Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - Pushover

Pages: [1] 2
1
Suggestions / Filter Planet by Conditions
« on: March 27, 2021, 12:20:31 AM »
Now that we have items that care about having specific conditions (IE Synchrotron requires No Atmosphere), it would be nice if there was a way on the Intel screen to filter to planets with specific condition(s).

2
General Discussion / Thoughts on Trading
« on: March 19, 2021, 01:51:32 AM »
Having recently come back to the game (last played v0.8 ), I feel like the economy is much better than it was before, but (non-smuggling) trade has never felt particularly viable compared to things like bounty hunting and exploration. The UI improvements and excess/shortage system make commodity trading much easier in terms of figuring out where the opportunities are. So here's my thoughts on the current state of trading:

I believe the following should be true of commodity trading (buying/selling commodities for a profit):
  • Trading on the open market should not be profitable under normal conditions
  • Trading on the open market, by either buying from an excess, or selling to a shortage, should, under most conditions, be profitable.
  • Trading on the black market should be more profitable if done in the same volume as trading on the open market.
  • Trading on the black market in high volume should come with significant risks or penalties with non-pirate factions
  • Trading on the black market in illegal commodities should be (more easily) profitable than other types of commodity trading, as there are risks to getting caught.
  • Significant trading with Pirates (and Pathers) should result in risks and/or penalties (beyond potentially getting attacked by them), even if done with the transponder off.

Currently, tariffs achieve (1) and (3), but are so high that they almost completely block (2) (this has been the case for as long as I've been playing Starsector). Even buying/selling a commodity at a 100% markup, you will only gain 10% of the value of the commodity you traded is (buy at 130%, sell at 140%). This prevents all but the best deals from being profitable on the open market. As a result, all profitable commodity trading takes place on the Black Market, which seems unintuitive for larger volumes of trading. Significantly reducing tariffs to even something as low as 10 or maybe even 5% would still achieve (1) and (3) while actually allowing (2) to become true. Some additional work might be needed to reduce the viability of black market trade in large volumes, but reducing tariffs would be an important step in allowing open market trading to become viable.

(5) continues to be true, as this has been the classic 'smuggler' route, and it works well. (especially as there is almost always a shortage of drugs somewhere or another)

Disruptions caused by lost trade fleets allows small opportunities, and would allow (2) if the tariffs were not so high. However, the big money to be made in commodity trading comes from disrupted spaceports.

Currently, a disrupted Spaceport in a system results in some insane profiteering due to a mix of how the various systems work. A disrupted Spaceport often means access will drop to 0% or less, meaning nothing is getting shipped in or out. This causes massive shortages and excesses across the board on most planets/stations. Since most trade happens on the black market, which does not affect shortages, the shortage continues until the spaceport is fixed. A single planet/station with a disrupted spaceport for a few months can easily result in a million credits of profit in that time period, with almost no risk and only a little reputation loss, without trading in any illegal goods (which can often double the profits).

As an example from a recent new game, Tigra City (size 4, Mining (moderate ore), Spaceport, Orbital Station) got hit in a Pirate raid, disrupting the Spaceport. This resulted in a shortage of 600 supplies, 1000 fuel, 100 heavy machinery, 200 luxury goods, 600 domestic goods, and 1500 organics (and 800 recreational drugs, 200 organs). All of these ended up at about 2x normal price, meaning that every time the shortage reset, there was a profit available of ~175,000 from only buying/selling regular commodities on the black market, almost all of which was easily sourced from planets within the system (meaning I did not need a tremendously large cargo fleet). If you add in the illegal trading, there was a further ~200,000 credits available every shortage reset. This is all from a size 4 colony with just mining and a spaceport. Naturally, this opportunity resulted in me clearing a million credits easily within the first cycle of the game, without any major risks and only the loss of about 10-15 reputation with the Hegemony from scans and trade on the black market. (And it could have been optimized further by turning off my transponder when selling to Tigra City, as no patrols were nearby). This currently means that (4) is not the case, as I am able to carry out high volume black market trading for months at a time, with only minor penalties (I would happily trade 20+ reputation with a faction for a million credits when starting out).

These opportunities are not too uncommon either, as Pirate and Pather bases in the core worlds also occasionally get disrupted by major faction patrols (in addition to successful pirate raids against major factions). As you are trading on the black market with your transponder off (the only way to gain access to a port while hostile to Pirates/Path + no penalties for using the black market), you do not lose any reputation with major factions (when selling to the Pirates/Pathers) for a significant amount of smuggling. As long as you have a few combat ships in your fleet, the small pirate/pather fleets will leave you alone. This goes against (6). These longer-term shortage trading opportunities completely trivialize the early parts of the game, allowing you to basically buy any ship you can find after a few ingame months of trading.

