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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); In-development patch notes for Starsector 0.98a (2/8/25)

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Messages - freakingcynik

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Similar to themed runs, you can restrict your own options to force some variety.
I've been doing most of my last runs without buying ships/weapons or using the industrial skill tree, it really changes the fleet management part until the late game. Getting to 240dp with.a random assortments of half broken ships that changes each playthrough is an interesting twist!

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 10, 2024, 05:34:01 PM »
They might kill you if you're not ready?

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 10, 2024, 03:00:52 PM »
@Alex
Funnily enough, I knew about the bonus xp thing coming with using SP a certain way, but it never clicked that it made it not a consumable. I'm a dum-dum sometimes  ;D And it's not like I'm running short on them, I rarely go under 20 after midgame. My reluctance to use them is definitely irrational territory  :P
But I think I'm using some of those "100% xp back". Is fleeing one of those? Oh, promoting a crew member to an officer is one, isn't it? I tend to use those 2 a fair bit, and sometimes mentor officers too.

Anyway, you're spot on with the player being expected to create his little explanation. It occured to me quickly after writing my previous message, this "game-y" action can indeed easily fit into the game universe: you're just opening comms to the enemy boss and insulting his mom. It is, in fact, the only possible scenario. And it does make the whole thing better :)

Thank you for the code reference. So, the idea is that I'd write another setup() to get called in place of the original by the basegame? And just return the object with the adjusted relevant values? Sorry for the basic questions, I went from learning C in CLI straight to javascript fullstack web development, I'm missing the big piece in the middle, basically everything about modern native appplications ^^'


@Bungee_man
As much as it makes sense in universe (as long as the team they send to raid is doing its job, why would they escalate?), there's the gameplay related issue, where you're "rewarded" with more time by doing nothing. For my playthrough, because I setup a colony with so little money, I really had to create opportunities to make money by exploring or doing bounties, else I wouldn't have been able to afford more industries and upgrades on top of financing my fleet. Had many months around the 10k creds mark, at least one time going in debt.

What I'm getting to is that time is precious, it's a valuable ressource if you didn't "overprepare" for your colony. And yeah, I shouldn't be given more of that for free. As it is, there's the narrative part, "I'm cleaning the part of the sector I want to make my own", and the gameplay part, where fighting is rewarded with more time to grow.
Riding that line was most of what I really enjoyed with this update, and also why I'm worried the nerf were a little too much. Without tension, there's no line, you're just off playing normal starsector waiting for the big fights to come. I think it's cool that the process of carving your place in the sector is a more involved process now, with a narrative element to it and some "bosses" that ultimately leads to you being finally free to go explore or do whatever.

So yeah, I don't think your idea would work because of that, but it's still a very interesting one, it does make more sense in universe, I think.

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 10, 2024, 12:19:39 PM »
Honestly, I feel like some of this might be perception? The two changes impacting crisis speed were 1) increasing the bar from 500 to 600, and 2) reducing the progress from the PL crisis factor. I suppose the latter could be the one that's the big difference-maker here, hmm. But a big part of how a given playthrough feels is going to be the RNG you get on the post-crisis progress bar resets - I think probably that would have more impact than the changes I'd made. If you roll low, you'll get longer breaks, if you roll high, you'll get crises coming one after the other.

I do have a TODO item for adding a 100% bonus XP story option to trigger a crisis quickly, though that's not exactly what you're asking for - but it's an idea that's in line with the game's general philosophy, letting you shape your playthrough with story points.
Fair, although you did more than 2 changes that influenced how fast the crisis happen. From what I understand by reading the patch notes, TT would never even have gotten an interest in my colony in the vanilla playthrough I talked about in my first post. 2 commodities at least, that aren't food, domestic goods and basic metals, that leaves a lot more room.

500 to 600 points isn't a small change either. At low progress/month, 100 points will take a while to fill up. I think I started around 10/month when it was all about pirates, more or less depending on if a base was up or not. So, I almost get a full year of additional time with this change (well, less because of blowback, but still). Maybe it's my playstyle that's too off the norm to be relevant to the discussion, I don't know. And now without TT getting interested in basic stuff, we're stuck with pirates for longer.

