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1

General Discussion / Conquest Loadouts

« on: November 30, 2012, 10:24:25 PM »

I've been playing around with one of these and I want to love it but I can't find a loadout that performs well.  The dual side barrage configuration of the mounts makes it seem geared toward brawling rather than long range support, but most barrage ships obviously favor one side to maximize the pain in that direction, but with the Conquest you have to cut your effective firepower in half to cover both sides.  I don't really see the advantage.  If you're going broadside style then you want maximum firepower in a single face of the ship.  I suppose if you plan to place yourself directly in the middle of two angry cruisers or capships then the conquest has you covered, but that's a niche I plan to avoid.

2

Modding / A plea for balance

« on: April 23, 2012, 12:33:15 PM »

Modders,

All the sweat and time you've put into this game are commendable--it's great to see such a prolific modding community already developing before the game is even released.  This kind of community generated content is what keeps a game on hard drives for years after release.  I salute you all!

I've been poking around with the Mish-mash mod lately and there is but one small problem.  Almost universally, modded ships are far more powerful than vanilla ships.  This is fine if you are planning a self-contained universe with multiple factions, but if the intent is to extend vanilla play, creating unbalanced ships will actually make the game less fun in the long run.  Not only is player ship choice narrowed, but there may be more unforeseen gameplay ramifications once multiple star systems and faction warfare become more prevalent.  Feel free to ignore this advice, but the mods that succeed and have long and successful lives, the ones that keep people playing for years, pay careful attention to balancing the content they add with the vanilla content of the game.  I realize that most of these mods are still in alpha or beta and are not considered finished products yet, but keep this in mind while you hone them into perfection.  It's more fun to design superships than it is to play with them!

Happy modding everyone!
Hairrorist

3

Suggestions / An Impassioned Plea

« on: February 18, 2012, 10:48:29 AM »

I've been playing in dev mode to test various things and have become absolutely addicted to the camera control freedom it allows. I'm begging you to give us the devmode camera in future releases.  I understand that you want to avoid the RTS vibe, but I assure you that this is not lost when I am allowed to zoom.  75% of the time  I play zoomed in, but that style of play simply does not work for support oriented ships.  The orders system will  prevent this from ever losing the feeling of controlling one specific ship of a fleet in combat.  I also understand that you want people to see the detail of the sprites, which is certainly valid because they are exceptional, but I've found that while playing in dev mode I nearly always stay zoomed in when directly engaging in an assault.

At the minimum, world map zoom is essential.  Constant clicking gets old, and so does constantly hitting tab to bring up the map to make sure that my course is still correct to catch a fleet that is moving offscreen.

4

Suggestions / Module/Hull Mod Suggestions

« on: February 17, 2012, 02:45:28 PM »

It's probably most helpful if we gather all the module suggestions and concerns into one thread instead of hurling them all over the forum.

Add your ideas to the list!

Flight Deck As either an OP costly module or hull mod.  As a module, perhaps "Docking Bay & Hangar."
Advanced Sensors: Large increase to visible sight.  Cheap mod/module since it has limited application.

Others?

5

General Discussion / What's next?

« on: February 16, 2012, 04:24:13 PM »

What features are you working on next?  My guess is character/pilot development?

6

General Discussion / Hidden Secrets of the Loadout Masters

« on: February 16, 2012, 12:07:01 PM »

Let's hear your favorite custom ship loadouts and their tactical niche!

I'll start off:
My absolute favorite-- Hyperion Frigate with 2x AM Blasters, 2x Atropos Torpedoes, 2x Ion Cannons, 10 capacitors and 6 vents  Capable of soloing cruisers if your aim is good.  If not, ditch an ion cannon or some vents and pick up an ammo extension and/or missile extension.  You can quickly down shields with your Ion Cannons, then carve a hole through their armor with your AM Blaster before finally releasing two torpedoes right up their soft underbelly.  Its a devastating combo.  Then you can run out, let your flux cool off and do it all over again.  This ship is absolutely incredible.  Nothing this small can pack even close to the amount of strike potential this craft brings to the table.  No need for PD whatsoever--you're too damn fast.  If the enemy has a lot of very fast fighters that are giving you trouble, you can plug in tactical lasers instead of ions, but you will not have the same lightning fast death swoop combo.

Great Support Cruiser-- Hate carriers as much as I do?  Grab a venture class cruiser instead.  Drop your choice of medium energy mounts, 2x Pilum Launchers, 2x Harpoons, 2x Hypervelocity drivers.  This ship is a dangerous sniper and mobile carrier.  Keep it in your back lines with an interceptor wing escort and you can cause some real damage.  This is the best option for a carrier craft I have found.

