The ratio of cost/reward is horrificly unbalanced. I slowly but surely get drained of resources to the point where I'm stuck in a random sector somewhere, out of fuel, and unable to do anything. As you progress the AI ships and fleets get bigger and more powerful, requiring you to match or outmatch what you would normally encounter. This means more resources, fuel, etc to keep playing the game. Eventually those resources run dry. There's no way to "farm" anything in this game, as every attempt you make after the first attempt yields less resources at a heavier resource drain to do said farming.
I've been waiting for an update that alleviates this. I've had SS sitting on my desktop, staring me in the face, saying "hey, play me". But I put about 20 hours into this game the first month I picked it up, and haven't played it since. As it stands, if this game were on steam, I would give it a negative review. I feel like I threw $20 away on a game that is so punishingly hard, the mechanics make it so that you are beaten down to the point of defeat just as you are getting your feet off the ground. The push to constantly explore new sectors, that get farther and farther away, at the increased cost of fuel and resources, only to find nothing in those sectors, really makes it so that you can never beat this game. It is literally impossible to beat this game. And I don't want the hardcore super experienced players say "just keep playing it". I'm telling you, as a newbie to this game, I find it unplayable, and I have put it down months ago and haven't come back to it.
Of course, fan boy hate is incoming, surely other people must experience this?
I'm pretty sure you can check that thread which is thematically very similar and that has tips for Starsector that would probably help you as well... I mean, more than just the first post.
I mean... we definitely could. But is anyone really willing to put in the effort to do so?I'm pretty sure you can check that thread which is thematically very similar and that has tips for Starsector that would probably help you as well... I mean, more than just the first post.
Awwww, does that mean we can't turn this in to a three page thread defending the game and/or telling the OP to git gud? Bummer.
Back to the actual game at hand, there's no doubt a very narrow path to financial success.Combat: This is an odd one, combat really doesn't have much purpose unless you're deliberately looking for something to kill. If you want combat to have more purpose I would recommend looking at the Nexerelin mod which is about conquering the sector from the various factions vanilla or otherwise. But that really relies on you being interested in using mods in the first place.
Combat: Bounty hunting (only viable reason to fight willingly) - Also inaccessible as a feature until sufficient fleet strength.
Trade: Buy low, sell high (multiple ways to achieve this) - Decent feature and can be fun!
Scavenge: Good way to make money at the start, can be risky and requires lots of fuel and supplies.
Station Building / Industry: ?? Never experienced this as I didn't stomach the game long enough.
Well that would just be a cop-out wouldn't it..
If a customer walks into a restaurant, sits down and pays for a meal which he find unsatisfactory, what would you do as the restaurant owner?
Throw the food in his face or offer a reasonable explanation?
I don't think offering a 'git good' explanation would be sufficient for a customer who's just paid for a service / item.
Back to the actual game at hand, there's no doubt a very narrow path to financial success.
Combat: Bounty hunting (only viable reason to fight willingly) - Also inaccessible as a feature until sufficient fleet strength.
Trade: Buy low, sell high (multiple ways to achieve this) - Decent feature and can be fun!
Scavenge: Good way to make money at the start, can be risky and requires lots of fuel and supplies.
Station Building / Industry: ?? Never experienced this as I didn't stomach the game long enough.
I'm sure that are other ways, but there's a small number of actual successful ways to make money it seems.
The real currency in the game appears to be supplies though, they are required for far too many actions and extremely costly to replace in bulk.
The fear of actually making any meaningful decision in iron man mode seems to just be punished by losing supplies at a rate of knots..
Once your supplies are gone you dig into your wallet to replace them, rinse / repeat.
Back to the actual game at hand, there's no doubt a very narrow path to financial success.
Combat: Bounty hunting (only viable reason to fight willingly) - Also inaccessible as a feature until sufficient fleet strength.
Trade: Buy low, sell high (multiple ways to achieve this) - Decent feature and can be fun!
Scavenge: Good way to make money at the start, can be risky and requires lots of fuel and supplies.
Station Building / Industry: ?? Never experienced this as I didn't stomach the game long enough.
I'm sure that are other ways, but there's a small number of actual successful ways to make money it seems.
The real currency in the game appears to be supplies though, they are required for far too many actions and extremely costly to replace in bulk.
The fear of actually making any meaningful decision in iron man mode seems to just be punished by losing supplies at a rate of knots..
Once your supplies are gone you dig into your wallet to replace them, rinse / repeat.
Starter tips:
* There seems hardly any point in amassing a fleet and trying to fight pirates or anything, it always results in a loss of earnings, non profitable. *You know I didn't think I'd find myself agreeing with someone who's basically ***-talking one of my favourite games. But try Nexerelin, it really expands the scope of what you can do, and makes the universe much more dynamic.
