Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Clockwork Owl]

Can we drop the station from orbit to devastate the planet below
Jokes aside, will we be able to build our battlestations?

[TheEndstoneGolem]

ALEX!!!!

THIS LOOKS AMAZING.

Artwork, mechanics and the thought that's gone into the past 6 months of development looks brilliant.

Couple of questions:

1. Will other factions be able to establish outposts, or is this really involved in terms of coding for AI.
If so, could surveying planets and then selling on the data create interest in the planet (e.g. a planet with rich volatile deposits and Class IV Survey data would encourage the Hegemony to setup an outpost there?)

2. Will there be a way to 'secure' AI cores. In the case of Alphas, remove certain autonomy from them at the expense of some of their benefits to reduce the chances of them going rogue? OR is the tech to complex to cha... *goes into how Domain tech is too advanced for current sector scientists and other lore related thingies*

3. Will comms and intel be changed in anyway? For example can the player setup their own comm relays to provide communication for outposts in the far reaches of the sector? Or taking more CivilisationV-esque, in the far future of Starsector, can we deploy agents/diplomats into markets of other factions to get live intel on certain things, such as Invasion fleets etc.

4. I'm assuming that outposts are in the form of colonies on the surface of planets or am I wrong. Following on from the above post, can we construct shipyards and the like and orbital dockyards for extreme resource cost? Or are they simply too bug and too complex such that they would take a few cycles to build.

Thanks Alex, you da best

[Alex]

And i don't understand what different between colony and outpost

Nothing, really - early on, I was calling these "outposts", but all things considered, I think it makes more sense to call them "colonies" now. So, switching to doing that, but will certainly slip and say "outposts" instead now and again

Can we drop the station from orbit to devastate the planet below
Jokes aside, will we be able to build our battlestations?

No comment

(But probably.)



@TheEndstoneGolem: thank you, glad you like how it's shaping up

1. Will other factions be able to establish outposts, or is this really involved in terms of coding for AI.
If so, could surveying planets and then selling on the data create interest in the planet (e.g. a planet with rich volatile deposits and Class IV Survey data would encourage the Hegemony to setup an outpost there?)

Probably not - I could see this happening as a one-off "special event", maybe, but I don't want to have factions acting as if they were playing a 4x game, actively colonzing and so on. This is more about the player carving out their spot.

2. Will there be a way to 'secure' AI cores.

I wouldn't imagine so. The uncertainty about whether something might happen (and what, if it does) is part of the charm of using AI cores.

3. Will comms and intel be changed in anyway?

Probably, but I can't speak as to exactly how right now - still undecided on some points.

4. I'm assuming that outposts are in the form of colonies on the surface of planets or am I wrong. Following on from the above post, can we construct shipyards and the like and orbital dockyards for extreme resource cost? Or are they simply too bug and too complex such that they would take a few cycles to build.

(See above re: outposts vs colonies.) As far as shipyards and such - yeah, you'll be able to construct them. The cost and time to do that are up in the air, pending actual playtesting.

[TheEndstoneGolem]

@TheEndstoneGolem: thank you, glad you like how it's shaping up

No, thank you!

Probably not - I could see this happening as a one-off "special event", maybe, but I don't want to have factions acting as if they were playing a 4x game, actively colonzing and so on. This is more about the player carving out their spot.

I guess that makes sense, plus Nexelerin will likely pick up on it too so that we have the choice as I imagine this would be fairly CPU-heavy .

I wouldn't imagine so. The uncertainty about whether something might happen (and what, if it does) is part of the charm of using AI cores.

D:

Probably, but I can't speak as to exactly how right now - still undecided on some points.

Can't speak because teasing or just generally unsure as to which direction to head in with them?

(See above re: outposts vs colonies.) As far as shipyards and such - yeah, you'll be able to construct them. The cost and time to do that are up in the air, pending actual playtesting.

Will you be able to customise what they produce? Or is it again something to be found in settings and files and things.

[Alex]

Can't speak because teasing or just generally unsure as to which direction to head in with them?

There's really no "sure" until something is done, and even then it can change, so I try to avoid talking about things until I have what feels like a reasonable degree of certainty. It's too easy to get excited about speculative things, and I really don't want someone getting excited about something that might not happen. I mean, ultimately a lot of things I present will change anyway, but I still want to keep that to a minimum.

(The flipside is if someone *doesn't* like a potential approach, and in that case a likely discussion about it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but would probably happen anyway...)

So, basically: I know roughly what direction I want to take it in. I don't know whether it will work out when, as they say, the rubber meets the road.

Will you be able to customise what they produce?

Yes, to some degree.

[TheEndstoneGolem]

Yes, to some degree.

Oh man the troll capabilities in a multiplayer version would be endless xD.
Seriously though this is cool.

In regards to shipyard production customisation, will this also include (in the future) overall fleet customisation? Or does fleet composition depend from colony to colony which I guess makes more sense because a colony could only field what it produces. I'll bet the 'to some degree' is hinting at the fact it'll be Low, Mid, High tech choices with those choices affecting production time and resources consumed? For example, an Enforcer will require a lot more metal than a Medusa but takes less time to build?

