My Final Feedback on Beta-2: 31 hours

from Sins Forums

 

Alright so im going to be doing my final write up as a beta tester for Sins: Rebellion Beta-2. And I would just like to present this in hopes that stardock/ironclad will take notice of my opinion of the game. I'm just going to divide this into bullets because I like bullets, you like bullets, we all like bullets. I will have Tl;dr's at the bottom.

 

  • Titans: They are very, very cool. They add alot to the game and are basically like the "boss" of the enemy army. IT kind of reminds me of a hero from warcraft 3 im going to share a little secret with you all. But almost all titans I have played with can go to the pirate base and clear all the ships(not the turrets) and get to level 3. This brings back some good memories that I used to have in some older RTS's. 

    Although I do feel that some of the abilities could use some work. The Advent Loyalist has alot of cool features and speaks for the "lets take over the universe" kind of play style, the TEC loyalist feels very support-like and capable of defending his fleet, the rebels feels like a giant gun that wants to plow through the enemy army. The Rebel Advent however I am severely disappointed in. The Advent Rebels are supposed to be about sacrifice and renewal, purification fits this very well, and it synergies Strength of the Fallen. But the Ultimate is controlled entirely by the opponent and I cannot use it strategically on my own accord, the Eradica needs a new ultimate.

    And the last thing is, I feel that titans however have to much of an impact on the game, this is mainly because they retain their level upon dying. I understand why this was done as if you did not retain the level you would be put behind by an absurd amount. I think you should have a temporary debuff upon revival that reduces your damage by a small percentage.
  • Tech Trees:

    The TEC Loyalist: I feel like you are supposed to turtle, eco up, build up and army, attack with the novalith, then blitzkrieg them with your army. You basically get the chance to get amazing amounts of buffs while you are in your territory. And you also get the amazing ability to have two starbases in one territory. They feel the most complete and true to what they are supposed to be.

    The TEC rebels: work in the vise versa with a very aggressive approach towards your enemy. You research truce among rogues and gain that expansion lead, and then you can get pirate mercenaries to synergize with not going down the Civilian tree by giving you a small army. You can make very swift strikes against an enemy because of how good your offense is. They have alot of ways to gain troops even if going down the diplo/civilian route. Although I do think they could use more tech in the offense tree.

    The Advent Loyalist: The problem comes with the advent again its more of the rebel advent that have this issue than the loyalist(But im still going to rant about the loyalist first for consistency). The Loyalist work in that you have to build culture this provides great buffs for you. You have alot of ways to improve your culture as well. Such as Confluence of the Unity to speed up the spread of your culture. Acclimation of Will improves the speed at which the enemies allegiance decays. Planet for a Planet, does a very poor job of explaining what it does please rework this tooltip. Now an actual Loyalist defining ability is Mass Unity this is in my opinion their signature tech because it is their most noticeable much like how TEC-R have TAR and TEC-L have their starbase tech. 

    But my problem with the advent is why does their tech come so late. This is what I was talking about is why does the TEC always get the better end of the deal. As the TEC you get militia weaponry and militia armor which each respectively improve the TEC damage by 30% when upgraded and give 4 armor while in their own territory(they do not have to be in their own culture), not only this but this naturally goes down the offensive tree and is upgradeable at tier 5. The Advent-L get Ancient Retribution at tier 6 hostility, which gives them +15% damage, 5% range, and 2% shield mitigation. They also get fury of the unity which is tier 8 which gives them +10% damage in their own culture this add up to 25% damage if you get them both which is unlikely as both of them are in different tree's. 

    My point is stardock, please make these techs outrageously powerful, im talking about that 10% damage increase in their own culture should definetly be around +30-40% because it is higher then militia weaponry in the tech tree, but is also in harmony(which has no synergy at all). But they also have to be in culture, not just their territory.

     The Advent Rebels: They do not feel any different than the Advent from Trinity the things that make them special come severely late and a lot of them are not noticeable. I'll break this down into detail.

    If you actually look at their tech most of them are passive, Return of the Fallen and  Reanimation almost none of these are noticeable and as far as I know they are bugged and not working. But maybe its just me and a lack of oversight, but adding a visual such as a purple cloud and maybe a skull over the revived unit for a few seconds would be a great indicator. These passives for their cost are not worth it also, they need a value increase because for 10% chance to revive your unit a TEC-R player has a 100% chance of being able to call in a small squadron of pirate units. Small numbers in this game are generally not worth it. Give these numbers a buff 15%-20% either of them would be sufficient.

    Expulsion is hardly noticeable and again its a passive ability. Cleanse and Renew again a passive ability, give this a visual also like maybe a purple siphon from the planet goes towards ships with anti-matter make it visually appealing to upgrade. Wail of the Sacrifice is the only thing that makes the Advent Rebels unique, even this ability needs some help because the damage depends on planet population which takes alot of time. Replace expulsion in my opinion with some way to increase a planets population growth. 

