Crazy mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Hello there!

It has been a long time since there was an update on our mod, but finally we are about to release the newest version with a long list of exciting changes. It adds new game mechanics to the game and has the goal to refresh both our mod, the base game and the Vasari factions as individual parts of the game. You can find a more detailed ChangeLog on our Crazy Discord server.

We are going to talk about some of the most interesting abilities, how they completely change the game and how they look like. In the end of this article, there is a small Sneak Peek for the upcoming planned updates.

So what did we do all the time?

The Vasari were always a unique faction to play and were the hardest to learn. Everyone in our team always liked playing them, but neither the concepts of the Vanilla game nor the modified concepts in our previous versions of "Crazy" seemed to fit. According to the original lore descriptions, their numbers were low and much of their population was on the few giant ships they still own. Even when the TEC managed to build a defensive force, the Vasari had a good chance in battle because the few ships they had were superior in technology.
Of course this was a balancing issue. The Vasari are supposed to have capital ships that are as strong as four equivalent ships of the TEC and Advent. Obviously this causes balancing difficulties during the early game. Long testing sessions led to the results you will be able to try out very soon.

1. Only one capital ship is strong enough to deal with enemy militias early game - the Jarrasul Evacuator. This is a reduction in choices, but partially solves the problem - it is the only ship that can upgrade all abilities to maximum and has a clear scaling.
2. The scaling of the remaining five ships is extreme. Some of them have really bad stats, but once they get the experience or are leveled up, they can power much faster than their equivalents
3. All ships take more ship slots
4. Fleet capacity researches take much more time than before, slowing down the strong scaling. Additionally the experience your ships gain is lower in the start, but normalizes with more research.
5. maximum of 9 capital ships + titan or 8 capital ships + flagship + titan

Vasari Rebels (left) in a protective formation for the vulnerable long range Vulkoras Desolator. Vasari Loyalists using a tanky configuration with a different, close combat version of the Vulkoras Desolator.

Demonstration of a couple results (GIFs)

With the Charged Missiles the ability, the Rebel Vulkoras can target everything within the whole orbit, but is vulnerable to attacks and loses phase missile shield penetration.

The Loyalist Kortul can heal itself with pulse beams and create chain-traveling pulse beams which hit multiple targets for additional damage. "Volatile Nanites" is much deadlier than before.

The Loyalist Jarrasul has a weaker version of "The Maw", utilizing it original ultimate as something more fitting (the old ultimate was basically a bombing ability). The converted resources are useful for a ship that carries a huge part of the Vasari population.

The Kultorask just annihilates everything within its relatively short range when it uses all of its abilities in combination. "Dissever" causes a deadly chain reaction of explosions on ships affected with Nano Leech.

Demonstration of a couple results (Pics)

The Rebel Kanrak Assailants are, unlike the Loyalist equivalent, multi-target long range frigates

The Rebel Skirantra may spawn a specialized Phase Missile Platforms that can hit multiple enemy fighters at once with swift Phase Missiles.

New abilities require new researches. The Vasari Loyalists use Phase Cannons instead of Phase Missiles and got a new research tree for that. Additionally, some of the new abilities got their own researches as well as new icons. Icons of unused abilities have also been reused if they fit the new ability.

All of this is only a tiny bit of what we have changed. We hope you will give it a try and enjoy the new effects, features and mechanics. Some more examples of unique abilities:

• "Assassinate" - Ability of the Loyalist Antorak Marauder that instantly executes an enemy capital ship if the damage drops it below a certain amount of hull and resets the ability, allowing it for multiple executes in a row
• "Vampric Strikes" - for the first time (compared to Vanilla), ships can heal themselves by damaging other ships on-hit, effectively introduces Life Steal to the game
• "Disintegrating Storm" - The Rebel Vulkoras Desolator has a special beam weapon. At level 6, it passively starts jumping to other ships, dealing percentual damage and healing the original Vulkoras
• "Searching Missiles" - The Rebel Evacuator's phase missiles search for weak spot of enemy ships, giving them a chance to hit them. Another chance determines the possibility of a certain debuff
• "Establish Network" - allows the Jikara Navigators to spawn a phase gate on neutral orbits
• "Long Range Networking" - allows your phase gates to spawn another, weaker phase gate for yourself on friendly planets from long distance
• "Black Hole Missiles" - The Phase Missiles of the Rebel Skarovas Enforcer are enhanced, create a singularity on impact and pull together enemy frigates and corvettes
• "Nanite Split Attack" - If close to death, the Rebel Overseer creates to clones of itself, making all three cruisers invulnerable. After a short while, they destroy themselves and deal additional damage
• "Infuse Artificial Immortality" - The Loyalist Rankulas targets a friendly capital ship. If it dies, it will become invulnerable and revives after a while

Sneak Peek:

Out of multiple updates, we can reveal two aspects of the game we are going to change in the crazy manner you are used to! Every update is going to change a major aspect of the game, which makes focusing and organizing the work easier.

1. Star Base update
   1. Three different types of star bases for every faction for different roles
   2. Modified Defensive research tree with own category for star bases
   3. Overhaul of all the defenses
   4. Defenses are scarier again and you can't just overrun them as usual
   5. Pirate attacks will become stronger
2. Minor Faction update
   1. Existing Minor Factions will be modified and be more useful
   2. New Minor Factions that replace some of the old ones
   3. Creative (and sometimes funny) new abilities that give new bonuses (we are going to try everything the game code allows us)
   4. Changes to research and occupation victories

Have fun with our update!

Greetings and stay healthy!

TheyCallMeProphet
McKnife96
KillerMuffin53