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Also I am sure you brainless chimps would prefer the notch approach, which was to repeatedly add barely working or non-functional "features" to the game after overhyping them for months in advance then leave them unfixed for 10 months because he had to fix the rest of his broken rear end game first, right?
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Oct 22, 2014 14:32
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Just realize at some point the game is going to be considered "Done" because the developer wants to pursue other projects and it's just going to ship in the state it's in. That's the nature of game development with small projects. And I don't think that the development isn't going to going to suddenly rocket into monthly updates of massive new features - the pace of development doesn't really change. Look at Rimworld, Space Engineers, or Prison Architect for examples of fast paced alpha development. All those games were started after this one. I mean we're looking at a game that's what, 3 years old now? How long is one guy going to want to spend on this? Modding helps for sure, but if we wait another 10 months I wouldn't be surprised if it's the "Good enough, ship it" update. Edit: 4 years. It's 4 years old. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 15:14
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From the mouth of the man himself.Alex posted:All I can say is it takes as long as it takes. With an update this size, well, it just takes a long time to do everything and to playtest/balance things to a point where it's playable as a game rather than a jumble of features. I'd argue that the pace of development is actually pretty good; it's the interval since the last update that's the problem. And it is a problem, though I think it's the lesser of all evils as far as the options available. Sometimes, a set of features really needs to go together in order to "work". Others will probably know better than I, but he seems utterly determined to make Starsector the absolute best he can. He has been doing it for four years and shows no signs of stopping. He's also deeply engaged with the community, and Starsector really does have a very healthy and positive community, Strumpie fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 16:06
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And he's stated previously that all the purchases have given him plenty to live on for quite a while, so I wouldn't worry about him quitting due to finances, either.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:23
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Strumpie posted:From the mouth of the man himself. One important thing seems to be that he's doing whole load of testing himself, rather than using the playerbase as testers. Even in the relatively early stages of the beta the game was generally very smooth and bug-free. Thoroughly testing things to this degree tends to be a shitload of effort than can easily approach the workload of writing the code in the first place, especially for one person on his own.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:39
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Bhodi posted:Just realize at some point the game is going to be considered "Done" because the developer wants to pursue other projects and it's just going to ship in the state it's in. That's the nature of game development with small projects. It's only one dude, the pace isn't really slower than other one-dude projects. It's quicker than dwarf fortress anyway.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:40
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The pace is fine you nerds. Let me tell you what isn't fine, the fact that every mod hasn't been updated yet and it's been out for a whole day! 
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Oct 22, 2014 16:41
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I gotta say I like the fact that crew still needs supplies less and less. The whole "constant upkeep" idea is already mostly gone, might as well kill it entirely. Then it's a nice and easy to play with "are you fighting and/or getting damaged? Then you use supplies till you're back to top shape".
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Oct 22, 2014 16:43
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The new starting choices leaves much to be desired, when roleplaying as a grizzled Hegemony veteran. 
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Oct 22, 2014 17:15
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DatonKallandor posted:I gotta say I like the fact that crew still needs supplies less and less. The whole "constant upkeep" idea is already mostly gone, might as well kill it entirely. Then it's a nice and easy to play with "are you fighting and/or getting damaged? Then you use supplies till you're back to top shape". I dunno, some constant upkeep is important I think, being able to vary it by running skeleton crews, or undercrewing some ships is enough, I think.
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Oct 22, 2014 17:19
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I made that mistake as well, until I remembered/discovered that: * over-crewing your ship provides no performance bonuses * all crew casualties (and promotions) happen to the lowest ranking crew first AKA the redshirt principle * a ship ranking requires a full skeleton crew of that rank or higher So optimally, take a skeleton crew of your highest ranked (elite, preferably) plus one ranked lower ranked potential combat deaths and promotion possibilities. So in my frigate pack, My skeleton crew is around 75, so I take 75 elites plus 15-20 veterans. Which use half of the "maximum crewed" value in supplies. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 18:03
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Yep. Remember also that your "crew limit" is actually your number of beds on all your ships--marines also count there. Don't try to fill all the beds. Hmm. Rescue missions. Hmm...
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Oct 22, 2014 18:17
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Anyone know how long ish it takes for the big mod packs to be fully updated?
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Oct 22, 2014 19:29
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Pooned posted:Anyone know how long ish it takes for the big mod packs to be fully updated? Since the big mod packs require all the other mods to be updated first, and then they need to be adjusted and put together. 