    Protection of the unity is alot like Planet for a Planet and is very vague in what it does. I have no idea how to activate this ability. Scrap it and give us something unique please. The one other thing I have to say that is positive for the Advent-R is the new buff to the Temple of Renewal which grants shield regeneration. Another thing is all of these come severely late in the tech tree, early game there is no way to tell a rebel from trinity advent give us something early. I normally am not this harsh but the Advent Rebels were poorly designed.
  • Superweapons: For the love of god nerf the novalith, the Vasari's superweapon disables static defenses for a short time, opens a phase gate for a minute and 30 seconds, and does damage to all things in the gravity well. The Deliverence cannot spreads culture, and in return gives the culture buffs to an offensive advent army(especially loyalist, not so much rebels which I think needs to be improved). But seriously the Novalith does planet damage, makes it uncolonizable if destroyed, and the trade/planet growth debuff last for 30 minutes are you serious? a 30 minute debuff. Thats pretty much all I have to say on this matter.
  • Corvettes: They give a good early game advantage but im not exactly sure what their role is yet, its kind of confusing.

And that pretty much concludes my thoughts on Beta-2 I hope stardock reads this and takes note of everything.

 

Tl;dr: Titans are great, but give them a debuff upon respawning. Buff the advent tech trees, Milita Weaponry/Armor for the TEC give higher values of damage at tier 5(which all they have to do is be in their own territory) then the tier 8 advent damage buff(which has to be in their own culture. Redo the Advent rebels tech tree, they are bland and almost nothing makes them special from the trinity advent. Nerf the Novalith cannon, Corvettes are confusing.

 

Small note: Please move Augemented Defense Grid, Phase Jump Inhibitor, and Hardened cities to the security tree. Also maybe spread out the advents tech a bit more because almost all of it was put into the harmony tree, and none was put into the security tree or diplomacy tree. This is another cause for the blandness.

44,743 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

With regards to Advent Rebels, I have no idea what you're talking about with expulsion being bad, I love getting a 20% bonus to my income on a planet every time I blow up a scout ship or one passes through one of my planets.

Protection of the Unity passively increases shield regeneration by 100% (read: doubles shield regeneration.)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mr., reply 1
With regards to Advent Rebels, I have no idea what you're talking about with expulsion being bad, I love getting a 20% bonus to my income on a planet every time I blow up a scout ship or one passes through one of my planets.

Protection of the Unity passively increases shield regeneration by 100% (read: doubles shield regeneration.)

 

Ok I wasnt entirely sure about it because it seems to me that it was worded awkwardly. And I dislike expulsion because of how late you have to get it, it hardly improves the advent economy and its not the ability I dislike its the fact that its ANOTHER passive that is not really visible or defining of what the Advent Rebels are about. We have Wail, the TEC-R have Pirate Mercenaries, TAR even though it is technically a passive ability does something very obvious and clearly very game changing. While Return of the Fallen is barely noticeable and clearly not a strong passive. 

 

Sorry if I worded it poorly. But I would like all of my post to be analyzed unless you agree with everything else then thats fine to^^

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Wail of the sacrificed is evil, as in sinister evil. Use it on a terran planet at the border just as you jump into the neigboring gravity well, you will just have to mop up. The only reason to wait for another charge up is if that planet actually connects to multiple enemy worlds (you can even keep the planet if you have aux gov on your starbase). I agree, though, that the ability needs a little much patience, especially if you just conquered the planet you want to use it from (a TEC envoy helps if you have an allied player available).

It is a bit situational (you shouldn't use it on volcanic worlds or asteroids/moons), but since you are bound to have a temple of communion on about every planet it is very available. Even from a volacnic world it does a rough 1400 damage to all structures on a gravity well, which can be used to finish off heavily damaged enemy structures quickly if needed for whatever reason. From a terran planet it does 6440 damage to all structures, from a desert one still 4940, an ice world at least gives you 3200. From my experience this damage is not mitigiated (confirmation?), killing some low HP structures outright.

It's a shame that I like the Advent Loyalist titan more (its abilites seem more refined.. or maybe finished, making it more fun to play. I agree the ultimate needs a mayor rework at least). I should play the rebels more, since this is so much cooler than spreading culture from your planets.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting mcintire, reply 3
Wail of the sacrificed is evil, as in sinister evil. Use it on a terran planet at the border just as you jump into the neigboring gravity well, you will just have to mop up. The only reason to wait for another charge up is if that planet actually connects to multiple enemy worlds (you can even keep the planet if you have aux gov on your starbase). I agree, though, that the ability needs a little much patience, especially if you just conquered the planet you want to use it from (a TEC envoy helps if you have an allied player available).

It is a bit situational (you shouldn't use it on volcanic worlds or asteroids/moons), but since you are bound to have a temple of communion on about every planet it is very available. Even from a volacnic world it does a rough 1400 damage to all structures on a gravity well, which can be used to finish off heavily damaged enemy structures quickly if needed for whatever reason. From a terran planet it does 6440 damage to all structures, from a desert one still 4940, an ice world at least gives you 3200. From my experience this damage is not mitigiated (confirmation?), killing some low HP structures outright.

