|
If you click on Market in the top left of the trade screen you get a rundown of what goods are in surplus and major sources of export for them. It's not an exact price match but gives you some good initial leads.
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 08:45 |
|
|
Here's a thing I found handy that the game didn't go out of its way to explain - if you go into the Intel screen and switch to map mode, and then select the "Prices" option for the filters, you can compare prices across the various star systems (according to your latest intel, anyways). Default view mode shows the prices for every known good and you'll need to mouse over each icon to see the price, but if you select a good subcategory it'll pop up the prices on the map. Even while using this, though, be sure to check the news for info about trade disruptions - the prices screen only takes "price change" info into account, without adding in new information added by trade disruption news. Between those two bits of info, figuring out profitable trade runs gets a lot easier. Incidentally, has anyone tried installing a comm sniffer in the com relays yet? It seems like doing so should be enormously helpful to a trader, but I'm concerned about the effects on faction relations.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:44
|
|
|
I've been having a lot of luck using a Wolf as my flagship and one or more destroyers as support. Even against more powerful foes, I charge ahead and circle around to distract the enemies, splitting them up and forcing them to face me. Then my destroyers come up from behind them, the anvil to my hammer. It works shockingly well if they don't have fighters; I worry less about the AI losing destroyers than I would frigates, and the wolf can easily avoid anything it can't outfight. Those big fighter fleets tend to tear me apart, though. Right now I'm up to the Wolf and three Hammerheads, and it doesn't really seem practical to get a larger force for fighting pirates. So maybe I'll declare war on Tri-Tachyon next; I notice the open bounty missions only say "all fleets hostile to x" so if you want a larger fleet it might work best to transition from pirate fighting to faction fighting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:48
|
|
|
I've surreptitiously installed a few. I think the effects are a bit subtle, but I did notice an uptick in the frequency of bounties appearing, and of news of shortages in a system I'm not in.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:48
|
|
|
Unreal_One posted:If you read the blog posts, this was exactly what they were going for. The big traders have special dispensations that let them be profitable, but a nobody like you can only make money doing risky trade runs, because a consistent, boring trade run between two or three locations is, well, boring. I must've skimmed over it, but yeah, that's consistent with Alex's logic on balance and not wanting to promote boring grinding. I could see it playing out pretty well, like bounty hunting but with trade goods, but I agree that it needs some accessibility tweaks right now. Bhodi posted:This isn't "Starsector: Space Trucker 2d". It's Starsector: Flux You and Your Little Frigate Too". The entire game is combat, and so the design decision to make combat the only viable moneymaker, especially early in the game, is perfectly reasonable. You're not making a lot of sense. Do you really think that 90% of the new systems added in this update were intended to be useless fluff? I'm not even a big fan of trading, it's just that crunching up enemy fleets has been the only form of profit for the past two years I've had this game, so playing it a different way for once is fun. Tomn posted:I suspect that you should always keep an eye out on trade even if you're running a combat fleet, incidentally - if you have spare cargo space and you receive word of a recent shortage in a place you were going to anyways, you'd be leaving money on the table if you don't top up your holds with the requisite goods. Most definitely. I was out hunting pirates just now and made over 100k on an in-system trade run of fuel and supplies due to sudden shortages. Of course, I took a -35 hit to Diktat reputation because I was selling to the Sindrian rebels, and I just sold all my fuel. But that's okay, now I'm back to hunting pirates for fuel instead of bounties. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:50
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Here's a thing I found handy that the game didn't go out of its way to explain - if you go into the Intel screen and switch to map mode, and then select the "Prices" option for the filters, you can compare prices across the various star systems (according to your latest intel, anyways). Default view mode shows the prices for every known good and you'll need to mouse over each icon to see the price, but if you select a good subcategory it'll pop up the prices on the map. That sounds really useful, I had no idea what the filters did  Installing comm sniffers is really easy if there's no fleets in the immediate vicinity. Once you have them installed you'll get separate streams of information from them, all the market information you received actually tells you where you got it from. If you go into the list of intel it'll either just say 'intel' or the specific comm relay you're eavesdropping on.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 19:56
|
|
|
Generation Internet posted:That sounds really useful, I had no idea what the filters did Try poking around the other filters, - I only really used the trade stuff, but I bet the map filters have something for pirates and bounty-hunters, too. On a side note, much as I like the trade system in Starsector, I also feel kinda bad about it sometimes. Not for nothing did I say that you're essentially an ambulance chaser - you hear news of famines or pirates choking off trade routes and you think to yourself, "Oh, boy, payday!" But hey, at least you're helping to get much-needed supplies through, right?
