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Topics - Gregorovitch

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Modding / So, these bladebreaker chappies........
« on: March 09, 2021, 07:50:30 AM »
[@mods: I don't seem to have posting rights to the mod board. Please move this if appropriate etc]

I've come across this system with a "hardened hard" warning marker and a funny glowing "planet" in it - and hoards of these bladebreaker jokers. Jokers I say, but in fact I would say these blighters are no laughing matter, no laughing matter at all. I have done one full expedition to this system so far and started a second. I have defeated I would say seven or eight of their patrol fleets so far. Having recovered one of their ships and started using it myself I also now know exactly why they are no laughing matter.

My tactic during the first expedition was to defeat a fleet and then skedaddle out to hyperspace to repair up before three or more fleets could gank me. Then go back in and deal with the next one. I've just repeated this process in expedition 2 and.......

The blighters are chasing me around in hyperspace now!  :o Maybe five or six more fleets of them. BIG fleets of them  :P

WTF? The remnants don't do this. Not fair I say!

Anyway, I am somewhat unsure as to how to proceed here. Mainly the question I have is whether the blighters have a predefined number of fleets or they are making new ones all the time. And what's with them suddenly coming out of their system in force and terrifying the living daylights out of me?



 

2
General Discussion / Thoughts on coming to the end of my first game
« on: February 28, 2020, 06:13:10 AM »
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last three weeks or so with Starsector, a total blast. Obviously I loved the combat/fleet mechanics, as everybody here already knows it's extremely good, and I felt the sense of danger was excellent. It's terrifying for the new player. I particulalry liked the structure of the game which I would say is pretty unique, unlike any RPG, open world or strategy game I've played which I would say has the following stage structure:

1. Initial survival and establishment - the main objective being to assemble a fleet capable of...... (rating: excellent in every way)

2. Full survey of inner ring systems - the main objective being to identify the best system to colonise (rating very good as I felt there is an element of repetitive grind about this stage owing to the difficulty of finding the perfect single system to colonise)

3. Colony system bootstrap - main objective being to make enough money to pay for three/four planets worth of industrial and military development (rating: excellent in every way)

4. Financial independence and military supremacy - main objective being a colony income of say 200k+ per month after fleet/staff costs and a fleet of 6-8 top of the line capital ships plus a selection of high quality support ships. (rating: good but I felt the attrition from Pirates, Path and factions was somewhat contrived, mechanical and repetitive, too easy to deal with by simply paying them off or blowing up their bases, and the lack of any alternative responses)

5. What now? - the main objective would be to find something else to do given you are now master of all you survey. It's not fair to give this a rating 'cos I guess this stage hasn't really been fully developed yet.

So getting to stage 5 is really a sort of ending the game with a whimper rather than a bang for me. This may be 'cos for me fighting is always a means to end in games, not an end in itself. To give three genre examples of my favourite games they would be Distant Worlds: Universe, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and XCOM2. All three have excellent combat aplenty but they also have clear reasons for that combat in terms of ultimate objectives and win conditions, in the first two cases multiple win condition options.

In Starsector at the moment I can see no point in beating up the Hegemony, the Diktat or the Church just because I can and it seems eradicating the Pirate and Path menace is technically impossible. Nor can I see any point in colonising more planets/new systems since there is no reason to make more money and all it would do (as I understand it) is double the aggro from factions, pirates and path alike.
 
So I guess what I would be looking forward to in future Starsector releases is a stage 5 scenario to match the first four. It feels like it needs to go either in an RPG direction in terms of narrative or a 4X direction in terms of faction diplomacy and warfare with win conditions attached. One space game staple that could potential answer to both descriptions of course is the sudden external threat, Space monsters from hell via wormhole or long hidden Dominion survivors complete with death stars and storm troopers led by a Darth Vadar clone.

One last comment on a couple of things I think is questionable about the current game design:

* the overlapping and stacking properties of planetary defenses makes settling colonies in a single system an overwhelming no-brainer. I feel this is possibly over-restrictive going forward. Making space based defense capability system rather than planet based would change that equation I would think leaving players free to colonise multiple systems in practice as well as in theory.

* The one-fleet-per-player restriction would I feel impede any further development of what I was referring to as a stage 5.

3
General Discussion / So......what do I do now?
« on: February 22, 2020, 04:51:08 AM »
The situation is I have three colonies in one system where I've pretty much maxed out everything I can build for now (two size 6's and one size 5 so waiting to get them all to get to size 7 for more room, slow) and which yield an income of about 250k per month. I haven't used any of my stock of alpha cores on anything yet. My fleet comprises four Paragons, a Legion and sundry auroras, apogees, various smaller ships and support ships, I can make as many more as I like but since I can only have one fleet and battles are limited to 500 deploy pts there doesn't seem any point in doing so. I can do any 300k+ jobs I feel like. I already have 4m in the bank, it doesn't seem like I need any more money. I can just kill the pirates and Path bases whenever they have the impudence to (futilely) attack my system and I just pay off the regular factions and do a few jobs for them for fun and profit to curry their favour.

I'm not sure what to do next:

* Is there any point in starting a new colony system, what would that achieve?
* I could conduct a full survey of all the outer systems - but to what end, what am I likely to find?
* I could decide a faction I don't like, the Church for instance, needs to die. Can you actually kill a faction and is there any point in doing so aside from ***** and giggles?
* Is there some official end point or win condition for the game I am ready to go for now?
 