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Oct 22, 2014 19:31
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DatonKallandor posted:I gotta say I like the fact that crew still needs supplies less and less. The whole "constant upkeep" idea is already mostly gone, might as well kill it entirely. Then it's a nice and easy to play with "are you fighting and/or getting damaged? Then you use supplies till you're back to top shape". As much as I'd like to agree with you the game would really stagnate if there was no sense of urgency to hunt/pirate/trade. There's something to be said for having to weigh the upkeep costs of fielding a big rear end cruiser pack also. Note: You do realize that supply reduction per crew is completely moddable right? Remove it for yourself and let us know how it plays out.
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Oct 22, 2014 19:53
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Retro42 posted:As much as I'd like to agree with you the game would really stagnate if there was no sense of urgency to hunt/pirate/trade. There's something to be said for having to weigh the upkeep costs of fielding a big rear end cruiser pack also. Well there'd still be an incentive to do well and win with the minimum amount of ships fielded - damage and deploying would still cost supplies.
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Oct 22, 2014 19:55
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The man is approaching this game with one of the more intelligent design schedules I've seen. For one man what he's accomplished is ridiculously good. Too many games are so eager to stuff in features before making absolutely sure the core gameplay is worth a drat.
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Oct 22, 2014 20:02
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He could walk away from development tomorrow and I'd still be happy with my purchase. I got my $10 worth out of it like 3 years ago. Not to say that I'd like him to  The way its been going the last few years is great. New Release with swank new features -> play it vanilla for a while -> get tired and wait for a megamod to come out -> play modded, dabble in modding, get tired of it -> Oh look, new release!
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Oct 22, 2014 20:03
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Bhodi posted:I made that mistake as well, until I remembered/discovered that: That's essentially how I do it as well, your crew above the skeleton level is basically a damage buffer for long campaigns. I do wish fully crewing a ship had some benefits though.
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Oct 22, 2014 20:51
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OwlFancier posted:I do wish fully crewing a ship had some benefits though. Fodder to throw at boarding opportunities
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Oct 22, 2014 22:03
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OwlFancier posted:That's essentially how I do it as well, your crew above the skeleton level is basically a damage buffer for long campaigns. Extra bodies to crew prize ships.
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Oct 22, 2014 22:08
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Thing about a game like Starsector is, once Alex has all the underlying systems (trade, bounties, etc) in place, the modders can make content like star systems and such to fill out the world. I really like how the new update has all the different variants of ships. I'd like to see even more civilian craft and such - passenger liners and stuff like that - and different varieties of freighters and tankers. More converted freighter pirate vessels.
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Oct 22, 2014 23:45
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A cool game mode or campaign I would like to see is expeditions. Put the core systems closer together, increase fuel costs and use in hyperspace and put a bunch of super dangerous regions in the distant areas that you can explore. Bunch of hostile factions and no way to resupply without combat would make for some cool gameplay. Add some unique trade goods or good mineral sources to fill your expeditions freighters, set up colonies or conquer aliens and it becomes lucrative. Can't wait for mods to update and play with the trade system.
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Oct 23, 2014 00:23
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So uh, I wanted to add a good all round light combat vessel to supplement my armed freighter/carrier gemini, so I went and bought a brawler. I didn't have much to equip it with, so I went through whatever I had in stock trying to find a decent loadout. I tried it with four light dual MGs, all pointing forward. Turns out I have built some sort of horrifying spaceborne buzzsaw which requires no flux, and very little OP, so I can deck out the ship with armor and engine upgrades. I now have a ship that can outrun most things, and can kill an eagle by just flying directly at it, facetanking its opening volley with its shields, then overloading its shields in a hail of machinegun fire in about one second, and slowly grinding away its armor until it loses the ability to fight back. Know what's even better? The brawler comes with accelerated ammo feeders as its unique ability. 
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Oct 23, 2014 00:59
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The general bounty in Eos had just ended so I was getting ready to head to Acadia when news came through that the Nominos (the independent planet) was suffering a food shortage. Since I was headed that way and my PackHounds were all empty I stuffed as much food as I could into my holds before hitting hyperspace. As I pulled into orbit around Nominos I was rudely told that my reputation was too low to be granted docking permission. Well fine, let your people starve. Thinking of what to do next the planetary Patrol pings and starts heading towards me. It would add insult to injury to get taxed for cargo they weren't even going to let me unload so I book it. While I'm heading away from Nominos, patrol in tow an idea hits me, so I make for the jump point and enter hyperspace. Then take a short jaunt over to the gas giant gravity well and plunge back into reality. Fairly close to Nominos with the planetary patrol halfway across the system on a wild goose chase. So I calmly strolled up to Nominos and unloaded my few hundred food which they so desperately needed. Onto the black market since they wouldn't give me market access. Whatever, I make even more money and your population gets to suffer knowing that they have some food around but at whatever price the local crime boss decides. Suck it, you dicks. 