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Bhodi posted:That said, I think the supply system still overly punishes larger fleets. Keeping a lean fleet with a few frigates and maybe a destroyer flagship is still the only viable playstyle until the very end game because of your travel speed. Even with tugs. I think it kind of makes sense how big fleets aren't profitable by themselves, since just having significant military power is what you're paying for in supplies/crew/fuel/ships/lack of speed. Of course, having military power so far isn't really relevant except for bossing around big system defense fleets for fun, but when the game develops further and you get to probably take part in faction wars and taking space stations and planets then it will become very relevant. Edit: actually, it might become indirectly profitable to have powerful fleets now since you could theoretically stop anything from leaving or entering a trade point and then take advantage of the super hosed up market that results. Gobblecoque fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Oct 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:14
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Try poking around the other filters, - I only really used the trade stuff, but I bet the map filters have something for pirates and bounty-hunters, too. I feel like it's a good thing that the game can make you care even a little bit about the consequences of your actions on the little pixel people on the planet below. For example, I feel kinda bad about offloading needed food to the black market instead of through legitimate channels to avoid tariffs because obviously that would gently caress over a fair few people on the surface. So now I only use the black market on planets belonging to factions I don't like, their fault for charging me loving 30% on goddamn disaster relief 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:14
|
|
|
Generation Internet posted:I feel like it's a good thing that the game can make you care even a little bit about the consequences of your actions on the little pixel people on the planet below. For example, I feel kinda bad about offloading needed food to the black market instead of through legitimate channels to avoid tariffs because obviously that would gently caress over a fair few people on the surface. So now I only use the black market on planets belonging to factions I don't like, their fault for charging me loving 30% on goddamn disaster relief I could see tariffs later on becoming dynamic and changing based on what a place wants or does not want. A planet undergoing food shortage would cut its tariff while another planet might have a stiff protective tariff on what it produces.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:21
|
|
|
Getting frequently stopped by large fleets and robbed gets pretty annoying. It makes me feel much less guilty about selling to the black market- those assholes already took their cut. The figurative highway robbery of the tariffs on top of the literal highway robbery makes piracy a tempting prospect. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:27
|
|
|
Gobblecoque posted:I think it kind of makes sense how big fleets aren't profitable by themselves, since just having significant military power is what you're paying for in supplies/crew/fuel/ships/lack of speed. Of course, having military power so far isn't really relevant except for bossing around big system defense fleets for fun, but when the game develops further and you get to probably take part in faction wars and taking space stations and planets then it will become very relevant. I wonder what the limits are for modding something like this. If a faction hostile to the Hegemony could give open bounties for Hegemony ships in Corvus, for example, that would be a nice opportunity for a large battlefleet. Go hunting the system patrols and make the huge amounts of credits you need to maintain your battleship and its support fleet.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:33
|
|
|
Bremen posted:I wonder what the limits are for modding something like this. If a faction hostile to the Hegemony could give open bounties for Hegemony ships in Corvus, for example, that would be a nice opportunity for a large battlefleet. Go hunting the system patrols and make the huge amounts of credits you need to maintain your battleship and its support fleet. While possible, from a faction's perspective this will have some hilariously unintended consequences if taken to its logical end. "So, hey, good job beating on the enemy! In fact, you've done so well that we've been able to sign a very favorable peace treaty with them!" "What? But how am I supposed to maintain my ridiculously large and powerful battlefleet now?" "Well, er, one reason we signed the peace treaty was because we couldn't afford to keep paying you, and anyhow it's not our problem, is it?" "Oh, I'm MAKING it your problem!" (This has actually happened more than a few times in history)
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:45
|
|
|
Bremen posted:I've been having a lot of luck using a Wolf as my flagship and one or more destroyers as support. Even against more powerful foes, I charge ahead and circle around to distract the enemies, splitting them up and forcing them to face me. Then my destroyers come up from behind them, the anvil to my hammer. It works shockingly well if they don't have fighters; I worry less about the AI losing destroyers than I would frigates, and the wolf can easily avoid anything it can't outfight. Those big fighter fleets tend to tear me apart, though. I've got a Medusa and 4 Wolves (although they're all (D) Wolves salvaged from Pirates) with a bunch of the new Shepherd(?) class Drone Frigate/Freighters as my core combat group on my straight and narrow Bounty Hunter save. I saw a ton of Tri-Tach ships for sale at their military market in the system north of Corvus. Also got a Pirate save but I expect I'll run into trouble on that one soon, since every sale of illegal goods slowly tanks my Hegemony reputation to the point where eventually I won't be able to sell my looted Organs and Drugs anymore. It doesn't help that just dealing with Pirates at all, even on the open market, is damaging to your Hegemony Rep. It certainly seems like you'll want to make all the deals on the open market as a smuggler, except for the ones that you can't (the illegal goods). DatonKallandor fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Oct 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 20:47
