Starsector - RT 2D indie space goodness

[Rewrite]

colonies

Instead the ritart dev could have set up a webserver that would ping the latest compat mod version back to a mod manager. Shit, host a modlist with the metadata on github, I've seen it done!
Your mod manager downloads a list of mods containing current compat version and dl links and downlaods and installs/removes mods. Thats it. Modders have to 'push' version updates and dl-links and he auto-accepts. Done.
This shit is 1week project, at most. github acc, json format for metadata (aint much in it), ui with a list and 3 buttons, functionality for update/install/delete. Most of it is already fucking there...
If he is afraid of legal consequences when his mod manager downloads some malware, make it unofficial community project. Slap a fat disclaimer on it...
Its really surprising that this game doesn have a mod manager, considering it has "mods..." in the starting screen...
You have to shovel dirt in the forums to find shit.

Or teach the AI to choo choose weapons better so that modders dont have to do your jerb for you:
"AdvancedGunneryControl is a utility mod that allows you to customize how your weapon groups behave on auto-fire mode."

 

[MartinK]

Colonies add the need to defend them from pirates and raids. YOu also need to find a good planet first. It expands the base game a bit.

Anyway, there are fan made updates for DME and Blackrock out there. What is the real tragedy is that Vayra’s sector mod still has not been updated.

 

[Black]

I wouldn't call colonies, spoilers, story missions, etc "dubious improvements".

I would. They add nothing to the core of the game: fleet building and fleet combat. Well, remnants are nice.

Hard disagree, for me as with pretty much every sandbox, the core of the game is to make the world better for my character and colonies do just that. I can grow my own little fascist empire that's gonna fuel my war machine and that's dope.

 

[AgentFransis]

I wouldn't call colonies, spoilers, story missions, etc "dubious improvements".

I would. They add nothing to the core of the game: fleet building and fleet combat. Well, remnants are nice.

Hard disagree, for me as with pretty much every sandbox, the core of the game is to make the world better for my character and colonies do just that. I can grow my own little fascist empire that's gonna fuel my war machine and that's dope.

You can play however you want and larp whatever you want but the core of the game is undisputedly fleet building and fleet combat. It's the main activity in the game, by far the most developed aspect of it and everything revolves around it.

Also colonies are popamole garbage. I would gladly just go back to playing 0.8.1 if I could get the game and all the mods I want from that version.

 

[Rafidur]

Why do you need anything more than the simulator, then, popamole-transcending one?

 

[Black]

the core of the game is undisputedly fleet building

Which colonies provide an alternative to in a more elaborate way.

 

[AgentFransis]

the core of the game is undisputedly fleet building

Which colonies provide an alternative to in a more elaborate way.

In what way are they an alternative? You mean an alternative to buying from the shop or salvaging and instead manufacturing your own? Yes, that's fine. But the goal is still to acquire a nice fleet, outfit it and go blow other ships to bits. The actual gameplay of developing colonies itself is rudimentary and not very interesting on it's own. And as I said before in this thread I don't like them as a mechanic since they force you to babysit instead of freely roaming the sector as you normally would. Moreover by the time I got to the point where I had developed colonies and enough blueprints to manufacture a good fleet it felt redundant since to get to this point I already had to assemble a late-game fleet.

 

[Rewrite]

orgasmic mission spawn

 

[Rewrite]

upkeep is getting insane though...
80k mission
35 ly distance
260*2 fuel * 25c = 6500 - 13000
40*2 days * 1supps * 100c = 8000
80k
-20k for fuel/supps
-40k for 2 months upkeep!1
= 20k profit...

 

[HeatEXTEND]

upkeep is getting insane though...
80k mission
35 ly distance
260*2 fuel * 25c = 6500 - 13000
40*2 days * 1supps * 100c = 8000
80k
-20k for fuel/supps
-40k for 2 months upkeep!1
= 20k profit...

Yeah you don't want to overdo your fleet without colony income or things can get (too) grindy.

 

[AgentFransis]

Don't bring a full battle fleet to distant survey jobs. Take a minimal subset that's able to beat medium pirate groups and is as fast as possible. Like a fast cruiser, several destroyers and small logistics ships. Park the rest at an abandoned station.