IMO, having the Spaceport disrupted should not result in such a severe access penalty, unless a change is made such that the markets of a planet/station with 0% access or less is not accessible (after all, how do you trade with the planet if none of the AI trade fleets can?). Perhaps just removing the -50% access from not having a spaceport is sufficient. Furthermore, at least a portion of commodities sold on the black market should probably go back to solving shortages on a planet/station. This would significantly reduce the amount of money to be made from these long-term shortages.

Procurement missions and delivery missions are both good, and allow constant trading, even when there are no shortages. Procurement missions issued from a planet/station where there is already a shortage often means just extra profit, as they don't contribute to ending the shortage, and offer an even higher profit margin.

Random related ideas related to trading that I'd love to see in the future (maybe some of these are already coming, or already exist but don't seem to occur for one reason or another):
  • Procurement missions contributing to supply (where does it go?), especially if issued during a shortage
  • Some sort of investigation system, where there are consequences for trading in high volumes on the black market with a faction continuously. Possibly with bribes to avoid penalties. (related to (4) and maybe (6))
  • Significantly more restricted black market commodity trading (limited to lower volumes of buying) at non-free ports without investment of skill/story points (need to source a drug/organ supplier) (somewhat related to (4))
  • Procurement missions for Luddic Path cells (Marines/Heavy Armaments/Supplies/Fuel) that can trigger activity, with consequences (potentially similar for pirate procurement missions?)
  • Government-related delivery missions for relieving shortages, especially if commissioned

3
Modding / [0.8.1a] Bug with replacing rulecmd scripts in jar file
« on: May 04, 2018, 01:01:25 AM »
Not sure if this belongs in the modded support, since this seems to be a bug related to writing a mod?

I have a replacement for NGCAddStandardStartingScript.java in my (total conversion) mod's jar file, but it does not appear to get called. Instead, the base game's NGCAddStandardStartingScript is getting called.


I am trying to rebuild the sector entirely. I can successfully remove almost all the systems, but Galatia is a minor problem, since it is used by the tutorial and NGCAddStandardStartingScript (and rules.csv). When I remove Galatia from SectorGen (and economy.json), I get the following error:

Code
55054 [Thread-4] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.NGCAddStandardStartingScript$1.run(NGCAddStandardStartingScript.java:89)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.CampaignGameManager.super(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.title.TitleScreenState.dialogDismissed(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.N.dismiss(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.impl.O0oO.dismiss(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.save.if.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.supernew.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.oooO.processInput(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.ui.Stringsuper.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.BaseGameState.traverse(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

This makes sense, since the code being run in com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.NGCAddStandardStartingScript.java is as follows:
Code
88					StarSystemAPI system = Global.getSector().getStarSystem("galatia");
89 PlanetAPI ancyra = (PlanetAPI) system.getEntityById("ancyra");
Since I removed Galatia, system is null, so I get a NPE.

However, inside my jar file I have a replacement to com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.rulecmd.NGCAddStartingStandardScript.java. From my understanding, anything in my jar file should replace the game's version of the file (as data.scripts.world.SectorGen.java gets replaced by my jar file). This does not appear to be the case, since in my modified version of NGCAddStartingStandardScript, line 89 is just a curly brace, and the game keeps crashing with the same error (same line).


My workaround is to create a NGCAddStartingStandardScript2.java, which is an exact copy of my version of NGCAddStartingStandardScript.java, and change my rules.csv to call this instead of NGCAddStartingStandardScript. This is working, which implies to me that NGCAddStartingStandardScript is not getting replaced by my jar file.

I can provide the source files to my mod if needed.

4
Bug Reports & Support / Transponder request from Remnant
« on: May 06, 2017, 01:54:45 AM »
I guess I broke the Remnant's laws here... my bad?? I'm guessing this is not intended. Usual patrol stuff happens for scanning, as seen below. The fleet is behaving like a more standard patrol, keeping away from my fleet/maintaining contact with my fleet. Other fleets are still acting normally (chasing my fleet suicidally)

Images below.
Spoiler

[close]

5
Bug Reports & Support / Control click with weapons can lose them.
« on: April 30, 2017, 10:43:05 PM »
When close to your cargo limit, control clicking (take as much as can fit in the cargo/remove until at cargo limit) stacks of weapons can have some strange behavior, as it seems like the game tries to move fractions of a weapon from your cargo, resulting in a stack of 0 of that weapon, or causing a roundoff error that deletes a weapon.

