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Topics - Cosmitz

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Suggestions / Let's talk UI/UX

« on: April 27, 2017, 06:24:50 AM »

So, i've haven't played a lot of 0.7.2, and came into 0.8 with a pretty fresh view of things after a year or so. While you've no doubtedly heard a lot of 'balance' 'nerf fighters' and 'nerf mora', i want to focus on the UX/UI here.

For my Let's talks about the campaign progression go here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=12256.msg208065#msg208065
For the skills Let's talk go here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=12158.0

Let's start with matters that affect overmap/sector travel:

- Freelook should either be a hold and drag, upon unpressing the button, the view snapping back to the fleet, or a toggle, as is now, but again, snapping back to the fleet when it's turned off.

- Clicking all the objects in space flashes the round circle of 'confirmation that you clicked'. The 'unidentified signatures', do not. They should. (also the tooltip delay setting doesn't apply to fleets/items?)

- Push and hold for the very-often used feature like laying a course and such should not be used. It also is especially bugging when you don't have other or more than one option. I've mentioned this before, but moving that feature to the right click, laying course default with left click would do wonders. (also, left click to drag the map around)

- Nonsticky drag and drop item trading movement? Or just disable it altogether and just keep clicking as a move action between containers. (while we're here, superfluous items we don't pick up during salvage should drop as pods)

Map/intel map:

- The ship icon shown on the map should be a different icon, not a 'star' icon. Hard to differentiate.

- Having system/sector view is fine, but tab should always 'tab' through them and then out. Tab-Sector map-Tab-System Map-Back to fleet view. It's always quicker to mentally know to do 'two tabs' to get back to the ship, rather than tab-q-tab or other intermediate considerations.

- Either show 'important missions' (let's be honest, quests/missions you undertake) on the main map (yellow (!) maybe), or allow setting course from the default intel 'map' not the 'log' (atm, i click Intel, click the thing, click the star system where it is, which takes me to the show info, which i go 'lay in course' which lays it in for the system, not the exact location, and then i have to remember, and... yeah, no)

- 'Done' events shouldn't have an active icon on the intel map anymore, just logged

- Bigger 'steps' in zooming in/out of the intel map, are tiny right now, ideally scaling up to the largeness of the map

- Still, given all this, personally, i'd rather the entire map structure be integrated into the small intel map.. it just seems cumbersome to have two similar yet different map systems. Hell, they almost have the same filters for system map. The sector map can be kept separate if wanted/needed, but for me it just feels like i go to intel to go to the map to go to the sector sometimes.

Stations/planets:

- It's getting clear that the station interaction interface is becoming unmanageable. At this point once you 'dock' on a station, you can and most people already do, just click anything (minus info) and then use the bottom bar for getting around. I recommend either outright removing the bottom bar when docked, so you always have to get back to the dialogue menu to interact or moving all the standard actions (that won't go away or change) to the bottom bar, and having the whole bar switch to a different background when in station (with Comms and extra staples 'in the future'), and no dialogue option (apart from forced/trader/etc).

- Warning when you undock with overflowing cargo/fuel/crew.

- Move storage icon first, next to the market/black market, and have it be the default grid when you open up, if you have storage there, if not, open Market normally and when you have 'storage' selected, i suggest the entire inventory/fleet selection grid background just turns a slight green hue. If we're going with that, a slight orangey hue for black market would make it consistent. So you know STORE ship does what you think it does, and also to make it easier to swap ships in/out effortlessly. Also, following items, it should be possible to CTRL-click to instastore/sell/buy.

- Refitting in stations, have them all sort via OP, no matter illegal/legal, and have a single instance for all items. You want Antimatter blasters. It has the 'storage' mention and you have only one. You pick it up and place it. You go to put another one, now it you have a choice to pick it up from Market/Military (there is no difference between them right now in tarrifs), and Black market. Where you click on the button decides which you use.

- In refitting, while writing a shipname/custom type, holding down shift and pushing backspace deletes the entire text string. Just tiny annoying, and not something any other text processor/service i've used so far does.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I've definitely forgotten a few but eh. I'm sure they'll spring up soon enough.

