Thoughts on NR Thread - Star Wars: Interregnum mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Congratulations on the beta! I've been playing and enjoying a great deal. I'm not terribly good at the game, but I thought I'd share my impressions on the New Republic!

1) K-Wings are so cool! Really like them. The antimatter cost is steep, but they feel really impactful once you get a good mass of them.

2) It's interesting to have a faction that has such capable, expensive ships, including both the carrier and the missile frigates (not to mention the beefy heavy cruiser). I was curious why only these larger were the ships chosen for the mod, when there are smaller New Republic ships in lore (like the Agave- and Warrior-classes) that might have filled in for smaller combatants.

3) Especially with the increasingly diverse set of frigates, it would be nice to have the tool tips indicate what "type" of ship each class is. The current tool tip gives you good information on what "type" of ship each class is good against, but I was occasionally left scratching my head about what exactly was supposed to counter what. For example, I figured out that the Majestic class is a missile boat, despite having the supply cost of a much heavier cruiser. But what type of ship is the Proficient class, exactly? It would be nice to have clearer information what all the different types of frigates are in game, so that the counter system was more transparent.

4) It'd be cool to see Luke's New Jedi Order incorporated somehow. I'm not sure if they fit with the "Interregnum" timeline, but it'd still be a nice nod to the old Legends continuity.

5) I understand that the New Republic is supposed to be the "slow" faction, and that it needs to reach pretty deep into its tech tree to unlock most of its goodies. However, I wonder whether it might be a little too slow as it currently is. Right now, NR gets hit three ways: first, it has its unique civilian tech line to unlock its full combat potential outside of its own space. Second, it doesn't unlock carrier or missile frigates until Tier 4 military tech. And third, half of its capital ships are gated behind Tier 6 military tech (or higher). Each of these is interesting twist to make the faction feel slower than the others, but taken together I think they might be a bit much. For what it's worth, I would recommend keeping the civilian tech line as it is, but move the "New Class" military line a tier earlier (so that Defender and Majestic are unlocked at Tier 3, and Nebula and Endurance at Tier 5). That would mean that the New Republic could get its ships a bit faster, but would still need to go deep into its civilian line to unlock its full offensive potential.

6) I wonder whether the mix of capital ships (and the order in which they are available) is quite right - the NR's starting capital ship option seem underwhelming. The colony cruiser is always a good starting option, but the Alliance/NR colony cruiser's level 6 ability is not as impactful as some other colony ships. The Bothan Assault Cruiser seems like a good anti-planet ship, but that's never really been my cup of tea. And the RSD is a fun tanky support ship, but something that seems more useful later game than earlier (I really like a high-level RSD with an MC90 and a bunch of Champion cruisers for a tanky gank force!). None of the three starting ships is an especially useful early game aggressor, like the Alliance carrier cruiser or the TEC Marza. Instead, the more aggressive capital ships are farther up the tech tree - by the time you unlock them, there isn't much time to level them very effectively. It would be nice if there was a more aggressive capital ship option for earlier in the game, especially since your ships are already getting hit with the NR's overall combat penalties early on.

Again, great job with the mod!

Edited by: adun12345

2. We actually wanted to have the Agave but don't have a model for it. The Warrior could have been a light frigate, but we liked the Sacheen better. It's a bit too big to be a corvette though it fits that role well. Also, don't have a model for it either. At the end of the day, the New Republic had a lot of interesting heavy cruiser sized ships in the lore, and we decided to run with it and bring that to life.

3. Not a bad idea. But your confusion with the Proficient is due to the fact that it is actually a unique type, and has no equivalent unit in any other faction (much like the Rebel MC30). It's a heavy ion cannon vessel that can rip apart the shields of just about any unit, and debuffs any ships without shields, but can't deliver the killing blow itself.

4. Luke is working on building the NJO in the lore, but its only been 5 years so probably only some of the earliest apprentices have been trailed (maybe Kyle Katarn etc). Definitely not a lot of Jedi yet. More troubling is just what they'd do. None of them commanded major warships, unlike Darth Vader, who is our only Force User in the mod.

5. Number two was discussed a fair amount before release. It was decided to try the current status quo and adjust based on feedback. However changing the lab requirements was not in the cards. Moving the Proficient from Phase 1 to Phase 2 would probably be what we'd try if it seems needed. Light Frigate/Corvette fleets are the bread and butter until the mid-late game anyways, even for vanilla factions in competitive, and the Corona is very solid and quickly available.

6. The tech requirements are needed because the other ships cost more than 50 fleet supply, and we need that only 50 supply caps are really an option for the initial free capitalship. This design is also present for the Empire. That said, I think you underestimate the Bothan Assault Cruiser (BAC) and RSD. Siege cap rush is a very viable choice on small maps in MP, though admittedly that is a tactic that the NR is very bad at. The RSD is a support cap, but it can definitely shine early game. NR frigates will be quite squishy at first, and the Republics damage sharing helps ensures you don't take any loses in the early expansion phase. Late game it synergies very well with the Nebula or your titans, and Stunning Strike is a major threat to any retreating enemy capitalships that can discourage enemy raids with its mere presence.

Edited by: GoaFan77

This all makes sense. As I said, the beta is really fun, and I like the NR a lot! I do like the Corona a lot; it makes sense that having a "pocket carrier" like that would be compensation for their later missiles and carrier cruisers. I also really like the RSD. I just feel that given the NR's built-in early disadvantages, it would make more sense for them to have at least one more aggressive cap ship option at start. But that's just my two cents!

I'd just repeat my recommendation to make "ship type" more transparent (a problem, I'd add, not just with the mod, but with the base game, too!). The game provides a list of things that ships are good against (light frigates, LRM, support cruisers, etc.), but does not identify which ships are which type. So, for example: I understood from the current tooltip that the Proficient was a different type of ship that didn't get bonus damage against the normal types, but had heavy ion attacks - that made sense from what was written. What I didn't understand was that when it came to taking damage, the Proficient was its own type of ship that didn't receive bonus damage from the other types. I would recommend updating the tooltips at the shipyard to reflect things like: "Sacheen-class (Light Frigate)," "Majestic-class (Long-Range Frigate)," "Hagen-class (Support Cruiser)," or "Proficient-class (Special Cruiser)." It wouldn't have to be parenthetical after the name, per se, but somewhere in the tooltip each ship's type should be identified, so the player can tell which is which. Honestly, it'd be pretty cool too if the tooltip that popped up over enemy ships said something like: "Carrack-class (Light Frigate)" when you moused over them. Given how important the counter system is to the game, I think it could use more transparency.

On the Jedi order stuff, in addition to Katarn, I'd add Corran Horn, Keyan Farlander, and Kenth Hamner as members of Luke's Jedi Order who served in the NR military. Farlander commanded his own MC80B (Mon Adapyne) during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Alternatively, they could show up as a Minor Faction (Luke's Praxeum, or something like that) - Dorsk 81's sacrifice where he blasted the Imperial Fleet to the edges of the system would be a pretty cool special ability!

Along with adun12345 I kind of have these:

1.Can we get more hero variety or rather than that different heroes for all game factions? A quicky - NR gets Fey'lya, Lea and Mon Mothma. RA gets - Lando, Solo + Chewbacca (in the Falcon + s.a. Fleet support [sumoning of a massive strike craft cloud]) and Ackbar. Luke may be the force user titan.

2. Variety is important for all factions. If I remember correctly, even early Sins had interesting ship models that could be used for rebel or loyalist factions with a refit option as for NR. Could be nice to see.

Kind regards,