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Starsector 0.98a is out! (03/27/25)

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Author Topic: I love the slipstream mechanics  (Read 2347 times)

Thaago

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #15 on: March 31, 2024, 03:42:44 PM »

I'm not sure if I find slipstreams to be completely useless, or if it just takes too long to get the upgrades to make them useful, but I've played two games to level 15 and have yet to unlock reverse polarity, so slipstreams still remain "95% chance to press e-burn and waste supplies to get where you're going, with a 5% chance of being helpful".

Just in case you haven't discovered them, there are lots of ways to get nav data - scanning gas giants, magnetic fields, the center of binary/trinary systems, scanning black holes, neutron stars, neutron star beams, etc.
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Kanil

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #16 on: March 31, 2024, 03:58:48 PM »

It's only like 5 per scan though, so it still takes a while. Especially given that as the game progresses and your fleet gets larger, detours become a lot more expensive.

I dunno if there's some objects that give more than 5, maybe it goes quicker if you just scan certain things?
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Thaago

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #17 on: March 31, 2024, 04:10:43 PM »

Yup! Scanning a gas giant and a magnetic field at the same time combines for 10, neutron stars are like... 20 for the beam, 20 for the star? Something like that? Binary system centers are 20, trinaries 30, black holes I forget but its more than 5.
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Wyvern

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2024, 04:12:44 PM »

Gas giants and magnetic fields are 5 each; a close-range scan of a black hole is... 40, I think? You can also get a good chunk of data by throwing some volatiles at a sensor platform (if you haven't already done that in the area - it'll tell you if you're not going to get survey progression out of it), or pinging the middle of a nebula (as in the nebula-type star system).

The trick to scanning neutron star beams is to approach from behind; you want to hit the sensor ping just before you enter the beam, and then it's rotating away from you so it costs hardly any supplies to get your scan and get out again. (And note that you get credit for the beam and the star itself separately; for the latter, you have to be in the star's corona. It's technically possible to get both off a single ping, but the timing is tricky and unreliable.)

...The trick to getting close scans of black holes is to have s-modded solar shielding on everything in your fleet, though. (Which I do recommend, it's really nice to be able to use hyperspace storms for mobility without them eating all your supplies, but if not, well, maybe put your fleet in storage and go wandering about with a dram or something just to get the scan data...)

Long-range black hole scans are much like the neutron star scans: just dip in and out again. (Worth noting: getting a short range scan on a black hole will not give you credit for the long range scan, so if you are wandering around with s-modded solar shielding, you'll need to scan every black hole twice.)

It's also worth noting that you can get scan data off of things in the core worlds; throw a sensor ping when you head into a system via a gas giant's gravity well.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Kanil

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #19 on: March 31, 2024, 04:21:02 PM »

I see. I'll try to snag some data from neutron stars/black holes when hunting for research stations next game, then.
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Brainwright

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #20 on: March 31, 2024, 04:46:16 PM »

Also worth noting, you get around +40 in hyperspace topography for scanning a phenomenon called Ion Storm that was introduced in the last update.  Usually, the gas giant in Dukat will have one generated between itself and the star.  Those are the conditions where it usually occurs, but notably, it doesn't always happen in Magec where there is a similar situation.
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Sinigr

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #21 on: April 01, 2024, 12:49:07 AM »

Gas giants and magnetic fields are 5 each; a close-range scan of a black hole is... 40, I think? You can also get a good chunk of data by throwing some volatiles at a sensor platform (if you haven't already done that in the area - it'll tell you if you're not going to get survey progression out of it), or pinging the middle of a nebula (as in the nebula-type star system).

The trick to scanning neutron star beams is to approach from behind; you want to hit the sensor ping just before you enter the beam, and then it's rotating away from you so it costs hardly any supplies to get your scan and get out again. (And note that you get credit for the beam and the star itself separately; for the latter, you have to be in the star's corona. It's technically possible to get both off a single ping, but the timing is tricky and unreliable.)

...The trick to getting close scans of black holes is to have s-modded solar shielding on everything in your fleet, though. (Which I do recommend, it's really nice to be able to use hyperspace storms for mobility without them eating all your supplies, but if not, well, maybe put your fleet in storage and go wandering about with a dram or something just to get the scan data...)

Long-range black hole scans are much like the neutron star scans: just dip in and out again. (Worth noting: getting a short range scan on a black hole will not give you credit for the long range scan, so if you are wandering around with s-modded solar shielding, you'll need to scan every black hole twice.)

It's also worth noting that you can get scan data off of things in the core worlds; throw a sensor ping when you head into a system via a gas giant's gravity well.
There are so many problems, but the main thing is for what...
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Try to hunt it! ;)
https://i.imgur.com/gXIAgGy.png

bob888w

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #22 on: April 01, 2024, 04:01:18 AM »

I'm not sure if I find slipstreams to be completely useless, or if it just takes too long to get the upgrades to make them useful, but I've played two games to level 15 and have yet to unlock reverse polarity, so slipstreams still remain "95% chance to press e-burn and waste supplies to get where you're going, with a 5% chance of being helpful".

You have to be pretty proactive with it, talk to every scavenger, take the blackhole and binary star CR hits, and overload every sensor array
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Pizzarugi

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2024, 05:56:33 AM »

I'm not sure if I find slipstreams to be completely useless, or if it just takes too long to get the upgrades to make them useful, but I've played two games to level 15 and have yet to unlock reverse polarity, so slipstreams still remain "95% chance to press e-burn and waste supplies to get where you're going, with a 5% chance of being helpful".

You have to be pretty proactive with it, talk to every scavenger, take the blackhole and binary star CR hits, and overload every sensor array

To make this quicker, I deliberately go out of my way to bring materials so I can build sensors for overloading. Helps a lot when I don't get lucky to find a domain one in the constellation I'm exploring.
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LeetKroo

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #24 on: April 02, 2024, 07:49:14 AM »

To make this quicker, I deliberately go out of my way to bring materials so I can build sensors for overloading. Helps a lot when I don't get lucky to find a domain one in the constellation I'm exploring.

Overloading arrays are so rewarding. They expose nearby streams and give you topographic data. Now you can ride those streams to fast travel while getting even more data. Bonus point if you already have reverse polarity.

I always have 15 volatiles and 15 transplutonics in my cargo for this reason.
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Ragnarok101

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #25 on: April 02, 2024, 12:59:28 PM »

I've been smacking everything I can with the sensor burst, the reverse polarity one is imo the most important and it comes first, so I get it fairly quickly. That said I am running a pretty heavily exploration-dependent fleet.
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Kirschbra

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Re: I love the slipstream mechanics
« Reply #26 on: April 05, 2024, 08:39:23 AM »

I used to hate them, but I find them to be very useful this time around.
The reverse polarity for one is fantastic. 

For everyone saying that by the time you unlock it, the game is almost over.
You may not understand how to unlock it.
You use your scanner on gas giants and magnetic fields and they all give you +5 points. to it.  Just tap that scan anytime your at a gas giant or field and it unlocks pretty quick.
You also get some randomly from going fast as far as I can tell, like using a slip stream, or sometimes even getting blasted by a storm will give you points(from the speed boost)
I think i had a random event at a planet or derelict or something give me +50 points

Just be persistent on the scanning especially if your out exploring this happens quick.

If your mostly doing bounties in the core worlds, you probably wont get it up as quickly.  But it's a reward for exploring to make exploring easier
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