Hello Forum-farers. Playing through 0.95, I have some questions regarding the new quest (see bottom of wall of text). Instead of just asking them, I thought I'd also share my opinion on 0.95. As a whole, whilst I find 0.95 generally worth the wait (and boy was it a long one), there are a few glaring issues that make me want to vent some flux (no I am not offering a bar mission). Most of these points have already been raised by multiple people in the forums (and no doubt in Discord, though I don’t use Discord so I wouldn’t know) multiple times so pardon the repetition. At least it isn't another "is gaem ded???" thread.
Overarching ComplaintMy overarching complaint is that the new skill system can be frustratingly limiting at times, both directly and indirectly.
Directly, players used to be able to pick any skill they want in 0.91 (aptitude roadblock notwithstanding). Now, entire skills can serve as roadblocks if the player wants neither option from a set of skills (and since the max level is now 15, each roadblock is much more painful).
This also hampers thematic playthroughs. Most glaringly, players have to wait until level 5 to be able to select the only skill in this build that directly improves ship-launched missiles, compared to level 6 of 50 previously (from 12% of level cap to 33% of level cap, granted, early levels go by much quicker than later ones so the math is misleading, just pretend I am not misusing statistics to throw a fit, 'kay).
Alternatively, players may find themselves temporarily “locked out” of skills they want until they warp around a skill category, which takes a while (level 6 earliest). I am however willing to admit that, despite given that freedom, most of my 0.91 runs consisted of rushing the same few skills early on anyway (Navigation being a priority pick because of the Traverse Jump ability). Still, having choices were nice, even if I seldom exercised them.
Indirectly, the reduced number of skills means that each individual choice compensated by giving out more bonuses. Some, such as Gunnery Implants, become direct upgrades over their 0.91 counterparts after spending a story point. This is not especially damaging on its own, but has an amplifying effect on some of the other complains that I have.
The only thing I can definitively praise about the new skill tree is that the art is very cool, and I like that there's theoretically a skill that directly improves each hull style (junkers get Derelict Contingent, assault boats get Energy Weapon Mastery, obviously the controversial new frigate/destroyer skills, so on and so forth).
As an aside, I don’t think I saw any in-game prompt that lets players know warping-around skill categories is a possibility. I only know that it is possible from blog posts. If this is not intended as a “surprise” mechanic, I would suggest making it clear in the character tab.
Overarching Complaint cont.Something needs to be done about the insane number of officers NPC fleets can field in a single fleet. To quote the fluff for the Officer Management skill in 0.91: “Introducing a new officer to a command hierarchy is always a risk. Personalities clash, and authority may be challenged. A successful fleet command knows not to let the number of officers they command exceed their ability.”
Tying in with the overarching complaint, the reduced number of skills means that, compared to 0.91, officers gain the full effect on the skill once selected instead of 1/3 at each level. A theoretical max level 0.95 officer (level 7 is the highest I’ve encountered, so I’m guessing that’s the max) is largely equivalent to a level 21 officer in 0.91 (where the max officer level is 20), before accounting for officer elite skills which potentially bumps them to level 23 (up to 2 elites per officer, assuming the player took both officer skills). Admittedly, that’s 2 story points spent with no bonus XP returned, but as NPCs are clearly not inhibited by story points (at least not to the same degree that players are), that counterpoint is moot.
(Another aside, loving the new mentor system and the larger selection of officer skills on their level ups. You have no idea how much time I spent using console commands to “re-roll” for the perfect officer)
I fought a $150k bounty (the new bar-offered ones instead of the old ones that simply pop up in your intel, if that makes a difference), and that pirate fleet has an officer onboard literally every single combat-capable ship (yes, even the Gremlins with multiple D-mods each). That was ~20 officers, presumably all high, if not max, level (I wasn't going to to look through all of them to make sure, but the one I saw was level 6, which is the max for non-mercenary officers). Where in the void did all those high level dudes come from, and, far more importantly, how can a pirate (admittedly an accomplished one, considering the bounty placed and all) possibly command so many of them at once? I can accept [redacted] fleets with cores slotted on every single ship (in fact, I think it would make more sense than the contrary). I can stretch my suspension of belief and accept deserter fleets with officers on every single combat ship (they are clearly war-ready fleets, so it makes sense that they are individually captained by proven individuals, and under the collective command of a brilliant, if ultimately human, mind). I refuse to accept the same for pirates and pathers.
