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31

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: December 14, 2021, 10:38:28 PM »

Anyone else finding that arms dealers are still kind of meh; I've only gotten 5 in my playthrough so far and they've all offered rather subpar purchases. And by the time I was able to find one that actually contained a Medusa - I had already found and bought a medusa from the black market rendering the arms dealer purposeless.

Maybe a solution should be that arms dealers should be like any other type of contacts that you can develop and hold on to. This way, there's a more consistent way of accessing high-end gear without having to search the whole inner core for it.

I got lucky and got the Illegal arms merchant @ 200% markup with up to 1,000,000 credit worth of production when I happened to have cash (I swear they pop up more often when you are broke!), so bought 3 Apogee's.  On another note Apogee's seem super rare; I don't think I've ever seen one on the market or elsewhere (so it was very fortuitous that the illegal arms merchant happened to be selling production slots and providing the blueprints as I still haven't ever seen any yet).

I do like the idea of having an illegal arms contact (though I haven't been using contacts at all in this play through), though it may end up making your own Heavy Industries a little redundant as 200% markup is still better than not being in possession of a desired blueprint.

32

General Discussion / Re: Shipping Disruption between two very close colonies

« on: December 14, 2021, 09:30:49 PM »

As I understood it, shipping disruptions could come from even exports and imports: IE - a merchant fleet going outbound to another faction planet gets destroyed or a Hegemony merchant fleet heading in-bound to your own planet gets destroyed. Perhaps that's what is happening to the OP where an export fleet got blown up.

The needs are met by local production (Kalico transporting the goods to Rin), but I wouldn't mind if it functioned as you suggested; just as long as the first stop they make on their outbound journey is the closest one (whether your own colony or another one).  Might even be interesting if there were escort options that can be set per industry where you can divert some of your system security patrols to escorting important (profitable!) goods to their targets safely, or make sure critical imports also arrive.

I would of been ok if perhaps the cause was a large pirate force happened to drop in on Kalico (it is a strong enough gravity well I believe), and destroyed the merchant fleet before it could reach it's target (though it is a VERY small distance), and to be fair my patrols aren't particularly strong yet even with the concentrated fire power of 3 stations in such a small area, but having a malus on my colony just because kind of seems a bit rubbish.

To be fair though I'm struggling to get money and was only just scraping by at around 15k credits a month, but this disruption dropped it to -27k credits when I have less then a 1/4 million in credits, so it really does hurt my finances...and there doesn't seem to be a good way of handling it? (I'm still open to other ideas!).

33

General Discussion / Re: Shipping Disruption between two very close colonies

« on: December 14, 2021, 07:59:53 PM »

Two Colonies have Patrol HQ while the 3rd is being upgraded to High Command (though it doesn't look like this has influence on the amount of ships, which for some strange reason I thought it did).

I'm not fond of this mechanic if that is the case; I kind of thought I did well selecting the location to minimize intra-colony trade being disrupted, but it's kind of disappointing if location has no bearing on a factor beyond your control.

I suppose there isn't a way to reduce this? does Star base/Patrol HQ/Heavy Batteries have any influence? (If I could find the source of the pirate activity I would be quite keen on dishing out some vengeance, but I can't get any leads at the bars on all three colonies).

34

General Discussion / Shipping Disruption between two very close colonies

« on: December 14, 2021, 07:40:39 PM »

Does shipping disruption actually require the ships carrying the goods to be destroyed or is it something that happens from pirate activity in general?

I have two very close colonies (Gas giant and the moon orbiting it) and somehow I'm getting shipping disruption (Heavy Machinery & Supplies) between my colonies.

Edit:
Whoops uploaded the picture again as it was between Kalico and Rin which are even closer.  Seems like the necessary Supplies & Heavy Machinery are supplied by Kalico alone (5 Heavy Machinery & 5 Supplies while Rin requires 2 Heavy Machinery & 5 Supplies).

[attachment deleted by admin]

35

Suggestions / Re: Officer XP gain

« on: December 14, 2021, 03:55:20 PM »

I've found the Officer XP gain to be actually alright, as I'm more invested in my officers (though I admit early leveling seems a bit slow).  What I'm not liking is that I now find myself back to pre-0.95a where some level up skills (even with mentoring) are just no good, especially painful on reaching level 6 and not getting that one key skill I want.  I now check my officer level progression and make a save so that I can re-roll the skill picks after a battle to get what I want since I've already invested a lot of time getting them there and I'm not going to chuck out my officer and start again with how much slower level progression is.

@Megas
I normally don't do many bounty hunting missions, mostly focusing on those quests through Galatia academy (the easy nearby ones, as unfortunately Alviss can send you pretty far away for not much extra cash) and freight quests though I did dabble in a few base extraction and sabotage missions (marines are useful for keeping that extra negotiation cash Alviss gives me, so I did stock up in marines, mostly through the bar since I didn't realize until now that a lot of them have a higher experience level compared to stock), perhaps that might also explain why I didn't have such a problem with the level progression of the officers.

