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[Atherys]

I'd like to play ironman, but I hate in when I can't climb back up after a huge loss due to difficulty scaling. For example, I can't really climb back up in Battle Brothers after many days (90+) due to its time-scale difficulty and lack of difficulty adjustment for now weaker units. This makes it really painful to play ironman as every missions are now almost impossible to complete.

Since there's a new version now, I have to ask: Is it possible to climb back up by playing as normal? I define normal here as being able to do bounties and trades as normal after you lose badly and goes back to step one, like when you start a new game. Also, does the difficulty scaling in Starsector always increment? Does it have window of opportunities after failure?

New question might rise: why not start a new game then? Well, I like to immerse myself in the game I play and will not back off after losing before I get completely wiped out. This kind of gameplay that I do creates an interesting gameplay and story compared to winning every single thing by loading saves. It's also why ironman is there in the first place: to be able to play with whatever the game throws at the players however conditions they currently have.

[sector_terror]

I can see this. I lament having to just start over half the time when the quests get so stupidly difficult. It's why I stopped playing and waited for .95, figuring the contact system would give far better controllable difficulty. I can't confirm with certainty,  but far as I can tell missions dont scale with the contacts over time, but rather their reputation with you. If you need to you can just do simple bar missions even with a totally fresh fleet and then build back up from there, likely having gained even more contacts then before as you rebuild. I'm not 100% sure on bounties, but I -think- they also scale with your reputation of the contact, not the time of the game. I am at least certain spy, jailbreak, dead drop, and the 'buy trade goods' jobs dont scale with time.

[Atherys]

I can see this. I lament having to just start over half the time when the quests get so stupidly difficult. It's why I stopped playing and waited for .95, figuring the contact system would give far better controllable difficulty. I can't confirm with certainty,  but far as I can tell missions dont scale with the contacts over time, but rather their reputation with you. If you need to you can just do simple bar missions even with a totally fresh fleet and then build back up from there, likely having gained even more contacts then before as you rebuild. I'm not 100% sure on bounties, but I -think- they also scale with your reputation of the contact, not the time of the game. I am at least certain spy, jailbreak, dead drop, and the 'buy trade goods' jobs dont scale with time.

Does that mean I can go to bar to do easier combat missions? That's great news! The last time I played the game, I got restricted to trade and survey jobs exclusively and every combat missions were suicidal tasks after my whole fleet got blown out. While those were still fun, I prefer to not get entirely locked out of combat missions.

[shoi]

So I can attest to this myself. I had a pretty nasty fleet but got ambushed in hyperspace and lost most of my ships.
The lower importance contacts generally offer lower danger missions, so in the event of taking a huge loss you can hit them up for easier bounty missions until you're back on your feet.

[Thaago]

There's also a huge difference made by levels. If I get whacked I'm going to respec into the small ship skills and will be many times more powerful than a starting 0 skill character would be.

[sector_terror]

So I can attest to this myself. I had a pretty nasty fleet but got ambushed in hyperspace and lost most of my ships.
The lower importance contacts generally offer lower danger missions, so in the event of taking a huge loss you can hit them up for easier bounty missions until you're back on your feet.

I'm glad I'm not just seeing this. With bounties I was a bit hesitant to say with certainty just because it's so complicated. But yeah it does seem reputation and the contacts "power" is more important than time.

[Atherys]

There's also a huge difference made by levels. If I get whacked I'm going to respec into the small ship skills and will be many times more powerful than a starting 0 skill character would be.

I can respec my character's skill now? That's very great! Now I can adjust my skills according to situations, which is really nice.

[Histidine]

For bounties offered by contacts or bar people, you can ask for an easier bounty if needed.

Non-combat bar jobs are also pretty common, so that's a way to build back up.

[Ataren]

With the new story points systems you can avoid combat entirely, even getting xp for doing so. I already escaped 4 encounters that would crash me, but instead I just spent those points and got out of there. It's pretty great although makes iron man runs a little bit too easy

[Warnoise]

I'd like to play ironman, but I hate in when I can't climb back up after a huge loss due to difficulty scaling. For example, I can't really climb back up in Battle Brothers after many days (90+) due to its time-scale difficulty and lack of difficulty adjustment for now weaker units. This makes it really painful to play ironman as every missions are now almost impossible to complete.

Since there's a new version now, I have to ask: Is it possible to climb back up by playing as normal? I define normal here as being able to do bounties and trades as normal after you lose badly and goes back to step one, like when you start a new game. Also, does the difficulty scaling in Starsector always increment? Does it have window of opportunities after failure?

New question might rise: why not start a new game then? Well, I like to immerse myself in the game I play and will not back off after losing before I get completely wiped out. This kind of gameplay that I do creates an interesting gameplay and story compared to winning every single thing by loading saves. It's also why ironman is there in the first place: to be able to play with whatever the game throws at the players however conditions they currently have.

I lost all my fleet (8 capitals, 4 cruisers, and a bunch of destroyers) fighting some bs enemies.

I managed to climb back (I bought back my first capital).

I recommend you to keep a colossus in storage somewhere because the fastest way to climb back is through trading.

Some missions give cheap bounties so it is a great way to gain some picket change.

[Jonlissla]

With the new story points systems you can avoid combat entirely, even getting xp for doing so. I already escaped 4 encounters that would crash me, but instead I just spent those points and got out of there. It's pretty great although makes iron man runs a little bit too easy

Story points are a dime a dozen at the start, but once you reach lategame they start slowing down considerably. Even with bonus experience you need to slog through either massive battles or trade goods worth millions in order to get enough XP for the next point. It's a real shame because it's at lategame that you really get to use them properly, like boosting your colonies and such.

[Atherys]

With the new story points systems you can avoid combat entirely, even getting xp for doing so. I already escaped 4 encounters that would crash me, but instead I just spent those points and got out of there. It's pretty great although makes iron man runs a little bit too easy

So it's somewhat like a plot armor in Starsector? Hahahaha, I like it. Should be able to avoid "unfortunate" encounters with relative ease now. Let's see if it's as easy as it sounds.

I lost all my fleet (8 capitals, 4 cruisers, and a bunch of destroyers) fighting some bs enemies.

I managed to climb back (I bought back my first capital).

I recommend you to keep a colossus in storage somewhere because the fastest way to climb back is through trading.

Some missions give cheap bounties so it is a great way to gain some picket change.

Thank you for telling me your experience! This firsthand experience should be encouraging enough for me that Starsector is ironman friendly.

[FenMuir]

Losing your entire fleet isn't that big of a deal most of the time. If you're really worried about it, keep a spare fleet in your primary colony, so you can run back to it should you need to.

If you rush a colony through a commission, you can get a colony up and running in no time. That colony just becomes a money farm with infinite storage.

I've been ambushed in hyperspace before and lost everything. It isn't great, but so long as you've one ship, you're pretty much capable of coming back.

[DancingMonkey]

Well I almost always rush making a colony as fast as possible even in the older version and there I would usually put in some fuel, transport, and cargo ships into storage.

That along with almost always having 100k in the bank for emergency reasons makes me get back into the game even after a wipe quite easily, just run drugs a couple times, maybe sell your colony's supplies to some pirates or ludic raider colonies and you will have enough money to at least get back to cruiser level.