Just won a 4 player FFA with TEC loyalist.  The other three we another advent loyalist, a TEC rebel and another TEC loyalist.   The TEC rebel guy was the first eliminated as he got squeezed between me and the other TEC loyalist, then it became a competition between the two TEC loyalists (the advent guy was relatively n00b). 

I was behind in most of the early fleet engagements but was able to eventually fight off my opponent who was both quicker to build a titan and outproduced me on capships (4 to my 1).  However, I was the first to fleet up to bomber swarm and I got my ankylon out before my opponent managed to level his up.

Then I did what everyone seems to do to win, I send my ankylon to the pirate base to get free experience from all the pirate ships.  The other TEC loyalist did basically the same thing and at first my fleet was unprepared for the engagement, so I jumped back to the safety of one of my volcanic worlds.  After some fast carrier buildup to a nice fat bomberswarm I jumped back in to engage the pirates and other TEC loyalist.  The bombers were stunning in effect, sequentially destroying each of his 4 capships (including a level 6 marza that tried to missile barrage the carriers) and leaving the anykylon and remainder of his fleet fleeting to safety.

While I went on to mop up the remains of the pirate base for even more titan experience, the other TEC loyalist guy decided to make a push on the advent loyalist who's culture was starting to become a serious problem for the both of us.  After the severe damage his fleet took in the encounter with mine his ankylon was finished off by advent Coronata and at that point he realized the game was probably over for him and quit.  This left me and the Advent player in a fight for the remains of map with several left over colonies from the defeated TEC players.

At this time I was ahead in all the ranking charts except for used fleet supply. So I decided to press my economic advantage by gobbling up the planets of the other TEC factions to extend my trade chain.  Meanwhile, at each of the borders between me and the advent player I started placing/upgrading starbases with big red button.  This is where the 2 starbases tech starts to become useful as you can double the coverage for big red button with it.  Additionally if you use one, the second starbase remains viable to defend the planet from any remaining enemy fleet/stragglers.

Eventually, the advent fleet of mixed composition though mostly disciples attacked my frontier.  When it encountered my main carrier force my bomber swarm quickly dispatched 2 of his halycons followed by one radiance before he scrambled to escape.  Then, I proceded with a counter attack planet hop toward his capital, while his fleet was on the opposing side of the map trying to take more of the defeated TEC player's worlds.

When he jumped back through my territory with his fleet to go defend the world I was attacking, his *entire* fleet stumbled right on top of one of my starbases (I had two in this particular well).   Admiral ackbar sez:  "It's a trap!"   I pushed the button and everything except the coronata exploded cementing my victory.  He left shortly later.

I guess at minimum this demonstrates TEC viability on a medium or smaller map.  For most of that game I was number 1 in income and technology.  If the map was significantly larger I'm not sure the same would be true as it would probably give advent/vasari enough time to catch up and surpass TEC at least technologically.

Maybe there could be a tractor beam sort of weapon that has a range of the whole well, and can target small groups of frigates (10-20) or a single capital ship or titan. the target is either drawn toward the starbase or slammed into the planet (you can choose). if it is slammed into the planet, the planet gets -1000 hp, but does 5000 hull damage and 4000 shield damage (armor does not affect this). the other one would be used if, say your enemy was massing hoshikos and you wanted to cripple his fleet of frail lrms

the argonev for loyals should have range for all grav well, so the fleet you face would be severely weakened

i don't know how to quote properly, so dont hate

Maybe the Ankylon could act as a mobile spawn point for frigates. without damage changes.

The Coronata should convert enemy culture centers. (Name of tech: Corruptive Conversion)

There should be a chomping sound and animation when Vorastra uses the maw.

The Ragnarov frontal cone should be smaller.

Nano leech should affect shields not hull, but phase missiles can counter so it is non-OP.

Nerf the Eradica in any way, shape or form. it is literally invincible at level 8.

I am not so sure about if a mobile frigate factory is a particularly useful.

It would be better to buff Repossession into something more than a gloryfied version of colonize. A direct transfer of the planet does not work in the game engine as far as I know but they could at least give you some huge cost reduction and build time decrease for the planet upgrades. Right now it is a comfortable solution for lazy planet bombers.. but thats not enough to justify its use, especially on a Titan that on level 6 can spent upgrade points in more useful things.

Absolutly agree.... the Ragnarov has murderous 270 % coverage..... far more than it should have. The only safe place is behind.... but try to outmanveuer it first.....TEC has a Titan mobility upgrade.... so there is little escape from it. Ankylon has moderate damage with 360 degree coverage but this is usually inferior to having 270 degree murderous coverage and poor coverage from aft.

I think it might just need a further general stat decrease of the ability to be fine.

