Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: Alex on May 21, 2011, 02:22:32 PM
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You can find it here (https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Tn8lAEi8hZAHDDgOSZ_HJx_0bgQMQ_Tt2TNx2kXbQVc).
And a much nicer-looking PDF version here (http://www.fractalsoftworks.com/starfarer/docs/StarfarerManual.pdf).
It's handy if you're having trouble beating some of the missions, or just want to make sure you know all the controls.
We'll be updating the manual with each released version. If you see something wrong or missing, or just have a comment or suggestion about what you think should be in the manual, please let us know!
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Major tip: Capture the sensor array at all costs!
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Good idea, I'll add that. It is a major consideration if you've got lots of reinforcements to deploy.
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Isn't that the Comm Relay that gives you a lot of Fleet Points? Sensor Array increases Weapon Range IIRC. Been a while since I booted up the game, I've done every mission at least five times now.
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yep, the comm relay increases Fleet points
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Oops :) I totally misread that.
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Hi,
Love the look and feel of the game so far. I did notice something in the manual, however:
Kinetic
Relies on impact to do its damage, usually a solid slug. Usually long-range. Projectiles are usually white.
200% to shields, 50% to armor
Energy
Directed energy weapons.
100% to everything.
This doesn't seem to be correct. The destroyer from the tutorial seems to inflict almost no damage on shields with the auto cannon, and the energy weapon seems largely useless against armor. Has this information changed in the game since you printed the manual?
Thanks!
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Hi. Glad you're liking the game!
The ship in the tutorial is probably a bit confusing - its beam weapon, the "Graviton Beam", happens to do kinetic damage (which is an exception, beam weapons usually do energy damage). This is mentioned in the tutorial text but is easy to miss. The "autocannon" you're referring to is the "Assault Chaingun", which does high explosive damage - which is, indeed, poor vs shields.
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So uhm... about that manual?
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So uhm... about that manual?
Working on it, hope to have it done today :)
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Updated the manual. Let me know if you find anything missing.
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hmm you could make/add a database of ships and/or weapons for people to be able to learn from for example the ingame ships tell you the qweapons they have on each variant but if uyou want to know what they are you have to go to the weapons tab then look for them
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hmm you could make/add a database of ships and/or weapons for people to be able to learn from for example the ingame ships tell you the qweapons they have on each variant but if uyou want to know what they are you have to go to the weapons tab then look for them
I don't think he should go as far as the database of ships. Maybe just the groups/classes of ships and types of weaponry you can get.
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It might be easier to make the weapons in the variant page of the codex hyperlink to the specific weapon elsewhere in the codex, with a 'back' button somewhere?
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In the dev build, the Codex is already pretty good at displaying a ton of information, and has the beginnings of a nice UI. The UI is usable (although not polished yet) and in fact, I often use it as a reference, since it combines a bunch of data into one coherent presentation.
After 0.50a goes live we may even dust off the ole wiki from the virtual spiderwebs that have been spun all over it by the ethereal, binary spiders I fight with every time I close my eye lids.
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In the dev build, the Codex is already pretty good at displaying a ton of information, and has the beginnings of a nice UI. The UI is usable (although not polished yet) and in fact, I often use it as a reference, since it combines a bunch of data into one coherent presentation.
After 0.50a goes live we may even dust off the ole wiki from the virtual spiderwebs that have been spun all over it by the ethereal, binary spiders I fight with every time I close my eye lids.
Are those spiders big? >:D
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Good question, I am glad you picked up on that.
Generally, ethereal spiders do not grow to be more than two jebba-meters in length, but these ones, oh, these ones, brother.
We're talkin' huge.
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Good question, I am glad you picked up on that.
Generally, ethereal spiders do not grow to be more than two jebba-meters in length, but these ones, oh, these ones, brother.
We're talkin' huge.
Feel sorry for the dude who gets bit by one, Spider-Ninja...
