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[Psykikk]

Hey there
I bought Starsector in 2019, and recently got back into it.
and I immediatly remembered why I havent played in so long.

the learning curve is immense and there´s tons the tutorial does not teach.

Which is fine I thought -> off to the forums we go.

my most successful campaign so far:
I fly around with a mix of wolf and centurion frigates.
in reserve I have Drams, combat transports and salvage rigs.

the fights I pick I win. the others I tend to run away.
I started attacking / Raiding pirate bases and with 300 marines, thats actually fairly easy and makes good income.


this serves me much much better than other campaigns I tried with hammerheads, carriers etc.

it seems to me that becoming too big too fast leads to being somewhat exposed.

while I do enjoy this setup, I ask myself: what comes next ?
what do I need to know and prepare for to take into account.

I do not want to make the same mistakes I did in my other campaigns.

I would love to get started with colonies and such, but I have yet to find a noobie-.friendly info on "how to get started with colonies".
all are filled with so mich lingo, acronyms and such that I stop reading and ask myself "what are they even talking about ? "

same with fleet composition and hull mods and such. too much acronyms and such , not enough "this is A and it does a".
so far to me it seems hull mods are a must, but I have to trade weapons ordnance points vs hull mods ?

what do I do with scavenged weapons ?
how do people go on endless survey missions, when they also need to have a boatload of crew , machinery and supplies at hand to be able to "pay" for all those surves and the time it takes to gat there ?

what actually is in those outer systems that are not surveyed ? I mean yeah, planets and such to survey and eventually colonize... but anything else?

is it worth to search the "whole system", or is it safe to assume that the system is empty if nothing shows up on scanners in I fly around the center area and ping around ? it seems systems are actually a lot larger but usually there´s no reason to really explore them fully ? am I missing something ?

I know I ask a lot of questions, but I hope someone can share some insight and experience.

thanks in advance.





 

[SCC]

What comes next? Whatever it is you want to do. Starsector doesn't have an overarching goal. You just do you.
I think a bit of an issue with beginner friendly colony guide is that colonies themselves aren't exactly beginner friendly. Even pirate raids might get overwhelming, if you didn't build a space station. The easiest way to colonise is to find a habitable planet and build farming. The downside is that it will grow even on its own, so you will have to abandon it eventually or decivilise it, unless you want to commit to that system.

Hullmods have their most basic explanation contained in their tooltips. More than that is discussion whether any given hullmod is going to be useful in a given loadout, rather than about that hullmod itself.

What do you do with weapons? You hoard them. In your cargo, in your colony, in an abandoned station (check my signature to see locations), in rented storage in some core world colony. It's better to have too many weapons, than too few.

Crew and heavy machinery is not consumed when surveying, only supplies are. You can find plenty of supplies in all the derelict ships, stations, ruins, debris fields, pirates-turned-debris fields...

[TontonBoo]

First of all : welcome back to the Sector. Much has changed since you were last around. Let's help you get your space legs back.

Here's a quick breakdown of my classic playthrough :
-Start small and stay small. Half a dozen frigates and one or two destroyers tend to be enough for a couple hours. One destroyer-size carrier is also pretty vital to counter drones and fighters. If going for exploration I also take 3 drone tenders (salvage up and resource for survey down : two birds with one ship) maximized for cargo and militarized (burn level  and sensor range). That's the beginner fleet you need to start responding to pirate attacks and cruising without fear of being crushed by a wandering pirate or whomever. Maybe add a cruiser and a couple more frigates along the way just to be sure. Explore the sector to find a good starter planet (low hazard and if possible farming or ore/rare ore combo with a decent yield +1 min) and farm blueprints as well as colony items and (REDACTED) from the (REDACTED) fleets you can manage.
Take missions from bars, develop new contacts from them then hunt bounties for your military contacts. Still no need to up your fleet. If you find a suitable system to colonize, keep it in mind but don't rush it.

-When you feel confident enough about your abilities, have farmed and stored weapons and items, and have good officers and skills you can start thinking about colonies. You'll need roughly 1.5 millions before that though. So keep bounting and chasing pirates. Selling loot and the like. Till you get there.

