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

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Topics - Gothars

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76
So, the relative fleet sizes determine how many of the total deployment points are allocated to each side. That makes sense, because it limits the battle size (to safe performance) while preserving the numeric advantage of the bigger fleet.

But is there any reason the system doesn't adapt if the numeric advantage shifts during the battle?

I now had quite often a situation like this: I deploy my flagship with some escort, and get ready to take on the numerically far superior enemy fleet. The enemy sends wave after wave, but we stand our ground. At some point maybe 4/5 of the enemy ships have been destroyed, but my ships are not in good shape. CR is running out, missiles depleted, armor shattered, hull torn. I'd love to deploy some reinforcements now, but I can't! Despite an enemy fleet that in its entirety would now pose little threat to mine (or my CPUs performance), I only have the options to
a) retreat (some of) my main ships in a gruelingly slow process that might open my formation and leave my ships vulnerable or
b) try to end the fight with these exhausted ships, while the risk to lose them skyrockets as their performance plummets.
If the situation is critical, it might even make sense to c) sacrifice the least irreplaceable of your ships so you can bring in fresh reinforcements ASAP.

Even if I defeat the enemy the DP system hinders me further, because my weary fleet is in no condition to chase them, and I can't deploy my fast pursuit ships for lack of DP (until the escape scenario).


So, If there's not some factor I'm overlooking, I'd suggest to re-calculate the distribution of deployment points during battle.

78
Suggestions / Destination marker in campaign
« on: June 08, 2017, 08:21:12 AM »
I'd like it if a small destination marker would appear at your fleet's next immediate destination.

That has two reasons:

1: The following scenario has happen to me far too often: I'm on course to somewhere, than something makes me deviate from the course, let's say a hyperstorm. Now I click and hold somewhere off int he distance to avoid it, draw the cursor around the obstacle while my fleet follows, and let go of the button when the danger is circumvented. My fleet is happily back on course and... but wait, it suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere. Oops, I forgot that I didn't just evade, but set a new course to some random point in space. Hopefully no enemy is in pursuit...

2: Another scenario:
Spoiler
[close]
Ah, so that is the system we have been astrogating to, let's see, where best to enter... wait, what, we just passed over the star? Ohh, it's the next system over, and this one just happened to be on the same vector....

79
Bug Reports & Support / Planet has two names
« on: June 06, 2017, 01:06:11 PM »
This one wants to called Old Milix and Eta Shidim 1. None of the system's three stars is btw called Eta Shidim. Got a save if needed.

/e Just noticed that the Nebula where the System's in is called Shidim, with some other stars as Alpha, Beta etc. Shidim. So I guess the Systems primary would have been Eta Shidim if its name had not been changed to Bel.

Spoiler
[close]

80


Seed: MN-5085697203828460070  (Kitchen Sink)

81
Suggestions / Make cheating in iron mode - harder -
« on: May 24, 2017, 04:49:28 AM »
So, I really like Iron mode and the challenge it provides. But since it is unforgiving, it can sometimes be frustrating, and then - I have to admit - I sometimes rage-quit combat with alt+F4. That way I erase my mistake without even wanting to, and the worth of the whole Iron run feels compromised. And admittedly, sometimes it might only be half out of frustration and half a conscious cheat in a moment of weakness.
I realize of course that there is no way to make the game immune to cheating, all I'm asking to make it harder to do accidentally/out of an impulse. Because hitting alt+F4 or ctrl+alt+del is a matter of three seconds, anything that takes longer (like save game editing) I could easily avoid/resist.


I think auto-saving before each battle would be a real drag, cause it would take a while. But maybe the game could just put a marker in the last save when a battle starts? Say the marker only gets deleted when the battle is resolved properly, otherwise the next time you load that save you start as if you'd have lost - with a frigate at a planet. (Maybe with some snippy text about you suddenly losing consciousness in your last battle^^)
Or just generally put that marker on Iron mode saves when they are loaded, and remove it only when "Save&Exit" is used.

82
Bug Reports & Support / Allies don't move towards enemy
« on: May 22, 2017, 10:55:52 AM »
This is a behavior I observed regularly from back when I started palying .8, didn't report it because I'm not sure it's a bug or some way to decompress battles. Ships don't move towards a far away enemy in a straight line, preferring to loiter and move in random directions.

Look for example at the movement vectors of the two hounds (flagship on autopilot) after they finished an enemy in their part of the map:
Spoiler
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83
Suggestions / A way to move D-hulls around with less fuel
« on: May 19, 2017, 07:54:13 AM »
The problem:
And yeah, fuel cost of "garbage ball" fleets (as they're affectionately known internally) are definitely at odds with the rest of industry encouraging exploration, which did come up in testing as well, but no obvious/clean solution presented itself.

A possible solution; it needs two components to work:

1) The hullmod "Monofilament tow cable"*, equippable on all ships. It enables to tow one mothballed ship of the same size or smaller than the towing ship (or maybe one size bigger?). Towed ships do not consume fuel in hyperspace. As a secondary effect a fleet can emergency burn even with a mothballed ship, when that ship is towed.
The hullmod could increase fuel consumption a bit, but I'm not sure if that would even be necessary balance-wise.


