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1

Bug Reports & Support / -1,000,000 experience points (0.95 save in 0.95.1)

« on: March 14, 2022, 03:57:48 PM »

I came back to Starsector after a brief hiatus and found that a new version, 0.95.1, had released. I wanted to continue my old 0.95 save in the new version, and while most things work properly there are some odd numerical anomalies. The most glaring of which is my experience total, which currently reads as past negative one million! It will take quite a while to level up at that rate.

Some contracts I had been awarded for supplying a given resource from my colonies were also cancelled; without going into too much detail on how I discovered this, it appears as though the number of days remaining in the payout was set to a negative number. A newly accepted and completed contract works just fine, so I think it was just save weirdness and will not be a problem going forward.

So, is there anything I can do to resolve the experience point issue? Maybe the best thing is just to go into the save files and set my XP to the desired number.

2

Suggestions / Re: Slower progression

« on: February 03, 2021, 05:41:40 AM »

Most complaints I've seen usually revolve around colonies requiring too much babysitting early on. And I do think colonies being profitable from the start is good, otherwise new players could fall into a trap and tank their whole game by establishing a colony too early.

That said, some of your concerns about ship acquisition may be addressed in the next update. There is a skill rework in development right now, which will completely change all the salvaging related skills. D- mods are changing to be less punishing as well, and combined with the changing skills I think we'll end up in a place where d- mods are not desirable but also not too bad to have.

3

Suggestions / Re: Why are all Pirates a single faction?

« on: February 03, 2021, 05:26:52 AM »

They are listed on the Factions page, but I don't think pirates are supposed to be a faction. Every pirate fleet or base (with defending fleets) you see is supposed to be a distinct group operation only with regard for their own profit, and the only thing that bind them is a disregard for law and order. They are included on the Factions only page because they have to be somewhere and there is nowhere else to put them.

That said, it would be cool to see a larger criminal faction in the game. Perhaps an organized crime family of sorts who is a lot more organized and large- scale than your average gang of scallywags. They would naturally be a good source of criminal contracts and illegal missions.

4

General Discussion / Re: 10 Years of Starsector!

« on: January 09, 2021, 01:18:14 PM »

I started at TotalBiscuit's recommendation when the game was just a series of missions with non-customizeable ships. And look at how far things have come! Keep up the great work Alex and David!

5

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95a (In Development) Patch Notes

« on: November 15, 2020, 05:04:07 PM »

I'm super excited for new missions and sorry content, as that's where I feel the game was most calling out for an expansion. New ships are always a treat as well, I'm curious how they will feel collated to the existing stable of warships.

I've been playing Starsector since before there was a campaign, and it keeps getting better with each release. I'll be eagerly awaiting the next update!

6

Suggestions / Re: "Terraforming" late-game tools

« on: June 30, 2020, 08:05:57 AM »

In the recent "Painting the Stars" blog post, David talks about creating the art assets for an item called a fusion lamp. While not strictly terraforming, it acts as a miniature sun for a planet of your choice, presumably providing light and warmth to planets without sufficient sunlight. So it looks like there are plans to implement items that can compensate for negative planet traits. They may be rare finds like pristine nanoforges in 0.9.1 and thus unable to be reliably produced by the player, no further details have been shared at this point.

In other words, I would not expect terraforming projects that one can use to landscape the sector at will, but there will probably be limited ways to produce the effects you are seeking.

7

General Discussion / Re: What is everybody's favorite weapon

« on: February 24, 2020, 04:09:06 AM »

I also find Squalls to be pretty good weapons, with the caveat that I usually don't use them against my main target. Instead, I find an enemy that is under pressure from other friendly ships and launch a missile volley at them. A full Squall volley is enough to tax even a Paragon's flux capacity, and when a ship is already trying to defend itself against a different cruiser the added damage can be back breaking. They're like a kinetic Pilum volley that never ends. I can't tell if they're my favorite large missile (none of them really excite me, but I've never played with Missile Spec 3), but they serve a definite purpose.

