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1

Suggestions / Resource Crises

« on: March 11, 2024, 12:13:39 PM »

A thought in two parts, prompted by:

More frequent minor crises that escalate each time one triggers would help immensely with this.

First thought
The Resource Crises as they are now are triggered by your single highest export number, without any other qualifier.
What if they were instead triggered by your total market share for that resource?

Market share already takes into account all the various modifers that represent how much "stuff" you are selling to people at large in the sector.
And also accounts for you having both buffed outputs and multiple outputs, which would allow finer control of how fast these events progress.


Second thought
If we're using market share to run major events, we can also use them to run minor ones.
For instance a "trade dispute" or somesuch - where you have diminished income from a particular resource for a time, and if some form of deal is not made you get a fleet from the angry faction come and try to disrupt your industry like an expedition from previous versions.

There's not really any limit to how many of these can happen, but it's weighted towards factions that have not taken any form of action against you in a defined period of time, so you always get a bit of attention from everyone eventually.
Pirates and Pathers can be excluded becasue they already have thier own mechanics for hassling you, but everyone else can pull from a list of "reasons" as to why they're upset with you.
This could be a generic list that everyone can use, with added sub-lists for specific factions. So the Church can complain about "blasphemous packaging", and the Diktat can whine about "insulting GREAT LEADER" etc etc.

Every faction keeps a count of how many times it's been upset with you, and the higher the number the bigger the fleet/more fleets it sends.
It's a minor event so probably keep this to no-more than a decently large bounty level at max.
Some factions could also have a chance to go the opposite direction and try to mimic the Path with small sneaky fleets that creep about (Tri-Tach would absolutely try this...)

Technically you could still do all this by using the highest number, but (imo) it feels weird because you can have a massive output of <thing>, but because of poor accessiblity almost zero market share - so why would anyone else even care about this enough for it be a crisis at all?
Conversely you can have modest output with a hugely buffed accessibility that massively inflates your market share, so why isn't the bothered party any more bothered than adding +4 every month to a 600 long bar?
Using market share "solves" both issues.

2

Suggestions / Tech Mining

« on: February 19, 2024, 04:10:44 AM »

Prefacing this by stating that this whole deal may be over-complicating things a bit.
But these thoughts, they intrude...

So, Tech Mining.
The temporary industry that is a cool and good time on paper, but less so in practice.
But what if:

• It wasn't temporary
• Pooled all your tech mines into a single system
• Hooked into the crisis stuff

The idea is to have a progress bar for tech mining in general exactly like the crisis system.
Every tech mine you own adds points to the bar, and when you pass some psuedo-randomised checkpoint, you get "something".
The various checkpoints are your guys finding various things. Might be some weapons, might be modspecs or blueprints, might be useable resources. Who knows? It's p. much a randomised mix of "stuff".
When the bar fills up, there's your chance for a prize of a little more substantial nature. And then the bar empties and all the checkpoints are re-shuffled so it's different every time.

Ruins add points to the bar based on how large they are.
The point contributions do decay over time, but never reach zero. Larger ruins decay slower and cap out higher than smaller ones.
So while this would allow tech mines to be technically infinte, there would always still be the draw of fresh ruins for faster progress.

And we can plug into the crisis system with this as well, by making some of those checkpoints... Not necessarily bad, but more interactive in nature.
After all, who's to say that a successful tech mining operation wouldn't eventually become known elsewhere? And some other "interested parties" might take it upon themselves to see what they can get out of it, by fair means or foul.
Yet others might object to the practice iteself etc etc.

ruins_scattered	| Start points: 5	| Min points: 1	| Decay Time: 200 days
ruins_widespread	| Start points: 8	| Min points: 2	| Decay Time: 250 days
ruins_extensive	| Start points: 11	| Min points: 3	| Decay Time: 300 days
ruins_vast	| Start points: 15	| Min points: 4	| Decay Time: 350 days

End of the bar is ~500 points.
Checkpoints get generated every time the bar is refreshed, probably a minimum of 4 and max of 10.
They're "roughly" evenly spread out, but with some variation - maybe something like +/- 20 points.
There's no guarantee that a "bad" checkpoint won't show up at any time, but they are weighted to appear less at the start and more often as points accumulate.