The Eradica was already nerfed in a recent patch. I think it is fine now. Yes, without any doubt it is on the more powerful end of the scale but it is quite beatable. Like the Kulturask you dont engage it with a large frigate fleet as this is where it is most powerful. Instead exploit its weaknesses: For one it isnt particularly good against singular hard targets.... its performance against other Titans, Starbases and captitalships is less than stellar and you should use that knowledge. Corvettes should work too. Similar to all other powerful Titans you want to avoid it to reach level 6. But even if it does it is not the Vorasta and so not everything is lost. If you have to take down an Eradica with the first or even the second level of Unyielding Will... it is imperative that you dont make half attempts. If you hit it, you have to hit it so hard that it wont have much time to use it. That means your Titan and capitalships and yes... bomber spam. The preferred and patented solution to any Titan trouble... leaving aside the Maw. Dont bring any frigates into range.... and when it health is decreasing prepare for a swift retreat the moment it dies. Make sure your ships are in good shape before engaging. Normally Chastic Burst isnt particularly good against Titans/capitalships and starbases.... but with Unyielding Will it can be chain used in quick succesion and that is enough to melt even Titan armor at an rather unhealthy rate.

Last but not least it should be noted that all Titans are close to unkillable at Level 8. This the reason why bombers use to be their primary counter. The Coronata will make a large ammount of your firepower nonexistant and zapp any other Titan on a remotly similar level into oblivion with Unity Mass.  The Ragnarov will scattershot your fleet to death and snipe your beloved level 8 capships like they were made from paper. The Vorastra will consume your carrier fleet, making it probably the best Titan to have above level 5. The Kultorask forces you frigattes away giving his large supporting fleet free aim at your very small remaining fleet. You might take it down... but it is going to be very costly. The Ankylon just refuses to die but it has little to offer besides that and it can be countered by bombing the planet or first simple killing the supporting fleet.

I think repossession is being underestimated.  It's an instantaneous planet steal regardless of defenses.   That alone makes it pretty nice against a heavily defended border world.  But it also triggers a few of the advent techs (newly conquered worlds generate antimatter for your ships in the gravity well, etc) and it allows you to start throwing down repair bays of your own to assist in the fight as well and speed the whole conquering process.  While not the best titan ultimate, it's certainly not that bad.

If any titan ultimate needs a look over by the devs it's the Vorastras maw ability.  That one is just flat ridiculous espescially when it's the same titan that can instawarp across the gravity well directly into the middle of your fleet to use it.  It even works against corvettes and to add insult to injury it feeds the player using it tons of resources.  I don't see how a late game VL can be beat when they have this at their disposal.

The problem is that it's not allowed to target capitals, which is the only terran world many enemy players have.   There is simply a shortage of high-value worlds it can actually target.  Not to mention border worlds can be take the old-fashioned way.  it was actually pretty good when you could fly past the enemy's border and use it to back-cap their homrworld- but as it is now it doesn't do much besides save time.

Titan level 6 abilities need to be gamechangers to really be "good"- most titan ults ccomplish thing by doing AoE damage that singlehandedly wins late game battles.  The inability to target capitals just makes repo too situational.

The tech you refer to(antimatter on destroyed world) is an advent rebel tech, so an advent loyal player wwith a coronata would not have it(and by the way that tech isn't even worth researching for the advent rebels).

And by the way, repossession DOES NOT activate any effects that proc on destroying an enemy world or colonizing a world-  it is treated as a seperate trigger, so effects such as Assimilated populace are not activated by it,

 Here the thing: to build your own structures you generally need to destroy the enemy structures first.  being the the newly stolen world goes back to 0 logistic/tactical upgrades this ysyally means for a developed world you have a lot of enemy structures you have to kill first.   Much of the time you could have bombarded the planet down convetionally in the tiem it takes to clean up all the enemy structures.

So no, it doesn't really help you start setting up structures much faster.

 No complaints here- but reposession still aint up to snuff.  It's a great idea in principal, but was shut down by the lack of synergy with other advent loyal techs and restrictions to prevent it fro messing with an optional game mode.

Incidentally all level 6 titan AoE can hit corvettes.  The Maw, Dissever, and overcharged explosive shot all hit corvettes.  SO at least there's symmetry

Not saying the maw doesn't need a nerf- it still does IMO, but the ability I'd really like to see be made unable to hit corvettes is desperation, the only non-level 6 titan ability which can currently hit them.

Where do I save the replay

I wouldn't underestimate repossession either...there are occasions where 2 fleets sit at the same world but don't actually engage each other for long periods of time...in this situations (and others) bombing out the planet would be highly desirable but also extremely costly or outright impossible (due to enemy fleet and/or SB with government)...

Note that if you take the planet, the enemy is denied the ability to build new structures and cannot use any of their factories there (and if they do have factories there, it's quite possible they have no other factories nearby)...additionally, you can start to repel enemy culture (you can't repel culture in enemy held gravity wells, only friendly or neutral), which can be a nice benefit...

