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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: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes  (Read 596061 times)

Farlarzia

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1560 on: April 07, 2021, 10:37:26 AM »

I'd have to agree about being able to respec, or even partially respec lvl 7 officers, or maybe even found officers in general - it really sucks to find one of the rare level 7 officers, just to have them with a set of skills that makes them worse than a level 5 or 6 officer you could make yourself. Even if it was something expensive like having to spend a story point per skill reallocation, I'd still take it.

Talking about officer RNG, I've been thinking about other points of RNG in the game in general recently. The items and story point uses you've added in this update (like changing officer agressiveness, more officer skill choices, the new items meaning previously undesireable systems can become a lot more viable, adding stable points, missions giving locations for blueprints, etc etc), have been a great step towards this - but despite this, there are still instances of pure RNG that really suck for the player.

The biggest offenders of this in my eyes, are still parts of the colony system that you still can't do anything about - for example, you can heat planets up now, but have no way to cool overly hot planets (Though there is that item that interacts with hot planets, and from it description, certainly sounds like it'd cool a planet while its installed). And hoping that the good system you find, also had one of the domain era system structures, especially the comms relay (Stability is pretty managable these days, but it still feels bad to know you could have had something better but RNG screwed you over. Maybe there could be story missions like the red planet in the future to address this, or some other way to aquire them, even if the it was a 1 time thing.

Someone else has already addressed this before too, but the limited colony boosting 'relics' you can find on the map can also overlap, which can sometimes almost half the chance of a useful system being in the diminished total area they cover.

I understand that the randomness of some of this stuff is to sometimes have the player go 'wow, this system is amazing!' when they're exploring, but when you find something *almost* incredible, and then you realise its missing something you want, and choose somewhere else because of something thats completely out of your control, it doesn't feel great..

For example, in my playthough I found an amazing system with a cryosleeper, and then realised it wasn't in a tap radius (both my taps overlapped a bit, and I settled to inhabiting a sub par system in comparision, because growth doesn't matter past a certain point, but the industry bonus effect is always useful), so that wow moment just turned to resigned disappointment.

Anyway thats just my 2 cents on exploration, colonys, and their RNG currently - I'd be interested to hear what other people think about it in this update.
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Shoat

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1561 on: April 07, 2021, 12:28:18 PM »

I get the feeling that the contracted officers need to go, and become contracted mercs force, their own independent command that travels with you (at your supply and fuel expensens) and fight with you, much like a friendly AI force would, but for X ammount of time

I agree that merc officers are kinda meh, if only because it's a micromanage-y thing that only becomes relevant once you are already at max officers (which are already a bit micromanage-y to begin with).

I would much prefer if it was just "Hey I am a merc captain with these stats, in this ship, equipped with these weapons, I join your fleet for X time if you pay me" and then it's just an extra dude with his own ship fighting for you. Maybe there could also be seperate mercenary commanders that have a little fleet, whatever.

Should probably not be an independent fleet following you, tho, since that would make map navigation become awkward (they could get lost far-off, distracted, or be caught by enemies you wanted to avoid, etc.). They should just be an addition to your fleet (that ignores the 30 ship limit and you cannot directly issue commands to them in combat) instead of flying around near you independently.

I remember there was a mount&blade warband mod (was it part of floris?) where you could join some king's army as a mercenary, essentially just integrated into their army and fighting for them (instead of following them on the map and assisting), and that's kinda what I would prefer for mercenaries because, as I said, managing an on-the-map allied fleet feels really awkward.


My personal favorites are:
- you can't buy ships, ever; only loot-restore them or build your own, but!
- no exploration until you have at least 1 cruiser(+)-sized exploration ship (like Apogee); with the above rule you have to hunt for it first

Stuff like this is good, I am happy that there are some other people playing games in a way to try and have some challenge, instead of just playing the optimal way and then complaining it's too easy.
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Gennadios

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1562 on: April 07, 2021, 03:55:05 PM »

After having put a couple of afternoons into the new version:

I'm really liking the new economy and the industry items, overall I'm really enjoying the whole of the exploration and colonization aspect.

