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Author Topic: Newbie Here - A Metric Ton of Questions  (Read 2508 times)

Culverin

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Newbie Here - A Metric Ton of Questions
« on: April 07, 2016, 12:14:25 AM »

Newbie Questions

Hi there,
I just bought this a few days ago.
The thing that swayed me was how active these forums were,
and just how active the modding scene was.
In my experience, modders don't spend time on *** games.
And when there are lots of mods, it's a good sign about the quality of the base game and it's a good dev behind it all.

So thus far, I'm realllly enjoying the game.
It's like Star Control 2, Spaz and Drox Operative all rolled into one.
But it seems like another 2 layers of added depth, especially in the ship customization (which I'm loving).

I have a TON of feedback to give via a first impressions perspective (which I presume is probably hard to come by)
Also, a specifically, a lot towards the UI design.
I'll post that in a separate thread. 



I have some questions,
Hope you guys might be able to set me straight?



Is there a quick way to figure out which planets/bases I storage?
And specifically, what equipment/ships is stored where?

Ship Mod,
Turns standard shields into omni (full coverage?),
But what does it mean by reducing the arc?


Before I buy a ship,
Is there a way to tell which weapon mounts cover which arcs?


Peak Active Performance Time,
Is this static based on the ship chassis?
Is there a way to upgrade or modify this?


Where do I figure out how much XP I get from "intelligence"?
Is it from trading?
How can I find out how to get this?




In terms of game progress...

I started off trying to trade,
but couldn't because the contracts were unreasonable.
Almost all were beyond my CR to buy the supplies, and beyond the carrying capacity of my fleet.
The contract requirements just seemed way out of scale.  Am I wrong?

Thus, I resorted to killing some weak pirate fleets.
Was this the right/good way for initial progress?


Eventually I got myself a cruiser, and then upgraded my support carrier to a Heron.
While the fighters "seemed" nice at first with their point defense capabilities, the carrier + fighters just seem squishy and ineffective given the cost of their deployment points.
I had 2 Xyphos wings.
Am I wrong that they don't seem worth their cost?


I'm at like 1.4 million.
I have 2 Onslaught and 1 Atlas, plus my smaller ships.

Delivery contracts that fit my storage size still seem like a miss.
The contracts are for way too few items.
And then most of the time, there's no easy to way to accept the contract, locate the item and still make the 10 day delivery deadline.
Rarely ever is that item located at the current location (in sufficient quantities).

As a result, I'm just going and doing bounties,

Which brings me to the next point.
Deployment points.
I'm a tad confused how these work.  Yes, each ship has a fixed point cost, that's clear.
However, each engagement seems to vary in deployment points available?
How is this determined?
And how do I upgrade this?
It seems like it should be in the skills, but I'm not seeing it?
Seems like the skill tree is used to let us balance our progression paths.
ie.  combat = strength of my ship, tech = strength of fleet ships
Should there be something where I can invest into fleet quantity (same tree as logistics and maintenance?)

So with me only finding it worthwhile to hang out near my 3 friendly systems (where I can sell my salvage),
and trade being hard to find.
Is this it?  Am I at the endgame?

Also, I can only find the Onslaught being sold.
How do I acquire the other capital ships like the Paragon and Conquest?

And finally.
What next?  Is there more to vanilla I should be doing?

And then where should I start exploring with mods?


Thank you guys for your time and patience.
Seems like this is going to be one of my favorite games, ever.
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Auraknight

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Re: Newbie Here - A Metric Ton of Questions
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2016, 02:25:02 AM »

I can't anwser all you're questions, i'm fairly novice myself, but!
[Ship Mod,
Turns standard shields into omni (full coverage?),
But what does it mean by reducing the arc?]
Omnidirectional shield make your shield be able to point in any direction, as opposed to being locked in front of you. The mod trades off how wide forward-facing shields usually are in exchange for letting you point it wherever you damn well please.

[Peak Active Performance Time,
Is this static based on the ship chassis?
Is there a way to upgrade or modify this?]
It's dependant on the ship itself, though there are average numbers for the diffrent classes of ships As for improing it, the only way is with a ship mod, and/or player skills.


[I started off trying to trade,
but couldn't because the contracts were unreasonable.
Almost all were beyond my CR to buy the supplies, and beyond the carrying capacity of my fleet.
The contract requirements just seemed way out of scale.  Am I wrong?]
When you first start off, contracts can be a little.. overwhelming, indeed, but some of the bigger ships can have 500+ cargo capacity, while still being otherwise decent, and if you have a few of them...

