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General Discussion / Re: Making Money in Starsector
« on: September 02, 2021, 08:27:10 PM »
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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Save/Load UI, Autosave, Intel Map Markers, and More (04/10/24)
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General Discussion / Re: Making Money in Starsector
« on: August 31, 2021, 07:46:11 PM »
Early game exploration fleet for me is usually 6-8 shepards, 1-2 drams or 1 phaeton, 1-3 buffalos, and 2-4 best frigates I can find - tempest, scarab, omen, lasher. Hack some comm beacons so you can pick up exploration missions without having to fly around the core. Try to cluster the missions you accept. Don't waste storage space on any good cheaper than 200-300 credits. Only worry about fighting pirates or domain junkships. Can usually find a good amount of blueprints, rare items, good planets for later colonies, even some rare derelicts and a nice safe way to build a few million credits.
Also stay away from surveying gas giants at this stage as their cost in supplies is exorbitant and are very rarely worth anything.
Also stay away from surveying gas giants at this stage as their cost in supplies is exorbitant and are very rarely worth anything.
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General Discussion / Re: Brand New to the Sector
« on: August 31, 2021, 07:36:14 PM »
Great read!
Really need to say the amount of ass clapping is borderline gratuitous!
This would be an excellent addition to either the autofit option, vanilla combat or combat chatter mod! Maybe try the autofit just to get a sense of where the game wants to put certain weapons?
Really need to say the amount of ass clapping is borderline gratuitous!
I've since learned from scattered forum posts and wiki articles that your AI really badly needs point defense, even a cursory 1-2 vulcans, before it feels "safe" enough to charge in and brawl. It felt like there was no feedback from my AI officers at all and I had to spend an hour reading the forums and reddit to figure out the problem. I understand that an advanced player would immediately understand that leaving an AI ship without point defense is dumb and bad but it wasn't obvious to me at first how it would affect my AI. If I could talk to the captains or hear their "thoughts" in battle somehow (like: "I don't have enough point defense/escorts to fight the enemies head-on") it would've saved me a lot of hair-tearing.
This would be an excellent addition to either the autofit option, vanilla combat or combat chatter mod! Maybe try the autofit just to get a sense of where the game wants to put certain weapons?
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General Discussion / Re: Low level bounties are very bizarre in how they're set up
« on: August 06, 2021, 07:21:42 PM »
Outside of the missions themselves I think it would be nice to have a way to influence which bar contacts spawn. Give players more freedom to tailor game to what they want and less reliance on RNG. Spend a story point at a bar and the bartender introduces you to X contact.
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Blog Posts / Re: Skill Changes, Part 2
« on: July 15, 2021, 05:43:39 PM »
"Still, we’re not aiming for perfect balance, just viability of everything and things being in the right general ballpark. As long as we’re getting something out of it – this particularly fun and different playstyle – it being a bit too strong is ok."
This sentiment alone is so rare these days and imho needs to be recognized and applauded!
This sentiment alone is so rare these days and imho needs to be recognized and applauded!
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General Discussion / Re: Taking over the sector = money problems
« on: July 08, 2021, 07:39:28 PM »
Don't be silly, they get paid in survival!
I didn't know Jeff Bezos played Starsector!
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Blog Posts / Re: Skill Changes, Part 1
« on: July 08, 2021, 07:35:29 PM »I am still confused about this Elon Musks neuralink hullmod/skill, especially the "your ship is blown up but you still get to remotely pilot" part, but hey. At least I havechicken30 OP operations center s-kite. (In the future update. I hope)
you know this made me realize that neurolink is going to be one of those skills/mods that gives in to capital creep bc the ability to neorolink between your favorite frigates is effectively worthless when compared to the ability to neurolink between capitals. like, my meta fleet screams out for something like neurolink; i like to run a lot of torpedo frigates, pilot one like a mad person until I've fired its racks empty then swap to a new one. There is literally not a single thing in the game that could improve that meta for me more than a skill that lets me swap instantly between frigates, if it werent for the fact that it has been made only useful for capital ship metas by being restricted to 1 ship. Maybe this'll be something I have to take up with a modder but if the hullmod scaled by hull size, like only 8 neurolink points allowed (not counting flagship) with hull sizes costing 1/2/4/8 neurolink points each, it would be perfect for me
this would be cool
atm you have to bring in reinforcement frigates as you retreat the depleted ones
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General Discussion / Re: Frustrated with AI ignoring my orders in battle.
