Hello,

I want to talk a bit about my impression of the current version playing as the Black Sun. The last couple of days I started two GC, the first was more of a trying out things, while the second was more tryhard. Both were played at the second hardest difficulty.

Please also keep in mind that this is just my impression. I wouldn't call myself a pro at the game nor even an especially experienced player of the game/mod. So your experience and impression will be mostlikely different from mine.

Lets start with a look at fleets at the start and several weeks into the game. As Black Sun you start with 2 Venators, a couple of Acclamators, 1 Lictor, 1 Providence class and a number of small corvetts, frigates and fighters spread out across the galaxy. Alone with the help of heros it feels like that the other factions have quite an advantage over you. Were as and Ackbar, Vader, Thrawn and others spawn in battle with big ships like ISDs and MC80 Independence, none of your permanent heros offer something like that (Zann being the "biggest" with a Vengance frigate). This not only means that the enemy as quite a number of bigger ships early on but also any of these ships you manage to take out with your fleet or stations will eventually come back. I remember in previews verions the leader of the Black Sun had a Lucrehulk in battle, now its a Star Viper squadron. He allowed you in the early game to use him for some early conquest for taking closeby systems or as mobile fortress to guard some important planet.

This gap in ships feels to get even more severe after the first weeks. Rebels attack you with somethimes multiple MC80 Ind. in a fleet plus additional MC cruisers, carriers, etc. Meanwhile the empire has like two death stacks of their own flying around with like at least 3 ISDs, several Victorys/Venators, carriers and fighters, accompanied by Thrawn or Vader.

As Black Sun against this my smaller fleet in the making with mostly weaker capital ships even struggles against the planet defences the Ai has, worse if extra ships are stationed there. So it takes some time before I could go out and capture some planets. In return the enemy stacks can with minial losses overrun my defences even on more build up planets with stronger stations on them and additional ships. So a lot of the inital experince is build up and retreat and losing several planets.

It should also be mentioned that the garrison troops on a planet are not for me at least of any real use other than pulling them out of planets to more important ones. The Ai attacks with huge armies, that simply grind down anything you have as garrison. And even after dealing considerable damage to these armies they keep coming plus also having very big garrision on their planets still, which ofc makes it for me as a player harder to take my first planets form them because i also need to build up an army big enough to overcome that.

So after the initial build up, and some lost planets I was in a position to expand. Initially this went quite well (in the south over Naboo to Sullust and even Bespin). By this time the Rebels had taken nearly all of the north eastern area, taking the planets from me (except the Wheel) and other smaller factions and even took a couple of core worlds. Similary the empire had expanded south west, though the the rebels still had their planets around Hoth and Sulis Van.

Now the Empire Ai did something I did not really understand. I had the imperssions that the Rebels held the most planets and were a far bigger threat than me, instead the Empire went on to attack me in the north west to take out my planets (all stations, ships and troops there) were not enough to hold Ord Mantell when the ai decided to attack me there. And after my victories in the south it attacked me there and at Bakura/Bespin. At times their fleet had around 6 ISDs, 7 Victorys and severly more extra fighters, carriers etc. Even after my build up and additional units from missions, my fleet could not take them head on and the defences I could build in time were basicelly wasted. At the same time the Rebels attacked me in the south aswell with a Mediator joining the MC80 ranks and I honestly dont know what station I need to build and what ships would be of any use as garrison against that.

Though the borders had changed slightly (most simply being planets taken from me) Empire and Rebels seemd to be rather passive with each other. This also fits my first try in which at week ~85 borders had not really changed compared to the start, and both just build up their fleets next to each others and then took turns beating up me.


So let me sum things up before this wall of text gets any longer. Now what did I think felt like it needs some buffs/changes:

- Black Sun ground troops feel weak a bit compared to the other two factions, especially vehicals (most Rebel tanks have shields, Empire has a lot bigger ones).
- Maybe give a couple more ships at the start (bigger ship types). Both for being able to defend and attack early on a bit better.
- Give the Black Sun some heros at the start that also do more than just being headhunters or money buffs (for example bring back the Lucrehulk for the Leader)
- If possible: have the AI recognise the bigger threat and have them both be more aggressive against each, especially its the Rebels and the Empire we are talking here about.
- have Casinos and the like also be deployed at the front so they at least do smth in the battle and not get finished off after the battle is over


Since I have been going on about things I didn't like so far, lets end this with a list of things a like about the current version:

- shipyard/base thing in space, that give you a randomized fleet
- new ships and new looks for some ships
- Hull hardpoint is very nice, giving the ship some actual HP instead of only the normal hardpoints
- Tooltips very well done


Thats it. I hope this feedback is somewhat usefull.