MadMaxHellfire
Arcane
I heard someone mention it in the shoutbox last week. Somebody buy it and give me a detailed description because it can be either an immortal masterpiece of the most boring snoozefest of repetition ever.
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Approaching Infinity (early access)
- Thread starter MadMaxHellfire
- Start date
I heard someone mention it in the shoutbox last week. Somebody buy it and give me a detailed description because it can be either an immortal masterpiece of the most boring snoozefest of repetition ever.
I played the Shrapnel Demo ages ago. I don't remember how it was, but for what it's worth, I wanted to buy it until I saw their insane DRM scheme (with limited install count), and their eye gouging price (45€ or so).
It is mostly about deciding when to push your luck, and when to avoid taking too much risk.
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Jinn
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,974
I've played it for about 5 hours so far, and I have to say, I find it very charming, addictive, and enjoyable overall. I feel it has a bit of a deceptive simplicity to it - as in, the further you progress, the more the game opens up to you, revealing more and more complexity, customization, variety, and challenge the further you go. The basic gameplay loop is simple at it's core, but I struggle to think of a rogue-like where that isn't the case. I was worried about where I thought I saw the content going in the first two hours or so, but past that I'm continuing to find more and more to become invested in. It's definitely been a "one more turn" kind of experience for me, where I have to force myself to stop playing. I'm going to have some spare time tomorrow, so I'll probably devote a good several hours to it.
I'd recommend anyone trying it to make sure to play for at least a couple hours before you judge it. If that means a "test" whirl, then so be it. But if you end up liking it, give this guy some money. He's very passionate about his game, and has already implemented some features I suggested, like, a day ago.
If anyone has any specific questions they can think of, let me know and ping me to this thread.
I'd recommend anyone trying it to make sure to play for at least a couple hours before you judge it. If that means a "test" whirl, then so be it. But if you end up liking it, give this guy some money. He's very passionate about his game, and has already implemented some features I suggested, like, a day ago.
If anyone has any specific questions they can think of, let me know and ping me to this thread.
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MadMaxHellfire
Arcane
Jinn how complex is it? how many stats thrown around? crew, for example, is it made by several characters with their numbers or is it just a number itself? how does your /or your ship customization work? i need to have a thousand things to balance around, or at least a meaningful development. that statement about how the game is endless, stats keep growing and enemies too, gave me the most horrible, vomit-inducing oblivion vibe.
Jinn
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,974
Sadly if stat juggling and immense crew management are your main concerns, this game would be a rather large dissapointment to you. It's very light on the simulation aspects, and while there is a fair amount of customization - with 10 ship components, 3 away team equipments, up to 6 officers on board at once (hero likes that boost crew stats through special skills), salvaging, crafting, and research - it's all very much so streamlined if compared to more simulationist approaches.
It doesn't sound like this is the game you're looking for. While what you are looking for sounds great to me too, it's all perhaps only in a game that doesn't exist yet.
Another game I've been eyeing up that has been personally recommended to me might be a little closer to the kind of space RPG you're imagining, but probably still not quite there. I'll be checking it out in the near future myself.
Oh, and maybe check this one out if you haven't yet. It's a fair amount closer to what you're talking about, and a great game in it's own right.
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MadMaxHellfire
Arcane
i can be kept entertained with much less than i asked for (but usually i need as many numbers as possible, just don't be aurora), my main worry about this game was "do its customization parts are actually customizations, leading to different approaches, or are they just +1s?".
Jinn
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,974
There's different ships, officer configurations, ship equipment configurations that can lead to different playstyles for sure, but nothing that is going to wildly deviate from the core gameplay loop that is based around sector exploration, away team planetary exploration, shipwreck exploration, ship combat, basic trading, questing, and faction/race interaction and main quest persuance. There could be more left for me to discover, but once you kind of choose your path a lot of upgrades are +number, but still feel like meaningful progression. The game will not satisfy number whores though. No spreadsheets of statistics or anything.
In this case, Star Trader Frontiers would work very well for you indeed.
It is basically a number crunching game, in which different crew and ship loadouts lead to very different playthroughs (if you play a team of boarding specialists, or a group of spies/smugglers, the game plays very differently).
What I didn't like was that it was very hard to get feedback (there are a ton of skillchecks, so it is hard to track the ones that mattered the most).
MadMaxHellfire
Arcane
two messages and you added so nothing you're actually depriving the topic of informations. conga rats.
I gave it another spin. My issues with the game is that Oxygen management during expeditions is very, very tedious. You basically have to backtrack to the landing pad to replenish your oxygen after a few steps. It becomes horribly irritating in dungeons, especially with the pathfinding killing you if you accept to "automatically get to the surface as you have enough oxygen"(followed by : lol, 0 oxygen remaining to reach the shuttle from the cave exit. You should have pathed manually...).
Apparently, there is no way around it. You have suits with larger oxygen capacity later on, but that will still require you to backtrack a lot...
