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1

General Discussion / When do market inventories, specifically ships for sale, change?

« on: October 24, 2014, 11:03:03 PM »

And how can I most quickly and easily trigger the change so I can force the Tri-Tachyon outpost in Magec to show me the super rare high tech stuff like longbows, tridents, wasps, hyperions, afflictors, apogees, auroras, and astrals?

I also wouldn't mind knowing how to find the other ships I've never seen in stores after reaching level 40-something and so many hours of gameplay, like the mining pods, warthogs, valkyries, and ventures.

[EDIT] I guess nobody knows this? Does anyone at least know if the above mentioned ships and fighters are ever for sale in campaign mode?

2

Suggestions / AI friendlies lowering shields or venting when unnecessary, while in danger

« on: October 24, 2014, 02:03:41 PM »

I've noticed a general set of AI quirks while playing as a lone ship in campaign mode and setting myself to autopilot. The problems are mainly obvious with the paragon, but seem to be present with many other ships.

I find that often, not just sometimes, my autopiloted ship, despite having max flux dissipation, enormous flux capacity, 40 levels of character progression that include perks like 20% hard flux dissipation with shield raised and huge extra boosts to flux capacity and dissipation, and shield damage multipliers exceeding 0.35%, will randomly lower its shields or vent flux at the most inexplicable, inopportune moments, even while at very low (and getting lower already!) flux, yet while still well in range of enemy weapons, and even while surrounded and under fire, yet not enough fire to pose a threat if the shields had just remained up.

Distance from the enemy doesn't seem to matter. I can be on like 2000 out of 40,000 flux, or even at 0 flux, and my autopiloted ship will randomly drop shields or vent right in front of an enemy or group of enemies. A lot of these times it seems like my ship will drop shields after destroying an enemy, even at very low flux, and even if still surrounded or even flanked by more enemies. To a lesser degree of idiocy, the AI also likes to drop shields if close to topped out on soft flux, but at very little hard flux, while under fire or well within range of enemy weapons, rather than just keeping its shields up and waiting a little longer, and more safely, for the flux to drop while shielded, even if the damage being done to it is insignificant, opening itself up to needless armor and hull damage, and provoking alpha strikes of opportunity from missiles normally held in reserve.

This critically stupid, suicidal behavior seems above and beyond other quirks that make human control obviously superior, like the autopilot's tendency to sometimes charge into weapons range and attack an enemy that's at little or no flux, while the autopilot itself is nearly maxed on hard flux, when it has plenty of a speed and maneuverability advantage to back off, vent or dissipate, and then re-engage. While silly, at least it isn't pointlessly suicidal.

Observing the autopilot controlling a customized paragon also has me wondering if the AI doesn't at all understand that the ship it's controlling has a mod that gives it a front shield rather than an omni-shield, as a lot of the random shield drops seem to conveniently leave its flank exposed right as the shield re-engages. This could be coincidence, though.

I find that it's an absolute prerequisite to add accelerated shields as well on any front-shield modded ships that were previously using omni-shields, just to mitigate their tendencies to needlessly expose themselves.


[EDIT]:

I'm also suspicious that the AI doesn't realize its ship has the perk that gives the engine boost even at up to 25% flux, which may contribute to it dropping its shields to try to move faster.

3

Bug Reports & Support / [0.65a RC1] Game crash on refit simulation with deleted variant.

« on: October 23, 2014, 06:14:09 PM »

I was running a custom medusa variant I named "Heavy", decided to refit after leveling up, deleted the old variant, adding some new things, but it was still called "[Heavy] Medusa" in the variant name box, and the game crashes to desktop consistently when I try to run a simulation while the ship is still named after the previously saved but now deleted variant.

log dump:

Code

7054422 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.D  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Ship hull variant [exported_variant_medusa_311f1ebd-540a-4606-8521-b32f2f5133c1] not found!
java.lang.RuntimeException: Ship hull variant [exported_variant_medusa_311f1ebd-540a-4606-8521-b32f2f5133c1] not found!
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.O00O.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.new.super$String(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.fleet.FleetMember.<init>(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.refit.do.interface.Object$super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.coreui.refit.do.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.OOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.H.processInput(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.O0Oo.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.OoOO.Oôo000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.super.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.D.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

4

Suggestions / No ship system should be finite.

