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Lazy Mans Newest Episode Link Here: Episode Seventeen Welcome to the fringe of space. Where life is rough and unjust. Scavengers pull junk and lost technology out of great derelict spaceships and sell what they can salvage for a meager living. It is dangerous work, but digging up a piece of archeotech and getting home alive with it could buy you a ticket to a better life. We'll be putting together a small scavenger band and testing fate out in the deep sky. So what is Deep Sky Derelicts? Deep Sky Derelicts, or DSD, self describes itself as an original combination of turn-based strategy and RPG, enriched with tactical card combat and popular roguelike elements. Explore derelict alien ships, fight, loot and upgrade your gear, all in distinctive retro-futuristic comic book aesthetic style. As a player, I'd tell you it's a very unique mix of recent popular game genres. It's RPG elements are roughly akin to Darkest Dungeon. We manage a small party and understanding and improving their gear and abilities is key to survival. The exploration of the derelicts is a little like DD as well in that it's a fairly abstracted map, moving from one tile to another and dealing with things like fights, traps, treasure, and quests as we stumble upon them. Combat is a mix of turn based and deck builder. Each character you control gets a deck of cards, playing 1 card a turn as a general rule. The cards for each characters deck are supplied by their equipment and any class skills that also provide cards. Hand size is small, the starting draw at the beginning of a combat is 3 or 4 cards, and you normally play a single card a turn, retaining the unused cards, and draw a single card at the start of your next turn. Deck management can be a very big deal. The art, music, and sound direction of the game is one of the things that really give the game its unique feel. It's hard to place, but it's very cool. It calls itself retro-futuristic, and whatever that means, but it does have a very solid concept going through the entire thing. The art, music, and sound, all sell to me a very dire and gritty setting. Not grim dark like Warhams 40k, but not too far off either. It's like life is still kind of poo poo out in space, but there are no mega empires in charge of everything. It's just everyone working to grind out a living in a space rustbelt sort of way.  Never heard of the game? I wouldn't be surprised. Developed by Snowhound Games, DSD appears to be their second game ever made. Their only other game is Apestorm: Full Bananas a 2d side scroller for phones. Published by 1C Entertainment, a Russian HQ'd company that doesn't have any big games I've heard of before and seems to publish mostly Russian games that presumably never made it big over in the US where I am. So I hadn't heard of this game either! No idea how I did hear of it even, but I am willing to bet it was from my Twitch community, so thanks guys! The point being this is a very cool small studio game that is very innovative in what it does, even if it's not inventing a brand new genre. It's a cool game, it does something new and expands the gaming market and I like to support the little studios that bring us cool new things like DSD because I want to see more cool new games that do cool and fun things that are different from what's already saturating the market. The LP Format This is going to be a more relaxed LP than my previous ones. I've played a lot of DSD but I wouldn't say I've mastered it like I would say about X-Com or my other recent LPs. "Recent LPs?" you say. Ha, well yes, it's been a long time since my last LP, and I'd committed to a different game. But life happened, my enthusiasm died, and even though I did record 3 videos for Attack of the Earthlings, I just didn't have the drive for it. So here we are, DSD it is and it's going to be a little different. Welcome to Jade Star's Insomnia LP. Cause man have I not been sleeping well lately. DSD is going to be my insomnia project. It's going to be what I do between 2-6am when I ought to be asleep but have hosed that up. That means expect erratic updates and solo live commentary recorded in the middle of the night.  The Crew We need to put a three man crew together. So I'm going to tell you the basics, and then you all are going to vote for our party composition. There are 8 classes, I will select the three most popular and do the best I can with them. There is a ton of flexibility with party composition and I don't think you guys can stick me with an absolute lemon. And even if you do, or people die, new scavengers can be hired during the game to replace losses or better fit the group dynamic. Bruiser  The bruiser is a heavy melee fighter. A real tank. Capable of putting out a lot of hurt. As they develop they can taunt enemies into targeting them, prepare counter attacks, and add stun chances to each strike they land. They lack a ranged weapon, but can equip weapon mods that allow them to use grenades. An amazing damage dealer that can later specialize into some utility with card draw targeting weapon cards, or go demoman focusing on grenades and explosives. Inventor  Our other all in melee option, the Inventor is a new class added in the second DLC. Despite the name maybe making you think they are a tech focused class, they go in on status and health effects. While the bruiser lacks a ranged weapon, the inventor lacks shields, a big deal in a game where recovering health