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Author Topic: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 365028 times)

Hypilein

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #570 on: November 23, 2012, 04:20:00 PM »

Some of my first impressions.

The leveling up process seems to add a lot of fun, and isn't to slow. I went for the Tech-Tree and my god, do you get a lot of extra OP to play with. I'm now trying to get all the extra flux stuff up to 10 and see if I can outfit tempests with heavy blasters.... I'll report how it goes.

Now some suggestions:

As we don't have access to all the Hull Mods from the start it would be nice to add them to the codex. Even as a seasoned player I had to think about what some of them do and new players won't stand a chance. It's not nice to skill all the way to get some hullmod, only to find out it's not what you were looking for. On a side note: The new hullmods are pretty cool!

Also a little bit more choise for the Leadership Tree would be nice, but I guess we'll get that when other aspects of the game get added.

The last thing is more of a question. On the lvl10 Bonus in the first skill in Tech you get 50% added fire bonus. Does that only apply to projectile weapons? How are Weapons with burst Mechanics or replenishing Ammo affected?

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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #571 on: November 23, 2012, 04:46:25 PM »

I went more of a balanced tree for my character so far.  Interesting, but I'm vying to get my hands on more apitude points. ;D Need more fleet points!
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ArkAngel

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #572 on: November 23, 2012, 04:47:07 PM »

Hmmm my ont question is why are there only 4 aptituds and 5 rows? Anyone care to hazard a guess?
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dogboy123

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #573 on: November 23, 2012, 05:12:11 PM »

Holy crap it's out.... :o,goodbye everyone, see you in a few weeks
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #574 on: November 23, 2012, 05:18:05 PM »

As we don't have access to all the Hull Mods from the start it would be nice to add them to the codex. Even as a seasoned player I had to think about what some of them do and new players won't stand a chance. It's not nice to skill all the way to get some hullmod, only to find out it's not what you were looking for.

Good point. I'll have to do that.

The last thing is more of a question. On the lvl10 Bonus in the first skill in Tech you get 50% added fire bonus. Does that only apply to projectile weapons? How are Weapons with burst Mechanics or replenishing Ammo affected?

Burst beam weapons have the burst cooldown reduced by that amount - so, not quite as good as for ballistic weapons, but still something. Replenishing ammo doesn't factor into this, so for the Autopulse Laser, the burst would come out that much quicker, but would take as long as before to recharge.

Hmmm my ont question is why are there only 4 aptituds and 5 rows? Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Just a bit of extra room for mods to add skills.

I love the new combat tutorials! :D Althought the screen stops moving around when your mouse enters the text box, I find that annoying.

Yeah, not 100% happy with that, but it's *way* worse to not have the screen stop. Then it just drifts away from your ship while you're reading the instructions.

I'm really happy with the skills that only benefit your own ship (most or all of the combat tree). A lot more interesting when you have to make the choice between making your ship godlike and making all of your ships good. I wasn't expecting this at all.

Glad you like it so far :)
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #575 on: November 23, 2012, 05:30:39 PM »

IS it possible to mod skills?  I can't remember from a while ago.  Might be fun to play around with.
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Verrius

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #576 on: November 23, 2012, 05:39:42 PM »

Oh yeah. I almost have it working with Fleet Control.

I'm curious to see how these functions will work with this mod though, I don't wanna get my hopes up :\

Huh, can we not system.getEntityByName("Fleet") for the player's fleet anymore? It keeps giving me null errors.

Gothars

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #577 on: November 23, 2012, 06:06:49 PM »

Ok, a few early notes because I've got to go now:

First, its great ;D. Both the skills system and the command UI are great additions to the game and feel fundamentally just right. The dynamic objective capturing seems especially amazing thus far, it makes true the principle of maximum control with minimal effort like no other mechanic. I also love the new fighter behavior and the iron mode and many other things that I won't list here.

But I've got a few negative things/ suggestions as well. Some things are probably placeholders anyway, but I will just act as if anything is supposed to be final.

- The graphic representation of the skill menu is sub-par. And I'm not talking about aesthetics (the symbols are wonderful, good looking and comprehensible) but about the arrangement. The symbols have too little space between them, they blend into each other and make it hard to discern them. You have a lot of space there that you could use. Why not align the aptitude indicator with the associated skills?

- There is too much information (and choices) at the beginning of a new campaign. First you get a low-information, high consequence choice with your characters history. After that you get the reverse, a damn lot of information
 (you basically have to read 19 skills description) and a half-as important choice. Makes no sense to me.