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Good question, I am glad you picked up on that.
Generally, ethereal spiders do not grow to be more than two jebba-meters in length, but these ones, oh, these ones, brother.
We're talkin' huge.
Hmm, so looks like you need a phase shield generator for when you sleep. :D Just modulate the frequency variance at a randomly changing variable and that should take care of that. ;D
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Good question, I am glad you picked up on that.
Generally, ethereal spiders do not grow to be more than two jebba-meters in length, but these ones, oh, these ones, brother.
We're talkin' huge.
Hmm, so looks like you need a phase shield generator for when you sleep. :D Just modulate the frequency variance at a randomly changing variable and that should take care of that. ;D
Turtles... all you need is turtles >:D
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So I've just found out there's been a manual for this all along... :D
Thanks a bunch! I'll start studying it diligently tomorrow and finally beat some of the harder missions hopefully!
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Nav Buoy
Gives 10 extra fleet points and a 25% movement bonus to your ships. The bonus to max speed is a
flat 25 units, not a percentage. Capturing grants 1 command
what
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Nav Buoy
Gives 10 extra fleet points and a 25% movement bonus to your ships. The bonus to max speed is a
flat 25 units, not a percentage. Capturing grants 1 command
what
Yeaaa, was wondering about that, too, yesterday. I think it means that units like saaaaay.... Interceptor wings, or other ships with speed on max in stats, only get 25 points bonus flat instead of percentage. While carriers and cruisers and all those slow hunks of metal get their speed increase as deserved, in percentage.
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I believe that's a typo. It's 25 units, not a percentage.
So its a lot for cap ships' whose speed is real low, but not so much for fighters whose speed is already high.
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I believe that's a typo. It's 25 units, not a percentage.
So its a lot for cap ships' whose speed is real low, but not so much for fighter's whose speed is already high.
Will you be including other capture-able things that give other bonuses too? Other that the current two (think it's two xD)
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Is there a possible E.T.A. on .50. I cant wait.
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February, I don't know anymore on the accuracy of that month though ;D
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February, I don't know anymore on the accuracy of that month though ;D
Let's have a bet to see when just out of curiosity of who is close. Whatever day you say you get the day before and after it too.
E.g. If you say the 3rd of Feb, you get 2nd and 4th of Feb too say you basically get a 3 day window
I choose 9th :D
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February, I don't know anymore on the accuracy of that month though ;D
Let's have a bet to see when just out of curiosity of who is close. Whatever day you say you get the day before and after it too.
E.g. If you say the 3rd of Feb, you get 2nd and 4th of Feb too say you basically get a 3 day window
I choose 9th :D
I bet the 17th (aware thats a friday but if its planed for the 17th it might run a bit late and be released on the saturday (well very late friday... :o)
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I bet the 15th. ;D
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February, I don't know anymore on the accuracy of that month though ;D
Let's have a bet to see when just out of curiosity of who is close. Whatever day you say you get the day before and after it too.
E.g. If you say the 3rd of Feb, you get 2nd and 4th of Feb too say you basically get a 3 day window
I choose 9th :D
I bet the 17th (aware thats a friday but if its planed for the 17th it might run a bit late and be released on the saturday (well very late friday... :o)
Mine's on a friday too O.o didn't even know xD
Zarcon is the only one who's isn't on a friday atm :P
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I just hope it gets released before my school starts again :D Which will be 20th, if 17th is Friday. Sooo, I hope it'll be before that :D I'm gonna bet... 15th!
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I just hope it gets released before my school starts again :D Which will be 20th, if 17th is Friday. Sooo, I hope it'll be before that :D I'm gonna bet... 15th!
Hmm, very wise choice. :D
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Time for an update to the manual! Just "bump"-ing this so it gets noticed!
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Alex, please help! Campaign is leaving me a bit confused :D Do I need to keep Supplies, or Fuel for my Fleet to fly? It's not disappearing while I'm flying around, so it it just a dead weight? :D Give us teh new manual soon, pretty please.