(Also loving that the fleets spawned by bar bounties have logistics ships attached to them. One immersion-breaking point in 0.91 is that the intel-popup bounty fleets have zero logistics ships, which makes zero sense at all)
In fact, I think it is detrimental to the game’s narrative when fully officer'd pirate/pather fleets show up, because they diminish the perceived difference between factions. One of my favorite features in 0.91 was the ability to set a doctrine (fleet composition etc.), and know that the different major factions of the Persean sector also spawn fleets according to their own doctrines. “Rabble-like” factions like pirates and pathers (and the Church to a lesser extent) field a lot of ships, in exchange for sacrificing both ship and officer quality, whilst militaristic factions put more emphasis on ship quality and officer training. Admittedly, pirate death fleets also had a lot of max-level officers in 0.91 in my experience. I think it would be much more thematically appropriate if end-game pirate/pather fleets stick with the numerical advantage gimmick. Would it get old for the player? Obviously, but so is seeing NPC fleets not playing by the same rules you are bound to.
Related to the point of harming the game’s narrative is the absurd level of fleetwide bonuses officer’d frigates and destroyer provide. A cruiser with a dedicated ECM suite, which costs a whopping 20 OP (compared to Hardened Shields’s 18 OP and ITU’s 15 OP, both of which tremendously beneficial to the ship’s battle performance), provides “just” 4% fleetwide ECM bonus. Any junk frigate with an officer with the Gunnery Implants skill (which even level 1 officers can randomly have) provides 6% fleetwide ECM, AND also enjoys a considerable weapon range buff on top of the ECM debuff on enemy weapon ranges. This is, plain and simple, absurd (navigation rating is similar, though since superior hostile nav rating does not directly debuff your speed I'm more okay with it). Maybe change the relevant skills such that they provide additional ECM/nav bonus to frigates/destroyers that have ECM/nav packages installed would sufficiently alleviate the issue?
I find myself severely limited in dealing with fully officer'd pather fleets. I once faced a pather fleet with 53% ECM (only large TriTach fleets in 0.91 had this level of ECM), and, since pathers, being pathers, have their ships safety overridden, I can neither outrange nor outspeed them. Plus, to revisit the narrative point briefly, why does a pather fleet, literally the Sector’s most tech-adverse faction, have this unholy level of ECM? ECM is a weapon-range-related stat, and weapon ranges (especially the Gunnery Implants officer skill) have always been the domain of the technology skill tree, both in 0.91 and 0.95 (not to mention the longest-ranging ship, the Paragon, is unapologetically high tech).
Somewhat related to the first point, I found it odd that some skills are designed with a curve in mind (spreading its bonuses over, say, total DPs or fighter bays), whilst others are completely rigid (Systems Expertise comes to mind, as to the skills that benefit officer'd frigates/destroyers). This creates scenarios where certain hulls become very stackable because of certain skills. One example is Doom with Systems Expertise. Doom’s ship system is already one of the best in game (to offset the fact that a phase cruiser is a giant target with paper-thin armor, I have to problem with that). Having a single skill that explicitly boosts ship system was maybe a tad overkill. Yes, I agree that phase ships should be terrifying opponents and should require specific counterplays, but I’ve found myself caught in a bind in 0.95. Previously in 0.91, phase ships in general can be countered by fighters (except Doom, which requires multi-angle approaches that are difficult to coordinate with Starsector’s reluctance to give players RTS-like controls), long-range beam spams, safety overridden ships (also risky against Doom because going fast gives you less time to react to incoming mines) and/or your own Harbinger. In 0.95, anti-phase using fighters are harder with key nerfs to Sparks, staying at range/outspeeding them is harder because phase ships are much faster with the new phase-centric officer skills (and fleetwide nav rating bonus to officer’d frigates and destroyers, where most phase ships belong to those classes).
