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1

Discussions / Re: Dwarf Fortress sold 300k units in 6 days on steam

« on: December 22, 2022, 09:40:19 PM »

There's been a lot of people saying 'Well.. Steam won't generate any more of a player-base than it already has'

I have seen nobody say that. A big problem is it will result in many new players and the new player experience is still lacking in some areas.

Not gonna "subtweet", but I think something I said in another thread about Starsector being on Steam is one of the posts they were referring to, in which I said "I disagree with the idea of this game's launch on Steam being its big time in the limelight.  IMO, this game has simply been in development for too long, had way too much attention put towards it, and had way too much polish put in it for the majority of people that would play this game to think of it as an exciting new release." and "Releasing this game on Steam would just be a nicety at this point."

I honestly don't think the game being difficult to get into will be much of a deterrent, there are games that are muuuch more difficult to get into than Starsector that have found success on Steam, I think the bigger problem is just that this game isn't done yet; if we're to wait for it to be done, then... well, here we are, and if the game were to release on Early Access, then it would be in an environment where a) people are distrustful after being screwed over by developers abandoning games and b) people will think the game is dead if it doesn't get an update every 6 months.

Also, to the OP directly, I personally don't believe that Dwarf Fortress and Starsector are comparable; as someone else pointed out, Dwarf Fortress has been in development for much longer, was released on Steam for a certain reason regarding the healthcare issues of one of the developers, and had a complete graphical and UX overhaul following its Steam release.  Part of the appeal of buying the Steam version is, more or less, that you're actually getting a playable game with graphics, and a lot of the reviews indicate that people already knew the game existed, but are only picking the game up because the game is now easier to get into than ever before.  Starsector doesn't have a graphics and gameplay accessibility problem in the same way that Dwarf Fortress did, and as a result, its release on Steam wouldn't really be the same thing as Dwarf Fortress's.

2

General Discussion / Re: Dead Game?

« on: December 22, 2022, 09:10:32 PM »

I am going to be honest, maybe this will come off as a bit too fanatical, but as someone who wants to be a game developer myself eventually, I find questions like this somewhat offensive.

No, this game isn't dead.  Alex still posts updates on his Twitter pretty often, the last blog post on the website was just a few months ago, and even aside from either of those things, he still posts on this forum multiple times a day every day.

Even as far as this game's updates are concerned, a year isn't really that long.  I feel like I'm the only one that realizes that 0.95 released about 22 months after 0.91a; to see anyone complaining about just a year is so odd to me.  Maybe because I didn't actually read the forums before, I didn't see the complaints that people had about that, but still.

I understand a year is a long time to wait, but that's just how this game's development cycles are.  My advice is just forget about it until the next update releases, or follow Alex on Twitter to see what the newest changes are(at least, that he can tell you about without spoiling too much).

3

General Discussion / Re: Why isn't this game on steam early access?

« on: December 19, 2022, 09:33:05 PM »

I disagree with the idea of this game's launch on Steam being its big time in the limelight.  IMO, this game has simply been in development for too long, had way too much attention put towards it, and had way too much polish put in it for the majority of people that would play this game to think of it as an exciting new release.  At this point, this game's launch on Steam would be much more like Cosmoteer's or Dwarf Fortress's launches, where many people just went "awesome, this game is on Steam now."  TotalBiscuit's video on this game a decade ago already sort of broke it out of the realm of pure obscurity, but SsethTzeentach's video 3 years ago sealed it and made this game a well-known title among games with similar audiences like RimWorld, Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress, or Factorio.  Practically, this game released years ago and people perceive new major updates more like Terraria's free major content updates than the game taking forever to finish.  Alex and the other developers have simply built a game that, after years of polish and development, doesn't need Steam to have a degree of success--only the developers can say whether or not this game is successful--and have an audience.  Releasing this game on Steam would just be a nicety at this point.

So in terms of answering "Why isn't the game on Steam yet" - What exactly are you saying, in regards to the OP question?
In layman's terms and (in your opinion) why hasn't Alex released via Steam?

My suggestion was simply him just wanting it to be finished before the wider steam community got their hands on it. I'd suggest that's a fairly reasonable assumption, but only Alex can confirm either way.

Ah, that's a fair point; my bad.

My assumption as to why this game isn't on Steam yet would be that it's simply not done yet, Early Access has a horrible reputation, and people would absolutely complain about this game taking way too long to get updates.  Starsector itself has been in development for longer than Early Access has existed, and the game regularly takes more than a year to get updates.  While I do agree that the website and the way you buy this game are a bit... old-fashioned, they're a natural filter that prevents anyone from not knowing what they're getting into here.

