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[Ghosts of Razgriz]

So like I have been playing starsector on and off for several months by now, I am just wondering, what if starsector is basically just M&B in space, like I had hoped that I was there to witness when VNsector is there for everyone to install instead of a placeholder, or like yimie/developer of UAF focused more on mod features instead of adding a new ship to the already expansive roster of ships to the mod. It really just bores me out when I try to communicate with any NPC, well...how do I put it? A bit boring, like you click into a dialogue and then you don't even need to read the whole paragraph, and you already know what their requests are, instead of like more human like, where they'd react to atrocities(sat bomb, bombardment, destruction of a respective faction's fleet, like enemies of that faction will praise you, but allies/members of that faction will still talk to you but in a more negative tone), charities(donating fuel to stranded captains, saving people from being stranded etc.) or just day to day interactions and decisions. With their rewards scale on relationship and opinons and others.

Kind of hoped that other faction mods had more or less taken the path of UAF too, not saying a full 1-1 copy, but like take their whole story campaign mission as a base and develop their own, rewards could also range from production modules, to legendary captains or ships depending on the task.

P.S. Praise sseth for introducing me to this masterpiece, I am kind of late for the bandwagon 

P.S.2. Luddite Delenda Est.

[BigBrainEnergy]

That's a strong title to your post, but I agree that right now one of the game's weakpoints is interacting with NPCs and feeling connected to the game world. The main storyline has great characterization but outside of that there's lack of that human connection, that feeling involved in people's lives like the sector is populated by actual humans. That being said, even large companies can fail at this and given how small the team is for starsector it's understandable that what we have now is pretty barebones in that department. The post about "the pilgrim's path" does give me some hope that in the future there will be more narrative content that isn't tied to main story progression.

The systems governing your dynamic relationship with each faction definitely feel lackluster right now, it'd be cool if some factions might regard you as "useful" but still view you as untrustworthy, or they might view you as a traitor if you switch to another faction. Details like that would be awesome.

[robepriority]

Pretty sure the contact system can accomadate this.

[Brainwright]

Pretty sure the contact system can accomadate this.

But it doesn't.  It's the most painful quest grinding I've ever experienced.

[Gustafssonz]

I love playing role playing game (pen and paper) and love storycrafting. I have so many ideas for Starsector I want to tell. I'm also a programmer so i'm ready to develop it myself. Currently the API is pretty hard to read and know how-to so I hope  there will be some nice guides later on (or an abstraction of the API) to make it easier to do.

[Megas]

Contacts are not good for much.  They are good mainly for...
* Military contact is best for Omega bounty for Omega weapons (after grinding), but he can offer cheap ships player can buy before he has production online.
* Underworld contact as a way to boost rep with pirates, and perhaps more illegal arms buying.

When player is busy doing the main story, there is a big Han Solo/Picard vibe going on.  When off the story, player is yet another random murderhobo killing and/or stealing from everyone for xp and loot.

It would be nice that if the player succeeds in building up several size 6 colonies, he should be recognized as a major power instead of some vagabond.

[Kos135]

Starsector is an indie game that's been in development for about a decade. As I understand it the game began as a ship combat simulator with little to none of the features we see today - setting, characters, lore, economy, colony development, etc.

It takes a lot of time to code new stuff into the game and work out all of the bugs and balance issues. It probably takes even longer than that to finishing debating over what should be added into the game. Starsector is obviously headed in the direction of a more living, RPG-esque universe. More nuance to politics, character interactions, etc.

It's just going to take a while to make all that happen. Starsector is first and foremost about ship design and combat, and while there are many other features that would be nice to have they need to come after the ships. All the other features should be there to support that primary feature, not replace it. We don't want Starsector to be 1/2 ship combat sim and 1/2 Sim City.

Ask anyone who's been playing since the game was still called Starfarer what they think about the progress made so far, they'll all tell you they're amazed by it. I only began playing when Sseth posted his review but I've taken a few looks at the early stages of development and I'm amazed. That being said I posted a thread recently *cough cough* that gives some suggestions for improving the setting...
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=25111.0

[Ghosts of Razgriz]

That's a strong title to your post, but I agree that right now one of the game's weakpoints is interacting with NPCs and feeling connected to the game world. The main storyline has great characterization but outside of that there's lack of that human connection, that feeling involved in people's lives like the sector is populated by actual humans. That being said, even large companies can fail at this and given how small the team is for starsector it's understandable that what we have now is pretty barebones in that department. The post about "the pilgrim's path" does give me some hope that in the future there will be more narrative content that isn't tied to main story progression.

