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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 - Kaucukovnik

Pages: [1] 2 3
1
Mods / Re: [0.9.1a] Interesting Portraits Pack (v1.0)
« on: February 21, 2020, 02:24:37 PM »
bo-oy is renaming all those pictures not fun :P ).

You can use Total Commander file manager to batch rename files -select files, press Ctrl+M, edit the formula, press Enter. The shareware version is unrestricted besides a nag screen on startup.
I know it's a bit late now, but you may still find it useful in the future.

2
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: May 06, 2017, 05:59:36 AM »
I don't think making every dent in armor cost crew would be a good idea anyway, so hull is just fine.

Since flux-free fire is both the easiest and the most balanced option, we have a winner. Inclusion of energy weapons might be desirable depending on field tests.
The animation will be the ribcage glowing, serving as a radiator along the ship's spine:

And I can do without the lights on knees and in hangar bays.

3
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: May 06, 2017, 04:31:38 AM »
Thanks for your response. It would be great to get at least one of these two working.

At that point I think you'd need to make the ship be 'cheap' supplies-wise, and use console commands to remove crew as upkeep if that ship is in your fleet
I had repairs during combat in mind, I didn't make that clear enough. Could be extended outside combat too, as I think of it.

Quote
when you mean flux from rising, do you mean from all sources, or just shooting?
I suppose flux-free shooting would be fine. All sources would be nice, but a lot more difficult, I suppose.
I intend the ships to punch above their weight, similar to Templars.

I should have made the animation part clearer too. It's exactly what you described that I need to plop my animation in. Nothing as fancy as Tartiflette does, just a bunch of frames at static coordinates. Ping-pong functionality would be handy to save on identical turning on/turning off frames.

4
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: May 05, 2017, 10:29:39 AM »
All right, since 0.8 is out, my biggest excuse for not putting the ships in game is gone. :) Trylobot's editor is excellent, so no problems there so far. But could someone code a ship system and a hullmod for me?
I have the following in mind:
Spoiler
Hullmod: Regrowth - the ship can slowly repair an amount of its hull at the cost of Crew.
System: Core Radiator - prevents flux from rising and doubles ballistics rate of fire for a short duration, accompanied by sprite animation
[close]

That's it, at least for now. I will list you as a full-fledged co-creator for those two things alone, because otherwise I'm stumped.

5
Mods / Re: [0.8a] Diable Avionics 1.81 (04/05/2017)
« on: May 05, 2017, 10:12:11 AM »
Just a minor nitpick, most of your mods' title images don't fit the page on a non-widescreen. 1280x1024 here.

Anyways, thanks for all the updates to 0.8! Playing only with vanilla content so far, but I don't think I'll be able to resist much longer. :)

6
Mods / Re: [0.8a] Combat Chatter v1.7.1 (fixes 2017-04-24)
« on: May 05, 2017, 01:11:15 AM »
This is the first mod I'm installing in 0.8. I managed to forget how much difference it makes.

7
General Discussion / Re: How can I command fighers?
« on: May 05, 2017, 01:05:52 AM »
The game doesn't have solid mechanics for AI-assisted action combat - wingmen, quick orders and stances. Instead it has a very good tactical UI. Please don't gut the latter before bringing in some shape of the former.

I think I can sometimes see the intent behind the combat. A few times I managed to lead an assault, my fleet following on its own and overwhelming the enemy. Usually they barely care. Sometimes AI controlled fighters just swarm a ship and utterly destroy it, at other times they repeatedly get shot wing after wing and don't accomplish anything.
The combat is spectacular when working right and infuriating when not.
It doesn't help that the enemy would be happy to kite you for the entirety of every battle, then go "Uhh...getting loww on CR...bye!" The AI has abundance of patience and it seems to be learning to use it. :( And they don't care about supplies after all, do they?

8
General Discussion / Re: .8 feedback thread
« on: May 03, 2017, 07:55:56 AM »
I think I hate any incarnation of skills in StarSector. The true progression is the fleet and the flagship, while the skills are more like gatekeepers to have full use of that progression. They needlessly refocus from building up your fleet to even repeatedly trashing your fleet for the sake of experience and, effectively, better future fleet. Officer skills are fine, but way too random.