Officers are actually pretty important. Some give an undisclosed stat bonus to some thing, but many officers have abilities that can be used in space or ground missions.
However, you don't have that much to customize your ship with, as stations will typically offer one of each item on display (ie 1 weapon, 1 missile, one armor, one shield, and one expedition item). You can reroll the vendor selection for a price, though.
You don't have that many options in combat itself. You have a few officer related skills with a long cooldown (and some consumables to reduce the CD), but no attack options (like in FTL, or Star Traders: Frontiers).
The discovery aspect of the game is enjoyable (ie, finding new stuff and secrets), but it feels more like a time waster than anything else. Combat is usually very one sided, so it is mostly about not getting out of your league, on the ground or in space.
Apparently, there is no way around it. You have suits with larger oxygen capacity later on, but that will still require you to backtrack a lot...
Officers are actually pretty important. Some give an undisclosed stat bonus to some thing, but many officers have abilities that can be used in space or ground missions.
However, you don't have that much to customize your ship with, as stations will typically offer one of each item on display (ie 1 weapon, 1 missile, one armor, one shield, and one expedition item). You can reroll the vendor selection for a price, though.
You don't have that many options in combat itself. You have a few officer related skills with a long cooldown (and some consumables to reduce the CD), but no attack options (like in FTL, or Star Traders: Frontiers).
The discovery aspect of the game is enjoyable (ie, finding new stuff and secrets), but it feels more like a time waster than anything else. Combat is usually very one sided, so it is mostly about not getting out of your league, on the ground or in space.
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So, after close to 20 hours on the game, here is what I think:
The early game is indeed, charming, with a lot of new toys to play with. Ground exploration takes 80% of the time, so it is the main focus of the game.
Sadly, it is a bit tedious, with a lot of waiting for abilities to coold down, and backtracking to the shuttle for oxygen. Late game suits make it a bit better (I reached 400% of my initial oxygen capacity, with an officer reducing the oxygen spent), but some levels are 20 deep.
The worst is that there is a way to immediately go back to first level, but as I said earlier, you have to still manually get back, and the calculation of O2 spent is totally off, in your defavor, so you really need to do so manually to avoid bad surprises.
The most important things when it comes to build and decisions are the officers you choose(and their abilities), and cyber enhancements you can find and equip (2 per officer max).
My issue with cyber enhancements was tht these were very random (and you usually don't find many more than the 2 allowed for ground and the 2 for space, so there is little decision to make here).
Then, for ships: balance between supply capacity, cargo capacity, firepower, speed and protection.
Overall, ship combat is more forgiving than ground combat, and you have a few abilities that let you retrat instantly or hide if you got over your head.
For ground mission, you need to find a good balance between oxygen, visibility and protection (HP). Some officers also help passing impassible terrain, recover oxygen, find better loot, or dig through walls.
As for weapons, it is sadly not very interesting. Some opponents are immune or resistant to some weapons, and you can only carry 2 types of weapons. One interesting element is that rockets solve most problems, but they will also damage space wrecks, which may breach the hull and cause some complications.
The main issue I had was that everything is sector scaled(ie, scaled to the sector number). The exact same enemies you encountered on sector 1 could murder my away party on sector 19. A weird thing is that prices don't really scale the same way, so you can jump as far as possible, reach a station in a high sector, purchase gear here, and go back to clear easier sectors. Even crafting will yield better results in higher sectors.
A very weird element is that moving in space is very costly (in terms of supply, and getting stranded is bad), but in ground mission, you can wait as long as you need without any consequence.
You discover all of the toys around sector 10, and afterwards, it is mostly number inflation. That said, the treck to sector 10 was quite enjoyable, and I don't think there is anything like that game at the moment (offering turn based space and ground exploration with spaceship and crew management). It lacks the combat option you could find in games like Tajes of Maj'Eyal or even Dungeonmans.
The early game is indeed, charming, with a lot of new toys to play with. Ground exploration takes 80% of the time, so it is the main focus of the game.
Sadly, it is a bit tedious, with a lot of waiting for abilities to coold down, and backtracking to the shuttle for oxygen. Late game suits make it a bit better (I reached 400% of my initial oxygen capacity, with an officer reducing the oxygen spent), but some levels are 20 deep.
The worst is that there is a way to immediately go back to first level, but as I said earlier, you have to still manually get back, and the calculation of O2 spent is totally off, in your defavor, so you really need to do so manually to avoid bad surprises.
The most important things when it comes to build and decisions are the officers you choose(and their abilities), and cyber enhancements you can find and equip (2 per officer max).
My issue with cyber enhancements was tht these were very random (and you usually don't find many more than the 2 allowed for ground and the 2 for space, so there is little decision to make here).
Then, for ships: balance between supply capacity, cargo capacity, firepower, speed and protection.
Overall, ship combat is more forgiving than ground combat, and you have a few abilities that let you retrat instantly or hide if you got over your head.
For ground mission, you need to find a good balance between oxygen, visibility and protection (HP). Some officers also help passing impassible terrain, recover oxygen, find better loot, or dig through walls.