So yeah, you're right about the RNG element from one playthrough to another, but it's not only that. PL takes twice as long to fill 20% more, TT comes later, if ever depending on the colony type (if I get it right, a farming/mining/light industry/commerce combo without free port doesn't ever trigger them, is that it?). If you don't mess with domain tech and AI, that leaves you with pirates for quite a while. The pressure isn't the same, I don't think it's only perception, although it indeed plays a role too.

Alright for the story point option. Why not. But honestly, the fact that I'd be the one triggering it at will makes it closer to "game-y" than something immersive. And as I'm very picky with my SP expenditure, I know I won't use that option, and just let the fleets roam to let the counter build up. Anything to save a SP when I can  ;D

You do mention in the patch notes the difference in max rate of crisis progress related to the difficulty, so... there is a way  :P Purely hypothetically, to satiate my programmer curiosity, how hard would it be to change other settings according to the difficulty? Like, changing the bar total value depending on the difficulty? That would seem the easiest from outside, but I'm just competent enough not to trust these appearences

I would understand if you had no interest for it, though. I'm apparently in a small minority being fine with the previous balance, so whatever, game is still great, I'll move on.

5
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 10, 2024, 07:23:58 AM »
Hey Alex!

Just wondering, could the crisis evolution speed be tied to the difficulty level in any way?
I honestly prefered the pre-nerf version, where I had to take care of my system if I wanted to be able to take some time to explore. Now, I'm more about leaving enemy fleets by in my system, just so the crisis can finally come. It's a waaaaay different feeling, very game-y, whereas before it served immersion, because of course you're gonna have to fight hard to create a faction from scratch with neighbours like those in Starsector...

So yeah, if we could have pre-nerf for normal, and post-nerf for easy mode, that would be a good solution imo. Right now I just feel kinda robbed, as some people were very quick and loud to complain, while those that were enjoying the game were... enjoying the game. And by the time I got here to congratulate you on your work, the nerf patch was already released.

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Colonies are something you make after you've already been farming remnants

... Oh.
That's not a general rule at all, you can do it and benefit from it way earlier than that.

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Mods / Re: [0.97a] Roider Union 2.0.7
« on: March 09, 2024, 03:40:24 AM »
Calidor's Interdiction Sequence is intended to screw fast ships. A single Calidor should not be able to totally lock down a ship because the cooldown is 20 seconds (13.2 with SysEx) - I am pretty sure base engine repair time even for a capital ship is less than that. A lot of the BS comes from vanilla flameouts - flameouts removing all control, etc. is a terrible mechanic.

I will consider some simple nerfs (range, cooldown) and think about some more in-depth rework to make it less sucky on the receiving end. Several Roider things are overtuned at the moment TBH.

Oh, is the flameout the only option you're given to achieve an effect like this? This would explain why it feels so extreme, I guess. It sure is effective at screwing with fast ships :D
About the chainlock, I guess it's because I was using a Cabal ship, I think their built-in mod reduce repair rate. In any case, I could 100% get chainlocked by a single ship. Not that they're always alone either, I've moslty seen them in pairs.

Mh, and if you're limited to flameouts, I guess you can't change its duration either? Something like this would be fine - screwing with fast ships is definitely fair - if it were toned down some way. Even a 90% slow would be better as the player still get to do something. Or a full stop, but with a way shorter duration, like a momentum killer that lets you move again almost immediatly.

Anyway, thank you for answering and caring!