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Supplies for repairs. Fuel is useless right now - it's just for interstellar travel, of which there isn't any :)
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Wait. Supplies aren't for rearming weapon systems?
...Huh...
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Well it could explain how to split your shipments to buy and trade, I don't know if you can or not but if we can let's say I haven't found a way yet. I would like to know if we can mod our engines to go faster or something of sorts.
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Wait. Supplies aren't for rearming weapon systems?
...Huh...
Nope, it's in the label/ description. Your "supplies" aren't even for that just fyi, it seems to just auto reload/ restock every engagement.
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That's confusing, because I thought supply logistics was supposed to be one of the drawbacks of ballistic and missile weapons..... Guess not.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind it if you had to buy stocks of specific types of rounds ala EV Nova. Being able to spam missiles and torpedoes every fight is a little lame.
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Fresh eye reading trough found typo.
Overload
If the flux level is maxed out due to damage taken by shields, the ship systems will be overloaded.
While overloaded, the ship can't fire or use shields, and dissipates flux very slowly. Overload lasts
a lot longer if it was caused by a big hit (for example, overload caused by absorbing a torpedo will
last a for long time).
(At least I 'hope' it is. Im not native english speaker.)
Will edit this post If I find more, but have to put it up before I forget.
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That's confusing, because I thought supply logistics was supposed to be one of the drawbacks of ballistic and missile weapons..... Guess not.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind it if you had to buy stocks of specific types of rounds ala EV Nova. Being able to spam missiles and torpedoes every fight is a little lame.
Wouldn't that make energy weapons overpowered though? Unless you have to spend more to maintain the flux vents or laser generator thing :-\? On another note The crew should consume some supply. It states that the crew's food is there too. Another obstacle to maintaining huge fleets ;D
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I'm of the opinion that energy weapons are already kind of overpowered, and that ballistics need to be buffed. But that's an issue of balance, this is an issue of mechanics. Punch the range out for guns a little bit more, add a few bonus missile types, and dial back energy damage, and I'm sure you could find a place where hte logistics for ammo balances with its firepower.
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I honestly just think we need a few more long distance ballistics. Everything here is fine, it's just the danger of getting sniped without ANY hope of retribution that is lame.
Maybe a hull mod to reduce energy damage? That would at least help you get close enough to let your hellbores rip.
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i couldnt find a bit in the tutorial about what higher crew levels actually do. did i miss it or does it need adding
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someone correct me if im wrong or add to if i forget something.. i believe it goes something like this
green. (penalty to accuracy) (penalty to ship travel speed) (penalty to ship combat speed)
regular. (normal accuracy) (normal ship travel speed) (normal combat speed)
veteran. (improved accuracy) (improved travel speed) (improved combat speed) (improved shield flux damage absorbed)
elite, (perfect accuracy) (max travel speed) (max combat speed) (max shield damage absorbed)
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someone correct me if im wrong or add to if i forget something.. i believe it goes something like this
green. (penalty to accuracy) (penalty to ship travel speed) (penalty to ship combat speed)
regular. (normal accuracy) (normal ship travel speed) (normal combat speed)
veteran. (improved accuracy) (improved travel speed) (improved combat speed) (improved shield flux damage absorbed)
elite, (perfect accuracy) (max travel speed) (max combat speed) (max shield damage absorbed)
I think they reduce Flux costs of things and ship Turn-Rate as well. And repair speed after a battle. Also, it may be just the "Accuracy", but more experienced crews have much, MUCH better auto-fire aim.
Not sure if they affect the AI of a ship, but it very well could.
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green. (penalty to accuracy) (penalty to ship travel speed) (penalty to ship combat speed)
regular. (normal accuracy) (normal ship travel speed) (normal combat speed)
veteran. (improved accuracy) (improved travel speed) (improved combat speed) (improved shield flux damage absorbed)
elite, (perfect accuracy) (max travel speed) (max combat speed) (max shield damage absorbed)
This is correct - also affects hull/armor damage taken, too, but that's it at the moment.
