Comments - soka25

i also did up the cap ships. but instead of listing each one individually i just did up the weakest and strongest of the two factions accounting for total number allowable (22 rom caps and 14 fed caps).
rom:
116,600 health 4 armor 2,178 damage/s
154,000 health 5 armor 4,180 damage/s
fed:
70,000 health 5 armor 2,030 damage/s
95,200 health 15 armor 2,786 damage/s

and just to prove that the phoenix is actually the most powerful ship on the fed roster:
104,300 health 14 armor 2,086 damage/s

the romulans being so much more powerful vrs the feds cap ship wise only becomes more extreme when you factor in the romulans get lvl 4 ships virtually for free through research.

again, not saying this is wrong or bad or even that this is 100% accurate because i don't know the armor calculation... just putting some numbers on pape... the interwebs as it were :p.

can't speak for anyone else but my count on the above its:
rom - 3
fed - 2
push - 1

in fact, the romulans have 1 ship with superior armor comparatively while the feds only have two. of those two the difference is 1 point better and 2 points better respectively. can't say i know the armor calculation but i can't imagine 2 points of armor is that significant.

again, im not saying this is "wrong" in anyway. its your mod, you can put it together however you like :p. just want to put forth that any argument that the romulans have inferior cruisers... im not 100% certain that is accurate. the numbers for frigates is even closer imo.

ok, officially calling shenanigans on the "inferior" cruisers and frigates... because im a big geek and like numbers i put together the following.

rom vrs fed cruiser comparison. while i admit adding hull and shields together is a misnomer because of armor i am admittedly a lazy geek and i think it is easier to view. below are the total health and weapon numbers if you built only that ship type. i took into account the total supply of each (1345 for romulan and 1520 for fed):
rom:
389,200 health 3 armor 6,720 damage/s
896,000 health 4 armor 23,968 damage/s
549,400 health 4 armor 15,142 damage/s
566,200 health 4 armor 14,304 damage/s
569,500 health 4 armor 17,286 damage/s
177,550 health 1 armor 2,948 damage/s
fed:
478,800 health 3 armor 9,450 damage/s
923,450 health 3 armor 19,734 damage/s
424,200 health 5 armor 13,130 damage/s
798,000 health 4 armor 18,810 damage/s
494,900 health 6 armor 12,120 damage/s
152,000 health 1 armor 3,116 damage/s

thats assuming you can take out their capital ships... second, im not certain that really is a double edged sword. their cap ships are very cheap. not to mention they are the cheapest/easiest in game to increase cap ship supply for. im not sure how giving someone quick and easy access to a whole bunch of overly super powerful units can be considered a "weakness" ;).

i fully acknowledge that it is cannon for the romulans to be cap ship heavy. but making those same ships across the board the most powerful in game next to the borg... just seems somewhat skewed to the point of taking the fun out of the game honestly. but thats just my personal opinion mind you and im sure there are many who think im full of it so take it all for what its worth :p.

if i were going to give faction balancing a go i would probably go this direction:

feds - superior weapons, shields and repair/regen rates ship for ship but far fewer numbers in both capital ships and support vessels. i think this way because the feds always seem outnumbered at every turn but manage to come out victorious.

romulans - glass cannons. they do big damage fast and have reasonable shielding, but weapons are slow to recharge and their lack of armor/hull means if the first volley misses they likely need to disengage. any type of slug match is typically out of the question. rely more on cap ships than support vessels to make up the bulk of their fleet.

klingons - inferior tech almost across the board as they spend more time fighting and less time innovating. but their ships are practical, straight forward and designed specifically for combat. while tech is typically lower including repair rates, they are brawlers and generally show up in larger numbers of all types due to smaller crew reqs and the increased interest in combat from their populous.

cards - similar to klingons, but somewhat higher tech with slightly lower numbers as a result of lower resource availability.

dominion - cap ships on par with feds ~+/- but similarly low in number. support vessels rather underwhelming but very high in number. this is in relation to their large amount of uncontested subjugated territory. they have a high need to "have a visible presence" in all places at all times to make sure people think twice before rocking any boats. but as no one actually has the guts to do this, the need for a dedicated heavy combat fleet is low. this is due to, until the discovery of the wormhole, it seeming as though they were all but unchallenged for generations for all intents and purposes.

but again, thats just my (far less than) 2 cents when adjusted for inflation. even with all this, you put together an amazing mod that is without question one of the best star trek games out. let alone mods. great work!!

i believe your explaination on why i perform better as the romulans than any other faction is a nice way of saying "you suck at this game". i appreciate the wording you used btw ;). makes me feel better about being me lol!

the torpedo damage per second answer makes a lot of sense. im not sure the rest fits cannon, but i don't have a problem with it from a balance point of view. its what i expected so no big deal.

i use the phoenix over the nebula in almost all cases. anytime i come into contact with romulans the first thing i do is find/count the shadows. numerous times i have come across 5 to 7 romulan capital ships with 15 or so support ships of various classes. in most of these scenarios i have have a titan (typically a polaris), 2 soveriegns, 2 phoenix, 10 or so akira's, 8 defiants, and whatever mashup is left from my original fleet built around the ambassador. typically some number of excelsior's, intrepids and constellations. generally 4 or more of the above.