Bug Reports & Support / Gamma AI cores not counted as 'contraband'

« on: April 23, 2017, 08:19:59 AM »

At the very least not with Tritach, and at the very least not with Gammas. Got stopped for a scan with one in hold and they were like, 'all clean'.

Bug Reports & Support / Crash upon saving (cargo pods related)

« on: April 23, 2017, 01:11:30 AM »

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dx73qxw1zjafj06/starsector%20-%20Copy.log?dl=0 <Log.

It's weird that loading worked fine, and saving after as well. I think i was just too quick on the save and the game didn't get to write something somewhere.

Ends in:

Code

25884403 [Thread-4] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain  - java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.CargoPodsEntityPlugin.updateBaseMaxDays(CargoPodsEntityPlugin.java:79)
	at com.fs.starfarer.api.impl.campaign.CargoPodsEntityPlugin.advance(CargoPodsEntityPlugin.java:68)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CustomCampaignEntity.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.BaseLocation.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.StarSystem.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignEngine.advance(Unknown Source)
	at com.fs.starfarer.campaign.CampaignState.advance(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)

General Discussion / Boosted Start - Save-Game file 0.7.1a

« on: December 06, 2015, 04:53:47 PM »

If anyone's having issues starting a game and getting over the 'hump' i wanted to share a save game file with you. You'll have a Wolf with 2x SRMs, 1x Burst PD laser and 3x IR Pulse Laser, a level 5 Ordenance/Tech character and @45k credits to start toying with. This is on Normal Difficulty.

May be a bit overkill, but if you're new or old and just don't want to grind 500 credits at a time or can't get a handle on the early game, give this a shot before quitting or waiting until the next version.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4037018/save_SarahIronwood_6736364387157924786.zip

Options from here:
- Buy marines, get a second wolf or a pack of hounds, go ship shopping
- Buy high tech frigates or a fully outfitted destroyer
- Geminis or a set of Condors for trading along with the cash to back up a modest start

General Discussion / Yet another 0.7.1a review

« on: December 06, 2015, 06:45:24 AM »

Starting from the top, i bloody love the third party fights. They're excellent and allow you, if nothing else, to get a taste of a large battle without working 20 hours in game for it. I love the ship differentiation that goes on now in regards to systems and i love the music (if the trading post music kicks in rather abruptly). The sensors and general mechanics will take a lot of work to streamline after so many years of normal Starsector but i think i'll get there, there's some nice events that happened due to the interaction of these mechanics, but i'd still wish to have a clearer picture of fleets RIGHT next to mine. Sometimes fleets just pop up 'unidentified' right next to me and of course they're pirates. Do more ships help? Hinder? I think help.. will figure it out. Deep Hyperspace should slightly decrease your burn speed, i'd love the concept of highways being more fleshed out.

One of the issues is STILL how bloody hard it is to start. I've been plinking along in my solo Hound, barely covering the costs of supplies for a while now as i slowly inch my way to 25k to start actually playing in a Tempest or an Afflictor. And i'm not sure getting some starter ships like Kites or shuttles will help in any way. Past 2-3 small cheap ships you start hitting low (30-50s) CR with 0 points in leadership. Also annihilators on Kites is.. hella annoying when fighting in a Hound. In short, at least for starters i really recommend some crutch, say shooting space junk, trading time for a stable inflow of credits with not a lot of risk involved. Just to ease people into the variety of ships available.

Speaking of, there really should be some randomization in regards to which ship you start in, Hound+Heavy Mauler locks you into a certain playstyle for the first few hours that you may not want. Maybe mix it in with reputation? Start in a better ship, people hate you more since it's ill gained most likely. Shittier ship, easier ramp up to factions. There is still a large issue of getting into a fight, coming out winning or losing, doesn't matter, and realising you might as well reload before the battle and not do it since you're coming out credit-negative either way.

PS: http://imgur.com/44EdBSx These kinds of things don't help skirt any line. I can understand a drop in faction, say 10-15, but -56? That's just too much. Sure, they knew who i was, but still, -56? I have a similar issue with killing an enemy fleet getting you 1-2 faction and a failure to have the transponder on, -3.

