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

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Messages - solardawning

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1
Suggestions / Re: About neural link again.
« on: March 01, 2024, 07:59:59 PM »
Fun with Neural Link:
Playing with it seriously for the first time, I realized that you can have multiple Neural Linked ships- just only one deployed at once.
It pairs very well with Automated Ships now that it's easy to have both skills. You can put two or three Radiants in your fleet with no cores attached, the Neural hullmod on each, and deploy one at a time and pilot it manually- but as aggressively as you like. If it blows up, deploy the next. You get to have back to back level 15 player-officered Radiants. It's vastly better than Alpha Core-ing them.

2
General Discussion / Love the Colony Crisis system!
« on: February 12, 2024, 11:36:34 AM »
I started playing Starsector in the release before colonization was added. The addition of colonies mechanically was great, but for several releases never felt like it had any presence in the world; it was just a base for the player and eventually a massive economy 'win condition' by giving you essentially unlimited income and production.

Things were toned down a bit with balancing changes and the size cap to 6, but colonies still stuck out to me even more as ill-fitting after more and more story elements have been added into the game; you're more a part of the world and factions, but they didn't react in any way to the fact that you were setting up an independent polity of your own (and one that, for that matter, grows quickly in power and resources!).

The new Crisis system really feels like it's addressed that, and in a spectacular way. These aren't about slowing or hindering the player (rather the opposite, since it seems that most of them give you a way to get permanent buffs for your colony!), instead they're about integrating your colonies into the story and achieving recognition from the existing factions.
This is exactly what colonies needed to feel natural.

So far I've played through Pirates, Pather, Tri-Tach, and Persean League crisis events.
I took Pirates the simple way- just defeated the attack head on. But knowing that I had other routes to deal with it (striking a deal with the station king? A deal with Kanta?) made this feel better than the prior pirate raid system did, which was much more endless.

Pathers felt like it had the highest stakes: this was the only one that can wipe a colony out? I started the Scythe of Orion quest and got the planetkiller as a backup; but then decided not to use it and took the fleets heads on. This was also great; in the prior release we only had the story option to give them the planetkiller to diffuse Pather presence, but now you can choose the climactic battle option if you feel ready for it.

Tri-Tach was the absolute best. It really punched up the feeling of options available; I love that the (best? out of many possible) answer is "teach them that if they mess with you, you'll mess back". It gave a strong reason to put together a small raiding fleet and blast in and disrupt industries on every TT market; and then pick up a deal from a position of strength.

As each of these happen, resolving it feels like you've earned permanent acknowledgement from the factions that you are part of Sector politics now. No longer just some random pile of markets serving purely as a player base due to mechanically needing one, but fully integrated into and acknowledged by the story.

This doesn't feel like a minor release to me- it really expands on the past few releases of story involvement and progression.

Nice work. :)

3
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 12, 2024, 11:24:14 AM »
(Also: The music when interacting with the Gate Hauler! The same motif as the title screen music, but vastly slowed down to have such a grand and monumental feel. That really got me.)

4
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 12, 2024, 11:21:52 AM »
+1 for it was very clear to me. I hadn't read any spoilers here yet; but reading the text in the game made it very clear that I should try installing the wormhole anchor in the stable location I found it next to!
Sure, if you skip through all the conversations in the game you can miss that. It feels like that should be OK, otherwise you lose much of the sense of discovery and wonder from connecting the remaining dots yourself.
Isn't the wormhole empty when first entering the system?  I thought about building a comm relay on the empty spot first (for new intel) before trying to loot the object next to it (and trigger the Guardian fight).

Yes, the stable location is empty, and the hangar/storehouse with the Guardian fleet was orbiting it. (I assume it always does?)
From reading the wormhole anchor description, which mentioned that you need a pair of them, and that it was orbiting a stable location, I had the assumption "the drones were supposed to set up a wormhole here".
Then interacting with the stable location, it had unique text; said something about how the location had already been prepared and so setting up the wormhole would be instant.

