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[MidnightSun]

Maybe OP has a valid point, perhaps there should be one or two more missions where they're much more forgiving of mistakes to ease you in, this way people might have a testing ground for tactics and strategy while the really hard missions stay as they are.

Yeah, I would expect that in the final version, there will be more tutorials than the current two, which leave you with huge gaps in grasping even the basic interface.

Perhaps: one or two tutorials to demonstrate some of the strengths and weaknesses of different craft, another tutorial to supplement the current fleet tutorial that introduces some more advanced tactics, another tutorial to emphasize the management of 3-4 weapon groups and flux, etc. That would make the learning curve a bit less steep.

Understandably, though, that sort of thing is probably on the backburner now, what with all the work going into getting the campaign down.

[hairrorist]

Well, campaign play should allow people to inch their way in on their own terms instead of getting dunked in some of the tougher missions in this build

[Kommodore Krieg]

Dude. Face it, you're bad at the game. Quite a lot of people have actually completed all of the missions.
And personally, so far I have only beaten 2-3 of the missions, but I like the challenge. The game IS hard, but that's one of the major strengths of the game.

This.  The sooner you accept that fact instead of crying for unneeded difficulty nerfs, the sooner you can learn and get better at the game.  I'm trying very hard not to go ballistic because I dread to think of the unspeakable horror of seeing Starfarer dumbed down.  If you want an easy, dumbed down game, well you shouldn't have any trouble finding one because they are literally 95% of the current market. 

I hate to be That Guy, but some of you guys need to cut the OP some slack. The difficulty of the missions, especially to new players, is pretty high. I play some "hard" games now and then, and I certainly couldn't win every mission the first (or even fifth) time through. Some people probably can, and that's great! But not everyone can do that.

I agree they are very challenging.  I was in the same boat as the OP at first, as I bet most of the current players were.  If the OP was just stating the game was difficult and asking for help no doubt everyone would offer him good advice.  That isn't what he's doing though.  By stating "this game is too hard" he's implying it needs to be made easier.  Naturally people who like the game a lot, particularly for it's refreshing emphasis on skill and tactics compared to most other mindless, bland modern games, will react against that sentiment. 

[Alex]

I think that the OP deserves some slack. The game is hard (which, imo, is good), but it definitely falls short of having a smooth learning curve, and that's putting it lightly. I can see how it can be frustratng and cause an emotional reaction. I mean, heck, since it *did*, it's a fair guess that he wants to like the game. That makes me want to help, not call him names (Though I don't think anyone here did exactly that, and a great amount of good advice came from this thread. As an aside, if the first part of a post is negative, and the rest is good advice, I think the advice is more likely to be ignored

I'm trying very hard not to go ballistic because I dread to think of the unspeakable horror of seeing Starfarer dumbed down.

There's absolutely 0 chance of that. One of the main goals is to create a challengng game. I don't think the game's difficulty needs to be toned down, but it does need to be explained better.

[AdmiralMaelstrom]

That is a good idea to make a tutorial on the strengths and weaknesses of different crafts...

[Hopelessnoob]

Maybe OP has a valid point, perhaps there should be one or two more missions where they're much more forgiving of mistakes to ease you in, this way people might have a testing ground for tactics and strategy while the really hard missions stay as they are.

No he does not. Some of the missions are supposed to be hard. Not all of them are, some are extremely easy. The only mission i'm unable to beat is an Impossible mission. There are some easy missions and some hard missions, the game itself is not too hard. giving alex any thoughts to make the game easier is not a good idea, a harder game thats not frustrating will last a lot longer than a game thats simple.

[Qloos]

The only beef I have with the difficulty is the AI's ability to see through the fog of war and hunt you down.

"Sweet jesus, I'm on a retreat mission and I've taken command of the superfreighter!  I shall sneakily send it to the edge of the map past this nebular cloud and proceed far from any com sats or enemy ve-
oh sweet jesus, suddenly 5 fighters on radar heading straight for me!"

[Alex]

The only beef I have with the difficulty is the AI's ability to see through the fog of war and hunt you down.

