to culture resistance, and a 2% bonus to weapon damage while in your culture.
        • Antimatter Pact: Moved to tech level 6; requires relationship of 13.0. Now increases antimatter capacity by 20% and increases passive antimatter regen rate by 5%.
        • Mass Reduction Pact:  Added to tech level 5; requires relationship of 15.0. Reduces the mass for capital ships by 10%.
        • Beam Pact:  Discontinued.
        • Energy Pact:  Added to tech level 7; requires relationship of 17.5. Grants a 10% bonus to weapon damage for LaserPsi, LaserTech, FlashBeam, Beam, Wave, PulseGun and Plasma weapon types.
        • Anima Pact:  Discontinued.
        • Shield Pact:  Requires relationship of 18.0. Now grants a 10% bonus to maximum shield points, a 5% bonus to passive shield point regen, and a 10% phase missile block.
    • Missions:
      • Updated the Mission system to make it easier to understand/use, especially for AI players.
      • Missions now have fixed costs and rewards based on mission type and level.
      • Added Destroy Capital Ships mission type.
      • Added Send Envoy mission type.
      • Increased mission times substantially based on mission difficulty.
      • Reduced Mission Rejection penalty from -0.25 to -0.10 with a cap of -1.50 total.
      • Added reward bonus for completing missions based on current relationship levels. The higher your relationship with another player, the greater the bonus.
      • Mission failure relationship penalties are now half the reward by default.
      • Updated Resource Missions to give variable relationship rewards based on the amount and type of resources requested. Note - Both players must research the required tech before resource missions can be given/accepted.
      • Created new AI decision tree that allows AI players to better evaluate missions and decide if they will attempt to complete them or not. AI players will now immediately reject a mission they don't intend to attempt.
    • Treaties:  Now require that both players have the minimum required relationship level.
    • Updated various flavor text to make more sense with the changes.
    • Added a bunch of new race specific flavor text for missions and pacts.
    • Changed late game research that negated racial inclination penalty to only reduce it by 75%.
    • Added second research level to each race's third relationship tech and rebalanced each.
    • Allies may now send each other missions in locked team games.
  • Constructor Frigates:  Added new ability called Deconstruct. Will automatically cause constructors to tear down enemy structures within the gravity well (when you conquer a planet) so long as it can't fire back. Gives the current owner 5% of the structure's original construction cost.
  • Fixed bug in the Pirate Manifest for research and sound issues.
  • Increased Advent Illuminator front bank damage from 53.5 to 64.2.
  • Increased the antimatter reserves and passive regen rates on all race's hangar bays.
  • Time between AIs offering the player a mission has been increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes (after completing or rejecting a mission).
  • Starbase trade research costs rebalanced for their respective tech levels. 
  • Advent starbase culture upgrade research cost increased for its respective tech level.
  • Increased the cost of the Vasari starbase Phase Stabilizer research to match its tech level.
  • Fixed a bug (we hope) where the Pirate Mission timer wasn't getting respected for player assigned missions.

[ Graphics ]

  • Added new icon for Deconstruct.
  • Added new icons for new Pacts and Envoy abilities.
  • Added shield meshes for all race's Envoy cruisers.

[ Interface ]

  • Updated Relationship screen to be less confusing. Should make it clearer what's being shown and how to interpret the info.
  • Updated Relationship InfoCards:  They now display both factions' current relations with one another, use proper faction icons and player colors.

[ AI ]

  • Added Diplomacy Mission Decision system.  AI players will now evaluate and complete missions they deem are worthy (based largely on relationship).
  • AI players will now build superweapons!
  • Various other tweaks.
422,589 views 146 replies
Reply #101 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darksxx, reply 96
Yarlen,

Does this patch adress any of the lag or pausing that occurs in later games after several hours?

Probably not noticeably, no.