3

Suggestions / Colony Items

« on: April 01, 2023, 11:54:42 AM »

Some wierd ideas for colony items that may or may not be of interest.
And potentially some interesting choices to be made where multiple items could fit in one place, but you can only pick one.

Thermal Pump

Installed in: Mining
Requirements: Organics or Volatiles present
Restrictions: None

Adds +1 to Organics and Volatiles production
Adds an additional +1 Organics for every 'step' of heat on the planet
Adds an additional +1 Volatiles for every 'step' of cold on the planet

(Mechanically a kind of variant of the bore that soft encourages colonising horrible places for material gain while still giving some use in better places. Works via some weird thermodynamic space nonsense that may as well be magic.)

[close]

Peacemaker Holosuite

Installed in: Population
Requirements: None
Restrictions: Mutually exclusive with Dealmaker

Adds +2 stability

(This could potentially be done without adding a new item - use the Dealmaker but have it 'look up' its effects based on placement. More profits or less hassle, pick one.)

[close]

Logistics Processor

Installed in: Spaceport, Waystation, Commerce
Requirements: None
Restrictions: None

Adds +10% to colony accessibility

(Places which move lots of things can be made to move things better. Yes, if you have three buildings you can have three processors.)

[close]

Security Drone Replicator

Installed in: Ground Defences
Requirements: None
Restrictions: None

Adds x1.1 multiplier to colony defence (for ref; combat replicator is x1.5)
Adds +1 stability

(Drones seem to have lots of attrition due to small arms fire even during calm periods with no unrest. How odd. Horrifyingly dystopian.)

[close]

Antimatter Separator

Installed in: Fuel Production
Requirements: None
Restrictions: None

Adds +1 to Fuel production
Reduces Volatiles demand by 1

(Alternative to the Synchrotron that trades most of its output for efficiency, but isn't as picky about placement.)

[close]

Gravitic Dynamo

Installed in: Population
Requirements: High Gravity
Restrictions: None

Adds +5% to colony accessibility
Reduces colony hazard by 10%

(Something something magic space inductor in a strong gravity field makes energy.)

[close]

Chemical Nanosynthesizer

Installed in: Light Industry
Requirements: Free Port active
Restrictions: None

Suppresses production of Domestic and Luxury goods
Adds +3 to production of Drugs
Reduces stability by 3

(Lots of drugs. Potentially lots of money. Might be a huge gamble, might not. Who can say?)

[close]

Micro Relay

Installed in: Waystation
Requirements: None
Restrictions: Not size 5 or higher

Allows network updates and access in-system
Increases Waystation building maintenance cost x5
Adds -50 to colony growth

(Sort of a safeguard/tradeoff that allows the QoL of a relay without using a stable point, but it gimps the colony because no-one wants to live next to a huge cancer source.)

[close]

Co-ordination Processor

Installed in: High Command
Requirements: None
Restrictions: None

Gives player shared visibility from owned fleets in this system

[close]

Geothermal Accumulator

Installed in: Population
Requirements: Tectonic Activity or Extreme Tectonic Activity
Restrictions: None

Reduces colony hazard by 10% for Tectonic Activity
Reduces colony hazard by 20% for Extreme Tectonic Activity

(Something something Mohorovicic discontinuity, abundant energy from wobbly rocks can be used help mitigate problems etc.)

[close]

Fluid Kinetic Consolidator

Installed in: Population
Requirements: Extreme Weather, Water Covered Surface or Gas Giant
Restrictions: None

Reduces colony hazard by 10% for low atmospheric density
Reduces colony hazard by 15% for normal atmospheric density
Reduces colony hazard by 20% for high atmospheric density

(Something something giant turbines, lots of energy etc etc.)

[close]

Nanoactive Insulation

Installed in: Population
Requirements: Non-optimal temperature
Restrictions: None

Reduces colony hazard by 10% for heat/cold
Reduces colony hazard by 20% for extreme heat/cold

[close]

Also, forum unicode aversion not allowing me to spell Mohorovicic properly

4

Suggestions / [UI] Weapon Groups in Combat

« on: December 03, 2022, 03:08:36 AM »

When the player starts to use larger ships, the weapon groups display in combat can become quite... Expansive. It covers up a non-trivial amount of display space that effectively obscures some part of the action.
Such as:

Spoiler

[close]

Also with the weapon groups on display, there exists an odd incentive to have as few different weapon types on your ship as possible, and have them grouped in a certain way in order to condense the list as far as possible so it doesn't cover up as much of the screen (same types grouped together so you get 1 line of 4x instead of 4 lines of 1x etc).
A fairly minor consideration, but one that does have an effect on the player.