usually involves a trip back to the station. The inventor supposedly has a way around this with life steals or other means, but I have no experience to say for sure having just bought the DLC that adds the inventor right before starting the LP. Leader  The Leader is the only mental stat focused character. Their starting mental abilities revolve around buffing the other two crew members, giving them card draw, and energize. Energize lets you play an extra card per turn for each point of energize. Energize plus card draw is a great combo to let your other crew members get much more out of their turns than normally possible. The leader fights with a light ranged weapon and a beam sword. Neither are super amazing, but both are very versatile and play into the leaders overall builds, the light gun synergizing with high initiative effects, and the sword offering defensive measures. As they level up, the leader can either hone his mental skills for powerful psionic attacks, or become a strategist for a world of party buffs. Medic  Despite the title of medic, DSD isn't a game where recovering HP is easy nor usually done during combat. Instead the medic is more about the curing of status effects on the crew, and inflicting them on biological enemies. Their starting class skill, Adrenaline, grants a crew member Energize for several turns, letting them play extra cards per turn. Adrenaline kind of sets the bar for what to expect from the medic; very strong party buffs. The rest of their medical kit involves curing status effects, paralyzing hostiles, or fortifying your crew. They don't develop a lot of raw damage output through class development, but they come standard with a spread weapon that is capable of dealing decent damage and sometimes useful for hitting multiple weak targets at the same time. Technician  If this guy looks similar to the medic, it's not an accident. They both carry the same sort of forearm mounted shotgun and focus in one area extensively. The technician is the class for dealing with robotic hostiles, dealing with shields, both restoring your own or draining the enemies, and inflicting action limiting status effects. And later on turrets. Technicians can also give the crew short duration protection in the form of bonus shielding or damage reduction. Lastly, they can even generate small amounts of energy while in the field. Energy being needed to maintain the crews suits and life support. It's a resource that if it drops to zero, everyone's about to start suffocating. Miner  The miner carries a heavy ranged weapon and hates armor. Armor in DSD is a flat damage reduction, so 2 points armor means 2 less damage dealt from every attack. Enemy armor can really suck and having a way to get through it is pretty great when it's built into the miner as a passive. His giant loving gun also does a lot of damage and typically has some sort of negative status effect on hit depending on the mods, ranging from fire, ice/cyro, and acid elemental effects. The miner naturally starts with demolition charges for area of effect explosions. The miner also offers some logistics support skills like making clearing debris found in a derelict cost less energy while also finding more stuff in said debris. The giant gun the miner carries means the miner has no melee option. Scrapper  The Scrapper doesn't really have an archetype to compare him against. The scrapper starts with an automatic range weapon which is capable of dealing good damage, usually with cards that involve doing multiple hits for less than full damage per hit. The scrapper also has a power fist for melee which is unique to the scrapper and can be very powerful, often being involved in class skill based attacks. The main specialization of the scrapper is card draw and/or deck manipulation. They have many abilities that revolve around drawing more cards, making the enemy discard, or discarding the scrappers own cards to power their abilities. Good offense and a lot of potential utility come from the scrapper. Tracker  High damage precision weapon fighter. The main feature of the tracker is the massive damage output they are capable of. They supplement that with status effects such as Focus, the more they hit the same target the more bonus damage they deal, dealing bleeding damage if they get through shields, critical hit bonuses, and marking targets to reduce enemy damage resistance and evasion. Trackers are not total glass cannons though either, with defensive skills revolving around evasion and cloaking, which synergizes with their bonuses for attacks coming out of stealth. Later on they can equip elemental amplifiers, further augmenting their already powerful attacks with elemental effects to cause more damage or nasty status effects on the enemy. They even carry an energy blade for the rare circumstance melee might be required. Additionally each character has a personality trait which gives a small bonus. Aggressive - +5% Melee damage Charismatic - +15 Mental stat Crafty - 5% Card Recycle Neurotic - +2 Initiative Skittish - 5% Evasion These are minor and I'll pick what I think works for the given crew members. Some are kind of obvious, like bruisers picking aggressive. First video has been made, the team has been selected. Thank you to those that voted.  Table of Contents                  Jade Star fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Nov 21, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 14:28
