Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

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

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4

Author Topic: The 'I suck at combat' thread.  (Read 16572 times)

tylertoo

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #30 on: March 04, 2019, 06:07:29 PM »

Thanks guys.  I'm going to keep trying, but I probably have to change the thread title to "I really, really suck at combat."  Last evening I tried missions (the easy ones) and some more campaign fights and I just can't get the hang of it.  I just don't control the ship movement very well and end up getting into trouble too easily.  I'm probably better off getting carrier and hanging back.  Maybe I should also try a new start with the Wolf, just to see how that feels.  Or, I'm going to try (still with Hammerhead) setting all three to autofire, including missiles, so I can just focus on ship positioning.

There's an option that allows you to use arcade controls instead of tank controls.

Where do I find this option?  Or is this just a reference to the shift key default option?
« Last Edit: March 04, 2019, 06:11:53 PM by tylertoo »
Logged

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #31 on: March 04, 2019, 06:36:41 PM »

Hmm - you know, what I think might not be a bad idea is loading up the "Combat (basic)" tutorial, getting to the part where it asks you to strafe around the enemy Enforcer, and then just spending a bit of time to see if you can't get comfortable with that, without the pressure of firing or being concerned about other enemies.

See if you can circle all the way around it while staying in weapons range, then see if you can manage to stay closer/further, then try putting some shots on it while you circle it, and so on. Just being comfortable with this sort of maneuvering is super important to doing well in combat with most ships.

One tricky part is getting the hang of what strafe left/right mean when you're facing down (still left/right, but it's relative to the ship); getting comfortable with that is also fairly important, but not *super* critical as you start most fights facing up.

Also: in data/config/settings.json, there's a "combatSpeedMult" setting. Setting it to something lower than 1 might be something to try to see if a slower pace feels more manageable.
Logged

tylertoo

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #32 on: March 04, 2019, 06:45:55 PM »

OK, thanks, those sound like good suggestions.  I'll give both a try.

EDIT:  Moving the combat speed multiplier to .7 (from 1) made a huge difference for me.  It didn't feel too slow and I felt far less frantic.  I easily beat the first two (easy) missions and came very close to beating the third (medium) -- that's a huge improvement for me.  So thank you Alex.  As I get better I will inch that multiplier up in .1 increments and then eventually get back to 1. 
« Last Edit: March 04, 2019, 07:26:17 PM by tylertoo »
Logged

Midnight Kitsune

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2846
  • Your Friendly Forum Friend
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #33 on: March 04, 2019, 07:24:44 PM »

Yeah, the combat speed is a BIG thing: I grew up playing SS on a series of craptops and only recently can my comp handle full speed combat. I will say it is like night and day and if I had not started out on the lower speeds, I would have most likely set my speed back down to half.

Once you get comfy with the controls, you might try missions again. And I second the SIM in the refit menu. You can access it from both mission and campaign refit menus and is invaluable to training and getting use to handling SS ships. And because it is a SIM, you don't take losses in the campaign
Logged
Help out MesoTroniK, a modder in need

2021 is 2020 won
2022 is 2020 too

AxleMC131

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1722
  • Amateur World-Builder
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #34 on: March 04, 2019, 09:09:44 PM »

Combat speed is an incredible suggestion actually. It's not something I've heard much about until recent times, and I'd never considered using it to help ease into the game as a beginner player, but now it's been said it makes an awful lot of sense. Points to Alex for suggesting that - I'll try to remember it as advice for other new players popping into the Discord.
Logged

Euphytose

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 464
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #35 on: March 05, 2019, 01:43:39 AM »

There's an option that allows you to use arcade controls instead of tank controls.

Where do I find this option?  Or is this just a reference to the shift key default option?