-During your exploration you found a suitable system : at least one good starter (low hazard and farming/ores) and if possible a secondary planet that offers different resources (volatiles, organics) or has interesting characteristics for the bonus items. Like a planet with no atmosphere : seems bad at first but some of the best items you found need that condition. And get the planet into OP territory once installed. Check the items you have to decide what kind of planet you need. A good thing to have in a starter system also would be stable locations (1 at least) or even better still some Domain era satellite already built-in.

-You'll need 1000 guys to colonize, so with a small fleet you'll probably need a troop carrier. Get the peeps, supplies and machinery and get to your new home. If you have stable locations also take 200 metals, 20 machinery and 10 transplutonic for each location. You'll build colony assistance satellites (beacons and whatnot) there. Most importantly : build a com relay first it'll help with your colonies' stability (very important).

-Planetfall. Wait for the spaceport to build (15 days) while building locations around the colonies. When built you should upgrade it (300K and can be done simultaneously to building other industries) then build a waystation (100k) for fuel/supplies/crew needs of the colony. Then go for your industry of choice (farming or mining usually), and then space station to defend against early raids (250k) followed by patrol HQ (300k) to have fleets roaming and defending your system. Almost useless until the colony grows but still has some use to deter pirates. Dont forget to slot items in buildings if you can to get huge bonuses.

Your first planet should be very much on it's way by now. Try to keep stability high by destroying pirate bases that threaten it (intel then "colony threats" is a great tool) and if raids come by try to use your space station by intercepting the raiders close to it. They'll be in for a rough time. Or wait for your meager defense fleets to engage and then join the fight. You'll get the drop on those pesky raiders.

And now for developing a planetary supply chain of industries and taking your place in the big space marketplace...
That'll be for next time if you're interested.

I went for the vanilest possible explanation. Do tell if you use Nex, as it would change things a bit.

[Psykikk]

wow. thank you for the insights and the explanations.
I guess exloration does mean to take on all those explo-missions that take us REALLY Deep  into thwe rims of the sector ? or just free-roam into the abyss ??


what is out there ?
do systems and their difficulty (as well as loot) scale along with "distance to sector core" ? or is it all randomized and distance doesnt matter at all ?
and another question:
when exploring systems: how do I deal with supply demand spikes ?
I was recently well supplöied only to lose 1/2 because I was jumping into a system where the jump point was in direct proximity to a red star- and whammo, any decent survey and stuff was out of the window

thanks in advance

[SCC]

do systems and their difficulty (as well as loot) scale along with "distance to sector core" ? or is it all randomized and distance doesnt matter at all ?

It's entirely random.

when exploring systems: how do I deal with supply demand spikes ?
I was recently well supplöied only to lose 1/2 because I was jumping into a system where the jump point was in direct proximity to a red star- and whammo, any decent survey and stuff was out of the window

How many supplies do you take with you? For smaller fleets I take around 500, for bigger it can go up to 1500.

[TontonBoo]

What he said. My formula for exploring is roughly : (Supply per month*100) is the base supply needed to roam around in the core. x2 for going exploring close-ish and x3 for outer exploration.
So if your fleet needs 4.5 supply per day I'd take 450 supply to roam around, 900 to explore close vicinity of the core and 1350 to go really outside the core. It's just a guesstimate but usually it does the trick. Don't forget you usually find goodies and that 1 supply means 1 less cargo space for loot. Which is important for funding at the beginning at least.

Exploration means whatever you want. If you like being pointed towards stuff then finding on your own, go for an exploration bounty then roam around. The trip was "financed". Or you could just go on a whim and explore if you already are comfy with cash or don't like being told what to do. Any mission - bounty or bar mission - becomes an opportunity to fund your exploration of this region of space. Whatever. You're the boss, boss.

And if you're serious about exploring the far reaches of the sector, do take the fuel & supply cost reduction from your tech tree. Respec later if you really need the points for your build. You'll also need one small tanker (dram) and one good cargo ship for all your stuff while exploring. More is usually overkill.