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I quickly rolled up a new crew just to get you a brief introduction to why we are out here and what the station we will be working out of looks like and what it has to offer.         So there is our job. In a nutshell, we have to pick through the remains of derelict ships in the hopes of finding navigation data that will point us toward some mythical lost mothership. All we have to do is find that mothership and let the Sub-Governor know where it is and then we can retire to some comfortable mirror world. Easy, right? Yeah... Right.  Here's the station. In it's entirety. The games a bit minimalist, which makes sense given it's a small developer. Here we can see all four services available to us, as well as the Sub-Governors office. First up, The Lair.  It's not much to look at, but this is what counts as R&R on the station. They'll post side jobs for things that we can get done while exploring derelicts as well as serve as the hiring hub should we need to make any roster changes.  Right above the bar is research and workshop. Here we can spend copious amounts of credits to make time spent on the derelicts suck less. Scanner improvements greatly improve quality of life out there. There is also a whole new bunch of things that came with the 2nd DLC that I'm not familiar with, so we'll get to see how that goes! It also added crafting, and from what I gathered it's a sort of 'find a piece of gear, throw it in here to be destroyed, and then you can make pieces of that gear with random stats/modifiers'. Haven't tried it yet, but could be useful!  Medical here is where we can restore lost hit points. It's expensive too. That used to be about all you could do here, but the DLC has added the ability to install implants in our crew, further tweaking them with intrinsic modifiers. We can also change the crews appearances and portraits in here.  Lastly the pawn shop. We'll be here a lot. It's the primary market in the game and where I will be unloading all the various crap we pull off the derelicts. It also sells gear that we can use. Usually I can find enough gear out on the derelicts that I don't need to buy from the pawn shop, but on occasion it can offer that one weapon type or mod you have been hoping for and not seen so it can be worth throwing down some money in the pawn shop on occasion. There's our introduction to the station and our task at hand. I'm going to give it a day or two for people to vote for our crew in the straw poll (bottom of first post if you missed it) and then I will roll up a new crew and we will get underway.  Also we will need a name for the crew as a whole. Individual crew members will be named after posters at my fickle and ever changing whims.
Jade Star fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 17, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 14:29
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I tried to vote but the poll only register my first choice? Anyhow, nice to see that you are firing this up. I´ll do my best to catch the streams when I have the opportunity.
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Aug 17, 2021 14:49
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Sylphosaurus posted:I tried to vote but the poll only register my first choice? Yeah it did the same to me. I dunno if it's borked or I hit a wrong option. I'll see about fixing it asap so we can get underway. Clunky work around - http://www.strawpoll.me/45581645 Vote here too. Doesn't check for duplicate voters, so vote once for favorite class, then make two more votes. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Aug 17, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 15:00
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Voted for all 3 on Strawpool, afaik. If this is needed, please sign me up to be a spaceman JS!
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Aug 17, 2021 15:45
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Haven't played since early access but the Dankest Dumpster aesthetic works well for what it does. Gonna suggest Betting On Teamwipe for gang name
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Aug 17, 2021 15:58
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If you are taking signings for crewmembers I´d like to put scavenger Friegolit into the hat. Our gang name should be Jade´s Junkers
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Aug 17, 2021 16:21
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They should be the Jade Starmen
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Aug 17, 2021 17:25
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clunky work around works  wb jade star
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Aug 17, 2021 17:43
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I think I voted right, but if not: Bruiser + Medic + Technician. Bruiser can tank and grenade things, then the other two can switch off buffing and debuffing duties based on whether the enemies are organic or robotic. Team name: Hot Garbage e: I know nothing about this game, so I have no idea if the proposed strategy is actually viable or not. Hello Sailor fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Aug 17, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 17:45
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Aw hell yeah, this is a fun little game. Never finished it myself, but I enjoyed the time with it. I'll second Jade's Junkers for the name, as well.
