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

Author Topic: After played some Starsector 0.7a / 0.72a - my first impressions and opinions  (Read 1968 times)

ChrisKvn

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  • The very first impression is that the music and sound effect design is superb - and only after quite some hours did the music become a tiny bit repetitive.

  • Generally every enjoyable, the flux mechanic is especially neat. That being said, here are some issues I found:

  • In the Character Upgrade menu, the listed unlockable hullmods (whose existence is not even mentioned until then) are meaningless for a new player without a mouseover. Also, for quicker nagivation Fleetwide and Piloted Ship only upgrades would benefit from a specific icon.

  • A mission starts, and too often I fly right into an asteroid while still on autopilot. Ouch. AIs also bump into these all the time. Same for destroyed fighters.

  • The intel map needs a way to calculate distances and travel time in hyperspace and solar systems. Something like
    "stellar cartography" so I know if I can make a delivery contract or go for a bounty in time (with or without emergency burn). Maybe make that a leadership skill? At least jump points now know their nearest planets.

  • That map should also show or remember which goods are available on which market, not just events related to them. Where can I find Blue Lobster again?

  • Regarding Missions, "Random Battles" should come in smaller sizes, e.g. only up to Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, i.e. not always include Capitals Ships. The latter are just too cumbersome and slow for my tastes. And I always go "fire everything!", overload and then get shot to pieces :/

  • When setting a course for a remote star on the map, any click while flying the ship there (e.g. to avoid a hyperspace storm or investigate a radar blip), resets the course to that click. Maybe introduce a shift-click or so to fly there and then resume the previous course?

  • And maybe not just Ctrl-1...9 for weapon groups but also Ctrl-Mousewheel so page through them? Or a Ctrl click which opens a fancy radial menu to select weapons and their autofire settings?

  • I have to admit the entire command point system idea is not quite clear to me. The point limit is to ensure a battle is not played out in a click-consuming RTS manner, but there are not enough points or precise enough commands to formulate a general plan. Plus they don't replenish. E.g. tell some ships to attack or harass what I/the flagship have targeted or what targets me (escorts don't quite do that), tell the carriers to stay behind other ships at all times, and while a defensive "avoid" (without an "all" or "until", which has to be set manually) command is there, I can't seem to chain up attack priorities. The system seems to be centered around static points, which quickly become obsolete as everything moves around. The Orders vs Assignment distinction is not quit clear to me either regarding point consumption. It is also hard to learn, because selecting something and then clicking somewhere eats command points like crazy, with no undo option.

  • I often want to split my fleet temporarily to go after fast targets. That would also make battles more diverse later in the game - when every battle is a big one I sometimes just want to pit 3 of my best small ships against a somewhat larger (but faster) force.

  • Might not make much sense in 2D, but I have the urge to sneak up on fleets (maybe for a "suprised" bonus) orbiting a planet from the other side. But then how would I know something orbits that planet? Maybe break up the linear corellation between fleet size and sensor and detection range. Can't I just put more sensors on my ships or get dedicated ships for that?

  • Two weapons in the same group with alternate fire set have their weapons archs switch to the other side after every shot! That gets annoying fast, if they are identical maybe draw both until the mouse is released again?

  • And finally, I'd love a "start (skip launcher), load newest save and pause the game" command line option for the StarfarerLauncher.



Edit: ...well, that turned out longer than I expected and more "opinions" than "impressions", but I still hope it is helpful :)
« Last Edit: October 03, 2016, 01:45:37 PM by ChrisKvn »
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Gothars

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Hi, welcome to the forum :)

Since these are more ideas than impressions, I'll move the thread to the suggestions board.

You make many good points. Let me address a few:


    A mission starts, and too often I fly right into an
asteroid while still on autopilot. Ouch.

Strange, ships entering the map should stop their burn when an asteroid is near, and for me they do. Are you seeing this under certain conditions or always?

Quote
Regarding Missions, "Random Battles" should come in smaller sizes, e.g. only up to Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, i.e. not always include Capitals Ships.

Good idea, that would help training for the early phase of the campaign.


Quote
When setting a course for a remote star on the map, any click while flying the ship there (e.g. to avoid a hyperspace storm or investigate a radar blip), resets the course to that click. Maybe introduce a shift-click or so to fly there and then resume the previous course?


I believe that travel is only going to become more varied and complex, so straight line-of-sight traveling will become less and less viable. A new mini-map/radar widget in the next version will help with navigating complex environments.
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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

DownTheDrain

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Strange, ships entering the map should stop their burn when an asteroid is near, and for me they do. Are you seeing this under certain conditions or always?

That happens quite a bit for me as well.
You can sort of tell that the ship tries to slow down in time but it doesn't always succeed. Maybe that's linked to the asteroid having momentum as well, no idea.

That said, the collision damage is rarely an issue. Having asteroids in the way at the start of a battle and thus losing all the initial speed boost is pretty annoying whether you hit the damn rocks or not.
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