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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: My thoughts and impressions  (Read 19900 times)

Blaine

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2018, 12:24:34 PM »

For me, I enjoy playing this game without save-loading at all, as a result, I always go towards owning only high-tech ships with bare minimum med-tech ships.

I'm fond of beam boats myself, but high-tech combat ships (aside from the Wolf and Sunder; even the Wolf is very uncommon) are exceptionally rare to see for sale, at least in my game with a Hegemony commission. Phase ships? Fuhgeddaboudit. I bought the one Shade I've ever seen for sale, and I passed over a Doom because it was on the black market of a world I didn't want to risk destabilizing. Guess I'll have to recover some of those from faction fleets if I ever want to use any.

That said, I also like having a mixed fleet, and wouldn't want to use high-tech ships exclusively.

As for saving and loading, it's quite rare now that I actually feel the need to load. Maybe in a few more playthroughs, I'll try going iron man, although this game is filled with "GOTCHA!" mechanics, so we'll see.

The reason behind this is
1) High-speed travel with relatively low fuel consumption

I have Navigation 3, which helps immensely with travel speed and fuel consumption. It's a good thing, too, since for whatever reason only Sindria is gifted with enough fuel to actually support a large player fleet. With a Hegemony commission, the bigger my fleet has become, the more difficult and annoying it is to find fuel after arriving back in the core systems, even when pulling hundreds/thousands of fuel from late-game salvage and other deep-space sources. It's possible to "steal" Sindrian fuel, but Sindria's one system is probably the most dangerous and heavily-guarded if you happen to be enemies with them.

My main revenue comes from taking bounty jobs and cleaning them with said elite squad of ships. From this, you may see how I find the AI Wolf teammates to fit my playstyle perfectly (they don't die, barely at all with the right equipment) and absolutely kill (lightweight ships) in packs.

I've got two Wolves and a fast-modded Medusa as my "Wolf Pack," each commanded by some of my oldest and best-trained officers, and they do a great job. I do bounties too, but I also couple them with exploration missions that are in the same direction; automated defenses are a turkey shoot compared to bounties even when deploying far fewer ships than the enemy, and yield similar amounts of loot and profit.

Regardless, thanks for your input. I appreciate hearing different perspectives, as they're always helpful in adjusting one's own perspective.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2018, 01:48:38 PM by Blaine »
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FooF

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2018, 05:57:04 PM »

From your descriptions, I still think you're in "mid-game" territory for 0.8. I usually start to lose interest in a particular playthrough when I have a million or more credits banked, most of the ships I "want" or at least an end-game flagship (for me, Aurora is king) plus a few capitals. At that point, no fleets outside of huge faction patrols or REDACTED encounters pose much of a threat. Oh, and I've level capped myself and most of my officers.

There's little carrot-on-a-stick to keep me going at that point. I personally like the larger battles where heavyweights are teeing off on each other but there's something to be said of using a small/medium-sized fleet and going against a larger but less quality fleet. Bounties with multiple cruisers while I only have one+destroyers or a capital while I only have a cruiser is kind of a David v. Goliath match I enjoy. It's knowing you're the underdog but with good positioning and some luck you can come out on top.

I can't wait for 0.9 because the end game will get further pushed out and it sounds like there are some more scenarios/mechanics to keep the momentum going. Eventually we'll see some true end-game content but I'll take anything that makes me more invested in particular run.
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Megas

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #17 on: October 31, 2018, 07:11:12 PM »

I would like to build a self-sufficient empire, then kill everyone in the sector so my empire can rule the sector supreme.

I tend to use few overpowered high-tech ships (like Paragon), and the rest are a smattering of low-tech and midline.
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Blaine

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #18 on: October 31, 2018, 08:53:32 PM »

From your descriptions, I still think you're in "mid-game" territory for 0.8. I usually start to lose interest in a particular playthrough when I have a million or more credits banked, most of the ships I "want" or at least an end-game flagship (for me, Aurora is king) plus a few capitals. At that point, no fleets outside of huge faction patrols or REDACTED encounters pose much of a threat. Oh, and I've level capped myself and most of my officers.

I'd say I'm in the middle to late game, by that yardstick. My fleet looks like this:

Spoiler
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I rely on the carriers to soften up and distract the enemy with fighters and LRMs while I push into the center in the Falcon XIV, escorted by the Centurion for extra insurance. Meanwhile, the frigates and destroyers are usually capturing points, then they harass the flanks or stragglers without much micromanagement. By the time the enemy are in midfield, the carriers tend to arrive in person and provide additional fire support.

I'd love to try out an Aurora, except that I've never seen one anywhere, no doubt a consequence of joining the Hegemony.
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Blaine

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2018, 02:54:48 AM »

I added a couple of Onslaughts to my roster (and maxed out the battle size slider), since the top-end bounties and such now feature titanic ultra-fleets, and soon enough ran into exactly the issue I knew I'd run into: fuel. Its specter has been lurking around for this entire campaign, haunting me, whispering that when it came time to field multiple capitals, this playthrough would pretty much be over.

I haven't run out of fuel yet, but the huge stockpile I'd saved up in anticipation of this is now gone, and it's pretty much inevitable the next time I have to go anywhere. Hegemony space has too little fuel production to support a large fleet, unless perhaps you park almost your entire fleet and run around with tankers from one system to the next grabbing whatever you can get (and hoping you don't run into pirates), but that's an annoying waste of time. Loot and salvage fuel, even in systems stuffed full of automated encounters and such, only helps to put corks in a few of the holes in your tank.

