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61

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: November 19, 2015, 07:59:51 PM »

Very impressed with 0.7a so far, although that could be said for pretty much every release I've seen--can't believe I've been playing this for almost four years now.

It'll take some time to get used to, just like supply / CR attrition, but the cat-and-mouse dynamic of detection grants the campaign layer an element of tactical nuance it had previously lacked. It's a creative, unique system with no easy comparison to other games, but the mechanic actually feels grounded in realism. There's a clear modern warfare analogue in managing EMCON tradeoffs--in games like Jane's Fleet Command, Modern Air Power and CMANO, balancing the need for detection with the need to stay undetected is crucial for success.

Building on this, since detection is now a key game mechanic, it'd be helpful to have more options for enhancing sensor range / effectiveness. Probably easily modded-in, but I like the idea of a new utility ship functioning as a space-AWACS. More importantly, with the removal of the burn-boosting skills, larger/slower fleets seem like they get 'bounced' constantly--one solution would be increased sensor efficacy for fleets with fighters, simulating radar pickets, CAPs, etc. Heck, that could even be a new ability for the player--toggling fighter stances to trade increased fuel / CR burn for greater detection range.

62

General Discussion / Re: The End of Food Shortage Supremacy?

« on: November 19, 2015, 05:57:12 PM »

At least from what I can tell, food prices during shortages no longer reach the extreme highs they used to--although given that I haven't been playing 0.7 very long, it's possible that prolonged trade disruptions / embargoes may result in higher prices. On the flip side, I've noticed that food gluts can drive the price down to lows well below the prior version. I've seen 1c/unit on the Intel map but wasn't able to verify firsthand.

Smuggling is definitely an option, maybe more so than it used to be. I turned 15,000c into 40,000c in one trip shipping Drugs from one of the faction ports in Valhalla to the Umbra pirate base--bought at 234c, sold at 750c. Still feeling out the new travel map abilities, but using both of the "run silent" modes and cargo shielding prevented any rep loss with the main factions (the Pirates docked me a few points for black market dealing).

63

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: November 18, 2015, 05:15:52 PM »

Me trying to resist the urge to f5

I love me some Sellers, but can't place that one. Hint?

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop F5ing and Wait for Alex

64

General Discussion / Re: Colors of Starsector

« on: October 12, 2015, 08:05:18 PM »

Every week or so I check back at this site to see whether 0.7 has made its appearance. This is the first time I haven't left disappointed

65

General Discussion / Re: Update on the Update

« on: September 19, 2015, 01:17:31 AM »

He posted yesterday (something tech support related) so I assume he's still actively working on the game. I'm not worried!

66

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.7a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: July 07, 2015, 07:10:14 PM »

I'm chomping at the bit for this update...  Every single day I check for its release!
Thank you Alex for your work, and keep going!  After this update I'm going to vigorously push this game onto like 30 friends.

Thanks for your kind words! Looking forward to this release myself

I too check the blog every day just hoping for the update to be there. Thank you for making such a great game for us to play.

I would gladly buy this game another three or four times over if it would help Alex progress through development... I'll admit, I'm awaiting this update as anxiously as I looked forward to the introduction of Campaign Mode.

67

General Discussion / Re: Starsector and market stability

« on: December 20, 2014, 08:27:24 PM »

I actually like the stability system, I think it adds an interesting dynamic beyond "buy where it's made, sell where it's used." It's also pretty neat that stability is a condition that changes over time, and that player / NPC actions (and/or lack thereof) can impact it in some ways. As with the posters above, I would flip the magnitude of stability and supply / demand impacts on price and reverse the order in which they are applied. Stability should scale the 'base' price prior to supply/demand adjustments.

There's a well-documented and rather topical real-world analogy to illustrate the underlying economic rationale: the world price of oil and debate over U.S. exports.  The cost to ship crude from Corpus Christi, TX to a refinery on the East Coast is $5-$9/bbl because of the Jones Act, which mandates that all coastal commerce be carried out in U.S.-owned, -built and -crewed ships. A foreign tanker would charge about $1.50-$2.50/bbl for the same trip; that markup is a cost attributable to the regulatory burden that reduces trading profits in a "high-stability" market.

That said, $6 is just over 10% of today's price - and only 5% of where crude was trading in July. The 50% drop in crude over the past 6 months was entirely driven by supply/demand dynamics, not regulatory arbitrage. I can see how massive instability could drive major price movement but I would expect that to be reflected in the fundamentals of a planet facing war or famine. Either way, I think the stability scalar should be baked into market prices, not applied on top. For example, the Jones Act 'stability premium' has declined lately in part because a larger share of domestic crude production is being shipped via rail and pipeline; increased tanker availability means lower domestic shipping rates. With no change in non-U.S. freight costs, oil producers abroad were forced to reduce their selling price to remain competitive with U.S. supply--resulting in a narrowing of the Brent-WTI spread.

So, ideally it'd be good to see bid / ask prices on planets reflect the stability of their major trading partners. I've quite often found myself on planets or even in sectors with nonexistent trading opportunities.

68

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: December 30, 2013, 04:09:07 AM »

I think it's safe to say we're all very excited for the upcoming patch. The recently-introduced supply / logistics / CR system is well thought-out and highly engaging, but definitely in need of continued adjustment and balancing. Based on the changelog, it seems 0.6.2 will go a long way towards refining these mechanics and improving the overall player experience. It's great to see we'll be getting some new ships, especially one which fills the very visible medium carrier void between the Gemini and the Astral. and the Easy mode should benefit both new players and veterans who want to 'fast forward' through the early game (which can be a bit grindy).