Last : distance doesn't really change anything for exploration and difficulty. That being said there are some floating goodies from the past of the Sector that I never saw close to the core so maybe ... I don't really know. But having very strongly defended systems close to the core happens ...

[Blutark]

New player here, I'll share what I have learned.

Exploration/Surveying is a big investment. I thought it would be just sending some scouts. My first survey fleet is usually 2 Shepherds, a few buffalo/Mules, and something to carry crew. Targets are to have 150 machinery along with 850+ crew. This is so I dont have to skip gas giants. I try to carry 1-2k supplies - ideally with room left for loot, but usually not much. Each planet you survey empties your hold, so you can come back for high value stuff on your way back to refuel. Eventually you will come across massive and high value loot hauls, so it pays off.

The shepherds reduce the amount of supplies and machinery required, and you will need a tanker too. Dram is fine. This fleet can survey a whole quadrant at once (efficient). You may not be able to field something that hits those targets so even dropping to 500 supplies is fine. You can use much less machinery and crew if you skip gas giants too. They are not very different, and you only need volatiles from them, which can be found elsewhere. Feel free to skip gas giants at first.



As for colonies, biggest tip is keep the hazard rating low if you want them making money early. Anything with ore bonus (ideally rare ore) or any volatiles is free money if hazard rating is low. Id go 175% and lower. Dont set up high maintenance industry on high hazard planets - they are best for resource gathering, not manufacturing. Something like refining or light industry for later. Fuel production industry pays big, but dont overbuild as the market is easy to saturate.

That being said, dont be afraid to colonise, you dont need class 5 planets, i've made millions from some class 3s. You dont need much to get started, I dropped mine at $250k, and was never in danger of running out of cash. Get your defenses up after the first industry, the AI will send stuff pretty quick but if you prioritise defenses first you will be safe. I got pirates non-hostile first, but your auto built colony fleets are going to get pretty good so I wouldnt be too worried if you have them hostile.

Also be aware that 1 larger cargo ship/tanker is always less costly to run than several smaller ones. If 4 mules is what you need to carry stuff, its time for a colossus. The slower burn speed can be countered. Even capital class logistic ships can be as fast as burn 10/20 with the right (story point built-in) hull mods + talents/tug ship.

I was overwhelmed at first, but just get in there and do it. It fits together very fast when you 'get' it.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

Exploration/Surveying is a big investment. I thought it would be just sending some scouts. My first survey fleet is usually 2 Shepherds, a few buffalo/Mules, and something to carry crew. Targets are to have 150 machinery along with 850+ crew. This is so I dont have to skip gas giants. I try to carry 1-2k supplies - ideally with room left for loot, but usually not much. Each planet you survey empties your hold, so you can come back for high value stuff on your way back to refuel. Eventually you will come across massive and high value loot hauls, so it pays off.

If you don't want to skip stuff, that is your prerogative.  But generally easier to explore first (grab some mission to give you an excuse to even go there anyways), then come back later and actually survey with a dedicated survey fleet.  Usually much cheaper, plus easier to kill anything you can't outrun.  The really hardcore min/max players just soup up a dram and do as much of the sector as possible while also hitting some exploration missions to break even.  Plus, kinda required now since mining stations can drop hilarious amounts of ore!

But play how you want, it's a sandbox game.  Or at least sandbox adjacent...

[Blutark]

Oh yeah, you can go real small and get stuff done, but you'd be leaving lots behind. Getting a small fleet fully capable of long term surveying and able to get it all home is easy to set up though. Only requires a few generic missions to fund, and pays for itself. Also, screw gas giants.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

Oh yeah, you can go real small and get stuff done, but you'd be leaving lots behind.

You haven't left anything behind, you just saved it for later.  It'll still be there later... unless you're using a mod that has NPCs specifically target/salvage stuff like that.  Which is kinda masochistic for someone learning game, but again, sandbox adjacent... play how you want.  IIRC, Nex mod vultures only salvage debris fields, they leave probes and stuff alone.