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1

General Discussion / Re: System degradation and depopulation

« on: December 14, 2020, 03:08:23 PM »

I sell and buy a lot of regular commodities (like supplies/fuel) on Black Market, because I'm poor, but I never sell anything else. Most blueprints I find I "consume", and AI cores I pass to factions I want better rep with.

All pirate fleets are still consisted mostly of junk ships, stacked with D-mods to the brim, but sheer number of those fleets is simply overwhelming. They decivilized Tigra City and Eridu in Samarra system already. Now they actively attacking Hybrasil.

I'm relatively in early game, scraping by, trying to get decently sized fleet and enough creds to maintain it. At this stage there's no chance for me to handle pirate threat on my own. If they keep at it, a lot of core worlds will fall...

My two last questions still stand tough. I really hope NPCs do expand and repopulate. If they don't, any way to help them do it?

2

General Discussion / System degradation and depopulation

« on: December 14, 2020, 11:16:18 AM »

Got back into SS a like a week ago, so many new thing to experience!

A few questions though:
Looks like pirates became more viscous and numerous in 0.9.1a, they raid faction systems pretty hard and often, but it seems like factions (like Hegemony or Tri-Tachyon) do not have near enough fleets to fight back. I tried to help out and lost 3 fleets, they just keep coming with large ones one after another. After their stations and some planets being constantly sieged by pirates, they degrade and and depopulate.

Is it working as intended? In previous version I remember those factions had pretty big fleets and pirates got hunted and shut down by them pretty actively and successfully around their control zones. Are there ways to counter pirate activities and expansion, other than direct combat? Will those systems and station be repopulated again by NPCs? Do NPCs ever expand in far away systems, establishing colonies?

3

General Discussion / Re: Newbie Guide Thread/ FAQ

« on: December 10, 2020, 04:57:03 AM »

Not sure if it's the right thread but anyway:
I use several awesome mods and get that funny line telling me that I'm doomed (in red, haha) unless I use version checker. Well, it's great mod but I really don't need it. Not sure if this message coming from one of the mods or core game functionality. So, how do I turn this thing off? It scares me every time, lol!

4

Mods / Re: [0.8.1a] Nexerelin v0.8.4b "War and Peace" (update 2018-09-30)

« on: November 21, 2018, 12:46:28 AM »

@Histidine
Hey, is it safe to use your Stellar Industrialist v0.1 in SS 0.8.1a?

5

General Discussion / Re: Missions, contracts and pirates thread

« on: November 14, 2018, 08:36:42 PM »

Ultra-necro bump.

Got back into this game, can't wait for 0.9 anymore, plus some of mods I wanted so much got updated, yay! But issue with contracts persist.

It might be tied to mods, the list, just in case (all latest version):

Spoiler

LazyLib
GraphicsLib
DynaSector                                         
Ship and Weapon Pack
Portrait pack

Blackrock Drive Yards
Dassault-Mikoyan Engineering
Diable Avionics
Hazard Mining Incorporated
Interstellar Imperium
Junk Pirates
Neutrino corp.
New Galactic Order
SCY Nation
Tiandong Heavy Industries
Knights Templar
Underworld

[close]

Dug into starsector-core>config>settings.json, set "maxMarketProcurementConcurrent": "maxAnalyzeEntityConcurrent": and "maxSurveyPlanetConcurrent": to various, including extreme, values. Reloaded game, flew through several systems (to spin time), still bad results. Very rarely I encounter around 6-9 various contracts on the planet or station, but most of them are completely empty. I had roughly same amount of faction mods in 0.72a, but there was never a problem with those missions, I always had more or less stable amount of them across all systems. I'm pretty sure there must be some way to fix it or something that may be handling these values, but I suck at coding.

Any ideas, guys?

6

General Discussion / Re: Matching skills with NPC fleet commander... takes dedication.

« on: September 03, 2018, 06:43:16 AM »

I'd say if we could get 2 points per level, one for combat and one for industry, it would make things better IMO, especially since new update supposed to widen non-combat stuff (like building outposts), thus there should be extra skills for that.

In that case you will still have to choose between particular combat style you prefer (either brawler/leader/carrier pilot/mix) and civil role you'd like to roleplay (either trader/builder/explorer/mix). I do not think forcing player to choose between being a civil pilot or combat one makes sense because not only combat aspect is absolutely amazing in this game, it is also pretty mandatory thing anyone would have to get into sooner or later. But then again, having civil role would definitely spice things up so you can take a break from fighting, which would be very welcome.

That being said, I think fleet wide buff skills are somewhat OP and are must to pick, along few other combat ones that have been highlighted in this convo. Yeah, it's a headache to balance it all, and since game is singleplayer in general, it isn't really a priority, but would be better experience nonetheless.