Bounty hunting seems the only legit reason to even fight in this game, or to defend yourself, which is all the time..
Gah, try 0.72 lol, .8 is WAY easier than pre-.8 eras.
Have you been through both combat AND campaign tutorials?
Well a nice tip I can give you is CARRIERs rock, so do TEMPESTs.
When doing exploring missions, please really DO SOME exploration, there are probes that can easily gain you a HELL lota fuel and supply.
Always turn OFF transponder in hyper space, prevent drawing attention from whatever looks dangerous, including scavengers.
Rest should be ... easy.
A lot of the difficulty new players encounter is information-based, rather than skill/execution-based. I don't think the difficulty resulting from some common misunderstandings of the importance of certain game mechanics them is part of the intended vision of the game, or adds to the experience in a meaningful way.
E.g. quite how dramatically terrain, transponder status and active abilities affects detection range. This specific example is an area where I think the tutorial can improve, since IMO the stealth assassination tutorial mission that used to be in the Steiner Foundation mod was better at testing if players grasped how to not be detected.
There are things the players can discover for themselves, like specific strategies and optimisations, but basic information about game mechanics needs to be presented with strong emphasis on which points are very important. Even something like the transponder reminders (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=13380.0) mini-mod is very helpful for new players in hinting at what they should probably be doing with their transponder.Gah, try 0.72 lol, .8 is WAY easier than pre-.8 eras.
Have you been through both combat AND campaign tutorials?
Well a nice tip I can give you is CARRIERs rock, so do TEMPESTs.
When doing exploring missions, please really DO SOME exploration, there are probes that can easily gain you a HELL lota fuel and supply.
Always turn OFF transponder in hyper space, prevent drawing attention from whatever looks dangerous, including scavengers.
Rest should be ... easy.
IMO 0.52 to 0.54 was pretty easy. Pick off lone buffalos or 2-3 frigate fleets with your starting frigate, get 20k credits to buy and fit out a Hyperion (this was before CR :D ) from the TT station and then farm hostile fleets over and over.
Exploration does seem nice for new players though. Helps them to more or less safely build a fleet that can get on the bounty progression chain and start growing fast, even if they are personally not great at combat.
Gah, try 0.72 lol, .8 is WAY easier than pre-.8 eras.I find 0.8 tougher because 1) level scaling bounties that make it hard to catch up and 2) no more overpowered skills that let player solo everything with an Onslaught or other overpowered hull. 3) AI became big cowards like Spathi and run away and drag out fights as long as possible. Also, trade broke sometime between 0.7 and 0.8. Until later 0.8 releases, I could support myself by killing stray pirates and bounty fleets. (In 0.65, food runs replaced combat as the cash cow.) Now, stray pirates (for system bounties) are rare, and named bounties level up as you do, and you level up very fast, meaning bounties get bigger and better fleets faster than you can obtain them.
A lot of the difficulty new players encounter is information-based, rather than skill/execution-based.The info I had most difficulty when I started Starfarer was with soft and hard flux and beams only hit for soft flux instead of hard flux done by every other weapon. Flux differences explained by the tutorial can be easily overlooked, and tiny needle that represents hard flux is too easy to miss (small and same color as rest of flux bar).
I can't believe how difficult the game is and how punishing the game is for every decision a player can make.
It could actually be really fun but no, the player is constantly stripped of all ships, due to clicking on the wrong piece of space or going down a wrong jump hole.
Missions are all pretty much the same, there doesn't seem to be any real aim after completing the tutorial mission.. Or Story, even after this many years in development..
* There seems hardly any point in amassing a fleet and trying to fight pirates or anything, it always results in a loss of earnings, non profitable. *
Bounty hunting seems the only legit reason to even fight in this game, or to defend yourself, which is all the time..
Supplies are required way too much for everything, and are way too expensive to replace, doesn't make the game fun at all, it's just an outright chore to play..
So disappointing, I preferred the game in its early alpha, why have you had to make it so complicated and difficult to play?
#
# start difficulty config
#
"easyPlayerDamageDealtMult":1,
"easyPlayerDamageTakenMult":0.75,
"easySensorBonus":500,
"easySalvageMult":1.5,
"easyOfficerLevelMult":1,
#
# end difficulty config
#
... Don't be afraid to fix the Dmods if you find you have enough cash. ...
Mate this topic is year and a half old, the game was different then. Besides, necroing is against the rules, I don't even know how people stumble upon ancient texts.Someone had the Necronomicon. But yeah, old post is old, and let's leave it at that. And I once been in this forum almost 5-8 years ago, no less.