I was writing a longer post, but it always descends into ranting. I'll just call v0.8 "Starsector: Carriers on a Survey". And I'll shut up for now and play some more. :)

Just one more thing: the tutorial is way too easy to botch without even knowing how. I didn't fail to notice the quicksave hint, no need to make it flash even more - it just looks like a mere tip and I didn't feel like saving when I had just started. I had to read the forums to find out what was going on. On the next try I mothballed the salvaged ships for the return trip, thus missing the free repair. Finally there was no final battle at the jump point and I just went through, looking for things to fight retroactively.
I bet it's a nice introduction when it works properly.

9
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: March 29, 2017, 04:53:03 AM »
Hi everyone! I've been distracted lately, mainly by a new GPU making more demanding games playable. Still, advancements have been made.

Current pilot roster:


And the fleet:

The titty frigate still needs more detail and definition, especially the face. I'm quite happy with the skull frigate though.
The screaming plane is a bomber and the one with the tongue is a fighter. Some beam weapon is planned for the latter, preferably resembling the tongue extending further.
Every skull and face will be upside down in some situations, so I shouldn't overdo it with them.

Another idea is giving at least some of the ships hull/armor auto-regen that consumes crew. The next SS release won't have crew experience levels, so this should be manageable, both coding and gameplay wise. It should probably stop at skeleton crew or slightly above.

Regarding the colors, I'll most likely go for 2 options. I think it's totally worth the time swapping the sprites.

10
Blog Posts / Re: Skill Overhaul
« on: March 05, 2017, 01:38:01 AM »
I have read only a couple of pages, so I apologize if my points have been already brought up.

I very much like the idea of high level combat being more defensive. Fresh captains are much more prone to fatal mistakes, while veterans may be long waiting for an opening on either side.

What I don't like is the idea of weapon range bonus based on fleet size.
1. Not sure if bigger fleet isn't already enough of an advantage on its own
2. I'd imagine that pooling sensor data wouldn't be some arcane, specialist technique. The ships already have sensors, communications and computers, so the only prerequisite is the software and maybe a crew member operating it. A relatively tiny dedicated piece of computing hardware at most, an overclocked i7 would probably do well. :)
3. It suggests that all weapons, regardless of technology, have their effective range limited by targeting. During combat we experience the fact that they simply deal no damage beyond their range. Is the additional info enabling more capacitors in my lasers and pouring more fuel into my missiles?

Speed and maneuvering bonuses make sense, as better information gives better foresight and the mechanic can represent small decisions that are not being simulated. Damage bonus makes sense too, more data about the target can help.
You can explain arbitrary balancing mechanics by technology, but at some point all reasoning becomes an equivalent of "a wizard did it".

When it comes to fleet combat being a compelling, viable option, the single biggest deterrent for me is the lack of control. I would love to be able to assign roles or simple scripts to my ships. Define preferred range based on shields, armor and hull, how far from allied ships should they stray in pursuit or retreat... Switching those behaviors during battle should cost command points.
Mechanic like this could also help the AI understand some custom loadouts better. "This one is an emergency defense weapon, please don't be suicidal with it".

For sensors I'd love something more involved than a "better sensors" hullmod. Not necessarily active systems like Apogee's probes, but some numbers to crunch. Building a dedicated sensor vessel with reduced profile relative to its scanning range, maybe have some per-weapon damage bonus so that pinpoint weapons would get more out of better sensors than big boom destructors.

11
General Discussion / Re: Shields - how to overwhelm them?
« on: December 01, 2016, 08:20:52 AM »
If the enemy manages to catch most of your HE with shield, you have major disadvantage in the flux war. What use is it to have huge anti-armor capability if you are the first one to drop the shield?

On the other hand the only time kinetic weapons are at clear disadvantage is when the target is too weak or unprepared to shield itself. Which is the most acceptable time, you don't want a penalty when it's being decided which ship is heading for overload.

