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2731

General Discussion / Re: Heron; how do I get value out of it?

« on: February 17, 2015, 06:19:57 AM »

Here's my Heron layout:

Spoiler

[close]

Although, since getting a Conquest I've switched out the Augmented Engines for Front Shield Emitter, Extended Shields, and more capacitors.

I'm 98% sure I haven't lost a Heron in any of my games, so it seems decent in AI hands. Even when they dive right into the thick of things


Basically, I don't pay attention to it and it doesn't die, so I find it's okay. That said, if you micro your carriers out of the battle and don't need a ship that can eat shots for you without dying, then two Condors have way more firepower and cost less to run.

2732

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 16, 2015, 07:39:18 PM »

Ah, you know, I forgot to increase their flight time to match the reduced speed, so their effective range is now a bit lower - down to 7000 from 10000. Same flight duration, though.

Corrected value should be 80, right? 40 -> 80?

Right, sorry - thanks for pointing it out. So yeah, Pilum range is 5000, though the AI will still launch them at 10k. Ugh, but probably not hotfix-hotfix worthy.

Hotfixed it on my end easily enough, so no problem.

2733

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 16, 2015, 07:28:32 PM »

Ah, you know, I forgot to increase their flight time to match the reduced speed, so their effective range is now a bit lower - down to 7000 from 10000. Same flight duration, though.

Corrected value should be 80, right? 40 -> 80?

2734

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 16, 2015, 05:16:42 PM »

Observations on Pilum nerf:

Fleet actions still seem to play out about the same. As they should, IMO.

In pursuit, Pilums are now nearly useless for catching things. Not saying that is good or bad, it just is.

Conquest with Augmented Engines, 75 0-flux speed boost from skills, the help of maneuvering jets, and with high readiness can now outrun Pilums. I'm not sure if that is acceptable or not. It does have the awesome side effect of a high-skill Conquest with four Pilum launchers riding into battle in front of a horde of missiles.

Edit: Friendly fire from massed Pilums might have been increased by this nerf, especially during pursuits. Will conduct further testing to see if this result holds up.

Edit2: Pilums definitely seem to be running out of fuel sooner or something...

2735

General Discussion / Re: How do you beat 300k - 400k bounties? (Starsector+)

« on: February 15, 2015, 08:06:29 AM »

Ah, does vanilla max out at 260K?

2736

General Discussion / Re: How do you beat 300k - 400k bounties? (Starsector+)

« on: February 15, 2015, 07:40:55 AM »

I'm level 51 and still haven't seen a 300k+ bounty I've been blowing up bounties left and right, but the game keeps spawning 100k fleets and a few 200k fleets.

2737

Suggestions / Re: Option to Remove or Tone Down Big Ship Explosion "Lense Flare"

« on: February 14, 2015, 09:56:27 AM »

A bigger problem is that the big effects like that are displayed above the UI. The UI should always be on top.

2738

Bug Reports & Support / Infinite Supplies required to Repair at Station

« on: February 14, 2015, 07:14:18 AM »

Argh, not 100% sure of the cause, and I was stupid and didn't save. Oh well.

I had just engaged an enemy fleet, and a couple of my frigates had been disabled during the battle. They all were repaired afterwards, but one of them was left with 0 crew. When I got to the station, I couldn't click the repair button "because I didn't have enough supplies". The value it listed as required was ~2 million and some, which IIRC is the maximum value for an int.

Buying enough crew solved the problem.

If I run into it again I will try to remember to save and upload it.

2739

Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Re: The Lore Corner

« on: February 14, 2015, 06:56:36 AM »

An interesting entry found in reports.csv

summary: Diktat security forces have captured terrorist leaders attempting to flee Sindria. Officials have stated that after they are intergated by Diktat Intelligence there will be a swift trial and public execution.
[...]
implementation notes: Like a Cardassian novel, everyone arrested in Sindria is guilty - the only question remains: of what?

Time to argue it down to a non-moving violation.

2740

Suggestions / Zoomable Selection Slider

« on: February 14, 2015, 06:29:42 AM »

I've seen some people state how they don't like the slider for selecting amounts of cargo. I know I've seen complaints about it being not precise enough, and I think I've seen some about it not allowing more than 1000 to be selected at a time.

On my part, I like the slider, but I can see that the two criticisms above are completely valid. There have been plenty of suggestions to add a number input box and other similar solutions, so I won't go into that.



Instead, it just occurred to me while I was playing that using the scroll wheel to dynamically change the granularity of the slider while it is in use would be a fantastic way to solve the precision problems.

What I mean by the above is: say you want to get 1902 fuel exactly.

As it is now, you shift click, hold, grab 1,000, and move it to your inventory. Then you do that again, except you fiddle with it a bit to get exactly 902. Two sliders and you really had to fiddle with one (or otherwise click even more) to get the exact number you wanted.

With my idea, you would shift click, hold, then zoom the mouse wheel out one. This causes the slider to go from 0-1,000 to 0-10,000 (each little spot on the slider would then change to be worth 10 or 100 or whatever instead of one). You now slide out to around 1,950 or so and zoom back in twice. Now the slider shows from 1,900 to 2,000 (10,000 -> 1,000 -> 100, keeping your place). You should now be able to easily pick 1,902. If not, you can always get it about there and zoom to the 10s (1,900 to 1,910).

One click, a few scrolls, and you easily have the number you wanted.

2741

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 13, 2015, 02:30:31 PM »

It doesn't have to be that way.

2742

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 13, 2015, 01:33:44 PM »

I think the campaign should go towards the long-term stuff, while the missions should generally focus on hop-in-and-play type action.

I believe we can please both sides. Many of us see ways that the game can become more long-term oriented, and SS+ shows that you can even go really arcade-y with its arcade mission. We can have both; they can coexist.

2743

Suggestions / Re: Hyperspace Terrain Suggestion Thread

« on: February 13, 2015, 01:04:26 PM »

So I decided to illustrate what I mean by these hyperspace terrains by using some maps. Ignore any inconsistencies between the maps, my drawing/MSPaint skills are weak.

To fit these maps together I'll tell a little story about a freshly-minted frigate captain. This is mainly about hyperspace terrain, anything else is so the story will fit together.

First, let's go over the map:

Spoiler

This is what the map really looks like:



-The grey areas are "normal" hyperspace.
-The black areas are "deep" hyperspace.
-Pink is hyperspace nebulas.
-Red is unstable hyperspace.
-The big white-outlined areas are highways.
-Yellow is obviously stars.
-Blue dots are jump points: for the purposes of my sanity, all jump points in normal hyperspace are like what we have now (gas giants, stable wormholes, star-orbiting stuff), while the ones in deep hyperspace connect to other jump points in deep hyperspace.
-The big blue lines are Sector Shields.
-Purple is nebula, too, I just decided I didn't want to use purple and didn't feel like editing it out.

The solar system on the right will be referred to as System A, the one in the top left as System B, and the one off-screen to the bottom left is System C.

Below is the same map showing connections between deep space jump points:

[close]

Now to begin the story:

Spoiler

At the beginning, our captain doesn't know much about the universe. He is starting in System A, and basic map data put on all ships shows exactly where Systems B and C are relative to System A, the general area of normal hyperspace around them, and the general layout of highways between them, but details are lacking. Since he is starting in System A, he knows the immediate area around the star system.

-Light grey is unexplored space. Exploring is boring if you already know all the secret paths

[close]

Then:

Spoiler

Perhaps a merchant or mercenary captain takes pity on our very green captain. In any case, our captain acquires map data about System B, the highway between Systems A and B, and the other highway leading away from System A to somewhere off-screen. He may also have gotten data about the place that highway goes, but that is irrelevant.

He also learned that there is a trade route between System B and System C, but he didn't get any map data on that.

[close]

Now that our captain has some info:

Spoiler

He decides to do some exploring around System B. He travels along the highway and then sets out to the "south" with his transponder off to avoid pirates. Avoiding scattered bits of unstable hyperspace, he spots a medium sized Hegemony fleet loitering around a jump point.
As he approaches, a small fleet of merchants emerges from the jump point and heads in the direction of System B. Moments after the merchants get close enough to spot him, a Hegemony fast picket group powers up their engines, suddenly appearing on sensors, and hails him. After he convinces them he's not a pirate scout and they assure him it's safer to run his transponder in this area, he approaches the jump point.

The jump point is a small one, and still unstable from the merchant fleet's transit. The fleet guarding it hails our captain and informs him of the price of the security toll to use the jump point.

Our captain asks about the jump point and learns that the other end of it is only a short distance farther south, but there are lots of nebulae and unstable hyperspace between the two. It is possible that one or two ships with a crafty navigator could find a path through the mess, but for most fleets the toll to use the jump point is a much more economical option. Going around is, of course, possible, but it is far and those areas aren't patrolled.

[close]

Returning to System B:

Spoiler

Not interested in paying a toll to travel to System C at the moment, our captain travels back to System B. After a short time, he notices that a ship has turned off its transponder and seems to be sneaking off towards the northwest. Turning off his own transponder and being very careful, our captain follows the smuggler.

They travel into an area of nebulae and unstable hyperspace, where most honest captains wouldn't roam. Too easy to be ambushed. But no ambush appears, and our captain watches as the smuggler vanishes through an uncharted jump point. After waiting a while, he follows.

After making the jump and reestablishing navigation, our captain realizes he is back near System A. After sailing a bit of distance through some small nebulae, he finds himself safely back behind the Sector Shields of System A, although the smuggler is long gone.

[close]

And hopefully now we have a better idea of what hyperspace terrain might be like.

I didn't touch upon black holes or asteroid/debris/whatever fields because I didn't feel like trying to deal with them.

Currently traveling in hyperspace is just click and walk off for five minutes till you get there. Unfortunately, we don't have Mount and Blade's cliffs, mountains, and seas to control movement or villages, castles, and towns to wander around in and admire, so we have to make travel interesting in some other way. I think making hyperspace be more about the journey than the destination is the way Alex should take.


In my opinion, an empty hyperspace is a boring hyperspace.

2744

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.65.2a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: February 13, 2015, 04:55:56 AM »

2014 called, they want their strategy back.

2745

Suggestions / Re: System map and navigation thoughts

« on: February 12, 2015, 05:29:25 PM »

If burn speed had an effect on visibility or whatever, then the simplest way to allow easy control over it in the UI would be to make the current Burn speed UI interactable. Just click, drag, etc. to pick what speed you want. Want to go 2? Click on the second bar.