Since I've yet to come along a Harbinger BP (or even a salvageable Harbinger for that matter, since Tri-Tach deserter fleets are stacked with Dooms), I'm left with waiting for my Tri-Tach contract to offer me a surplus Harbinger (which I doubt will happen, though a Hegemony contract sold me a XIV Eagle and a XIV Dominator, so here's hoping), or I come along its blueprint. Not exactly thrilling.
(and before you say "oh but aren't Tri-Tach bounties optional?", lemme just say that Tri-Tachyon assets are involved in the new storyline)
While we're on the topic of anti-phase, there’s something wrong with the Carrier Strike order. When I gave that order, I expect the carrier in question to immediately recall its fighters so it can utilize zero flux speed boost as early as possible to get into position to send fighters to the new target. Instead, my Herons seem to prefer finishing off their current target whilst slowly limping towards their new mark, resulting in a massive delay between issuing the order and seeing results. I've had many phase frigates escape the initial battle because the Herons were too busy not listening to my commands.
Other Comments/Suggestions Unrelated to the New Skill SystemOf the new ships, I instantly fell in love with the Champion. What a gorgeous sprite! Well-armed and well-armored, the Champion is every bit as glorious as its name suggests. Though only 165 OP for a heavy cruiser seems a bit harsh.
Pls Alex/modders, Champion (XIV), pretty pls.
I haven't had a chance to try out the Fury, though I suspect it would be very good when paired with Energy Weapon Mastery. It's possible that EWM is just overtuned in general.
I was wondering why "new vent animation" made it to the changelog. Now I know. 10/10 would vent again.
Is it just me or does it seem like enemies are more blatant in targeting your flagship than ever? Even when I’m piloting a destroyer and my entire fleet consists largely of combat cruisers, enemies engaged with my cruisers seem to prefer turning around to face me when I approach from their flanks. Turning slightly to cover their engines I get, but they will nearly always do the full 180 to face me head-on, basically ignoring my cruiser in the process. I don't recall them being this blatant in 0.91. though it may be recency bias kicking in.
I’d like a way to prevent criminal/underworld quest givers from showing up in my own colonies, largely to facilitate thematic playthroughs. Maybe simply a dialogue option to tell them to get lost. You bet I have a choice word for them after being raided by pirates. Also it makes no sense to have people offer me missions to raid my own colonies to release their spies/steal my own ships. You'd think they would recognize the colony owner through sheer infamy alone (per intel tab, a holo of my face regularly makes the rounds of the factions I am vengeful with. Also, I'm the only dude in the Sector with a weeb portrait, you'd think that would make me stand out, but that's besides the point).
I’ve been offered bounty to hunt down my own deserter fleets immediately after I’ve established the colony, as in, the spaceport hasn’t even been built yet, let alone any Patrol HQs and Heavy Industries. Maybe fresh colonies should not have bar missions immediately available?
I remember in 0.91 the delivery missions have the quest givers address you more formally when offered on your own colonies. I really liked that feature. For whatever reason, this is not repeated for the new bar quests even when the quest givers supposedly belong to my faction. You’d think they’d be more polite to the person that literally uplifted the rock they now call home.
