TomChick

Reply to What is the significance of the main colony? Do I care about population, jobs, etc.? in Offworld Trading Company Offworld Forums

Cool, I hoped it was something like that! And I see now the tooltip for the modules as they upgrade. Very nifty. I had thought the economy was a closed system among the players, but I'm glad to know the actual colony is also a factor. I got the idea of what it was pretty quickly, but I assumed it was just a visual representation. Although I did notice all the little miniblimps coming and going, and that didn't seem merely cosmetic. <p

What is the significance of the main colony? Do I care about population, jobs, etc.? in Offworld Trading Company Offworld Forums

The top of the screen shows information about the non-company colony, listing things like it's population, whether oxygen and food are too expensive, and how many jobs there are. Do these things matter at all to me as a player? I've had games where the colony is pretty much choked out of existence. Is this having any effect? Is it in my best interest to keep food and oxygen prices low? Am I supposed to care about the jobs number? And just what is th

Reply to A little worried about some of the articles coming out... in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Solidsmooky, would you be so kind as to not cut and paste the entirety of my article? You're of course welcome to link to it and even quote excerpts, but it's uncool to reprint an entire article like that. As others have pointed out, this is the beginning of a week-long series about the game. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how it turns out after the first patch, because it desperately needs it. :( -Tom

Reply to Odd graphical glitch in Demigod Technical Support Demigod Forums

Just a "me, too" to say that I get this on two separate computers with GeForce 7800GS videocards. No matter what graphics settings I use, I can't see the Queen's bramble shield or the TorchBearer's ring of fire, which both have pretty significant gameplay implications. -Tom

Reply to Logging in in Demigod Stardock Forums

Just to update, it was indeed an issue with the beta update not "taking" with the version I had. An uninstall and reinstall gets everything working just fine! -Tom

Sins Entrenchment -- Starbases in the galaxy like needles in a haystack, so why doesn't my hotkey work? in Stardock Games Stardock Forums

Sins has some really helpful hotkeys that are hugely important on larger maps. Alt+G to find a colony ship and alt+F to find a planet with ship production facilities. Press the hotkey and then tab through the various instances of whatever you're looking for! Whee! So I was very glad to see a hotkey -- alt+B according to the key binding screen -- to find star bases. What better way to jump around and keep track of upgrades! Unfortunately, I'm not very glad

Reply to Logging in in Demigod Stardock Forums

Unfortunately, the patch seems to have done more harm than good. After downloading 1.7GBs and then rebooting my computer as instructed, I now can't even boot up the game. I get this a big fat error window with this in it: Compiled Md5:'b7b3f789d13519b48d841a3407503f17' Actual Md5 in Zip:'8c81b87002226a28604226a04d0aa690' Program : C:\Games\Demigod\bin\Demigod.exe Cmd line arguments : Callstack: unavailable. <p

Reply to Logging in in Demigod Stardock Forums

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a matter of just the latest update. I seem to be current. If I click on history, it shows that I've got beta 3.0a installed. However, whenever I go to Multiplayer/Internet, I can enter my Impulse login info, and I get the message you mentioned. I've tried clicking Create Account, but it does nothing. I've also right clicked on Demigod in Impulse and tried "Re-Activate". But the game simply isn't letting me in.<

Reply to John McCain super-duper Viagra boost in Political Machine Stardock Forums

Out of curiosity, how is it not so much a bug? What happened? Because if there's some way to add another nine stamina points, then I'll have what McCain's having. :) -Tom

John McCain super-duper Viagra boost in Political Machine Stardock Forums

I'm playing a game on the second from maximum difficulty level -- patched to v1.03, natch -- and without fail, on the third turn, McCain's stamina shoots from 6 to 15. Suddenly, the guy is zipping all over the country, dropping 3 HQs a turn. Uh, what gives? I know Stardock's CEO has slightly conservative leanings, but this is a bit much. :) -Tom

Can't update from version 1.00.001 :( in The Political Machine 2004 Stardock Forums

So I have a copy of Political Machine 2008 installed from a disc I was sent. The installed version shows up on Impulse as v1.00.001. But Impulse shows the latest version as being today's 1.01.023. However, there's no option to actually install the update. Instead, my only options are to ignore the update or uninstall the game. :( Anyone know how to get from version 1.00.001 to the latest version? I'm convinced I'm missing out on all sorts of cool new stuff!

