So I just picked up Starsector after seeing it on Quill18’s YouTube channel and I’m really loving it so far. To me it has an Escape Velocity on super steroids feel to it, which is spectacular. I’ve done the tutorials from the main menu and while I understand everything that it taught me, I think it will probably take me a while to gain any proficiency in actual manual combat. I’ve done some exploring and surveying and have defeated a few basic pirate fleets by just issuing orders and leaving things on autopilot. I have enough money and resources that I could click the “colonize” button on various planets but just based on common sense I know I don’t have the experience or personal infrastructure in place to support a colony, even though I don’t actually know how colonizing works in this game. Which leads me to my main purpose in writing this post:
What is the best way to learn this game? I admit that there’s been many other games that I ended up enjoying but I ruined any real sense of discovery or figuring stuff out on my own because I either watched play-throughs and read game wikis to the point where I knew how to play and what to do before I even bought the game. On the other hand, there are some games (Dwarf Fortress/Aurora 4x) that will absolutely destroy you if you just try to figure things out using only in-game information and experiences.
So my ultimate question is, which type of game is Starsector? I love “playing” games even when I’m away from my computer by immersing myself in discussion forums, guides and wikis, but will that ruin the experience of starting out in Starsector? Essentially, am I spoiling the game by not figuring things out in-game? Or is there so much stuff that it will likely only be an exercise in futility and frustration? Currently, when I look at the refit screen and as I’ve collected various weapons and subsystems (mods?) and look at all the statistics, my mind boggles...
So what do you think? I don’t want to ruin the sense of discovery and “holy crap that’s so awesome I didn’t even realize I could do that!?!?” Aspect of things as I have in the past with other games. At the same time, I don’t want to be beating my head against the wall.
So, in your opinion, what is the best way to approach this game? Blind with only in-game tutorials, hints and experiences? Or go full bore into community support with wikis, guides, lets-plays and so on?