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Author Topic: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame  (Read 4926 times)

Ande

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What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« on: December 28, 2021, 02:55:42 PM »

What is a best or common strategy to do? I usually starting bounty hunting and expending my fleet with the earned Money. I have issues what comes next, when it comes to colonization and creating own faction. I cannot decide for a starting planet, since I want a perfect habitable and with production bonusses(which I usually don't find). Should I better just take a semi perfect planet to start with? Also what is best time for colonization, how much Money should I have and how big should my fleet be?
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Thaago

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2021, 03:22:34 PM »

Hi, welcome to the forum!

For colonization, your fleet should be powerful enough to take on midsize pirate fleets - something with several converted colossus, maybe an atlas Mk II. In terms of planets, for me it depends on what campaign items I've found so far because that determines what the moneymakers are going to be. High hazard worlds are a little expensive to be the starter colony, so I do like to find a lowish hazard habitable world I can put farming down (and later light industry with the exploration item if I have it): this both gives some decent money for very little cost, but also attracts little faction interest, lowers the cost of all subsequent colonies by fulfilling their needed goods in faction, and if that planet is the bigger than the others in system gives them a growth boost.

In terms of secondary worlds, its hard to beat a 150% hazard no atmosphere barren (a 175% with no atmosphere and low gravity is close, might be better at endgame I'm not entirely sure). No resources are needed, but this is an ideal planet for refining (a big moneymaker with the item) and fuel production - and is also acceptable for heavy industry as its not habitable so won't pickup polution.

In general though, 'good enough' is good enough for colonization. For location, near the core but in the direction of a big clump of stars is my preferred place. Helps doing missions to have the resupply base but its close enough to the action.
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Dakaru

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2021, 03:34:25 PM »

I'm new to the game so take my words with a grain of salt - but I like finding a system with 4 - 5 planets in it and a wide spread of resources.  I've found it difficult to survive when I have a single planet or two in a few systems because the AI fleets are so massive in comparison.  With a high planet count system then I can get them all defending each other and can reliably use the system defense forces to defeat any invading fleet - even 4 fleet hegemony inspection fleets or vengeance fleets. 

I like to make sure at least one planet has extreme heat and no atmosphere to get max patrol/detachment force size (with item) as well as buff-item fuel production on one planet. 

In my most recent game I spent the mid game building up each planet to a base profitable level, then the next 50 cycles exploring and finding items to improve them.  The game suddenly becomes easy when you have BPs of nearly everything and buffs to production for most industries and you're entirely self sufficient within one system with an income hitting half a million a month. My exploration fleet is basically one battleship, 8 wolves and a supertanker/freighter for range and goodies.
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intrinsic_parity

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2021, 03:55:26 PM »

I think it makes a lot of sense to explore early since it gives you lots of stuff to sell for money, lets you find good colony locations, and gives you colony items that determine which worlds you want to aim for.

Mid game I definitely like to hunt bounties for income, and I'm looking to put down an early colony on a low hazard world. Personally, for a habitable world I really want good organics, and no rare ore/volatiles to ensure that I can use the farming item. I also am happy to colonize a 150% hazard no atmosphere world very early if I have the refining or fuel production items. I also like to have a good source of volatiles and a good mining world in-system so I'm usually looking for a system with all of those things.

Late game is pretty much just killing the hardest enemies. Once your colonies scale up, everything else is irrelevant IMO.
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JUDGE! slowpersun

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2021, 04:00:03 PM »

Do whatever you want, it's a sandbox game.  Most peeps eventually find the storyline, though (I guess easier since there is a quest to find it now since peeps kept missing it).  But please don't come crying to here until you have at least played for a few cycles/runs... thanks!

Also, I would suggest playing vanilla for a while before installing Nex mod, since it changes game so much.
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gedsaro

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2021, 06:50:44 PM »

Also, I would suggest playing vanilla for a while before installing Nex mod, since it changes game so much.

I agree with this, though once you have if you want more, Nex is a good expansion.
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Thaago

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2021, 07:06:58 PM »

... But please don't come crying to here until you have at least played for a few cycles/runs... thanks!
...

Emphatically NOT this. If you run into trouble or have opinions based on your early play, the forum is a good place to post about it - both so that Alex (the game dev) can read about your experience to get another data point on the new player experience, and so that we as a community can offer advice to make it more fun.
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Ande

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2021, 10:18:26 AM »

Thanks for the Feedback. For now I feel comfortable in picking fights I can win but of course I Just absolutely scrachted the surface. I usually only go with the predesigned loadout for ships, since I have No clue which makes sense dir which ship and especially which can be good performed/User by AI or officers consodering their different personalities. So there ist plenty to learn, nevertheless at least in normal mode I think its Not necessary to overthink the game. It doens't feels to hard. Maybe I will try Ironman since it looks Like the way the game want to be played.
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SCC

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2021, 10:47:00 AM »

In early game, I fight pirates. In mid game, I fight bounties. In late game, I fight Remnants.

More seriously, what to do depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to get a colony as soon as possible, you probably either want to go exploring as soon as possible, or go speedrun the main questline to get JD. If you want to fight, you can either simply fight right from get go. If you need money, you can at any point decide to do some smuggling.

About ironman: you can try it, but you can go without it. It has the "benefit" of forcing you to keep rolling, and it has the drawback of forcing you to keep rolling. I don't play with it, because it's not fun to me to lose to a fleet I probably shouldn't have fought, because I was supposed to fight only even fights. I want to fight and win challenging fights and I will keep trying until I succeed.

Daynen

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Re: What Goals to follow in early-, mid- & endgame
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2021, 12:50:18 PM »

The early game goal should be to get levels for both your commander and officers.  Levels mean the difference between your ship and the dozens you're fighting and the right skillpoints add efficiency in combat, travel or both.  Get officers, get them leveled and fitted for a ship you want to keep and figure out what kind of ship you'll be flying so you can spec for it ASAP, even if you don't have it yet.  Money and resources are gained and lost, but XP is forever.  Spend story points, get that bonus XP rolling, mentor your officers, whatever it takes to get those XP bars green and climbing NOW.  The other main goal is to scoop up blueprints like mad.  They're the other thing no one can ever take away from you and they open up incredible options later.

The midgame (depending on what you think of as mid-game) for me is about finding a suitable system for a colony and prepping what you need for it.  This means extra crew and a sizeable cash balance to kickstart your colony's economy, preferably with an item or two meant to complement your first industry.  Get fuel tankers and surveying equipment on your fleet (shepherds are a wonderfully practical logistics ship for this reason and you won't miss them in combat) and start sniffing out systems with multiple planets and at least one class IV or V world.  Jobs can pop up which clue you in on this, even if you don't take them, since they tell you not only the type of planet but the target system.  Once you've planted roots, get an industry up, a waystation and a patrol HQ, ASAP.  Try to make sure your nearest neighbors remain friendly or at least neutral to you so you have ample warning when hostiles come knocking from the other side of the sector.  Once you've got a suitable income that you don't have to scramble to stay in the black every month and your heavy industry is online, it's time for the endgame.

At this point, it's up to you.  Do you want to follow the story through and get some sweet special gear?  Have you had quite enough of the hegemony stealing your cores and feel like wiping them out?  Once you've got your faction up and running and making you a net positive income every month, you're really free to do as you like with the sector.  You can replace lost ships and weapons more cheaply than even the black market, you've probably got elite level officers tailored to your favorite combat vessels and enough fuel and cargo capacity to comfortably loot the far corners of the sector and you should have enough patrol fleets in your home systems that even if a massive invasion heads your way you have time to respond accordingly...even if that simply means paying off your attackers.
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