this.

ADD is under-diagnosed. This is why we have this problem.

Well, i agree to disagree.

While its true that ALOT of armchair tacticians believe this method to be the best and quickest means to an end, I dont feel that the general populace will agree.

I know for one, I tend to be a heavy defensive player because of such tactics. You just have to find ways to adapt and overcome. I know many times ive chewed up and spat out the "zerging" method of playstyles. If you know that a game might end up this way use what you know and find ways to get around them.

A game I played two night ago was proof of this. One opponent was using the "zerging" method, but left his whole system open to a stream of novalith cannon fire.. I decimated his whole system and needless to say the attacks QUICKLY came to an end.

So while I agree the "zerging" system of tactics is overused, not nearly underrated. I feel your missing the big picture and using what you know in the research tree to overcome it.

I am with "Fractallicon" this game has more depth than the other RTS games. I like to think of myself as a real or true RTS player and when I was looking for something a bit deeper than a StarCraft or WarCarft or Command and Conquer in a hairy. This games fills that rule and more.
Like "wildsage" my fleets have never been longer than the AI or anyones for that fact after learning the best tactics and using this game to its full I really did not need the 1.04 patch the game was balanced for me a few bugs does not kill a game. if deploying tactics after you have tried to do something does not work for you try something else or just us that single player game that you just hold down the mouse button "and just hold it we will tell you when to stop just hold".
I really loved "ShadyZu" commit on ADD its truely a BIG thing.

P.S on that subscription idea you can stuff that to.

Sins feels like a slow game because it takes a long time to move units across the map, and resource pace is slow. Otherwise it is a very fast game. Max early military/econ and attack as soon as possible is what works in this game. Playing around with research is a bad idea when 80%+ of the research options are poor choices. They are there to fill the tech tree.

ADD

SUBTRACT

If I can beat you on the smallest map possible, the bigger map will just make it more one sided. No point in dragging it out for 4 hours. Anytime I play a big map I get so far ahead of people they usually quit before we fight. Or quit as soon as they see my fleet for the first time. At least on smaller map I get to kill few units.

And whatever you feel the game was envisioned to be, it is my game. I paid for it, and I will play it how I like it.

testy there ;0 he's just saying he would like to see some more in-depth games using a wider variety of units. the best option for that is to set up matches yourself rather then joining random ones, or make a post asking for people interested in longer games etc... if you organize, im sure youll find people.

Focus fire is partly to blame. Shield mitigation was supposed to make this less viable, but as is there is no point to deviating from a certain selection of ships given a map with an enemy in your star system.

Massing DPS is the most viable strategy. light frigates -> long range frigates -> heavy cruisers. I used to play around with drone hosts in 1.03, but that was because I thought the illuminators were not worth it given the research investment and the fact that they couldn't stand up to the enemies long range frigates.

Other than those three dps oriented ships there is almost no point to getting the other ships in many cases. Subverters and guardians are fantastic and are usually included in fleets at higher levels of play. But even then you are looking at a handful of these ship types compared to the dps ships.

I do love the game though, you see me playing a lot under the name Torandel. I would like to see shield mitigation increased somewhat in order to diminish the effectiveness of focus firing and allow repair skills more opportunities to function. But other than that there's not much else they can do. The game is about conquering your opponents, and people will do that in the most efficient way possible because they want to win. Currently DPS does this and support ships do not (except for guardians and subverters).

I think you are being a little bit selfish to be honest... I think the game was envisioned to what all games are, fun regardless of what you think the developers intentions were. If people enjoy short zerg rush games then so be it.

As the guy above me said if you want longer games post looking for people who enjoy said games and just to add I don't think the game was supposed to be as slow and strategic as you think it was, I feel the game succeeds in appealing to all strategy types be that slow or zerg rush fast games, the appeal is in the fact the game is so vast and malleable.

If these games took any longer, nobody would play them at all! As of now, there are usually fewer than a few hundred people playing online at any given time. I think the reason for the lack of players is:

1: minidumps, and the generally unwieldy online experience.
2: most normal people don't want to spend 4 hours in a game.

I think the ideal amount of time for a single game online in any RTS is 45min-1.5 hours. After 2 hours it just gets boring. Everyone has all the tech by then, most people have effectively infinite resources, and things just grind to a halt. Even if you are clearly winning it can take forever to finish things off. This is the reason that EVERY online game is set to "fast" speeds. People don't like being bored.

Regardless of what a few people want (no offense, but they are the uber-gamer computer nerds), this game simply cannot be focussed on any longer gameplay than it already is. It would lose it's entire mainstream (i.e. casual gamer) online fanbase. Then, once they're gone, there would be so few people left that nobody, including the uber-gamers could ever find a game.

As of now, good games can be played online in like 2 hours in Sins. The main obstacle that I see in improving this is the startup time. Those first 3-4 planets take 30+ minutes to colonize, and all of that is before you ever see the enemy most of the time. That's 30 minutes of wasted time. Maybe we could speed it up a tad? Like make the first ten minutes of gameplay go 30% faster than the rest of the game?

Alexboculon, I have very very rarely had even a 4v4 (single star) last more than 1.5 hours (or even 5v5). If its a 2v2 or 3v3, it generally ends in 45-60min... At least for myself and my friends...

I guess it depends though, if nobody in the game is being aggressive and they go all the way to novaliths, I can see it taking 4 hours .

Interesting ideas...

Perhaps an option could be added to the game to increase the number of starting planets that a plyer controls e.g. instead of colonizing, start off with 3 or 4 established planets. Perhaps this can already be done - if so please tell me how

Blindside (if i remember correctly) starts with your homeworld and a colonized asteroid. I like that because it suits those people looking for a faster game and battles tend to occur sooner than on large maps where you only start with your homeworld.

I think it could be nice to vary the number of starting planets...what say you?

Maybe the game could just run a little faster for the first 10 minutes?