I like how the ships work together, especially the Advent and the Vasari. The Tec ships, though that is the faction I started with, do not seem to have the same synergy as the the other two. I think the Advent ships and abilititys work together the best in a straight on fight (although the Revelation bc I have not had much use for I know almost nothing about, nor the top of the line psi ship -forget the name- has the ultimate of stealing a ship which is not so great an ultimate as it is seems slow, both in terms of its cooldown and chasing after that desired ship, and then it I think when it captures a fully teched cruiser like a celio cc, the celio is missing the upgraded ability - not certain about this since I only caught a couple of ships but none of them had their second power. Nor do I know if the 3rd power stacks in concert with a paired psi battlecruiser. It would be great if they stacked. I love the raiding ability of the Vasari scout battlecruiser especially taking it and a small escort of ships deep into enemy territory while trying to level it up to 6 as I am simultaneasly getting ready to build the first phase gate and planning a huge raid on the most developed planets (not pulled off totally succefully yet because of either losing the bc, dealing with massive fights, but this is a great strat, would really like the hp of the ship to be a little stronger to increase survivability so may have to do more hp and armour reaserch.
I think Hoshikos should be able to stack their repair rate, which would bring it in line with the overseer (the stacking could be 25, +20, +15, +10, +5 maxing at 45 which is not a huge game breaking change).
What I really like is sending a tight formation fleet of illums and guardians right into the center of a huge pile of ships and wreaking havoc with repulse and shield as the illums do the killing, and then continuing forward as the am begins to get low.
I think Armistice is the best power, because it is a fleet saver. No other power can do that. However I do not have a handle on the usefulness of the Akhans targeting buff, if it worked like the celio cc but better as it leveled then it would be easier to understand.
I like your support of the game, in terms of fast patching and your mod friendly attitude, it is just that fast patching support and a mod friendly attitude are sort of antogonistic, but you seem to be going to great lengths to meet both agendas which is laudable as it seems to me a very difficult task. I only hope the modders come back to full flower when 1.1 is realeased.
I think you have made a terrific game that is in a sense many games in one. The sp is as challenging as a player can make it but is a very different game than the mp game. You have I think pleased both crowds. I said to my friend when we were discussing the demo and the game, I had just purchased the game - what follows is not meant as criticism- that, "SoaSe is great, I can't wait for the real game to come out." I think you released this game knowing full well that it is not the whole game, I don't mean the lack of a campaign (usually they are boring bs setpieces that offer nothing except learning the rules of the game), I mean a sense that this is not the full game, that there is much more to come on the horizon and I hope that IC survives to complete the project and IC and Stardock manage to work well together to allow for the completion of this excellent game. I hope that IC has full rights to the game if the relationship betwwen SD and IC, that is evidently going very well, breaksdowns.
You have a lot of work ahead coming out with the final game which I eagerly look forward to, which might be the thing I most like about Soase, besides playing and figuring out how things actually work.