If you're enemies with them, Sindria isn't an option, period. You can't get tankers in there if you're enemies with them, because tankers are slow and huge, and you WILL be caught by patrols. You can't sneak in, because a sneaky small fleet has zip fuel capacity. You can't even fight your way in—I tried, but of course there's a "You've created a disturbance! That's a one-month docking cooldown!" developer hand-slap in place for that.

I guess if I'd known the game mechanics better earlier on, I'd have sneaked lots of AI cores into Sindria to try to get on their good side. I just don't understand why you aren't allowed to have enough fuel to play the endgame unless you're friends with Sindria. It just doesn't make any sense. This is with Navigation 3, mind you.

Maybe I've missed some other way apart from tootling back and forth with tankers slowly sipping up whatever's in each Hegemony star system? If not, I think I may declare this first playthrough finished and try out Nexerelin, DynaSector and some faction mods.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2018, 02:56:21 AM by Blaine »
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Linnis

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #20 on: November 01, 2018, 03:39:25 AM »

Farm the red beacon systems by not destroying the battle stations. Bring two or three Prometheus and a Atlas. Their ships drop alot of supply and fuel.
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Blaine

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #21 on: November 01, 2018, 03:52:25 AM »

Farm the red beacon systems by not destroying the battle stations. Bring two or three Prometheus and a Atlas. Their ships drop alot of supply and fuel.

Ah, that may work. I noted the location of a few red beacon systems, but I don't think I've been in one yet, only yellow... although, I did fight a fleet of REDACTED at one point. It might have been in a red beacon system.

Honestly though, the fuel thing is silly. I'm tempted to learn to mod just so that I can make a fuel mod (fuel production scaling alongside enemy fleets might work), but I guess at this point it's better to wait for 0.9.0 before before putting any effort into that.

Thanks for the tip, cheers.
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Megas

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #22 on: November 01, 2018, 05:08:12 AM »

Red systems crank out fleets as soon as they are destroyed almost immediately.  It is like a monster generator from Gauntlet.
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Schwartz

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #23 on: November 01, 2018, 06:36:08 AM »

Farm the red beacon systems by not destroying the battle stations. Bring two or three Prometheus and a Atlas. Their ships drop alot of supply and fuel.
I've been thinking about doing this. Misread you as 'bring an Astral' and I thought 'of course, why would you bring anything else'. ;)

Phase ships? Fuhgeddaboudit. I bought the one Shade I've ever seen for sale, and I passed over a Doom because it was on the black market of a world I didn't want to risk destabilizing. Guess I'll have to recover some of those from faction fleets if I ever want to use any.
That kind of conscience will come off fast, don't worry. Doom is a fantastic flagship. Grab the next one for sure!
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TheWetFish

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #24 on: November 01, 2018, 07:08:53 AM »

Might be worth noting the low tech Onslaughts & Legions are tremendous fuel hogs at 15 fuel per light year.  Every other capital ship is fully a third less at 10 fuel per light year
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Blaine

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #25 on: November 01, 2018, 07:38:36 AM »

Of course the faction with gas-guzzler capital ships has bupkes for fuel. On the upside, once the Onslaughts arrive on the dance floor, things start to blow up real fast. My job as fleet commander is apparently to joust 4-6 Spathi enemy cruisers by myself until the Onslaughts feel like moving up. I've gotten used to often not being able to get a kill in one go, or at all until later in the fight.

I've been playing long enough now that I've noticed some extremely cheeky AI behavior. A lot of long-range kinetic ballistic weapons fire in bursts, and if they aren't alternated, the AI will turn off its shields with absolutely incredible timing in order to let the volley impact its armor. Actually, there is a slight delay, which I remember folks mentioning was purposely added so that these cheeky tricks aren't totally perfect. I'm sure all of my AI fleet members can do the same, so if anything it's probably more of a net benefit to me than a net drawback.

Anyway, my fleet looks like this now:

Spoiler
[close]

Even farming REDACTED, it takes a good long while to get a few thousand fuel, which really doesn't last very long, since my fleet eats... 144 per day? Plus, I have to burn a bunch to get to a red beacon in the first place, and then more to get back to anywhere else. In fairness though, I have a giant fleet and my officers are all max level, so aside from bullying faction fleets (something I need to do a bit more of), I guess I'm pretty much done with this campaign.
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intrinsic_parity

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #26 on: November 01, 2018, 08:34:09 AM »

It's almost certainly not worth lugging around two onslaughts. Ask yourself how often you deploy both at once, and if so, whether or not you really needed to. Filling your fleet out with cruisers is much more fuel efficient. Standard eagles and falcons will hold their own just fine and add as much firepower.
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Schwartz

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #27 on: November 01, 2018, 08:42:30 AM »

Smaller fleet here too. 1 capital, and it's often an Odyssey or a Conquest. Or a BRDY or SHY one. 3-5 cruisers, 2-4 destroyers, 2 frigates, 2 pirate Buffalo and a Phaeton.
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Megas

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #28 on: November 01, 2018, 09:24:10 AM »

My fleet is similar to Blaine's except the two Onslaughts are replaced by Paragon and Astral, and the Sunder/Medusa replaced by Drovers.  Also have Hyperion/Afflictor/Tempest frigates for special jobs.  Well... one other major difference.  Blaine's appears to have undamaged ships, nearly all of my ships have multiple (D) mods.
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Alex

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Re: My thoughts and impressions
« Reply #29 on: November 01, 2018, 09:47:55 AM »

(The fuel situation is indeed much improved in 0.9. For example, Jangala has about 2500 fuel for sale, between the Open, Black, and Military markets, and this is a reliable state of affairs, unless, say, its Spaceport got nuked or some such. Sindria has around 4000; smaller colonies will naturally have considerably less.)
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