It would be nice if there were an option to hide/remove this if the player is so inclined.
This could potentially be done in the combat screen with a clickable element in the group header.

Spoiler

[close]

Which when picked would result in the following, which would remain set until the player reverts it:

Spoiler

[close]

The difference is actually more jarring when viewed side-to-side, instead of just "imagining" what it would be like.
This would have no effect at all on how weapon groups work, and all preset groups will still be accessible via thier corresponding number. All that's changed is the up-front information has been hidden.

Alternatively, if this is not possible / desirable there could be a menu option to toggle this information (defaulted to "on").

Spoiler

[close]

Imo this is a less "elegant" and less immediately obvious option, but arguably more consistant with the current game configuration.

As I tend to gravitate toward larger, slower ships that are easier for me to control, I've been finding that the weapon groups are frequently "in the way" of what's going on. And since I prefer not to micromanage and only ever control a single weapon group, the collected group data isn't really all that useful to me.
I'd much rather see more of the action, and if that could be an option that would be really nice.

5

Discussions / Slipways

« on: September 30, 2022, 04:54:45 AM »

So, after yet more medical nonsense I've found myself wanting a bit of distraction without needing a lot of concentration/effort.
And I found a gem that I'd never heard of before called Slipways.
https://slipways.net



The premise is you're taking Humanity to the stars under the collective 'wing' of five older races.
You pick an area to colonise and then 3 out of the 5 races as advisors, then you all get sent via wormhole to this undeveloped area.

The game itself is an economic/logistics puzzle, with each planet having inputs it needs to fucntion, and outputs that feed other planets.
And the whole thing is linked together by the titular Slipways - which are straight line point-to-point connections than can't cross or go through things.
As you play your advisors will give you tasks based on which 'gimmick' they are based on. So you might get asked to find x number of new planets by the explorer guy, or produce y amount of research output by the science guy etc.
And then you do your best to make all your planets as prosperous as possible within 25 years, at the end of which you're given a score.



It's HARD.
Like legitimately confounding at first. It took me a while to 'get' that there's always a stable loop of inputs and outputs at the start, it's just sometimes hard to find in the ocean of possibilites.
But as you play it starts making sense, and you start noticing all these weird little quirks that can be exploited everywhere (by design).
And each advisor race gives you access to various technologies you can research to give you new abilities, or sometimes change the rules. And sometimes break them entirely.

I'm terrible at it, but I can't leave it alone.
This game owns p. hard.
And it has some of the most chill music I've heard in ages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEro2EGBcOU

Would recommend, especially if you're looking for something a bit more on the relaxing side.

6

Suggestions / Minor Cosmetics

« on: August 30, 2022, 03:30:38 AM »

A couple of minor things that could be streamlined and/or made clearer:


Ship Repair Notifications

After a battle you will sometimes see a large number of ships repairing in quick succession, completely overtaking the notification area and pushing everything else off-screen.

This becomes the norm if the player ever learns the Field Repairs skill which provides a non-zero level of free repairs meaning ships will tend to repair 'instantly' after battle if not significantly damaged.
Having singular ships being repaired and being presented to the player by name is fine.
But overloading the notification area with multiple concurrent items to the detriment of everything else is less than ideal.

Suggest to change the format of these notifications to match the same as with general intel - multiple concurrent notifications are 'stacked' into a single item.
For repairs it might look something like



Weapons Group Display

In battle, your display data at the bottom of the screen shows detail of whatever the currently selected weapon group contains.


It would be useful if the weapon group showed if any of the weapons in the currently selected group were disabled.
Something like

7

General Discussion / Clipped Wings - An Eagle Thread

« on: July 26, 2022, 01:06:06 AM »

Prompted by this:

At this point I feel like I should make yet another new thread, but for Eagle. Then again I'd surely be detected by the system as a bot or something.

Caveat: I am incredibly biased. I do not like the Eagle. Like, at all.