4
General Discussion / What do you set the max battle size to?
« on: February 21, 2020, 04:03:16 AM »
I've been playing on default since I started which is apparently 300 pts divided between both sides. Now I have a big fleet I'm finding it annoying that I can't really field my fleet, I can only field a couple of capitals and my own ship and maybe one or two cruisers and frigates. In the end a Paragon may be 60 pts and an Apogee 18 pts but when push comes to shove I'd take two Paragons over one Paragon plus three Apogees any day of the week. Which makes things feel a bit one dimensional.

I am curious as to:

* what folk like to set max battle size at
* why the devs set the default to 300, what the intention was

5
General Discussion / How do you all manage your weapons inventories?
« on: February 14, 2020, 07:46:57 AM »
I pick up literally thousands of weapons and I've got about 75 different types in my colony stash. I'm finding a PITA getting them all in and out of personal inventory to look at upgrading loudouts etc and putting them back again and even more of a PITA skimming off surpluses to sell off. Ther doesn't seem to be a way to differentiate what you want to keep from what you want to offload.

Wondered what tricks folk use that I'm missing to alleviate this tedium. Or if people don't bother and just dump them all in a colony stash and leave them to accumulate.

6
General Discussion / I'm nervous about when to start heavy industry
« on: February 14, 2020, 07:34:36 AM »
I hear starting heavy industry causes "problems" with the other factions. Given I have no idea what these "problems" amount I'm nervous about when to start it. My situation is:

* Three planets in one system sizes 5, 4 and 3 at the moment producing a net income of about 100k per month after fleet costs.
* One has military base, the other two patrol HQ's
* One is a beezer mining world, +3 rare ore and + 2 ore (plus bonuses from my skills)
* I have four pristine nanoforges
* I'm not that happy with my fleet but it amounts to one Legion single D-mod carrier (hull debuff), a Heron, two dominators, two Apogees, an Eagle, a Falcon and a couple of overdriven Hammerheads plus sundry smaller ships. Enough to do 250k bounties and bases reasonably easy it seems.
* I haven't found any good capital ship blueprints yet, only the crumby Atlas one.
* I got 3m credits in the bank
* I took a commission with Hegemony to kick start my colonization but have resigned it now. But my ranking with the Persians and Magenta coloured faction are still not good, they are still suspicious.

I thought of doing some outer system exploration expeditions to see if I can find some decent capital ship blueprints or even derelict examples as a break from the bounty grind, but I'm unsure if I should start heavy industry now or if I should first upgrade my fleet and colonies in some way before doing so or perhaps grind up some better rep with the two major factions that don't like me very much.

7
General Discussion / Noob needs help choosing a system to colonise
« on: February 09, 2020, 05:06:47 AM »
I've mostly surveyed every planet in the inner ring around the core, at least provisionally. I have to say I am a bit disappointed since all the Youtube LPs I seen seem to have found much better systems than I've found and I feel I should start a new game rather than slog on against the odds with what the RNG has served up here. On the other hand as a noob I may be missing the potential of some of these systems. I'd like to know what experienced players think would be the best of these systems to consider (they are all in the inner ring between 15 and 17 LY from Corvus) and if I should abandon this and re-roll a new game

Damar system:

Eros: Terran 50% farm +2 rare ore -1 organics +1
Kepheus: Desert 125% Deciv vast ruins farm -1 ore +1 organics 0
Minnow: Barren 175% ore -1
Gas Giant: yes

Gualechis System:

Mesh: Jungle 75% vast ruins farm +1 ore 0 organics 0
Zuan: Volcanic 225% rare ore -1 ore +1
Telephasa: Volcanic 200% rare ore +3 ore 0
Asmaidas: Toxic 225% rare ore +3 ore 0
Gas Giant: no

Lempo System:

Gray Ghost: Arid 100% farm -1 ore -1 organics 0
Fenrir: Tundra 100% Farm -1 organics 0
Magon: Toxic 225% ore 0 vollatiles 0
Iravik: Rocky Metalic 200% scattered ruins rare ore +1 ore 0
Fared Kathon: Rocky Metalic 200% rare ore +1 ore 0
Gas Giant: no

Clix System:

Merlin: Eccentric Terran 125% Pollution scattered ruins farm +1 ore 0 organics 0
Dargor: Rocky unstable 200% rare ore +2 ore +3
Jiao: Toxic 200% rare ore -1 ore 0
Galavar: Barren 200% ore +3
Gas giant: yes

Beta Chirra System:

Beta Chirra 2: Terrran 125% farm +1 rare ore +2 ore 0 organics +1
Beta Chirra 2: Volcanic 250%rare ore +1 ore +2
Gas giant: no

Gamma Persai System:

Gamma Persai II: Eccentric Terran 125% Farm +2 rare ore -1 ore -1 organics +1
Gamma Persai I Vocanic 200% rare ore +2 ore +3
Gamma Persai B I: Barren 200% Scattered ruins ore +2
Gas Giant: no

Delta Dumir System:

Delta Dumir II: Desert 125% ore 0
Delta Dumir II B Desert 150% ore 0
Delta Dumir II A Desert 125% farm -1 rar ore -1 ore -1 organics 0
Delta Dumir I: Rocky Metalic 175% ore +3
Gas giant: no

Kigatilik System:

Suroclaire: Terran 125% scattered ruins farm +1 rare ore -1 ore 0 organics 0
Xaphasor: Irradiated 200% rare ore +3 ore +3
Sar: Volcanic 275% rare ore +1 ore +2
Loka: Volcanic 250% rare ore +2 ore +1
Indrik: Volcanic 200% rare ore +1 ore 0
Gas giant: yes

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