So, with this out of the way, I'm wondering what the next steps are. I assume balance changes, feature refinements and mechanical tweaks will be largely continuous throughout the remainder of development as you continue to receive feedback. Obviously, there's no such thing as too many ship designs (you've done a great job in making every class feel unique so they don't really run together in my mind), but I think the current selection is varied, well-balanced and comprehensive enough to be sufficient for development and testing of the campaign.*

With that in mind, I'm curious as to where you are in the process of fleshing-out the campaign, namely with respect to resources, trade, territory / planet control and construction. Less about where these mechanics are in development (focus has understandably been elsewhere) but I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on approach to this next phase of the process. While I'm sure the NPC factions will undergo significant additions and expansion before release, do you feel the current fleets are in a state such that meaningful implementation of these features can proceed? Are you considering a "shell" approach where the main mechanics are built out in "draft" form with ongoing refinement and content addition, or is the plan to focus on one feature at a time?

*But please keep giving us new toys!!

69

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: September 12, 2013, 11:18:09 PM »

Can't we all just get along? Maybe this should get locked before we tear each other apart in an anticipatory frenzy for 0.6a...

Couldn't you have done that much homework before posting a rant? 

Anyhow, welcome to the Forums.  We're usually nice

Appreciate the welcome but I've actually been around six months longer than you have I keep up with the boards here but haven't felt I've had anything particularly meaningful to contribute.

And yes, was referring to Alex's clarifications in this thread. I hadn't realized that much of the incremental content was so interrelated. But I do stand by my point that more frequent releases will drive broader awareness and consequently sales... It occurred to me that, with the expanded campaign and modability, this release has the potential to kick off the game's commercial viability. Lots of opportunity for exposure to a wider audience than ever before, so I can completely understand desire to get as much in and polished as possible. This is about the time in the dev cycle when Mount & Blade blew up. 

70

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: September 11, 2013, 10:29:34 PM »

After reading Alex's posts, it's pretty clear that a lot of thought has gone into the release strategy. I'm also getting increasingly hopeful due to the uses of past-tense...


 

71

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: September 11, 2013, 08:00:38 AM »

I certainly applaud Alex for what we call "managing expectations"--it's great that he hasn't blown deadlines or been silent in between updates. And his releases have been stable, relatively polished, and largely bug-free (certainly no truly game-breaking busts, here's lookin' at you Total War series).

But I do disagree with the decision to combine so many major revisions into one patch. Understanding that some changes are interrelated, going through the dev notes it appears there was enough clearly delineated content to release in several incremental updates. And, given the business model in use here, Alex would likely have profited from doing so: it's not just these forums that have gone a bit quiet, it's the half-dozen other places on the Internet where this game is discussed (how I and likely many others found this great game). The modding community would also have benefitted, but we should applaud Alex for releasing the new API early.

And yes, it's frustrating, I know. All the time, I come up with great (and some not-so-great) ideas that we simply don't have time to implement for the next meeting or deliverable. It pisses me off to no end, being at a client's offices and looking at a page and thinking to myself, "this analysis would have been so much better if we had just..." But at the end of the day, I'm glad I have people driving the process on my end that don't allow for our version of "feature creep"--otherwise, I don't think I'd ever finish a project!



*BTW, the intensity I described previously isn't unique to my firm but more of an industry-wide work culture. There are a lot of other great reasons why I absolutely love my job

72

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.6a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: September 11, 2013, 07:15:29 AM »

soon...

i will leave it here
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

I guess I just don't understand why this sort of *** is acceptable in the games industry. In my line of work, if a client is expecting something, we will put in 90, 100, 110 hours a week to make it happen. More if necessary and for months on end if need be. We are expected to give clear and realistic milestones for deliverables and move mountains to meet them. Internally, mistakes, delays and poor communication are punished harshly: you will get chewed-out on by your team and your performance comp will suffer. Excuses are not tolerated. Delays in getting production data from the engineering team? Deal with it. Client sends you their financials as outputs crookedly-scanned on a 1982 Xerox machine? Deal with it. There's a bug in your model and 20 pages in the presentation need to be redone? Hope you've stocked up on Red Bull because the meeting is still tomorrow at 9:00 AM.

I'm not saying this is ideal, or that it's resulted in a particularly happy or healthy lifestyle for anyone I know, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around how the complete opposite is the norm in the software industry. Valve isn't the only offender, it's sadly par for the course at this point. Even when games do get finished, there are a lot of mainstream releases nowadays that are so buggy that if we put out something comparably shoddy, the entire team would be summarily fired.

73

General Discussion / I am completely floored by this game

« on: February 26, 2012, 03:51:40 PM »

I'll be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I first heard of this. It was in, I believe, a thread on another website about two (then) upcoming space combat games, Space Pirates & Zombies and Starfarer. Being a big fan, I tried to get them both, but saw Starfarer was not out and bought SPAZ instead. Really a fantastic game and I recommend it to anyone that is enjoying Starfarer and wants to play a more complete game while they wait.

Maybe a week or so ago I picked up the alpha of this--it annoyed me that there was no demo because I ALWAYS try before I buy, but the descriptions looked nice and it was just $10 (I think?) so I took the plunge. Holy ***. This game is freakin' great. I mean it's obviously unfinished and the campaign is clearly a WIP but this thing blows my mind. Maybe it's because it's exactly what I've always wanted, sort of a melding of SPAZ, Mount & Blade, X3, and Escape Velocity. The battles are awesome and I can tell the campaign mode is shaping up to be sweet as well.

My advice to the devs: forget about working on battles & adding ships for no.  Battles are awesome and ship variety is fine. Get me a universe I can campaign around in, multiple systems, goods, built-out factions, etc., and I'm not sure I'll be able to leave my room for a week. Once you get that up-and-running, the modders will really have something to run with--obviously I'm sure you'd like to refine battles, add more ships, etc., before release, but right now I'm sure everyone is dying to have a playable campaign.