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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - Sabotsas

Pages: [1] 2
1
General Discussion / Re: Some feedback
« on: July 27, 2017, 01:37:49 AM »

-On ALT-Tabbing out:
If i do it once from full screen mode i cant get back into the game with full screen mode. After ALT-Tabbing once, my taskbar is visible and parts of the game are not visible any more because the screen was slided to the left.


Pressing Alt+Enter should force the game to run in full screen mode again.

2
Blog Posts / Re: Fighter Redesign
« on: August 25, 2016, 04:35:45 AM »
I also think it would be interesting if the ECCM hullmod acted as a debuff to the PD Jammer, after all it would make a hullmod that is not extremely useful in many cases just a bit more so. It also would make sense, after all, ECCM in reality is to combat jamming and why not make it so here as well and not just for missiles?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_counter-countermeasure

Hey, that's a really cool idea! Plus it's one more place to let the player know the PD jamming is a thing. Made a note.


@ Alex: First of all, nice and informative blog post, as always :-)
@ David: the LPC-placeholder-icons look pretty neat already, looking forward to seeing the polished version.
 

---------------------------------------------------
Jammer / fighter mechanic:

Although I am still a bit skeptical about fighters as "weapons", tightly integrated with carriers,
your blog post has me somewhat convinced that this might just play out nicely and offers fun interactions / choices.

From a game mechanical point of view the sacrificial fighters make a lot of sense but from a lore perspective...
"Tough and agile, the Broadsword carries a point-defense jammer that draws defensive fire away from high-value targets like bombers and their payloads. "
Who in their right mind would want to fly such a thing? Isn't is bad enough to sit in a poorly armored fighter to start with? Now they strapped big red lights on it that say "shoot me please".

A few ideas:
Tweak fighter speed / dodge or let them drop decoys (with limited HP / limited time) which act as a bullet magnet.
Could just take the flare ability and rework it for that purpose?

That said, the jammer mechanic has a lot of potential in my opinion and could be expanded on (especially for the high tech-fighters).
A few ideas for the jammer effect:
- reduce: PD turning speed
- reduce: PD fire rate
- reduce: PD accuracy / weapon spread
- reduce: PD range
- disable PD
- increase PD flux costs

Are there any plans to tweak the fighters further (comparable with how all other ships work?). (besides skills).
For example for each wing could be 4 slots that could be filled with buy able enhancements (just adds another layer of customizability). [see attached picture]  A few ideas for fighter enhancements:
- speed
- hp
- shield
- weapons
- range
- formations
- ai / officer behavior (aggressive / cautious)

---------------------------------------------------
Some questions about modability:
- Is range (3-4k atm) easily modable? If yes, will SS native AI make use of increased range or is custom AI needed?
- Will fighter still be easily modable (speed, turning speed, weapons, behavior, formation)?
- Will it still possible to fly a fighter in dev-mode? (via take control over ship/fighter)

---------------------------------------------------
AI tweeks?:

Are there currently any AI tweeks planned (beside what was already mentioned in the blog-post / thread) concerning:
- Ships / fighters - interaction
- Interceptor / fighter / bomber - interaction ==> Combined formation of several wings
- How does the AI launch successful attacks with mixed fighter/bomber groups? It is just the speed difference (fighters arrive earlier) or something more sophisticated?
If it is just the speed difference this could potentially lead to problems, depending on engagement range or mods.

---------------------------------------------------
Some questions about the UI:
- Could you please explain what the fighter/bomber-wing-symbols in screenshot 1 mean in a bit more detail (AFAIK: symbol=glowing ==> bomber still have ammo / active engagement)
- In the screenshot it seems that there is only place for 6 wings (maybe 7), that would be enough for an Astral /w "Converted Hangar" hullmod ==> Any idea about mods with more than 7 decks?
[Possible solution: replace with %-bars for hp @ fighters, interceptors, bombers ///Disadvantage: Less information, information portrayed is less obvious for inexperienced player]