PS2: Given all that's going on now, we really need an option to 'wait in station' for no supply cost.

PS3: Instead of the 'shadowy' cooldown timer, just make it a filling green high contrast bar overlayed. A lot of the icons are 'space dark background' and it's hard to see.

PS4: A friend retried it after years since i was showing him the cool new things in this release, and after getting camped into a station by four pirate fleets he couldn't do anything to he gave up trying on it again. The same 'hard start' issue he encountered a long while back. This really needs to be addressed. To note, he loved and finished Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so he's not a casual gamer.

Suggestions / Quick one: Stop regenerating ammo during firing

« on: February 11, 2015, 04:39:46 AM »

It would be a lot easier to balance and a lot slicker if the ammo-regen would happen in actual weapon downtime, instead of 'fighting the waves'. For situations where people keep the button down even thought it's at zero, it's just a matter of starting the regen when it hits 0, instead of when it happens for the regen to 'tick'. So once you hit zero, you know you have say 2 seconds or something like that for the weapon counter to 'tick', and then it fires those regened rounds and you wait another 'tick' when you drop to zero before firing again.

Let me illustrate. * = firing, > = regen

Right now: * * > * * > * * > * * > * > ** > * (it staggers itself depending on when the regen tick hits)
Suggested/waiting to replenish: * * * * * * * * > > > > > > * * * * * * * *
Suggested/firing as it regens/buttondown: * * * * * * * > * * > * * > * * (feels more like 'wheezing' and strained ammo reload)

And related, would be interesting to have clip sizes even smaller, so you'd use the weapons more tactically and situationally than just 'holding down and moving forward'.

Bug Reports & Support / Sabot SRM second-stage not firing?

« on: February 10, 2015, 05:11:41 PM »

Am i insane or were Sabot SRM's two-staged? First stage they moved slowly and then they burst out hitting the enemy ship at 'high speed' as per their description. Now they just whizzle a bit and then fizzle out.

LE: Only happens when they don't have a target?
LE2: Only happens when they don't have a target.
LE3: Feature?
LE4: Feature.
LE5: I wish i could delete my own threads.

Discussions / "This is Eve" - New Eve Online trailer

« on: November 22, 2014, 07:14:41 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdfFnTt2UT0

General Discussion / So... i got locked out of all of my fleet.

« on: November 20, 2014, 11:54:54 AM »

Well that happened. I left my whole fleet in the indepedent Glasnir planet and just left with two Tarsus' to deposit some loot in my main tritach base. By the time i came back, i got whacked with a -70 and another -something for two smuggling investigations that were pending related to independents and.. you can guess where this leads.

I'm sure i'm not the only one.. but there should be an option of paying say half their price to get them back from a station gone hostile. Worst case scenario, at the very least get half of their value back if not the ships themselves when you interact with the planet.

Lucky me i am swimming in about two mil of credits so it's not a huge inconvenience but... my Medusas!

Bug Reports & Support / Turncoat Pirate/Smuggler

« on: November 20, 2014, 10:09:20 AM »

Initially i thought it was an oversight on my part, but now i was sure i clicked the pirate while it was red and a pirate, and i still got the rephit, pretty huge, -90, for bopping an independent.

Don't know what causes it, but this time for example it turned from pirate to ind, then chased me or returned on its own to the port a little bit and then i did the attack. Maybe it doesn't turn back to pirate after it becomes independenth? Donno, but it's a guaranteed reload.

Even have a save game, but i didn't manage to reproduce it.

General Discussion / So i finally got into 0.65

« on: November 16, 2014, 06:33:09 PM »

And i have no ideea what i'm doing. This is coming from a 15-30 minute playthrough, and will probably play more later on today, but i think it's relevant.

Given all that's new in 65, it's understandable that i'm starting to fall into my old 'kill pirates since i know that works' and jesus is the new market a huge overhaul.. I specifically stayed away from the forums to get a true first impression. For the moment i'm just buying everything off the black market while trying to remain credit-positive and i think i'll wait for figuring out the market later.

