Hello everyone my names Will. I've been playing sins since release off and on, and the SOTP mod for quite some time as well. Here are my thoughts/suggestions/feedback for the mod so far as I feel quite comfortable with it.
First off I want to point out that the textures and models are amazing, the detail in each ship is stunning. I run everything on the highest settings so everything looks on point. Of course the game being sins you rarely have time to stop and look at the ships due to the 4x of the game and the micromanaging thats usually needed. I also want to say that I'm greatful for all the new planets added, when i started playing on first release there wasn't many planets so it felt like regular sins with new ships which was a little dissapointing at first but its an alpha release and its halo so of course its awesome in itself despite the limitations and I already know the devs wanted to give us a taste anyways. The game is nice and smooth as is, of course I would like more ships to choose from and a new race but this is the halo universe so there's not much more to add. I do like the balance to the game, I don't think one side is too over powered and the flood is definitely possible to take down, they're not in anyway impossible to beat unless you let them get carried away. Now time for some suggestions and feedback.
AI- (Don't take offense to this if you're new or a noob at this game please) The Ai levels is the main thing of the post considering I have to go through extreme lengths to get someone to play this mod with me.. so often im forced to play with AI. Given that, I am up to the levels of playing heroic-legendary ai. Easy is a complete joke and should only be played if its your first or second time playing, other than that you should never play that difficulty, it is... like it says too easy. Normal is still way too easy. I had so much time to build up and when i was ready they met me with little force.. it was still a joke. I moved up to heroic and it was a little much to handle at first.. but then I realised how they played and how to counter them and it became to easy. Legendary is challenging, due to the Ai's ability to micro manage. Legendary is still the difficulty I enjoy, anything above that and you need to be on a team with someone else to focus them down IMO. The flood are definitely couterable though I like them right where they are.
Now moving on to the biggest concern on Ai, enough to where it ruins the game for me. In other strategy games you're often given the choice of ai to play against and to set their behaviors, one behavior is aggressive/steamroller/offensive type ai. Now when you think aggressive you think reckless and uncaring but very offensive.. this isn't the case with sins. If the Ai feels that for any reason it can't win a fight even with more ships it will run or refuse to attack. Yeah it makes sense as a strategy but is also creates a loop hole in the game..
For example if you build up a decent/good sized fleet and defenses on your planet the ai will refuse to attack you, even if it outnumbers you. It will literally stay one planet away and sit there the whole game if it has nobody else to attack.. this means you can set up a defense on a planet that protects other planets and farm up your resources and money indefinitely. I tested this one day by leaving my game on and left, 3-4 hours later I came back and I was still safe with an outstanding amount of income. This bothered me because it was my last stand, the only planet I had left, and I wanted to have an epic last defense, of course I was going to lose eventually but it was going to be one hell of a fight... but no they refused to attack. They were set to legendary had full map control and still wouldn't do it. I'm not sure if theres anyway to reprogram an Ai but I feel like this would make the game way better, not ever ship captain/commander/general makes smart or perfect decisions.. many great battles won, were won with heavy losses. It's just really frustrating in my opinion being stuck with ai to fight against and having that loop hole everytime. If there is anyway to modify the ai trait to actually be "aggressive" in that form I highly suggest and would love that. That is my main concern, now I know the ai is like this in all sins games so I don't know if its something that can or cannot be changed.
Planets- I love the diverse amount of planets that were added, this really makes a huge difference but I do have some suggestions for a couple planet types.
I have played the star wars mod for sins and there are a few planet types that give players a HUGE advantage, and its literally like a choke point or a contested planet always focused on for control. If there's anyway you can add in a super industrial planet that specs in very high logistics, like a planet designed to be a shipyard, or trade port planet, and a tactical planet with high tactical that would be awesome. Just for mapmaking purposes it gives the players a purpose to hold out that key position. There is already a diverse amount of planets to choose from so it's not a huge deal to me but it would be nice. Giving these type of planets would make for a far more interesting capital planet victory especially from galaxy forge. It allows more turtling for a last stand as well.