Still I did do some of the bounty missions (I ran out of cash while trying to set up my colonies) and I've found the Industry tree extremely good for mitigating losses.  I am less concerned with losing half my fleet now (that usually means that I'll be getting a decent amount of experience for my officers ) since I have yet to be in a situation where I can't recover a lost ship and almost always (probably thanks to Hull Restoration), without d-mods (though if I do get them they seem to come in pairs so far).  My s-modded Hyperion's are a good example of a ship that doesn't cost much to lose, since of the 4 crew lost, 3 are recovered and usually a standard recovery is all that is needed to get the ship back (and as mentioned before almost always without d-mods).

Also with regards to the kinetic type weapons, I found the small needlers to be exceptionally rare (perhaps I just happen to miss the correct colony selling them before their stock refreshes?).  I recently got lucky and came across 5 on the black market between two colonies, though I had only two up until that point, and had already set up two of my colonies.

36

Bug Reports & Support / Re: 0.95.1a RC5 - No one week wait for quest after dropping off Scylla Coureuse

« on: December 13, 2021, 07:10:35 AM »

I read it somewhat correctly (yay!), thanks for the explanation

37

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: December 13, 2021, 05:01:43 AM »

I noticed that it was possible to pick up more additional crew then I have capacity for while out exploring.  It seems a lot of the time I don't normally exceed my crew capacity with new crew I find, but there was one instance where I found another 39 additional Marines while already full and had to head back to civilization to drop some off (sure I could air lock them, but that seems a tad harsh).  If this is intended just ignore this, it just appeared to me that when I get additional crew while near capacity it tends to fill it up, not normally exceed it.

On a related note, the penalty seems pretty harsh.  From memory (so some details may not be quite right) my entire fleet with ~800 crew was only consuming ~1.8 supplies/month while those additional 39 personnel were consuming 3.9 supplies/month.  I'm wondering whether something like an "Emergency Berthing" hull-mod could be set up while in deep space to deal with these situations; even if it was only half as effective and the 50% maintenance penalty applied to any ship it was installed on I think it would still be preferable to the massive drain in supplies for being slightly over crew capacity.

38

Bug Reports & Support / 0.95.1a RC5 - No one week wait for quest after dropping off Scylla Coureuse

« on: December 13, 2021, 02:47:06 AM »

I think I noticed this on 0.95a, but thought perhaps something else was triggering it....or maybe it was intended.

So there is no need to wait one week as the conversation with Baird indicated after ferrying Scylla Coureuse back to Galatia Academy.  Once I exit the station I can go back immediately and start the next part of the quest without needing to wait the 1 week.

I made a backup save just in case (and can send it if you need it), just fly over to the station; hand Coureuse over to Baird and then at the end of the conversation with Baird exit the station and immediately dock again to start the next part of the quest.

(I often make mistakes with my understanding of the dialogue, so if this is intended and I misread something, sorry about that!)

39

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: December 11, 2021, 09:37:27 PM »

Oh, realized that I never replied here! Basically the idea is you press F if you want to stick with one quick for a while, and if you want to rapidly switch between feeds, you can press-release Q (while left-clicking different ships) to get an overview of the battlefield quickly. I'm not a fan of F cycling since it's near impossible to know which ship it's going to jump to next, and you can't go back if you overshoot, so it's just clunky.

I think I'm still getting used to it, so perhaps I'll come to prefer this method over time.  Thanks for responding to that reply as well!

Just a thought, what about omitting the need to left-click different ships from the command map; just mouse over the ship you want to look at and press "Q" ?  (You could still use the left-click to set a default feed when you aren't moused over any other ship).

40

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: December 11, 2021, 09:14:20 PM »

Really like the Mission Map that is provided prior to accepting a mission.  Especially useful for some of the Galatia Academy missions where you can see the mission location (sure you could look up the star system to find it before accepting it, but having a map is so much better).

I noticed though that it doesn't seem to work for the Technology Cache mission where you need to mail the scientist the Alpha core (I think that was a one off mission wasn't it?).

41

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95.1a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: December 11, 2021, 04:24:32 PM »

Many thanks for the new release, was not expecting it so suddenly!

I've only just begun my game so I'm still in the tutorial, but I noticed the changes in the video feed.  My initial impression was confusion as to why "F" was toggling on and off the view feed instead of cycling between ships, only to remember that I forgot about the changes to the video feed in the patch notes. It seems I need to go into the command map, select the ship and then press "Q" to get a video feed.  It doesn't seem too bad, but it is a bit slower to switch between ships since you seem to need to go back into the command map then select the ship, rather then just pressing "F" as before (maybe there is another way I'm not aware of that will cycle the feed without jumping back to the command map?).

Would you perhaps consider allowing "F" to work as before but only while "Q" is pressed, ie "Q"(HELD)+"F" will switch between the ships in the video feed without having to exit back to the command map (for reverse cycling maybe something like "Q"(HELD)+"SHIFT"+"F"?).