[Thus, I resorted to killing some weak pirate fleets.
Was this the right/good way for initial progress?]
I don't like telling people that there's a 'right' way to play, but, being said, unless you want to befriend the pirates, they are more or less there to start you off with fighting, even to the point of having crippled ships (D-class)

[Eventually I got myself a cruiser, and then upgraded my support carrier to a Heron.
While the fighters "seemed" nice at first with their point defense capabilities, the carrier + fighters just seem squishy and ineffective given the cost of their deployment points.
I had 2 Xyphos wings.
Am I wrong that they don't seem worth their cost?]
Big o' can of worms that depend on who you ask. I kinda like xyphos wings, but afaik, the general opinion is with the recent changes, Fighters could use a little more love, balance-wise

[Delivery contracts that fit my storage size still seem like a miss.
The contracts are for way too few items.
And then most of the time, there's no easy to way to accept the contract, locate the item and still make the 10 day delivery deadline.
Rarely ever is that item located at the current location (in sufficient quantities).]
See? now you have the opposite problem! hat's the glory of RNG. Atlas is a bit overkill, but it does get the job done damn well for taking *** from point a to b. As for filling contracts, as I see it, if the stuff they needed was already at the place they where posting the notice, they'd just buy it there for cheaper. I find them most handy for getting rid of loot that I aready have in my inventory, or I'm close to having enough of.

[So with me only finding it worthwhile to hang out near my 3 friendly systems (where I can sell my salvage),
and trade being hard to find.
Is this it?  Am I at the endgame?]
IMO, the 'endgame' is when you're done with the game. Aside from that, you do what i do mostly, even though i feel guilty because there's a whole sector to spend my time fair-er-ing in  ;)
See next anwser for why you should spread your 'wings' a little

[Also, I can only find the Onslaught being sold.
How do I acquire the other capital ships like the Paragon and Conquest?]
Conquest you MIGHT find in the starting sector, but it's unlikely. Since Tri-tach moved shop, the paragon is likewise almost impossible to find in the starting sector. The other regions of space are home to a variety of diffrent groups who sell diffrent things. Indies and dictat are your best bet for Conquest, and tri-tach is your best bet for a Paragon.

[And finally.
What next?  Is there more to vanilla I should be doing?]
Aside from building up, leveling up, and exploreing more of the sector, makeing new friends and foes as you go, (I always try to be friends with everyone, but having a foe really makes the game have more flavour, as it makes that area of space a lot more interesting). If you want to get into more fights, a Commision is a good place to look, though I'm sure you already have one if you can get onslaughts.

[And then where should I start exploring with mods?]
This is really up to personal prefrence, espcially depending on what you want from the game!
The mod I use the most is StarSector+, with all of the subfactions. (Actuially, it's more like Lazylib, and ConsolCommands, but shhhh)
The other that I used, though I think it's still broken with the latest update, was Project ironclad, a TC mod that makes the game fairly diffrent!
And if you want huge replayability, I'd be remiss not to mention Nexerlin, which offers a great deal of risk-like gameplay to Starsector, as well as randomization, and capturing.
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LazyWizard

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Re: Newbie Here - A Metric Ton of Questions
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2016, 02:26:10 AM »

Is there a quick way to figure out which planets/bases I storage?
And specifically, what equipment/ships is stored where?

There's no way to see what is where in vanilla, but it would be possible to mod a feature like this in. I don't know if anyone has modded in a proper list yet, though.

If not, the best option would be to use the FindShip/FindItem commands in the Console Commands mod, but those only work if you know the specific ship/weapon you're looking for, and won't find anything that's stored in the Abandoned Terraforming Platform or any other storage-only station (it works by checking every market in the game's economy, and those stations don't take part).

Quote
Ship Mod,
Turns standard shields into omni (full coverage?),
But what does it mean by reducing the arc?

Omni-shields are the ones that can be pointed at threats, as opposed to standard (frontal) shields which always spread starting from the front of your ship and can't be rotated. The hullmod changes a frontal shield into an omni-shield, but lowers how much of the ship it covers as a penalty.

Quote
Before I buy a ship,
Is there a way to tell which weapon mounts cover which arcs?

