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[SCC]

Assessing each alpha core in a management position could be worth some quest or two, or other interaction. If you were able to identify a malicious alpha core before it escaped you, it could be fun to sell such trojan horses them to other factions to cause a shortage or a stability hit.

Solid points all around! I think it'll actually work better to count d-mods both for the player and for the enemy, so that it doesn't feel like you're being penalized for using d-modded ships. I think the risk of this being optimized around is very low, since it... basically doesn't matter all that much; XP is not a finite resource and there's always more where that came from. Sort of like not every single credit is being wrung out, at some point, it's "good enough" and there's no reason to bother. So I think it's more a question of how it feels.

Most importantly, d-mods are not officers or hullmods that you can just swap at any moment.

[SonnaBanana]

Assessing each alpha core in a management position could be worth some quest or two, or other interaction. If you were able to identify a malicious alpha core before it escaped you, it could be fun to sell such trojan horses them to other factions to cause a shortage or a stability hit.

That sounds fun, but the code to differentiate one Alpha core from another would be quite a chore.

Edit: Hmm, might be doable. Might be. A separate, persistant list of each Alpha's id, loyalty and location which gets loaded/changed whenever the player acquires/drops/sells/transfers/assigns/loses an Alpha core. Need to rewrite a lot of old methods which involve AI cores to use this "list". Not a mention, creating a new "individual" every time the game creates a new Alpha core during post-battle or salvaging.

[Zaizai]

What about having the core progressively go towards more efficiency, for example asking to replace the defensive fleet with something of his own choice...then giving the player various quests, like the retrieval of other cores, or funds or whatever, so it can build some extra infrastructure...then you have the core rolling out redacted ships mixed with regular ones, eventually deciding that for the good of the colony, using only redacted ships is the better choice... 
Basically the core can progressively make more and more demands until the colony becomes so strong that they deem you unnecessary, at that point there could be a huge fight where you defeat the core, and you can either remove it, or keep it as is, because it now understands that staying at peace with you is the more sensible choice. At this point you could get a say in some of the choices like what ships to use, or leave him be, you'll get to keep some of the cool stuff but after the fight the colony will be in a pretty sorry state, possibly permanently in some areas. All in all, you'd have to decide for yourself if it's worth it or not

[Alex]

@Zaizai: I like the way you think

Most importantly, d-mods are not officers or hullmods that you can just swap at any moment.

Yep, that makes sense.

[Megas]

@Zaizai:  That is a demon core.  Starts friendly, then gradually goes kill all humans.  Even if you can bargain with it, it will probably still try to do bad things.

[CoverdInBees]

Alex, since you are limiting the number of colonies players can/should have....
Can you make a system which lets players assign their spare ships and officers to a colony as a static(-ish) defense force?

AI fighting AI is a grind of spawning and respawning patrols/raids with a probably pretty basic RNG simulation behind it. Any ships you offer would be likely to not make a difference for more than the first one or two fights and the fleets spawn officers along with the ships depending on their doctrine anyhow.

[SonnaBanana]

@Zaizai: I like the way you think

Please say it will be implemented!

[Wyvern]

(My point was that if something makes your fleet stronger but doesn't make the XP bonus smaller, then you'd want to add as much of that as possible to maximize it. But whether that actually holds up depends on whether these increases in strength add up in a non-linear way, how the bonus XP calculation works, etc...)

Yes, exactly. You want all your (combat) ships to have officers. This is true, and in fact the point of my suggestion: to remove any question about whether or not more officers is a good thing.

Still, a fleet with 5 officers facing 10 pirate ships without and being told it's a challenging fight... hm.

Then don't phrase it that way? Could even just not display the value at all, just keep the same "You gain 3,000XP" message after the battle, and add in a tip saying something like "The smaller your fleet is relative to your opponent, the more XP you'll gain from battles."

As has been said, this isn't something that the player is meant to be trying to fine-tune.

[Zelnik]

So if I remember years ago, this list will grow for another year, and then result in another huge release after we have all forgotten about this.

I am actually kind of annoyed. I get there has been work done, but why release patch notes before a patch is released. A patch that likely won't be released for another eight to twelve months?

I get it, Alex is alone by choice, but this doesn't build hype (at least with me), it builds resentment. I am getting sick of waiting for a game I paid for eight years ago.

Sorry I am a downer but I am seriously tired of this. An incomplete game for this long should be consigned to the vaporware dustbin of history.

[CoverdInBees]

So if I remember years ago, this list will grow for another year, and then result in another huge release after we have all forgotten about this.

I am actually kind of annoyed. I get there has been work done, but why release patch notes before a patch is released. A patch that likely won't be released for another eight to twelve months?

I get it, Alex is alone by choice, but this doesn't build hype (at least with me), it builds resentment. I am getting sick of waiting for a game I paid for eight years ago.

Sorry I am a downer but I am seriously tired of this. An incomplete game for this long should be consigned to the vaporware dustbin of history.

So consider the current release the full game if you want? It's already got a lot more content and polish than plenty of other games...

[SCC]

As far as I know, Alex posts patch notes before the release to mark progress and to show to others that progress is being made. We also get to shout at him for every obviously wrong decision he makes.

[Zelnik]

So if I remember years ago, this list will grow for another year, and then result in another huge release after we have all forgotten about this.

I am actually kind of annoyed. I get there has been work done, but why release patch notes before a patch is released. A patch that likely won't be released for another eight to twelve months?

I get it, Alex is alone by choice, but this doesn't build hype (at least with me), it builds resentment. I am getting sick of waiting for a game I paid for eight years ago.

Sorry I am a downer but I am seriously tired of this. An incomplete game for this long should be consigned to the vaporware dustbin of history.

So consider the current release the full game if you want? It's already got a lot more content and polish than plenty of other games...

...but that would not only be a lie, but a direct denial of reality.

[Zelnik]

As far as I know, Alex posts patch notes before the release to mark progress and to show to others that progress is being made. We also get to shout at him for every obviously wrong decision he makes.

I don't want to shout at him. I am just expressing, as a customer, displeasure. Not everything can be cheers and fireworks of joy. It's been eight years.

[SCC]

I actually meant shouting at him for balance decisions and other stuff that can be changed before the release if people complain enough. I didn't realise I could mean you, sorry.

[Wyvern]

So consider the current release the full game if you want? It's already got a lot more content and polish than plenty of other games...

...but that would not only be a lie, but a direct denial of reality.

Actually, the purchase page makes it very clear that what you're buying is the current version of the game.

When you preorder, you’re getting Starsector (formerly “Starfarer”) in its current state – that’s why we’re offering it at a discounted price. As an added bonus, preordering entitles you to all future updates, including the final version.

Personally, I've had a lot of fun playing Starsector through the various versions I've been around for, and don't regret the money spent; even in its current release it's already a much better game than some completed games.