And nobody mentioned my favorite missile of any slot size: the dual Atropos torpedo rack! The trick is to think of them as heavy Harpoon missiles rather than guided torpedoes. They're like Hammer torpedoes with enough guidance to always hit anything of destroyer size or larger, and a well timed shot can even nail a frigate. They come in a rack of two as opposed to the three-shot Harpoon missile rack but can deal WAY more damage per hit, and they're beefy enough to bypass light point defense screens that would stop most small missiles.  I often find myself wishing there were medium and large Atropos launchers for high explosive death in larger volumes. Other small missiles all have their niches, but if I don't need a specific other kind of missile for a given ship I usually slap on an Atropos.

Last in my list of unpopular weapon opinions, I honestly think the autopulse laser is my favorite large energy weapon because of a very specific synergy. As mentioned previously, the APL suffers from low sustained damage output unless it has extended magazines. Do you know what else likes extended magazines? The best PD available to high tech ships, the burst laser. With the three of those things combined, you can get great burst damage while being incredibly safe from fighters and missiles. And while plasma cannons have the best damage over a long time, the burst from a couple extended magazine APL is ferocious and will leave most cruisers overloaded with a hole in their face. But most importantly, I love the APL sound quite a lot. The plasma cannon is amazing too, but if I'm looking to give a ship high burst damage and better defenses, I'll usually pick the APL over plasma.

8

General Discussion / Re: Harder than darksoul games

« on: February 16, 2020, 05:04:43 PM »

Taking a commission with a faction will give you a healthy monthly stipend based on fleet size, enough to cover most of your supply and fuel costs. You also get an extra bonus for every enemy ship destroyed. It means you have to watch out for hostile fleets when traveling around the sector, but it's a great source of extra income that doesn't require a big change in tactics.

9

General Discussion / Re: How to make effing money/profit?

« on: February 14, 2020, 05:59:00 AM »

I find it very hard to make substantial profits in the early game unless you are fulfilling some sort of bounty or contract. System bounties are good for this -- go to an area with such a bounty posted and look for easy targets. If you see small groups of enemies or friendly fleets in a fight with a larger enemy group, jump in there and crack some heads. Unshielded enemies like a Cerberus or Buffalo mkII are particularly juicy targets for the starting Wolf.

Exploration missions to survey something like a Domain probe are also really good. If you fly around for a while you'll eventually find offers for more than one job close together. These are good for saving fuel and supplies on the trip to and from civilized space. I'd avoid planet surveying missions because they require lots of supplies or ships with surveying equipment.

Also, remember that you do get a bit of money from the Academy in the first 3 years, enough to keep yourself supplied and buy some more frigates. You'll naturally accumulate a bigger fleet this way.

10

General Discussion / Re: How to outfit carriers?

« on: January 22, 2020, 09:33:11 AM »

I have little experience playing with mods, but I can give you some input regarding vanilla carriers.

1) This entirely depends on what role you want your fighters to play. If they're here to hunt down enemy frigates or protect other ships from fighters and missiles, interceptors like Talons, Thunders, or Sparks afte preferred. Heavy fighters like the Broadsword or Gladius are good for supporting attacks against enemy ships, as their point defense flares will help all your fighters live a bit longer. Anything with ion weaponry is also very helpful in this role. Bombers and heavy assault fighters like the Warthog have the heavy weapons to deal serious damage to heavy targets but can struggle top punch through shields without kinetic weaponry support. Many fighter wings, particularly the expensive and powerful ones, can be used for different purposes than its intended role and still do fine - a Xyphos wing provides great anti-ship support and can still swat attacking fighters out of the sky.

The only wings I've found consistently disappointing are the Piranha and Mining Pod. Both are too cumbersome to get places quickly.

