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

Author Topic: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)  (Read 2794 times)

eidolad

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After a week or so of both casual, and intense gaming sessions, here's some feedback in yet another wall of words :


Overall impression and shameless endorsement:

This is already a seriously kickass game experience!  And the big content updates are not even in yet...it boggles my sleep-deprived-due-to-work-and-starsector-until-midnight-for-the-past-week mind.

To the undecided:  Haven't bought the game yet?:  just buy this.  It's that good.

Starsector has many of the good things about Star Fleet Command II: Orion Pirates that I recall, and on a dynamic map.  It's what you want to play after beating the Space Pirates and Zombies campaign after having defeated and flown all of the Bounty Hunter ships.

Then come onto the forum and tell us what you love (or want to see improved) about it.  There's so much going on in this game experience already that, even after reading nearly all of the fifteen most recent pages of the general discussion forum...I know that I'm still missing key elements.

And a developer (and a large veteran community) that is listening and responding even to pure newbies who didn't spend five minutes searching the already well detailed/discussed threads here, and on reddit before asking the obvious.

______

Lessons learned

1.  To other new players reading this that, like me, got hammered badly in their first combats:  Learn to first win the flux duel before thinking about damage.  Literally:  the flux bar on your ship, raising shields only when you need it, and your target's flux are far more important to watch than the relative health bars.

2.  The other thing that I didn't understand:  jettison the excess fuel and cargo.  The supply cost overhead to haul too much will cause you eventually to have to restart.  Sure, refit that junk shieldless freighter with the four negative hull modifications (or "D-mods" as vets around here call them) if that's what is takes to get cargo space.

3.  Hyperspace (and especially, the initial jump point emergence) is a dangerous place.  It is essential to deactivate your transponder and build speed.  There are really large sharks swimming around.  Huge like the things you find in Subnautica that make you paddle away in terror. 

Well one more lession for hyperspace travel:  activate the full range option in the galaxy map...you need to ensure you have the fuel to return and quite a bit more.

_______

Play vanilla, then install some essential mods.

I liked balanced additions to the vanilla gameplay.  So I ended up with quite a conservative list that I keep playing.

The first three of the following add a well balanced mix of weapons and ships that enhance the original factions really well.  So well, in fact, that I cannot tell where vanilla stops, and the mods start.  There's a lot of sandbox replayability: randomized core worlds, number of core worlds, number of random factions, etc.  The rest are great additions (and several are required for many of the big faction mods as well).

Nexerelin
Dynasector
Ship/Weapon Pack
AutoSave
Common Radar
LazyLib
Version Checker
ZZ Audio Plus
ZZ GraphicsLib

(I tried some of the other faction mods, and while extremely cool...I first want to try (and fight against) a lot more vanilla fleet setups before venturing against them)


_______

Favorite early things:

1.  1000 range is a sweet spot for this newbie player.

My fave early destroyer to pilot is a Wolf with quad tactical laser and Swarm SRMs.  Adding 300 flux, keeping an enemy ship's shields up and unable to shed this flux load, with near-constant firing?  From 1000 range?  And if they drop shields they also receive that as damage?  Well sign me up. 

A Sunder destroyer with bigger beams and more range potential?  Check.

Except if there are fighters...then someone please provide a CAP squadron or two?

I haven't done nearly as well in combat once the range closes with something big, armored, and able to hit back hard.  I look to change that in my current game where I will build and try to play a close range ship with lots of guns.


2.  The Salamander missile system.  Just wow.  Currently I primarily both equip, and defend against, this single weapon system.  Seeking missile that delivers EMP disablement of engines.  It is deadly to a player-helmed ship.  They circle reasonably far out and approach from behind (where many players likely don't build their ships with much PD to the rear quarters).  Just two of these missiles can disable a frigate and convert it into an uncontrolled target that cannot change its current vector.  So if caught turning?  You are now spinning around and exposing your hull to everyone for way too many seconds.  Were going straight?  You will continue that way just as you are.  Oh well those are probably Mark IX rounds incoming.

Oh and they come featured in regenerating ammo systems.  Such terror and such yum.

Yet I find that there isn't a lot of discussion about them (at least in the 15 pages deep I've ventured in the forums).  After a week of play up until now, I'd managed to avoid being hit by them...even over fighters they are a reason to mount accurate PD to flanks and aft.  At least in the early game.  I'm going to see how far I can continue to make a Salamander-heavy fleet loadout work for me.  Of course mixed with lots of other flying objects as cover.


3.  Semi-hard core sandbox play: 
Like XCom: Enemy Unknown and XCom2, the game really shines when playing "semi"  hard core...no save scumming for me unless I really screw up and get intercepted by 25 ships or something.