It's in the option menu. Not the one with the keybindings, the other one. I think it's called "revert something behaviour". There aren't that many options so you can't miss it.
Logged

From a Faster Time

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 146
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #36 on: March 05, 2019, 04:24:23 AM »

OK, thanks, those sound like good suggestions.  I'll give both a try.
Feel free to post some video recordings of your gameplay of ship vs ship battles. I am sure people can give you more advise on what you could improve further.
~Do the tutorial until you are comfortable~
Amen. While we are on that, it really irks me when people skip tutorials in general. I do tutorials in every game because that is the developer reaching out to the player to give some of the most important notes on how the game plays, be it strategy, controls or whatever. To skip that you either imply the game has no depth, or is so similar to something you have played that it presents zero deviance in terms of controls/strategy/gameplay elements.
Also: in data/config/settings.json, there's a "combatSpeedMult" setting. Setting it to something lower than 1 might be something to try to see if a slower pace feels more manageable.
Neat, didn't know this existed, might try bumping it up to 1.3 and see what life is like in the fast lane.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #37 on: March 05, 2019, 04:48:14 AM »

Neat, didn't know this existed, might try bumping it up to 1.3 and see what life is like in the fast lane.
I set mine to 2f, and it still plays slower than other games like Transcendence or Endless Sky.  Normal 1f is unbearably slow.  I would set it to 2.5f or 3f, except Starsector starts to lose gameplay fidelity at speeds higher than 2f.  Sounds may not play at the proper times, and hit detection may be (subtly) different.

That is the only setting I am willing to change (reluctantly) in the settings.json, and only because I probably would drop Starsector due to agonizingly slow gameplay at normal speed.  If I touch other settings, I probably change enough to make my character extremely overpowered.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2019, 04:51:09 AM by Megas »
Logged

From a Faster Time

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 146
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #38 on: March 05, 2019, 04:52:55 AM »

Neat, didn't know this existed, might try bumping it up to 1.3 and see what life is like in the fast lane.
I set mine to 2f, and it still plays slower than other games like Transcendence or Endless Sky.  Normal 1f is unbearably slow.  I would set it to 2.5f or 3f, except Starsector starts to lose gameplay fidelity at speeds higher than 2f.  Sounds may not play at the proper times, and hit detection may be (subtly) different.

That is the only setting I am willing to change (reluctantly) in the settings.json, and only because I probably would drop Starsector due to agonizingly slow gameplay at normal speed.  If I touch other settings, I probably change enough to make my character extremely overpowered.
Post a vid with 2f.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #39 on: March 05, 2019, 05:01:25 AM »

I do not post vids.  (Not creating an account to do so.)
Logged

From a Faster Time

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 146
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #40 on: March 05, 2019, 05:21:18 AM »

I do not post vids.  (Not creating an account to do so.)
Post a webm? No accounts needed for that.
Logged

tylertoo

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #41 on: March 05, 2019, 05:37:41 PM »

Feel free to post some video recordings of your gameplay of ship vs ship battles. I am sure people can give you more advise on what you could improve further.

Thanks for the offer.  I'll probably be too embarrassed to record my suckage  ;D but lemme think about it.
Logged

From a Faster Time

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 146
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #42 on: March 06, 2019, 12:49:15 AM »

Thanks for the offer.  I'll probably be too embarrassed to record my suckage  ;D but lemme think about it.
Sure, just saying if you have troubles,  and don't know where to improve, I am sure people could give you plenty of advise on what to work on that is tailored specific to you and thus, one would assume, the fastest way to improve.
Naturally you can just play the game and have fun, learning along the way like everybody else did. Nobody says you have to tryhard to get good as fast as possible.
Logged

Euphytose

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 464
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #43 on: March 06, 2019, 01:26:35 AM »

Post a vid with 2f.

Find any video of Starsector combat running at standard speed, change the video speed to 2x.
Logged

TaLaR

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2794
    • View Profile
Re: The 'I suck at combat' thread.
« Reply #44 on: March 06, 2019, 01:27:48 AM »

Post a vid with 2f.
Find any video of Starsector combat running at standard speed, change the video speed to 2x.
Not the same. Point is - it's impossible to control with same fidelity (for most people, including me, anyway).
Logged
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4