Added campaign tutorial:
*Introduces major gameplay elements and goes through active abilities
*High-level, involves doing a multi-stage mission to get out of new starting star system
*Can be skipped; if skipped starts player with similar resources/standing as if they did it
Personally I think the issue is not only that the early game is difficult but also that the later game is trivial and far less interesting.
Agreed. A solid solution to that are high-difficulty areas, but that's not straightforward in Starsector. After all, high level enemies are self-made, by going to war with a faction. As long as you don't do that you can go everywhere.
Maybe it would help if factions would establish patrolled no-go zones, where you are attacked on sight. Could be entire systems. I imagine there would be all kind of nice hardware and secrets to discover in these zones, if you manage to fight your way through (or get exclusively allied with the faction). At the moment there's just no real external motivation to start fights with the strong factions.
A high level general baddy would also be good, some kinda super pirates. Rough AIs or some such, hopefully story related.
Good observation: the only tough enemies are the ones you make. Hadn't thought about it that way.But if you want the best stuff, you will almost need to attack someone other than pirates (who usually have junk or limited weapons). Also, commission lets you buy more stuff from one faction, and that gives you enemies. Not to mention the automatic commission bounty for killing enemies, which adds up after the player fights lots.
With commission, you will have enemies.
I like the idea of quarantined/no-fly zones that only allies (i.e. "commissioned") parties can enter, even if you're on good terms with that faction. That would give the sector more "terrain" so to speak. A high level 'pirate' faction would also be cool: an enemy that everyone wants destroyed. Could be a Tempar-like faction, aliens, AI, a long-lost Domain enemy, whatever, but a real end-game threat.It would be nice if every major faction had bad subfaction, like luddics have pathers and Tri-Tachyon has starlight cabal (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11002.0). And independents sorta-have pirates.
Wanna add another thought: Comms. Interactions are extremely minimal. If there would be an option to extend it, build some kind of a dialogue, try to reason with pirates, rival factions etc to give something and avoid fight or just smooth talk them would be great. Also if we could actually interact with allied fleets and etc, that'd be welcome too. Hopefully in the future it will be looked into, but as of now, I haven't seen anything related in 0.8 notes.Doubt it. But I would love to be able to contact the enemy and do stuff like insult them to anger them, making them more aggressive or even reckless!
Btw, is there a chance of modding it into the game at some degree for now?
It's not a coincidence those bad difficulty curve comics are all of bethesda games. They are famously bad at balancing difficutly in an open world.Except that the third one isn't. I'f I'm not mistaken, that is the new Legend of Zelda game
Escort missions? Why...just why would you even mention that?Are they? I've always had fun when the missions were more than just attrition. I'd love to see some variety. Even some lore handwavy derpery to get some Battlefield style Conquest would be awesome.
Escort missions in space games are pure devilry!
Escort missions are the obvious low level mission that's missing to make the early game not a giant difficulty wall.One of the big challenges is often having to fight multiple enemy ships at the same time, which is relieved during an escort mission, because while you have to protect some incompetent freighter, you might also have a couple of mercenary escorts fighting alongside you. Even if it's just a Lasher and Brawler, makes it much easier when you have allies.
Escort missions are the obvious low level mission that's missing to make the early game not a giant difficulty wall.One of the big challenges is often having to fight multiple enemy ships at the same time, which is relieved during an escort mission, because while you have to protect some incompetent freighter, you might also have a couple of mercenary escorts fighting alongside you. Even if it's just a Lasher and Brawler, makes it much easier when you have allies.
Escort missions sound like they have a lot of potential to be hell in an open-world sandbox where a big fuckoff ball of pirates can come down on you at any time and place.
I mean, is there any open world game that really got more difficult over time? I can't think of one. Skyrim, Fallout, Zelda BotW, they all follow the same pattern. It's so much of a standard you can even find comics about it:
So, if Starsector has a normal difficulty curve for an open world game, can you really call it "inverted"? Ok, there can be some mean spikes at the start right now, but that's a different problem all together.
I'm hesitant to have the player attached to a fleet outside of their control - it sounds quite boring to me to just sit and watch, doing nothing and waiting for the fleet to be attacked.The player already gets scripted (not sure if that's the right term) attacks from small pirate fleets while going on a procurement contract. Do the same thing with escort jobs, so you'll get a couple of guaranteed attacks. Maybe even make larger fleets avoid the target, so it doesn't become impossible.
Escort missions sound like they have a lot of potential to be hell in an open-world sandbox where a big fuckoff ball of pirates can come down on you at any time and place.
Could also be used to have "character" ships that can join you for specific story driven missions...Something like "A former admiral working to prove his innocence" or "Hegemony detective hunting a group of smugglers from Barad B"?
Oh my god, I realised we need unique character quests. Pop into a market, see a questgiver, accept quest, and then you engage in some premade scenario, like relieving a siege on some backwater planet, or breaking up a drug deal, with allies joining in.Could also be used to have "character" ships that can join you for specific story driven missions...Something like "A former admiral working to prove his innocence" or "Hegemony detective hunting a group of smugglers from Barad B"?
Escort missions sound like they have a lot of potential to be hell in an open-world sandbox where a big fuckoff ball of pirates can come down on you at any time and place.
Those giant pirate balls also come down on you if you're not escorting something. The one change would be that during the escort mission you've got NPC support and don't have to win with just your ship/fleet.
Those giant pirate balls also come down on you if you're not escorting something. The one change would be that during the escort mission you've got NPC support and don't have to win with just your ship/fleet.
No, the difference when you're by yourself is that you don't have to fight them at all.
A) still being paid if you try to fight and lose,