 

[Rewrite]

which is better hwy?
i intend to take the 'capture automated ships' for larp reasons, and i dont even know what phase stuff is

 

[Rewrite]

Don't bring a full battle fleet

I have just my 7 ~frigate ships, with
tanker
freighter
civ transporter
I have 3 combat ships... I can only take the lowest bounties xD

Shit is expensive. But the 40k from upkeep is mostly "child support" and 2 officers. That alone is is 10+10+5+5. Twice because the way back is another month.
The officers are expensive for what they provide...

 

[Rafidur]

Phase ships replace shields with the ability to slow time and go invincible. Typically you phase, go through a juicy target, turn around, phase out, blast it in the ass with burst weapons, then phase the fuck away.

Their weaknesses are absolutely no defenses when phase is not running, low operating time, high costs, and vulnerability to sustained pressure like fighters, missiles, etc that can fuck them when they have to stop phasing.

 

[panda]

The officers are expensive for what they provide...

Ships with officers become like 3-4 times better. 6-7k/month is a joke of price for that. Even mercs worth hiring.
Couple of bounties or few good drug/weaponry hauls can easily cover yearly salary and takes like two in game weeks or something.

upkeep is getting insane though...
80k mission
35 ly distance
260*2 fuel * 25c = 6500 - 13000
40*2 days * 1supps * 100c = 8000
80k
-20k for fuel/supps
-40k for 2 months upkeep!1
= 20k profit...

And it is not like scavenging isn't profitable either.
Pick a mission to check a research station, visit all neutron stars/black holes along the way, sell useless blueprints upon return. You should be swimming in money.

 

[Rewrite]

Ships with officers become like 3-4 times better.

Really? I experimented in the sim a bit and depending on loadout sometimes the officers performed worse...
Granted, its always 1vs1 and the biggest ship was a Mule combat freighter.
How do officers make the ships better?
I found the most important officer abilities the defensive ones:
-20% to shield dmg
-25% to armor dmg
-20% to hull dmg
Those do help. Especially the shields when you gear your fleet to outshield the enemy AI and force it into that suicidal retreat/vent dance.
The missile-count-doubling ability must also nasty on a pure missile boat but I dont have a missile boat yet.
I dont think maneuver matters cause the fights are typically the kiting-type and not offensive dashes where rotation would maybe matter.
The AI either cant or wont use ballistic range to its advantage.

There is this questionable behavior type where officers/AI prolong the fight by pulling out and venting or just recovering,
while the enemy does the same, even though we take just a little bit more damage in these skirmishes but have just a bit more shield/armor than the
enemy. So we would be better of pressing but our AI cant. So we dance and enemy AI chips away our hull.

They also disable shields and vent in the most retarded of places that I dont quite understand. Right under fire, flux not even reaching 1/3 of full and
suddenly the AI/officer vents...

You should be swimming in money.

Well, I am larping the idea that Factions would not sell combat ships to mercs (especially at those prices) so I have to find them and pay recovery bills...
Paid 120k to get the Mule with 4 negative hullmods repaired.
Also, until very recently, until I had a third combat ship, I couldnt even take fights on drones. I couldnt win them.
Now though, a drone fight, plus the drone mission itself, plus the debris field afterwards help.

 

[Rewrite]

Phase ships replace shields with the ability to slow time and go invincible. Typically you phase, go through a juicy target, turn around, phase out, blast it in the ass with burst weapons, then phase the fuck away.
Their weaknesses are absolutely no defenses when phase is not running, low operating time, high costs, and vulnerability to sustained pressure like fighters, missiles, etc that can fuck them when they have to stop phasing.

So what character ability is better?
~10 to 20% to flux and flux cap on a fleet of capitals is prolly much stronger than
a couple of phasers having more time in combat and less flux usage...
I figure that the phase ability also mostly helps when its you controlling your flag phaser.

 

[AgentFransis]

Officers are force multipliers. Obviously with a frigate there's not much to multiply. But give a good cruiser or capital to a good officer and you'll see a massive difference. Remember that in a flux war between two ships the ship that can flux out the other faster than it fluxes out itself will eventually win so even a small edge can make all the difference.

Also officer personalities make a big difference in their behavior.

 

[panda]

Ships with officers become like 3-4 times better.

Really? I experimented in the sim a bit and depending on loadout sometimes the officers performed worse...
Granted, its always 1vs1 and the biggest ship was a Mule combat freighter.

Mule is not a really good combat ship tbh. Ok for a freighter, but to seriously measure game's combat based on it...

