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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: Starsector 0.6.2a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 214867 times)

Dri

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #105 on: December 28, 2013, 12:24:33 PM »

Quick, someone average the number of patch notes updates Alex does before releasing the patch! We're at what now, 3 updates? ;) Maybe for New Years?

Anways, looking like a lot of nice polish and some ship additions for new content. Pretty solid.
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frag971

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #106 on: December 28, 2013, 12:40:09 PM »

Quick, someone average the number of patch notes updates Alex does before releasing the patch! We're at what now, 3 updates? ;) Maybe for New Years?

Anways, looking like a lot of nice polish and some ship additions for new content. Pretty solid.
I actually don't see any content. A new easy mode - OK, buffed starting ships - OK, rebalanced some AI, fleet and CR - OK. Content - none to be had :D

I'm glad he's updating but i'm not really "excited" for anything in there tbh :P
(shields up for fanboi barrage)
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BillyRueben

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #107 on: December 28, 2013, 12:43:29 PM »

(shields up for fanboi barrage)

I've got your back.

There isn't anything that's very sexy in those patch notes, but those changes needed to happen at some point anyway. This game is difficult to recommend to newer players due to the difficulty in learning to play properly.

EDIT: Reread my post and the tone isn't quite where I wanted it. I'm glad the updates are coming and that things are being tweaked and fixed, but I don't understand the "OMG Alex best update evar!" posts.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2013, 12:45:56 PM by BillyRueben »
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #108 on: December 28, 2013, 12:50:24 PM »

Thanks, guys!

Thats a lot of stuff yeah, good job Alex, that difficulty stuff and added dialogs etc will hopefully stop the mountains of crying threads we have had here this past update. ;D

Well, if the game fails to explain something, it's the ultimately game's fault, and I think a lot of the (very much valid) complaints are due to that. Yeah, it's mostly in the tooltips, but I'll be the first to admit they're pretty, ah, information-heavy, and it's unreasonable to expect everyone to just absorb all of that without any added guidance from the game.

Edit: I don't mean to imply that *all* complaints about CR are due to not understanding the mechanics, it just seems that a lot of them are. Even so, some good stuff came out of that - for example, I'm really happy about the dynamic where you can deploy ships at 0% CR, but you can also crash-mothball a ship to deploy it w/o activating combat systems and risking malfunctions. That way the player has the choice of giving up control or taking a gamble; much better than always taking away control at a certain point.

This update is better than a glass of water on a hot day, on a desert planet with salt-grain winds in a distant solar system with a binary star with never-ending daytime.

Niiice.


I actually don't see any content. A new easy mode - OK, buffed starting ships - OK, rebalanced some AI, fleet and CR - OK. Content - none to be had :D

I'm glad he's updating but i'm not really "excited" for anything in there tbh :P
(shields up for fanboi barrage)

There *is* that new frigate, but otherwise, right, not an awful lot of new "content". I suppose you could call changes to starting ships and some campaign fleets content, and technically it's certainly that, but it's still a bit of a stretch.

There isn't anything that's very sexy in those patch notes, but those changes needed to happen at some point anyway. This game is difficult to recommend to newer players due to the difficulty in learning to play properly.

One of the nice things is that now that there's a basic framework for campaign help in place, it'll be much much easier to explain any new features, too.

Speaking of that... the list in the patch notes is fairly comprehensive as far as the situations that trigger help dialogs. If you guys can think of something else that was a gotcha for you that isn't on the list, I'd love to hear what it is.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2013, 12:56:37 PM by Alex »
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FasterThanSleepyfish

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #109 on: December 28, 2013, 12:56:41 PM »

Well, to hear about any progress is good. New ships are always great, too.

@Alex- Coud you perhaps make the easy mode starting fleet composition be moddable? For example, a mod could have a certain chance of inserting their own ships in there. Maybe I would get a Blackrock Locust, a lasher and the mule for one save. Alternatively, I could get a (insert mod title here)  frigate, a hound, and a (insert mod title here) freighter to replace the mule.
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #110 on: December 28, 2013, 12:58:18 PM »

It's moddable, but since it's in a script rather than a data file, it's harder for multiple mods to play nice.
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frag971

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #111 on: December 28, 2013, 02:08:39 PM »

It's moddable, but since it's in a script rather than a data file, it's harder for multiple mods to play nice.
Is it possible to let modders add more scripts along that and let players chose which one to select? Auto selects if only one. If i had 3 mods that each add their own starting fleets then i guess a dialog option to simply chose which one of them to use (right after difficulty choice).
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #112 on: December 28, 2013, 02:15:50 PM »

That gets too complicated fast. Also, if multiple mods attempt to override the same script, there's a very good chance they're incompatible in other ways, too.  I don't think it's a good idea to have these kinds of choices intrude directly into the game.

