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

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Author Topic: Starfarer 0.5a Preview (Released) - Live Patch Notes  (Read 301768 times)

Avan

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #15 on: September 13, 2011, 10:17:36 PM »

ooh! nice updates ^^
I'm looking forward to getting to tinker with stuff (though unfortunatly I'm going to be busy for quite some time and am likely to have little productivity until at least sometime in november >.> )

Wyvern

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #16 on: September 18, 2011, 10:27:03 PM »

Ships assigned using a direct order via "Assign Task..." no longer count against towards the total strength of ships given to the assignment, except for "Capture". The effect is that directly assigning a ship to a task is less likely to cause other ships to be reassigned away from it.

After some playing around, I find I'm not actually looking forward to this change - I find that I'm using the current behavior a fair bit.  The most common use case is when I see a single enemy frigate or fighter squadron breaking past the main lines of combat to get to a nav point in the rear, and I want to assign a single, say, heavy fighter squadron to go hunt it down *before* it captures a comm array and puts another thirty points of enemy reinforcements on the field.  But I don't want to take more than that one ship I've assigned out of, well, whatever random thing it happens to be doing.
(Yes, this costs me two command points just to give a specific order to a specific ship; took me a while to realize I had to create the order to harass / strike / whatever and *then* assign a specific vessel to it.  But totally worth it to prevent an enemy from ever holding my comm array; even a momentary capture of one of those can make a big swing in how the battle's going.)

...Though, come to think of it, that may not be quite so necessary once we have decent weightings for proximity-based priority; the main reason I'd assign a specific ship to that is that, usually, there's only one ship that could possibly respond in time anyway.

Perhaps a more intuitive model would be one where, instead of assigning a specific ship to a specific pre-existing fleet-wide task, one could give a specific ship its own particular task (with task graphic tied to that one ship instead of its target)?  That would accomplish the same goal as this change (allow one to add "extra" ships to a fleet-wide task), while still allowing my use-case of wanting to send a single fast ship to intercept a particular enemy vessel.
[edit] And even allow the specific exception called out in this change to work, too - you'd just assign a ship to capture a nav point, and not create a fleet-wide capture-this-nav-point task. [/edit]
« Last Edit: September 18, 2011, 10:30:16 PM by Wyvern »
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #17 on: September 19, 2011, 08:40:58 AM »

The most common use case is when I see a single enemy frigate or fighter squadron breaking past the main lines of combat to get to a nav point in the rear, and I want to assign a single, say, heavy fighter squadron to go hunt it down *before* it captures a comm array and puts another thirty points of enemy reinforcements on the field.  But I don't want to take more than that one ship I've assigned out of, well, whatever random thing it happens to be doing.

Added this, just for you :)
Code
Added "Intercept" assignment available on enemy fighters and frigates.
Assigns fast, nearby craft with appropriate weapons. Interceptors are especially preferred.
"Harass" (which prefers ships with medium-range weaponry) is now only available on
enemy ships of destroyer size and above.

"Harass" really isn't well-suited for that job as it doesn't pick the right kind of ships (and isn't as concerned with proximity), so that's why it's awkward to use. A passable workaround, but no more.

Btw, the Capture -> Control -> Capture mechanics should reduce the importance of such intercepts, too. If you happen to let one enemy ship through, as soon as they uncap your point, a ship of yours will get dispatched to retake it.
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Wyvern

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #18 on: September 19, 2011, 02:25:18 PM »

Added this, just for you :)
Code
Added "Intercept" assignment available on enemy fighters and frigates.
Assigns fast, nearby craft with appropriate weapons. Interceptors are especially preferred.
"Harass" (which prefers ships with medium-range weaponry) is now only available on
enemy ships of destroyer size and above.

Ooh, shiny!  Thank you!

Btw, the Capture -> Control -> Capture mechanics should reduce the importance of such intercepts, too. If you happen to let one enemy ship through, as soon as they uncap your point, a ship of yours will get dispatched to retake it.
Yes - that's more than adequate for nav & sensor platforms (and mimics my normal response to having such get taken - in the current public build, it's not worth two command points to pre-emptively defend them).  It's really just the comm relays where allowing it to be temporarily tagged is dangerous enough to be worth spending command points on intercepts - the others provide their main benefit over time to whoever holds the node, while comm relays give nearly their full benefit instantly upon capture.

Though I've also had some luck at just setting a nearby comm relay as my carrier group-up point; most carriers aren't really combat vessels, but they're quite enough to delay a single frigate or fighter squadron until some of my fighters happen by (and, because they're carriers, fighters will be coming and going).  Doesn't work too well on a map like the current random battle one, though, where the two comm nodes are at opposite sides of the field.