There's really no "sure" until something is done, and even then it can change, so I try to avoid talking about things until I have what feels like a reasonable degree of certainty. It's too easy to get excited about speculative things, and I really don't want someone getting excited about something that might not happen. I mean, ultimately a lot of things I present will change anyway, but I still want to keep that to a minimum.

(The flipside is if someone *doesn't* like a potential approach, and in that case a likely discussion about it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but would probably happen anyway...)

So, basically: I know roughly what direction I want to take it in. I don't know whether it will work out when, as they say, the rubber meets the road.

Yeah I guess this makes sense, especially seeing as it is going to become a more important game mechanic?

Oh man I'm so excited.
I don't want to ask the question, but I have to....

Current progress towards next release? :3
I'm gonna guess 6-9 months, which I'm totally fine with, still need to explore the rest of these proc-gen worlds!

[Alex]

In regards to shipyard production customisation, will this also include (in the future) overall fleet customisation?

To some extent

I don't want to ask the question, but I have to....

Current progress towards next release? :3

Haha, take everything I said about not wanting to talk about features prematurely, and multiply it by 10 million.

[Scar]

This has probably been explored already, but what if...

What if officers could gain all skills, and not just the combat ones? This way, a combat player could settle with slightly less powerful officers that take care of the "macro" buffs. One could even keep non-combat officers, for the salvage skills and such, at the trade-off of other officer skills.

[TaLaR]

This has probably been explored already, but what if...

What if officers could gain all skills, and not just the combat ones? This way, a combat player could settle with slightly less powerful officers that take care of the "macro" buffs. One could even keep non-combat officers, for the salvage skills and such, at the trade-off of other officer skills.

Unless single non-combat skill on officer costs like 10 or more combat ones, offloading your non-combat skills to officers is a no-brainer.
Since you can get 2 extra officers per player skill point, officers have to be truly abysmal at non-combat skills to make me consider having them on main character under such system.

[Megas]

What if officers could gain all skills, and not just the combat ones? This way, a combat player could settle with slightly less powerful officers that take care of the "macro" buffs. One could even keep non-combat officers, for the salvage skills and such, at the trade-off of other officer skills.

It would make Officer Management the no-brainer must-have skill, much like Loadout Design 3 and Electronic Warfare 1 are today.  One point for two officers?  That is like spending one point for a net gain of up to thirty-nine more points.

On the other hand, it would certainly fix the "must play force-multiplier buffer/cleric/bard to get the most power" problem.  Currently, Combat is weak enough that it is best to outsource that to officers while you focus on things officers cannot have.

[xenoargh]

Unless you got to pick their skills, this would be pretty useless; if they were distributed randomly like they are now, you'd have tons of Officers you'd have to dismiss, frankly, because they'd get useless skill lines.  Not to mention that staying in the current 20-level cap would mean the vast majority of them would become one-trick-ponies.

I think it'd be best if we had a Mount and Blade-styled system, where the player has complete control over where their stuff gets allocated when they level up and the highest level of <party-wide thing> gets used, if that's how it would work; then we could build our Bards and Clerics with reasonable allocations; one Officer might get a single Industry 3 skill and Combat / Tech, another might get one fleetwide Carrier buff as well as the personal Carrier skills, and so forth.

But, without the ability to direct that, other than saying, "nah, not that <insert terrible random thing>" it'd be untenable, imo; your distributions would be hugely capricious and you'd be dismissing anybody who didn't fit the desired patterns constantly.  It would be very unpleasant micromanagement; kind of like getting the best-possible soldiers in XCOM by hiring 20 and firing 19 (after carefully labeling the lucky 20th) was.

[Megas]

Unless you got to pick their skills

You can with save-scumming, unless officer already knows a carrier skill and there are more left, such that there is always a carrier skill to pick (which is why I do not let my generalist officers learn carrier skills until level 16, when I want to choose only some carrier skills instead of all - to avoid junk carrier perks).  Level up officer, and if the next level-up has something I want, save.  If not, reload and try again.  Repeat for every level.  Scumming like this gets annoying, and I sometimes do not bother leveling up officers due to the hassle, but it is faster than leveling then firing and replacing officers.

Selecting skills for officers like players do for themselves (within the officers' subset) would be much nicer and eliminating the hassle of save-scumming.

[Drokkath]

Selecting skills for officers like players do for themselves (within the officers' subset) would be much nicer and eliminating the hassle of save-scumming.

Aye, indeed. That's pretty much why I haven't bothered with officers that much just yet because of the lack of control over where their skills go. So yeah, I'm in strong agreement with having a screen/sub-screen where to allocate their skills.

[Scar]

On the officer skills building: we could rewrite it like this. Suppose at each level officers get to pick one of five options (since they now have a much wider array of possible skills). If they already have any skills of a particular aptitude, then they are guaranteed a skill of that aptitude. Then, to fix officer firing and rehiring, maybe allowing to leave them in storage like ships, and have them not count towards the limit, would be useful.

[Embercloud]

Will it be possible to alter the appearance of your ships?

For instance, the wolf exists in various different sprites (TT, hegemony, neutral, damaged to various degrees and pirate)

Will you be able to swap between these or alter the appearance of your ship sprites somehow?

A color variable area on ships would be nice so that you can change the color by a palette