So last weekend, I downloaded the latest version. Last time I played - or rather last time I posted to this forum which is probably about the same thing - was in December 2013. I thought I'd post a bit about my impressions of what's changed.
The more things change, the more they stay the sameFirst of all, the game's still fun to play. This is not a given - sometimes I go back to a game and think "why did I play this again?", but that's not the case here. So that's good!
I understand that there have been a bunch of tweaks and changes to weapons & ship stats and suchlike, but to be honest, I didn't notice any difference. Partly, I'm sure, that this is hazy memory, and partly not being changes to ships or weapons I use extensively.
I still prefer manually piloting destroyers. Few of the bigger ships really speak to me: either they've got a weird layout (I am congenitally incapable of flying an Odyssey), or they're too fat and slow, or they just don't have a weapons layout I like. Good to see more variety in carriers though.
Novelty is the spice of lifeOfficers are a nice addition, though I was surprised how fast they level up! The limited choices when levelling up is a good mechanic, as it forces some diversity in your fleet and cuts down on micromanagement. It did suck when I got lumbered with a cautious officer at the start of the game, though.
The sensor mechanic - I go hot and cold on this. On the one hand, it makes finding things to kill a considerably more tedious process. It also vastly increases the change of being jumped by an un-winnable fight with no warning. I have found it
very occasionally useful to turn my transponder off long enough to sneak past an enemy fleet - assuming it's not one of the ones that will pounce on you anyway, but on reflection the downsides far outweigh the upsides.
Speaking of being pounced upon, I do like the reinforcement mechanic - it can lead to some epic battles. But it is highly non-obvious what range it's going to kick in. My little fleet of one cruise and four destroyers got entangled with three Hegemony fleets with an Onslaught in each!. What I'd like is some way of backing out of the fight, or some sort of decision point
before the allies join the battle.
Missions - I didn't bother with. I tried fulfilling a couple of delivery missions and discovered that the deadlines were impossibly short given the distances involved, so I closed the tab and never opened it again.
The addition of Factions is probably the biggest change. It nice to be involved in the broader conflicts that define the setting. Although it does seem very random - I keep getting dinged by my allies for
not being hostile with people. I've never even met these guys! You want to me fly to the other end of the sector just to pick a fight with them?
In the end, though, with no real way of affecting the status-quo, all the faction mechanic does is a) give you more enemies to fight (which is good!) and b) cut down on the variety of hulls you've got available.
Ch-Ch-Ch-ChangesWhich segues into my next comment - availability of stuff. I appreciate the fact you have to work to get into a faction's good graces and you get rewarded, but overall the availability of weapons and ships is diabolical. There's the same-old same-old in every market. Going back and forth between Magec and Hybrasil gets old really fast. Ironically, one of my
last posts on the forum was about a phase-cloaking destroyer. I understand that there's been one added to the game, and I'd love to be able to fly it, but I've never even seen it.
If I've put in the work to get to a high faction rating, at least reward me with the gear I've earned, don't force me to spend months of game time waiting for it to appear. What i'd suggest is that you can "spend" reputation points to requisition military hardware - they'll give you one ship in recognition of your good works,
but don't break it!