Brawler--Aurora cruiser with 3x heavy blasters, 4x tactical lasers, 2x Sabot SRMS, a Cyclone Reaper Launcher, 30 vents, stabilized shields and hardened shields.  This ship is all about timing and using your sabots correctly.  Down their shields with a volley or two from the sabs, then unleash your right broadside, turn your nose to them and drive straight toward them and drop your reapers.  Continue to rotate around and let them have the weaker left broadside if the shield is still down or they are disabled.

What are your favorites?

edit
Heavy Blasters, not burst lasers

7

Suggestions / Flight Decks

« on: February 15, 2012, 07:22:15 PM »

It would be really neat if we could add flight decks using the hull mod system.  They would, of course, take a large number of points, but it would enable us to refit a ship with drastically reduced firepower but with a fighter docking station.  Would be hella useful either when assembling fast fleets, or dynamically responding to situations--like capturing a large number of fighters after a battle, or to respond to an enemy fleet with a greater force of fighters but no flight decks.  More options would be nice!

8

General Discussion / Crew Assignment

« on: February 15, 2012, 05:20:54 PM »

Is there a way to ensure that certain craft are given crew experience priority?  I'd like to give my elites to the Xyphos wings, and fighter wings in general.

Also, is there a breakdown of what bonus/malus crew experience levels provide?

9

General Discussion / Dev/Cheat commands

« on: February 15, 2012, 01:08:37 PM »

For those of us interested mostly in using this build as a testing platform, are there dev commands?

The problem I keep running into in testing is Tachyon dominance, they swarm and crowd the one orbital station making it impossible for me to land.  Would be nice to be able to spawn ships/money/whatever as well with console commands to efficiently test out all the ships.

10

Bug Reports & Support / Hit Escape While Ship Explosion Animation is Playing

« on: February 15, 2012, 12:02:12 PM »

The message screen will be covered by the light and you have to randomly click until you find the button.

11

Suggestions / The Great Big Fat UI Improvement Thread

« on: February 14, 2012, 09:56:13 PM »

Use this thread to discuss easy to implement UI fixes, missing information, etc.  This isn't the place to request significant changes or overhauls, just things that feel 'missing' in the current UI design.

* Stack breaking should be explained somewhere.
* If I want to buy 250 crewmen, I should be able to input the number instead of clicking 250 times.
* Fuel should be displayed in world map view.
* Ships without crew should not be part of determining the strength of your fleet in worldmap.
* Disabled or unmanned ships should not show up when you mouse over your fleet.  Or they should show up, but be in red, or greyed out.
* Speed of enemy parties should be displayed in worldmap if you mouse over.
* Mount locations need to be more distinct in the refit screen.
* Fleet screen personnel bar should have a split showing minimum required for full fleet deployment and maximum crew size.

Probably more!

12

Suggestions / Collision

« on: January 26, 2012, 10:00:16 AM »

Perhaps this is a design decision that is firm, but I think it would be nice if friendly ships could go over/under each other. 

13

Suggestions / Giving Pilots Character

« on: January 18, 2012, 06:23:59 PM »

One of my favorite games of all time is Crusader Kings by Paradox, and how easy natural storytelling comes out of randomly generated traits that a character accrues over their lifespan.  The Total War series has some of this as well, with generals gaining various advisors and personality quirks.  Its awesome.  They can have very minute effects on actual gameplay, slight bonus here, slight malus there, extra this, extra that, etc, but the effect this kind of feature provides in a game is profound, and gives each general or ruler a unique storyline.

I realize that this is planned to some extent, mainly in the pilot AI... some will be brave, some will be cowards, cautious, tactical, etc.  But I'd like my pilots to gain personality traits like "Foul mouthed," "drunkard," "ladies man," etc.  Or gain friends similar to retinues in Total War--after trading at a station, X pilot picks up a smuggler.  Or a preacher.  Or a bounty hunter.  Or a wealthy paramour.  Or a hooker.... etc, and these characters stick with the pilot like traits providing similar minor malus and bonus effects.

This would make me really attached to certain crews and pilots as I'm forced to create a narrative through these randomly generated stats.

So how bout it Alex?  Something like this in the works already?

14

General Discussion / Strategic Direction of Starfarer

« on: September 17, 2011, 04:05:26 PM »

I think we're all pretty excited to see Starfarer evolve into something more strategic than a simple tactical battle simulation.  I'm wondering whether the plan is to eventually build an Escape Velocity / Elite type open world space game, a more strategic 4x game with tactical battles, a campaign driven RTS style game with RPG like mechanics (think WH40k games), or something else entirely?  X3 had an interesting progression from an Elite style open world space game into a more empire focused endgame but these elements were not fleshed out very well.  That's an angle that is yet to be really explored fully and from what I've read this seems to be the goal?