6
Suggestions / When Losing a Comission, Treat like Armistice
« on: December 14, 2015, 11:48:47 PM »
Potentially also a bug report, but I lost my Hegemony commission due to a smuggling investigation that I ignored. However, all factions that were hostile are still hostile, even after the armistice between the Hegemony and them. As well, once I picked up the commission again, and another armistice against the same faction was signed, it brought my rep to -10, even though I was at -75 when I signed the commission (implying that it held the maximum .

I would think that once you are kicked out of the faction, it would act like you made peace with the other faction, or at least after the Hegemony signs an armistice that you should still have your relations repaired.

7
Suggestions / State of the Economy
« on: November 28, 2015, 08:52:56 PM »
I'm guessing this will get fixed over a few patches, but there are some issues I have with the addition of a bunch of planet systems, as well as the changes to market conditions

1) Organics and volatiles are not in demand enough. I regularly see hundreds of thousands sitting on the open market on some planets.
2) Certain places slowly have their supply/machinery prices creep up to high levels, mostly on the edge systems.
3) Due to the low price of some goods (food, organics, etc), it never really makes sense to trade them if you can fill your cargo hold with stuff that makes a slightly higher profit per unit. Currently, I don't think we would notice if they did not exist. I suppose you can gain a little rep from them, but there are way more easy ways to make money.
4) There is not enough Lobster to do much of anything with, I don't see how someone can manage a procurement contract of 100 or so. Most definitely cannot fill the request for 10,000 lobster I saw (worth 3.3m).

8
Suggestions / Mission Ideas/Feedback
« on: November 26, 2015, 09:35:28 PM »
I've been using procurement contracts as my main source of income in the earlygame (who hasn't?)

I'm not really going to talk about UI issues, I think there will have to be a UI overhaul across Starsector at a later point.

Current Mission: Procurement Contracts
As many people have noted, there's probably a bit too much of a range on how good missions are. Some missions are almost impossible to actually be profitable, others are a little absurdly profitable. Some are basically impossible to do (I can't cross 3 systems in 10 days). It seems like the timeframe slightly affects the unit price (given 2 contracts of the same good to the same planet, the one giving less time will pay slightly more per unit. It would also be good to scale the amount of goods needed to the size of the trade fleet/number of procurement missions already done. Maybe it would depend on your rep with the faction providing the mission as well.

Also, you don't encounter the fleet that is spawned to chase you if the Procurement Contract is in-system. It's relatively risk free to trade within systems as a result.

Other Mission Ideas:
Escort: Some traders may have some high value goods that they want shipped, or maybe the Hegemony trusts you enough to escort their relief fleet so they don't need to cut back on patrols. This would spawn a fleet that heads over to the destination system, and you need to join in any battle they get into, and try to keep all the ships alive. This gives bounty hunters something to do. Obviously some pirates could be spawned to simply hunt the fleet.

Hit: A fleet is travelling from one place to another. Make sure it does not reach its destination. Especially common for pirates, or once you are friendly/cooperative with a faction. Could spawn escort fleets that take the fleet part of the way, to promote attacking it in deep space.

Cruise: Only if you have a civilian liner in the fleet, take a bunch of people to various places in space, then return them home. Possibly penalize combat during the cruise, or maybe the cruise ship must be deployed or the mission is failed.

Other Ideas:
Immediate Rehiring:
Once you finish a mission, have the person who hired you ask if you can do something else for them, maybe at a bigger bonus. Currently I don't see the same person ask for things more than ~3-4 times, so you never really build a relation with them. This would also allow more... unusual requests, like the Base Commander needs some under the table drugs, but will pay a premium for them.

Increased Individual Rep Impacts
I would make each mission have a bigger rep impact with the individual. The +1/-1 with the individual is tiny, given that you tend to trade all over the sector and to different people, rather than continually trading around 1 system. Maybe also give rep impacts to individuals on the port, so if you fail a delivery to the quartermaster, the base commander and several merchants hear about it.

This was touched on in the blog post, but there should be bonuses for having good reputation with several people. Maybe the quartermaster gives you a discount on supplies, the base commander is willing to let you purchase some military grade equipment, etc.