2) A skill in the Industry aptitude that enables to restore mothballed ships with some of their CR. Maybe half of what they had before mothballing, but at least 40% (as long as the ship didn't have below 40%).


The hullmod and skill in combination would allow you to move a fleet for basically half the fuel cost (or less, when smaller ships can tow bigger ones), provided half of the ship tow, and half are towed. Then, when you got where you wanted, you restore the mothballed ships to re-acquire your full combat potential. Raising the CR again would of course cost many supplies, so you trade savings in fuel for restoration supply costs and intermittent vulnerability. Here D-hulls have an advantage, because it's much cheaper to restore them to full combat readiness.

That does not just enable to make far journeys with d-hull garbage fleets. It also opens other possibilities, like having a mothballed toolbox of highly specialized ships that you can restore when needed and carry around for cheap ( they don't cost fuel and don't cost maintenance supply, after all). Or as a new option when you're stranded with low fuel in a remote system. As a nice side effect it gives more use for transports/liners, since you have to carry the crew for the mothballed ships somehow.

There are some ships were the tow cable might make for a nice build-in mod, like the Hound (sled dog!), the Venture and maybe even the tug (with then has a double function).


BTW, something that would be good regardless of if these ideas get implemented is an additional piece of information when hovering over the "mothball" button: "Restoring current CR after mothballing this ship will approximately cost x supplies". At the moment there is no warning at all that mothballing is costly.


*
Spoiler
From what I understand 8.1 will replace the tug's mono-filament tow cable with a "drive field stabilizer" that raises the entire fleets burn speed by 1, and the tow cable will not have any use.
[close]


84
Suggestions / Color Sensor/Detection Range when they are modified
« on: May 19, 2017, 06:16:32 AM »
There are all kinds of terrain and abilitites that modify how far you can see or be seen. You can see their effects when you mouse over either the terrain/ability description or your Sensor/Detection Range, but doing that usually requires you to pause the game. I also can't really memorize all the effects (which seem to change with every update) or intuit them good enough.

I think it would be a simple but effective QOL improvement to color the Sensor/Detection Range values red/green when they are enhanced/decreased relative to normal. Maybe just if that happens by a multiplication, the flat +1000 addition of the Transponder should not lead to a permanent red Detection Range value.


85
Suggestions / Smarter targeting UI for stations
« on: May 17, 2017, 12:22:09 PM »
Stations are build from a core and several modules. In combat, you can target the modules with "R", but you can't target the core. The problem is that to target the modules, you first have to know where they are, which is far from obvious. Stations are designed to look homogeneous, after all. Targeting the core does nothing, so if a player doesn't yet know about the way stations work, that can be very confusing. Saw that confusion in some YT let's plays.

So my idea is: Targeting the core switches through targeting the modules. Hover the cursor over the station core and press "R" once to target the first module, press it again to target the second module and so on. Ideally, the outline of the now targeted module would flash briefly.

This could help you to initially understand the structure of the station and later to identify any left-over modules.

86
Suggestions / "Sort ships" button in fleet menu
« on: May 14, 2017, 07:36:48 AM »
Big fleets can get a bit hard to manage and oversee, especially when the composition changes a lot (D-hull playstile). It would be nice if you could auto-sort them. Parameters that would help are for example "sort non-civilians from highest to lowest deployment points, then sort civilians from highest to lowest deployment points".

Other than having a good overview the position of ships in the fleet menu doesn't matter anymore, does it?

87
How to reproduce: You don't deploy the flag ship, then take over one of your allies with "X", and then deploy your original flagship. Your character is on the original flag ship as on officer, but also on the allied ship. To control the flag ship you have to take the X-shuttle.


"Johnson to Johnson... this is awkward."

88
It was just back paddling further and further, with the fighters long out of range. Officer is steady.

Spoiler

[close]

I can't reproduce this now. At the time it was aggravating, caused me to lose the fight.

89
I am not 100% on this, but I think if you are almost hostile (-49) with a faction, and then attack them without being identified, you still get the warning "are you sure you want to attack, you have been positively identified". I guess because it will push you into "hostile" anyway, but I was still confused about my transponder status for a moment (which was off, and had been for a long time).


90
I like the base mechanics, but I think they have a lot of untapped potential.

Here are two ideas:

1)Datacenter (ship order): Ships can be ordert to "go mainframe" with a command point, increasing the EW/Nav bonus they provide, but dramatically reducing the ships own speed and weapon range. Conceptually, they re-route all power to their computer systems and use the processing power to provide aiming and navigation data for the fleet. This can be used to various effects:

- allows slow ships to play a role in fast pursuit/mopping up
- when the enemy does it, provides a tactical target to destroy
- give civilians a role in combat
- gives more use to command points


2)Temporary Overclock (fleet wide order): Electronic Warfare rating/nav bonus is spiked temporarily (~10 seconds?) by a coordinated "DoS attack" for the cost of a command point. During this time enemy weapon range can be reduced more than normally. Afterwards your processors have to cool down and your EW rating is lowered temporarily, providing an opportunity for a counter-strike.

This would turn EW into a more interactive, dynamic mechanic that you can't just ignore. And give more use to command points, too.


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