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46

General Discussion / Re: Domain's Return?

« on: September 02, 2016, 12:00:58 PM »

I think I'd prefer it if you were the one to discover the mystery behind the closed gates and get to decide if you want to unlock them or not. A sudden opening might disrupt whatever plans you had in the Sector and put time pressure on you for everything you do before.

Fair point. I rather like the pressure of knowing the Black Knights Domain is coming and the risk their appearance may throw a wrench into the gears of whatever I was doing if I'm not quick enough about it, but of course that won't necessarily be the case for everyone. I think the ideal solution would be to let the player choose which scenario they want to go with.

I'm pretty sure the Domain would wreck any ship or technology the Sector currently has surpassing even Tri-Tachyon's since it has been over 200 years since the Collapse. In other words, the invasion of Domain space would be a VERY daunting task. Plus, if heavily defended the attacker would need a 5:1 superiority assuming they were lazy and didn't develop any new technologies.

Counterpoint: 200 years after the Romans pulled out of Britain it was commonly believed Hadrian's Wall must have been built by giants. Granted, there are some pretty significant differences between the setting of Starsector and Britain ~1,600 years ago, not least of them being a written historical record and, presumably, widespread literacy among the population, but even with those in place it's still human nature to exaggerate the details in order to make a more exciting tale. I think it would actually be pretty cool if David were telling fish stories to some extent with the lore about the power of the Domain.

...that said i would love to entrench myself against a massive onslaught of high tech ships being thrown at me by the domain.

Which is precisely the point. I understand, according to the lore as currently written, a Domain invasion of the sector would see them effortlessly steamrolling any and all resistance, but that wouldn't make for a very fun game, and gameplay < ALL. Ultimately, the lore, just like everything else, should be fundamentally geared toward the purpose of making the game more fun to play - and I say this as a lore nerd.

Furthermore I'd imagine the end game of "winning" said gate turning back on; is destroying your gate. making it so that if the domain wants to come mess with you again, it's going to take a long time. and you'll have had time to prepare/ die and it's not your problem  anymore

Now there's an idea. You don't have to beat the Domain, you just have to stem the tide of their advance. Keeps to the spirit of the lore while still allowing for the possibility of the big knock down, drag out excitement at end game. Personally, I think I prefer the idea of the conventional wisdom about the Domain's power being somewhat exaggerated better (never let it be said I don't know how to toot my own horn :p), but that works just as well and would potentially mean less work for Alex and David. Assuming the idea ever becomes more than a fun little topic of discussion on the forums, anyway.

47

General Discussion / Re: When generating mission demands, are player stockpiles factored in?

« on: September 02, 2016, 10:00:49 AM »

I've done quite a bit of trading in 0.7.2a and never really noticed any link between market conditions/stockpiles and generated missions. It all seems to be fairly random.

'Course, that's all purely anecdotal; I've absolutely no knowledge of the underlying programming, so, y'know, grain of salt and all that.

48

General Discussion / Re: weapon availability

« on: September 02, 2016, 09:53:59 AM »

You could also try to work up your rep with the Independents enough to get access to Nortia's military market. HVDs don't show up terribly often there either, of course, but two markets is better than one, especially with both being in the same system.

49

General Discussion / Re: Domain's Return?

« on: September 01, 2016, 12:18:16 PM »

Whether mod or expansion, I dig the idea as an endgame challenge. I'm thinking something along the lines of the invasion of Calradia in the Native Expansion mod for Mount&Blade: after so many hours played, on a randomized date the gates suddenly activate again and Domain ships (or those of who/whatever killed the Domain) start pouring through, their captains demanding submission from everyone they encounter and blasting into space dust anyone who resists (or takes too long to obey). Their fleets are massive, their tech top-of-the-line, to make them a real challenge even if the player has more or less established dominance throughout the sector - by which point, of course, you might well have decided you rather like being big fish in a small pond and the Domain or whoever else can go suck an egg if they think you're just going to roll over for them like that. Cue massive, sector-wide conflict to end the game on a glorious high note.

Or maybe you decide the Domain is welcome to that backward pisswater of a sector. The Hegemony, the Tri-Tachs and all the rest have always been a bunch o' right bastards and you have a good thing going out in uncharted space. You'll watch from your primary outpost and toast their demise.

Lots of directions you could go with it, especially once industry is implemented and there's more to the game than constant combat for its own sake.

50

Blog Posts / Re: Fighter Redesign

« on: August 28, 2016, 11:13:03 AM »

Also, I hope for a faction that has special faction variants (you know, like the hegemony legion ships) that specialize in hangar deck hullmods. Maybe the Lion's Guard?

I'd be all for this. One of my minor criticisms of the game right now is the fact every faction excepting Tri-Tachyon would be virtually indistinguishable from one another were it not for the colored circles surrounding them. The more can be done to differentiate them both cosmetically and behaviorally, the better, IMO.

51

General Discussion / Re: Overall feedback on ships and weapons

« on: August 22, 2016, 05:06:58 PM »

It's interesting to see the loadouts you come up with for each ship. Not a one of 'em is anything remotely close to any of my own so far. 'Course, I'm generally not a big fan of SO/UI builds. They're certainly effective when played right, just not my cup o' tea; I prefer a less aggressive, more balanced approach.

I've found the Kite (A) retains conditional usefulness even into the late game as an objective capper, especially during pursuits. Stick it with a couple swarmer racks and a light (dual) machine gun in the ballistic slot, deploy one on each side and tell 'em to cap the nav bouys while you clean up the remnants of the opposing fleet. Same for the Wolf, which is the ship I use to do said clean up.

52

General Discussion / Re: What "niches" are still open for cruiser and capital ships?