It was pretty clear to me that the other half of the wormhole was already set up and I just had to complete the link!
I enjoyed that it was present in clues from the anchor location + text on the stable location, and wasn't too explicitly spelled out. It made the experience of connecting those dots feel great.

5
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.97a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: February 12, 2024, 11:02:50 AM »
I think the game gives you enough nudges to deploy it. The whole “usually this takes a month but it would work immediately here” thing is a pretty strong signpost.

I admit, I almost did put a sensor relay up just to see if overloading it did anything special in the Abyss.

+1 for it was very clear to me. I hadn't read any spoilers here yet; but reading the text in the game made it very clear that I should try installing the wormhole anchor in the stable location I found it next to!
Sure, if you skip through all the conversations in the game you can miss that. It feels like that should be OK, otherwise you lose much of the sense of discovery and wonder from connecting the remaining dots yourself.

6
General Discussion / Re: What is your general take on v0.97?
« on: February 07, 2024, 01:36:18 PM »
Last updates' changes to S-mods made Expanded Magazines built-in a no-brainer.
As did the changes to Mining Blaster; an SO Aurora with Mining Blaster in the front Synergy, two Cryoflamers in the front Energy turrets, and Burst PD Lasers in the front small turrets makes for a blast to play; they're all weapons with recharging ammo, and so synergize very well.
While that does sound like an effective build, I have to wonder- how are you getting that Mining Blaster into a synergy slot? It's a hybrid-type weapon, which means it can be installed in energy, ballistic, or hybrid slots... but not in synergy or composite slots.

I am curious in particular because I'd love to be able to use that hardpoint for a cryoblaster (also a hybrid weapon), but had to put it in one of the turrets instead.

You're right, I just checked- I have a heavy blaster there. :(
I must have went through the exact same thing last night when I put this together and was trying it out.

7
General Discussion / Re: What is your general take on v0.97?
« on: February 07, 2024, 01:12:17 PM »
The last two updates combined have each introduced elements that have made my favorite player-piloted ship build even more of an absolute blast.

In my new playthrough since the update, I found two Cryoflamers right in the special secret cache.
So I decided to build an Aurora SO bowling ball around them.

Last updates' changes to S-mods made Expanded Magazines built-in a no-brainer.
As did the changes to Mining Blaster; an SO Aurora with Mining Blaster in the front Synergy, two Cryoflamers in the front Energy turrets, and Burst PD Lasers in the front small turrets makes for a blast to play; they're all weapons with recharging ammo, and so synergize very well.
When you crash into an enemy, the Cryoflamers drop their shield in no time, then the Mining Blaster lets rip and tears down their armor, allowing the Flamers to do extreme hull damage to finish them.

But the combat skill changes in this update really make it shine- when I hit level 10 and had 5 in Combat and 5 in Tech with Cybernetic Augmentation, the new sources of damage reduction from Systems Expertise & Cybernetic Aug really helped make the SO Aurora even tankier for even more direct-smash-into-center-of-enemy-fleet bowling ball action.
And the Hardened Shields elite dissipation buff as well- because nothing has excess flux like a SO Aurora!
And extra speed from Helmsmanship! It's hitting 300 speed with Plasma Jets on.

It's just a ton of fun.

However, I'm also seeing a different build that I never would have tried before- when I get lucky enough to get some Antimatter SRM's, I'd love to try a non-SO Aurora with elite Missile Spec and 4 AM-SRM's! Seems like that'd be a sniping monster that can easily reposition away from harm or to blast weak points.

8
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96.1a (In Development) Patch Notes
« on: January 03, 2024, 11:07:03 AM »
Very exciting, thank you for sharing upcoming content and balance changes again!

I'm excited about the Phase Lance efficiency improvement; it'll make it more practical to pressure shields.
One concern though is that it becomes favorable in a lot of ways vs the 'Super Redacted' Rift Lance; Rift Lance is still a small vs medium slot, of course, but would be punching at worse flux efficiency than the Phase Lance that otherwise it presents as a comparable role too.
Would you consider applying the same 1/3rd efficiency increase to Rift Lance here?

