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[borgrel]

I think some of this is down to luck, although maybe it wouldn't hurt to have it be a bit more populated.

i thought the whole point of the random gen was to have some randomness to the populated sectors?
(amazing worlds btw, and the flocking algorithm seems to be working spectacularly)

we were warned that the recognized systems would still be there but i got the impression from the blog that sprinkled in amongst them would be whole new systems with unexpected faction interactions because of the randomness of it and how, even slightly, that trickling outwards that would change the feel of every game because of those random elements.

also we'd end up with different compositions most games would have more heg than anything else but some would find sindrian holding the bigger pie and some would find the pirates being actually scary etc.

did i misunderstand?

[Embolism]

My guess is that variable faction holdings will come when Outposts become a thing.

[gruberscomplete]

So far I have found 2 warning beacons. A yellow and a red one.

The yellow one was outside a system containing a few meager low-tech drone fleets.

The red one's system had many high-tech drone death fleets.


Is this random or deliberate?

[Alex]

i thought the whole point of the random gen was to have some randomness to the populated sectors?
(amazing worlds btw, and the flocking algorithm seems to be working spectacularly)

we were warned that the recognized systems would still be there but i got the impression from the blog that sprinkled in amongst them would be whole new systems with unexpected faction interactions because of the randomness of it and how, even slightly, that trickling outwards that would change the feel of every game because of those random elements.

also we'd end up with different compositions most games would have more heg than anything else but some would find sindrian holding the bigger pie and some would find the pirates being actually scary etc.

did i misunderstand?

The core worlds are always going to be hand-crafted, yeah - I think you did get the wrong impression; my apologies.

It's possible some outposts and such could be dynamic - we'll see how all that pans out - but generally speaking, the idea is for the stuff you go exploring to be dynamic, and for the core to be (at least mostly) hand-made.

So far I have found 2 warning beacons. A yellow and a red one.

The yellow one was outside a system containing a few meager low-tech drone fleets.

The red one's system had many high-tech drone death fleets.

Is this random or deliberate?

There's also "orange".

[Midnight Kitsune]

Sorry about you having to put up with my whining...

's all good

I see that I have nine beacons in my small, mixed sector and they are all on the opposite side of the map I was exploring... >.<
Is nine beacons right though? It sounds REALLY low.
And five were in an 8 by 16 area in hyperspace and the other four were paired together in decently close systems.
My seed if you need it:

Spoiler

MS-1616422382981239483

[close]

Some pictures of the hyper map:

Spoiler

http://imgur.com/a/Uek2t

[close]

Nine sounds about right for a small Sector in terms of what to expect - although I might have to reconsider whether it might make sense to make it more dense. Hmm. It's fair to say that not a lot of the testing was in a small Sector (though some certainly was).

... but systems outside the core are filled with massive money and no danger.

I think some of this is down to luck, although maybe it wouldn't hurt to have it be a bit more populated.

One thing I might suggest is an anti clumping logic(is that the right word for this?) that helps spread out the beacon systems so it doesn't end up like my map. And that could also help balance them as they could possibly be balance breaking if found by a decent player. The player could sneak in and grab some high level gear and end up getting a MASSIVE jump in power

[Thaago]

that's almost certainly horribly wrong

glad to hear it! guess i'll have to do some more exploring, then.

I'm slowly working my way around the outer edge of the system map searching for anything dangerous - cleared 12 systems so far. I found a Domain mothership - fun, but trivialized because I had two carriers, each with Broadsword + Piranha, and Piranha's eat the slow, unshielded exploration ships alive.

Quest chains are really cool! Thats how I found the mothership in fact - a probe led me to an abandoned station led me to the mothership. That was a lot of fun chasing down.

Meanwhile, I just got jumped by a pirate fleet with a Dominator when I went back in to refuel, and that ship alone is more powerful than everything in the outer system so far combined.

Haven't found any orange or red beacons yet, looking forward to them!

[Sy]

that's almost certainly horribly wrong

glad to hear it! guess i'll have to do some more exploring, then.

I TAKE IT BACK!! D:

Spoiler

[close]

no but seriously, this is great! guess i'll actually pay attention to warning beacons from now on...

[Thaago]

Oooooh that looks fun! Guess I really need to go hunting down those beacons!

Just had a thought: it seems like all of the Domain Exploration ships are optional in terms of fighting them right? They won't chase a player down. So why not increase their difficulty by a factor of 5 or so? That would mean that a player needs a few combat frigates to approach probes and might need a couple cruisers to take down a mothership.

[Alex]

Just had a thought: it seems like all of the Domain Exploration ships are optional in terms of fighting them right? They won't chase a player down. So why not increase their difficulty by a factor of 5 or so? That would mean that a player needs a few combat frigates to approach probes and might need a couple cruisers to take down a mothership.