« on: August 11, 2012, 01:14:00 AM »

Even flares and especially drones should at least slowly regenerate their stock over time, back to the initial amount.

Ship systems are now integral to gameplay, and really should have a constant presence in combat. This seems no more poignant than in the case of the ships with drones, where the supply often runs dry fairly quickly even in light combat, and then the ship is crippled with minimal effort for however much longer the battle goes on.

I love the concept of drones, but I can't justify using the ships that get them when other ships have the overwhelming, infinite tactical superiority of reusable systems.

I'd rather this weren't the case.

5

Modding / ME Ships (old)

« on: March 31, 2012, 01:42:18 PM »

Looks like someone else has already made some progress with mass effect modding, and is actually bothering to do art stuff themselves. Godspeed, nonlazy person!

Their thread: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1986.0

Hello.

I would like to bring, mainly, the Reaper ships and the Normandy into Starfarer. If possible, the Alliance, Turian, and other races' ships would also be nice.

I'm a bit of a coding wizard, but I am utterly incapable of art, and can't be bothered to learn about cleanly ripping sounds.

If anyone is interested and capable, I could use:

• A decent Reaper ship recreation in the proper perspective, battle ready with main weapon exposed, capital ship scale as big as possible without causing collision problems.
• Reaper beam art. A nice deep red Tachyon beam recolor would suffice. More accurate and creative recreation encouraged, though.
• Reaper main cannon art. Looks like a camera lens.
• A clean rip of the "voice" or "roar" sound of a Reaper.
• A clean rip of Reaper's main laser cannon sound.
• The Normandy SR-2, battle ready etc. etc. SR-1 also welcome. Should have appropriate weapon mounts as lore-accurate as possible. Frigate size recommended, but slightly larger if necessary to get enough details in.
• Thanix Cannons. Mount and projectile art, and sound effects if a clean enough rip is possible.

Though I doubt there would be, if there's enough interest and art/sound contribution, I'd be glad to whip up some entire, separate Mass Effect factions and keep them up to date with new Starfarer versions. All contributions would of course be fully credited.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticism, etc. welcome as this thread does or does not develop.

6

Bug Reports & Support / 0.51a RC3, Flying as fast as my missiles when I fire them - they hit me

« on: March 09, 2012, 08:56:20 AM »

Just as it says in the title.

I had an engine hullmod hyperion, sped up to engineboost speed during combat, then fired my annihilator rockets. They were exactly the same speed as me, stayed on top of my ship as I went along, and exploded on me after a very brief moment.

This might not ought to be the case, and I can see it being a more common problem on maps with nav beacons that give speed upgrades.

Possibly related, though probably not a bug: I've noticed while flying fast ships around tight clusters of enemies that use missiles, their own missiles can be directed back into them sometimes, but sometimes they pass right through. It seems random, but consistent enough that fast ships can use this as a viable strategy to destroy enemies with their own missiles, if the enemy is quite slow.

7

Suggestions / Weapon Shop "Fitting Room"

« on: March 08, 2012, 09:31:30 PM »

Especially now that store-bought ships come with zero equipment, I think it would be great idea to add a "fitting room" option when buying weapons.

Basically it would take you into the refit screen for your currently owned ships, but it would allow you to equip weapons from the station's supply, showing you how much it would cost as you outfit your ships, etc. Then you could accept and pay the total of all the weapons you tried on, and equip them directly onto the ship, or you could cancel and back out to the regular purchase menu. Think Final Fantasy Tactics.

This would greatly speed up and streamline the process of buying new components.