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this is especially beneficial against Tri-Tachyon and Lion's Guard who have 5 quality doctrine and will always have pristine ships that you can steal from them. Though you don't want most Lion's Guard ships... They sux.
I defeated the PL crisis with ships from these 2 factions, pretty much only. LG's executor, eagle and falcon. TT fury, aurora and medusa. Might be that LG ships aren't the best, but they're still so much better than no ship :P


Quote
This is not very time-efficient since trade convoys will have very few officers (if any) and thus fewer ships to salvage. The fastest way to salvage a lot of combat ships is to do deserter bounties.
"Time efficient" could be argued with. It varies a lot, sometimes you'll get 3 heavy armaments fleet in a row, sometimes nothing for days. But when it's good, the money is better than bounties imo. Ships salvage isn't, for sure, it's just a nice bonus.
Also, are you talking about time ingame or out of game?
In any case, the point of my answer was more about it being easy to do. The person I was ansering too is struggling with the game, so I don't think pointing him to some of the hardest fights in vanilla will do much good :D

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No I am not good at both building a fleet and earning credits. By all means please teach me the ways of the master, because I've looked at dozens of god damn youtube videos (big brain energy, GrumpyThumper, Uran92, Papa Chedder, etc.), builds, loadouts, strategies, guides, etc. etc. all to keep from getting my teeth kicked in and it clearly isn't working. So tell me the right meta to play this game.

[...]

So hypothetically if I were to start a new game from scratch, when should I first start a colony? When I have $3 mil and at least two capital ships with 50+ fleet?
An easy way is to attack trade fleets from faction you want ships from, they'll often have up to cruisers as escorts. If you target heavy armaments/supplies shipments, they sell for good cash and allow you to hoard supplies instead of bleeding money buying them. And you get the occasional ship salvage to add to your fleet.
Bonus points if you're into high-tech ships and can target tritech, it helps for the colony crisis too.
You can easily build a full fleet of solid cruisers and escorts while making money.

Exploration can also get you there, but you rely on rng more. Sometimes you'll get 2 legions + cruisers + lot of loot if your first few runs, sometimes you'll barely make for the traveling costs.

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Mods / Re: [0.97a] Roider Union 2.0.7
« on: March 08, 2024, 08:54:09 AM »
Is this mod safe to remove mid-save?

Also, the ships with the system that disable engines through shields are yours, right?

Edit: Ok, so I checked, can't remove the mod, of course. And the ship is a roider indeed, with the "interdiction" thing.

Not gonna sugar coat it, it's terrible game design. You don't put something that takes control away from the player AND make it an auto hit through shields regardless of flux level. You can't escape that ***, it also kills your momentum for some reason, so you're left stranded, fully stopped, with enemies in range, and no option for counter play.
Hopefully, reading this will make you realize how bad an idea it is. And to be clear, I'm not saying the mod is bad or anything, there's obviously plenty of work and talent that went into it. But this "no control and no counterplay against it" is just never something you want to put in a video game, ever. Look at vanilla, the closest is the salamander, which is irritating as hell already, but there's plenty of ways to mitigate it. Piloting better, 360° shields, PD, escorts... Then there's the shield removal of I don't know which phase ship, but that's so short it barely matters, and you can still move to mitigate damage.
And then there's your ship, barely coming into the screen and already killing my movement instantly, and my ship as a result. Biiiig gap there. Can't even turn around because it kills momentum, so all I can do is watch my ship slowly dies.

So yeah. Gaming is an interactive entertainment form. So please don't take away the interaction.

More edit: and the ability can be chained by a single ship so that you never retake control of yours. Like, seriously, is that how you intended this to work? Sorry that I insist so much but I just don't understand how one could come to think this was a good idea. I know I can just uninstall your mod, and I surely will if only for the performance issues, but I'm malding a bit about losing yet another playthrough, and I'm really curious about your thought process behind this.

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 07, 2024, 02:20:57 PM »
Malfunctions would kill the mod for me, for sure.

There's a mechanic I saw in mechwarrior that I think could fit SO well, if it were to be turned into an active ability. In MW you can get a speed boost that builds up a heat counter. At a certaint treshold it starts damaging the mech. When turned off the heat slowly dissipate.
The heat counter builds up faster and faster as the system stays on, and same for damage, you take more and more if you keep it going after the treshold is crossed.

It's honestly quite fun to play with, it's used for short ranged/melee mech in MW, so yeah, it would fit with the SO playstyle as well. The player is always in command, no forced cooldown or things like that, it's all the player choice to balance the need for the boost and the risk for his ship. It can punish greed, make the player take more risk to secure an important kill, all aspects that could make the mod more interesting overall.