7

General Discussion / Re: Matching skills with NPC fleet commander... takes dedication.

« on: August 13, 2018, 02:07:50 PM »

Technically you can just increase levelcap (that's what I did in some of my runs) to be more like a jack-of-all-trades and not be locked in single ship class. It's band aid, but it works. Like I really do enjoy piloting carriers, thus usually start investing for it early on, but later I might get bored and want some brawler, non-combat type or anything else. It just helps to have one campaign instead of 3-5 with different skill sets in case you're looking for something fresh.

8

General Discussion / Re: what is wrong with trade?

« on: August 13, 2018, 02:01:54 PM »

Again, to start exploring you need at least one tanker, some cheap ships that can hold cargo, someone you who fight and lots of supplies + fuel to get you to far off systems, plus get lucky with actual good loot on your first venture, and there's no way you can afford all that just post tutorial. In far away system, while you traverse, you can come across absolutely anything, and if you can't outrun it, you'll just have to re-roll or reload save.

Bounties are usually in close by systems, you don't need lots of supplies or fuel to get there, you get markets almost everywhere around them, plus lots of friendly/neutrals who can be used as a distraction if you came across something nasty. Exploration might be a valid thing, but bounty hunting is SO MUCH easier and as much profitable, that's what I'm saying.

9

General Discussion / Re: what is wrong with trade?

« on: August 12, 2018, 05:27:02 PM »

You're saying about specific fleets and skills needed, but how do you get these skills and particular ships you absolutely need to start exploration? That's right, you grind bounties. For bounties to start racking up creds you need any bucket that can fly and no skills whatsoever. A bit later it is wise to invest into combat more skills than in anything else, because this way you'll be able to survive and defeat enemies with weaker ships and smaller fleets. It would be very inefficient to start spending first skills on exploration, because as soon as you'll get into combat (and you will) with pretty tough enemy, you'll be smashed to pieces.

So by the point you get all requirements to start exploring safe, it just gets irrelevant. Sure, in my endgame, when my storage is full of rare ships and weapons, sometimes I pick small fleet of frigates, freigther with tanker, and not care would I could come across. So in reality you cannot get into exploration fresh off the start and earn even similar cash you earn by bounty runs. By the time you CAN make exploration payouts big, there's no sense in it, because you don't need it anymore, just as roleplaying activity.

10

General Discussion / Re: what is wrong with trade?

« on: August 12, 2018, 09:49:25 AM »

To make early game and credit earning more balanced and fun, I would:
Reduce bounty rewards across the board, but make rewards scale, as tougher bounty you take on, bigger the reward. But it's to the point of impossible to defeat these enemies alone, while easy bounties have small payout barely covering expenses. I'd go further and have feature to request assistance of fleet in friendly/neutral territory (if present). It already works in such a way, that when you and someone else kill bounty, rewards get shared based on contribution. It would help immersion and not make player feel like a god of war as he can (and must) tackle and destroy everything solo easy-peasy.

Another issue is how fast you can build endgame fleet. When you know what you're doing, you'll have super-armada in no time, which hurts the feeling of progression. I mean it's a sandbox game, we supposed to grind a bit here, a bit there. Have an incentive to roam around the galaxy, do stuff to get stronger bit by bit, instead of roughly be stuck in same cluster, pick closest bounties nearby with best payout and roll them hard...

So it would be nice if we had trading, exploration and bounty hunting as all viable options, while bounty hunting supposed to be hardest and most risky out of three, which is the other way around right now, heh.

Exploration is extremely profitable, probably the best way of making money in the game currently. You just need surveying and salvaging skills and a decent freighter and you can make millions from planet surveys, research/mining/orbital stations, remnant battle stations (if you have the fleet), and drone motherships/survey ships. As long as you are not stupid and check the fuel range on the map, you can always ensure you have enough fuel to get home, and the combat, with the exception of the remnants (which are avoidable), is all much easier/less risky than conventional bounties. The exploration missions themselves are definitely not very profitable though, I'll give you that.

I think trading is going to end up being done on a higher level between outposts rather than by the player. I imagine you will set up contracts from you colonies to deliver goods and gain a steady income source that will free you up to do other things than grind for money. I think Alex wants to avoid the player being a delivery boy which I don't mind at all.

Megas made good points, which I won't repeat, but on the fleet in particular:
Populated space is clustered in the middle, while explorable space is surrounding it and is at quite some distance. So you need pretty small fleet with tanker and freighter, otherwise you'd be suffering serious losses in terms of income if you run giant battle armada. But particular fleet built for exploration stands no chance in combat, especially if you got jumped by something big and scary, since you can't run away from everything, even on sustain burn, thus it means high risk venture. And definitely one you can't get into fresh from the start, while later it gets pointless.