EDIT: It would probably also be good if the fitting room allowed you to throw your already-owned components into the mix, to achieve the best results. This could be as easy as color coding the components in, say, blue highlighted background for owned components, and green for components you'd have to purchase, when you click the component slot and scroll through the list of weapons available.

8

Bug Reports & Support / 0.51a RC3 - Overly cautious AI + wrong weapon ranges

« on: March 08, 2012, 06:21:34 PM »

I've had a large number of small scale battles now where the AI ships just circle around each other and never get close enough to actually fight.

This is disconcerting enough, but it became a real problem when I engaged a single enemy Paragon while piloting a hyperion frigate, accompanied by my AI friend in a Venture.

I tried every combination of orders, from setting the Paragon to an all-out attack target, setting AI to search and destroy, placing a defend point or rally carrier point directly behind the Paragon, and my Venture friend will not come close enough to fight at all 9 battles out of 10. It just flies forward, then backs away indefinitely just before entering fire range, even if I'm already fighting the Paragon, and even when the Paragon is turned completely around.

The one time I did manage to nudge the Venture within fighting distance of the Paragon, it fired its light needlers from too far away, about twice the needlers' weapon range. The ship slowly lurched back and forth, still way out of range, wasting its needler ammo and missiles.

I don't know if it's a problem with the needlers, or if the cowardly AI behavior made it waste its ammo, because the Paragon would often blast its heavy needlers way out of range too, as the Venture bobbed uncertainly just short of closing.

The latter example was done with higher level crew in all ships, if it matters.

9

Bug Reports & Support / 0.51a RC3 Crash on quickload at boarding screen

« on: March 07, 2012, 08:23:05 PM »

Vanilla install, devmode TRUE, attempted to quickload (F9) while on the after-combat screen where you choose to board or scrap enemy vessels. Crashed.

Excerpt from starfarer.log:

Code

8210469 [Thread-6] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.String  - java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 10, Size: 6
java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 10, Size: 6
	at java.util.ArrayList.RangeCheck(ArrayList.java:547)
	at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:322)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oOo0.Ó00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oOo0.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.public.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.D.I.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.public.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oOo0.Ó00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.ui.o0OO.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.public.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oOo0.Ó00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oOo0.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.ui.public.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.super.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.oOOO.OõÒ000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.super.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.String.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

10

Suggestions / Better refit highlight info / Adv. optics consideration (.51a)

« on: March 07, 2012, 01:11:50 PM »

Firstly, hovering the mouse over equipped weapons in refit mode - the info displays fine, but there are problems when you move the mouse over different components, especially when the components are close together. If I hover the mouse over an SRM component, then move it directly over a nearby laser, the info for the SRM will still be displayed until I move the mouse over the *exact center* of the laser. Some components are shaped so that I actually can't get the new info to display at all unless I zoom in and THEN find the center.

It would be great if the info would display and update at the very moment the component slot outline (like the double circles for medium energy) became enlarged from the mouse touching it. It would just be smoother and more user friendly.

Secondly, I've tried playing around a bit with the advanced optics hull mod, and I have to say that it might be overkill on the turret slowing, in some cases. Specifically, point defense lasers, which are already not so great all around, seem to be slowed way too much and can no longer keep up with missiles and even some fighters. The extended range is meaningless when they can't even track the one thing they're supposed to be good against.

This is especially a nuisance if I just want advanced optics for my fixed or larger lasers on higher tech ships, but still want some very meager point defense capabilities, since laser based PD is the only option for many (all?) of them.

11

Bug Reports & Support / 0.51a quicksave crash

« on: March 07, 2012, 11:03:51 AM »

Vanilla game, no mods, only changed the settings so that devmode = true.

Upon quicksaving for the first time in campaign mode after a clean new install, game crashed. Log excerpt is as follows:

Code

2759812 [Thread-6] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager  - Saving to ..\\saves/save_Shepard_6251720336728343738...
2762140 [Thread-6] INFO  com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager  - Finished saving
2762140 [Thread-6] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.D  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Found 1 serliazed classes not marked with DoNotObfuscate.
java.lang.RuntimeException: Found 1 serliazed classes not marked with DoNotObfuscate.
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager.super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.A.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.super.for.while$super(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.A.super.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.combat.D.o00000(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

12

Suggestions / Flux as a weapon or propellant

« on: February 18, 2012, 07:09:06 PM »

Could be neat.