Unfortunately not. You can always quicksave before buying and take it for a spin in the refit simulation battles, though.

Quote
Peak Active Performance Time,
Is this static based on the ship chassis?
Is there a way to upgrade or modify this?

It's per hull, yes. You can increase the timer with the Hardened Subsystems hullmod.

Quote
Where do I figure out how much XP I get from "intelligence"?
Is it from trading?
How can I find out how to get this?

I'm afraid I don't know what you're asking here. Where are you seeing intelligence mentioned?

Quote
In terms of game progress...

I started off trying to trade,
but couldn't because the contracts were unreasonable.
Almost all were beyond my CR to buy the supplies, and beyond the carrying capacity of my fleet.
The contract requirements just seemed way out of scale.  Am I wrong?

Normal trading is a trap; avoid it until you have a better handle on how to exploit shortages (which aren't always profitable either). You can make a good profit on the contracts offered at stations, but that's also tricky. I don't personally trade when I play, but as I understand it the timers are short enough and the requested goods so rare that you'll probably fail the mission if there's not already a stash of those trade goods in storage.

Quote
Thus, I resorted to killing some weak pirate fleets.
Was this the right/good way for initial progress?

If there's an active bounty on them, then sure it's a good way to progress. There will always be a bounty on pirates in Corvus (the starting system) when you begin a campaign, so sticking in that system for the month (two months?) the bounty is active can earn you some decent starting cash. Bounty hunting pays very well, so keep an eye on that Intel screen.

I'd recommend avoiding combat if you're low on funds and there's not a bounty involved. Repairs are expensive, and even if you can carry all of the after battle loot you are likely to lose money on supplies unless you're very skilled at combat.

Quote
Eventually I got myself a cruiser, and then upgraded my support carrier to a Heron.
While the fighters "seemed" nice at first with their point defense capabilities, the carrier + fighters just seem squishy and ineffective given the cost of their deployment points.
I had 2 Xyphos wings.
Am I wrong that they don't seem worth their cost?

Fighters have a few benefits: they can pass over other ships, carriers can replace destroyed wing members (up to a limit), and you can't permanently lose them unless you run out of carriers in your fleet (even if said carriers are never deployed). Squadrons don't get the benefits of skills, however, so they fall behind in effectiveness quickly. I rarely use them aside from bombers, which can rearm at carriers after each run for infinite torpedo spam.

Quote
Deployment points.
I'm a tad confused how these work.  Yes, each ship has a fixed point cost, that's clear.
However, each engagement seems to vary in deployment points available?
How is this determined?
And how do I upgrade this?
It seems like it should be in the skills, but I'm not seeing it?

The total deployment points is based on the Battle Size slider in the settings menu. That total is split between both fleets based on their relative size, so with battle size 300 you might have 130 deployment points vs a larger enemy fleet with 170 points.

Quote
Seems like the skill tree is used to let us balance our progression paths.
ie.  combat = strength of my ship, tech = strength of fleet ships
Should there be something where I can invest into fleet quantity (same tree as logistics and maintenance?)

There used to be a logistics system that controlled max fleet size, but it was cut in a recent update due to being overly complicated. Now it's a flat cap of 25 ships of any size in your fleet. If you want a larger fleet you can change this in starsector-core/data/config/settings.json. Just search for "maxShipsInFleet".

Quote
So with me only finding it worthwhile to hang out near my 3 friendly systems (where I can sell my salvage),
and trade being hard to find.
Is this it?  Am I at the endgame?

There's not much of an end-game in vanilla at the moment. If you feel like you've seen everything, you may want to download other mods such as Starsector+ and Nexerelin that expand the campaign gameplay.

Quote
Also, I can only find the Onslaught being sold.
How do I acquire the other capital ships like the Paragon and Conquest?

Ships are sold by the factions that use them. Paragons would be sold by the Tri-Tachyon Corporation, Conquests by (IIRC) the Independents and Sindrian Diktat.

Quote
And finally.
What next?  Is there more to vanilla I should be doing?

And then where should I start exploring with mods?

If you've reached the capital ship phase of the game then you've probably encountered most of the current vanilla content. If you want to jump into the modiverse, there's a list of up-to-date mods here. If that list seems overwhelming I'd suggest checking the list of recommended mods in the Starsector+ thread. All of those are high quality and fairly balanced.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2016, 02:49:19 AM by LazyWizard »
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