« on: June 12, 2021, 04:04:56 PM »
Just to point out the OP gave an assault order on the point. That is essentially all free ships attack said point. You can even see in his SS that 2 of the bars from the ships are yellow, the rest are green. As in the 2 he commanded and the rest followed. OP just needs to either.... use capture instead of assault OR give other orders to ships he doesn't want attacking that spot. Assault is the more extreme order...ala exterminate and engage.
Also to note, assault turns to defend after the point is captured, so that the ships will stay in that general vicinity short of suiciding on it. Capture turns to a more loose hold order where if there aren't any enemies or less enemies some or all player ships will move farther out to help in battle and only return when enemy threat to capture point is increased.
Also to note, assault turns to defend after the point is captured, so that the ships will stay in that general vicinity short of suiciding on it. Capture turns to a more loose hold order where if there aren't any enemies or less enemies some or all player ships will move farther out to help in battle and only return when enemy threat to capture point is increased.
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General Discussion / Re: the #1 reason I don't play this game
« on: June 03, 2021, 04:58:57 PM »
one last thought before I put this thread behind me; I do find it interesting that now that the game has plenty of options to mitigate the loss of low-value ships, from base ship recovery to industrial skills to recovery-guaranteeing hullmods, that the game now suffers from a severe lack of a way to have your ships behave as if their loss is expected and/or acceptable. As-is I would never run a hulk fleet campaign just bc my ships are already piloting themselves so cautiously. I think, if there was a hullmod that guaranteed the ship was recoverable but instead of making it more survivable made it less survivable by making it much more willing to face-tank to turn its remaining armor into free shield to apply pressure, I'd use it to do hulk playthrus
OH it just clicked in my head!! I'm playing a kite slinging extreme anti-armor loadout, waiting for my fleet to Do Work so I can swoop in & assist, while my fleet is waiting for the player to Do Work so it can swoop in & assist. The game expects me to be piloting the strongest ship in my fleet with a generalized enough loadout that I can always lead the flow of battle, & I'm piloting the tiniest ship in my fleet with such a specialized loadout that I am so incapable of leading the flow of battle in a way that it forces me to sit outside of the battle, and the AI just isn't aggressive enough to carry battles without me like that (shy of just fighting enemies too weak to fight back). Makes sense; the game just isn't built to use a kite as my flagship
The first paragraph is a neat idea.
The second is the salient point. More accurately that, as intrinsic alludes to, that if you want your AI to dictate the flow of battle they need to be 1)fast and 2)have enough shield ehp to feel safe doing so. I think it's reasonable to have discussions about how much of 1 and 2 ships need in the current version and if there are ways to enable similar outcomes without redo'ing the AI or causing shocks to the system by making it too reckless.
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General Discussion / Re: The Frigate Bias
« on: May 22, 2021, 08:12:09 PM »
Correct, it's the combo of certain ships with certain skills that are too strong. Last playthrough I went from 8-10 frigates 1 apogee doing exploration and bounties until end game bounties and radiants. Hell I found a hyperion and didn't even bother because temp/scarab/omens were just fine until bounties got to 4+ caps. I bought a few destroyers and light cruisers and didn't touch until I had colonies and transitioned into endgame fleet pre zig - 1 paragon, 1 legion xiv, 1 dominator, 1 SO aurora, 1 champion, 2 gryphons.
The point is while I certainly could have transitioned the way I would have in earlier versions, I didn't need to and didn't feel like I needed to at all. There was no sense of progression, it was steamroll for 3-5 game years, immediately switch to end game.
The point is while I certainly could have transitioned the way I would have in earlier versions, I didn't need to and didn't feel like I needed to at all. There was no sense of progression, it was steamroll for 3-5 game years, immediately switch to end game.
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General Discussion / Re: I Spent 6 Months Visiting 45 Colonies to Recruit 8 Mercenaries
« on: May 22, 2021, 08:02:09 PM »
Agreed that DP should just be split equally between fleets. I understand the thinking behind bigger fleets get more DP but I believe that lead to current situation where officers became the determining force in DP calcs because players were just bringing multiple caps end game to either balance or gain an advantage.
My initial reaction to DP bonus in a skill is negative, feels like it would be must have or a gimmick challenge run option. Maybe add the unequal DP option as a difficulty modifier. I think if capture points continue to add DP it should be bonus up to a limit. If AI DP advantages must be a thing I think it should be limited to end game challenges or specific enemies/scenarios with equally boosted rewards and ideally something the player is aware of and can chose when to engage with.