To elaborate:

(Scenario A)

• Venting flux damages surrounding enemies and objects. You could sometimes destroy, say, one missile in twenty just by venting, so you wouldn't feel as utterly defenseless while doing so. It might also be interesting to have weapons or hull mods that allow you to focus vented flux into a narrow, concentrated cone to deal damage or even push objects, enemies, and missiles away.

(Scenario B)

• Direct flux as a means of propelling your ship in a direction at a greater speed than you are regularly capable. A sort of afterburner button that requires built-up flux as fuel for quick bursts of uncanny maneuverability. Wouldn't that just be delightful?

Thoughts?

13

Bug Reports & Support / My 0.5a bugs, inconsistencies, etc. list

« on: February 18, 2012, 05:25:06 PM »

1) Shift-clicking while refitting: If you don't have any more of that weapon, it still works and thus duplicates the component for you free of charge.

2) Omni weapon slots do not let you place components of 1 category smaller like regular slots do. For example, I can equip a small laser in a medium energy slot, but I can't equip a small weapon of any kind in a medium omni slot. One or the other is a bug if this is not an intended drawback of omni slots.

3) During combat, the AI does not recognize disabled ship wreckage. If there is a wreckage between the AI and an enemy, it will waste ammo hitting the wreckage, and if there is any objective that is past a wreckage, the AI will crash into the wreckage and damage itself trying to get there. This lack of collision detection is also true for asteroids.

4) The AI is very bad at shield and flux management in general, but especially:

    > Disengages shields when too close to the enemy. It probably shouldn't let shields down when an enemy is on its radar at all, due to the extreme distance of some weapons, and how ineffective certain shield types and sizes can be when long range fire approaches.

    > Doesn't understand that larger ships' shields engage more slowly. A capital ship that relies on massive shield surface area is going to get wrecked by MIRVs and missile barrages from more than one direction (and even somtimes from head on), hit-and-run fighters/fast frigate groups, and even the most lackadaisical flanking maneuvers because it doesn't engage its shield the moment a blip hits the radar, and sometimes not even before the enemy's salvo is within spitting distance. I'm looking at you, Astral carrier.

    > Apparently seems to think it has omni shields when it doesn't. I do a lot of feed watching the AI during combat, and their general behavior seems to suggest this. Shields with fixed directions and limited coverage often seem to try aiming its "mouse cursor" as priority instead of turning. This might just be a flaw in my observations though, and they could just be preparing their PD weapons.

    > Just does not back off or stop firing its weapons when its flux approaches critical or near critical levels before dropping shields and/or venting. Even a paragon-class should probably stop bouncing its uber rapidfire 700-flux-per-second laser cannons ineffectually off the enemies' shields when it is being blasted from all sides, if only so it will last until some backup arrives to take the heat off, instead of helping to overload itself and venting right in the thick of it, thus exposing its gooey center to one hundred million bullets. Prioritizing weapons by their flux generation when things get heated would generally be a good thing for the AI to learn.


5) I'm not sure if this is the case with any other weapon, but currently if you try to fire one or several antimatter cannons and you don't have enough flux left to handle it, your flux maxes out and you don't fire anything. Even if this isn't unintentional, it would probably be better to just play a brief failure noise and prevent anything from happening at all, even the flux generation.

6) There are many inconsistencies with the standard ship loadouts and what the ships can actually handle. I've seen this mentioned in the case of overstepping the ordinance bounds, but many of the default loadouts equip the wrong weapon size or category into its slots as well. For example, the Aurora-class default loadout equips an LRM rack (large category) into its top-right missile slot, which is a small missile slot.