"Trading", in the "buy low sell high" sense, is not intended to be profitable.

The reason for this has to do with gameplay patterns. People, even when playing games, will typically go for the easiest option even if that option takes a lot of time. We often call this "grinding". As a result, unless there is some fun gameplay pattern involved in trading what will tend to happen is that players will want to grind money doing it until they can afford to go fight. What is intended is to go fight immediately. This gets you into the core gameplay experience faster and wastes less time doing boring things.

So while people may say they want it "trade" its actually bad for the game in the long run.

Sorry, but that doesn't seem sensible, IMO. Particular players truly enjoy trading as an activity, and if economy wasn't broken, that would be fun thing to do for us and earn money. Running bounties is the same way of grinding, but if trading would be a thing, we would have at least two options to choose from, instead of just one. Exploration is not all that profitable either and is quite risky, plus requires specific fleet and preparation, which fresh player is not really capable of financially, so making some adjustments to it could make 3 activities, and actual roles for new player. Seriously, this game has awesome combat, but it shouldn't completely revolve around it, it should be a choice player makes.

Would you, absent income concerns, run trading fleets around the Galaxy?

If no then that is a bad design. The core activity isn’t fun enough to justify and rather it’s the efficiency of the income that is driving the activity.

Now, many games, this included, use income as a mechanic to progress the player down the gameplay progression. Some games do this with XP some games do it with money. But the point here is to gate more complex and advanced gameplay behind the lesser so that there is a noticeable progression throughout the game. (And also to ensure players don’t get overwhelmed)

Is trading like that? Where you get bigger transports and the more complex logistical issues provide unique and interesting challenges? Or is it there to get you a big fleet so you can go shoot things?

I don’t believe it’s the former.

Yes, I'd absolutely run trading fleets around the galaxy, that's what I'd like to do for fun. Your whole post just biased towards your opinion of what you think player wants and enjoys in this game. You gotta understand there are many of us with very different tastes. And game has all the premises to have working features those players enjoy, if balanced right. I mean it's already there, just needs a bit of tweaking...

11

General Discussion / Re: what is wrong with trade?

« on: August 11, 2018, 07:06:42 PM »

"Trading", in the "buy low sell high" sense, is not intended to be profitable.

The reason for this has to do with gameplay patterns. People, even when playing games, will typically go for the easiest option even if that option takes a lot of time. We often call this "grinding". As a result, unless there is some fun gameplay pattern involved in trading what will tend to happen is that players will want to grind money doing it until they can afford to go fight. What is intended is to go fight immediately. This gets you into the core gameplay experience faster and wastes less time doing boring things.

So while people may say they want it "trade" its actually bad for the game in the long run.

Sorry, but that doesn't seem sensible, IMO. Particular players truly enjoy trading as an activity, and if economy wasn't broken, that would be fun thing to do for us and earn money. Running bounties is the same way of grinding, but if trading would be a thing, we would have at least two options to choose from, instead of just one. Exploration is not all that profitable either and is quite risky, plus requires specific fleet and preparation, which fresh player is not really capable of financially, so making some adjustments to it could make 3 activities, and actual roles for new player. Seriously, this game has awesome combat, but it shouldn't completely revolve around it, it should be a choice player makes.

12

General Discussion / Re: Is this worth getting at this stage? A few other questions...

« on: August 10, 2018, 12:39:23 PM »

- The game felt more than complete back in 0.7, when I get into it anyway. There were lots of stuff to do, and mods made game far more bigger and enjoyable. Current progress with updates feel like massive game extension with brand new content, which you get for free. While majority of other studios, especially AAA ones, would be selling you those as DLCs for almost the same price as a base game. So yes, it is complete in my book.
- Yes, you can but not in a manner you'll get attached to them. Actual ship crew is just an expendable resource, while officers are more fleshed out and have some meaning to them. They are very helpful in terms of gameplay, but I wouldn't call them particularly immersive.
- That may be a big hit or miss for you. Endgame literally requires you to run pretty big fleet. This game can be played with small team/small crew, but that would be quite challenging, and available activities will be pretty limited because of that.
- Aside from tutorial, no. But the thing is, this game is the best possible space sandbox experience you can have on the market. It is so smooth and immersive that handheld story might just outright ruin it for the player. I don't think this game needs story, in traditional meaning anyway. So it's sort of a "you do what you want", which is amazing.
- Yes, you can ally with anyone if you build rep with faction, plus there are different starting conditions you can choose. But a good advice for beginner, do not ourtright ally with faction, do not *** other factions early on, and most importantly, don't pick Faction Comission, unless your fleet is strong enough to fight several armadas.
- Both, but currently combat (bounties) gives way more income than trading or exploration, plus it's much easier overall. But once you nail down general mechanics and learn to play (this game can seem to have pretty steep learning curve, which is wrong in reality), you can roleplay all you want, and that would be pretty chill experience.
- Yes, oh yes. But that gonna be very challenging path, even for a veteran.
___________________________________________________________________