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Oct 23, 2014 01:04
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Can't stop playing this, and couldn't stop playing the mods before the new version. Worth every cent of 
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Oct 23, 2014 01:05
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Trade disruptions can be even better than shortages in terms of margin. I'd bought about 400 supplies at 40 or so credits during a disruption on Jangala. I popped them all in storage and continued to hunt bounties. About twenty minutes of realtime later I'm in Magec collecting bounties for Tritach when their outpost suffers a trade disruption skyrocketing supplies to 370 credits each! Even paying tarrifs on both ends I was able to snag over 80k in pure profit over three trips (150 cargo space across my pack of three wolves). Now if only I had enough reputation for that Medusa the Tritach military is selling. Edit: What's everyone's favorite build? And by build I of course mean what two skills against the tech attribute do you choose after the +x/x/y/y/z burn one? Nothing's better than being fast enough to choose your engagements, but what's the next best thing? I usually go with gunnery implants. The +25% range bonus at level five does wonders for the survivability of a flagship and turns even match-ups into one sided events. I usually go for one of the ones that improves the ordinance points of all ships and has the 10% armor bonus but I think they're pretty close after those two. AI chat: I've had a lot of success giving the AI wolf a single antimatter blaster and some missiles. They're surprisingly good and skimming to flank and popping off a bolt of antimatter into the target's engines. They don't vent well but the burst damage is high enough that when they do attack they at least get something done. They're also pretty good at keeping the skimmers alive compared to other frigates. Cirofren fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 03:45
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Demiurge4 posted:A cool game mode or campaign I would like to see is expeditions. Put the core systems closer together, increase fuel costs and use in hyperspace and put a bunch of super dangerous regions in the distant areas that you can explore. Bunch of hostile factions and no way to resupply without combat would make for some cool gameplay. Add some unique trade goods or good mineral sources to fill your expeditions freighters, set up colonies or conquer aliens and it becomes lucrative. Yeah, definitely. This would be great. Ideally, I'd like to see Pirates or Independents broken down into other factions or have some way of not annoying every other one of them in existence when you attack one of their ships. So, maybe there's generic pirates and larger pirate 'clans'. Maybe there's an Independent 'league of worlds' but there's also smaller groups.
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Oct 23, 2014 03:59
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I have a question for the cool people who look through inis and make mods. How does the shielded cargo hold mod work in a fleet? If I've got a volume of 100 space drugs, and 100 cargo space on a shielded freighter, are they shielded? Or do I run the risk of having the freighter be assigned 40 supplies and 60 space drugs? Can I assign cargo to a particular ship? Crew seems to be based on position in the fleet list with more experienced crew going early in the list. Perhaps goods are weighted by legality and then cost. Or are shielded hulls just a % discount on the toll and a % chance to miss your illegal goods?
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Oct 23, 2014 06:01
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Milky Moor posted:Yeah, definitely. This would be great. I'd like to see this played out for all the factions honestly. So you do a little bit of black market dealing somewhere but the odd port out in the sticks isn't going to know or even care about that. You massacre a fleet defending a homeworld however and everyone of that faction will know your name.