There are other bonuses from being in friendly wells (like faster SB construction, some VR bonuses) that repossession can grant you and your allies...

It's not as good as the maw, and admittedly it is situational...but in those situations, I would argue it could be a game changer more so than any titan ultimate other than the maw...

Well I'll grant you that- I'm just prone to think the situations are a bit fewer then they should be.

Honestly I'd just like to see repossession actually activate assimilated populace and perhaps have a ;esser secondary effect when cast on capital planets(rather then being completely unable to target them).  Perhaps something like dealing an instant 25/50% of the planet's health in damage and applying the normal effect if this damage destroys the planet.  That way it wtill wouldn't be an instant-win in homeworld game setting, but with a bit of bombardment could still potentially be used to backcap a homeworld.

All in all I would just like to see it become more consistently useful rather then a situational boon.

Where to save the replay?

It should be possible to give this buff, but if only done simply then it'd be independent of having the technology researched (repossession would give you the buff even if you didn't have the technology)...

You would have to use the "5th slot" on the coronate to have an ability tied to assimilated populace that requires the technology...the buff then could add a flag to the coronate granting an additional buff when repossession is used, so that only having the technology would give repossession the assimilated populace buff...

It is possible without an engine change, but I don't the devs would ever do it...

Wouldn't be quite so complicated. You can have a sub-buff go away with a finish condition if certain research is not available.

Start any game.... hit F10... go to record

Enable autorecord

Done

Or when in a game..... hit F10 and select record.

I disagree. Now I think that you are overstimating its power.

"there are occasions where 2 fleets sit at the same world but don't actually engage each other for long periods of time..."

Uhm... assuming those two fleets are hostile... why should any side order them to cease fire? And if there are factories, why should the enemy fleet wait until he maxed out his fleet supplies by building there?

Repossesion would have been more useful than Novaliths in the replay I posted in this topic. It might have ended the stalemate, but then with Advent vs TEC it might not have become one after all.

But the replay also shows something more. If you are military inferior conquering an enemy planet may do you little good. Even if I had managed to conquer Ghostal in the replay, I could never had hold it. He already had a starbase and a powerful fleet. I would have never managed to build up any starbases there.

Even if you manage to take the planet and with it the factories from him, by the stage of the game you will have a level 6 Coronata that is little more than a nuisance to the enemy.

No doubt there are some benefits to it, even if you hold the planet only temporarly. Just not enough benefits imho to spent an ability point that could go in maxing out Unity Mass - a first class Titan and starbase killer and Supression Aura. Even Subjugating Assault may be more useful in 99 % of all cases.

Especially the second level of Repossesion may be the most expensive most useless ability ever. There is no reason you ever want to have a second level of Repossesion.

Back to your above fleet example, if the enemy fleet is there, you may losse the planet within seconds. Since the in game functionality is basically gloryfied colonize the planet starts with very low HP.  And that means that the most casual of bombing runs will end it immediatly. Sure you might do it again, but only after the cooldown.

To be honest I see only one halfway reasonabe use of the ability. Send out your Titan alone and let it conquer enemy world after word. Dont bother destroying anything just keep on moving. If your lucky the enemy will chase it with his fleet in which case your remaining fleet has a lot more freedoms. If you are unlucky and he has enough worlds he will simple crush your fleet with his Titan supported fleet and then afterwards deal with recolonisation and pulverising the Coronata.

This is a very limited usefulness for a Level 6 Titan Ulitmate.

Perhaps if you made the planet invulnerable for 10 minutes after it had been casted it would become more useful. The inclusion of Assimilated populace would be nice, but at this stage of the game this bonus is no longer relevant.

On the other hand more planets may allow you to build more Deliverance Engines, who arent harmless anymore and while slow require considerable investment to hold of permanenlty as you likely will need to scuttle several trade ports.

Generally TEC Loyalist do terrible against Coronata as you have serious troube to field a fleet that has enough firepower to overcome Supression Aura.

No, I'm talking about the replay that this guy posted, where do you save it after you've downloaded it, like which folder?

\Your own document folder\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Record-MultiPlayer

Actually any record directory would work, but it makes the most sense to put it into this one.

Played a game tonight that saw all 6 factions and their titans on the field of action....no doubt that the Ankylon was the worst of them....

My lvl 7 Ankylon served only one purpose...it could interrupt Maw and Missile Barrage...but other than that, it was useless...completely, utterly useless...furious defense doesn't even help that much when in hostile/neutral territory, so it's not like "being harder to kill" is really a true advantage...

Coronata wasn't too bad, mainly cause of unity mass....suppression wasn't too relevant in any of the fights since corvettes and SC were like the only fleet in the game....

Ragnarov is good, mainly though because of it's 1v1 ability, not because of its AoEs...because they are frontal cones, they can be avoided in many cases...