7) In various places (mostly ingame, not in main/settings menus), random letters in text are missing. For example, in combat, the first three to four letters are missing from certain orders, or a single letter in the middle of a word is missing in other orders. In the fleet menu out of combat, the "scuttle" command or whatever it is, is displayed only as "uttle hip", or somesuch. There are many other instances. Possibly related, there are several little intermittent graphical glitches in the planets, fleets, and other objects that seem most prevalent when zoomed out, but they are barely noticeable.

8) The game stutters fairly horribly in all places sometimes, both with graphics and sound, simultaneously. The computer I play on (my friend's, but he barely uses it) isn't THAT ancient, with a 1.9ghz processor, 1gig of RAM, windows XP, a PCI ATI Radeon 9550 or something like that, with the best and most up to date drivers possible. It runs 3d games like morrowind on max settings and oblivion at minimum settings just fine, but can't run Space Pirates and Zombies at all due to how slow it is, for comparison.

I'll edit with additional examples as I find or remember them.

14

Suggestions / Working in Someone Else's Fleet

« on: February 16, 2012, 08:27:10 PM »

I've seen this brought up in another thread or two, casually, but not as the point of the thread, and not discussed in depth.

Personally, I would love to play in a campaign where I can decide to, if I want, only own and manage a single ship, and join some particular fleet where the AI makes the strategic decisions and I can just fly around the battlefield only worrying about controlling my ship and concentrating on my own ace combat maneuvers (ha.).

I love managing all of the combat too, don't get me wrong, but I think it would be really great to have this option if I just wanted to get into the thick of combat and not have to maintain any more ships than my own both in and out of battle.

I already dearly love the fact that you can, currently, put your capship on autopilot and make combat PURELY strategy without taking control. That might even be my favorite feature. Going to the other extreme as well just sounds like a great fit.

15

Suggestions / Everything From This>

« on: February 16, 2012, 06:05:48 PM »

Some observations and suggestions for Starfarer based on something else I loved:

http://www.asciisector.net/

That is an ascii based, roguelike space sim tribute to the old Privateer games, with some pretty ridiculously awesome extra features, despite the project having been abandoned for about a year now. The main features are familiar favorites that we all know and love.

Living interstellar economy, commodity trading, working your way up from scratch with a crappy frigate, taking on bounty missions, joining and advancing in guilds and organizations with often conflicting and varied mission structures and goals, interacting with many factions who actively vie for control of each system, intersystem travel, etc.

Starfarer is already has some of this, and is definitely heading in this direction in some of the best ways I could hope for, and even above and beyond with fleet mechanics and much, much better and more extensive lore, customization, and variety.

One thing of particular note, though, is Ascii Sector's aspect of taking control of your character directly, and actually participating in boarding combat, actually walking into planetary colonies and faction bases to directly deal with NPCs, building personal stats and abilities and all that fun roguelike RPG stuff.

It adds more personal detail to the grandiose fleet commander space opera vibe when you know that, hey, you actually are this little guy and you have to work your way through all this stuff on a smaller scale not just behind the scenes, and maybe you have to pull out your blaster and show some pirate scum why you're Admiral Badass who commands the respect of an entire independent fleet.

I dunno, seeing a universe like the one Starfarer is shaping up to be just makes me want to explore it on an even closer level. Maybe sometimes I just have this overwhelming desire to drop shields, ram an enemy capital ship, and zoom into an isometric or topdown view as my marines invade mid-combat and control my PC directly as he fights his way to the aft and sabotages the engines from the inside with a few well placed grenades.

Or maybe sometimes I just want to waltz into a garbage heap of a ship dealership and walk around inside a tarsus before I burn my creds on it, run next door and order some relevant equipment, and then personally contribute to a mining or salvage operation while it's still just me and a couple of green crewmen on that hunk of junk.

Yeah, it's almost certainly too much to ask of what the devs (what are there, like two of you guys?) are already envisioning and working on, if I'm being realistic, but it can't hurt to dream out loud about going that extra mile to space sim perfection.