---------------------------------------------------
Some general questions / observations:
- When a carrier is lost but the wings escape successfully, how does this impact salvage? (e.g. salvageable LPCs?)
- With some new players complaining about a challenging early game it might be worth keeping the (relatively easy to fight) fighters around in small (pirate) fleets.
An poor or even "ill advised" frigate carrier might do the trick here and even adds some flavor.
- The Astral in the screenshot seems OP starved. Not even all weapon slots are equipped, no hullmod and only a mix between good and mediocre fighters...
Please keep an eye on that. I am looking forward to see how balanced this is. Tweaking should be easy though (either OP increase or fighter OP decrease).
- Dagger: Lore wise it does not seem to make sense for them to use Hammer torpedos instead of Reapers. Maybe reduce wing size to 2?
- Trident: I am very glad to see that they are still around since you thought about deleting them a while back
- (D)-variant of Hyperion: good idea, since currently it is a pretty but very rare ship. Without the jump-capability it much easier to balance it vs other ships.
- (Somewhat unrelated to the blog-post): When selecting hullmod(s) the window closes after selecting one. This means opening the menu several times for several hullmods - a tedious process. How is that handled for the carrier wings? Are the boxes working more like weapon-slots?



In my response I mainly touched the points I thought I could give some (valuable?) feedback on.
The "Fighter Replacement"-mechanic looks good on paper but I will need to see how this will work out ingame first before
making a judgment on that.

Thanks for the update!
I am looking forward to the next blog-post / release :-)

Kind Regards
Sabotsas



3
Bug Reports & Support / Re: The Typo Thread
« on: March 03, 2016, 04:07:19 AM »
"Your forces retreat from the battlespace before all of your allies and have an opportunity to leave in relative safety, depsite your allies being defeated shortly thereafter" ...

4
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 01, 2016, 12:35:36 AM »
... making crew *more* interesting.
... Other mechanics could likewise follow.

If that is indeed the goal I am 100% on board.
Just consider that there is more to crew than just the core
game mechanics. It is also about progress / accomplishment / rewards.
Mainly officers fill this role now but there might still be potential to involve
the crew in a meaningful way - in a way so that the player actually cares about them (immersion).

Right now, losing a good ship/hull is much more painful than losing its elite crew,
maybe there is a way to up the stakes in the future.

At the same time you have to balance micro vs. macro management.
Especially when fleets get bigger it is hard to keep track of every individual ship.
Replacing losses can take a long time if you decide to maximize every
replacement (given the weapons / hulls, available) and it becomes rather
tedious instead of fun. (I am aware of the 'variants'-feature and I am using it quite a bit
but especially in the endgame I spend a considerable amount of time refitting my fleet in comparison to fighting actual battles.
With outposts in mind, maybe give the player a way to get easier / faster replacements (at a cost).  

Also, consider that marines already only have one level and that's not an issue

While that is true from a game mechanics standpoint I would like to have some kind of customizability (experience, weapons, gear).
Especially when thinking about outposts / planets I would imagine that we will see (boarding / invasion) troops much more often.

crew levels are a thing that made sense way back but it just doesn't anymore, to me. The time-cost of maintaining it going forward is a bit much.

If you feel that this mechanic is hurting the game more (= costing unnecessary dev-time) than it is worth, scrap it or rework it.

If the development process of Starsector has taught me anything - it would be to have faith in you as a developer.
You haven't let me down once :-) Even some changes that I initially rejected (while reading the patch notes) turned out to be ok or even were an improvement (e.g. ballistics without ammo cap / officer portraits in battle).
I get it, it is really important to look at the game mechanics but don't overlook the immersion factor. If done right both supplement and strengthen each other.
Let the player make meaningful choices while keeping the core mechanics simple.

Keep up the good work, excellent release btw (as always)!



5
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: February 29, 2016, 11:21:24 PM »

I'm not a fan of how they feel, torpedo payload entirely aside. Will probably take another look at some later point and decide one way or another.

I really liked the trident after I adjusted some of its stats.
- much slower deceleration
- decrease in turning rate
- increase in maximum speed (~160) [was 100]
- front shield arc reduced to ~50 degree [was 180]
- reduced maintenance costs / or increase wing size to 4 [was 2]

My goal with these changes was to differentiate it a bit more from the
dagger. The trident is more reliable to deliver the payload but
at the same time it is more risky because once committed to the attack the bomber will overshoot the target (slower decel. / turn rate)
and expose its unprotected rear, giving the opponent time to retaliate.

