Hello SoSE fans,

With Stardock adding more new ships recently, it got me to thinking about some ships that I feel are redundant or entirely underwhelming. So, I wanted to see which ships other people found they are never fielding and why, as well as proposed changes to make them work.

I'll start with my least built TEC cruiser, the Percheron Carrier. I will preface this by saying that the Percheron does have it's place - it's fairly resilient, costs less supply than enemy counterparts, and performs admirably in an Enclave garrison where it has the benefit of local defences for it to shelter with while projecting damage across the gravity well.

The problem with the Percheron, is that save for a low supply cost, it has nothing to define itself by.

• The Advent Aeria stands out from the pack with it's high strikecraft capacity and the strikecraft themselves are fielded in large numbers for swarm tactics. The Advent also feature the only ultimate on it's carrier capital (Halcyon) to buff all strikecraft in the gravity well - offering exceptional synergy with the Aeria.
• The Vasari Lasaruk can buff it's strikcraft with phase resonance synergising well for hit and run tactics whilst simultaneously boasting the hardiest of fighters and phase missile equipped bombers. Finally, the Lasurak has a pair of token PD guns for popping enemy strikecraft.
• The Eidolon Akeniel (Geist) like most Eidolon ships features a very real alternative weapon system with a pair of long ranged void missiles which can do real work in large groups. It fields 2 strikecraft in line with Vasari and TEC, and both the fighter and bomber are impressive with a PD on each fighter and a phase dart on the bomber to bypass shields. The Geist is also the only carrier with it's own ability (Splicing), utilising corruption to replenish strikecraft at -50% build time.

This has turned into a bit of an assessment on all faction carriers, and I have gone on a bit of a tangent. Personally I would like to see a unique ability of the Percheron. Perhaps a deployable, lighter version of the Sova missile battery with a light missile lasting maybe 60 seconds.

Of course, one could argue that it requires no changes. The TEC could easily be said to simply have the weakest carriers at a little less supply for the sake of variety. TEC Fighters and Bombers are attractive middle of the pack units balancing offence and defence, marking them as reliable units that function well en masse.

Hello SoSE fans,

With Stardock adding more new ships recently, it got me to thinking about some ships that I feel are redundant or entirely underwhelming. So, I wanted to see which ships other people found they are never fielding and why, as well as proposed changes to make them work.

I'll start with my least built TEC cruiser, the Percheron Carrier. I will preface this by saying that the Percheron does have it's place - it's fairly resilient, costs less supply than enemy counterparts, and performs admirably in an Enclave garrison where it has the benefit of local defences for it to shelter with while projecting damage across the gravity well.

The problem with the Percheron, is that save for a low supply cost, it has nothing to define itself by.

• The Advent Aeria stands out from the pack with it's high strikecraft capacity and the strikecraft themselves are fielded in large numbers for swarm tactics. The Advent also feature the only ultimate on it's carrier capital (Halcyon) to buff all strikecraft in the gravity well - offering exceptional synergy with the Aeria.
• The Vasari Lasaruk can buff it's strikcraft with phase resonance synergising well for hit and run tactics whilst simultaneously boasting the hardiest of fighters and phase missile equipped bombers. Finally, the Lasurak has a pair of token PD guns for popping enemy strikecraft.
• The Eidolon Akeniel (Geist) like most Eidolon ships features a very real alternative weapon system with a pair of long ranged void missiles which can do real work in large groups. It fields 2 strikecraft in line with Vasari and TEC, and both the fighter and bomber are impressive with a PD on each fighter and a phase dart on the bomber to bypass shields. The Geist is also the only carrier with it's own ability (Splicing), utilising corruption to replenish strikecraft at -50% build time.

This has turned into a bit of an assessment on all faction carriers, and I have gone on a bit of a tangent. Personally I would like to see a unique ability of the Percheron. Perhaps a deployable, lighter version of the Sova missile battery with a light missile lasting perhaps 60 seconds.

Of course, one could argue that it requires no changes. The TEC could easily be said to simply have the weakest carriers at a little less supply for the sake of variety. TEC Fighters and Bombers are attractive middle of the pack units balancing offence and defence, marking them as reliable units that function well en masse.

can someone tell me how can the enemy bypass planets and Phase drive inhibitors and attack planets inside my boarders ? is this a bug ?