I'm really not a fan of the new combat though.

First, the AI is back to feeling way too timid like they were a few updates ago, it feels like they all just cluster up at the edge of enemy ship's firing range. They also have an infuriating tendency to block each other's firing line. Most noticeable with slower Hagemony fleets.

Second, officers were fun in the beginning, but it's time to reign them in. They're making the early game where the player doesn't have officers extra frustrating, and then end up making the late game too easy when the player gets a full roster of their own officers. My last system defense, I tied up two wolves and a Shepherd on a single Wolf with an officer, which leads to number three...

Third, why the hell does the AI still have such a massive deployment advantage over the player? Especially when we have a meta where the player may need to tie up 3 of their ships to match one of the enemies? I'm getting increasingly fatigued of getting overrun at the beginning of the battle and not being able to control enough of the battlefield to even come close to matching the number of hulls the enemy is throwing at me.
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Voxette

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1563 on: April 07, 2021, 04:07:11 PM »

I tried asking in the Modding forum but got no replies.

Is there a guide to what the options in settings.json actually do? Many of them are very unclear. In particular:

Code
"economyIterPerMonth":10,
"economyMinDemandForPricing":100,
"economyMinStockpileForPricing":100,
"economyNoDemandPriceMult":0.5,
"economyGreedFraction":0.25,

"economyDeficitPriceIncrPerUnit":0.125,
"economyDeficitPriceMultMax":1.5,
"economyExcessPriceDecrPerUnit":0.11,
"economyExcessPriceMultMin":0.67,

What is "GreedFraction"? And this says the max price multiplier is 1.5, but I'm almost sure I've seen prices higher than that?
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Radicaljack

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1564 on: April 07, 2021, 05:24:35 PM »

After having put a couple of afternoons into the new version:

I'm really liking the new economy and the industry items, overall I'm really enjoying the whole of the exploration and colonization aspect.

I'm really not a fan of the new combat though.

First, the AI is back to feeling way too timid like they were a few updates ago, it feels like they all just cluster up at the edge of enemy ship's firing range. They also have an infuriating tendency to block each other's firing line. Most noticeable with slower Hagemony fleets.

Second, officers were fun in the beginning, but it's time to reign them in. They're making the early game where the player doesn't have officers extra frustrating, and then end up making the late game too easy when the player gets a full roster of their own officers. My last system defense, I tied up two wolves and a Shepherd on a single Wolf with an officer, which leads to number three...

Third, why the hell does the AI still have such a massive deployment advantage over the player? Especially when we have a meta where the player may need to tie up 3 of their ships to match one of the enemies? I'm getting increasingly fatigued of getting overrun at the beginning of the battle and not being able to control enough of the battlefield to even come close to matching the number of hulls the enemy is throwing at me.

Really hoping the next patch comes out soon to address this, kinda shelved the new update and didn't explore all it had due to the insane DP issues of late game and midlate game. Really boring.
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Alex

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1565 on: April 07, 2021, 05:56:49 PM »

@Radicaljack: What fleets specifically are you having trouble with? Just a general "too many officers" is a bit too vague to do anything about. I was just looking at fleet officer counts and - well, this thread might be a good place to talk about this, actually. Sort of off-topic for it, but not quite.


Code
"economyIterPerMonth":10,
"economyMinDemandForPricing":100,
"economyMinStockpileForPricing":100,
"economyNoDemandPriceMult":0.5,
"economyGreedFraction":0.25,

"economyDeficitPriceIncrPerUnit":0.125,
"economyDeficitPriceMultMax":1.5,
"economyExcessPriceDecrPerUnit":0.11,
"economyExcessPriceMultMin":0.67,

What is "GreedFraction"? And this says the max price multiplier is 1.5, but I'm almost sure I've seen prices higher than that?