I really think that there is a niche for this (heavy) bomber (or even one more).
I hope it won't get completely scrapped for the next release
even if it is just for the sake of keeping the lovely sprite around :-)
Maybe we will see it in a slightly different role,
I am looking forward to it.

6
General Discussion / Re: Is there a way to increase the game speed further?
« on: February 29, 2016, 10:53:55 PM »
For me it's not really the travel-time that could lead to boredom but the
fact that I can't do anything else (in-game) while travelling.
With 0.7 and the much more challenging campaign map / layer this is less of an issue though.

I would really like to be able to read the 'intel' tab / menu while flying around
in order to check commodity prices, faction standing or just to check where the next bounty is
after my current task. In the future maybe some back story would be nice to read as well.
Checking the codex "on the fly" would also be helpful.

Having said this I am not sure how difficult it would be to implement.

On a side note: Would it be possible to implement detailed statistics for the battles (aftermath)?
For example to see how much damage (damage-type) was dealt by each ship (with which weapon) or how many ships (and which in particular) were taken out
by my new frigate. Something like that could also be a nice read / analysis while travelling.
Keeping track of the ships stats (fought in x many battles, destroyed y ships, dealt z amount of damage) could also lead
to a deeper bond between the player and his fleet / immersion. (-> e.g. X-Com)


7
I finally managed to read all the stories.

Mendonca's story has a nice twist to it but at times I was not able to follow the plot 100% because of how abstract it became.

Histidine's story has a nice diary feel to it but unfortunately for me it is a bit over-done in the second half.

Namelessjake's 'New Guy' is well written and manages to describe the scenes in good detail. The twist is appreciated but at the same time predictable.

Gothars has actually delivered an extremely well written story. I like the core-story but also the detail with which the world becomes alive in one's fantasy.
I especially appreciate the extra effort put into the unique Starsector setting with all its little tweaks and details.

Finally I come to my own story: In retro-respect I think I tried to tell quite a big and ambitious story (without having ever done that before in a written format). I also tried to incorporate the
Starsector 'lingo' and mechanics as best as possible. All in all I think my biggest improvement (maybe for the next story) would be in the field of the detailed descriptions of scenes / settings - making it easier for the reader to
immerse oneself and let the scene come alive more naturally.

---

Thanks at all the contestants for the entertaining and sometimes even amusing stories.
Special thanks at Gothars for conducting this kind of community event, I really appreciate that!

Kind Regards
Sabotsas

8
General Discussion / Re: 0.7 feedback
« on: November 30, 2015, 01:31:53 PM »
In terms of officers there's no real indication of the lvl 20 cap until you reach it...

I'd suggest either limiting the number of skills that an officer can learn so he always maxes out with fully spec'd skills, or removing the cap entirely (with perhaps slower officer XP gain in general).

Just FYI you can change officers max lvl in the config files. Personally I really like this kind of easy mod-ability because it lets you adjust the game to your preferences. Would also like an option to increase enemies officer max lvl as well.


However I agree with your first point - making it obvious what the max rank will  should be the goal (maybe even something to consider for more differentiation between officers - different max lvls hmm...).

9
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: November 26, 2015, 10:49:01 AM »
Thanks for the quick reply Gothars!

10
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: November 26, 2015, 10:31:53 AM »
Quick question about boarding / officers.

I just successfully boarded an enemy ship that had an officer on board.
Now that this ship is in my fleet I still can see this officer (marked as red = pirate / enemy officer)
being assigned to the same ship.

Do his skills still apply to this ship?

screenshot:
http://imgur.com/Wq83U79

Sorry if this question was already asked but I couldn't find anything using the forum search.