Help! Need patch 1.02! in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

So I need to get into a game that was saved in v1.02 and it's important enough that I need to reinstall the game and roll back to v1.02. However, I can't find the patch anywhere and I unfortunately didn't save it. Does anyone know where I can download the 1.02 patch? Help me, Ironclad forums. You're my only hope. -Tom

Reply to What does culture actually do? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

There are also racial bonuses in areas affected by culture. The TEC regenerate antimatter faster, the Vasari get a damage bonus, and the Adept get a shield mitigation boost. However, I'm not sure how this works in team games. For instance, if my teammate and I are both Adept, and I'm fighting in his culture, will my shield mitigation be improved? What if I'm Adept and my teammate is TEC? Will my antimatter regenerate faster in his culture? Also, StealthCat, capital ships im

Reply to 1st update is out... in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

That was posted two days ago. Besides, Ironclad might want to share the changes with the nice folks who don't read the forum or don't use SDC. But w00t! anyway. Looking forward to flexing the new speed control, blowing up some papier-mache siege frigates, and enjoying a bit of galactic conquest with fewer pirates breathing down my neck. :) -Tom

Reply to Sins v1.02 Changelog in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Man, this thread got crazy. Anyway, I'm just glad to hear Blair promise that people will still be complaining about pirates and siege frigates even after the patch. As far as I'm concerned, that'll be proof that the pirates and siege frigates are still doing their jobs! -Tom

Reply to Sins v1.02 Changelog in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Ouch. I'm inclined to agree with Schod on this issue. I'm by no means [I]s00per-skilled [/I]at Sins, but I appreciate the challenge of having to watch for siege frigates, to scout out my enemy's intentions, and to carefully consider the balance of developing, expanding, or fortifying. It's just downright good RTSing, and the power of siege frigates is a significant part of what drives the gameplay. I consider tough siege frigates part of the learning curve and overall balance. The

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Thanks for the post, Blair. That was above and beyond the call of duty! I'm gradually coming around to discovering a lot of what you talked about, and I'm excited to see that Sins will support as much tactical tinkering as I can throw at it. It seems to play at two levels. The first level is to just move the ships to systems and let the AI take over. This is what hooked me. But what keeps pulling me in is a second deeper level, where I'm learning more about various ship synergies and how t

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Well, whatever Annatar was trying to say, it's just drives home the point that the whole situation is muddy and I wish Ironclad was more specific about the variances among the different ships. I'm at the point in the learning curve where I'm trying to micro the tactical battles to better learn the system, and Ironclad aren't really providing the tools to do it. :( -Tom

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

In that case, my bad, since I was taking at face value your earlier comment that: [quote]The TEC's LRM frigate for example has a very long range but doesn't do very good anti-capital ship damage, while the Vasari's Assailants have much shorter range but are very good anti-capital ships.[/quote] It seemed to me you had some insight into this based on looking into the data files. Saying a ship "doesn't do very good anti-capital ship damage" sounds pretty specific to me. <br

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

Okay, I'm going to hop up on a soapbox for a second... [quote]Actually, yes it is.[/quote] Varlen, I understand you might be defensive about the manual if you wrote it -- hey, I've been there -- but I'd like to reiterate that [I]no, it's not in the manual[/I]. There's nothing in there that conveys the information that TEC missile frigates are weak against cap ships and Vasari missile frigates are strong against cap ships. Which makes me wonder what else I'm missing.

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

That info, if true, is not in the manual. If the Vasari's missile frigates are strong vs. cap ships and the TEC's missile frigates are weak vs. cap ships, AFAICT, Ironclad isn't sharing this information with players. What's this file that lists damage values? I'd be curious to have a peek in there and see what I've been missing. -Tom

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]The TEC's LRM frigate for example has a very long range but doesn't do very good anti-capital ship damage, while the Vasari's Assailants have much shorter range but are very good anti-capital ships.[/quote] Ugh, this is what I was worried about. How is a player supposed to know this? There's nothing in the tooltips about it, and no indication on the damage listing. I hate this sort of stuff being kept under the hood. Games like Age of Empires III and the Rise of... RTSs have

Reply to Ship Weapon Damage in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

On the topic of weapon damage, how rock/paper/scissors is Sins? For instance, I see plenty of fighters, flak frigates, and siege frigates mixing it up in combat. Is damage from these guys calculated normally, or are there special multipliers for their attacks against fighters and planets? Should I not bother building fighters from my carriers if the other guy doesn't have any bombers or fighters to be countered? Are flak frigates useless -- or just a little useless -- against other

Reply to phase lane suggestion in Beta Feedback Sins Forums

ttaargus, anti-matter is effectively a measure of time, which is one of the resources in any RTS. Also, the last thing I'd want Ironclad to do is look to anything in Sword of the Stars for inspiration. :) -Tom

Reply to Culture C*ckbl*ck in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

[quote]Your culture will spread through allied planets and raise allegiance there. This way you can have a military focussed player backed up by a rearline culture focussed player. Friendly culture will collide and affect each other like normal but because you benefit from it either way it doesn't matter (unless you intend to backstab them ofcourse, which we feel adds a very interesting dynamic to Free for All games).[/quote] Dang, Blair, that is seriously *awesome*! So I gue