Starpoint Gemini Warlords

[Reapa]

Looks a lot like Freelancer. Go play it, then come back and report.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

No

 

[Galdred]

Starpoint Gemini 2 handled capital ships and mercenary well enough that I wish there were lire ships to order around. It got quite grindy late game, but I found the early/mid game quite enjoyable.
It also had awesome post release support, so I will definitely try this one when I have some time, and when it leaves EA.

 

[Shackleton]

So I just got SG2 with all DLC's as it was dirt cheap a week or so and I've been trying to like it, but it seems I must be missing something. Where's the actual, like, gameplay? I've been selecting missions on the starmap and flying to them automatically. Then if it's a kill mission, I fly around with the chase camera on trying to make out like I'm doing any more than just keeping the side of my strongest shields towards the enemy while my autofiring guns blow them up, or if I feel like some cash, I board them and fly the ship back to sell. Then if I fancy it I change some weapons around and different colour lights blow up the enemy at longer or shorter range.

Story missions are exactly the same apart from some terrible voice acting after all the red dots have been wiped off.

I mean, I wasn't expecting Freespace 2, but it all seems a bit... dull. I can't help but feel I must be missing something about the game that inspires people to spend 100's of hours doing this. Does it get a lot better once you've got past a certain point in the story. Specifically, does the combat get better?

 

[Tabs]

So I just got SG2 with all DLC's as it was dirt cheap a week or so and I've been trying to like it, but it seems I must be missing something. Where's the actual, like, gameplay? I've been selecting missions on the starmap and flying to them automatically. Then if it's a kill mission, I fly around with the chase camera on trying to make out like I'm doing any more than just keeping the side of my strongest shields towards the enemy while my autofiring guns blow them up, or if I feel like some cash, I board them and fly the ship back to sell. Then if I fancy it I change some weapons around and different colour lights blow up the enemy at longer or shorter range.

Story missions are exactly the same apart from some terrible voice acting after all the red dots have been wiped off.

I mean, I wasn't expecting Freespace 2, but it all seems a bit... dull. I can't help but feel I must be missing something about the game that inspires people to spend 100's of hours doing this. Does it get a lot better once you've got past a certain point in the story. Specifically, does the combat get better?

I bought SG2 during GOG's recent sale and have had a similar impression. Very much wash, rinse, repeat with the gameplay. Trading and mining are transparently pointless unless you're some sorta weird roleplayer and combat is as you described. The ships are all rather the same just with bigger models and larger numbers as you climb the classes. Even the player skills seem to have a paltry impact (+1% repair rate, what?).

I'll continue through the campaign and DLCs because it's easy and quick, but doubt I'll be sinking any extra time into it.

 

[Reapa]

how is any of this relevant to warlords?

 

[zeitgeist]

So is Warlords significantly different to SG2? Is it any good?

 

[Severian Silk]

LOL

I watched several of the promo videos on Steam and they don't show gameplay, just graphics. I don't even know what type of game this is.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

i get the idea warlords is more like fleet management or managing more than one ship or something, I don't know for sure. I am defiantly interested in this game when it gets out of early release

 

[vonAchdorf]

Anyone gave it a try? GOG reviews seem to be liking it, not that that does mean much. One says it's more in the vein of Freelancer with Star Citizen quality ships.

 

[Reapa]

controls/camera look stupid as fuck.

 

[lefthandblack]

I am trying it now. I'm still in the campaign/tutorial and so far the gameplay is exactly like SP2. There are supposed to be new mechanics for fleets/conquest/base building but I haven't gotten that far yet. It's stable, performs well and the graphics are decent, but nothing has wowed me yet. I've read in more than one place that it's like mount and blade in space, we'll see.

 

[Severian Silk]

SP2 seems (now) to be very polished. It also seems grindy, and battles aren't very interesting.

 

[Galdred]

SP2 seems (now) to be very polished. It also seems grindy, and battles aren't very interesting.

Capturing ships or even editing saves allowed to skip most of the grind.
Combat came mostly down to choosing whether to press or go back to base whenever supplies were getting low. It is true that the combat decisions themselves were not always very interesting. But having a fleet to manage could spice things up if your wingmen have proper AI.

 

[Severian Silk]

I would rather have JA2 in space than M&B in space.

