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[AcaMetis]

I also just want to say: I would really appreciate a hard mode for the game. The normal difficulty is fine starting out, but it's just not very challenging economically.

Maybe the spacefarer difficulty should be enabled by default. Even if it isn't exactly what people are looking for maybe it'll at least be a step in the right direction?

[GenericGoose]

Thank you for the added info! Could you clarify on the exact order setup you have to make them "blob"?

Well, I can't quite remember, as I've done multiple fights. Usually, I assign auroras to escort an onslaught, each, then I send the capitals to a control point or a rally point, closer to my side of the map. Depending on how the points generate, sometimes our fleets meet on one, me getting there first. Pretty much all enemy ships go to the point, except for a few frigates/destroyers and pile on from one direction, slowly trickling around.

[TerranEmpire]

I guess right now making money from trade is not particularly difficult, however, it is very hard to collect bounties profitably.

[Midnight Kitsune]

I also just want to say: I would really appreciate a hard mode for the game. The normal difficulty is fine starting out, but it's just not very challenging economically.

While searching, I found this good post on the subject from someone in 2019:

As much as I'd love to sink another 100 hours into the game, the meta is just too easy. 2h in everything seems to lose purpose as your power level just explodes.
Hyperspace travel is essentially hassle-free. The factions are either not aggressive enough or they don't have enough fleets overall ( and I'm on negative with all but Hegemony ). The only hassle is the annoyance of navigating the "storms" and occasionally avoiding the very few stronger faction fleets. Avoiding the fleets is fairly easy as the strong ones are generally much slower.

The skill-driven power explosion was unsatisfactory as well. Overall skills feel meaningless when you get so many so quickly.

The stipend + commission down-right break the already fragile economy.
By fragile I mean:
 The over-supply of ships ( they are more common than ore or basic supplies .... )
 The ship prices are ludicrously low. Even at 2x their current cost they would still be ridiculously low. ( I had an Onslaught with 1D 4h in, did not break the bank either )
 Trade routes are way too easy to abuse ( it's worse than in the usual grind-trading systems since your viable options are actually lower but the payouts much higher )
 Rewards are way too big for non-combat "quests". ( to be read as those without a cost sink )
 Basic supplies are way too cheap and abundant.
 I have more weapons than storage slots to put them in ( from salvage ). Granted, they are not rare but nor did I ever feel the need for rare weapons or stronger ships ( 7h in this run ).
 
To make things worse, the faction standings are too easy to recover from and overall feel very artificial. They switch and change too often and easily, making them lose substance.
IMHO accepting a comission should be a big, game-changing thing, not just an easy way into cash.

The explosion of skills has been addressed, but that's pretty much it.

I suppose I can look into making a "hard mode" mod myself. I've never done any modding before, but I really like this game in every other respect.

One of the biggest issues to me is that it feels like the actual fun parts are quite separated from how to make money. If I want to make money, I do a bunch of trading. Then, with that nest egg, I can go around having fights. But fighting because you're some leisure-class dilettante who wants to hunt the "most dangerous game" is very different from the idea in the lore of struggling to survive. Fighting, exploring... these are money losers (certainly when you look at the opportunity cost).

I would suggest looking at the settings.json file. A few lines there can do stuff like turn off the stipend and enable starfarer mode, which gives you a debit that you need to pay every month. More lines like recovery rates or ship sale prices are also there. You should spend some time looking through it and change anything you like

[Voxette]

I guess right now making money from trade is not particularly difficult, however, it is very hard to collect bounties profitably.

Yeah I would definitely agree there. If you were just going off bounties and not even doing opportunistic trading, I imagine it would be almost impossible just to break even.

And thanks to those who suggested Spacer mode. I do use it. It mainly just makes the very early game harder, however. Or maybe just more tedious. You do a few smuggling runs back and forth (Jangala to Garnir always seems to work), then you can get some cheap frigate freighters and snowball from there. You get five or six of those running, then you can invest in a combat ship or two. Before that, you learn to use "Go Dark", which is actually considerably nicer and easier to use now.

But yeah, I can definitely try playing around more extensively with settings.json to see if I can get things in a bit better position. Basically if I can figure out how to take a nerf bat to trading. And maybe make faction fleets more of a threat somehow. Right now, they are only a problem when you are trying to smuggle and are therefore right up next to them (or you're getting raided by an expedition). Other than that, they don't chase you, and if they did they can't catch you if you're not dumb and lugging around Atlases without Augmented Drive Fields.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think commissions need a major rework, but I've thought that for a while. Free money with no strings attached is too much.