« on: August 09, 2016, 06:10:36 PM »

Honestly, I just want to see more ships. I know the setting is one of post-collapse scarcity, but visually the only difference between the Sindrian Diktat and the Luddic Church is the color of the circles around their fleets. The Hegemony is slightly more distinguished thanks to the XIV ships, but it's still largely in the same boat. Tri-Tachyon is really the only faction that's visually distinctive in any way. At the very least, I'd like to see a capital ship and/or cruiser that's more or less exclusive to each faction to give them all a bit more character beyond the flavor text.

53

General Discussion / Re: Tactics vs. Carrier Fleet

« on: August 09, 2016, 04:37:15 PM »

Damn, I wasn't expecting so many responses. Lots of really good ideas here; thanks a ton folks.

54

General Discussion / Tactics vs. Carrier Fleet

« on: August 08, 2016, 06:49:12 PM »

So I came across this sumbitch while playing today.

Spoiler

[close]

Normally carriers aren't a problem for me; I just transfer command to my medusa, hop behind enemy lines and hunt down the condors while my fleet handles the rest of the enemy's ships. The problem is, in this case, there's precious little else to handle, and between the eight of the bastards the battle map is essentially just wall-to-wall missiles and fighter wings. I'm basically squaring off against a zerg rush and finding, much to my frustration, none of my usual tactics seem to work. If I try to rush the carriers I get surrounded and overwhelmed and if I try to lure them out my ships start running into CR problems before the carriers simply turn tail and run as soon as their fighter hulls are exhausted anyway. I've fought fleets boasting multiple battleships gave me less grief than this one.

This is my fleet, for reference.

Spoiler

[close]

Any ideas?

55

General Discussion / Re: Ships now break apart!

« on: August 07, 2016, 12:09:52 PM »

We already have a way to say "Avoid this one" but we also need "Oh god please attack this now or we're all going to die".

Wait, we do?

/wikis

...Right. That will make capital ship engagements much easier.

56

General Discussion / Re: Vanilla Loadouts and Goals

« on: July 09, 2016, 07:14:33 PM »

Yeah, I like the points of interest idea. Adds variety, gives extra goals to work toward, could be used to flesh out contacts and such, as King Alfonzo mentioned. Seems an excellent way to implement something story-like without doing something that will get old after the first few games.

57

General Discussion / Re: Vanilla Loadouts and Goals

« on: July 04, 2016, 11:03:42 AM »

I'd almost rather Alex doesn't even bother with any sort of story, to be honest. While a good story can make an already good game great, far more often it's just another point of failure, and a game that doesn't have a story necessarily can't be weighed down by a bad one. Besides which, the sandbox nature of the game doesn't really lend itself to storytelling in the first place.

58

General Discussion / Re: Vanilla Loadouts and Goals

« on: July 03, 2016, 11:25:18 AM »

I tend to find that I start losing interest in campaigns when my ships stop 'growing'.
Once I've maxed out the weapons and technology trees, I seem to eventually enter into some kind of half-hearted just going through the motions phase. It is weird.
Hopefully some of the new features will give me something put that nonsense to rest.

I get the same way, and I chalk it up to the lack of a goal to work toward. Once you've maxed out your skills and put all the finishing touches on your unstoppable death fleet there's not really anything to do with it beyond combat for its own sake. Sure, I could do as Megas does, hunt down and destroy the big system defense fleets in, say, Corvus, just to prove I can do it, but it doesn't have any effect on the game. The Hegemony still controls the system and in a few days the game will simply spawn another batch of fleets and you're right back where you started.

I ran into the same problem in Mount&Blade when it was still in early development, and eventually Armagan and Ipek got around that by fleshing out the map and turning it into a game of conquest. I don't know if Alex intends to do the same with StarSector - despite the conceptual similarities between them they aren't necessarily the same style of game, after all - but he certainly could if he wanted to, and I think it would work just as well.

59

General Discussion / Re: Crazy Torpedo Disaster

« on: June 30, 2016, 04:45:07 PM »

poor Hound. but always nice to see people laughing at their own misery. :]

i recently managed to destroy my own Heron (carrier cruiser) because i thought it was the enemy's... <_<

I'm pretty sure everyone has destroyed at least one of their own ships at one point or another. 'Course, friendly firing a heron vs. a lasher or something... Ouch.

60

General Discussion / Re: Vanilla Loadouts and Goals

« on: June 28, 2016, 05:03:03 PM »

The only conceivable reason you might want to use an Atlas is if you're looking to do absurdly high-volume trading without having a giant, unwieldy fleet of smaller freighters. Even then, the fleet is better. First rule of effective trading is to avoid combat whenever possible. Combat costs money, both in trade goods lost should a freighter be blown up and in maintaining escort ships to deter pirate attacks. Six mules kitted out with augmented engines and safety overrides can outrun just about anything, and a couple kite (A)s and a speedy frigate as your flagship ought to be more than enough to run interference on the occasional fighter wing that actually manages to catch up while still staying beyond the reach of the main body of the enemy fleet.

I want to say there's also an abandoned station (or something of the sort) in Duzhak you can make use of as well, though I may be mistaken about that. If there is, I'd recommend using that one instead; far more centrally-located than Yma and you won't have to worry about an in-system enemy presence, though you may have to deal with the occasional bounty fleet.

Avoid Luddic Church; the sole system they control is out in a corner of nowhere.  They also have no unique ships or items.  (I do not think they sell Luddic Path ships, which are useless due to Ill-Advised Modifications.)

See, this is precisely why I'm looking forward to someday conquering the Sector in the name of the Luddic Church. I did the same thing with the Rhodoks in Mount&Blade. I have a major soft spot for the red-headed step children of sandbox faction warfare games.