Factions I’m co-operative with (especially at max reputation) really should not send expeditions against me. The Hegemony at least has a legitimate concern to come knocking with a war fleet (AI cores were, and still are, very dangerous in-universe, anybody that says otherwise are under the payroll of Tri-Tach and should not be trusted), but the others? It gets especially frustrating when people send fleets to disrupt my farms, like, the heck? Can you imagine the political fallout if the common citizen found out their leaders use military assets to disable the farms of an entity co-operative with them? Why can't I spread the news myself? Give us some kind of propaganda industry that makes the whole Sector know so-and-so faction is trying to start a famine.
Loving the new structure/industry-enhancing items by the way, they are an excellent way of jump-starting your colonies without having to resort to using AI cores. I also love that they are fluffed to require different planetary conditions, some otherwise not optimal for colonization, to make more systems good colonization targets.
I’d like to receive core world pirate raid warnings whilst outside of comm relay coverage, just like how pirate raids targeting player’s colonies are always relayed. Maybe players can spend Story Points to gain secure comm access to the major factions at maximum reputation. Anything to make protecting Maysaura easier, even though the League keeps raiding my farms.
Relatedly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the major factions dispatching war fleets to protect their isolated colonies. Olinadu for example never gets help from, say, Thule, and will always get raided to the ground without player intervention. If the major factions can organize expeditions against my farm, they can organize a cross-system emergency defense fleet to help their own colonies.
Would it be lore-friendly to be able to receive (or at least view) missions from contacts without physically landing on their respective planets? Right now, the system incentivizes having contracts in a tight cluster of systems, which I think is fine as-is, but not terribly convenient. Maybe only have less secretive missions (delivery missions from trade agents) viewable without docking whilst restricting more secretive ones (disrupt competition/industry, etc.) only available in person?
Ships still seem to prefer knocking out harmless station spurs over the very dangerous broadside modules that are actively shooting at them (and doing a very good job of overloading them if I might add). Ships also still body-block each other in trying to get to stations’ faces (aggravated by the need to send larger ships to tank station-level firepower, most destroyers really don’t cut it). They also still attempt to fire through indestructible structures, possibly in an attempt to “flank” station modules from the side.
Ships still seem too eager to retreat to the battlefield’s borders, where they will be trapped and slaughtered. I’d like to see them attempt to rejoin nearby allies without needing me to specifically order them to, instead of allowing themselves to get isolated.
I’d like an “Ignore” command that works similarly to the existing Avoid command, but it simply tells ships to focus on other threats first. I’ve honestly lost count of the number of times my fleet lost a control point because some of my ships broke off to chase an inconsequential frigate (usually a Kite, or something equally small and nimble where they have no hope of dispatching within a short period of time, if at all because of the speed difference), despite me explicitly giving a Defend order on the control point. In fact, ships seem too eager to be pushed off a control point they are ordered to defend.
I’d also like a “Work Together” command that is basically an offensive version of Escort. I don’t like telling a group of ships to work together with Engage or Eliminate because the target can sink behind enemy lines while I’m not looking after issuing the command, necessitating constant micro-management. I want a command that tells a group of ships to always stay together and move as one cohesive unit, but not to the extreme of the Escort command which results in a lot of body blocking. Something like a mobile version of the Rally Task Force command, I guess.
I’d like to see carriers’ fighter replenishment gauge in the command tab in battle, and, relatedly, all ships’ flux level without having to click on them individually. Being able to see what fighters the triangles actually represent is also neat, though possibly too cluttering at that point (not all dangerous wings gets their threat levels sufficiently represented by the size difference of their respective triangles. Broadswords and Longbows are, imo, some of the most dangerous fighters, being able to see them in advance would be a great help)
QuestionsI'm at the point in the Academy quest where
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I got the gate key thingy and the credits payment, and the academy shut me out from doing more random missions with them
, but I know for sure that I'm not done because
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when I scanned one of the gates after the prerequisite 6, I was told that I've located the source of the music, but I looked through intel and I can't make out anything new happening
Do I need to
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kill the thing at Alpha Site?
Are there more
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Alpha Site-esque spots? You don't need to pin-point me, but I don't want to comb the entire map for nothing.
