Jump in now.
Skill changes will likely take a very long time to be implemented. Updates to this game are glacial in their release schedule.
The Galatia questline has been implemented. I follow it in this playthrough:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDjE6j_BlALgg6qIFYopsKgnRLgmluxfx
The majority of the game has been implemented.
Colonies lack the ability to order their fleets, but that is really about it. Think of them as money printing presses that you should start founding around mid-game.
The End Game has been alluded to with something that hangs out near two mega structures at the edges of the sector.
Hint: Your regular fleet is screwed the moment you run into them, but they'll let you run away.
The game's core system has always been its in-game combat. Pretty much everything is secondary to that.
You generally make money either through:
- Bounties
- Colonies
- Smuggling
- Transport missions
For colonies, you need to build Heavy Industry and upgrade it into an Orbital Starworks, which makes starships.
For guides on how to loadout ships, I have some builds you can try out here:
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=22491.msg338392#msg338392
There are also multiple ways to play the game.
- Want to be a brawler? Low-Tech ships!
- Want to kill everything with overwhelming firepower? Mid-Line Ships!
- Want to use fancy ships with the best special abilities? High-Tech!
- Want to be a Sneaky Boi? Phase ships!
- Want to be a religious terrorist? Pather commission!
- Want to be a bloody pirate and have everyone hate you? Pirate commission!
- Want to be a corporate douchebag? Tri-Tachyon has your commission papers at HR.
- Want to be part of the organization that is doing its damnedest to keep humanity from falling apart and dying in the sector? The Hegemony wants YOU! COMMISSION TODAY!
You're looking to spend 60-100 hours to hit end game depending on what you do before that.
Since you can respec your skills and basically pivot into whatever you want, you don't have to start a new playthrough to do something different.
The downside to jumping in now is that after 100 or so hours, you probably won't have much else to do in-game beyond farming Alpha Cores and founding new colonies with them. You'll probably have the entire sector mapped by the 200 hour point, if not far earlier.
Thanks for all the info. I can't say I understand much of it at this point, though I have bookmarked your playthrough and will start watching and learning today. Thanks for all the tips! They will all make more sense once I have a better understanding of the game.
I assume there's a decent tutorial to help someone new get started?
Oh, I have your ship builds bookmarked as well. That will give me a good start. Thanks!
Two more questions...
In the videos I've seen so far, the enemy ships explode when destroyed. Do yours explode and are lost forever as well, or do you get them back is an extremely damaged, but repairable state?
Is there a way to slow combat as it appears you can slow the game when traveling around? When I watch combat on YouTube I find there is so much going on that it's very hard to keep up. At those speeds I feel I wouldn't know if my ships performed well or not or what tweaks I would need to make. Thanks!
