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[eidolad]

Starsector vanilla is so wunderbar but now that I've explored the .9 colony mechanics, I notice that I've been playing the strategy layer of the early-mid game in about the same manner:

a) Find a system that has a pirate planet and a friendly faction.

b) Camp in that sector, vacuuming up ships (two D-Mods max just as an arbitrary guideline) and loot in picked battles until I have a  squadron with at least two destroyers and a pair of Drams.

c) Set out into the universe.


So I've begin experimenting with various .9a compliant mod factions, with or without Nexerelin, to up the challenge and variety.

1.  How do you like to change up the normal strategy/playstyle/role-playing?  For example:

a) do you disable pirates in Nexerelin?  i.e. I noticed that I depend a great deal on capping/recovering pirate ships in the early game.  Does having no pirates bring other not-so-welcome effects?

b) do you set certain meta-rules to make the game harder?  I.e. no scavenging, or recovering derelicts in systems that contain your faction and a pirate planet/base?


2.   Nexerelin and the colony/empire system in .9a:

For those that have gone as far as establishing their own empire in Nexerelin .9a...what is the interaction between the new colony system, your own independent faction, and Nexerelin's "4x" style of empire competition?  For example:  do the established empires see you as easy meat the minute you found a single planet? 


3.  What sort of meta-game/roleplay have you guided your empire's "storyline"?

I.e. "this game, my sandox win condition is to conquer Diable Avionics".

Or:  no safe-sector camping...immediately buy some fuel and a Dram and go.

Or:  no carriers.

[Histidine]

My current game is a semi-pacifist run: no deliberately engaging hostile fleets except in self-defense or defending your colonies. (Nexerelin's fleet request feature is allowed)

It's pretty awkward not being able to do bounties or opportunistically attack weaker fleets, but trade and exploration have kept me busy thus far. You wouldn't believe how much warfare disrupts normal commerce.

[Igncom1]

I've played games like:

Low tech only.
Midline only.
High tech only.
No PD.
No HE.
Salvaging only.
Buying only.
Carriers focus.
Destroyer/Frigates only.
Civilian/Mining fleet.
Terrorist/Pirate fleet.
Mod fleets. Mods in general.
Downsize weapons.
Only equip the largest weapons per ship. (I need to do this again soon.)
Missile boats + Pilum spam.

I'm looking to get into some beam spam soon. Which should be cool.

[Plantissue]

Play only hunt bounties.

[Flying Birdy]

I'm currently doing a max -40 relations run (I set everyone to that right from the beginning using console commands mod), no colonies, no exploration.  I gave myself augmented drives right from the start, as not having it is a pretty nasty handicap and also looking for it in shops is just pure RNG fest that I do not enjoy.

Pretty fun run overall. Cash is still fairly easy to get if you know how to hit smugglers. Still incredibly difficult to get good fighting ships to personally pilot, other than maybe a Hammerhead.

[Serenitis]

Playing as a "Straight Edge" fleet/faction has some interesting limitations to work around.

Basically: Commit no crimes, and do not enable criminals.

No Black Market
No trading with Pirates or Pathers
No Free Port
No AI cores
No bribery
Always let fleets run if they want to

[Igncom1]

Playing as a "Straight Edge" fleet/faction has some interesting limitations to work around.

Basically: Commit no crimes, and do not enable criminals.

No Black Market
No trading with Pirates or Pathers
No Free Port
No AI cores
No bribery
Always let fleets run if they want to

That's a playstyle? But... that's how I always play! 

[eidolad]

Nice ideas folks...keep em' coming!

Thinking out loud some more.   Gotta root around and find my 4-sided die to roll for these.

1.  Perhaps some equipment varieties:

Other than player's ship, fleet composition must be one of the following

a.  must have makeshift hangars or be carriers (shepherds ok)
b.  one of each class must be added before another is added (perhaps excepting battleships until player has first colony)
c.  one from each major faction
d.  no pirates d-mod ships


2.  Some meta-rules variation:

a.  Player must pilot different ships each battle (much as I like flying the Hammerhead, time to force me to get used to another ride)
b.  Fleet combat ships MUST have a pilot
c.  Player has 100% combat skills only
d.  Player is not allowed any combat skills

[Harmful Mechanic]

THE VIRGIN TRI-TACHYON:
- buy from military and open markets
- only use pristine high-tech ships
- most expensive weapons for a given slot
- leaves a weird stain on alpha AI core casings
- Paragon flagship
- keeps all blueprints