The systems governing your dynamic relationship with each faction definitely feel lackluster right now, it'd be cool if some factions might regard you as "useful" but still view you as untrustworthy, or they might view you as a traitor if you switch to another faction. Details like that would be awesome.

Fair enough, but mods really does fix it, but also why is VNsector removed

[Ghosts of Razgriz]

Starsector is an indie game that's been in development for about a decade. As I understand it the game began as a ship combat simulator with little to none of the features we see today - setting, characters, lore, economy, colony development, etc.

It takes a lot of time to code new stuff into the game and work out all of the bugs and balance issues. It probably takes even longer than that to finishing debating over what should be added into the game. Starsector is obviously headed in the direction of a more living, RPG-esque universe. More nuance to politics, character interactions, etc.

It's just going to take a while to make all that happen. Starsector is first and foremost about ship design and combat, and while there are many other features that would be nice to have they need to come after the ships. All the other features should be there to support that primary feature, not replace it. We don't want Starsector to be 1/2 ship combat sim and 1/2 Sim City.

Ask anyone who's been playing since the game was still called Starfarer what they think about the progress made so far, they'll all tell you they're amazed by it. I only began playing when Sseth posted his review but I've taken a few looks at the early stages of development and I'm amazed. That being said I posted a thread recently *cough cough* that gives some suggestions for improving the setting...
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=25111.0

Then we shall delegate that task to mod makers then, someone should just pick up VNsector or model their faction to that of united aurora federation, something unique that isn't just ships, weapons and strike craft, but also include commodities, special artifacts, special captain and commanders etc.

[Schwartz]

Yep, the emergent storytelling part of the game is not all there. There's some, such as faction warfare, but it doesn't really "take off" as anything that manages to surprise the player. It could use more options for interaction, and some meaningful responses to things the player does, and some way to influence faction wars; to start or end them diplomatically or otherwise, and a way to make various types of alliances.

I'm hoping with the "orders" part of the game still upcoming that we'll see some more "meat" to the strategy & politics part of the game.

[Kos135]

Yep, the emergent storytelling part of the game is not all there.

Similar to Mount & Blade the focus of the game is force design & combat. Setting, characters, lore, a living economy, all that background stuff is nice to have. It's nice to have a living world in which you're fighting, a story explaining who you are and who you're fighting and why the two of you are fighting, but ultimately it's the fighting itself that is the focus of the game.

[Brainwright]

To be fair, it looks like there is a framework is there for something more than what is currently.

In general, I would like to see more of the game's systems operated through contacts and officials on the planets themselves.

[Harmful Mechanic]

Someone hasn't been reading the blog posts! So much story is coming.

Then we shall delegate that task to mod makers then, someone should just pick up VNsector or model their faction to that of united aurora federation, something unique that isn't just ships, weapons and strike craft, but also include commodities, special artifacts, special captain and commanders etc.

Oh man do I not want this to become an unpaid job. I promise I've had missions in mind since forever (and I have the design docs to prove it), but I'm only doing this for my own enjoyment, not in any sense for the parasocial adoration of a bunch of kids on the internet.

Let mods be mods and be patient with the time it takes to make the base game. Alex and David usually blow us out of the water.

[BCS]

The core gameplay of Starsector involves either flying through space or fighting in space.

The NPC interactions are barebones because they do not need to be involved to faciliate either of these things.

In fact I'd say that the way the game currently works - where you can rely almost entirely on your own replies rather than the wall of text when interacting with NPCs - is perfect. If you want to get deep into the lore and the world, you can read. If you don't, you just press i.e. 2, 2, 1, 1 and you have a mission to do.

And "VNsector"... assuming the VN stands for what I think it does here, please keep it as far away from the game as possible.

[Jackundor]

stuff like Story content and special campaign mechanics are
1. Not as relevant to the experience of most players as combat stuff
2. Damn hard to make if it's anything but the most basic stuff (at least from what i heared)

plus more story stuff is coming up in the next update