 

[lefthandblack]

I got tired of the campaign with it's storyfag bullshit and restarted in sandbox mode. I'm having much more fun. The game is sp2 with a strategy layer on top and while it's kind of clunky in some places, it works where it matters. I don't know if I'd call it mount and blade in space (it's not that good) but I might call it Spellforce in space. Curbstomping the other factions with a fleet of doom is actually quite fun, though I kind of wish the game played a little slower as with all the moving and dodging and camera-panning you have to do you end up missing alot of the eye-candy. There is a tech tree you have to unlock through research and I have not unlocked the diplomacy part yet, so I can't comment on that, but I've already made som allies by killing other peoples enemies and saving the odd kitten-up-a-tree (side quests).

 

[Galdred]

The problem is that there are not many games that allow you to run a space empire and command fleets from the bridge of your star crusier.
Only Eve online and X3 allow you to do that, but X3 and Eve online are even more grindy, and X3 capital ship control is not great either.
If only the guy behind Starshatter had not burnt out and expended on the foundations of the game.
It is the only game I have played that made me feel like I was really commanding a star destroyer or a carrier.

 

[Severian Silk]

I tried Starshatter when it was still in development, and it was hard as hell. I got my ass kicked left and right.

 

[Galdred]

I tried Starshatter when it was still in development, and it was hard as hell. I got my ass kicked left and right.

It had a bug that made fighter crash when trying to land into your hangar bays too. There was a mod to make the bays larger to avoid it.

 

[Galdred]

Can you get companions (aka warmasters) in free roaming?
Boarding is a bit better than it used to, as you can decided whether to retreat, pillage, or keep advancing at each stage.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

There was a space game a while back that I really liked the concept of.

You could pilot everything from a fighter to a capital ship that could order other ships. It had space dogfights and even in-atmosphere dogfights.

I think this was it:



It was pretty fun. Wish there were more like it.

But here we are, 10 years later playing crap like SPG:W or X3. :/

 

[Galdred]

There was a space game a while back that I really liked the concept of.

You could pilot everything from a fighter to a capital ship that could order other ships. It had space dogfights and even in-atmosphere dogfights.

I think this was it:



It was pretty fun. Wish there were more like it.

But here we are, 10 years later playing crap like SPG:W or X3. :/

Indeed, we were talking about it 2 posts earlier.
It was really awesome, and the task force command menu when you were commanding your carrier was well done, but the author burnt out, and the game never got the fixes it needed, let alone the upgrades that would make it better (open world map painting, mostly).
Even Destroyer vs destroyer was interesting because large ships had weak shields up and down, so you had to flank using the z axis to kill them quickly.
It had mods for BSG, Babylon 5 and Star Wars iirc, but no campaign for any of these, only models and stats.
It is really sad that it was abandoned indeed, because SPW and X3 (and even Eve Online) all have pretty weak core combat gameplay IMO.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Indeed, we were talking about it 2 posts earlier.

It was really awesome, and the task force command menu when you were commanding your carrier was well done, but the author burnt out, and the game never got the fixes it needed, let alone the upgrades that would make it better (open world map painting, mostly).
It is really sad indeed.

Yep.

Another space sim I wish I could see more like was Klingon Academy.

Loved hiding my Bird Of Prey in the rings of a planet or inside a gas giant. Great for using hit/run tactics or ambushes.

Best we ever got in that regard was Bridge Commander - which improved some aspects by showing the bridge/officers, but the gameplay was predictably dumbed down.

 

[Severian Silk]

Maybe he could be convinced to release Starshatter source code? If he doesn't release the art assets too, then people will still have to buy the game, and everyone wins. Or maybe he is one of those people who hates open source. Hard to tell sometimes.

 

[cw8]

I like Starpoint Gemini 2 so I bought Warlords. Emphasis is on fleets this time round. You have your usual trading, doing side jobs for your income and upping your rank to eventually buy the big ships like in SG2. However in Warlords, much of the game now requires you to conquer sectors with your fleets and take over resources. You now have a HQ early in the game which you use to build your fleets and research tech. Ships can now combine into a fleet which you can easily click on the map to follow you around. Your fleet flies with you and engages enemies as you would. Most of the time, you'll probably just fight fleet vs fleet. You can always stop a fleets from following you and fight solo if you wish at any time.

This is the only video series I found from Youtube that has extensive fleet vs fleet combat at the 1:30 mark. The first 1 minute of the video shows much of the map and fleet interface: