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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 - Dex

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 11
1
Suggestions / Consequences for ignoring distress signals.
« on: April 08, 2021, 11:08:37 AM »
I just ignored a distress signal as the potential threat is too great and the potential pay off is too small and im an actual terrilbe person. I vaguely recall Alex saying he doesnt want to punish the player for NOT doing something and would rather use bigger carrots. Maybe a carrot could be BP location? Habitable planet location, that kind of thing. I think it would be kind of cool that there IS some form of punishment though.....   ???

2
General Discussion / Re: New skill system is a step backwards
« on: April 08, 2021, 11:00:27 AM »
Aww you responded before i could append my mistake!

Im always for extra story elements, especially obscure references. If they are done in such away they arent immersion breaking they are just 'sideshadowing'. Quick google to sate curiosity and suddenly youve bought a 48hr audiobook.

3
General Discussion / Re: New skill system is a step backwards
« on: April 08, 2021, 10:47:18 AM »
I feel a meaningful change would be allow a story point cost to "jailbreak" a single skill in each tree.

Or possibly tie it to a mission, "Captain, if you help this magnate of industry they will teach you something meaningful about how having all of your ships being broken shitheaps is good!"

Good idea +1

Thanks!

How about some bad ideas?
-Skyrim style skill system where you just have to fly in circles to increase helmsmanship for a 1% increase to maneuverability per level, etc.
-The captain gets a very limited set of skills and instead you have to recruit subordinates for some of the more advanced ones. For each subordinate slot you may have to choose between people that offer different skill trees. Examples, a chief engineer, a marine commander, a hotshot pilot, a phase physicist (a phasicist?), a guy with a hammer who hits panels to fix things, a dog (Lieutenant Woof), a rock you found floating in space that looks really cool.

You missed out miniature giant space hamster!

4
General Discussion / Re: New skill system is a step backwards
« on: April 08, 2021, 10:37:35 AM »
Do you mean the previous version of the skill system? if so do you mean the mechanic of *how* skills were selected? (For example clicking the little plus icon on whichever one you wanted after you had a certain level in that swimlane)

Or do you mean the actual skills themselves, regardless of how they are obtained?

For me it's not the current skill list that's been the issue it's *how* you go about actually unlocking them. The new system is definitely more restricted in *how* you unlock skills, regardless of what the actual skills are themselves.
I'd wager that's not a good thing as putting a straight jacket on a design mechanic is rarely a fun thing to do to a player base, IMO..

Of course games need limitations / rules and restrictions or it's just utter carnage, but not to that level. It's like taking candy away from a child because it burped a little?  ::)

Well both, yeah. This choice of 'This skill OR this Skill' up to tier 5. And then when you max out, say combat 5 your choice is now, 'Do i skip out on another 5 skills in another tree or do I loop back round in combat?'

Hrm. I donnt see this a RESTRICTION, per se. The only mechanic exclusively unlocked by a skill point is the redacted one. ECL. All other skills are gravy, bonuses. People are upset that theres a button they cant press because they pressed another button. they arent losing something existing making these choices, they are just choosing their progression. Im just repeating my opinions in slightly different words now.

Consider this: You can now pick all the skills you wanted, every complementary skill is yours and you are buff as heck. Now the game is easier than it was before and power creep is having to be balanced in different ways by the developer. too many enemy officers? 'Unfun!' someone shouts at the back. Nigh unlimited sized enemy fleets! 'Impossible! The CR mechanics arent compatible!' another weeps. Managing the character progression is one of the tools developers have to keep their game fun and challenging. I dont really want to turn a game that could very easily be played in the manner of a rogue-like (eminently a good thing, as EVERYONE agrees) into a rather more complicated bullet hell shooter. Which ok i also like, but wouldnt be doing the other established mechanics justice. Reductive i know.

 

5
General Discussion / Re: Tier 5 skills
« on: April 08, 2021, 10:35:59 AM »
Mr Feather

Sorry, yeah, what i meant was that i know what its for but not when it would be useful, as Mr Talar says.

id never choose it over L1L unless it was better than L1L late game, which i consider my previous suggestion helps with a little.

6
General Discussion / Re: Tier 5 skills
« on: April 08, 2021, 10:07:15 AM »
Technology 10 is the only remotely possible option and even then T1R and T3R are weak endgame picks, while T4R is only for player Doom, as you won't have enough points left for optimal Afflictor build with 9 locked into Tech. At most I'd go to Tech 7 for both EWM and Gunnery.

Combat 10 is nonsense: for almost any ship at least several picks in combat tree will be dead, C4L or R is guaranteed to be one. Odyssey can leverage 9 out of 10 skills... But effects of C1R and C5L are limited for it, so it's not worth the opportunity cost, at most I'd consider Combat 8.

Leadership is mix and match of different stuff to begin with, L1R is garbage, L3R is weak, having both L4 will lock respec almost completely and both L5 are non-combat.

Industry is also mix of different things. Both I1 are very weak, I2 is weak compared to other piloted skills,I4L and I4R work against each-other and both I5 are non-combat.

L1R is rubbish. I cannot think of a time where it would be useful. except when in a fighting retreat? Even then the larger the fleet the more diulted the buff... I feel that the reduction due to fleet size may be removed here? And perhaps the max overall buff reduced?

7
General Discussion / Re: New skill system is a step backwards
« on: April 08, 2021, 09:57:43 AM »
Interesting reads all of this!!

Dex, I learnt from those articles you posted, very interesting!
There are people who still think the earth isn't round, and that's their 'opinion' - Now we know it's not actually an opinion at all, but a contradiction of proven facts, and is wrong..
Where religion falls into this is anyone guess, but I'm not opening Pandora's Box.. *whistle*  ::)


Well that means it wasnt a complete waste of effort. So thanks for that. I will say however, when i sat down an hour ago and re-read what i wrote, i feel i may have overdone it just a little tad. Fever induced hubris, perhaps.

While im here, and for what its worth, previous version was far inferior. There were no meaningful choices at all. Im compensating for the silent majority that are going to agree with me because i am always right and my mom agrees with me. So there.

8
General Discussion / Re: Carriers post nerf?
« on: April 08, 2021, 09:51:14 AM »
The skills system in 9.5a is designed to dissuade you from making fleets that use one schtick. Each fleet-boosting skill has a soft cap on what it can do. So to get the most out of each fleet boost, you don't want to far-exceed what the skill boosts.

As for carriers, I use tempests. I could use a single Astral, but I'd have to captain it and the [SPOILERS] is far more fun to fly.

Annihilator Drones are terrifying.

This is funny, if only for me, because i keep calling tempests terminators.

I like this change making a flexible fleet is now more competitive with one that is designed to lever a particular gimmick.

Personally, have still to reach a conclusion on fighters and bombers in 95. How much of the terrible impression weve had is down to the fact we have just been so used to carriers effectiveness in previous versions. I cant remember the game version, probably before the last skill change, but carriers were pants then also. How do they compare now?

9
General Discussion / Re: Best way to go sneaky beaky like?
« on: April 08, 2021, 09:17:20 AM »
@Dex: that's entirely inappropriate. Please refrain from things that verge into personal attack territory.

Ah, i see how that can be misconstrued. My mistake. I wasnt insulting his intelligence, just making a comment on his apparent propensity for flagellation, as had been suggested on another thread here. It was sarcastic.

Mr Lock, you are correct and you are smarter than I.

Edit: Admonished on your 18000th post! proud.

10
General Discussion / Re: Post your exceptional 9.5 core world seeds
« on: April 07, 2021, 06:24:06 PM »
Spoiler
Terran planet with -1 volatiles +1 farming and +1 Organics, with scattered ruins.

Ina system with two volcanics with rich ore, rich rare ore, and widespread ruins and a gate.

3 Ly away from a cryo where the system contains a desert planet with an array and farming, and a gas giant, and a barren planet.

9 Ly away from a shunt.

Best of ALL, theres a spacefluff free route in a pretty straight line from the core worlds.

Best planet ive ever seen in any playthrough. Well, planet aint amazing but the whole.

theres an astral BP nearby and two derelict conquests.

MN-7373416187671605532

I always forget the planet name. Its like barabas, oberaby. It has O's and b's in the Mojave constellation bearng 35 degrees nakata.

enjoy
[close]

sorry. NOT CORE PLANET

11
General Discussion / Re: New skill system is a step backwards
« on: April 07, 2021, 05:18:18 PM »
Mr noob... This spoiler is just for you. so it doesnt clutter up.

Spoiler

....If i thought wrong.... was anything... but a synonym for false... is on me.... Right! No!

This does not make any difference and you cannot say that my opinion is wrong OR false.

Let me draw a parallel. True(right/yes whatever) is 1 false is 0. You ask me to tell you my favourite number and then i say 28, and then i say im lying. My favourite number is not now suddenly 0 is it. It doesnt work. that doesnt even make sense. Its closer to NULL, an absence of data. its a **** analogy but i hope you get the gist.


Hello. Do you wanna play a game?
.

All you have to do is guess the opinion! Careful! im sneaky!

Chocolate is the best <-
Spoiler
implicitly my opinion, shant even directly qualify it as such. Its not a fact. truly obviously not a fact as random Jeff from accounting says VANILLA is the best. If these were proposed as facts, then at least ONE of them is wrong. Oh NO! here comes Jennifer, office bicycle, absolutely loves strawberry. Implicit best. How does this compute? It doesnt matter as they are all opinions. They are subjective and have NO conclusive finding. Even if one of them is LYING, this is irrelevant to the opinion, it is an UNKNOWN, a NULL
[close]

In my opinion, the earth is flat.
Spoiler
<- despite me PHRASING this as an opinion, this is in fact, not an opinion. it is an incorrect factual statement. IT IS WRONG. i think this is where people get confused, as they dont actually know what an opinion is. We have indisputable, repeatable, and the popular kids even say empirical proof that the planet is an oblate spheroid.
[close]

BONUS ROUND

Vaccines cause autism <
Spoiler
not an opinion and its WRONG
[close]
Jeff thinks youre really hot. <
Spoiler
its not MY opinion and i cant have someone elses opinion unless Jeff agrees then its WRONG (sorry)
[close]

I think Jennifer thinks Jeff thinks youre really hot. <
Spoiler
I have no idea if this is an opinion, actually. Is this like schrodingers cat? Its an opinion until we ask jennifer? Do we have to ask Jeff as well? An opinion in superposition with a fact? this is ******* science, guys. Exciting! Discuss.
[close]

I think jennifer is very annoying.  <
Spoiler
OPINION there is no conclusive finding.
[close]

I spent FAR too long here but i enjoyed it very much.
[close]

Now, also.

Mr Evzhel

Im just going to play devils advocate a little here. My own real opinion that i have about this new skill tree is that i love the mutually exclusive choices (mostly). It DEMANDS compromises in your skills just as when you are deciding on your fleet composition as you begin your trek to that suspicious looking blue star 40 odd light years away. You cant afford to bring all your best fighters, they are too expensive to run and/or their logistical stats are too poor and to compensate for this lack it eats into your already PREMIUM cargo and fuel space. Cos you aint coming back until your holds are FULL and thats basic cost effectiveness. Suddenly, that apogee looks like a damn attractive ship, awkward in combat, but its a cheapish cruiser, has good sensors, helps with scanning planets and plugs several potential holes in a leaky fleet composition. The vast holds, efficient engines and fuel tanks, the extra crew to man those derelicts you find just to efficiently free up some hull space suing supplies and add more cargo space are all things you find on the ships you least want in combat. Here even the venture is viable (EVEN!).

The mere compromises you have had to make here means that ships you would never usually look at become attractive enough to not only become viable but an ideal choice. Shepherd, i love that ship, i always have two. PANTS in a fight.

Thats what i feel people are missing here, these choices are making.... hmmm whats a good word ... strata. Different layers of playing the game possible, if you will. Always knowing the true optimal restricts your choices.

Another thing to consider is that we dont actually need any of the skills currently present in the game to be successful. Its all gravy. Every skill most certainly makes you more powerful.

All that said, I do exactly what you do. Combat skills are useless (IMO) through out the game, as you are but a single ship, numerically inferior, your force multipliers are still only applying to 1. This is until the end game where industry is pointless as you no longer need to be efficient in your spending. YOuve now made it. You have literal planets churning out fleets in your name.

BUT, you see what people write in these forums and there are people here that are complaining almost explicitly about the combat tree. Just that bit of information alone means that people play the game with a completely different approach than i do, wading in with their capitals where i like to nibble and opportunise.

NONE of the other skill incarnations of yesteryear had any real choice. You had so many skills you could easily take ALL the best and thats what one did every game. I understand that when you look at the skill tree, the one method that appears commonsense to you is ALWAYS the best and only choice. But some people like morris dancing, some like liquorice, and i do not.

I would sincerely love to see other peoples interpretations to the skill system, so i am all for that suggestion seeing as i have no idea as to how much work that would take. Honing the choices and sacrifices that must be made IS this game. Your suggestion, however, isnt IF choices its WHEN choices, and i just want to mention again that NONE of the skills in the skill tree are required to complete the game. A lack of necessary compromise in your choices is a lack of depth in my
Spoiler
opinion
[close]
.


12
mobile is my jam. Smash efficiency overhaul on that an blind jump into a neutron star.

Can you share the dp cost? i mean odyssey is 45.... and BR is traditionally a LITTLE expensive... 48?

13
General Discussion / Re: Best way to go sneaky beaky like?
« on: April 07, 2021, 03:02:43 PM »
Also, despite the zero there, multiplicative bonuses like being in an asteroid belt, going dark, etc., will still reduce the range you can be detected at.
Do you know how it's getting numbers above zero in that case, does that mean zero isn't actually zero? Did Alex discover a way to multiply by zero and get more then zero... madness.

Hello, Friend. Before you hurt yourself, the range at which you can be detected is in fact the sensor range of the OPPOSING fleet ADDED to your sensor profile.

SO:

Opposing fleet Sensors : 800

Your sensor profile : 0

Detection range : 800

14
General Discussion / Re: The game became too hard
« on: April 07, 2021, 02:43:48 PM »
Yes lets segue back into what may amount to a decent conversation WITHOUT resorting to any... somewhat repressed masochistic tendencies?

So what is your beef, dear sir?

You just arrived, oddly suggested no-one liked to self harm, which i agree with, drew a parallel, which was surely a tangent, to a comment i made and slunk off.

And your are pleading ignorance? You are a troll, surely!

15
General Discussion / Re: The game became too hard
« on: April 07, 2021, 02:29:03 PM »
Well it wasnt really now was it....

'oh no! im struggling in the end game but this dude seems to enjoying it! Better talk about punching myself in the goolies!'

Bit silly this isnt it.

Youre doing a bit of the strawman now.... we working our way down the logical fallacies? What fun!

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