Speed, problems, and friends.

Why Nil can't get his friends to play.

from Sins Forums

So recently I have found that a number of my friends have Sins installed on their computers.  Being a (non-rts) strategy game lover, and an avid player of SoaSE, I invited my friends to play against me via LAN.  In the same room, actually.

 

First game against friend A, I mopped the floor with him.  Mostly through scouting him out and countering his fleet.  All my reading on the forum here came in handy.  Subsequent games went similarly, though he improved.  Main strategic problem was a lack of scouting on his part, and a tendency to spam some unit every game.

 

So this was all great, and I was hoping to have a non-repetitive, skilled opponent to play against (you know how the AI can be manipulated).  ...then he bowed out, saying that the gameplay was too horribly slow.  Our battles took minutes (!?), and bombing a planet took the better part of an hour, let alone conquering every last planet.  Each game took hours.

I then visited the other friends with Sins on their computers, and they all told me the reason they put down the game, and never play it is because it takes far too long.

 

I've been playing with all of the game setting options (Ship speed, ship build times, etc.) set to max, but that doesn't increase speed all that much.

I could increase total game-speed by playing on a small, cramped map, but that means that most of the depth that SoaSE has to offer is wasted in a series of low-tech rushes.

I could argue that he should surrender when he has no chance of winning, but he doesn't really think he has a chance to begin with.

I could find other friends to play SoaSE with, but he seems the only one who will actually touch the game.

I could play Entrenchment, but I think that would make the game even slower.

 

As it happened, I couldn't find the answer, and myself and said friend went back to alternating between turn-based strategy (Ex: Westnoth), which I always win, and fast-paced RTS (Ex: Starcraft), which said friend always wins.  No happy middle-ground of SoaSE, as I hoped.

 

Is this a common problem?  Does anyone have suggestions on how to draw my Starcraft/Red Alert loving friends into playing SoaSE?

Is there some way to increase speed in the game?  2x, 4x, 8x speed increases don't work in Multiplayer, apparently.

18,982 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

You could make a simple mod editing the Gameplay file. To increase the speed of everything. In Distant Stars (a mod) our fast is about 2x as fast as normal Sins. TOOOOO fast for me personally but there is need for b/c many people think the game is super slow.

 

Creating your own game play mod is super simple, if you gonna just tweak the number to make it faster.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I believe Diplomacy is bringing with it even faster settings, and I'm not sure if it's in Sins but Entrenchment also has a Quick Start option that shaves a fair deal of time at game start so you can jump into battles faster.

Ultimately though, Sins' structure is such that it can't really be as fast paced as more traditional RTS games since there once you destroy the main base the game's pretty much over, but in Sins you have to knock out each planet.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Diplomacy IS bringing a "Faster" speed setting, as well as a "Vicious" AI difficulty level, though im not sure if that will make it smarter or just increase the resource income etc (i.e. cheating)

also, im pretty sure Entrenchment is a little faster than Vanilla Sins, and Mods make it even faster... as mentioned above, Distant Stars is a mod that speeds up the game and really, the extra fortifications dont slow the game down, only battles, which arent so much slowed down as prolonged, which isnt a bad thing IMO...

really, the game is played as fast as you want it to be played, if you spend alot of time fortifying and researching and making everything 'perfect', then yeah, the game will take ages, but if you take planets, upgrade quickly, build medium size fleets instead of massive ones, and dont take the time to colonise and ortify every planet... games should go much faster

its a suggestion at least... but i recommend getting entrenchment anyway, anti structure cruisers do help taking down structures in grav wells...

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

One quick question, are you guys playing on entrenchment with quick start enabled?  That is the difference between a glass of orange juice for breakfast and a triple expresso.  Also venture online to ICO and find some games, there you may find you are the one getting rolled for making seemingly simple mistakes :).  Spoken in jest of course, but there is always a bigger fish out there.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Thank you, all of you.  Thank you very much.

 

Okay, let's see if I have this straight:

 

1. Distant stars, or DIY mod.  Seems kinda extreme, but this is a high-end option.

2a. Entrenchment is a faster game, even with fortification options.  Heckle friends into buying it and installing it.

2b. Use quick-start on Entrenchment.

3. Wait for Diplomacy, and heckle my friends into getting that too.

4. Play more aggressively.

 

Right now, option one seems prime, as getting folks to get an add-on for a game they think is too slow to play is... difficult.  If they do, then quick-start it is.

Playing more aggressively is an interesting option, but I feel bad about crushing friends who aren't near my skill level as fast as possible at the start of a game.  Sure, I can hump their main system with a Sova leeching, and then mess with their astroid via LRM streaming while expanding on my end... but this makes for an unfun game, and eventually ends with my Sova bombing their homeworld for a half hour.

Maybe me playing resource depletion rather than resource out-production would be fun for the other player, but I can't see how, personally - they don't get to implement strategies much.

Then again, I know that once I am out-resourcing my opponent, I do tend to sit back and let my advantages build.  I need to work on that.  I always feel the impetus to be aggressive is on the side with less resources (see: WWI and WWII, for example).

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

The mod option would be the easiest way to be fair. Since you only want to change the game speeds, its like 4 things you have to change in 1 file.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

 

You can always find other people to play with on Ironclad Online.  (Online multiplayer is not the "Multiplayer" button, which is for LAN games, but rather the "Ironclad Online" button.)

How long did it take you to play the games?  Part of it is dependent on the maps that you're playing on and the number of people in the game.  Multistar maps take longer than single star maps and are not played much online for that reason.  Also, if you play the huge random single star map with just 4 players, 2v2, it will take a long time.  FFA (free for all) games also takes much longer than locked team games.

Your average 5v5 on the huge random single star only takes about 1.25-1.5 hours to play (though epic games could last longer).  It isn't necessary to destroy your all of your opponents' ships and to bomb all of their planets; players on the losing team will just call it gg (good games) and quit or surrender once the outcome has been clearly decided.

Definitely try it on ICO.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

You could also try letting your friends have an AI teammate. It would probably even up the playing field quite a bit and be more fun for you.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

and, if you are feeling creative you can build a galaxy forge map that heavily favours your friend(s) over yourself... sorta like a manual handicap...

yeah, its work, but it could be fun