As for weapons, it is sadly not very interesting. Some opponents are immune or resistant to some weapons, and you can only carry 2 types of weapons. One interesting element is that rockets solve most problems, but they will also damage space wrecks, which may breach the hull and cause some complications.
The main issue I had was that everything is sector scaled(ie, scaled to the sector number). The exact same enemies you encountered on sector 1 could murder my away party on sector 19. A weird thing is that prices don't really scale the same way, so you can jump as far as possible, reach a station in a high sector, purchase gear here, and go back to clear easier sectors. Even crafting will yield better results in higher sectors.
A very weird element is that moving in space is very costly (in terms of supply, and getting stranded is bad), but in ground mission, you can wait as long as you need without any consequence.
You discover all of the toys around sector 10, and afterwards, it is mostly number inflation. That said, the treck to sector 10 was quite enjoyable, and I don't think there is anything like that game at the moment (offering turn based space and ground exploration with spaceship and crew management). It lacks the combat option you could find in games like Tajes of Maj'Eyal or even Dungeonmans.
I went to the "bad" ending (
) upon reaching sector 26 and backtracking to sector 20.
Your officer skills are the limiting factor in the game. You need one officer of each "color" ASAP (but you cannot have more than your level, and I think it is hard capped to 6).
Ship combat is where you should focus most of your funds, but ground combat is where you need to spend almost all of your skill points.
The priority of ship combat is to have a way out, but it can only be done through random cyber drops (go dark, emergency warp). I found shield to be more reliable than cloak for survival, because if you warp in in the middle of opponents, you won't be able to activate cloak. I didn't find different weapons to have that much impact, and just upgraded whenever I found something better (The idea is that short range weapons also serve as point defense, missiles need to be used en mass to bypass point defense, unless you have a system to help with that). Long range definitely helps make the ship more survivable.
The best ships are the ones with built in systems to make your crew more survivable in ground combat (one has + 20%HP and + x% damage dealt for the faraway team).
- visual range, and weapon ranges help a lot in survival, both in space and ground.
- Anything that reduces damage taken/increase damage dealt is very high priority (that is why I think tactical is the best for the main character).
- Then, you need to focus on oxygen (don't skip the oxygen purifier item, as it makes O2 becomes totally irrelevant in a lot of cases) skills.
- Of the movement skills, everything that allows to cross one type of terrain is usually a waste, as you can get away with just installing the mod you need for your away team if needed. Rubble clearing is an exception, because a lot of maps will be much harder to navigate without it.
The skill that shows level exit and quest items (to level 2 to see artifacts) is pretty helpful, as it allows you not to waste too much oxygen.
With oxygen upgrades, I didn't have to backtrack at all.
It is usually better to salvage cheap items than to sell them, as you get some crafting resources and crafting XP out of it. That said, crafting is still very random, even with the perks that improve it and a high crafting level, but it can help you get out of a bad situation (ie, if you need a particular type of weapon damage, you can go back to your ship and craft it).
Sadly, there are not that many different ways to tackle combat and exploration.
giving the Amulet of Yendor to the bankers
Your officer skills are the limiting factor in the game. You need one officer of each "color" ASAP (but you cannot have more than your level, and I think it is hard capped to 6).
Ship combat is where you should focus most of your funds, but ground combat is where you need to spend almost all of your skill points.
The priority of ship combat is to have a way out, but it can only be done through random cyber drops (go dark, emergency warp). I found shield to be more reliable than cloak for survival, because if you warp in in the middle of opponents, you won't be able to activate cloak. I didn't find different weapons to have that much impact, and just upgraded whenever I found something better (The idea is that short range weapons also serve as point defense, missiles need to be used en mass to bypass point defense, unless you have a system to help with that). Long range definitely helps make the ship more survivable.
The best ships are the ones with built in systems to make your crew more survivable in ground combat (one has + 20%HP and + x% damage dealt for the faraway team).
- visual range, and weapon ranges help a lot in survival, both in space and ground.
- Anything that reduces damage taken/increase damage dealt is very high priority (that is why I think tactical is the best for the main character).
- Then, you need to focus on oxygen (don't skip the oxygen purifier item, as it makes O2 becomes totally irrelevant in a lot of cases) skills.
- Of the movement skills, everything that allows to cross one type of terrain is usually a waste, as you can get away with just installing the mod you need for your away team if needed. Rubble clearing is an exception, because a lot of maps will be much harder to navigate without it.
The skill that shows level exit and quest items (to level 2 to see artifacts) is pretty helpful, as it allows you not to waste too much oxygen.
With oxygen upgrades, I didn't have to backtrack at all.
It is usually better to salvage cheap items than to sell them, as you get some crafting resources and crafting XP out of it. That said, crafting is still very random, even with the perks that improve it and a high crafting level, but it can help you get out of a bad situation (ie, if you need a particular type of weapon damage, you can go back to your ship and craft it).
Sadly, there are not that many different ways to tackle combat and exploration.
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