Diversifying maps (not main map, but the planets/asteroids/clouds)

from Sins Forums

Hi all

I apologize if this has already been taken up for discussion elsewhere or already part of a mod. After playing sins for so long, I have found out that while battles are very varied, battlegrounds seldom change much. Both fleets just charge each other and see which one can do the most DPS wins and optimisation/synergy of abilities, wins.

What i propose, is a way to change the battlegrounds.

For example, asteroid fields, where the only path to the other phase lane is a serpentine route through map would be excellent for fleets heavy and strike-craft. This would make a battleground a lot more interesting and would give rise to different tactics to attack as well as defend that point. Another way is to make it a narrow path where all ships have to go through, which when used with mass-mines and LRFs would make the map highly defensible.

I acknowledge that mine-layers can already seem to do this by imposing a route on the enemy, but making a terrain permanently this way would add another layer on top of battles, which would make for some really fun times. 

If all planets/asteroid maps are hardcoded, then i guess theres no way to do this, otherwise, i would be keen on even learning some modding to do this, if this is possible. 

Thanks for reading and any advice given!!

ps

Most of this was inspired after watching the anime "legend of the galactic heroes" and other East Asian military drama serials where terrain is emphasised to be very important and could be a force multiplier in many cases. 

modding
2,919 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Most of this was inspired after watching the anime "legend of the galactic heroes" and other East Asian military drama serials where terrain is emphasised to be very important and could be a force multiplier in many cases. 
End of quote

Well think about it, for a game as vast as Sins, where there can be up to 10 players controlling Empires with perhaps dozens of planets and fleets of thousands of ships, do we really want space "terrain" to be that important? Every strategy game must choose between scale and tactical depth. The more stuff you have the less important you need to make fine details, else the game will become unplayable because it will be too much for any human to competently manage their forces.

The more important such tactical considerations like terrain become, the more time the player must devote to that to keep their fleets from being annihilated from stupid unit AI. And despite Sins doing many things to allow you to multitask easier, I would not welcome the idea of losing a battle because my ships were to stupid to wonder into a Nebula which disabled their shields because I was distracted with a battle on the other side of the solar system while building up defenses at a third planet.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Sins doesn't really allow terrain. Ships will use Z to go over structures and other objects (including planets) and doodad meshes are just particles with zero collision. Otherwise I wholly agree, terrain should have had an impact in the design.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

In my personal mod, metal and crystal asteroids only exist at asteroids and gas giants (respectively)...they also give a lot more metal/crystal per second...

In this mod, asteroids and gas giants are colonizable but have no planet upgrades and no logistic slots...basically, you colonize them for the sole purpose of building extractors...

The result is that you are forced to fight many battles at planets without any sort of defensive structures....it makes turtling harder, it forces you to spread out your fleets, and it keeps the action constant...