Also, I definitely see where you're coming from; I just feel like while the game would certainly have a lot of new eyes on it, it wouldn't really be a gigantic influx of players since the game itself is still fairly niche.  The portals people would have to find this game anyway(YouTubers, word of mouth) already exist, and it would be best for people that--as the OP pointed out--are intimidated or weirded out by how you buy this game currently.

4

General Discussion / Re: Why isn't this game on steam early access?

« on: December 19, 2022, 10:50:49 AM »

I disagree with the idea of this game's launch on Steam being its big time in the limelight.  IMO, this game has simply been in development for too long, had way too much attention put towards it, and had way too much polish put in it for the majority of people that would play this game to think of it as an exciting new release.  At this point, this game's launch on Steam would be much more like Cosmoteer's or Dwarf Fortress's launches, where many people just went "awesome, this game is on Steam now."  TotalBiscuit's video on this game a decade ago already sort of broke it out of the realm of pure obscurity, but SsethTzeentach's video 3 years ago sealed it and made this game a well-known title among games with similar audiences like RimWorld, Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress, or Factorio.  Practically, this game released years ago and people perceive new major updates more like Terraria's free major content updates than the game taking forever to finish.  Alex and the other developers have simply built a game that, after years of polish and development, doesn't need Steam to have a degree of success--only the developers can say whether or not this game is successful--and have an audience.  Releasing this game on Steam would just be a nicety at this point.

5

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Orbital Manipulation and Maintenance

« on: December 17, 2022, 09:49:09 PM »

Dang.

Both of Tecrys's mods(this and Biomancy) have some of the most unique and impressive spritework I've seen among Starsector mods, but in both cases, they never matured and became meaningful pieces of content after that stage.  It's a real shame because the artwork for both of them are incredible, and the planned features for this one sound very novel and interesting.

Oh well, at least Tecrys's Biomancy designs got absorbed into the Hivers mod.  Tecrys, if you ever read this, you did some great work here.

6

Modding / Re: What Was That Mod?: Help Finding Old Or Abandoned Mods By Description

« on: December 17, 2022, 08:54:47 PM »

Hello!  I was watching someone play Starsector on Twitch, and he mentioned a certain custom Nexerelin start/set of ships that are in some mod, but I have absolutely no clue what he could have been talking about and I would like to know.

He described them as "multi-stage pirate ships" and said "when you stick a Mudskipper onto another ship, it just doesn't work out".  Does anyone know what he could have been talking about?

EDIT:  Found it!  Maybe somewhat of a spoiler, but I'm fairly certain he was talking about

Spoiler

the special pirate ships in the Low-Tech Armada mod.

[close]

7

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Mayasuran Navy 8.3.8 RC3

« on: December 15, 2022, 05:04:01 PM »

My game crashes on startup whenever I try to use this mod with the Linux version of Starsector.  Works just fine with the Windows version, however.

The issue is with sprite filenames and their references in code. Linux is case-sensitive whereas windows is not.
To get the mod working you will have to rename 1 file located in mayasuran navy/graphics/mayasura/ships/
MSS_Superdes.png ---> MSS_SuperDes.png

That did it, it works now!  Thank you!

8

Suggestions / Re: Ships oddly shy with explosive missiles vs. ships with no shields

« on: December 14, 2022, 10:23:24 PM »

Mr. Alex, Although your explanation could be correct  for unguided  rockets, It doesn't fit for Swarmer.

It seems like it's what Alex meant by the ships not prioritizing shieldless ships because it doesn't view them as important of a target as vulnerable shielded ships.

9

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] Mayasuran Navy 8.3.8 RC3

« on: December 13, 2022, 04:31:40 PM »

My game crashes on startup whenever I try to use this mod with the Linux version of Starsector.  Works just fine with the Windows version, however.

10

General Discussion / Re: Is there a point to colonies?

« on: December 10, 2022, 09:39:07 PM »

I find colonies are extremely important for my playstyle of "only use fleets that can be completely replaced with ships built from blueprints".  I also don't quite like commissions because of how many systems instantly become dangerous when you take one(at least, in Nexerelin).

11

Mods / Re: [0.95.1a] prv Starworks v25.1 (2022-11-09)

« on: December 10, 2022, 09:25:52 PM »

Spoiler question for this mod's version of the [REDACTED]

Spoiler

Do the Agni actually drop any special rewards, or just a bunch of commodities and their weapons?  I don't mind the challenge of fighting them, but if they're going to match the Remnants in terms of difficulty, I would assume they would also have a useful reward to match as well.  Personally, I was hoping the Agni stations would drop some kind of "egg" or some special item that would allow you to grow and deploy Agni troops in your own colonies or something.

[close]

12

Suggestions / Re: Give the player the ability to add custom notes to map?