--

So, Eagle thread. Feel free to try and convince me (or anyone really) the Eagle is cool and good.
What's my beef with the Eagle anyway?

Well, it's not that the Eagle is specifically bad per se, it's more that it's just not good. It doesn't seem to have anything it can do that another ship cannot do better.
It has many attributes, some of them are even fairly good. In a vacuum.
However, unlike any other ship in the game Eagle has all it's attributes conflict with each other in what is a perfect storm of disappointment and mediocrity.
It's the exemplar of Jack of no trades, master of none, Eagle just is.

Eagle has a very underwhelming speed. But it also has a mobility system. Cool!
Unfortunately, even with this system active it is not fast enough to chase or run away from things.

It's weapons are... Confused tbh.
Short-ranged energy weapons are mounted towards the back of the ship, away from targets.

While long-ranged ballistic weapons are mounted in the nose, and fixed so they cannot be aimed without turning the whole ship.
Since it's a cuiser, Eagle's turn rate is not stellar. But it has a mobilty system that fixes that!
Neat. But that system can't be active all the time, so Eagle spends a significant amount of time not being able to use arguably its most useful weapons.
Cool.

Missiles. Eagle has 2x small missile mounts. Which for a cruiser is effectively zero.
Eagle cannot meaningfully do flux-free burst damage at all.
Which is huge. And not in a good way.

In order to use all it's weapons Eagle needs to not only face it's target, but stay within range of it's gimped energy guns set far back on the hull.
Which means that in order to do any damage to anything Eagle must always create flux close to the enemy.
So it's always getting flux built on it from 2 sources.
And since it cannot rely on missiles this means it cannot "reset" fights to create openings to attack/escape.

Eagle has decent armour. But not enough that you'd want to use it as a primary defence.
So it must rely on shields to defend itself.
When it gets attacked, it will raise shields. And hits will raise flux.
Okay. No different to any other ship, so what's the problem?

Here's where the confluence of compromise takes effect...
Eagle has to create flux to attack.
And create more to defend.
It can't reset the fight to vent.
It's armour isn't strong enough to use in place of shields.
And it can't run away.

So what happens is the Eagle will attack, and if it can't defeat it's target in that initial exchange, it will stall.
It will get fluxed out and start flickering it's shields while it's armour and hull gets pecked away.
And then it dies.
In every version of the game I have ever played, the AI Eagle behaves like this. I stopped using them entirely because they're so... Disappointing.
Even as an enemy AI Eagles are one of the easiest targets, simply because they can't cope with being shot at, can't meaningfully hurt you beyond thier opening volley, and can't run away.

Even in a fleet setting where most of these issues are mitigated to some degree, Eagle is a consistent underperformer because it just cannot get damage onto targets fast enough to be worth the effort of fielding it.
I will take any other cruiser (and a few destroyers) in preference to Eagle any day of any week.
In most situations I'll take a pile of supplies and fuel in preference to Eagle

Some (maybe most) other ships in the game have one or more of these "issues".
But Eagle is the only one that has them all, and it suffers badly because of it.
And that is why I don't like the Eagle.

How can Eagle be improved?
More speed?
More missiles?
Less awkward gun layout?

Apparently this is important:

And please include in your OP that the deployment cost is currently 20 in the dev build. I think that's crucial for this type of discussion.

8

Suggestions / Intel/Map Features

« on: July 24, 2022, 07:57:15 AM »

Intel Screen - Fleet Log
Would it be possible to automatically remove fleet log entries for objects that have been found/interacted/salvaged?
My log always ends up being borderline unusable with a million arrows going in every direction on the map because I never remeber to check if x, y, z thing was in the log or not and remove stuff.
Something will prompt me to look at the log map, and it will be this and I'll be like "no thank you". (That sector is 100% explored as well.)

Intel Screen - Important
Could any locations given by the Historian be automatically flagged as important please?
I've taken to manually flagging them as the entires get 'lost' otherwise, and they seem like the sort of thing that you'd want to prioritise in any case.

<Tab> Sector Navigation Map
With the addition of the Galatia questline, it might be an idea to have active gates show up on the navigation map in a similar manner to warning beacons.
This would be useful as it would remove the need to swap in and out of the system map view repeatedly to find a gate.