There's nothing quite like being a bit tired and thinking "that's a friendly here deep in purple people land no worries" and it turns out to be a pirate armada twice your weight in cruiser metal and a ton of frigates coming to say hi.  My d-mod single carrier, single cruiser, and four destroyers and I'm flying a Wolf vs. THAT? And I fail to evade and all of my support ships are deployed as well?

...and actually defeating all of their combat ships and only losing a 1/3 of overall ships.

My early key to the semi-hard core experience:  the "reinforced hull" modification.  It has a very high chance of allow that "lost" ship to be recovered.  Damaged, but alive.  Sorry about the crew that weren't picked up during Search and Rescue though.  All my ships have Reinforced Hull.  Sorry about my bank account but as Michael Jordan said:  "To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail":  learn that is why Starsector has a pause button.  Use it when nearing a jump gate or emerging to/from hyperspace.  Large unknown contacts are to be evaded.  Just because. 

Unfortunately I was compelled to attach my late watch officer to a Salamander and fire him out the tube.  He survived, was picked up during SAR and is back on duty as a fighter pilot.



Suggestions and feedback:

1.  Squadrons:

(caveat:  I don't entirely understand how a carrier draws from its crew for squadron deployment.  I'm assuming that every crew member, all the way down to skeleton crew level, is considered a "potential fighter or bomber pilot" if the current Combat Rating of the carrier allows it to field the squadrons)

a.  Tweak squadron lifetime:  I read several very detailed discussions about whether or not carriers (and their fighters) are unbalanced.  My simple suggestion is to examine and tweak the endurance of the squadrons, but otherwise leave their combat power relatively the same as now.

- the carriers evidently are a hyperspace-capable nanoforge factory and hauler of a ton of raw material to pump out armed, fueled, and ready fighters and bombers.  Great!  But surely they don't have and endless supply of military-grade pilots.  So a set, limited, number of crew that may be considered "pilots".  Even though the carrier may have Combat Rating budget...there can only be so many pilots available.  Late in an engagement:  there will no longer be pilots and thus no more squadrons.

Starsector missiles are ammo as surely as the squadrons are...

b.  Also:  If implementing the above, please add a hullmod that allows a carrier to host more pilots and/or rare "pilot pods" weapons:   medium or large weapon "bays" that have "a bunch of pilots in hammocks, sipping beer and watching Top Gun movie reruns".  Maybe only the pirates have these...

c.  And those "pilots" are useless as skeleton crew.  They just sleep in their hammocks and fly their little planes unless told to sit in a chair and written instructions to press the blue buttons at a certain time by their ground crew that are actually flying the ship.


2.  Need a persistent HUD warning in bold red text for new players about excessive cargo or fuel.  This was the #1 issue with my first four hours of playing the game.  I sunk my first bank account flying around without knowing I had too much stuff (I think i might have closed a popup warning without having read it accidentally).

A single popup message about a persistent money draining issue isn't enough to help new players...


3.  I would luv an "enemy suppression barrage" artillery missile:  it fires a downrange packet of autonomous drones that slow and damage small stuff in  set area of effect:  missiles and drones.  Kind of like the COL Launcher in SOTS1:  http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots1/COL_Launcher

I.e. you could blanket a ship being swarmed by fighters.  Watch out:  the drone AI are indiscriminate and will kill most everything small in their operational radius.

Or "mostly lock down" a heavy carrier or missile ship's local launch capability as you move in to engage.

Perhaps large missiles are ignored by the drones which confuse them with shuttles...

I noted that one recent big mod, the Interstellar Imperium, just released a recent version that included a nasty swarm missile. But I was thinking something for "downrange area denial for a set period of time".  A reason to *recall* fighters and hold missile launches.  Like when faced with the "triple ripple" defense in the Honor Harrington book series.  http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/Triple_ripple

The artillery missile does nothing to a proper starship though.


______

I'd better stop there...it's midnight :)  ...time to sleep before resuming my d-mod ragtag motley band.





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Alex

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2018, 10:15:23 AM »

Hey! Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it. It's always good to have that, and it's especially interesting when it's from a fresh perspective.

In particular: added a message re: being over capacity, with the extra supply use to underscore the point. The message shows up every couple of in-game days - hopefully that'll be enough to make it clear what's going on and make it something that won't take too long to become aware of.

https://i.imgur.com/fZWavNt.png
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eidolad

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2018, 11:36:54 AM »

Excellent thank you!



Well why not, here's some more:

Quality of Life:

1.  Am I missing it in the incredible number of customizable keys (good that), or do we need a "resume course" button?  Like when I divert in hyperspace to dodge a storm...press CTRL-R to resume course.

a.  A minor addition would be a directional course indicator...many times I'm clicking and didn't need to I suspect.

