Start with Attributes A and max your HP and resilience (death resist), avoid or minimize combat unless you have good armor/shields, have a doctor with the lifesaving talent...
I always had attributes on A priority (btw cool char gen from Shadowrun) and you can't avoid always avoid combat. Bribing isn't always possible or it wouldn't make sense because you have story mission npcs on board. Got wrecked that way on the first story mission. Maybe it's connected to ships mass, too. I fly around with the weakest one.
Right now I think the captain can die too easily in ship combat since you have rarely any control over it. It happens for me in 5 combats 2 times - death of captain to critical hit (on the first difficulty with permadeath)
Better to board them as fast as you can. Enemy ships can barely function after that.
Anyone ever get any loot out of ground combat?
Yeah, boarding is the only chance I have with my weak ship.
All in all I really like the game so far. The UI needs some overhaul. Tooltips for every button would make already a big difference. Some mechanics are a bit overcomplicated withour giving you more control and options, but I probably just have to get used of it. Boarding/Land combat is abit awkward with the different ranks and which ranks you can attack. I would naturally assume that with a gun you can attack from very rank...
For flying around I would like to see more info when/how/why a stat check happens (which you can see on the right display on the bottom) and who of the crew uses one of his traits. Another one would be showing a line between your ship and your plotted destination to see which route you will take.
Contacts look very interesting and I can see already some good stories arise in my head with all the difference stats and connections. Think a bit like Crusader Kings. A drawback seems to be that no wars / changing ownership of planets can happen. Ownership of planets is static.
But the biggest plus in my book is the crew management. It's nicely done and you have a lot of options on your hand leveling them up.
The game is already a huuuge improvement to the first Star Traders (which was already fun) and has potential to become a really great game. The writing so far isn't great but it is INTERESTING, something that big companies often lack in their stories nowadays.
That they have given up on the Templar Battleforce combat and exploration is unfortunate. That sort of direct positioning and exploration is lacking in the game so far. What I don't like is the raising difficulty the further you progress. I hope that isn't really an issue. Never liked that levelscaling.
But I can't really judge that much at the moment. I just played for 4 hours and can't say anything about longtime motivation.
