Because I felt like creating one.
Where's the balance?
Published on August 10, 2009 By Kitkun In Sins of a Solar Empire

So there's been a bit of dicussion on balance lately. Most of it's focused on other things so far, but some caps have long been more viable than others. I'm looking to see what the community thinks would be fairly balancing in regards to buffs and debuffs in the abilities.

I'll start with my suggestions and opinions, and I'll be trying to keep things away from what we already have. Try and get a bit more diversity into the game.

Color coded for fun.

TEC:

Kol Fine as is.

Sova Fine as is.

Akkan: Buff

Colonize+ Fine as is.

Ion Bolt: Change AM from 85/85/85 to 85/80/75. (AM intensive, gives more incentive to level it up. Only good for interrupting anyways.)

Targeting Uplink: Change Accuracy bonus from 5/10/15 to 6/12/18, change Range bonus from 8/17/25 to 10/20/30. (Allows Flak to take out SC just a bit faster and gives the longer ranged TEC ships a bit more of a boost.)

Armistice: Fine as is.

Dunov Fine as is.

Marza: Mixed

Radiation Bomb: Fine as is.

Raze Planet: Fine as is.

Incendiary Shells: Allow it to stack, change Damage/Sec from 3/4.5/6 to 1/2/3, change duration from 15 to 8. (Not really that much of a buff. The Rate of Fire of a Marza allows it to maintain a stack at about 3.)

Missile Barrage: Bump up graphics more.

Advent:

Radiance: Buff

Detonate Antimatter: Fine as is.

Animosity: Fix so that debuffed ships cannot attack other ships with any weapon that could attack the Radiance. Add 2% Mitigation, change cooldown from 35 to 45. (Actually makes it useful, since as is you just give a new order.)

Energy Absorption Armor: Fine as is.

Cleansing Brilliance: Fine as is.

Halcyon Fine as is.

Progenitor: Mixed

Colonize+:   Fine as is.

Malice: Change target cap from 8/16/24 to 12/20/28.

Shield Regeneration: Change shields restored per second from 37.5/50/62.5 to 37.5/47.5/57.5. (Another awesome ability. Ready the flames, plz.)

Resurrection: Fine as is.

Rapture: Fine as is.

Revelation: Buff

Reverie: Fine as is.

GuidanceAdd 3/6/9 AM recharge. (Make it useful. You just run out of antimatter faster otherwise.)

Clairvoyance: Start with Autocast off.

Provoke Hysteria: Fine as is.

Vasari:

Kortul: Buff

Power Surge:  Fine as is.

Jam Weapons:  Fine as is.

Disruptive Strikes Fine as is.

Volatile Nanites: Change debuff range from 2000 to 2500, change damage upon death range from 1000 to 1250, change damage upon death from 150 to 200. (A bit more useful against large fleets.)

Skirantra: Buff

Repair Cloud: Fine as is.

Scramble Bombers: Kill this ability. (Move it to Lasurak or something. Suggestions for replacement welcome.) 

Microphasing Aura: Fine as is.

Replicate Forces: Change from 3 copies to 6 copies. (Much more useful in smaller groups.)

Jarrasul: Mixed

Colonize+: Change Duration from 240/480/720 to 240/360/600add 1/2/3 extra constructors for duration of buff. (Building structures really, really fast for a short while. Not like you're going to take this over others often.)

Gravity Warhead: Fine as is.

Nano-disassembler Fine as is.

Drain Planet: Fine as is.

Antorak: Buff

Phase Out Hull Fine as is.

Distort Gravity Fine as is.

Subversion: Change build rate penalty from 50/100/150 to 100/200/300, add damage over time to amount to 8/12/16% of planet health and 5/7.5/10% of population, change AM from 100/100/100 to 100/110/125, change cooldown from 75 to 150, remove stacking. (Powerful now. For damage, remember that it's over 5/7.5/10 minutes. Using stacking means the ships has to wait there or you have mutiple of these, both of which go against the hit-and-run nature of them.)

Stabilize Phase Space: Fine as is.

Vulkoras: Buff

Phase Missile Swarm: Change to fire Phase Missiles with 15/30/45% chance to bypass shields. (Again, more a bug fix.) 

Deploy Siege Platforms Fine as is.

Assault Specialization: Fine as is.

Disintegration Fine as is.

 


Comments (Page 13)
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on Sep 24, 2009

Darvin3

Scramble bombers is still, IMO, worthless.  Repair cloud is one of the game's strongest abilities, easily a match (if not the superior) of the legendary shield restore ability.  I'd rather save my antimatter for that.  Scramble bombers has to become "teh shit" to actually compete with it for precious antimatter reserves, much in the same way malice must compete with shield restore.
 