I saw some 'this market needs this since it can't fullfil its own needs', as well as some events happening but a lot feels like 'how is this relevant to me?'. Bounties getting completed.. even posted, can i track certain bounties on the map? Prices updated.. ok, what are they? That was just a notification that prices changed? Can i compare it to say the station i'm in? Local bulletin? Comms? Analysis and projections? Does it matter where it's from? And if there's a local bulletin about X happening, shouldn't it be a bulletin about it ending? Or does it just disappear? I think i saw bounties completed but..

If i were a completely new player that didn't even know how to do combat (btw, do enemy ships not give up after getting shots from a Mauler in the face repeatedly? I remember they running away after a while), i'd really be lost, that's aside from the actual difficulty piloting the ship and managing the logistics.

Supplies appear to be somewhat bountiful though, getting 50 from a Hound/Dram fleet, which at 0.2 per day should hold my two hounds a decent while. So i don't think i should really bother about them.. but the prices for actual items or even the supplies if i want to buy them.. sheesh. I saw it's related to stability, but in the current context, why would i want a high-stability trade hub? Higher prices et all that. They pay me more for my cargo?

Again, 15-30 minutes play, twin-hounds atm since no tempest as far as i could find, killing pirates and staring blankly at intel. Will update this as i play more later today. It was cool to have some new comm events... all things considered, i'd love some FTL-style randomised events happening here and there in the new universe to really make it pop as a living universe.

LE: And not two minutes later
---------------------------
Starsector 0.65.1a-RC1
---------------------------
Fatal: Ship hull variant [hound_Assault] not found!
Check starsector.log for more info.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

When trying to run a simulation. I think that /may/ be related to my All Vanila Sim Opponents - Big Battle Edition mod from ages ago, and to be fair, i'm surprised it didn't break the game until now, since it never did for two years or so.

General Discussion / New interview with Alex @ Kotaku's TAY section

« on: July 18, 2014, 03:27:35 PM »

Hey guys,

I managed to wrestle Alex into answering a few (ok, more than a few) questions for us over at Kotaku's Talk-Amongst-Yourselves user-run section. You can read the full interview here:

http://tay.kotaku.com/starsector-a-story-of-indie-development-done-right-i-1607174579

I touch on the economic side for the first bit, on community/mods later on ending up with a 'future of alex/fractal softworks/starsector' towards the end. Hope you guys like it.

Discussions / This looks familiar

« on: April 03, 2014, 04:24:23 PM »

If in 3D. And different. And almost nothing like StarSector. Ish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRHT4KQD5YU

Bug Reports & Support / Wrong Ordenance Points calculation

« on: October 14, 2013, 03:28:00 PM »

Have both OP skills at 10 so that's 21% more OP once calculated, considering they stack this way x+((x+(x*10%))*10%).

But still, even so.

Tempest 45 OP - I have 58. - Should have 54.45 max, say 55 rounded up.
Conquest 315 OP - I have 409. - Should have 381.15 max, say 382 rounded up.

Am i missing anything? If the bonuses are cumulative and it becomes a flat 20% the numbers are even lower: 54 and 378. Either way, a far cry from 58 and 409.

General Discussion / Suicidal frigates?

« on: October 14, 2013, 03:02:10 PM »

I don't remember frigates having this much problem avoiding friendly fire. Tried Frontal shields and Omni, tried with Accelerated Shields and with Auxiliary Thrusters.. my tempests end up taking more damage from my flagship than they take from enemy fire. And thats both with autofire on or off. With it on, i barely fire my beams even though they might pass clear of the frigates, but it doesn't even hesitate to fire a Gauss round that will eventually end up impacting the engines of some poor friendly frigate. Manually firing, they still have a deathwish to enter my cone of fire.

I'm ending up actually separating myself from my frigates just so i won't damage them. Didn't the AI in previous versions try to avoid your 'mouse gaze' while targetting? And speaking of, i didn't see any ships do the heroic 'take one for the team'-behaviour to take a shot instead of letting it pass on the ship the player's piloting.

Put a character up to 40 flying a capship with frigates and this is really becoming a problem. The number of time a Tempest sets itself exactly in my line of fire and refuses to shove off even though it could attack with both weapons from another angle made me weary of using them in an assist role around my flagship.