12
If you rush High commands in a system with six or so worlds, put AI cores on them, have AI admins, have at least one extreme heat world with a Cryoarithmetic engine, and then improve them all, you don't need to fight the PL, as your system fleets will just kill them.

I just did a Nex run with this strategy. The Hegemony stole Kazeron and then proceeded to send a 17 fleet blockade at me. My system fleets beat them within three days.
Let me know if you want screenshots for proof. I would just post them, but they're too large to post, so I have to compress them which is work I can't be bothered to do unless asked.
I have no problems believing that, but it's a lot of stuff to pay/explore for. I think the discussion is more geared toward an average playthrough, your exemple is like waiting to have an endgame fleet before colonizing, it makes the situation kinda irrelevant for a balance discussion.

13
The Persean League takes an interest when you have 2 colonies or one at size 5. Basically, for existing.
Just for the sake of accuracy, they take interest for having existed for a while, or having grown. Putting down a second colony is a choice, growing to size 5 takes time. I think it's fair to expect the player to build his fleet and up his fighting ability during that time, as it's the focus of the game. And I guess the Persean League acts kind of like a boss of the "colony arc" of the game, they're latest to come in the mandatory ones.

And yes, "14 fleets", but it's a winnable fight, even without using the alternate means provided by the text. You have to use basic strategy, though, facing all of them head-on in the open sure isn't a good idea.
To keep going with the boss analogy, it's similar to one in a soulslike. Big "oh ***" moment when you see them coming the first time, you get bashed if you try to bruteforce it, and you fight your way through unfavorable odds to eventually win. It really had a similar flavor to me, but I can understand that it's not for everyone.

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 05, 2024, 09:16:33 AM »
Found 4 usable Furys and 0 Eradicator, this run, so here you go, a good reason to use a Fury :D I didn't pilot one, but they roamed in a pack and found some kills while I was zooming around in the Aurora. It worked well enough.

@Mishrak, that's the build, yes. Maybe it's not new in the modding community, but a lot of its pieces are in vanilla. New cyber augment skill, new s-mod effects for cheap mods, elite skill reworks, energy weapons buff... I totally understand Alex not wanting to mess with balance around SO, but it is a fact, that in vanilla, an already OP build got a lot stronger through many little buffs :D

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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: March 04, 2024, 10:46:36 AM »
Hey all, hey Alex!

Hey - welcome to the forum :) Thank you for your feedback, and for the detailed write-up, I appreciate it! Happy to hear the crises worked out in a fun way for you, especially.

The Tech (blue) tree did get some changes, yeah - Neural Link is now a tier down, and Cybernetic Augmentation has that new damage +/- effect based on elite skills.

For the SO Aurora - I don't doubt that it's very strong, but a lot of that has to do with just SO being... shall we say, less than well balanced, in a lot of cases. So I wouldn't want to base balance changes on SO, if that makes sense - it's just its own thing, and changing *other* things wouldn't balance it.

Makes perfect sense, yes. But what about... a little change with SO itself? Say, if you couldn't add it to s-modded ships? In my current case, it would remove a layer of damage mitigation, thus reducing "the problem". Would force a choice between the damage, 360° shields and flux capacity, and make diving through enemy lines and bringing your target with you a bit harder to pull off.

It's a super fun playstyle, so no point in trying to kill it, but as is, I barely have to play. I feel if I was a bit less survivable I would still be able to do it, but would have to choose my engagement more carefully and it would keep fights more engaging.

I always play around mobility even when not using SO (the Odyssey was new to me by the way, must have come from last patch, great player ship!), so I'm used to picking escorts off big targets before going for the big kill, but being able to kill an escort AND the capital with it without having to retreat inbetween, all in a 30DP cruiser, feels like a bit much :D
Have you tried it or seen it in action? The gameplay itself isn't new, it's just SO things, but the level of survivability that can be reached with cyber augment and the new s-mods is new, I believe. I can send you a savefile or give you the build, if you want to test it.

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