Eradica is still a beast, definitely best non-Vasari titan...excellent at handling large numbers of ships...it ain't too shabby in a 1v1 fight either....

VR titan never really leveled and so never got to see it in too much action...

VL titan is still grossly OP...desperation + micro jump means it can rape any fleet combination you throw at it...add in maw and it's even worse...you'd think TL would shine here since they can interrupt maw, but the thing is that you can't stop desperation and that ability really is the killer...you can't even kite the damn thing because of the short cooldown on higher level micro phase jumps...desperation and Maw definitely need to not affect corvettes in any way...

I was kind of thinking recently: what if  Group area shield were more eefetice on frigates then other ship types?  At present it's plenty sufficient for making your capitalships tougher, but still utterly insufficient to keep your frigates alive through enemy titan AoE- something that it needs to do as a support titan who's main DPS comes from it's supporting fleet.

Perhaps add some secondary effect, perhaps using the same mechanics guardians use:  In addition to the current damage reduction, perhaps have 20% of damage dealt to affected frigates get redirected to the Ankylon's shields?

Thematically it makes snese since group area shield like shiled projection involves projecting the ankylon's shield about it's fleet.  And mechanically it would give frigates some additional burst mitigation, making them better able to survive AoEs.

Honestly long term due to hoshikos, a TEC fleet of frigates only need enough hull/mitigation to survive a titan AoE at full hull with zero shields to last a long time- since as long as they survive the blast they can heal up to full hull in time to survive the next one during the 30+ second cooldown most titan AoEs have.  An extra 20% cut of the damage could very well push them past that threshold even against higher level titans.

Not to mention it helps a bit with the issue of the Ankylone being too ignorable, as this would force some of enemy damage to be redirected to the ankylon.

Well, to be fair, another route could be for group area shield to give shield regen/sec to frigates, meaning they reliably have both shield points and hull point restore between each enemy titan AoE, giving them more total points with which to survive the next AoE rather then needing enough mitigation to survive with hull alone.

Again though, such a secondary effect should only be for frigates- the ability already fufills it's purpose welle nough for capitalships.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it cannot.  The Maw is not technically a channel.  it just happens to disable the Vorastra's engines as a secondary effect(check the entity file and you'll see).

Being that it is not a channel it cannot actually be interrupted even by disruption matrix the only titan-disable in the game.

The only fun thing about 2 starbases is pressing the red button 2x to nuke a L5 vasari titan and fleet that came nosing about -still had to take anky and L6 kol/marza in to kill the sob.

I still think the TEC needed 10% shield ignore added to autocannons.  Advent -would be nice if one of their weapons affected only shields and another only hull; just some flavor.

This is true and I realize now I worded that poorly (when I said interrupt I was thinking MB, which I did successfully interrupt)....you don't use disruption matrix to interrupt Maw (though that'd be really nice), but to prevent them from using it...lvl 4 disruption matrix lasts 15s (lvl 3 is 11 IIRC), which can be enough time to move some carriers around (which was the only ship I had that could be eaten)...I usually have them just cluster around the VL titan on all sides so that no matter what way it faces it won't get to eat much, and 10-15s can be enough time to get them to move that far...

It isn't ideal and it requires heavy micro but it surprisingly did make a difference during a key battle...sure, they could use Maw after the buff wears off but as long as you make it so that they'd only get a few of your carriers, it serves it's purpose...

There was another battle though where disruption matrix really proved its ineffectiveness with it's poor range...when you are trying to screw with enemy abilities with a big brick that gets stuck on a lot of things, having range is really important...ooloo managed to eat a third of my carriers once because the anky couldn't stay in range of his ship...micro jumps don't help matters, though at least the titan still faces the same direction after it jumps so there is something you can predict...

Am I the only one getting "File not found" on the replay download link?

 I say that pervasive economy should be changed into a tier 6 tech without prereqs.

The 30% damage boost should be in ALL gravity wells, not just friendly ones.

I completely agree with buffing novalith or nerfing  Aux. Gov. I would even go so far as to removing the novalith limit only for loyalist (unless that has already been done).

Disruption Matrix should definitely interrupt Maw, and I still think there should be a chomping sound when maw is used.

I still think that the Eradica should be nerfed. It was at level 8 and it killed my fleet of 20 Enforcers, 40 Kanraks, 8 cap ships all >Level 3 and my Level 5 Vorastra. I was kicking ass until that thing came up. It is Siddy's fault I lost that game.

NOM NOM NOM

[quote who="bilun" reply="32" id="3305687"]

Quoting Valkya, reply 32I think repossession is being underestimated.  It's an instantaneous planet steal regardless of defenses.  



it would only be a planet steal if it kept all the upgrades like population and logistics

edit: fuck i can't quote!