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We need a wiki with some of these useful data drops.
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Reading the manual I got a question::
Goal: Attack
The fleet engages in an all-out attack. Penalty to starting fleet points to represent relative lack of
organization. Retreating ships will move to the nearest edge of the map, and may be captured by
the enemy after the battle if the battle is lost.
To win, the enemy fleet must be routed - this can either mean total destruction, or capturing all
the objectives and then mopping up the enemy's deployed ships. Enemy ships will also retreat if
damaged too badly
Goal: Defend
The fleet is either holding ground or cautiously advancing on the enemy. Bonus to starting fleet
points to reflect good organization. Retreating ships will move to the starting edge of the map, and
are unlikely to be captured if the battle is lost, to represent an orderly retreat..
To win, the enemy fleet must be routed - this can either mean total destruction, or capturing all
the objectives and then mopping up the enemy's deployed ships. Enemy ships will also retreat if
damaged too badly.
The Teal text is identical in both cases.
So basically, the difference betwen the two, is what happens if you actually retreat. So if my objetive is to damage and destroy an inferior enemy fleet, Im actually better selecting "Defend" than "Attack" ?
That's a bit un-intuitive :s
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If you are fighting a fleet that is trying to get away from you, you will want to "Attack". If you hit "Defend", the enemy could go with the "Escape" option and there would be no engagement, plus they would get a temporary speed bonus in sector space. I think I remember someone calling it a Rock-Paper-Scissors kind of setup.
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ahhh there is the catch! The manual didnt explain the Defend vs Escape results in no combat.
Thanks for the aclaration
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Can we get more details on armor absorption?
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Can we get more details on armor absorption?
Does this answer your question, at least a little bit?
It's a little involved. Don't have the code in front of me, but each armor "cell" has roughly 1/8th of the armor rating worth of hitpoints. Damage reduction is based on a contribution from nearby cells - not just adjacent, a bit farther than that, though the farther off cells contibute less. What armor rating means is how much damage to armor you need to do (after reducton), shooting at a single point, before any damage at all gets through to the hull.
The actual formula is:
actual damage = base damage * base damage / (armor value + base damage)
The actual damage is then applied to armor cells contributing to the armor value, so subsequent hits to the same spot do more damage.
So a hit for 200 points of damage vs armor 200 will be reduced by 50%, and apply 100 points of damage to the armor. The next 200 point hit to the same cell will be reduced by 33% - 200 * 200 / (200 + 100).
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Totally yes! I run a bit excel to see what it led too! Oh my, with a good armor, against fire doing little per hit, you can really absorb a lot of damages!
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An addendum to the above: armor can't reduce damage below 25% of its after-the-damage-type-modifiers-are-applied value.
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is there something to tell me how to get more command points so i can get a bigger fleet?
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At the moment, I'm pretty sure the only way to do so is to edit the save file in notepad/Wordpad. Here's the method that worked for me when the fleet size cap started to become a nuisance. Posting the quote here for posterity.
I don't understand the confusion about this issue, as I had the exact same problem earlier and found a similar topic that had the solution buried deep in it amongst a lot of half-cocked speculation.
The solution is simple:
1. Go to the folder starfarer/saves/save_(name of your character)_numbers
2. Open up campaign.xml with Notepad (Make a backup of the file first if you want)
3. Ctrl + F, search for "maxfleetpoints>100.0". Do this TWICE, with the option under direction set to "down" (the first entry does not control the player's maximum fleet size, the second/last entry does). If you did this step correctly, you should be near the bottom of the file. This number directly corresponds to your maximum fleet points in the campaign map.
4. Change the number to whatever you like, e.g. maxfleetpoints>200.0, save the file, run the game.
Voila