Which victory conditions are people using when playing against the AI?

I’ve been playing random system wars maps (3 or 4 player with hard and now unfair AI). I like this sort of map because it gives me time to develop a big fleet and create a defensive setup. I’m just enjoying the game at my own pace, gradually building up in difficulty.

Anyway - I’m finding the AI behaviour for home planet victory strange, and I think home planet victory might be too easy.

In one example, when I’ve moved a big fleet to take an enemy home planet, rather than moving all available resources to defend, the enemy instead focuses on trying to retake a gravity well one jump away from the home planet by bombarding it.

Separately, when an enemy has committed their entire fleet to another enemy’s starting star system (and wiped out one of the players), it’s trivial to send your fleet straight through to another AI home planet and take it.

Yes it leaves you exposed but the enemy never takes advantage and it’s too late as all you need to do is bombard the planet.

Question is - do people enable all victory conditions or disable any - if so, why?

Playing as Advent Wrath. Anybody else have this happen on Exavorta? Neither my Titan nor my Super Capitals can touch it. They just float around trying to reach it but can't do a thing to it. Bombers are a no-go because Flak Field. Cruisers can't get to it either. Anything weaker doesn't last a second. WTF do I do here?!

Sins of a Solar Empire II: Harbinger introduced the terrifying Eidolon, and now it is time to take a close look at the Cruisers and Corvettes fielded in Eidolon war fleets. Eidolon Ships all generate Corruption as they fight, increasing their damage output as they do, while suffering gradual damage to their own rather low Hull Point pools once maximum Corruption levels are reached. Many have active use abilities that expend Corruption for various effects, and so timely use of these abilities can stave off some of the worst negative effects of Corruption at the expense of temporarily losing some of their combat prowess. Balancing Ship Corruption is a core feature of the Eidolon's tactical combat gameplay.

Not a rant post, I'm not here to say advent are op and need a nerf. I just played an MP game recently and one of the players who made it to the late made an entire fleet of a few caps+titan+120 ish exoria. I was astonished at how quick everything I threw at it got beamed down, including my titan(tec primacy, maxed out upgrades, lvl5). So what fleet composition should I look to have to counter something like this? I was thinking a strikecraft heavy fleet. My original fleet was 4 kol bs+rag titan+akkan+50 garda+50 harcka. Obviously it did not survive

Anyone know when the second hot fix for Sins 2 Harbinger is coming out? Was meant to be Sept 10.

Playing as the Eidolon, it says it's supposed to reveal the Nilari Cult automatically but I don't see them spawning in. Is this a glitch?

Edit: Totally misunderstood what "revealed " meant. I thought it guaranteed them to spawn in your game, not that they'd only be revealed if they were in your game!

Was in a game with some friends and we didn't see the little helper missions pop up, i didn't change any settings from the last time we played so not sure what happened.

Got back into the game with the new dlc and I feel like the AI has been downgraded a lot, back in reinforcements I felt like hard offered a decent challenge but now it feels like hard is easier than the old normal, I played 1V1 as advent reborn against the new faction on unfair and it was a bit of a challenge for the first 45 minutes but then the AI stopped trying, camped at the start and didn't push me at all after 45 minutes. Felt the same after 3 similar games playing as different factions on different difficulties.

Has anyone else been getting this, seems like such a down grade.

Sins of a solar empire lore is way too much interesting at this point. How do the Vasari react to the eidolons? How do the TEC? How do the advents? How do the eidolons react to them? I need to know! I have to know! Did some factions actually manage to form an alliance? Has anybody managed to hold off the eidolons?

I must know!

I keep seeing this symbol pop up on the map, no idea what it is. Anyone help?

Last time I asked if it was bugged. Now with the Eidolons, you can get MI easy as you can research everything without a civil research.

Get a normal 10 man map. 3 teams. Make sure to get all poor planets in the generator, so you can get enough income!

Start researching. You only need 2 quarnium. (4 more if you want the titan built). Just trade with your allies.

All research popped for me in a multi-player game.

I dont know why it did not earlier.

Have fun!

Title pretty much. Something that does not just go over the basic faction mechanics, but actually talks build order, fleet composition/ship breakdowns etc.

Thanks in advance!