Combat- Honestly the combat is great, definitely feels halo. Although I do wish the battles lasted longer, as in how long it takes to destroy ships but I know its not how it was in the halo universe. When you see the covenant come in with 5 covenant assualt carriers and loads of support ships its a sight to see, especially with how huge the carriers are and powerful but its almost dissapointing when you can kill them in 3 seconds when you focus them. They're so expensive to build and time consuming you just dont get to appreciate them in battle and sometimes its pointless to care about upgrading them and leveling them up because they drop so fast. Again thats how halo is but I always found it intimidating when someone sends in there best capital ship/titan into a fight one thats high level and you know has been around since the beginning of the game.. when it has that signature name given by the player or default name from the game itself. I don't know about anyone else but I loved the feeling of having high level capitals that have been in alot of fights and has never seen defeat especially titans it made you want to reach that level 10.. With this mod it just makes it so hard to care about that... ships just die too fast.
Titans- Still waiting for release of the next update so I will stay tuned for the unsc titan. The covenant titan on the other hand... needs work. It does offer alot of damage potential but you only get one. It goes down crazy fast like every other ship. When you hear an enemy has built a titan, you're like oh sheittt... but in reality its not that impressive, get some focus and its down. The model looks like a regular capital ship as well. Now to talk about an alternative titan. High Charity. The model for it already built is amazing. It moves around already and is powerful. High charity being a space station that can be built on every planet kinda ruins it for me because there was only one. (that I knew of) If the high charity ship/model was the titan it could be really powerful with health and shields, still have the ability to deploy ships from it and act as a mobile carrier super class titan. It would be awesome to see that thing in the midst of a fleet knowing its a huge priority target and it should be very expensive to build, almost like a super weapon in the game, its great but alone can fall if not supported so its a risky thing to build. Just my 2 cents.. then the current titan can be moved to the regular capital ships and reduced in stats to fit the balance out. I thought through how the ship would function as a titan in details, but unless it was actually considered there's no point in writing a novel on how it would work haha.
Capital ship victory- I love capital ship victory because previously the ships were way better, had awesome abilities and gave the player the option to have a flag ship that was far superior and was available right away, of course that meant once you lose the ship its gg. That being said it was a problem but when you got a strong ship like that off the bat, it was able to handle any rebel/ pirate threat giving you tons of experience often letting you have a high level, high powered flag ship. Put that in the midst of your fleet or use it tactically made the game insteresting especially when you find their flag ship and it becomes a hunting game, not just a planet capturing game, which to be honest can get a little boring sometimes. Especially when you lose your main fleet and all your planets are without units, they fall without the proper defenses. In capital ship victory it bring a whole new experience to the game and its probably my favorite. The problem I noticed is nothing is different about the ships given to you. Yes you start out with the best ones which is awesome, just perfect. The problem is they have no special abilities, or extra health or anything, if theres anyway to update that It would bring back that gamemode, until then I'm afraid to play it because the ships can be destroyed instantly with a decent fleet and offer little to a battle. you're almost forced to hide the ship all game...
Special Events- I played several games now with random/special events turned on and noticed there wasn't at time where ancient titans or old race ships randomly came into battle. I remembered that from the original sins it was scary to think that some old faction neutral titan can fly in at any time and wreck havok on someone. I really would like to see that back. If its still there maybe i got unlucky not to sure but it wouldnt be cool to have a random unsc super ship based off a rebel faction or unsc ship that deserted come in or a cov carrier (heretic) something like that.. it would be cool but definitely on a lower list of priorities for the suggestions i have.
I hope none of my suggestions or feedback of the game comes off rude to you guys, I love the mod and everything about it. You guys did a great job and I'm looking forward to more and seeing the current build eventually on release. Keep up the good work. I will consider donating if it helps as nobody is getting paid for this. Let me know what you think about everything I know its alot to read but I really appreciate you guys taking the time to look at this stuff, and again I didn't mean anything negative in anyways.
-Sincerely Will.
There are talks of something similar to this but you'll learn more later... or maybe you won't 