How do officers make the ships better?

High lvl officers ensure 100% flux war victory against same tier non-officer ships and usually can engage/disengage at will against bigger/slower ships.
Honestly, it's almost like sheeps herd vs wolfpack. Non-officered ships can't 1 vs 1 and non-officered fleet needs huge numbers advantage to encircle and win.

I dont think maneuver matters cause the fights are typically the kiting-type and not offensive dashes where rotation would maybe matter.
The AI either cant or wont use ballistic range to its advantage.

That's not true, maneuverability greatly affects AI behavior, as for range: it's more of current patch thing. You still can have good high range builds, just fewer than it used to be. And even minimal range advantage is hardly useless.

There is this questionable behavior type where officers/AI prolong the fight by pulling out and venting or just recovering,
while the enemy does the same, even though we take just a little bit more damage in these skirmishes but have just a bit more shield/armor than the
enemy. So we would be better of pressing but our AI cant. So we dance and enemy AI chips away our hull.

Aggressive officers more or less fix this. Reckless ones will literally charge into the fray.

You should be swimming in money.

Well, I am larping the idea that Factions would not sell combat ships to mercs (especially at those prices) so I have to find them and pay recovery bills...
Paid 120k to get the Mule with 4 negative hullmods repaired.
Also, until very recently, until I had a third combat ship, I couldnt even take fights on drones. I couldnt win them.

Just ignore and loot ruins/research/mining stations e.t.c.
E.g, i've played first game year yesterday as pure explorer. Picked mission to top left corner, then to top right corner, picked goodies on the way, only bought big salvage rig and Atlas inbetween.

Result?

Btw, there is a new great mod which actually implements the idea of your larping.

 

[MartinK]

Why put s-mods on Atlas? It has just enough points for expanded cargo and militarized subsystems/augmented drive, which is everything it needs to do its job. After year of exploring you should have much more ships than just that. Look around the inactive gates, you usually find a debris field and coupple of salvageable ships.

 

[panda]

For surveying equipment + efficiency overhaul or sensors. And sure, i could grab more ships, including XIV's relics you usually find, but point is: for pure explorer there is no real need for this. Crusier size salvage rig, shepherd and scavenging skill will grant something like +80% free supplies/fuel, so with relatively small fleet you'll hardly run out of gas and can explore almost forever.

 

[Rewrite]

Whats up with retarded mission prices (they are probably autogen.ed too)?
The dev has to see that 40k to attack and destroy a pirate station (that is probably defended) is shit^2?
Am I missing something? I cant sneak-bomb it for the negative rep and typically defenders.

 

[Trithne]

Btw, there is a new great mod which actually implements the idea of your larping.

Now that looks fucking fantastic.

I do think that civilian markets should sell some basic weapons, but nothing you would actually want.

 

[Tavernking]

Finished the tutorials and played about 15 minutes. Seems like a fun game if you have no life and can dedicate a few full days to actually learn how to play well. It was pretty overwhelming, like learning Arma 2 for the first time. I don't have time for that anymore. And for this I have nobody but myself to blame, just wanted to rant

 

[Rewrite]

I am not regretting rushing "automated ship recovery" for larp reasons!
You can plop captured AI officers into a ship, and configure their skills how and when you want it! Which is great fun. Now those AI officers dont cost money and can be fitted to my fleet tactics.
I will try to implement that phaser missile finisher, kinda like that

my current drone ships are trash but I see them blue Domain warships around, those I want! And Alpha cores!

There is also an exploit in this lol.
Autoships have a combat readiness at 70% only if you have less than 30 deployment points of them in your fleet.
Thats like 3 destroyer tier ships. And if you put a Gamma AI into one, the deployment cost goes up +5, and +10 for Alpha AI.
So 3 destroyers with 3 Alpha AIs are 60 deploy.pts and combat readiness drops into shit-tier territory.
BUT! Combat readiness does not drop instantly lel!
So you can have your autoship fleet match 30 deploy.pts and add Gamma cores with the Reliability skill which lifts Combat Readiness by 15% to 85% on your fattest ships!

So far, so good but this is not an exploit. The exploit is when you exchange the gammas for ALPHA CORES into your ships seconds before battle lul.
The combat readiness does not drop instantly but gradually, so you go into combat with a FULL sortie of ALPHA AI STRIKE FORCE!
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE PREPARE TO BE BOARDED