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Aug 17, 2021 18:08
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team should be The Jade Stars
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Aug 17, 2021 18:11
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alternatively name the team Dash's Dandies and make a leader named Dash Rendar
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Aug 17, 2021 18:12
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Sally posted:alternatively name the team Dash's Dandies and make a leader named Dash Rendar
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Aug 17, 2021 19:11
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I swear half the enemies in the base game are only in the final dungeon.
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Aug 17, 2021 20:05
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Oh I played this one right after release, completed it on the first run and never run again lol. Will check how much got improved over time, the base game didn't impress me much.
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Aug 17, 2021 20:35
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Sally posted:name the team Dash's Dandies and make a leader named Han Solo.
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Aug 17, 2021 20:52
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Sally posted:alternatively name the team Dash's Dandies and make a leader named Dash Rendar
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Aug 18, 2021 04:51
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Sally posted:alternatively name the team Dash's Dandies and make a leader named Dash Rendar 
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Aug 18, 2021 07:50
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Good to see the LP curse is getting in on this early.  I can't think of an original funny team name, so throw another vote in for Dash's Dandies. But make them the tutorial party and get them killed to show off the game.
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Aug 18, 2021 08:06
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I'd like to see a Neurotic Leader, Skittish Miner and Charismatic Bruiser.
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Aug 18, 2021 12:13
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Since this kinda channels Darkest Dungeon (although I think less Eldrich Horrors), team name: The Ancestors' Children
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Aug 18, 2021 12:40
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Team name - Tegel's Mercenaries
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Aug 19, 2021 03:50
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I made a video, started uploading it and passed out. Here is the first episode. Please send me sleepy time tea and/or root beer. A bit of a slow start as we get accustomed to our new crew, their starting abilities and roles, and I take a little while to look at a few of the new things the second DLC brought to the station. I mention it in the video, but the composition that was winning at the time of creation might actually work really well. The minors ability to inflict negative armor on enemies can stack up to -3 armor on a target, making every hit deal 3 more damage than normal. This can be combined with the scrappers assault gun which tends to do a lot of burst fire sorts of attack, turning an attack like Full Auto which does 10 shots times 1-2 damage into something that does 10x4-5. So this might go really well. For card draw, the leaders Inspire ability will help keep the scrapper and miner drawing extra cards, along with the occasional energize to actually play those extra draws. It's good for right now, but it's not going to be enough on its own. I think we'll level up into some possibilities later; the scrapper is built around card draw and recycle, and even the miner can pick a skill tree that adds card draw, though only selecting weapon, aka attack, cards to be drawn. I think we'll be alright here. We don't have a medic or a technician, so I'm a little worried about that. Tech's are great for keeping shields strong, and medics can keep us free of harmful status effects of which we see a few even on the very first derelict. Most of my runs I take one or the other, and kind of cross class them into each other. We may have to see how this goes and decide to give someone a medical tool or something down the road. The newest DLC seems to have added hybrid tools even, so we may not have to sacrifice much for it. All in all, I think this is a solid team. And it ought to excel at damage output and weakening enemies between the miners hatred for all things armor and the scrappers abilities to fight dirty. Our leader will provide card draw and utility for now until level four where he, and everyone else, can take a secondary skill set. For the early game though, I think we're well set. we just need lots of cash to buy all the tasty upgrades the research workshop offers. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 10:29
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It took me a second to realize that the second guy's name was an interesting way to spell frigolit.