To clarify how this works - the AI commander can see no more than you do. The ship AI, on the other hand, is capable of finding the nearest enemy target through the fog, which mainly manifests if it's set on "search & destroy". Strictly speaking, that isn't cheating, because it's available to both sides - the AI has no unfair advantage over you. I don't like it when games artificially ramp up the difficulty by letting the AI do things you can't in situations where you would otherwise expect parity.

[Qloos]

I see, makes sense.

[Wavenarra]

Another example of everything coming down to luck - 'Predators or prey'.

There is simply NO DEFENSE possible against their hundreds of drone ships. The only way to defeat them is to somehow destroy the carrier. Oh, wait, you can't, because you have no strike ships, and the ships you do have are easily taken out by swarms of laser-drone ships.

I had to just abandon any sense of 'tactics' and just charge the enemy carrier and spam torpedoes at it. Hardly felt majestic or grand at all.

[xanderh]

That IS a sort of tactic. It's not the best, but it is a tactic. I haven't beaten that level yet, but there's quite a few people on here that have. And I think you're apporaching this wrong, you're just complaining about how the game is too hard, without asking for help. If you asked people for help, they would give you advice. But, because you're just whining about the difficulty, people get annoyed with you.

If I knew how to beat that one, I'd say it.

Also, here's how to beat "sinking the bis'mar":
Deploy everything, order the two closest points to be captured, and rally the carrier group south of the middle point. When the enemy drones appear, give harass orders on them. Manually capture the last point, and stay back a little, so the enemy capital expends all their missiles. When all enemy drones are dead, order your drones and carrier to retreat, so they don't get destroyed (optional). Then, just let your two last ships fire at it, while you fly behind it, firing antimatter at it's engines, and then fleeing to a safe distance. Make sure that your shields are up while you're being shot at, and remember to vent flux as soon as you're out of range from his guns so you can get back in there.
That's how I did it, and I got 100% completion that way.

[Wavenarra]

That IS a sort of tactic. It's not the best, but it is a tactic. I haven't beaten that level yet, but there's quite a few people on here that have. And I think you're apporaching this wrong, you're just complaining about how the game is too hard, without asking for help. If you asked people for help, they would give you advice. But, because you're just whining about the difficulty, people get annoyed with you.

If I knew how to beat that one, I'd say it.

Also, here's how to beat "sinking the bis'mar":
Deploy everything, order the two closest points to be captured, and rally the carrier group south of the middle point. When the enemy drones appear, give harass orders on them. Manually capture the last point, and stay back a little, so the enemy capital expends all their missiles. When all enemy drones are dead, order your drones and carrier to retreat, so they don't get destroyed (optional). Then, just let your two last ships fire at it, while you fly behind it, firing antimatter at it's engines, and then fleeing to a safe distance. Make sure that your shields are up while you're being shot at, and remember to vent flux as soon as you're out of range from his guns so you can get back in there.
That's how I did it, and I got 100% completion that way.

I did beat it.

I just spammed torpedoes at it and then spammed antimatter at it

[Quarantine]

I did beat it.

I just spammed torpedoes at it and then spammed antimatter at it

God that mission was so frustrating, I had to read that hint up on the forums to beat it. You'll notice how this mission is the exact opposite to the mission Nothing Personal (I think), where you started with a fast but outgunned force and have to use that to your advantage. The strategy of direct confrontation with the carrier is also exactly opposite to the strategy you need to use to win that mission. That's what's awesome about this game.

[hairrorist]

How is killing the carrier first not a tactic?

[weed33]

Personally I thought that mission was too easy, I can get 100% 9 times out of 10 on that one. Just capture the nav buoy closest to you, The enemy fighters don't really pose a threat to you so quickly wipe them out them move in on the onslaught with the frigates. To deal with it perform strafing runs on the back of it:
1. Put shields up and accelerate at 45 degree angle to the back of it.
2. When in range fire both anti matter blasters and veer away from it to avoid collision.
3. Make sure not to fly directly away from it so it can't fire through your ships shield gap at the rear
4. When out of range vent flux
5. repeat until BOOM
It's simple really