« on: December 06, 2022, 11:03:41 AM »

What I find fascinating about this is that Captain's Log fixed the issue for me, but not in the way I thought it would.  I don't like having to use the console commands mod for putting in custom logs, so I basically never do, but because I didn't read everything that the mod did, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it kept a log of unexplored ruins and unsalvaged stations and whatnot.  At that point, I no longer saw the need to manually write logs myself, minus a few things like "recover this unique ship later"(edit: found out that it also keeps logs of derelicts and tracks what kind of ship they were) or something.  Maybe implementing it like that would be easier?

13

General Discussion / Re: The problem with the Radiant

« on: December 05, 2022, 10:23:18 PM »

Threads like this really make me feel like I've been playing a completely different game than everyone else...

While I don't agree with the OP that the Radiant is a real problem that makes Ordos dramatically more difficult to fight, I also don't necessarily agree with everyone else in the sentiment that fleet control shouldn't be prioritized or maybe looked at further.  Yes, Starsector is not an RTS, but there is a reason the tactics screen in combat has so many options, and a reason why deployment points were added as another incentive to capture combat objectives.  It's not Starcraft, but it's also not quite Space Rangers or Freelancer.  There are other ships there for a reason, and the design philosophy of "prioritize the flagship and let the AI ships be assistants" is something that I feel encourages players to follow uninspired cheese strategies that allow them to steamroll the most difficult content in the game with only a few ships.   In my opinion, seeing so many possibilities for commands to give to your fleet at the very least indicates that there will be fights where you are expected to use tactics, but when the AI is not up to task, it creates situations like this where players think something is seriously wrong.  I agree with the OP about orders not really feeling much like orders, and I have seen a few other people say the same.  It might also be down to a psychological difference between players and how many ships they feel they should lose during combat in a given fight; a player that thinks they shouldn't lose any ships is going to take losing a cruiser a lot harder, as the OP did here, and think the game is much more difficult as a result than a player that expects to lose a few dudes every now and then.

Then again, as I said in another post, I'm also just not very good at this game in general, so take all of this with a grain of salt...

14

Suggestions / Re: Going to war over transponders

« on: December 05, 2022, 09:09:26 AM »

I second this, it seems like a good change, but I personally wouldn't say it needs prioritization.  Maybe just have allied patrols ignore your transponder off if they've seen you recently?  I'm not sure how implementing it would work in practice.

Also, I do enjoy someone pointing out the absurdity of fast pickets stopping enormous war-fleets in their tracks.  It's like a policeman on a bike stopping a convoy of tanks and mobile missile launchers.

15

Suggestions / External armor plates on low-tech ships, like low-tech Star Fortresses have?

« on: December 02, 2022, 10:58:00 PM »

Hi!  I just read this post on the forums (https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=23745.0) and this post on Alex's development blog (https://fractalsoftworks.com/2021/05/28/a-tale-of-two-tech-levels/), and I see that someone has a problem with the Vanguard and how it performs as a result of having no shields.  I know that there is a reason this suggestion won't work, but I don't actually know what it is: can low-tech ships have external destructible armor plates like low-tech Star Fortresses do, or like that one frigate in the Diable Avionics mod?  I feel like having to chew through a layer external armor first would help with weapons like the Tachyon Lance that currently eat shieldless ships for breakfast, and it doesn't break the appeal of a shieldless, heavily armored super frigate.

To be totally honest--and this has nothing to do with my question, this is more just my personal observation--I think the whole "Low Tech" classification of ships in general has sort of a problem.  I am completely and utterly terrible at this game so I am not going to say they are objectively worse than High Tech, but I will say that I feel like there's a reason more people make jokes about low-tech ships and talk about them as if they're worse and more expendable, alongside low-tech ships being the popular choice of ship type for crappy, "budget" factions like the Pirates and the Luddic Path(I know the pirates use versions of some high-tech ships like the Shade and the Wolf, but their capital is low-tech garbage).  When I read on Alex's blog that high-tech ships aren't necessarily supposed to be better than low-tech, I was somewhat surprised because it seems like there's an almost universal understanding that they just sort of... are.  Maybe it's just because I'm biased as someone that enjoys high-tech ships more, but the biggest low-tech capitals don't take up as much DP to field as the biggest high-tech capital, the most overpowered ships in the game are arguably even more "high-tech" than other high-tech ships, and from the little that I've seen people talk about in terms of what frigates work in the late game, I've only seen people bring up high-tech ships like the Hyperion, the Omen, and the Tempest.  In my opinion, even what Alex said on that forum post about making the Vanguard cost less to repair after it gets destroyed speaks volumes about how low-tech ships are designed and used...

All that being said, of course, there's nothing wrong with just enjoying using low-tech ships more, that's just my 2 cents.  But yeah, I know there's a reason armor plates wouldn't work for the Vanguard or other ships like it, but I would like someone to tell me what it actually is.