The "defend" task also works sometimes, though I've had occasional issues where the game switched which ship was supposed to be defending, and the node got captured while slower ships were in transit and nobody was actually there.  (Which then resulted in an assault command and half my fleet haring off to pick off one destroyer... that was not one of my best games.)  I've also had situations where a slow defending vessel got lured away by half of a two-ship capture team.  (Note to self: playing with a small but highly mobile flagship would let me do that sort of thing to the AI on purpose.  I should edit the current random battle to give me something a bit faster, see how that works out.)
So these days I tend to put only one assault / defend command on the map at a time - which is what led to my play style needing an intercept command.
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Avan

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #19 on: September 19, 2011, 09:59:35 PM »

I look back at version .33a and its practically a different game... with similarly styled graphics.

In just a few months you've made some astounding progress. I'm seriously looking forward to this next release. (esp. after seeing the new feature list after having gotten internet again after a few days0

Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #20 on: September 20, 2011, 10:40:51 AM »

The "defend" task also works sometimes, though I've had occasional issues where the game switched which ship was supposed to be defending, and the node got captured while slower ships were in transit and nobody was actually there.  (Which then resulted in an assault command and half my fleet haring off to pick off one destroyer... that was not one of my best games.)

Oh, facepalm moment right there. Nice.


I look back at version .33a and its practically a different game... with similarly styled graphics.

In just a few months you've made some astounding progress. I'm seriously looking forward to this next release. (esp. after seeing the new feature list after having gotten internet again after a few days0

Thank you - working on SF full-time is apparently helping make some progress, who knew :) Not doing much for my sleep schedule, though...
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SeaBee

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #21 on: October 17, 2011, 12:21:49 AM »

Oh man, so many great additions.  :o
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Avan

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #22 on: October 31, 2011, 05:24:40 PM »

Its been a month and a half since the last update. I'm curious to know whats been going on.  ;D

Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #23 on: October 31, 2011, 07:59:44 PM »

This is true, but the larger-scope work does not lend itself very nicely to being bulletized until significant chunks are done :)

Right now, I'm working on the cargo/inventory screen, which will be used everywhere from post-combat salvaging to trade to pretty much anything that involves any inventory interactions. Next up: post combat salvaging. Then, finally, a persistent fleet (right now it resets every time you run the game). You can already fly around with a fleet.
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Thana

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #24 on: November 01, 2011, 09:21:37 AM »

This is true, but the larger-scope work does not lend itself very nicely to being bulletized until significant chunks are done :)

Right now, I'm working on the cargo/inventory screen, which will be used everywhere from post-combat salvaging to trade to pretty much anything that involves any inventory interactions. Next up: post combat salvaging. Then, finally, a persistent fleet (right now it resets every time you run the game). You can already fly around with a fleet.

Yeah, when adding whole new aspects to the game, it's going to be a lot more time-consuming and a lot harder to boil down to lists than refining the existing parts. I think I'm speaking for all of us when I say that we're anxiously looking forward to the birth of the campaign mode, however!  :)
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Avan

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #25 on: November 02, 2011, 08:53:49 AM »

ooh, nice, just 3 more major milestones then I presume?  ;D

Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #26 on: November 03, 2011, 09:17:12 AM »

Well, those are more like the next couple of things on the todo list - there's quite a bit of fleshing out that need to happen all around that. Also, I'd really like to get in a few basic skills so there's a couple of viable character builds - hopefully that can happen for the upcoming next release.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 09:42:59 AM by Alex »
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Zarcon

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #27 on: November 03, 2011, 09:29:16 AM »

Well, those are more like the next couple of things on the todo list - there's quite a bit of fleshing out that need to happen all around that. Also, I'd really like to get in a few basic skills so there's a couple of viable character builds - hopefully that can happen for the upcoming release.

Upcoming release you say?   :)  Very interesting.  I took a look at Dictionary.com and this is what I found.   

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upcoming

up·com·ing? ?[uhp-kuhm-ing] 
adjective
"coming up; about to take place, appear, or be presented: the upcoming spring fashions." - (Emphasis mine)

So...awesome, you heard it here first folks, the next release is upcoming, it is gonna be great, ha ha!  :)
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #28 on: November 03, 2011, 09:43:12 AM »

Huh? Upcoming? Never said that!
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Thana

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Re: Starfarer 0.35a (In Development) - Live Patch Notes
« Reply #29 on: November 03, 2011, 09:51:21 AM »

You, sir, are a veritable tease!  :D
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