Even 1-2 second delay before re-activating shields would make their use more of a tactical decision, rather than a twitch reflex thing. Such a short pause wouldn't even need any UI indicator. The quick shield hullmod could reduce the delay to make agile shields still an option.

12
Modding / Re: Superfreighters
« on: December 01, 2016, 05:54:02 AM »
because 25 atlas are better than 25 hounds. The Atlas aren't supposed to be useful for someone concerned with fuel/cargo efficiency, if you're dividing those two numbers it's not the ship for you

It has damn good stats in vanilla. It's the smaller freighters from mods what breaks it.

And if I was to accept the ship limit being a thing for everyone and affecting shipbuilding industry, what happened then so that no more than 25 ships can travel together, ever?

And let's try to deduce some further lore from UI and gameplay limitations in the current build:
-Like ships, there cannot be too many captains in a single fleet, it's below half the max number of ships actually. Not every ship can a afford a captain these days, you know? Maybe they are all horrible people and bicker constantly if kept in greater concentrations.
-Captains cannot plot automatic course that is not straight, nor can they task another crew member with piloting while they drink their hot Earl Grey. You cannot really trust anyone but yourself. Luckily sleep has been eliminated so that an admiral can personally babysit his fleet 24/7.
-People no longer eat food nor require payment beyond the initial hire. Having a known name and face means you cannot die at all, just like ship captains and station officers. Keeping in contact has become difficult though, you will never meet again a captain you dismissed.
-Planetary conquest is completely forbidden (almost forgot this one thanks to Nexerelin). Despite all the war and misery, people are decent enough that they don't conquer each other's planets or stations anymore. War is waged exclusively to cause annoyance, create trading opportunities and gain experience points.

Wow, the Collapse must really have been something!

You see, I happily overlook gameplay mechanics that don't have an in-universe explanation, unless the world and the way it works is also heavily affected by them. Everything I listed above is silly, but I don't have to be bothered by it. I wouldn't treat my crew different if they died of old age over time. If one of my captains died, I'd probably reload anyway. They are limitations built around the gameplay so that I don't bump into them while weighing my options.

With vanilla cargo efficiency, the need for cost effective cargo space doesn't drive you into the fleet size limit. You don't balance your fleet against, but within the limit. You want the Atlas because it takes only one slot AND has reasonable costs.
With mod freighters you basically pay fuel and supplies for free slots. You get Eschaton to have it take up only 1 slot INSTEAD of reasonable costs.

tl;dr:
If you base a limitation entirely around gameplay balance or scope and disregard in-universe logic, don't make the player work their way around it all the time. It will only make its artificiality more apparent.

13
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: November 30, 2016, 08:29:46 PM »
I get it with the edges & greebles now. Will look into it.

The eye height - I started with the open visors and didn't account for the closed pin obscuring vision. The lady is fine though, and the dude next to her got his shades just a bit lower.
The spacesuits are intended to look clunky and odd, or are they even spacesuits?
Still not sure about the colors. The simpler ones match the ships more and have some elegance to them, but the colors make them fit with vanilla faces better.


14
Modding / Re: Biomechanoids (WIP)
« on: November 30, 2016, 07:30:57 AM »
Update!



I'm basically stealing color palette from Perihelion (http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/perihelion/screenshots). Strongly recommended, by the way. A somewhat obtuse and difficult, but quite short and incredibly atmospheric post-apocalyptic horror RPG.

Twisted ships need twisted pilots:


15
General Discussion / Re: Shields - how to overwhelm them?
« on: November 29, 2016, 10:39:31 AM »
Exactly, that was the main point of my original post. They drop the shield, you try to whack them and they just flicker their shield precisely to negate every single shot's specific bonus, if at all possible. Anything that doesn't hit instantly or deal constant stream of damage is bound to hit the surface it is the weakest against.

It doesn't help that the AI is omniscient - it can recognize every weapon immediately, knows the damage type, rate of fire and range, even including hullmods and skills.


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