9

Suggestions / Faction Hostilities

« on: June 09, 2022, 03:46:52 AM »

It would be nice if factions would behave a little more proactively when they fall out.
As it is currently they do little else other than lazily swipe at passing fleets like a bored cat who is completely uninterested in chasing the "toy".

I would like to suggest that "hostilities" be broken up into three discrete stages, each with its own behaviour and goals.
With each subsequent stage having a chance to be entered after <x> amount of time in the previous stage has been passed.
Some "events" will be low-level and never progress beyond the first stage, but others may go further as the rng dictates.

Stage 1: Tensions
This would be the same as currently exists. The factions take no specific action against each other, but thier respective fleets will try to engage thier opponents if they're nearby and feel like they can win.
Nothing really exciting happens - it's just background noise plus a few extra debris fields.

Stage 2: Escalation
The respective factions will start to spawn small and medium sized fleets which they will then send out to thier opponents territory to "cause trouble".
This will take the form of controlling infrastructure (if available), attacking smaller patrols, and disrupting trade fleets.
These "aggressor" fleets will try to stay away from large defence fleets and stations.

Stage 3: Conflict
In addition to Stage 2 activities the factions now start creating larger fleets, whose sole purpose is to disprupt thier opponent's orbital support structures.
Aka - destroy stations.
If successful, these fleets will try to "hold" the system and attack any opposing fleets until they're recalled or driven off.

If the player is commissioned with one of these involved factions, they may be tasked with activites based on thier faction reputation, level/skills and general fleet compostion.
Whether this would be a summons to report to a particular place to recieve orders, or those orders being sent directly is something to consider. (Possibly could be both - let the rng pick which method is used for variety.)
There could also be the opportunity to have faction contacts provide a means for the player to request specific activities to participate in if they so choose.

It may be worth also considering applying a condition to systems affected by stages 2 & 3 similar to the pirate raid malus that gets applied when hostile fleets show up, and removed once hostilities end.
At no point during any stage will any permanent effects be created. No territory will change hands. This is all entertaining, yet transitory fluff because Starsector is not a 4x.

And while it would be fun/interesting if these fleets were to disrupt facilities on thier opponents colonies as well, that would stray into permanent territory as core colonies are fragile little snowflakes who will already be struggling with the loss of trade fleets.
To this end it might be worth looking at giving npc/core colonies a bit of extra leeway with respect to resource shortages so they don't decivilise quite so readily.
(This would be useful in it's own right tbh.)

10

Suggestions / Commerce Split

« on: January 10, 2022, 09:08:37 AM »

Goal: Re-work Commerce into a multi stage building in the same manner the military base.

Reason: I like having access to a market, I dislike the stability malus and industry requirement, and I don't really care about an extra bucket of money on top of all the pre-existing ones.


How I imagine this would work is that Commerce would start out as a structure, which when built does nothing except add a market. Let's also say that for the sake of argument this also gives -1 stability just for continunity.
So you pay for access to a market (and your colony showing up on the best buy/sell lists) with some upkeep and some minor stability loss.

This structure could then be upgraded, and doing so turns it into an industry and adds the current income/stability effects.
It's also possible that there could be more than 1 upgrade level, so it would be possible to spread the income vs. stability tradeoff a bit wider, and have the player spend more money to achieve the higher income boost.

One possible arrangment might be:

• Colony Market (Structure) - Adds a market to the colony, -1 Stability
• Trader's Bazaar (Industry) - Adds 10% to colony income, -2 Stability
• Commerce (Industry) - Adds 25% to colony income, -3 Stability

What to do with the holosuite though?
Well the two (or however many) commerce stages are easy, the same bonus, just scaled to match.
Commerce is the same as now, so +50%.  (Total +75%)
The new Bazaar is (approx.) half that, so +25%.  (Total +35%)

Does the basic colony structure really need to put a holosuite in it?
On one hand you could argue yes due to continuity, and the military base/patrol HQ already setting the precedent.
But on the other it doesn't really matter imo.
If it was able to be put into the basic market structure, it should only really do something local and small. Like maybe boost the income, but only from the population (hiring out holosuites to the public or w/e), or reduce the tariff a bit (this might have to be adopted into the other stages as well).