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Oct 23, 2014 06:07
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Cirofren posted:I have a question for the cool people who look through inis and make mods. How does the shielded cargo hold mod work in a fleet? If I've got a volume of 100 space drugs, and 100 cargo space on a shielded freighter, are they shielded? Or do I run the risk of having the freighter be assigned 40 supplies and 60 space drugs? Can I assign cargo to a particular ship? Well. Umm. This is what it does according to the file. quote:package data.hullmods; So I am gonna dig and see if it actually gets called somewhere. Alex says "It's based on the cargo capacity of the ship that has it. Also, you can't equip anything with it, it's only available as a built-in on certain hulls and skins". If that helps? I am not really sure it does. Brainbread fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 06:15
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ErKeL posted:I'd like to see this played out for all the factions honestly. Local reputation should definitely be a thing. Maybe even make communication between systems a word of mouth thing where trade fleets and patrols being real news but smugglers just bring rumors. Add some tiers where you taking down a notorious pirate in one system will get around most factions where he committed piracy but not so much elsewhere. Basically do a check against your reputation every time you pass a fleet and dock somewhere for local reactions. Smuggling wouldn't put you on anyone's radar unless you do it on a grand scale or get caught. Edit: Hell pirate reputation should be entirely based on the captains in question. When characters become a thing make each pirate fleet led by a guy that earns reputation and xp and progresses. If you mess with his splinter fleets he'll hate you and if you dock at the same place you might have trouble but overall pirate docks don't give any fucks who you are unless you did something else. Maybe add a pirate leadership thing where each dock has a number of local captains that exert influence to help this along. Basically turn pirates into a personality based faction with no command structure. Demiurge4 fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 06:17
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Demiurge4 posted:Local reputation should definitely be a thing. Maybe even make communication between systems a word of mouth thing where trade fleets and patrols being real news but smugglers just bring rumors. Add some tiers where you taking down a notorious pirate in one system will get around most factions where he committed piracy but not so much elsewhere. Basically do a check against your reputation every time you pass a fleet and dock somewhere for local reactions. Yes. Yeeeeesss. Seriously, this would be awesome and would much better represent the Independent and Pirate factions, and would make the nascent diplomacy game much more interesting. It might be something that can be fudged to occur with mods, though it might pretty tricky without actual other characters.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:18
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Well, a simple way to do it would be have one pirate faction per system, all pirate factions start off neutral to each other. You can piss off the local cartel in any given system, but that won't prevent you from docking elsewhere.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:21
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Brainbread posted:Well. There's probably logic somewhere else that looks for that type of mod. I'd wager that the code for the patrols looks for it to decide how much of the cargo was detected by the patrol.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:23
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What I really want is some way to order frigates. Like, place an order, pay 120% of the price, and the next time that frigate shows up for sale on that planet in a market you have access to, buy it and announce that it's bought. Obviously this could extend to the other ship sizes, but I just want to be able to replace my goddamn non-D Wolf. I've seen one for sale, and snapped that up, but haven't seen another since. Maybe even make combat frigates available on the open market. For the factions, there definitely need to be factions of just one planet, and non-factional raiders/highwaymen that will always be aggressive to you, like the roving bandits in Mount and Blade. e: It's to the point that I will shield my Wolf with my Sunder, even if it means I lose the Sunder, since Destroyers are so much easier to come by. Unreal_One fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 17:20
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Looks as though bugs are causing enemy fleets to have green crews and all engines to flameout quicker than previously. It takes very little damage to send a ship spinning.
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Oct 24, 2014 02:54
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Unreal_One posted:What I really want is some way to order frigates. Like, place an order, pay 120% of the price, and the next time that frigate shows up for sale on that planet in a market you have access to, buy it and announce that it's bought. Obviously this could extend to the other ship sizes, but I just want to be able to replace my goddamn non-D Wolf. I've seen one for sale, and snapped that up, but haven't seen another since. Maybe even make combat frigates available on the open market. Yeah, I've noticed a distinct change in the availability of a lot of ships. I think it has something to do with what Alex said when he was talking about using the boarding mechanic to acquire new ships rather than more ships. It is a bit frustrating, though, to know what you want, be able to pay a premium for it, and not be able to get it with any reasonable expedience. I would like some more fighter wings, but they have not been forthcoming.
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Oct 24, 2014 03:38
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Cirofren posted:Looks as though bugs are causing enemy fleets to have green crews and all engines to flameout quicker than previously. It takes very little damage to send a ship spinning. I noticed the crew part. Green Crew are more of a shooting gallery than a threat. Warheart525 posted:Yeah, I've noticed a distinct change in the availability of a lot of ships. I think it has something to do with what Alex said when he was talking about using the boarding mechanic to acquire new ships rather than more ships. It is a bit frustrating, though, to know what you want, be able to pay a premium for it, and not be able to get it with any reasonable expedience. I would like some more fighter wings, but they have not been forthcoming. Grab a crappy shuttle, and hard dock and fight ship to ship. Sending in Marines + their crew in your own crew will give you quite a few ships. Out of ~~boarding maneuvers, they've gotten away once or twice, had one that was too wrecked to salvage, and another that exploded itself. So its at least a 50% or more chance to capture new ships. Its definitely worth it.
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Oct 24, 2014 04:14
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Brainbread posted:I noticed the crew part. Green Crew are more of a shooting gallery than a threat. My boarding attempts have mostly ended in self-destruction 
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Oct 24, 2014 04:28
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