I wouldn't mess with the first four. The last four affect the price when there's an explicit shortage/excess (i.e. red/green icons); the multipliers are on top of what the price would already be due to the "regular" economy which would create a price differential based on the shortage. It's an extra multiplier to make the price changes in this situation more pronounced.
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SonnaBanana

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1566 on: April 07, 2021, 06:49:49 PM »

Alex, would you make skills 3x4 or even 4x3 instead of current 2x5?
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I'm not going to check but you should feel bad :( - Alex

Sutopia

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1567 on: April 07, 2021, 08:14:17 PM »

Alex, would you make skills 3x4 or even 4x3 instead of current 2x5?
That’s still outright bad

The whole problem with current design is that player still needs to look at the entire skill map to decide the path due to limited levels available. The player is still picking from 40 skills instead of 8, which nullified the goal of current iteration of skill system.

Worst part, to achieve certain later skills players are forced to sink points into skills they have no interest into. Tech and industry T2 are perfect examples. They’re just there to waste my precious levels.

I am composing a new post to suggest how to make a skill system that is interesting while allowing meaningful choices, despite previous EW redesign suggestion was totally ignored. :'(
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Since all my mods have poor reputation, I deem my efforts unworthy thus no more updates will be made.

Sarissofoi

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1568 on: April 07, 2021, 08:21:50 PM »

ALEX

Any chances for changes to contact bounties?
Any time I want to take one I need to check were exactly it is and that mean I need to refuse it go into Intel find the Star system look at it on map and then go back to contact/bar and ask for it again.
Please at last make it so they also tell a direction not only distance where the target is.

Zibywan

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1569 on: April 07, 2021, 09:47:49 PM »

Recent changes to "edge of map" and retreat behavior seem like a downgrade.

If I engage my engines to retreat, then have them knocked out by an EMP weapon, I now get repelled back onto the battlefield by an invisible wall at the edge of the map.

It used to be a retreating ship could fly off the map with their engines knocked out, or under their own power with shields raised. What prompted the change?

The current iteration punishes any ship that tries to retreat under enemy fire, since they'll frequently get stuck at the edge of the map, unable to move as their engines are knocked out over and over, and each time they try to engage them to flee, they get pushed back onto the map by some invisible force.
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Play how you want, just don't try to force your playstyle on the other kids in the sandbox. Balance around the casual so the game can survive.

EclipseRanger

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1570 on: April 07, 2021, 11:42:30 PM »

Not sure if this is the best place for feedback,considering the multitude of other topics discussed at the same time,but here goes.

First,amazing update.I can tell a lot of effort went into it and,for me at least,it's as meaty and polished as I could hope for.Thanks for that.As for actual feedback:

-)The most important issue in my opinion,skill points.The choices per level on every tree are amazing,but locking desired skills behind ones the players doesn't care about feels somewhat unfun,especially since the late tier skills aren't in any way meaningfully better or more impactful than previous tiers.So my proposed solution would be to retain the choice aspect of the skills,but  let the players pick from whatever tier they want in a tree without needing previous tiers.However,to pick the alternative of a selected skill,you would need at least 5 points on that tree,just like in the current system.So you can pick Missile Specialisation,a T5 skill on level 1,but to pick both Missile Specialisation AND System Expertise,you need at least 5 points invested in Combat.

-)The story is amazing.The new quests are a joy to read and do,as is the world building.Major props to the writers,as well as whoever had the idea of adding choices to how quests are approached.Terrific ideas I can't wait to see more of.

-)The contact system is very helpful.My only recommendation would be to make it so whenever someone gives you a contract with a target the belongs to a faction,the name of the target colony should appear in the color of the faction.It's kind of a hassle to have to back out to see who the colony belongs to then have to reenter the quest dialogue to accept it.

