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

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Topics - Ryan390

Pages: [1]
1
General Discussion / Steam deck eligibility
« on: August 08, 2023, 01:07:06 PM »
Has anyone tried it on a steam deck yet? I'm wondering if it'll be worth a try or how difficult / finicky the key bindings are.

Obviously one advantage of a game released on Steam is you get pretty good community control bindings, but with it being non steam, is it viable?


2
Discussions / Atomic Heart
« on: March 13, 2023, 11:25:17 AM »
Anyone else played it since release? Any thoughts?

I'm really enjoying it so far, it has a couple of issues, but runs really well on PC and is fun to play.

3
General Discussion / Next Update?
« on: December 04, 2022, 01:13:56 AM »
Do we know if the next update is going to be a version release with content, or another blog article update?

4
General Discussion / Vapourware?
« on: March 02, 2022, 06:14:58 AM »
Is this game still being finished towards 1.0? As in story progression etc?

I see we are adding new ships and features like the slipstream lanes, is the story progression actively being worked on?

Roughly if so how close might that be to a 1.0? I know you can't give a date, or possibly even a rough estimation..

But in terms of are we years off or months off? We've had a close to 1.0 product for a while now.. Except maybe the skills system needing constant refinement, every other mechanic is pretty much there.

I think a steam release with a 1.0 would really give you a nice new wave of sales too, not sure if you're planning a 1.0 steam release (or why you wouldn't) but there would certainly be money in that.

12+ years of development you probably want to be financially compensated for that.. A 1.0 would give you that.

Not saying to rush development, I think we can safely say if anything it's been anything else but rushed. As mentioned it's been close to a 1.0 product in look and feel and polish, for some time now, albeit an evolving skill system.

I don't see why finishing the story off and getting a release out should be a problem, or take many more years to do.

Sometimes you can keep trying to change a formula so much that you end up breaking it, it's a bit like body dysmorphia. Sometimes there isn't a problem there but you believe there is.

Before you know it you have Michael Jacksons nose?



5
Discussions / A Really Fun Distraction!
« on: April 27, 2021, 12:49:58 AM »
I've recently discovered another game which is a lot of fun, albeit a very different type of game to Star Sector, yet similar in some ways.
It's called "Transcendence" - You can pick it up on steam with all the official expansions for a dirt cheap price.

It's really addictive and a lot of fun. A nice way to fill the time while I'm waiting for 1.0 in Star Sector.

It's also a good example of how you merge story elements with actual real-time flying and travelling around.

Give it a go and let me know what you think.
It's been in development longer than Star Sector, believe it or not!

6
Suggestions / Bodyguard Fleets
« on: April 07, 2021, 10:27:10 AM »
It would be a cool feature to have where a mercenary fleet can follow your fleet and assist you in fights or raids or whatever.
Shouldn't be too difficult to implement, just follow the player through jump points etc..

Pay a fee and they will help you till that time expires or they are destroyed or whatever. Would be a really fun thing to be able to do IMO..

7
General Discussion / Latest Impressions
« on: April 05, 2021, 10:32:52 AM »
Firstly, thanks Alex and everyone who's worked on this game so far, it's really impressive and definitely one of a kind.

Couple of things that stood out for me in the latest version:

- Skill system feels rather restrictive (I know a lot of people have mentioned this) I must say, I actually like it but it becomes a problem when you want to start incorporating automated fleets.

- Which brings me onto my second issue.. Why is CR limited for automated fleets to ridiculously low levels? Even with the hard earned automation skill and an 'alpha' core (fully integrated with a story point too) - is apparently enough to raise CR to just 50%. I don't like this feature at all it's purely restrictive for no apparent good reason. Keep it fun!
   I don't understand why I had to find an explanation for 'why' I was getting low CR in a tooltip / popup. That's a bit late to know after all my skills are already invested at level 15.. really really bad mechanic!

- The story I'd like to say was interesting but it was a constant barrage of reading / go over there / fetch this / fly here / explore that / talk to him.. The only bit I genuinely enjoyed was 'that special encounter' - which I will not spoil for anyone who's not done it yet. The rest is very laborious, as a player you just want to end up progressing it because you're
   waiting for the good interesting stuff to happen. Appreciate things need some build-up but this isn't it IMHO. Reams and reams of text does not make such an otherwise interactive, deep game more engaging, it takes you away from that IMO.

- The story thread stops rather abruptly after making the player wait so patiently and jumping through so many hoops.. With a version of 0.95a, I'm wondering how much story content and progression is actually going to follow on, which is worrying.

- Having a large fleet but still only being able to deploy a few of the players ships is incredibly annoying. CPU fleets more often than not end up deploying most, if not all of their ships, making a lot of fights impossible to win as the player if you take any inkling of a deployment penalty.