They're supposed to be the bottom tier of exploration content so you can get started on something. But maybe that's already filled by stuff that doesn't fight back. Then again, stuff that doesn't fight back at all is inherently less fun and so probably shouldn't be one's first step in the salvaging ladder. Possibly a use case for gradually increasing difficulty (with time, perhaps, or with probes etc attacked and salvaged).

[SCC]

They're supposed to be the bottom tier of exploration content so you can get started on something. But maybe that's already filled by stuff that doesn't fight back. Then again, stuff that doesn't fight back at all is inherently less fun and so probably shouldn't be one's first step in the salvaging ladder. Possibly a use case for gradually increasing difficulty (with time, perhaps, or with probes etc attacked and salvaged).

Spoiler

Make bots actually respond to "vanishing" probes and ships and start sending scout fleets loose. They would follow you so killer-hunter fleet could eliminate the threat...
But nobody said it has to be actually fast or stealthy, so the player could catch up on it and retreat in time if he isn't ready for it.
(Wworse option) Or have AI try to herd player's ship towards immobile survey ship.

[close]

[borgrel]

I think leave the frigates the way they are, its a pretty good easy lvl

However i suggest giving the destroyer and above probe automated defenses some form of shield replacement (like draft armour or templar shield but obviously not identical) (unless u want the templars to be the long lost descendants of the REDACTED)

That way even in destroyer tier combat the probe defenses will still be easy because in a 2 destroyer + 4-6 frigates vs 2 destroyer + frigs combat or 1 destroyer + frigs vs 1 destroyer + frigs; the probe destroyers will quickly be outnumbered and surrounded.

And by cruiser level even though there's still more frigs than anything else it makes a lot less difference if they evaporate quickly.

This way u have an easy start but it builds towards 'standard' difficulty and doesn't give new players a false sense of game difficulty.

[Thaago]

Just had a thought: it seems like all of the Domain Exploration ships are optional in terms of fighting them right? They won't chase a player down. So why not increase their difficulty by a factor of 5 or so? That would mean that a player needs a few combat frigates to approach probes and might need a couple cruisers to take down a mothership.

They're supposed to be the bottom tier of exploration content so you can get started on something. But maybe that's already filled by stuff that doesn't fight back. Then again, stuff that doesn't fight back at all is inherently less fun and so probably shouldn't be one's first step in the salvaging ladder. Possibly a use case for gradually increasing difficulty (with time, perhaps, or with probes etc attacked and salvaged).

That makes sense, and in the very early game I didn't mind as I only had the wolf and Shepard. But now I don't want to pass up a probe because its valuable and might have intel, but the easy fight gets tedious. Hrmm...

[sycspysycspy]

i salvaged one space station with more than 1000 food and  200 supplies. that is considered treasure?

[Voyager I]

Just had a thought: it seems like all of the Domain Exploration ships are optional in terms of fighting them right? They won't chase a player down. So why not increase their difficulty by a factor of 5 or so? That would mean that a player needs a few combat frigates to approach probes and might need a couple cruisers to take down a mothership.

They're supposed to be the bottom tier of exploration content so you can get started on something. But maybe that's already filled by stuff that doesn't fight back. Then again, stuff that doesn't fight back at all is inherently less fun and so probably shouldn't be one's first step in the salvaging ladder. Possibly a use case for gradually increasing difficulty (with time, perhaps, or with probes etc attacked and salvaged).

I mean, the issue with the probes isn't so much difficulty as that they're just boring.  They don't really play the game with you the way other ships do, which combined with them taking kind of a while to kill makes them a minor tedium tax on probe salvaging.  That said, their bone simple AI provided a much-needed starting point for new players to beat up on if they aren't ready to deal with stuff like Pirate Wolves teleporting around, so I'm not sure how much room there is to make their behaviors more nuanced without defeating their very much justified purpose in the game.

Honestly, I'd say just let us salvage a Domain Era IFF transponder or whatever that lets us bypass the fights entirely after the early game (with some handwaving mechanic to maintain loot parity, and maybe different levels of defenders requiring different levels of security access or whatever so you can make skipping probe fights easy without giving up free motherships).  They're the rats in the tutorial dungeon; they fulfill a necessary roll in the game, but the player sure doesn't want to still be fighting them hours after they've served their purpose.

[Cosmitz]

Ahh, I'm so glad that's working! Really wanted those to become natural "quest chains".

I don't quite know about that. I was hyped for my first Survey ship, it told me it was in the system i was already checking.. but.. didn't pinpoint it in any way. I had to get the Neutrino and use that (luckily was a mostly dead sector), but otherwise i wouldn't have found it, deep in a nebula to the edge of the sector.

Speaking of location issues, i'm having like 4 pirates in the same system, each with 'near barren planet' or other such remark, all under 1 month or about there, old, and the system is /empty/ of any named pirate bounty fleets.