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun here a little since I've only just started and these changes were necessary for that new neural link skill that I'll probably be some time from testing (perhaps I'll see later that what I'm suggesting won't work with that?).

42

Bug Reports & Support / Re: Early venting on AI Paragon against AI Onslaught in simulator

« on: December 07, 2021, 05:14:53 PM »

Thanks for the feedback and explanation there,

Just out of curiosity; does this behaviour also take into account potential crew losses as well as the current armour and hull?  I normally have blast doors installed, so the hull needs to take a bit of damage even for a fairly big crew on the Paragon, but I'm wondering if without blast doors it would be more particular with taking armour damage.

43

Bug Reports & Support / Early venting on AI Paragon against AI Onslaught in simulator

« on: December 07, 2021, 04:20:03 PM »

I'm not sure if It is worth reporting, but it just seemed a little odd that a Paragon build I had would vent prematurely taking a decent amount of Thermal Pulse Canon shots without having any need to do so.

I'm sending the save in question so you can check it out (with the same title).  The Paragon I tested is the only one in the fleet (ISS Agelaus); just run the simulation with the SIM Tonatiuh Onslaught to hopefully see the same odd behaviour I'm seeing (I think you will see this behaviour with other ships, but this one I tested myself to see the odd behaviour).

44

Suggestions / Re: Buff the Venture to make it a good option for a low-tech exploration ship

« on: December 07, 2021, 02:43:44 PM »

dont forget that the apogee is acutally a very good cruiser ship too, with immense firepower via missiles and plasma cannons, and shields able to tank station fire

Yeah, that is pretty much how I used them later in the game (I have changed the front weapon a few times, and settled on Tachyon Lances the last two games; though the missiles are almost always Locusts), though I'm finding that they can struggle a bit later in the game.  It may be a combination of changes to the way I build them; I previously used Hardened shields on them, but now have gone with logistics only s-mods to give it better cargo capacity and fuel storage.  Possibly not a factor, is the shield efficiency dropping from 0.6 to 0.7 (Though I really liked the reduction in logistics cost due to the deployment reduction that came with this, so it wasn't really a loss).

Regardless they are an awesome ship and I can't bring myself to scrap one if I find a broken down one out exploring, even late game where I can build them brand new.

45

Suggestions / Re: Buff the Venture to make it a good option for a low-tech exploration ship

« on: December 05, 2021, 08:44:27 PM »

The Apogee is a fair comparison! And it doesn't mean that the Venture can't be a ship that's more geared towards some aspects of exploration. I just mean, if you take the Venture too far in terms of providing logistics/campaign bonuses that are comparable to the ones provided by dedicated logistics ships that provide zero real combat usefulness, then that's definitely going too far. Like the Apogee, it's a hybrid ship that's meant to do both, a bit worse than dedicated ships do either.

I figured 400 units capacity wouldn't be too bad (given it's higher fuel consumption) and there would still be a need for other logistics ships, though I guess this would make the Dram not that useful when paired with the Venture as opposed to the Apogee; so I guess I would probably skip the Dram and get something more efficient like the Phaeton with that additional capacity if I was flying a Venture.  Could you possibly have a figure in mind of how much you might consider increasing the fuel capacity (if you were going to increase it)?

I'll just chime in and say that I don't use Ventures exclusively because of its slow burn speed. If it were bumped to 8, with no other changes, I wouldn't mind it in a early-game fleet setting. I'd never pilot the thing but as an anchor, I could get behind its inclusion.

Logistic buffs would be gravy. As the Low-Tech/Cheap exploration option, I think it should have greater cargo capacity vs. the Apogee. It just seems more utilitarian and focused for that kind of role. Fuel maybe not so much. Keeping it Civilian is fair but if it starts at Burn 8, that bumps it to 9 and for it to be faster than the Apogee seems...weird. To be honest, I always felt the Apogee should be burn 9 as a sleek, ultra-efficient exploration ship. Without all the bells and whistles of the Apogee, a Venture would still work as a Cruiser-sized Mule and I think that's a role that's needed.

Apogee at speed 9...hmmm, as I may have it wrong but with slow mode is the speed halved and rounded up or down?  I normally add Augmented Drives to my Apogee's so having 11 speed isn't really faster with sustained burn, but if I could get my silent/slow movement bumped up to 9 with the "sensors" skill, this would be a nice boost in speed for crawling around remnant infested systems, placing spy satellite packages or smuggling....in any case an Apogee buff would be completely unneeded (in my opinion) but very welcome

Militarized subsystems is a free hull-mod at the start of the game to boost the speed of the Venture to 8...but I guess that is 15 less OP for the rest of the ship.  To be fair I'm not all that familiar with the Venture, I just looked at and thought that if it was a bit better fuel capacity wise that would make a reasonable deep space explorer; my next step once I'm happy with the logistics would be then to move on to outfitting it for combat; where perhaps I'll understand why it would be better to have it start at the speed of 8 (and not have to waste the additional OP on Militarized subsystems).