- The tutorial is focused a lot around ship control and combat but I feel it's missing a section to explain some of the core game mechanics like dealing with phase frigates or explaining some of the more hidden mechanics in the game

- Something seems to have been 'changed' in regards to how frequent asteroids impact the drive bubble, ships take damage and asteroids hit 'all time time!' This catches you off guard when trying to attack a pirate base in an asteroid belt,  the CR damage is extreme in some cases. I find it a very frustrating experience IMHO, I'd revert this back to what it was. There's no real way around it, travelling slow still seems to cause the impacts so I'm not sure what the thought process is here. 


Otherwise a solid title, I could rattle off other gripes but those were the things that stood out most. In the back of your mind think 'Is this fun what I'm about to do or change' It's not always what makes sense, usually gameplay and fun go hand in hand, not everything has to be mechanical, restrictive or sterile.

Cheers

8
General Discussion / Easter Egg Spotted
« on: April 05, 2021, 07:53:19 AM »
Not sure if it's much of an Easter Egg but did anyone else spot the reference to the game 'Half-Life' in some of the narrative / story writing yet?

I'm not giving anything away due to spoilers but I just wanted you to know - I see what you did there!

9
General Discussion / Story Progression????
« on: April 03, 2021, 06:18:05 AM »
I've done the "Red Planet" Mission as that was the end of the story line from previous versions, but I believe there's a lot more now?

After completing that red planet thread, what next??

Checked on multiple bars on different planets, built up a pretty big fleet, got 3 colonies at decent size etc..
Completed loads of missions, explored all the back holes and most of the other stars are explored.

How do I advance? It's really unobvious, having to post or look for a guide online on how to progress is pretty poor to be honest.
I'm really not understanding why it's so hidden away and difficult to progress the story?


10
Bug Reports & Support / Smuggling Mission Broke
« on: March 27, 2021, 03:34:00 AM »
Not sure if this is known or not but did a smuggling mission and when arrived at the planet there was noone there to complete the mission with.

I  did mention it in another channel but some arsy moderator must of deleted or moved it.
Anyone else had that issue?
Seems like there's quite a few issues with 0.95a


11
Modding / Mod Idea
« on: June 27, 2020, 01:23:06 AM »
Is it possible to create a mod whereby you start your piloting career as a humble fighter pilot?
A bit like a 2D version of wing commander  ::)

So it would be cool as a starting option, you could be assigned against a carrier (which you don't potentially control)
Getting paid for participating in battles, slowly building up your wealth until you can afford your first frigate, potentially complete your fighter service and receive some rewards / perks.

Potentially not possible, I know currently the vanilla version of the game doesn't offer the ability to pilot fighter ships.
Fighters are weak and have low / no shields so you could be killed very quickly. I think in this scenario, you'd have to give the player a bit more shields & hp for game play reasons.

I dunno, just a thought, a lot of stuff has already been done just trying to think out the box..
it's probably not even possible I guess?

Or maybe someone has already done it?
 

12
General Discussion / Feedback #1
« on: June 11, 2019, 05:26:15 AM »
    Hi Guys,

    After coming back to the game many years since its early conception - I've put quite a lot of hours into Star Sector and managed to "finish" a play through.
    In terms of finish I really mean I have a huge fleet ranging from paragon to pretty much every other ship type.

    Most are in storage as I can only fit 30 ships in my fleet at a given time (More on this in a second)
    Also I have a max level character (level 50) - max number of colonies based on my character build.
    Not to mention finish the story currently on offer (more on this later also)

    That being said, I'm still playing my save as there is loads more stuff I want to do in the Sector. 
    The concept of "finish" is really a relative concept, based on one's ambitions within the game..

    Anyway...
    I thought it's probably a good idea to give some feedback, some of it may help.
    I'm hoping most of the concepts I mention are felt by other people, I don't want to go against the grain of where this amazing product is heading.
    Personally, I don't believe in expecting huge features to be realistically implemented.

    So, I'm keeping my feedback / suggestions to be purely based on what experiences I had as a player.
    These should be fairly (hopefully) easy to implement, if not that's totally fine just ignore them!  :)

    Ok!