How about a suggestion system like in fallout 3? You can decide on your history and the game selects a meaningful combination of skills based on that. You can just go with that for an easy introduction. Or you can view in detail what  apts/skills are selected and change all of them.
Alternatively limit the choice of skills at level 1, maybe just three per aptitude.

- Reaching a new level is much to subtle. I often don't notice. Level progression should be a reason to rejoice, so give me fanfares and light shows!

- Please add keyboard support for the tutorial text messages, its annoying to have to click them. Also, they are somewhat oddly placed in the upper left corner. I think good tutorial design is important because it's likely the first thing a new player will encounter and can thus decide if he will proceed with the game.
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ValkyriaL

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #578 on: November 23, 2012, 06:11:20 PM »

What is the maximum level?
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #579 on: November 23, 2012, 06:12:45 PM »

It's a "soft cap", which means there is no level cap.  It just gets a lot harder to level up after certain points.
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Erick Doe

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #580 on: November 23, 2012, 06:19:02 PM »

I'm loving the ironmode. I always tried to reload as little as possible, but sometimes it is just so hard to resist. Especially after loosing 90% of your fleet.  :D

Now I'm forced to make do with what I have and whatever happens. For me this makes it much more intense; and much more enjoyable!
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ValkyriaL

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #581 on: November 23, 2012, 06:24:34 PM »

its still easy even with iron mode, im lvl 30 or so now on my first save, got a fairly large fleet, nothing can kill me, so i turned my modded factions on, stuff just got ALLOT harder.  ;)
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #582 on: November 23, 2012, 06:31:56 PM »

Huh, can we not system.getEntityByName("Fleet") for the player's fleet anymore? It keeps giving me null errors.

Use Global.getSector().getPlayerFleet() instead. I'm not entirely sure why getEntityByName() isn't finding it anymore, but it was never supposed to work for the player fleet in the first place. More a happy coincidence that it turned out to be a functional workaround.

- The graphic representation of the skill menu is sub-par. And I'm not talking about aesthetics (the symbols are wonderful, good looking and comprehensible) but about the arrangement. The symbols have too little space between them, they blend into each other and make it hard to discern them. You have a lot of space there that you could use. Why not align the aptitude indicator with the associated skills?

Absolutely agree, but coming up with a better layout is tricky. I mean, we've gone back and forth a bit with some of the same ideas (align aptitudes and related skills) but... well, didn't come up with anything better. But hadn't given up, either :)

- There is too much information (and choices) at the beginning of a new campaign. First you get a low-information, high consequence choice with your characters history. After that you get the reverse, a damn lot of information
 (you basically have to read 19 skills description) and a half-as important choice. Makes no sense to me.

How about a suggestion system like in fallout 3? You can decide on your history and the game selects a meaningful combination of skills based on that. You can just go with that for an easy introduction. Or you can view in detail what  apts/skills are selected and change all of them.
Alternatively limit the choice of skills at level 1, maybe just three per aptitude.

I hear what you're saying. Having to read 19 skills once you've gained your first skill-point in-game isn't that much better, though.

- Reaching a new level is much to subtle. I often don't notice. Level progression should be a reason to rejoice, so give me fanfares and light shows!

There's already a drumroll, what more do you want! (I just got visions of the effects that happen when you finish a level in Peggle.) Well, fair enough - an area for improvement, let's say :)

- Please add keyboard support for the tutorial text messages, its annoying to have to click them. Also, they are somewhat oddly placed in the upper left corner. I think good tutorial design is important because it's likely the first thing a new player will encounter and can thus decide if he will proceed with the game.

Hmm. Where would you put them? Upper left seems like the first place someone would look, assuming their native language reads top to bottom and left to right. It's also conveniently free of any widgets, and isn't smack dab in the middle of the screen. I did think about adding shortcuts, but that seems to be the kind of thing someone doing a tutorial for the first time might not find all that useful. You probably just wanted to breeze through it to figure it out, though... correct me if I'm wrong, I'm definitely open to input. Just giving my current opinion here.
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Thaago

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #583 on: November 23, 2012, 07:20:27 PM »

Hmm... am I missing something with Integrated Targeting Unit? It doesn't stack with the dedicated core (which costs nothing and is immediately available) and is, for cruisers and capitals, just plain worse because it costs OP. The ITU on frigates and destroyers is nice, but doesn't even give much of a range boost. Its odd that a hullmod so far down the tree doesn't really do anything?
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Alex

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Re: Starfarer 0.54a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #584 on: November 23, 2012, 07:27:41 PM »

The Dedicated Targeting Core costs 20/40 on cruiser/capital, while the ITU costs 15/30. The DTC only "costs" 0 on frigate/destroyer, where it can't be mounted anyway.
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