So our potential final arrangement could look like:

• Colony Market (Structure) - Adds a market to the colony, -1 Stability (Holosuite reduces tariff to 20%)
• Trader's Bazaar (Industry) - Adds 10% to colony income, -2 Stability (Holosuite increases income by an additional 25% and reduces tariff to 10%)
• Commerce (Industry) - Adds 25% to colony income, -3 Stability (Holosuite increases income by an additional 50% and removes tariff)

"But I don't want to build a market because it makes me press a button when it didn't before."
The same workaround that exists now will still work - Don't build a market/commerce.
Nothing would change in that regard.
Although it would be nice if there were a setting somewhere to toggle which opens by default. Or just straight up swap the behaviour round and always have storage be the default.

11

Suggestions / Disengage From Station

« on: December 25, 2021, 03:47:59 AM »

Occaisionally when approaching a hostile station, a small fleet will tag you and force an encounter with the station + fleet which you must then disengage from if you wish to dock there.
However, this causes a significant loss of CR which cannot be avoided, except by engaging the station. Which then precludes docking there, thus defeating the point of the visit.
Sometimes this can happen multiple times in a row, and while the expense of recovering a significant amount of CR could be considered a 'cost of doing business', it is not at all a fun experience.

Would it be possible to add the story point options to disengage from these encounters in line with all the other ones?

12

Discussions / How to become a planet

« on: April 24, 2021, 11:33:46 AM »

Seeing as I'm currently doing a fair impersonation of a pan doing a noisy simmer, I thought I'd share something.
How to make the best damn fried rice.

Stage 1: Rice

You'll need:

• A saucepan with a lid
• Long grain rice
• Water
• Salt or some other flavouring
• Frozen peas (optional)

Measure out a suitable quantity of rice using any convenient means.
A rough guide is a mug suitable for tea/coffee holds enough rice for 4-6 servings, depending on how hungry you are.
Tip the rice into the saucepan, then fill up the kettle and boil some water.
Using the same thing you measured the rice with, measure out 2 of those of boiling water and tip them in to the pan with the rice. Give it a quick stir with a spoon/fork/whatever.
Add some salt or whatever other seasoning you like, then turn on the heat as high as it will go and wait for the water to start boiling again.
As soon as you see the water bubble over, turn the heat to the lowest it will go and put the lid on.

During the cooking it is important to leave it alone. Resist the tempatation to stir it, or even touch it in any way.
The rice will take 10-20 mins to cook depending on how much there is. A single full tea/coffee mug will take ~15 mins.
If you want to be fancy, you can throw some frozen peas on top of the rice halfway through.

When you get near the time, take the lid off and look. If the rice looks dry use a fork/spoon to gently move a small portion of rice away from the side so you can see the bottom of the pan.
If it still looks wet or moist, put the lid back on and give it another couple of minutes.
If it looks dry it's done.

At this point you can put it to one side and leave it while you do other things.
It doesn't matter if it goes cold.

Alternatively, if you can't be bothered doing this get a bag/pot of pre-cooked rice. That will work just as well.

Stage 2: Preparation

You'll need:

• Eggs - we don't know how many yet, so have half-a-dozen handy
• Soy Sauce - dark is better than light for this, but any will do
• Cooking oil - any kind will do
• Salt & Pepper
• Carrot - finely chopped (optional)
• A clove of garlic or 1/2 tps garlic paste (optional)
• Pre-cooked rice
• A wok or large frying pan

First thing to do is cut up all the veggies if you're using those.
Cut the carrots into the smallest cubes you can manage, 3-4 mm accross is fine. They're not going to get much cooking time so bigger pieces don't do so well.
Mince the garlic as finely as you can manage, then put it all to one side.

Get a tablespoon and use that to spoon the cooked rice out of the pan and into a large mixing bowl. Heap them up, load that spoon as best you can.
And here's the important bit; count how many spoons of rice you move from the pan to the bowl.
For every 4 scoops of rice you'll need 1 egg. So if you count out 15 spoons you'll need 3 eggs etc. (Don't worry about any remainder.)
This number is also important later.