    • Story.. I know, I know... we all want it, hopefully. I can't wait to see what happens next, there's so much that can be done with the story / lore!
      This will naturally develop in time, so I almost didn't want to mention it. However I feel it's probably the main thing I'd like to see drive forward.
      Apologies for mentioning this, good luck on the implementation! I look forward to something big happening. Shake up our beloved Sector and blow our minds!
    • Maximum character level - I hit this level pretty fast I guess, does it need to be capped at 50? Raising this can only promote people playing longer?
      I didn't realise the cap was at 50, I'd of put more skill points into colony management otherwise. I'm surprised that I can't hire an extra Administrator, but I look after 10 officers.
      The officer cap at level 20 is fine, I don't see any issues with this itself personally.
    • Maximum fleet deployment points (300) - This limitation seemed a bit like a smoking gun. Is there a reason for this limitation, in terms of performance reasons?
      When a players fleet gets larger and larger it becomes difficult to deploy anything other than the first few capital ships. Bigger battles are more fun too.  ;D
    • Fleet deployment handy-cap (similar to above) This happens when a bigger fleet attacks a smaller fleet, causing the smaller fleet to be able to deploy less than the bigger fleet.
      I'll be honest I dislike this mechanic the most out of all. It makes getting ambushed by an armada even worse than it already is when your at a size disadvantage.
      I'd suggest back tracking on this mechanic, for a level playing field. Then, increasing the deployment cap to at least 500 for both sides.

    That's enough for now I guess. There are other things I'd like to mention but these above are the most obvious that I can see.
    I noticed the pattern of suggestions I had are really around increasing some of the limits which are currently imposed.

    There's probably a good reason for some of them, I'm guessing.
    We can't have "unlimited" amount of ships on the screen at any given time obviously.

    However, if a new player can hit these max levels pretty quick then I feel raising them is a fairly quick solution to this.
     



13
General Discussion / Congratulations are in order!
« on: June 04, 2019, 02:38:40 PM »
Hello Starsector community,


Firstly, congratulations to Alex and any / all developers / artists who have worked on Starsector over the years.
I remember this game back when it was just a single system, with only a couple of factions floating around.

After returning quite a few years later, I see you've been very busy!

A galaxy which can be travelled, colonies, ship building, factions & reputations, story system (at least some), plenty of quests, bars, hire-able crew.. etc..etc..
Wow!

How addictive this game suddenly is!
It's absolutely evaporating all my free time at the moment, and I freaking love it!


You've really smashed it guys, from the audio to the atmosphere & combat system. The colony management is pretty cool too, even in this early stage.
I'm sure there still even more you can do and look forward to the updates.

Currently enjoying my first colony, aptly named "Pirate Hunters" - I absolutely hate pirates (in a fun way) so I'm dedicated to wiping them out.
They just keep on coming though, throwing themselves against my orbital battle station, its so much fun to watch!!


The only real thing I'd like to see is focus on attempting to flesh out the story mode.
I think there's some really exciting things going on in the Starsector galaxy, such as the inactive domain gates, floating domain AI etc..
There's lots of possibilities to really inject some surprises for the player as the story eventually develops, looking forward to that!

Congratulations again! Keep smashing it, I look forward to something big happening next in our beloved galaxy. 

14
General Discussion / Terrible Game
« on: July 22, 2018, 11:50:31 AM »
I can't believe how difficult the game is and how punishing the game is for every decision a player can make.
It could actually be really fun but no, the player is constantly stripped of all ships, due to clicking on the wrong piece of space or going down a wrong jump hole.

Missions are all pretty much the same, there doesn't seem to be any real aim after completing the tutorial mission.. Or Story, even after this many years in development..


 * There seems hardly any point in amassing a fleet and trying to fight pirates or anything, it always results in a loss of earnings, non profitable. *
Bounty hunting seems the only legit reason to even fight in this game, or to defend yourself, which is all the time..

Supplies are required way too much for everything, and are way too expensive to replace, doesn't make the game fun at all, it's just an outright chore to play..
So disappointing, I preferred the game in its early alpha, why have you had to make it so complicated and difficult to play?


This post from another fella also puts it quite well:

Quote
The ratio of cost/reward is horrificly unbalanced.  I slowly but surely get drained of resources to the point where I'm stuck in a random sector somewhere, out of fuel, and unable to do anything.  As you progress the AI ships and fleets get bigger and more powerful, requiring you to match or outmatch what you would normally encounter.  This means more resources, fuel, etc to keep playing the game.  Eventually those resources run dry.  There's no way to "farm" anything in this game, as every attempt you make after the first attempt yields less resources at a heavier resource drain to do said farming.

I've been waiting for an update that alleviates this.  I've had SS sitting on my desktop, staring me in the face, saying "hey, play me".  But I put about 20 hours into this game the first month I picked it up, and haven't played it since.  As it stands, if this game were on steam, I would give it a negative review.  I feel like I threw $20 away on a game that is so punishingly hard, the mechanics make it so that you are beaten down to the point of defeat just as you are getting your feet off the ground.  The push to constantly explore new sectors, that get farther and farther away, at the increased cost of fuel and resources, only to find nothing in those sectors, really makes it so that you can never beat this game.  It is literally impossible to beat this game.  And I don't want the hardcore super experienced players say "just keep playing it".  I'm telling you, as a newbie to this game, I find it unplayable, and I have put it down months ago and haven't come back to it.


Of course, fan boy hate is incoming, surely other people must experience this?





 

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