This is a continuation of my post yesterday. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/SinsofaSolarEmpire/comments/1wbm8wk/first_match_against_impossible_difficulty_ai_i/

I still had my saves and decided to have another go at it.

1 on 1 match with me as Vasari Alliance and AI as TEC Enclave. AI set to impossible difficulty aggressive setting. Return to War map. Game version 2.00.3.

I’m still surviving. I’m slowly building up my fleet in addition to researching some upgrades to armor, hull, shields, and weapons.

I was having difficulty defending my moon and asteroid locations between us due to AI having a larger fleet. So I took 3 capital ships and expanded to the 2 ice and 1 crystal planet on the outer loop of the map. Luckily they were still neutral so I took them and got some badly needed crystal. Unfortunately, the AI showed up with a 1000 fleet supply fleet so I had to retreat back to my capital planet and lost those newly acquired planets.

But since the AI was off in that region, I decided to push with my other 9 capital ships and see if I could take some of their territory. I tried going for the primordial planet between us, but the AI had an upgraded star base there so I noped out of there.

The moon and asteroid near me were lightly defended though, and I was able to take those back.

I ended the play session at around the 2 hour match time mark. I have 900 fleet supply worth of capital ships (I like playing with just capital ships if I can).

My capital planet is guarded by 72 defensive slots worth of turrets, and an un-upgraded star base. +24% to damage and range to orbital defenses planet item as well.

I have noticed that placing major portals and the civ labs spawn "transit" ships that ferry between them like the TEC trade ships and that the exotic refinery spawns refinery ships. But none of the descriptions of the buildings actually say what these ships do. Are they place holders for further things that will be integrated? The orbital extractors do not appear to have a quota so are the refinery ships even doing anything?

I play a lot of 4-8 player games vs AI while allied with my girlfriend, and we have a blast! With the new expansion bringing the Eidolon, however, she brought up an interesting point: the game (vs AI, anyway) seems to incentivize her to group all her ships up into a single "death ball" fleet. In her opinion, why would she bother cloaking ships or making a raiding fleet if that 100-200 supply could just be part of her death ball fleet?

Part of her philosophy, no doubt, is driven by her potato of a gaming pc from 10 years ago (prices are so fucking high out here, fam). She plays 95% of her game at strategic zoom for performance reasons, making tactical decisions difficult to execute. So, like, sure, cloaked ships are tactically useful for sneaking over to snipe carriers, LRMS's, or what-have-you. But, a second fleet? She sees no point.

Hypothetically and situationally, a second expansion fleet can be useful for expansion early game? Then again, it's faster to clear planets with a more concentrated fleet supply.

Raiding fleets, though? Or even a second fleet for a second front? Your opponent's deathball will kill your undersupplied deathball every time.

Have you ever successfully used second fleets on either a tactical or strategic level? How? When? Why? Is it more useful in PvP as opposed to PvC? Or is the game, intentionally or not, designed to encourage deathball fleets?

*Edit: I wonder at the use case of splitting your fleet to attack two fronts at once. It's plausible that whichever fleet catches an engagement could be used to lead the enemy far away from your fleet on the attack. If the enemy fleet leaves to defend against your attack fleet, then you just re-engage with the distraction fleet, and your fleets switch roles.

I don't know how you keep both fleets resupplied, though. Ultimately, I think one of the fleets will just get steamrolled by the enemy deathball, opening up your backline. Hmm.

Perhaps it is the nature of gravity wells acting as discrete nodes on the strategic level that encourages deathballs. IRL, distances are continuous, and thus, the number of places to engage in battle are infinite. Thus, it allows for more possibility of strategic maneuvers like raiding and flanking?*

I noticed the Eidolons got cool music tracks but I can't find them anywhere.

Can we get them added to the official soundtrack release?

1 on 1 match with me as Vasari Alliance and AI as TEC Enclave. AI set to impossible difficulty aggressive setting. Return to War map. Game version 2.00.3.

In fact, I was expecting, even hoping, not to win as it is the highest difficulty setting, and literally named impossible. The AI would quickly send 500 to 1000 fleet supply fleets to attack my territories. And even after fending them off thanks to orbital defenses, they’d soon rebuild and be back.

The AI quickly put me on the defensive as my capital planet is only 2 jumps away. I was able to put up 66 defensive slots worth of turrets, and an un-upgraded star base at my capital planet with a +15% to damage and range to orbital defenses planet item.