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Aug 19, 2021 11:39
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Cooked Auto posted:It took me a second to realize that the second guy's name was an interesting way to spell frigolit. Sylphosaurus fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 15:31
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I'm excited to let out my inner space miner cowgirl
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Aug 19, 2021 15:37
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I love the victory poses. Will you ever fight more than three enemies at once?
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Aug 19, 2021 20:58
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no apostrophes? unbelievable! (fixed the thread title, though--i hadn't even noticed until you mentioned it, ha)
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Aug 19, 2021 21:07
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White Coke posted:I love the victory poses. Will you ever fight more than three enemies at once? Yes. I believe 5 enemies at once is the upper limit.
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Aug 20, 2021 00:10
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God drat do I love this game, it's visually fantastic and the difficulty ramps up perfectly, you always feel pressured but rarely to an unfair degree. That said it doesn't give you a lot of clues to good team comps and if you choose a bad one you're hosed For the record the GOAT team is Bruiser/Technician/Tracker. Give the tracker the demoman skills and the other two are basically just ballast some plague rats fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Aug 20, 2021 |
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Aug 20, 2021 09:06
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I've played this at launch with Leader, Medic and Tracker and the game felt super easy. Leader + Medic can pump out so much Energize and the "on hit" effects get insanely powerful, especially when you are triggering them multiple times through secondary bullets. The Tracker going full auto (a 10shot, random target ability of some kind) would lag out the game so much due to the on hit effects that the damage numbers would keep popping up on the monsters even after the attack was over sometimes for the rest of the combat Keeping your decks super short means that you can realiably pull off your kill combo on your first Round and Armor stripping (I think some kind of acid on hit effect) made this so strong that I mostly breezed through the game.
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Aug 20, 2021 12:31
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As the crew levels up we start to get a good sense of their abilities and how they will work together in combat. It's coming along nicely I think. My major concern at the moment is just finding more gear and earning loads of cubic centimeters of cash. There's so many good things to buy/unlock in the research and workshop. Also we found a datapad that has words and stuff on it. 
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Aug 20, 2021 12:34
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I didn't get into it much in the first post when asking for voting because I want the LP to have whatever people thought was coolest, but there really is no bad team composition. Or if there is, I haven't found it. I do agree that Leader + Medic + damage dealer is really strong though, Inspire and Adrenaline are very good abilities. I think that's a really solid and overlooked point in credit to the developers of the game. It would have been easy to expect the player classes to fall along lines we're used to seeing from RPGs and/or MMORPGs from the last decade or two but that just doesn't happen. Each class is unique and does it's own thing, and does it well. At the same time there isn't a dire need for any one specific specialization either. There's no point in the game where I've felt 'with out this specific class things are way harder'. My usual thing is often breaking down mechanics, explaining them in an LP, and showing how a game isn't so tough when you understand it fully and utilize your tools correctly. With DSD, I don't really need to do that. I perhaps could. Really try to optimize the poo poo out of a team build, but there isn't much need to and it feels like that would ruin a bit of the fun or enjoyment I get out of the game. Also it's 5am and I'm not writing a loving essay about game mechanics and why Snapshot is the worst skill you could pick and why you're dumb for even considering it. Also2 I'm not that great at deck management. If I see shiny new gear with big numbers I'm probably equipping it, leaving my total number of cards on each character to grow to less than an ideal size. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Aug 20, 2021 |
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Aug 20, 2021 12:46
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These guys sure they want to go to a mirror world? That data log doesn't seem very happy about them
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Aug 20, 2021 21:22
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Gul DuCat is an A+ cat name. Well done!
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Aug 21, 2021 01:44
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AltaBrown posted:Gul DuCat is an A+ cat name. Well done! He is so cute! Look at him! 
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Aug 21, 2021 07:28
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AltaBrown posted:Gul DuCat is an A+ cat name. Well done! Speaking of punny cat names, my brother named his "Katten Haddock" in reference to Captain Haddock from Tintin.
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Aug 21, 2021 10:42
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That is a very beautiful cat
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Aug 21, 2021 10:56
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Jade Star posted:He is so cute! Look at him! A very good cat.
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Aug 21, 2021 10:57
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