2.  Regarding cargo/fuel overcapacity for newbies:  I suppose the other option would be to activate a "max cargo/fuel tank limit" as a default mode...disallow people to put more stuff on their ship unless they accept an override.


Things I love:

1.  The tactical command experience.  Giving kill orders on the tactical plot actually makes the AI go kill things in my limited experience.  So I feel that, as a player, I make a huge difference even if I'm not helming that ship over there. 

Making sense of the AI scrum in progress and distilling it into individual engagements with sub-groupings...this is very tasty.


2.  The weapons...just so many things that go bang, boom, pew-pew-pew, and hum.


3.  The random loadouts:  The mix of universal mounts means that if I'm in some trouble...I should pause and examine the enemy ship loadout before engaging.



Things I could do less with:

1.  Mouse clicking.  My Diablo II mouse-itis is creeping back in.  I think the majority of the clicking is just driving the ship around the galaxy and sector maps.  Again, am I missing a control config option?  An alternative would be:  a) give the ship a direction arrow  b) add an option for "go full speed" and c) let the player change course with WASD.  (full stop, and resume burn with X).

2.  Soooo many derelicts.  My goodness once I counted eight of these things within the hyperspace range of a single star.  I could stand to see the instance of derelicts tweaked down a bit.

a.  Some counters to the cheese/lame/weak game strategy of "follow the big fleet and scoop up the derelicts" method of progressing?

- perhaps a skeleton crew requirement for all derelicts for that initial ride home to a space dock?  This would make troop ships viable perhaps.

- Ahem.  Erm.  That wasn't a derelict at all...but a <insert some random surprise here>.  Kind of like what happens in [REDACTED] space during some salvaging scenarios.  Or maybe my 256th generation cousins are just chilling out in there and need someone to get them more nachos and spicy squid snacks.

- when an official fleet ship has been abandoned...it has an "decaying ownership transponder" attached and active.  Presumably this is to prevent civilians from coming to scoop up military tech and go do piratical things.  In gameplay terms:  it is to somewhat nerf the "follow the fleets and start with big ships for free, after 30 minutes of play" sort of thing.

However claiming one anyway, and you get a) angry faction owner who demands the surrender of the ship and a penalty, b) enemy of that faction who gives you a finders fee and some rep?

Unless of course you make it to a free port who sells a service to kill the ownership transponder.


b.  Are "salvaging fleets" actually touching any of the derelicts?  This was a BIG thing in X3: Terran Conflict (Litcubes and Mayhem mods)...I could be speeding towards a delicious looking M6 and have an M5 scavenger claim it literally right before my spacesuit thrusters could get me into range.  Then I had to dodge the damn thing.  Talk about humbling.

edit after having slept a bit:  I will not mix "feedback and suggestions in a single post" next time and will post suggestions and feedback in separate posts...
« Last Edit: July 07, 2018, 11:51:00 AM by eidolad »
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Alex

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2018, 12:05:49 PM »

Couple of quick notes:

You can press "A" to resume course. The shortcut is listed on the "resume course" button on the widget that shows up when you've laid in a course somewhere. The key is not customizable (most campaign shortcuts aren't, for ... reasons).

Re: fleet control - you can click and hold instead of clicking repeatedly. There's also "lay in course", which of course you're aware of.
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eidolad

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2018, 01:11:12 PM »

huzzah!
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2018, 04:56:52 PM »

One thing I will tell you is that we also have an active discord server here https://discord.gg/TBhcFNh
If you need help with bugs, builds or you just want to chat, hit us up as we are very friendly and helpful
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eidolad

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Re: Captain Upgrader's Likes and suggestions (new player friendly)
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2018, 11:37:42 AM »

Thanks for the note on the discord server I may wander over and chat y'all up!

I'm starting to waver between "playing starsector is greater" and "thinking about starsector and reading other people's perspectives is greater".   

Live people gushing about battlestations and such...like today I decided to engage a patrol near a military core world.   And noted this rather large square thing in the enemy's order of battle. 

Indeed was I about to experience how a battlestation will abso crush me before I even fly my ship into sight of the entire structure and force a reload?  YES precious!  I was!


Spoiler
And last night did I spy a "mobile base" ship class?  holy craps maybe that demands a try at an entirely different faction/fleet build next time.  Once again, yet another Starsector game aspect that, in my 18 pages of general forum reading...not talked about much and yet MUCHO ULTRA COOL.  Maybe not efficient but still delicious.

Laying off the allcaps for a bit.  Except if I happen to see a modder introduce a classic Cylon Base Star as a mobile base ship type.  Then I will likely break the allcaps key.
[close]





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