Reply #102 from Sins Forums Top

What is this -10 modifier of which you speak?  I have scarcely any recent experience of the AI achieving alliance so how to break one is somewhat shrouded in mystery.

Lets say the AI accepts a mission against its ally because of some vast bribe.  Firstly I don't understand why such a mission would be carried out, as the diplomatic penalty for failing the mission would be far less than for breaking a treaty.  So I suppose that there would have to be an immediate relations penalty for accepting a mission against an ally, and of course there is a penalty for breaking the treaty.

If the diplomatic actions penalty modifier was then strong enough and did not degrade over time, then the former allies would remain apart.  If it degraded over time it would depend on the size of the penalty and rate of decline.  From what I understand, the subsequent combat actions do not represent enough of a penalty to keep the former allies apart.  The negative cap might be quite high, but it seems doubtful that the penalty would ever get anywhere near the cap.

Of course if the diplomatic penalty for breaking a treaty was sufficiently high and did not degrade, then former allies would never make up.

That's what I know of the theory of it, anyway.  I'd prefer a system where an ally realised that its partner was getting too strong or had too many planets near its borders and over time it became less keen.

If you set up a singleplayer FFA game where several powers can achieve a joint victory you are playing a very odd version of the game, no?

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Reply #104 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting a110, reply 93
shouldn't tec also hate vasari for attacking them

According to the datafiles the TEC do hate the Vasari a bit more than the advent (at worst -1.5 for Advent, -2.25 for Vasari).

Quoting DesConnor, reply 102
What is this -10 modifier of which you speak?

I was just questioning your claim that the combat penalty wasn't high enough. The combat actions a player does can at most give a +5 bonus and at worst a -10 penalty to relations. That seems pretty large to me.

Quoting DesConnor, reply 102
The negative cap might be quite high, but it seems doubtful that the penalty would ever get anywhere near the cap.

Well, destroying a planet is a -1.0 penalty, starbase -0.5, tactical structure -0.1. Oddly ships destroyed doesn't seem to do anything, which I suspect might be a bug.

Quoting DesConnor, reply 102
If you set up a singleplayer FFA game where several powers can achieve a joint victory you are playing a very odd version of the game, no?

Its what I usually play against AI. A 4 player FFA with two allied victors basically means it will eventually turn into a 2 v 2, but you get to pick your ally later in game. If you have only one victor alliances are not that significant because you know you have to betray each other eventually, and if you have unlimited victors you can technically win just by allying with everyone.

Reply #105 from Sins Forums Top

I'm with GoaFan on that one...4 player FFA with two allied victors is my favorite when doing SP...also fun to do 10 player FFA and ally with someone in the other star system...

Reply #106 from Sins Forums Top

So the vasari phase pact says it allows allies to use each other's phase gates. Is this just if each of you are both vasari? Because I was playing as TEC and could not utilize my ally vasari's phase gates. I hope it's a bug because that would be disappointing if it was just for vasari players.

Reply #107 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Admiral_Kiernyc, reply 106
So the vasari phase pact says it allows allies to use each other's phase gates. Is this just if each of you are both vasari? Because I was playing as TEC and could not utilize my ally vasari's phase gates. I hope it's a bug because that would be disappointing if it was just for vasari players.

Don't both planets need to have a phase gate even for the Vasari to use them?

Reply #108 from Sins Forums Top

Yes but i mean going to an ally planet and jumping from one allied planet to another which both have gates.

Reply #109 from Sins Forums Top

Yes, both planets need to have a phase gate, a starbase with the phase stabilizer upgrade, or the Vasari scout capital with its ability upgrade that creates a phase point.

Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top

But are non-vasari allies capable of using a vasari ally's gate connections?

Reply #111 from Sins Forums Top

Yarlen, I can't find it in the change log, but it appears that the relationship boost per planet has changed from 1.50 to 2.00.  Was this intentional or a bug?  Not that I mind, I think the increase makes sense.

