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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Messages - bobucles

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1
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: January 07, 2022, 10:05:46 AM »
Quote
I think it would be cool if destroying domain satelite

I think it'd be cool to just stuff the entire thing in your cargo hold. I mean it's not a space station with habitation for a dozen crew, it's an unmanned satellite.

Failing that, just tug it along like any ol' mothballed ship. It may need some extra love to survive the rigors of hyperspace, but it's not like they're a trade commodity anyway. Just be sure to scratch off the registration numbers first.

2
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: December 20, 2021, 03:08:07 PM »
So you add shields to a ship, then pull the shields out? It sounds like the hull mods are complete opposites and one wouldn't allow the other.

3
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: December 04, 2021, 05:09:27 AM »
The pilum suffers from severe snowball syndrome. It's nearly useless in small numbers, but once it overwhelms enemy defenses it starts breaking things. Part of this is due to the extreme range (every ship on the map can focus the same target), low health(easy to stop, until you can't), and high damage(OW).

Looks like the intent is to flatten that curve. Make the pilum more useful in small numbers, but less useful as a map sweeping weapon. The weapon appears a lot more defensive now, being able to annoy ships rather than outright kill them, which is fine. The damage change may be worrisome(frag damage has half the value of other types due to it being 25/25/100), but it seems good enough to start testing it and see what really happens.

4
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 27, 2021, 05:26:22 AM »
Colony building works extremely well with exploration and comfy styles. The sector is filled with treasure, find it and take it home to a colony. Wander around, do some trading and build a colony. There's good times to be had.

Colony building has some combat, but it's mostly weighted towards endgame. The big options are to hunt redacted or purge the sector, with not too much in the middle. Pirates and expeditions are combat events, but they are mostly events that players react to and try to mitigate, rather than goals for players to charge into.  I can see why players consider colonies to be dead weight for most of the game. They're skipping directly to the part where combat stops being reactionary and starts being proactive for colony development, which happens at the end.

5
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 25, 2021, 06:31:55 PM »
In terms of "flattening the curve" on colonies, a great deal of colony value comes from bonuses multiplying bonuses. The biggest multiplier of all is accessibility, since it directly controls the planet's share of the market. Most of the other aspects of planet growth are merely "good". Going from size 3 to size 6 roughly doubles industries and the value of a planet (does it really justify millions going into hazard pay?). Adding +1 to production isn't much on its own, reduced costs have very specific value, and stability already got the nerf bat. What really makes a colony BRRRRR is taking all the bonuses in the left, and multiplying it by accessibility on the right. So maybe that situation isn't working out as well as it should?


Would it make sense for accessibility to be more flat, less dependent on modifiers, or perhaps to tie it more into player driven missions? So that way a player CAN advertise the hell out of their planet, but first they have to deliver 8000 fuel to chicomoztoc. Blowing up a merchant fleet to hurt one planet's accessibility for a few months isn't much. Maybe it could be more meaningful to make an "example" of competitive merchants, and effectively strong arm the market into using your own goods. Stuff like that, stuff that ties into blowing ships up and having a good time while still feeding colony play. I mean, players already do this when they wage all out war and start purging the sector, but that's not really applicable in early or mid game.

6
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 25, 2021, 05:52:22 AM »
Small investment, small payout. The academy stipend could be replaced with a quest to reestablish contact and become governor over a mining colony, and it'd be practically the same reward. That might even be a pretty nice quest, it gets players on the colony game from the very start.


The cluster spanning empire with gigantic shipyards, top tier worlds and $mil/month income is pretty much post game territory. There isn't really any reason or purpose to invest that hard into colonies. It seems most of the issues only pertain to endgame or post game economy, but players with that level of experience are well on their way to modding their game. So is it really an issue? A casual, ordinary player can just pick a few planets, build a few things, and call it good.

7
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 24, 2021, 08:09:41 AM »
Covering the cost of fleet upkeep IS a profit, when the alternative is having no passive income at all. Setting up a starter colony is incredibly easy as well, the most difficult part is getting enough colonists in one spot at the same time. That obstacle can be cheesed a bit by taking multiple trips and freeze drying colonists in orbit, and maybe there are other tricks I don't know about. The colony can definitely be set up before getting a single capital ship, or even having enough money for one, and it certainly takes some pressure off by covering the costs of one.

Of course a tiny colony can't cover a doom fleet's upkeep, nor should it be expected to. But I don't think anyone is going to argue that. Early game isn't endgame, but it has its place. Perhaps the issue is more of being extremely experienced and racing through the early game, so that early game strategies become obsolete before they even warm up.