This is also to say of course that early mid game the player could still be outnumbered as they may not have enough ships to hit 150 or 200 DP.
My initial reaction to DP bonus in a skill is negative, feels like it would be must have or a gimmick challenge run option. Maybe add the unequal DP option as a difficulty modifier. I think if capture points continue to add DP it should be bonus up to a limit. If AI DP advantages must be a thing I think it should be limited to end game challenges or specific enemies/scenarios with equally boosted rewards and ideally something the player is aware of and can chose when to engage with.
This is also to say of course that early mid game the player could still be outnumbered as they may not have enough ships to hit 150 or 200 DP.
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General Discussion / Re: The Frigate Bias
« on: May 21, 2021, 07:50:45 PM »AFAIK there are 2 common layouts, 2 close/2 far or 1 close, 2 middle, 1 far.
For close practically anything is good enough, for middle CM+Medusa/Shrike are plenty if you have no phase and aren't piloting something fast.
For 2/2 if the 2 on player side aren't both comms is the hairy one. I go with an Odyssey for 1 and the other fast ships (with CM+officers) for the other. One of those should be easy(-ish) to take as a 3rd.
Or if you want to be on the safe side you can just get 2 kites with injector+SO, 4 DP total for ~300/350 speed with CM and no officer.Haha, Destroyers, funny people.Medusa/Shrike are still great all around, Sunder probably best cheap fire support. Hammerhead/new Brawler is a tossup, speed is very good but so are feeder+extra PD/OP/range.
Who is using Destroyers when Frigates stole their role on the battlefield and do it cheaper and better? Carrier destroyers don't count.
XIV Enforcer is kinda decent, just don't like the way AI handles burn drive and being missile-heavy.
Really not convinced wolfpack is the end-all-be-all, plenty of no frigate/no redacted weapon fleets work and murderize the worst enemies just fine.
Not counting Zig had the easiest time consistently avoiding losses with various cruisers+Medusas, the only frigate far above anything else is the Monitor IMO.
Dusa is solid, sunder is hit or miss survivability, endgame hammerhead either needs to be SO or 1 hvd/1mauler because at 700 range he's gonna get eaten by larger enemies/phase ships. funny cause HH was always so fun in previous versions.
honestly outside of dusa and maybe shrike i feel like most destroyers now are too fragile and too slow in the current meta, they're not terrible at escorting a cap ship but for the DP cost i'd rather have tempests/omens/monitors harassing or escorting and keep my cruisers and above clumped around a cap/defend point.
not surprising that huge buffs to frigates place upward pressure on destroyer class.
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General Discussion / Re: Exploration
« on: May 21, 2021, 07:39:33 PM »What I usually do is have a bunch of Shepherds, around 4 or 5, a colossus if I need more cargo, some drams or phaetons and other than that cheap maintenance ships with full HE weapons, frigates and destroyers, cruisers only if I have Apogees or Falcons.
The reason for this is that you don't want to face redacted when you aren't after them specifically, and what you usually face are Domain drones which have no shields, get torpedoes, get anti armor and go have fun. Carrying a bunch of large ships will eat at your profits a lot and will go unused way too often.
This is correct. Though with frigates being super good i was basically doing 2 temp, scarab and omens with 6 sheps and assorted buffalos/phaetons. Junk any cargo that's not able to be sold for massive profits at a pirate/ludd path world. After a few in game years i had plenty of credits, cores, planet data and rare items/blueprints.
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General Discussion / Re: The Frigate Bias
« on: May 20, 2021, 07:41:45 PM »I dont think it is a problem that you have to use frigates to capture point at the begining of the battle, i think its a good mechanic, beacuse you shall use all the shiptypes in a battle. But the problem is that frigates do more than this, they absolutely wreck destroyers and cruisrers, and sometimes even capitals, this should not be.
Also...why? i don't think it's bad to have an early game ship class fall off in end game.
i'd rather see the DP bonus be removed from capture points and the bonuses for the points be more varied and powerful. I.E CR recovery, defensive bonuses, even ammo/missle regen. Lots of possibilities outside of the current system which is always deploy 3-4 frigates to cap for 40+ extra DP. could make certain points have range limits, give bonuses for capturing multiple points or scaling over time. again, lots of cool stuff is possible imho.
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General Discussion / Re: Trader Contracts
« on: May 20, 2021, 07:29:45 PM »An option to be on the lookout for certain type of mission (a toggle that makes certain missions far more common than others) would be cool.
This^ pay the bartender in credits or storypoints to guarantee a certain contact please!