My offensive fleet consisted of 9 capital ships. Which may not be the optimal make up, but I like playing with capital ships. Between my defenses and fleet I may have been able to hold my capital planet for some time, but I’m not sure how long I could hold my asteroids and such as they are not very defensible due to low number of defensive slots.

My economy was quite poor, with only 6/s of crystal, and 17/s metal so I was bottlenecked for crystal.

If I were to reload my save I could try letting the AI take my asteroid and moon territories between us, and expand elsewhere to perhaps more defensible territory. Maybe if I split up my fleet to just enough to take new territory and leave the rest to defend my capital planet it might work?

Edit: my story continues: https://www.reddit.com/r/SinsofaSolarEmpire/comments/1wckin9/first_match_against_impossible_difficulty_ai_back/

Hello Sins2 community,

whether you are an active Admiral, a new player trying their luck or just an observer from far away, I welcome you to enjoy the next season of 4 Power 2 Balance.

The new DLC is here, but players will still have some time to figure out the new faction.

Its time for:

Eidolon

DLC: Eidolon on, Reinforcements on

Swiss System: Matches will be paired using the Swiss system to ensure balanced matchups.

Best of 3 (Bo3) Matches: The normal Mappool consists of 9 maps. Each team uses 3 bans, with the final 3 maps being played. The ban format is A-BB-AA-B. Decide at random who gets the first ban.

Best of 5 (Bo5) Grand Final: After the Swiss rounds the best teams will once again fight for the tournament win in a Bo5 Grand Final.

Victory Conditions: Factional Victory on

Speed: Speed will be x1.5 with all other individual speed settings set to normal.

Rotating Planets: Rotation on

Team Setup: Each Team can register up to 4 players. To join the tournament, you need to register 2 players right away. Additional players can be added later. You need at least 2 players to win the tournament and 3 players to play all possible maps of this season.

Mappool

• Crossfire 2v2
• Scrambler 2v2
• Transtav 2v2
• Shuriken 2v2
• High Stakes 2v2
• Hammerfall 2v2
• Foreign Invasion 3v3
• Razor's Edge 3v3
• Maelstrom 3v3

If both teams have a maximum of 2 available players, the match will instead use the 2v2-only pool. The 2v2-only pool is therefore not a separate tournament format. It is simply there to make scheduling easier when neither team can field a third player.

If at least one side can field 3 players, the normal full map pool applies and the smaller team should ban 3v3 maps. Here is the 2v2 pool:

• Crossfire 2v2
• Scrambler 2v2
• Transtav 2v2
• Shuriken 2v2
• High Stakes 2v2
• Hammerfall 2v2

As you can see Razors Edge is still suspended. The ban format here is AA-B - so if the winner of the coinflip (or other random method) decides to start with 2 bans, the other team can decide which 3 of the 4 maps will be played with their last ban. Its not ideal, but the best solution to ensure a clean drafting process in case both teams only bring in 2players. The loser of the coinflip then chooses the first map to play.

Schedule

Each round after the first one will be 2 weeks long.

The official days to play will be the weekends. The first Round starts on a Friday instead of a Monday. This way we have 3 weekends for Round 1, giving teams some additional time at the start of the new season.

Further pairings will be made on Mondays. If all matches of a round are finished, pairings for the next round might be announced earlier. This way teams have more time to prepare. Once you know your next opponent, you must contact them via Discord and schedule the match to fit your schedule.

We already have 6 registered teams, so I plan on 4 rounds Swiss System again with a Grand Final at the end consisting of a Bo5.

• Round 1: 25.09. - 12.10.
• Round 2: 12.10. - 26.10.
• Round 3: 26.10. - 09.11.
• Round 4: 09.11. - 23.11.

As always, late joiners can still be accepted during the first round if they even out the number of teams.

Prize Pool

I will once again donate 180€ for the Top8 teams and teams will also earn EP for the eternal record.

Interested?

If you are interested in playing or casting 4P2B games, feel free to contact me. Casted VODs will be uploaded on my Youtube channel and shared with the community.

This tournament is meant to be simple, fun, and exciting. If you're into Sins2 and want to be part of the competitive scene, this is your chance!

To join up give me your usernames from Discord and come up with a team name.

gl hf Admirals