-)The new weapons/ships/enemies are amazing additions.I'd love to see more weapons like the Breach,with unique functions that emphasise their role.

-)Officers feel way more impactful and are more fun to toy around with,though I believe sometimes the AI has too many,too high level officers,making fights feel one sided.Capturing points with frigates to balance it out is sometimes extremely hard,when every one of my officers is swarmed by 3 enemy officers with equal level.10+ Level 7 officers on pirate fleets feels a bit weird(where did they get such specialised,highly trained officers?).

-)Story point uses are very welcome,and I had a lot of fun thinking about how to use them effectively.The new integrated hullmods especially really help personalise a fleet or colony.

-)The scaling on some skills feels somewhat off.My biggest gripe is Auxiliary Support,which starts limiting the player after only 6 points.I feel maybe 12 or even 18 would be a reasonable softcap,given how you can't even field a Gemini at full scaling,and that's just one Destroyer.



« Last Edit: April 07, 2021, 11:45:46 PM by EclipseRanger »
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Soban

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1571 on: April 08, 2021, 05:22:09 AM »

Might have found a bug. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't completed story missions yet.

Spoiler

Finished the storyline up to a point where I unlocked gate access and went to the Aztlan system's ring gate.

Even though there is no nearby hegemony fleet nearby, I keep getting the message that a nearby hegemony fleet is blocking scanning attempts. Screenshot below.

https://i.imgur.com/95oFBft.png

[close]
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Maethendias

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1572 on: April 08, 2021, 05:30:42 AM »

Might have found a bug. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't completed story missions yet.

Spoiler

Finished the storyline up to a point where I unlocked gate access and went to the Aztlan system's ring gate.

Even though there is no nearby hegemony fleet nearby, I keep getting the message that a nearby hegemony fleet is blocking scanning attempts. Screenshot below.

https://i.imgur.com/95oFBft.png

[close]

god i actually hate that so much, the whole "a nearby hostile fleet is tracking your movements", as if ID CARE WITH MY 5 PARAGON FLEET THAT A FAST PICKET IS TRACKING ME WHEN SALVAGING
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Soban

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1573 on: April 08, 2021, 05:52:15 AM »

Might have found a bug. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't completed story missions yet.

Spoiler

Finished the storyline up to a point where I unlocked gate access and went to the Aztlan system's ring gate.

Even though there is no nearby hegemony fleet nearby, I keep getting the message that a nearby hegemony fleet is blocking scanning attempts. Screenshot below.

https://i.imgur.com/95oFBft.png

[close]

god i actually hate that so much, the whole "a nearby hostile fleet is tracking your movements", as if ID CARE WITH MY 5 PARAGON FLEET THAT A FAST PICKET IS TRACKING ME WHEN SALVAGING

That is a pretty good point. It might even be preferrable if the enemy fleet which was tracking you would either be forced to fight you or to let you do your thing if they don't want to stop you with weapon fire.
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Maethendias

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Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes
« Reply #1574 on: April 08, 2021, 06:00:20 AM »

Might have found a bug. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't completed story missions yet.

Spoiler

Finished the storyline up to a point where I unlocked gate access and went to the Aztlan system's ring gate.

Even though there is no nearby hegemony fleet nearby, I keep getting the message that a nearby hegemony fleet is blocking scanning attempts. Screenshot below.

https://i.imgur.com/95oFBft.png

[close]

god i actually hate that so much, the whole "a nearby hostile fleet is tracking your movements", as if ID CARE WITH MY 5 PARAGON FLEET THAT A FAST PICKET IS TRACKING ME WHEN SALVAGING

That is a pretty good point. It might even be preferrable if the enemy fleet which was tracking you would either be forced to fight you or to let you do your thing if they don't want to stop you with weapon fire.

especially when you have dedicated salvage ships that do the salvaging... youd imagine that your military ships would stand guard during the process... but apparently even those participate in the salvage ops
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