my rule of thumb when i come across a romulan fleet of any size, target everything on the shadows first if there are any, but pray they are elsewhere. if there are 6 or more romulan cap ships and 2 or fewer are shadows? stay and fight it out. anymore than 2...? RUN!!!! if they have 5 or more shadows anywhere (let alone together)? end the game and start over, only this time remove the romulans. ive gone toe to toe wiht the romulans with an equal number of caps only i had a titan and they didn't and lost my entire fleet having not taken out a single romulan ship. if the AI spams shadows and gets them to level 4 or above.... its over for me regardless of who im playing as.

in fact, ive found that when playing as the romulans i barely have to micro combat at all. with fleet sizes being roughly the same, i can "almost" completely ignore battles and just let my ships autotarget. i can't do this as any other faction against any other faction (borg excluded).

"their ships dont really need to be any strong than the other factions ships, and they werent in the series either tbh."

i find your opinion here interesting. not necissarily incorrect, just that you and i walked away from the various series with a profoundly different opinion of the fictional world. my take was always that, in "most" cases" ship for ship class for class the federation had superior vessels in almost every case one on one. the feds had more powerful weapons, better shielding, faster at warp and generally more maneuverable. the problem for federation ships is that they typically are not designed specifically for war. fed ships have far superior weapon archs and can bring that superior firepower to bear in any direction. other races, while having somewhat less weapon power typically, concentrate that firepower into a single direction. typically front facing.

for example while a fed ship might have a more powerful phaser array than a klingon ships disruptors, the klingon ship (in forward firing archs) generally can bring more of those "inferior" weapons to bear on the target at the same time.

as far as the galaxy specifically being a "match" for a d'deridex. i would argue that this is true in the series. a galaxy would be expected to go toe to toe with a d'deridex and have a good chance of survival. at least 50/50 if not somewhat better i would think. while i haven't tested this in game, i have a hard time believing this would hold true in armada 3. a single lvl 1 galaxy with the free skill of your choice vrs a single lvl 1 d'deridex with the free skill of your choice. im thinking the warbird wins 10/10 here. while i have no evidence to support this, my expectation is the galaxy would struggle just to chew through the warbirds shields before it was destroyed. again, no evidence to support this... just completely unscientific perception of the two vessels in game.

thanks for the reply btw :). don't take any of the above as critisism in anyway, merely a slightly different perception of a completely fictitious world =P. still love the game and very much looking forward to the new patch!

so first things first. not only is this the best star trek mod I have ever seen, this is arguably the best star trek game I have ever played. an absurd amount of quality for your entire team to be extremely proud of. almost feel bad saying this, but this mod is literally the only reason I purchased the updates for sins from vanilla. sins is a great game and all but... your version is better.

however, some questions. any chance the romulans will be made at least semi approachable in the late game? as the fed, cardassians and Klingons I get curb stomped by a computer borg player. but as the romulans I can hold my own until they can get atleast 3+ lvl 10 cubes. then the curb stomping begins :p. no way no how the romulans should be just below the borg power wise.

the Miranda class... why specifically do we research what is without question the oldest ship in the fed fleet? seems weird... speaking of weird, why do all the ship classes have different damage levels for photon torpedos? the torpedo itself is the thing doing the exploding and my suspicion is they are all using the same one based on upgrade level. im assuming this is a limitation with damage calculation within the sins engine. just looks weird. also weird, quantum torps (an upgrade from photon) do... less.. damage.. why..?

oh and I saw the dev diary where the galaxy vrs. random nebula variant discussion came up. galaxy is more powerful. several reasons here. galaxy was designed to be a tier 1 vessel. it can handle any mission at any time anywhere. the nebula is a fill in the cracks vessel. it "can" do pretty close to anything the galaxy can do. it was designed to be a more economical version that would require mission specific packs to perform any of those missions but still would not match the ability of a galaxy in any specific mission. further, it can not transition from 1 mission to another without significant change to its physical loadout. tng actually proves out that the nebula is inferior as a combat platform. cap'n whats his face aboard the phoenix tucks his tail between his legs and plays surrender monkey the moment the enterprise shows up. if he thought his ship had any chance in a firefight, my guess is he takes at least he gives it a go. to go all real world on the conversation. the mindset behind this is simple, you don't need a nimitz class carrier for every mission. if a significantly cheaper iwo jima will do the job... you kinda use that if you can.

which brings us to the nebula variants vrs. other cap ships in game.. its kinda odd that a "support cruiser" (by your definition) is the most powerful ship in the fed fleet. more so, that the first variant of said support cruiser is the most powerful variant. the ability to disable an enemy vessel AND recharge shields + hull... takes out a soviergn 10 out of 10. expecially if you add in the warp core upgrade.

one last thought, the average fed ship should be more powerful weapons/shields/hull wise than any other race with the exception of the borg in most cases. feds disadvantage has always been numbers which I think you captured well. but the strength has always been ship and crew ability. kinda surprised there are not more crew based buffs for the feds. additional random question, any reason why the akira has a higher armor rating than the defiant class?

still, amazing game and keep up the good work!