I guess it could be done specifically for new ship selection, but at that point, you might as well extract it into a data file and merge from whatever mods are enabled, but there are some complications there, too. It's nice to have the flexibility scripts provide.
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #113 on: December 28, 2013, 04:08:58 PM »

Quick question:  Are there any hidden penalties for starting on Easy, or hidden bonuses for starting on Normal?
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #114 on: December 28, 2013, 04:47:52 PM »

Quick question:  Are there any hidden penalties for starting on Easy, or hidden bonuses for starting on Normal?

None whatsoever, the game doesn't even keep track of that anywhere. It's a starting difficulty, nothing else.

Incidentally, the restart ships are better, but the same regardless of the starting difficulty chosen. (FYI: you randomly get a Lasher, a Vigilance, or a Cerberus on losing your entire fleet.)
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NanoMatter

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #115 on: December 28, 2013, 04:51:34 PM »

Can't wait to see the new ships coming out. I hope they are impressive, well in my taste.
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ArkAngel

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #116 on: December 28, 2013, 05:50:07 PM »

hmmm new ship; monitor class frigate? perhaps one gun 360 degree coverage as a referance to the "USS Monitor" American ironclad? This patch will be fun; it will be great to see all the new ships and fixes. Personally can't wait for the increased decks!
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Megas

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #117 on: December 28, 2013, 06:25:45 PM »

Quote from: Alex
None whatsoever, the game doesn't even keep track of that anywhere. It's a starting difficulty, nothing else.
Good to know.  I played plenty of games (from the '80s and '90s) where playing easy either blocked endgame content (so you could not truly finish the game) or you played a crutch character that made early-game easy but endgame harder than those who started at "harder" difficulty.
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Gothars

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #118 on: December 28, 2013, 06:42:23 PM »

Quote
Added "campaign help", pops up informational dialogs in appropriate circumstances
Can be disabled when creating a new game
If enabled, each individual dialog can be set to not be shown again

Thank you for that :)

Speaking of that... the list in the patch notes is fairly comprehensive as far as the situations that trigger help dialogs. If you guys can think of something else that was a gotcha for you that isn't on the list, I'd love to hear what it is.


The speed penalty after winning a battle comes to mind.

Also, an explanation of the fighter/carrier dynamic when buying a fighter wing would be welcome.
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.6.2a (In Development) Patch Notes
« Reply #119 on: December 28, 2013, 07:24:05 PM »

Can't wait to see the new ships coming out. I hope they are impressive, well in my taste.

Well, I like 'em :)

hmmm new ship; monitor class frigate? perhaps one gun 360 degree coverage as a referance to the "USS Monitor" American ironclad? This patch will be fun; it will be great to see all the new ships and fixes. Personally can't wait for the increased decks!

Yeah, The Monitor reference!

Quote from: Alex
None whatsoever, the game doesn't even keep track of that anywhere. It's a starting difficulty, nothing else.
Good to know.  I played plenty of games (from the '80s and '90s) where playing easy either blocked endgame content (so you could not truly finish the game) or you played a crutch character that made early-game easy but endgame harder than those who started at "harder" difficulty.

That'd just be mean.

The speed penalty after winning a battle comes to mind.

Also, an explanation of the fighter/carrier dynamic when buying a fighter wing would be welcome.

Thank you - wrote those two down, will see about them tomorrow. One thing I want to avoid is "oh god the dialogs", which is a distinct danger a couple of things go wrong at once. For example, after a battle, a dialog talking about the increased supply consumption pops up, but that's where the speed penalty/bonus one should pop up, too. Hmm. Probably better to have the dialogs than not, though I wonder at what point it becomes "too much information" and not something a player will reliably read because of that.
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