CHADFARER:
- only buy from black markets
- all ships must have D-mods
- no weapons over 5/10/20OP
- sells AI cores to Luddites to smash
- Hound flagship
- sells all blueprints to pirates

[Kittah Khan]

THE VIRGIN TRI-TACHYON:
- buy from military and open markets
- only use pristine high-tech ships
- most expensive weapons for a given slot
- leaves a weird stain on alpha AI core casings
- Paragon flagship
- keeps all blueprints

CHADFARER:
- only buy from black markets
- all ships must have D-mods
- no weapons over 5/10/20OP
- sells AI cores to Luddites to smash
- Hound flagship
- sells all blueprints to pirates

Have you no shame?
You can't just hurt people like that, my sides have been demolished, destroyed, decimated, despoiled and devastated.

[Harmful Mechanic]

CHADFARER MAGNUM:
- all as above, plus:
- SWP Shield Bypass hullmod on every shielded ship
- only one colony with industries, defenses
- spam PD weapons and Frag damage
- no Sabots or Harpoons

[Plantissue]

SWP Shield Bypass hullmod?

[Wyvern]

Ship & Weapons Pack adds, among many other things, a Shield Bypass hull mod that lets you trade out having a shield for a bit of extra flux dissipation.  It works fairly well on ships like the Onslaught and Dominator.

My personal gameplay things-I-do:
* Never sell survey data or rare items like blueprints - except occasionally blueprints on the black market to spice up pirate fleets.  I mean, what good dragon doesn't collect a hoard?
* Never deploy a flagship with fighters at the same time as any carrier.  There's a bug that triggers if you do this, causing your carriers to set engage orders when there's nothing in range and lose their zero flux bonus.  On the "plus" side, this makes it an easy decision to skip all the skills that boost your flagship's fighters...
* Collect all the science vessels!  Anything with built-in logistics hullmods is fair game - vanilla Apogee, ORA Elevation, Shadowyards Minos, DME Zelenograd & Baikal...
* Purple ships are your friends!  When the Cabal ask you for something, you give it to them... unless it's something you really truly need for a mission that you're doing right now.  Then you're free to blow them up and loot their ships instead.

[Tempest]

I've been trying to play without buying ships as well as starting without Navigation.

That's because trading on the black market gets you millions of cash in the first couple of in-game months, so you just buy a ton of ships and steamroll everything. Using only ships you can salvage changes everything, every playthrough becomes different based on what you can get. In one playthrough I salvaged two Legions (one pristine) pretty early, in another I only had hounds and cerberuses (cerberi?)...

Navigation also massively changes the progression speed. With Transverse Jump you can get those millions of cash and level 15-20 in the first few in-game months, because you can keep teleporting to buy and sell things. Starting with no Navigation slows the progression a lot, because you have to fly through dangerous territories. That way you get to the same point much later, by at least one-two in-game years.

[Takion Kasukedo]

If the current fleet is defeated, once, twice or three times in a run, it's over.

The rules set as follows -

You only get a max of 3 - 5 lives, 1 at the start and 1 each when you complete certain conditions, unless stated otherwise.

*Successfully taking a market, up to three in one life.
*Defeating a set number of end-game bounties
*Attaining rare blueprints and successfully gaining colony size 6, with a steady income.
*Attaining 5 capitals
*Reaching Max Level (usually lv-70 for me, I do not do more than 6 - 10 combat skills, as the officers can level up to 27 - 30).

--

The settings were modified last time so that pirate bounties give even less (about 6k - 12k) less at the start, making it far harder to obtain anything, but around endgame they give a bit more, or a lot more, dependent on actual fleet size.

Pirates/Cabal spawn a lot more, as well as mercenary fleets, so more trouble. Bases spawn more frequently, and less of a waiting time for them (30 days minimum).

Commissions give quite a lot, but not enough for a big fleet to give 120k.

Spoiler

At any point during the playthrough you collect a duplicate, no matter how rare or powerful, you go to the black market and you sell it, doesn't matter where. This ensures the pirates are more powerful than any other faction and threatening during the endgame. This includes Dassault Mikoyan weapons, knowing how powerful they are. It also opens up...interesting possibilities. To this end, i've even given the pirates better starts by ensuring "certain" ships and blueprints are known to the pirates. *Nation, wink wink.*

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