Crack the required number of eggs into a suitable vessel and whisk. When fully mixed put the eggs into the mixing bowl with the rice.
Add however much salt & pepper you feel like - but remember we're using soy sauce so it's going to have some salt already.
Measure out some cooking oil with a tablespoon (yes, it can be the same one), and add the same number of spoons as you added eggs. And then add 1 spoon of oil to your wok/frying pan.
Measure out some soy sauce and add it to the bowl of rice - again use the same amount of spoons as eggs.
Throw in all the chopped carrots.

Give the whole thing a good mix around to make sure everything is fully coated.
It should look like an unsettling shiny brown mess at this point. Don't worry, it will get better.
This is done for now, so set it aside while you get ready for the last part.
If you wanted to anything else in, such as pre-cooked onions, shrimp, cooked chicken scraps, whatever, throw them all in at this stage and give it a good mix.

Stage 3 - Cooking

We already have everything we need from the previous stages, so now it's all just putting it together.

The wok/frying pan already has some oil in it from the last part, so add all the minced garlic if you're using that and put the pan on a high heat.
Have your bowl of brown mush handy along with a spatula.
As soon as you see either the oil start to shimmer or the garlic start to fizz, add all the rice/egg mixture to the pan and use the spatula to keep the rice moving.
If you're blessed with actual co-ordination you can 'flick' the contents of the pan to keep everything moving. (I am not blessed.)
The important thing is to keep the heat high and not let anything stick. Keep it all moving.

After a couple of minutes you will see the rice 'dry' out and stop looking shiny, and it will start to accumulate little particles of egg.
When all the rice has stopped looking shiny, and all the egg looks like it's stuck to the rice it's done.

Enjoy your new spherical self.

13

Suggestions / Field Repairs

« on: March 29, 2021, 10:26:40 AM »

Possibly consider moving the "randomly repairs d-mods" part of FR to an elite ability.

It seems like a green point would be a worthwhile investment for those who are keen on fixing up ships.
While having this particular ability be optional would allow the player to double-tap the colony skills at the end of the path without undermining a "junk build".

A player currently having Field Repairs and Derelict Contingent together is completely compromising the ability from DC.

14

Suggestions / Derelict Contingent

« on: March 28, 2021, 12:17:29 PM »

DC reads like it is supposed to be the junkfleet option, but currently doesn't offer anything useful that regard.

What it does:
For every d-mod a ship has, it gets extra CR, crew protection, and a chance to vastly reduce any damage that hits hull.
But only for ships with officers.

That's it.
Interesting, and maybe sort of okay if you have lots of officers. But otherwise entirely useless if you don't.

What I'd like to propose is that this particular skill gets something added to it to make it a proper 'opposite' to the Field Repairs skill (making bad ships good).

The current ability would stay as it is. Having things depend on officers is okay (if a little annoying sometimes).
What would be added are two of the things that have been removed which made the 'junk' playstyle actually work:

• Passive maintenance reduction from d-mods
• Effects from d-mods are reduced

Both of these could fit fairly easily into the new fleet capacity framework, although too small a limit here would undermine the purpose of picking a 'junk' playstyle. (Ships are cheap. Deploy everything, let Ludd sort them out.)
But having it entirely uncapped and apply to the whole fleet without restriction might be a little too good (if entirely thematic).

One of these would also need splitting off to become the 'elite' skill, but I'm not sure which way round would make more sense.
I'm leaning towards the effect reduction being the elite, as that seems more situational. Whereas if the maint. reduction was elite it would likely always be taken and so be a 'story tax'.

So something like:

• Reduces maint. costs for any ship by 20% per d-mod (same mechanic as previously)
• Reduces negative effects of d-mods by 50% (rounded up - to avoid weird interaction with drive field mod)

Both applying fully upto somewhere between 100-150 deployment points. And scales so the effect diminishes thereafter.
Applies to all (d)amaged ships in the fleet.

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Suggestions / [cosmetic] Faction Colours: Player vs. Tri-tachyon

« on: March 09, 2021, 04:51:05 AM »

Fairly sure this has been mentioned before, but it is still something of an issue.

Tri-Tachyon and the player faction have very similar colours, to the point that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between them.

This can make reading some info panels (and busy fleet displays) a bit more of a chore than it should really be due to having to read into additional context instead of just mentally separating things by colour.

Would it be possible to look at altering Tri-Tachyon to use a slightly darker blue?

In the above example, the colour setting used was 50,159,236,255