Side thoughts for Alex, since it would fit this thread I suppose:
- One of the most amazing experiences for me in particular since day one, and it still feels great is when you join big friendly/neutral vs. enemy fleet fights with your small one. If there could be more activities or actual missions to participate in such events, that would be amazing. Also it could be pretty immersive way for a fresh player to build up rep, earn some creds and feel awesome.
- More trading related events/missions and it would make sense for it to be the easiest way (and less dangerous hopefully) to actually earn money, which currently it isn't. Please, make it happen!
- Piracy. Would be great if pirates would be more like a faction, instead of training dummies for bounty hunters. To have big stations, black market being more accessible and have more stuff to offer for someone who chose this path, plus to be easier to actually build rep with them.
- Chatter. It has a vibe of RPG, and in a sense it is, but there's very little actual talks in the game. Some options when you get attacked or you attack someone as dialogue would be great. Overall more talking, we need way-way more of it! 

13

General Discussion / Re: I need a Development Post please.

« on: August 03, 2018, 12:26:59 PM »

I'm usually pretty hyped about new version too, but worst part for me are mods, which give this extra spice to vanilla. I cannot imagine, or enjoy game without familiar ships, factions, events and etc that grew on me already. And post update it can take unbelievable amounts of time for mods to update, while it can add up extra headache for authors, considering how extensive and how many new features new versions bring.

Judging by info so far, 0.9 must be the biggest one yet, so I'm gonna be stuck with 0.8 for the whole year or two still. Couple of mods I really-really like haven't been updated to 0.8 yet, so there goes the fun... It's all kinda super-exciting but still can be quite frustrating.

Seriously, whole case about SS is some kind of exercise (or rather torture) in patience. 

14

General Discussion / Re: Amazing game, but I am tired of reloading

« on: July 26, 2018, 10:28:56 PM »

It's amusing to see threads still popping up about game difficulty, while players don't realize how trivial in reality this game is.   

Few "rules" to make life easier for every new player:
- Start on normal and savescum a lot, it's essential to cover the basics, nothing will teach you stuff like your own mistakes.
- If you have a rough start, just re-roll. Personally I can't remember single very rough start for me ever, like two big pirate fleets? Nope.
- Don't ever pick comission, unless you're into non-stop hardcore fighting. If you're trying to roleplay trader, your best bet is to get as friendly as possible with everyone, and even not to *** off pirates too much, at least early game.
- Roleplaying trader (or explorer) at the start is pretty hardcore way to have challenge. Payouts of both are absolutely pathetic, while risks are sky high.
- On some missions which require you to deliver some stuff, it may trigger special pirate event, where they will wait for you at the exit from Hyper and will try to extort you, if you can't beat them, reload and try different mission.
- Bounty hunter is the best (and only tbh) way to build up money and fleet, because payouts are very-very high while you're gonna be up against pretty even opposition (try to go for lowest bounties early on). I hope you're aware about galaxy info panel with random bounties, trade, factions and other useful info.
- Sadly right now, and especially if you're new and don't feel masochistic, ^ it's the only safe start option in the game.

After few hours of bounty hunting, you should be able o afford fleet that steamrolls any pirate armada you can come across (even two), and literally 15 minutes later you will be rocking best ****ing fleet in the galaxy, because rewards are exponential and opposition will be even easier to crush. Earning 500k+ for steamrolling some douches will make you rich quick. The drawback is that everything will feel waaay to easy for you from that point. It's too easy in this game to reach invincible state, where nothing can really mess with you.

After you bought all you ever wanted and been hauling all that stuff on some station with several dozens of millions of credits on your balance, you're ready to start your roleplay and not worry about dying, reloading and stuff. I've got like 10 Astral supercarriers and around 20 of each ship I like with heaps upon heaps of weapons and other equipment, while I'm rolling as trader in some junk ships like Buffalo, Hound, Lasher, Hammerhead with Dram tanker and etc. Yeah, it can feel boring sometimes, but it's one of a kind sandbox in space where you really can roleplay in.

P.S. Really miss the time when everything was so fresh, and felt like challenge, now it somewhat feels like chore, but good and still very unique type of chore. New update will bring even more stuff to play with, really looking forward to it!

15

General Discussion / Re: 345 days - you've read this post before

« on: March 07, 2018, 03:36:00 PM »

We live in era of multiplayer games, they are produced in bigger quantity, even single-player focused games get MP shoved in, sometimes hurting SP content itself. SP focused games are few, and good quality ones are even fewer. Personally I'm glad MP is not on the board and won't be.