It's a shame that I like the Advent Loyalist titan more (its abilites seem more refined.. or maybe finished, making it more fun to play. I agree the ultimate needs a mayor rework at least). I should play the rebels more, since this is so much cooler than spreading culture from your planets.

 

Yeah I like the ability I find it interesting and it does fit the Advent Rebels. But the it doesen't seem like an 'ultimate' ability to me if you know what I mean. Like how the Advent Loyalist have Mass Unity ALL their planets receive a culture spread, the TEC Loyalist ALL their planets can have two Starbases, the TEC Rebels have multiple abilities that make them excellent such as TAR and Pirate Mercs.

 

Like I said I just feel that the Advent Rebels did not have alot of time put into them. I mean no offense to the wonderful Designers. They have made a game I really enjoy. And like you said having a TEC envoy helps but unfortunately we have no real way of improving our planet growth except for expulsion. Also does it do damage to enemy ships in the gravity wells?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I cannot say, the wells I tested it on had no ships residing there safe for construction frigates, and I missed to search for them to check. It does say it damages everything in the next gravity well, so I figure it would do the same to ships and starbases (silly AI not building them. They won't portect the planet from my assault, but at least it would look like they tried).

Maybe the Advent rebels could infuse their planet with some additional population using their colony frigate. Tier 4 or 5 would be a nice place for such a research I'd say.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting mcintire, reply 5
I cannot say, the wells I tested it on had no ships residing there safe for construction frigates, and I missed to search for them to check. It does say it damages everything in the next gravity well, so I figure it would do the same to ships and starbases (silly AI not building them. They won't portect the planet from my assault, but at least it would look like they tried).

Maybe the Advent rebels could infuse their planet with some additional population using their colony frigate. Tier 4 or 5 would be a nice place for such a research I'd say.

I think it would be great to add something like that to the Diplomacy tree(which is lacking alot of upgrades)

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting MayallCommunion, reply 4
Also does it do damage to enemy ships in the gravity wells?

As far as I've been able to tell, yes. Although I've had a few instances where that didn't seem to be the case, and with it being as situational as it is, haven't been able to test it too many times so I'm not completely sure.

 

Edit: Just checked it to be certain, definitely kills ships.

Still not sure how I feel about the ability. On the one hand. having it completely dependent on having a world with some decent pop next to your target (and ideally a starbase with auxilary gov as well) makes it a bit too limited most of the time... But when you do get into the right situation it's pretty awesome..

For example, my current game has a single chokepoint between my territory and that of everyone elses, an empty system (magnetic cloud, technically but whatever). On my side of that system, it connects to two desert planets, meaning every enemy fleet attacking me has to go through that system and is consequentially subject to instant annihilation from Wail of the Sacrificed by either (or both) of those worlds. 

So.. A bit lame most of the time, but pretty awesome if you can catch the bulk of an enemy fleet next to one of your high population worlds.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting davidabc66, reply 7

Quoting MayallCommunion, reply 4Also does it do damage to enemy ships in the gravity wells?

As far as I've been able to tell, yes. Although I've had a few instances where that didn't seem to be the case, and with it being as situational as it is, haven't been able to test it too many times so I'm not completely sure.

 

Edit: Just checked it to be certain, definitely kills ships.

Still not sure how I feel about the ability. On the one hand. having it completely dependent on having a world with some decent pop next to your target (and ideally a starbase with auxilary gov as well) makes it a bit too limited most of the time... But when you do get into the right situation it's pretty awesome..

For example, my current game has a single chokepoint between my territory and that of everyone elses, an empty system (magnetic cloud, technically but whatever). On my side of that system, it connects to two desert planets, meaning every enemy fleet attacking me has to go through that system and is consequentially subject to instant annihilation from Wail of the Sacrificed by either (or both) of those worlds. 

So.. A bit lame most of the time, but pretty awesome if you can catch the bulk of an enemy fleet next to one of your high population worlds.

 

Does it harm your own ships in the other system. I mean the ability is pretty awesome in the right situations, but TAR is awesome in all situations. Which is why I was upset with the Rebels. They don't have a defining ability. They do have the sacrifice thing going but nothing that is solid and noticeable which makes me sad:c

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Return of the Fallen and Reanimation almost none of these are noticeable and as far as I know they are bugged and not working. But maybe its just me and a lack of oversight, but adding a visual such as a purple cloud and maybe a skull over the revived unit for a few seconds would be a great indicator.

I second this. IRL, seeing destroyed enemy ships being recreated would be very demoralising, so maybe ships that have been recreated through Return of the Fallen should slightly debuff the speed and rate of fire of all enemy ships within range.

Also, Return of the Fallen (and related techs) should work with a very high probability on SC. This would make Advent Rebel SC swarms very difficult to clear with flak and give them a military advantage unique from the Loyalists.

Expulsion needs to be a lot lower on the tech tree.