|
|
|
Openly trading with a faction that has hostile neighbours in the same system will affect your reputation with both, as far as I can tell. I've lost standing with Tri-Tach by trading with the Hegemony in Valhalla, for instance. It seems the best way to do smuggling is to sell legal goods on the open market at the same time you offload illegal stuff, that way you can mitigate the reputation loss while still getting that sweet tariff-free dosh. As far as trading with pirates with no reputation loss goes; are there any systems that only have pirate bases (or at least pirate bases in systems owned by factions you don't mind pissing off)? What the faction can't see won't bother them. Rarden fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Oct 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 21:02
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:I've got a Medusa and 4 Wolves (although they're all (D) Wolves salvaged from Pirates) with a bunch of the new Shepherd(?) class Drone Frigate/Freighters as my core combat group on my straight and narrow Bounty Hunter save. I saw a ton of Tri-Tach ships for sale at their military market in the system north of Corvus. I used to use mass frigate fleets (that burn speed is nice) but the AI tends to get them blown up. Not because it's bad, but because it uses them aggressively, and if they're not supported by heavier ships and get surrounded they pop fast. So I'm really liking my current strategy of one frigate (me) and heavier ships (AI controlled).
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 21:49
|
|
|
I don't ever even try to board (D) ships, I just blow them up after the battle if the options comes up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 21:51
|
|
|
Kenshin posted:I don't ever even try to board (D) ships, I just blow them up after the battle if the options comes up. I wonder if at some point we'll see optimized (O) ships. Probably not, but it would be a fun way to show the difference between shoddy salvaged pirate ships and routinely maintained faction workhorses.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 21:57
|
|
|
All the (D) Wolves I've seen so far were only missing their 2 small energy mounts. They are still great missile boats with a medium energy mount and phase skimmers. The new missile AI is really good too, so they know just when to use them. Edit: Yeah there's other kinds of Damage too, but the weapon mount loss seems to be hardcoded per ship type. I've never seen a Wolf with a different missing-weapons-damage. For the Medusa I just have some Pulse Lasers and tons of PD lasers - more support for the AI controlled Frigate fleet by bringing down shields and swatting fighters than solo killing. DatonKallandor fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Oct 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 22:08
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:All the (D) Wolves I've seen so far were only missing their 2 small energy mounts. They are still great missile boats with a medium energy mount and phase skimmers. The new missile AI is really good too, so they know just when to use them. Most (D) ships also have hits to their engines and flux, or other systems. Sure you're not seeing those? Either way, just about every faction has good wolves for sale, so not really too much reason to settle for less. (gently caress yeah Medusa bro. Please tell me you put heavy blasters on it's medium mounts. It's hilariously overpowered to the point I can wipe out eagle cruisers 1 on 1 with a bit of patience)
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 22:17
|
|
|
There is a destroyed weapon mounts modification for some D class ships.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2014 22:40
|
|
|
Reputation loss seems really drastic compared to gain rates. I plunged from working my way up through Neutral into deep Hostile just for raiding one independent food convoy within sight of a world with food shortages. On the other hand the loot from that one Mule netted me a sweet, sweet 30k. E: Oh hey you can easily change the tarrifs. starsector-core\data\campaign\econ, in economy.json ""defaultTariff":0.3," And this is apparently economy v2  The max stability penalty a player can impart on a planet by smuggling is 5  Must be smuggling in nukes.
Arrath fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Oct 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 05:31
|
|
|
I've been playing the new version for a while now as a bounty hunter, I'm up to a fleet with two wolfs, an enforcer (after losing one), a hammerhead, two fighter wings and a condor. I have to say hunting bounties is a much more fun and effective way of making money than hunting buffalo mk2. One of the pirate bounty fleets I killed even had an Onslaught. That's what cost me one of my enforcers. I'm up to 300,000 in savings. My biggest problem is finding ships I can buy and getting my faction standings up to the point where I can buy battleships. e: tip: if you want to bug comm relays wait for the sentry fleet guarding them to return to base for supplies. Lowen fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Oct 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 05:32
|
|
|
Lowen posted:e: tip: if you want to bug comm relays wait for the sentry fleet guarding them to return to base for supplies. AI fleets use supplies? Does this mean that you could effectively cripple a faction's regional power by blockading strategic bases? 