8
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 24, 2021, 05:30:35 AM »
Colonies are only big money makers late.  Early on, they are money pits. 
But that's not true. All a colony needs to turn a profit is a handful of resources and a mining industry. Everything else is a bigger investment with a longer period of debt for a bigger payoff, which is perfectly fine. You don't NEED a level 3 alpha core starbase, marines and 600% nanoforge fleets to start colonizing.


Of course one could argue that a tiny colony takes too much baby sitting or something like that. But it's hard to lose a huge amount of investment on a tiny outpost, when so little gets invested in the first place.

9
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 12, 2021, 10:54:15 AM »
I'm not sure that can really be helped. The whole point of torpedoes is to deal devastating damage against undefended opponents, and fluxed opponents are as undefended as they get. It'd be better to consider ships that are healthy but choose to keep their shields down, I.E. trading their defense for offense. They're supposed to take hits, maybe block a few with PD, and hopefully return the favor just as well. Maybe the trade off is good, maybe it's not, but if a low tech can't benefit at all from dropping shields then something might be going wrong.

10
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 11, 2021, 08:34:41 PM »
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Alternatively, increase flux dissipation while shields are down is perhaps simpler to communicate, and incentives actually armor tanking more.

This may be easier to achieve by tweaking the shield upkeep values. Make the default flux strength between low and high tech ships a bit more equal. The tradeoff is that high tech ships have very low shield upkeep costs (so they don't feel bad about keeping shields up) while low tech ships have very high shield upkeep. A low tech ship would have much more to gain by dropping shields, making tradeoff more of a choice rather than an armor gamble. It also obviously boosts emergency venting, which further limits armor damage.


The current onslaught has 600 venting and 240 shield upkeep. Maybe the armor trade would feel better with 800 venting and 500 upkeep? It's a nerf with shields up, and a buff with shields down. Something like that. Dunno if it would require further tweaks, as it would make stabilized shield mod far more effective.

11
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 11, 2021, 12:26:04 PM »
A pristine sparkling fleet is meant to depreciate quickly. That's not a case of expecting flawless victories, that's a case of being overly picky with the fleet. An ordinary fleet has scratches and scars. Garbage ships get cycled out when a new hot ship shows up on the battlefield, so the cost of replacing ships is nearly free. The updated S-mod removal mechanics will make ship cycling a lot friendlier, since you get the bonus XP back. Losing out on S-mods(I.E. story points) was the biggest issue with standard fleet attrition.

It might be nice for bounty fleets to have fewer d-mods than average, especially for the flagship and select officers. A bounty captain with field repairs will definitely have higher quality ships than the faction standard. Better quality ships are more dangerous, and are also more juicy picks for the loot screen.

12
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 10, 2021, 09:55:04 AM »
The current bonus XP system already takes care of story points. If a player chooses to bank them, they lose out on bonus XP and end up with slower progression. If they spend too many, well that's a mistake they are allowed to make. Carrots work better than sticks, and bonus XP is a nice carrot.

13
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 10, 2021, 05:28:26 AM »
Challenge accepted, Alex will now introduce a new end game enemy that won't even use shields :)
Is it time for the return of derelict contingent zombie fleets?  ;D

14
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 09, 2021, 08:53:55 AM »
They say quantity has a quality all its own.
Do NPC fleets get access to player skills? There are quite a few skills that provide major boosts to a fleet and could dramatically impact its combat doctrine. If human fleets seem lacking, maybe that's the extra edge they need?


Haha, or maybe it's just an excuse to put Radiants into human bounty contracts. Radiants 2 stronk? Just give everyone Radiants 6head

15
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: November 08, 2021, 01:35:22 PM »
Pilums are absolutely useless and a waste of OP unless you spam a bazillion of them, or if you get off of breaking AI behaviour. I remember back when they costed 10 OP but were a bit faster, they had a use at least. Now I just leave empty if I can't afford or put literally anything else.
I actually enjoyed using pilums on the DOOM in older versions. The slow missiles act as a defensive screen, absorbing hits and protecting precious phase ship armor. When they do hit, it's a big punch. Phase ships have increased fire rate and recharge thanks to cloaking, which counters the weakest aspect of the missile pack.

I wouldn't mind if pilum missiles were hardier. Big, slow, persistent, tanky missiles are not very different from fighter craft. It might even make a nice design for fighter drones.

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