Scramble Bombers now has some use, because it's cooldown and AM regeneration is so much cheaper. I could actually see it having some use when clearing out neutral planets, because an additional Bomber every half minute does help crush Kodiaks. Though it still is probably the worst Capital ship ability in the game.

Not sure about Repair Cloud being superior to Shield Restore. Against another Vasari player, it is better, but Shield Restore going through the shields first does make it have an edge. It is pretty close late-game, though.

This Sins update is going to make the Akkan and Sova essentials for a TEC feeder, and that makes me extremely happy. Akkan having its new extraction bonus will be extremely useful. And the Sova... well, now it's worth sending it into enemy lines, disrupting income AND destroying buildings with more Missile Batteries and superior Heavy SC. And building up trade is even better with the now extremely good Rapid Manufacturing. I'm going to have a real blast using Sovas again.

on Sep 24, 2009

Scramble Bombers now has some use, because it's cooldown and AM regeneration is so much cheaper. I could actually see it having some use when clearing out neutral planets, because an additional Bomber every half minute does help crush Kodiaks. Though it still is probably the worst Capital ship ability in the game.

If you need to kill militia, get a Jerrasul (or possibly Kortul).  If you need to siege planets, get a Vulkoras (or possibly raise a Jerrasul...).  If you need to kill capital ships, get a Jerrasul (or possibly Antorak now).  If you need to heal your ships, get a Skirantra.  That's its role, that will always be its role, and any ability that uses antimatter is competing with this ship's primary purpose for that precious resource.  This is why the ability is still worthless in my eyes, and why I will always get the passive ability to complement repair cloud.

Not sure about Repair Cloud being superior to Shield Restore. Against another Vasari player, it is better, but Shield Restore going through the shields first does make it have an edge. It is pretty close late-game, though.

Shields aren't affected by armour.  Combine overseers with lots of armour upgrades and this healing ability becomes phenomenal.  Also it can be used while moving, the cap doesn't need to be stationary.

And building up trade is even better with the now extremely good Rapid Manufacturing

Heh, no one's realized yet that rapid manufacturing = 300% faster starbase construction.  Sova could become the king of offensive starbasing.

on Sep 24, 2009

rapid manufacturing = 300% faster starbase construction. Sova could become the king of offensive starbasing.

This shouldn't effect SBs imo. The Vasari are supposed to rely on offensive starbasing so it would be unfair to give the TEC this.

 

on Sep 24, 2009

Friendly planets only. The buff is applied to the planet, rather than from the Sova. So the target Filter is set to Friendly only.

 

on Sep 24, 2009

Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear that.

Marauder+Overseer is going to be one hell of a combo when it comes to preventing your caps from dying to FF.

on Sep 24, 2009

Darvin3

Heh, no one's realized yet that rapid manufacturing = 300% faster starbase construction.  Sova could become the king of offensive starbasing.

Unfortunately, Rapid Manufacturing's construction rates only apply to your own (And possibly allies', I don't remember) planets. However, this will really help TEC bring out fleets fast. Imagine using Rapid Manufacturing on a frigate factory heavy planet. Building up entire fleets within a minute? Heck yeah!

Still, the Sova will probably remain a situational Capital ship (While all the TEC Capitals are now instantly useful), but in the right circumstances, it'll be REALLY good.

on Sep 24, 2009

Too bad; I'd have loved to have seen a Sova-siege strategy.  In any case, I think the Sova is definitely far more respectable now.

Also, I looked up some stats last night and... well... I'd highly recommend buying your first hull point upgrade in a Vasari vs Vasari game now.  Level 1 nanos now kills assailants in a single shot (used to leave them within an inch of their life, now it kills because it deals 25 more damage over its lifespan).  Now, I could be wrong because (accounting for health regeneration) it deals exactly as much damage as necessary to kill them, so if there's even a slight timing issue I'm unaware of them could survive with 1 hit point.

on Sep 24, 2009

I'm so happy my phase-out hull idea made it in!

 

Anyways, I just can't begin to say how excited I am about the Kortul buff!!!  They fixed it, they bugged, it disables!  I'm just so happy.   Throw that in with some other upgrades like the Antorak's improved guerilla abilities , the buffs to the Kol, Sova, and Akkan, and I can't begin to say how happy I am right now with the devs!  

on Sep 24, 2009

By the way, apparently Progen colonize took a nerf but someone forgot to include that in the list.  It's now 15/30/45 discount per level, with duration 360/480/600

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