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 05:53
|
|
|
Brainbread posted:I know the feeling. I was doing massive food runs when a planet in the Luddic Church system (Eos, I think) had a 10,000 unit food shortage. Bought a freighter just to run it! There is some really loving dark subtext to a planet suffering from food shortages having a booming surplus in black market organs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 05:56
|
|
|
Missiles still feel a bit overpowered to you? Try changing this in settings.json: code:
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 06:07
|
|
|
Voyager I posted:There is some really loving dark subtext to a planet suffering from food shortages having a booming surplus in black market organs. Its easier on your heart and soul to not ask questions and offload them as soon as you can.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 06:08
|
|
|
There's all kinds of options to fudge about with the economy, but I didn't see a single config line for the reputation system.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 06:30
|
|
|
Reputation changes do seem very drastic and also a bit random. If you smuggle, investigations can start into the activity that can later cause you to be found guilty and suffer reputation loss. In my instance this was when I did a 120 unit drug run on a destabilised planet so I think an investigation and rep loss is appropriate, but a sudden -50 rep with independents made them all hostile. That is a pretty illegal thing to do and maybe could be 'the worst' outcome for a smuggler but it also happens with much lower volume and none illegal goods traded on the black market. It also seems that the loss of stability and 'smuggling activity' intel are far too common. I will sell less than 5 units on the black market from a recent battle and then get bombarded with reports of smuggling and investigations. Such one off low volume and none illegal goods sold on the black market really shouldn't destabilise a planet and lead to investigations. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 09:49
|
|
|
Brainbread posted:Its easier on your heart and soul to not ask questions and offload them as soon as you can. Especially when you're literally selling hearts.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 09:51
|
|
|
Current Starsector status:  
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 10:43
|
|
|
Voyager I posted:There is some really loving dark subtext to a planet suffering from food shortages having a booming surplus in black market organs.  I dont see anything wrong here. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 11:08
|
|
|
That's just because you choose a photograph angle that doesn't show the human bone keys.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 13:01
|
|
|
Seems like it's impossible to find ships like the medusa and the better cruisers. There seems to be a "always stock" consisting of the paragon and onslaught, but I guess it's random spawn chance and resupply for the rest. Which is annoying because it's nothing but lasher and hound and lovely destroyers. Gimme laser boats! That said, it's fun but really, took 10 months? This game needs faster development.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 13:18
|
|
|
Bhodi posted:That said, it's fun but really, took 10 months? This game needs faster development. From what I understand, the reason why development is taking so long right now is because the dude is planning and laying down infrastructure for the rest of the game to be built off of - trying to avoid tossing in features willy-nilly and running into problems later down the line. Once the foundations are fully set, presumably, development will accelerate.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 13:22
|
|
|
Bhodi posted:Seems like it's impossible to find ships like the medusa and the better cruisers. There seems to be a "always stock" consisting of the paragon and onslaught, but I guess it's random spawn chance and resupply for the rest. Which is annoying because it's nothing but lasher and hound and lovely destroyers. Gimme laser boats! Are you checking the black markets in Tri-Tachyon stations? That's where I found mine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 13:31
|
|
|
Bhodi posted:Seems like it's impossible to find ships like the medusa and the better cruisers. There seems to be a "always stock" consisting of the paragon and onslaught, but I guess it's random spawn chance and resupply for the rest. Which is annoying because it's nothing but lasher and hound and lovely destroyers. Gimme laser boats! Lmao. With one developer you think this is underwhelming for 10 months?
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 14:03
|
|
|
Voyager I posted:There is some really loving dark subtext to a planet suffering from food shortages having a booming surplus in black market organs. What was really hilarious is the massive cryo-storage planet pretty much always having them available at decent prices.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 14:10
|
|
|
Starsector is proving that slow and steady wins the race - a ten dollar purchase I made years ago just doesn't stop coming back to supplant more expensive games, and I can't remember any version having a bug or serious balance issues that ruined the game until it was fixed. When we're seeing Early Access darlings end up falling through the toilet seat from incompetence left and right, I can't fault Alex for anything.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 14:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 08:45 |
|
|
MrBims posted:Starsector is proving that slow and steady wins the race - a ten dollar purchase I made years ago just doesn't stop coming back to supplant more expensive games, and I can't remember any version having a bug or serious balance issues that ruined the game until it was fixed. When we're seeing Early Access darlings end up falling through the toilet seat from incompetence left and right, I can't fault Alex for anything. It doesn't hurt that being phenomenally moddable and having (and supporting) a great modding community helps fill in the gaps between official updates.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2014 14:31
|
|