11
Blog Posts / Re: Expanded Battles
« on: October 18, 2015, 01:08:26 PM »

Unrelated thought: Officer portrait above the flux/CR bar on every ship looks like clutter, at least judging from the screenshot. They tell you there's an officer on board, but unless you remember which face is which officer it doesn't seem like they communicate more info than that (like the key "what combat skills will this ship have?")
Could ships instead get a "has officer" icon, with the portrait only on targeted ships and in places like the ship info card?

This shot is particularly officer-rich. It doesn't feel cluttered in practice, at least so far. The main thing the icon communicates, aside from the fact that an officer is on board, is the officer's level - which is a very good indicator of their overall strength. I did think about showing this only for targeted ships, but it's just too important a piece of information not to have up at all times. But I guess what you're suggesting would still do that, just with a smaller and different icon. Hmm. I think I like the portraits better - they look nice, convey more information if you *do* recognize the officer, and are more intuitive than a "hey, what IS that icon" that a different - and smaller - icon would be.

I really like polished and minimalistic UIs and Starsector has a very good UI all things considered.
The picture with the officers feels cluttered and takes away from the otherwise awesome and clear battlefield.
At the same time I am a bit conflicted because the portraits look very good (but just don't show them inside the battle).

While this is probably pretty low on the prioritization list I would really appreciate if you could have another look at this
"feature" at some point in the future.

I would suggest one or more of the following:

Make portrait in battle:
[1] optional (changeable via settings)
[2] press key (toggle) to show / hide
[3] press key (toggle) to minimize /maximize
[4] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait
[5] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait + let the player color-code their officers / symbols individually

While you said this picture is not representative because fewer officers are the norm, consider the SS endgame and
mods that make extensive use of this new feature. For every ship there will be an additional picture on the battlefield.
For smaller ships like frigates this picture is as big as the ship itself...

Personally I would really like to be able to replace the officer portrait in battles with just a few tiny symbols (maybe color-coded) => solution [4] or [5].
However if this is not doable the solutions [2] and [3] are also very good because they will still enable the player to quickly check
relevant information about the officers when needed. Option [1] would strip the player from this information but at least preserve
the battle-clarity.


Besides this feedback: Very good job Alex! I am looking forward to the next release.


12
General Discussion / Re: How to make big fleets?
« on: August 02, 2015, 01:33:01 AM »
Hey folks. I have been trying to support a large fleet but I normally can't have more than one or two capital ships...

You can edit some game files to increase your logistic rating.

First option is to flat out increase starting logi rating.
Second option is to tie it to a specific skill.

I did that myself because I enjoy bigger fleets.

13
Modding / Re: Mod toll rate and other modding help
« on: May 18, 2015, 01:08:06 PM »

Open data/characters/skills/scripts/SkillData.java, modify FLEET_LOGISTICS_LOGISTICS_STAT_BONUS and LEADERSHIP_APTITUDE_LOGISTICS_BONUS respectively...

Quick question: I copied the SkillData into the mod folder [\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\mods] and edited it (with windows editor) there with no effect on the main game (I tried existing saves and new campaign).
I am not running any other mods.

When I edited the SkillData file in [data/characters/skills/scripts/SkillData.java] it worked.

Any idea why this is the case?

14
Hello Starsector-Community,

I am currently playing SS (without mods) and reached a point where enemy fleets are no threat any more.
I wanted to change a few things:

1) Increase bounties and make their fleets bigger (and increase % of capital ships), increase loot.
2) Make System Defense Fleets bigger (and increase % of capital ships), increase loot.
3) Create a late game faction with no diplomatic ties to the other ones (for the sake of reputation) with very big System Defense Fleets /w commanders (like bounty-captains)


I had a look at all (easily) accessible SS files but AFAIK the last update changed the way how fleets are generated.
I also did a brief search within these forums but I didn't find an answer to my questions.
Is there any way for me to accomplish some or all of the goals above without much trouble?
I have not much experience in coding but I can edit txt files ...

Any help highly appreciated!

Kind Regards
Sabotsas

15
Thanks for clarifying this!

I will do a clean install with the next patch because the loading times (when starting the game) don't bother me
and it is always a hassle to install the game because of my Anti-virus software.

Disabling the Anti-virus software does not increase the loading time by the way.


Thanks again and keep up the good work!
Sabotsas

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