2) Most carriers can mount any fighter they want, but a couple have preferences because of their ship systems. The Astral can teleport fighters back home to replenish, which significantly increases the uptime of bomber wings. The Heron's targeting feed provides a sustained damage bonus that intercepts or heavy fighters really appreciate.

3) Since Talons cost just 2 OP and give you effectively four flying zero-flux Vulcan cannons, I'd always fill those slots with something.

4) The three fighter skills for officers are all a big deal and help quite a bit, though carriers are still good without them. I don't know if carrier skills make a bigger relative power difference than regular combat skills would for a warship.

5) You can keep as many officers with carrier skills as you'd like, as mass carriers is a viable strategy. It all comes down to how you'd like to build your fleet.

6) Some of the most fun I've had in starsector came when I was piloting an Astral or Legion. The former let's you delete anything of cruiser size or smaller with a bombing run, teleport all your ships back home for reloading, and do it again in 10 seconds. The latter allows you to slug it out on the front lines while directing your fighter swarm to support any nearby ships you choose.

7) I'd avoid aggressive or reckless officers unless you've got a battle carrier (like the aforementioned Legion).

Big carriers tend to come with heavy weapon mounts and ship systems that let them project a lot of concentrated power. 4 Drovers can field more fighters total but won't necessarily concentrate them without fleet orders. Both approaches work and I haven't tested things out enough to know the "better" option.

I hope this helps!

11

General Discussion / Re: Would you colonize this system?

« on: January 21, 2020, 04:28:19 AM »

That still sounds like a worthwhile system. If you put a couple really expensive industries like heavy industry on your terran planet, the upkeep cost savings should offset the more expensive upkeep on your other planets.

12

General Discussion / Re: How are officers and administrators generated?

« on: January 19, 2020, 08:06:56 PM »

If you're looking at ship officers, most begin with maybe three skill points, with the opportunity to gain five times that many points through leveling up. As long as the officer has an appropriate personality type for their intended role, you can generally shape them into what you want them to be. And honestly, most officer skills are useful on the majority of combat ships, even if they may be best suited to a certain subset of ship.

Administrators are a different story, and it can be quite difficult to find one with more than one skill. To my knowledge they are constantly being randomly generated; I've never encountered the same officer at more than one port, and any given port will generate new officers after a while. I generally check every administrator available and snap-buy anybody with two skills, since I have no idea when I'll find another with that level of talent.

13

General Discussion / Re: Thanks Alex

« on: January 12, 2020, 02:46:47 PM »

I'm glad you like it, and welcome aboard! This game it's something special, I've been playing off and on since 2011 and it keeps getting better every year.

14

Blog Posts / Re: Raiding for Fun and Profit

« on: January 09, 2020, 07:01:55 AM »

This looks like a very interesting change to marine mechanics, I look forward to seeing its final form.

Regarding the heavy armaments discussion, I never interpreted those as weapons that would even be useful in a raid. If my goal was to breach a facility full of volatile fuel refining equipment try and recover the synchotron core, I'd leave the tanks and battle mechs at home. They make a little more sense for disruption missions, but even then they seem like a liability for the lightning raids conducted by a player fleet. I'm fine with heavy armaments not factoring into raid effectiveness at all.

Heavy armaments ship seem invaluable for something like a planetary invasion. If that gets added to the game, heavy armaments could have a use there. Maybe something like how heavy machinery currently works for surveying and exploration. You'd need X many heavy armaments to mount an invasion for a colony of a given size and defense strength (some of which are consumed). If you have insufficient armaments, the failure chance and marine losses would go up. Or maybe you could choose to use heavy armaments for a safer attack but increase the collateral damage in your newly acquired colony.

Sorry if I've gone off topic a bit, but HA seem like they could have a military use beyond raiding.

15

Blog Posts / Re: Cartography

« on: December 01, 2016, 06:33:23 AM »

Is it possible to bind the set course functionality to simultaneously clicking the left and right mouse buttons? Or maybe right-clicking while the LMB is pressed?