9
Bug Reports & Support / Fortress Shield Exploit (or intended?)
« on: November 25, 2015, 06:14:03 PM »
Putting shields up, then mashing the toggle fortress shield key seems to result in ALL incoming fire getting blocked by the fortress shield. This is obviously very useful, since your autofiring weapons will be able to activate. I don't think this is intended behavior of the Fortress Shield, since it effectively mitigates most of the downsides of keeping it up all the time.

Makes the Forlorn Hope mission pretty trivial.

10
Bug Reports & Support / [Minor] Bounties Paid on Already Dead Characters
« on: November 23, 2015, 10:04:00 PM »
If you kill a bounty fleet that already lost its named leader, you still get full pay as if you had beaten that fleet. Not a huge issue, only benefits the player, but doesn't make a lot of sense.

11
General Discussion / Visibility of the Supply Chains
« on: April 12, 2015, 06:38:38 PM »
This has been something that has bugged me about the economy for a while. There's a nice supply chain system built into the game, but players barely see or care about it. I would love to see the supply chain become more visible somehow.

What do I mean by supply chains? As an example, to produce Heavy Machinery, Ore and Rare Ore is mined using some Crew and some Heavy Machinery at an Ore Mining Complex. The Ore is then refined into Metal by an Ore Refining Complex, using some Crew and a little Heavy Machinery. Organics from an Organics Mining Complex and Volatiles from a Volatiles Mining Complex (again, using Crew and Heavy Machinery) combine at an Autofactory to produce the next batch of Heavy Machinery.

All this already happens as a natural outcome of trade fleets flying around. It's just not easy for a player to notice this, or take advantage of this.

Obviously, it doesn't affect gameplay at all to ignore supply chains like we do now, but I would love to have some way for the system to be more visible. The only time a player currently cares about the economy system is when trade gets disrupted. This isn't really a gameplay problem any more than the Hammerhead being bad is a gameplay problem, but it is something that I'd like to see improved.

What can be done to make the economic systems a little more visible/impactful to the player? Are there any plans that I'm unaware of to help visibility (short of the fuzzy plans regarding asteroid mining, salvaging, etc)?

12
Fleet consists of Wolf, Hermes, Buffalo, Atlas. I was chugging along towards Jangala (burn 3, Navigation 7), the trade XP levels me up to 12. Put an 8th point into Navigation, and suddenly I'm sailing along at burn 8. It reset after I landed.

If only I could figure out how to make all my Atlases move that fast.


EDIT: Nevermind, I think that was right when I moved into the general hyperspace, and my burn hit 8 then. Ignore this.

13
Bug Reports & Support / [Minor] Military Submarket Resorts Incorrectly
« on: March 29, 2015, 10:46:32 PM »
Military submarkets sort first by whether you can purchase an item or not, and then by weapon size. When you buy something from the market, then cancel, the submarket resorts itself by weapon size, no longer placing the unpurchaseable items towards the bottom.

14
Suggestions / In-Combat Logistics
« on: March 27, 2015, 06:22:10 PM »
Somewhat inspired by the discussions people are having about regenerating ammo/missiles. I liked the idea ballistic weapons be limited by magazine size. However, just like everyone else, I did not like running out of ammo and trying to ram things to death or retreating from a 'winnable' fight.

The idea is to have a non-combat ship, or lightly armed ship serve as a rearming point in the middle of a battle. Rather than having regenerating missile ammo, (or perhaps in addition to), ships can rearm their weapons by being near this ship for a period of time. The logistic ship is either its own ship (Ship system of reloading drones?), or a high OP hullmod. This would allow ammo to be limited again (I like the gameplay that comes with trying to disengage to reload guns).

Possible things that could come along with the ship:
-Large explosion on death. This ship is packed with missiles and ammo, after all.
-Higher supply costs on deployment if it is a hullmod. It's carrying supplies for other ships.
-Supply cost for everything that needs reloads. Reloading a missile rack might be 1 supply, reloading a magazine of ammo is 0.5 supplies or something like that, or it could vary by weapon system.
-Stopping/Increasing the CR timer. It would not add CR back, but it could delay things.

15
Bug Reports & Support / Asteroid Line
« on: March 19, 2015, 04:44:55 PM »
Seems like some battlefields with heavy asteroids make a line of asteroids along the bottom of the screen, probably due to bounds checking. Makes your ships crash into them upon entry.

Took a screenshot, this was with Ironclads on, but I think it's a problem with the base game. I have a larger than 300 deployment point fleet, since that seems to affect the map size.
Spoiler
[close]

Pages: [1] 2