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General Discussion / Feedback on current version
« on: November 02, 2014, 04:50:01 PM »
So this will probably come off as a bit of a rant because I'm quite frustrated... And maybe it should be in suggestions?
Quick little background, been playing Starsector since just before the initial campaign release and have put in a significant amount of hours into it. Not saying I'm good or have a opinion worth more than anyone else, but wanted to put it out there.
Ok on to it. My brother told me a new Starsector version was released and so seeing as I haven't played it in forever I thought I should download it and try it out. The changes sounded pretty great and I was excited to try it.
Have played maybe 6 hours since I installed it and I gotta say I really don't like how the economy works.
First off though lets start with how it is pigeonholing the player into certain styles of play.
Bounty Hunter: Seeing as you get hardly any module drops and so few credits from combat you have to use the bounty system. Yet it is rather hit or miss. I say that because you might get a notice about bounties somewhere but you can't get there in time, or you can't defeat the bounty offered. Thus you end up waiting around getting bored and losing money. Forget about just attacking random fleets. All incentive to do that is gone.
Trader: This one really gets me going... The only way to reliably make money is exploiting shortages or trade disruptions. But even then it isn't a sure thing (which is fine) because unless you get lucky it is no unlikely that you will miss the shortage and the relief fleet will get there first. I guess I don't mind this as shortages can net you a ton of money if you act fast which is nice.
What is maddening is that you can't really make money from basic trade. At least from the hours of testing I've done. The big reason is the extreme 60% tariff. And don't even get me started on the expensive custom scans... I understand the need/want for the tariff, but 30% buying and 30% selling is insane. I may be wrong but I can't think of any markets that will charge a tariff on exports. They should encourage exports because it brings money in from the outside. If the buying tariff was removed then the 30% selling wouldn't seem so bad.
But that doesn't address the basic problem with trade pricing. Either we as players aren't getting enough info, or there isn't reasonably profitable trade routes without taking advantage or shortages. I should be able to loadup 200 units of food from a place that produces it and unload it as say a orbital station for a reasonable profit. So far I haven't been able to do that. Part of it is the tariff system, but overall it just seems off.
Back to the pigeonhole... Those are really the only two ways to play anymore. Sure there are variants. You could be a bounty hunter and only take on pirates, or basically join a faction and fight their enemies. You can be a smuggler instead of a trader (which just means all the factions will hate you). But being a pirate is enough more difficult since you get so little "loot" from attacking ships. It is said you should go after trade ships but that doesn't seem that much better from my experience.
In closing... I get that the economy (what was there) was busted in earlier versions of the game and a reasonable player could easily reach end game pretty fast. But I feel like this has swung so far in the other direction. It feels very grindy to me now and distinctly not friendly for new players.
I still think the game is great. It is a lot like Mount and Blade in space. But in Mount and Blade attacking bandits at least gave you something in return.
Quick little background, been playing Starsector since just before the initial campaign release and have put in a significant amount of hours into it. Not saying I'm good or have a opinion worth more than anyone else, but wanted to put it out there.
Ok on to it. My brother told me a new Starsector version was released and so seeing as I haven't played it in forever I thought I should download it and try it out. The changes sounded pretty great and I was excited to try it.
Have played maybe 6 hours since I installed it and I gotta say I really don't like how the economy works.
First off though lets start with how it is pigeonholing the player into certain styles of play.
Bounty Hunter: Seeing as you get hardly any module drops and so few credits from combat you have to use the bounty system. Yet it is rather hit or miss. I say that because you might get a notice about bounties somewhere but you can't get there in time, or you can't defeat the bounty offered. Thus you end up waiting around getting bored and losing money. Forget about just attacking random fleets. All incentive to do that is gone.
Trader: This one really gets me going... The only way to reliably make money is exploiting shortages or trade disruptions. But even then it isn't a sure thing (which is fine) because unless you get lucky it is no unlikely that you will miss the shortage and the relief fleet will get there first. I guess I don't mind this as shortages can net you a ton of money if you act fast which is nice.
What is maddening is that you can't really make money from basic trade. At least from the hours of testing I've done. The big reason is the extreme 60% tariff. And don't even get me started on the expensive custom scans... I understand the need/want for the tariff, but 30% buying and 30% selling is insane. I may be wrong but I can't think of any markets that will charge a tariff on exports. They should encourage exports because it brings money in from the outside. If the buying tariff was removed then the 30% selling wouldn't seem so bad.
But that doesn't address the basic problem with trade pricing. Either we as players aren't getting enough info, or there isn't reasonably profitable trade routes without taking advantage or shortages. I should be able to loadup 200 units of food from a place that produces it and unload it as say a orbital station for a reasonable profit. So far I haven't been able to do that. Part of it is the tariff system, but overall it just seems off.
Back to the pigeonhole... Those are really the only two ways to play anymore. Sure there are variants. You could be a bounty hunter and only take on pirates, or basically join a faction and fight their enemies. You can be a smuggler instead of a trader (which just means all the factions will hate you). But being a pirate is enough more difficult since you get so little "loot" from attacking ships. It is said you should go after trade ships but that doesn't seem that much better from my experience.
In closing... I get that the economy (what was there) was busted in earlier versions of the game and a reasonable player could easily reach end game pretty fast. But I feel like this has swung so far in the other direction. It feels very grindy to me now and distinctly not friendly for new players.
I still think the game is great. It is a lot like Mount and Blade in space. But in Mount and Blade attacking bandits at least gave you something in return.