9
Comparing the Rift Lance/Beam/Rift Cascade line of Omega beam weapons:

Rift Beam triggers small 'Rifts' along the beam that deal 200 Energy damage in a small AoE.
Rift Cascade Emitter triggers similarly appearing rifts at the point of impact then wrapping around a target, dealing large Energy damage in a small AoE.
Rift Lance... visually, it has the same Rift effect occurring at the tip of the beam, however there's no energy AoE.

It's a neat visual, but appears as an inconsistency here since it doesn't have an actual effect.
Looking at the weapon files- it looks like it's set up in much the same way as the Rift Beam, with a 'minelayer' projectile to describe the rift itself, and that has its own entry in the weapon_data.csv; but changes made to those have no impact in game.

Just musing- is this something Alex thought about but either reverted or left unimplemented?

10
The 'Safeguard' ships are unique- with only one chance to acquire them during the game.
The Onslaught and Legion have 'Reinforced Bulkheads', ensuring they're recoverable by the player, but the other ships don't- leaving it up to a roll of the dice.

In practice, I'm finding that I'm saving before this battle... and then replaying it over and over until I have a 'satisfactory' amount of them recoverable. I'm seeing others on the Discord chatter about having the same habits.

Any time the player is presented with a special, unique thing that can only be acquired at one point in the game, but the acquisition is left up to chance (as recovery after combat is here), the game mechanics encourage the player to do something non-intuitive and unfun- namely, reload and replay the same battle over and over until they get 'lucky' enough and are satisfied.

I'd ask you to consider adding 'Reinforced Bulkheads' to the loadouts of each of these ships, so that players are likely to have all of them available without having to re-play the battle numerous times.

Thank you for your consideration!

11
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 19, 2023, 10:38:06 AM »
Yo why is the s-mod bonus for Solar Shielding this bad compared to the rest? Other cheap hullmods get great things, Stabilized Shields, Armoured Weapon Mounts, Advanced Turret Gyros, Expanded Magazines, etc. And then you have this chump giving 25% more CR protection while in coronas and such terrain, when it already gave you 75%. That's so awful when you look at the rest, I don't even want to spend a story point on LG ships where it's technically free lol.

I went through a similar thought process- wondering why it didn't get an improvement to the in-battle Energy Damage reduction as well, but then I tried out a full S-Modded Solar Shielding fleet, and it opens up some pretty interesting gameplay options.

For example: Lure enemy fleets to chase you at the end of a corona that's pushing them away. Or into a black hole.
You can sit out of their reach for a short while, and let their CR plummet... and then engage them. :)

12
General Discussion / Re: Colony Threat event
« on: May 07, 2023, 04:37:45 PM »
There's ways to get protection from Kanta and discourage pirates, and to get the Pathers indebted and grateful to you also. :)

It's -very- story rich. I'm in love with the way this event system has added neat story and mission interactions into the colony mechanics.

13
General Discussion / Re: Do you like traveling in the hyperspace?
« on: May 07, 2023, 04:31:00 PM »
(And, it occurred to me from seeing another post by you- you likely didn't realize that you can push through hazards without being knocked off course by using 'Emergency Burn')

14
Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 07, 2023, 04:30:15 PM »
I unfortunately find slipstreams extremely annoying...they always act as a wall between me and where I want to be, sometimes  taking me far enough from my destination that I get stranded out of fuel... 

Hint: Activate 'Emergency Burn' when crossing a slipstream horizontally. You'll barely be pushed off course.
Don't 'Sustained Burn' into them or you'll be swept away.

15
General Discussion / Re: Do you like traveling in the hyperspace?
« on: May 07, 2023, 04:27:57 PM »
Your options are kind of limited and weirdly mixed.
Why is the 'I love it' answer about going slow?

I sustain burn and blast straight to the target- except for detours into storms to get the lightning boost, or slipstreams. It's fun that there's multiple ways to go faster that make it more than just a 'AFK until I'm there'.

If you don't like storms, either your fleet is waaaaay too big, or you haven't discovered how wonderful solar shielding is. :P

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