Also, the envoys can't use their population increase on your own planets.  Is this intentional or a bug?  I would think you should be able to increase your own population if you wanted to.  Same thing goes for other passive and non-passive envoy abilities on players planets.

Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Howdidudothat, reply 111
Also, the envoys can't use their population increase on your own planets. Is this intentional or a bug? I would think you should be able to increase your own population if you wanted to. Same thing goes for other passive and non-passive envoy abilities on players planets.

Envoy's have never been able to affect your own planets, you are supposed to send them to other player's planets after all. ;)

Quoting Yarlen, reply 109
Yes, both planets need to have a phase gate, a starbase with the phase stabilizer upgrade, or the Vasari scout capital with its ability upgrade that creates a phase point.

Or have been recently hit by a Kostura Cannon. :D

Reply #113 from Sins Forums Top

Is it normal that on a locked teams game ennemy AIs offer me missions ? I find it quite strange...

edit: They seem to give me only give credits/resources missions...

Reply #114 from Sins Forums Top

any chance we can get a reply on the galciv 2 board please ?

Reply #115 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting KrdaxDrkrun, reply 88
I don't think that you can have a better relationship with yourself...

Never say never.  And, no, I'm not speaking from personal experience.

Reply #116 from Sins Forums Top

Definitely was excited to see my TEC ally build a novalith!  Awesome in getting the AI to build superweapons...

Reply #117 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 109
Yes, both planets need to have a phase gate, a starbase with the phase stabilizer upgrade, or the Vasari scout capital with its ability upgrade that creates a phase point.

Marauders are considered "Scout Capitals" now?

Was this an unintentional Rebellion spoiler or am I just just hopelessly out of date?

Reply #118 from Sins Forums Top

The Marauder has actually always been a scout capital as indicated by the name of its respective entity file, "CAPITALSHIP_PHASESCOUT"...

My guess would be that the developers long ago (while the game was still in development) probably toyed around with more than just the 5 classes of capital ships that we see...in the end, they settled on the five we have now (battleship, carrier, colony, support, and siege) and probably decided the Marauder was good enough to become the Vasari support cap (either the original support cap sucked, or they never made one)...

Of course this is highly speculative...however, the file name associated with the Marauder has been there since the game was first made...

Reply #119 from Sins Forums Top

I don't understand the reason for changing the Advent Shield Pact this way. In the past it was way weaker than the TEC and Vasari level8 pact (getting ship slots without paying tax or all weapons fire faster...) and there was a better pact at a lower relationship level, the Structure pact. The new Shield Pact seems weaker for me, 10% more shield points 5% more regen and 10% PM block for me is not for relationship of 18.00. The TEC new Supply pact is impressive and the Vasari Pulse pact at the same relationship level is just better for me. What happens if you don't have an enemy playing Vasari? Other thing, this pact is not very useful for the TEC because of their low shield points.

I'm missing the Anima Pact too, I think removing it was not the best idea, maybe changing it that it's not making the Vasari strike craft the most powerful? Giving 3 extra strike craft for the Advent, 2 for the TEC and 1 for the Vasari per squadron?

I am happy to see that the Advent envoy now has abilities I want to research and not completely useless in the late game (allegiance restored and sacrifice). Removing the pacts that wasn't useful for all three races and placing interesting new pacts- good job

Superweapons. I'm very excited to see one against me

This is my opinion of the new things, although I'm not an expert so I might not completely understand everything about them.

Turchany


Reply #120 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Admiral_Kiernyc, reply 110
But are non-vasari allies capable of using a vasari ally's gate connections?

Yes, though we found some bugs with this that will be in the hotfix to resolve.

Reply #121 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Itharus, reply 117
Marauders are considered "Scout Capitals" now?

Was this an unintentional Rebellion spoiler or am I just just hopelessly out of date?

That's been their entity name (CAPITALSHIP_PHASESCOUT.entity) for as long as I can remember.

