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« on: September 02, 2019, 05:30:25 AM »
First of all I would like to state that Starsector scratched an itch inside my brain that I didn't even knew existed. I am completely in line with the developers vision with this game whatever it may be, because they seem to have a very solid game sense and great ideas.
During the time I played Starsector I took down notes from finish to start, because I wanted to know what impressed/disappointed me at the start and how those feelings evolved. I believe that to objectively rate a game you need to go deeper than the first impression but also don't let the bias of having played the game too long affect your judgement.
I've gone through the FAQ list and many of the suggestions listed in here by the players, some of them naturally covered what I had to say. I also understand that graphics, UI and the amount of content will improve as we approach 1.0.0. What few things I have left to say will be some opinion pieces that I believe I should mention.
1) Generic dialogue
When I first played the game, and also when the friends I shown the game first played it, first thing we noticed was the generic dialogue options you get from each planet hub. The messages you get from opening a comm to a friend or foe, or someone you just talked to for important business are all the samey "greetings, what is it?" kind of response. I understand that the dialogues will improve in time but these messages leave an impression that the game is far from finished and is at a very early stage. Playing the game further I have noticed that this is far, far from the truth. This lack of polish on NPC dialogue and bar options is misleading, and potentially deterring new players. A little touch on these messages and maybe a little more flavor text on different factions in a small patch can get much better immersion with little effort.
2) Space hazards
The most enjoyable time of the game for me was the part I started voyaging deep into the outer worlds for the first time trying to manage fuel/supplies and at the same time create a fleet thats fast and strong enough to survive with what little money I had. The game was enjoyable through and through in all it's stages, which is especially impressive for a sandbox game, but the thrill of wayfaring started to fade away a little as things get too predictable. I felt like I HAD to build a colony at that stage to keep the game interesting rather than it being a choice. Keeping in mind that new content will arrive into the game my suggestions are as follows:
- Make the space hazards more uniquely... hazardous. Black holes are a special mention here because of how underwhelming they felt when I first approached them. They are the embodiment of nothingness, the literal most dangerous thing in the real universe. They should pack more oomph to them than rapidly decreasing supplies. As of now I find star systems with a neutron star much more threatening than a black hole system. I love how unnerving and threatening a neutron star is, a black hole should be no less.
- Due to the existence of drive-by repairs, ship damage is more of an inconvenience rather than a threatening issue. The game is designed in a way that "hazards kill supplies, lack of supplies kills everything else" whereas hazards should be less manageable and predictable. Losing ships, losing officers, personally dying, suffering D-mods or other new penalties can be introduced and can be adjusted to have more sources that cause them. i.e. black holes might have a chance to apply the faulty sensors d-mod if you hang around them for too long etc. (This might already be in the game, I'm sorry if that is the issue)
- Remnants can be more aggressive at certain systems (the one with medium+ warning beacons) It's easy to just avoid them. They could also be roaming in hyperspace at the edges of the galaxy instead of being confined to star systems.
- New randomized events (not bounties/quests, but events like distress calls) for outer worlds could make them feel more interesting and threatening compared to core worlds. Exploration needs to be kept a little more fresh.
3) Resources
I've been searching for information on whether different resources (organics, volatiles etc) will get more unique functions on upcoming updates, and I couldn't find anything. That doesn't mean they're not coming, to the contrary I'm sure it will happen. I would like to see it happen in an interesting way that also complements other missing things in the game. For example you could build a megastructure around a planet like the Red Planet in main story that rapidly consumes transplutonics, or build terraforming devices around planets like the ones Tri-Tachyon uses that consume other stuff, etc. I personally lust for some sort of long-range planetary defense or superweapon that consumes volatiles and bring down those pesky pirate raids before they reach your system. Pirates are meant to be annoying and a menace to society, I get that, but damn they need to up their game beyond the endless fleets of Atlas ships. Someone in the forums also mentioned heavy armaments reinforcing ground defense etc. As of now the only resource outside fuel, crew and supplies that have a uniqueness to them is the volturnian lobster due to how its monopolized on a single planet.
I think the most entertaining use of the resources, and probably the one that'll take the most effort, would be dedicating special events to them that'll reward you for having them on your person at the time the event is triggered. Something happens, if you have 500 ores you get to do something, if you dont have them you don't. Some events could be less immediate that you can come back to later, similar to building nav buoys or surveying. This should prevent the end-game wealth making things easy, since you can hoard endless amount of resources in your storages but your fleet has limited (and valuable) storage space.
Thanks for reading. Again I love the game, it's replayability, and where it's going. More power to devs and I can't wait to introduce this game to more of my friends.