[TerranEmpire]

Also, I think it's really challenging for Alex to find the right balance between the profitability of the different playstyles. Maybe right now the bounty hunter path is even harder, but I see why it is difficult to set the right balance. Maybe removing the officer spam is a good solution Maybe not, because last time we collectively tought, that ending the capital ship spam is a good solution.

[oooh_senpai]

I think commissions need a major rework, but I've thought that for a while. Free money with no strings attached is too much.

Maybe if factions which are in war would try to raid each other, player could get you-must-do-it missions to defeat raiding fleets, losing rep and payment in case of not defeating enemy fleets, and getting additional rep and payment in case of defeating it. There may be another missions, cause if you are getting paid like a mercenary, you must do something like a mercenary.

[Voxette]

Also, the Bulk Transport skill that gives every ship +50% capacity of everything is... really good. Not to mention it throws +1 burn on top. I don't know if it's "too good", but it definitely seems more attractive to me than the alternative skill (more resources from exploration... but the limiting factor for me is always carrying them all). Really helps out with early game Spacer start.

And I continue to find it mystifying that the game acts like crew matter. Salvaging gives -75% crew loss in non-combat... but this is useless. Crew don't matter. I think they should matter. But to matter, they should cost at least 10x more, maybe 20x more. Then I might care if they die.

[ANGRYABOUTELVES]

Also, the Bulk Transport skill that gives every ship +50% capacity of everything is... really good. Not to mention it throws +1 burn on top. I don't know if it's "too good", but it definitely seems more attractive to me than the alternative skill (more resources from exploration... but the limiting factor for me is always carrying them all). Really helps out with early game Spacer start.

And I continue to find it mystifying that the game acts like crew matter. Salvaging gives -75% crew loss in non-combat... but this is useless. Crew don't matter. I think they should matter. But to matter, they should cost at least 10x more, maybe 20x more. Then I might care if they die.

Bulk transport's cargo boost is good earlygame but falls off quickly and it only applies the +1 burn to civvie ships without militarized subsystems that spike your sensor profile insanely high. I find it completely useless.

[Dex]

I dont know if this is a bug or intended, but once upon a time, i ventured into the system with the

Spoiler

phase fleet

[close]

. I spotted it before it could attach onto me and i ran off. Successfully. HOURS later after some exploring, im 'legitimately' delivering some drugs to a hegemony planet and the

Spoiler

phase fleet

[close]

successfully pops out of no-where, within a core system, and latches onto me. I story point escape and believe its now following me. Evidently not, as when i return to its home system many cycles later. Its gone.

Does using the story point cause it disappear? i had never used one up to this point.

[Thaago]

A quick question because I'm not sure: Do upper level enemy officers also have all elite skills? I know I mentioned this earlier, but I think I see the elite nav skill on all remnants, so I'm wondering about things like kinetic damage on armor, etc.

[Megas]

A quick question because I'm not sure: Do upper level enemy officers also have all elite skills? I know I mentioned this earlier, but I think I see the elite nav skill on all remnants, so I'm wondering about things like kinetic damage on armor, etc.

All skills are elite on Automated Ships with cores.  They also can be changed at will on the officer screen for Automated Ships.

[Thaago]

Thanks!

[Maethendias]

i just dont understand why contracted officers are even a thing now, they bust the balance out of the door for everyone, but the ai especially, since they can just spam them without regards for, well, the upkeep and upcost

storypoints ARE precious, and having to spend one per officer per yer, while having to deal with the extra micro of managing your officers AND the mercs not only is annoying, but its wasteful...

just remove them, and keep the hard limit for everyone

8 officers is more than enough

(thats not mentioning the problem officers have with skills, and random officers ALWAYS being better than... the ones you train (hardcap on level and elite skills compared to, well, no cap on level AND again elite skills for officers youd find in pods and such)

i just find it wierd that officers you actively teach and guide... can never be as good, hell, nearly as good as officers you just... pick up randomly, especially "promising" officers

just compare them at face value

random officers are almost always level 7 (although i think i have seen a level 9 at some point iirc), meaning... 2 more skills than youd get by growing an officer yourself... and ANY of those skills have the ability to be elite too, and not limited to 1 either (granted... ironically, the "elite" in some elite skills is kind of... weak imo)

there are already alot of good uses for storypoints (especially when you get into colonies my gawd), that we (or the ai in this case)really dont need the ability to spam better officers and ecm the crap out of anything