Reply #122 from Sins Forums Top

So I have been playing the updated game with Advent and TEC and I have noticed a few things that I dislike (don't get me wrong, besides these three minor 'issues' I really think the update is outstanding):

  • The game freezes for about 10 seconds when I complete a mission or when the AI completes one of my created missions. This freeze does not occur each time a mission is completed though, it seems to occur at random.
  • The AI relationship bonus needs to be reduced. It currently has a +5 bonus between all AI players after about 2 hours of game time. This results in all AI players bidding at the human player (in Singleplayer mode) when a pirate raid is about to take place and besides that it takes a real lot of effort to start a new relationship with another AI player since they will attempt to destroy all envoys you send to their planets. In fact, I noticed that all AI players started working together to take me down after they destroyed my ally. In an 8vs8 game it can be pretty hard to survive a fight on ones own against 6 unfair AI players.
  • The last point is something minor: An allied AI player might request you to send an envoy (as a mission) when they only have planets where your envoys are already stationed. So when you send a second envoy to one of these planets the mission will not be completed. This means that the mission is useless unless the AI has a planet where you don't have an envoy stationed yet. The only logical thing to do when the AI asks you for another envoy when there is no room for one, is to simply reject the mission. The annoying thing is that you will always receive a (minor) relationship penalty when such a mission is issued, either by rejecting it or by not being able to complete it.

This was practically all I wanted to say about the new update. Oh yeah, besides these points I would like to add that the rest of the update plays out really well. I think the developers did a great job here and I would like to thank them for their continued support of this great game!

And for the next update: please fix those upper laser gun turrets on the Relevation class Battlecruiser of the Advent (they don't shoot)!!! :grin:

Reply #123 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Turchany, reply 119
I don't understand the reason for changing the Advent Shield Pact this way. In the past it was way weaker than the TEC and Vasari level8 pact (getting ship slots without paying tax or all weapons fire faster...) and there was a better pact at a lower relationship level, the Structure pact. The new Shield Pact seems weaker for me, 10% more shield points 5% more regen and 10% PM block for me is not for relationship of 18.00. The TEC new Supply pact is impressive and the Vasari Pulse pact at the same relationship level is just better for me. What happens if you don't have an enemy playing Vasari? Other thing, this pact is not very useful for the TEC because of their low shield points.

I agree the shield pact could use a small buff...a 15% or 20% increase to shield HP would be nice, though I would not underestimate the power of that 10% PM block...

Quoting Turchany, reply 119
I'm missing the Anima Pact too, I think removing it was not the best idea, maybe changing it that it's not making the Vasari strike craft the most powerful? Giving 3 extra strike craft for the Advent, 2 for the TEC and 1 for the Vasari per squadron?

Anima pact was just absolutely awful, almost as grossly imbalanced as the missile pact...there simply is no way to give different factions different amounts of SC, and as you have mentioned, Vasari got a far better bonus since they have less SC per squadron...I really don't think that pact was salvageable without completely changing it...they could have kept it and given a damage bonus for SC (like concentration aura) but I believe they would have still needed to add a new research entity modifier to the game engine...

 

Reply #124 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 123
Anima pact was just absolutely awful, almost as grossly imbalanced as the missile pact...there simply is no way to give different factions different amounts of SC, and as you have mentioned, Vasari got a far better bonus since they have less SC per squadron...I really don't think that pact was salvageable without completely changing it...they could have kept it and given a damage bonus for SC (like concentration aura) but I believe they would have still needed to add a new research entity modifier to the game engine...

They converted quite a few ability modifiers to research modifiers in this patch, so its clearly not impossible for them to do if they wanted. Plus the shared phase lane pact is completely unique, so never say never.

Reply #125 from Sins Forums Top

If you have 4 players on a team, 2 Vasari and 2 TEC (or advent), and the Vasari player each give a Phase Pact to the TEC players, can all 4 players use the gates of both Vasari players?