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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: So, what do people think of the difficulty?  (Read 13951 times)

OOZ662

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #30 on: October 21, 2014, 10:15:09 PM »

One thing that feels a bit problematic to me in my experience is that unless an event is killing some product (the big example being food shortages), the standard price variation is very small. Even when there's high demand for something there's a swing of only a couple credits up from the average price. This makes just your basic trade run worthless. I have been playing a lot of X3 in a trader style recently, though, so I guess I may be biased toward decently large price swings.
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It is law that any specific ship you want will not be available. If it is available, it will be gone by the time you're capable of buying it.

FasterThanSleepyfish

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #31 on: October 21, 2014, 10:30:09 PM »

Currently, I have a very sustainable fllet that consists of an Enforcer, a Lasher, a Shepard and a Tarsus. What's great about my fleet is that I can find bounties anywhere in the sector, load up some cargo worth a lot near that bounty, then fly over there for *Massive Cash*.

Sometimes those selling tariffs are a bit ridiculous on loot selling though, and battles can leave me with less money compared to straight-up and honest trading. I defnitely wish for an autonomous trading fleet system that will make larger fleets/full on faction assaults sustainable.
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Debido

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #32 on: October 21, 2014, 10:47:25 PM »

I'm currently rolling with:
Onslaught
Dominator
2xEnforcer
2xMedusa
1xWolf
1xHammerhead

And until my last battle, also had a teeny hound which I'd had from nearly the start of the game.

And yeah, it has netted me a good profit, but need luck, like defeating a pirate fleet in a system there there is a double system bounty on top of a specific enemy fleet bounty can net you 150k before overhead of fuel/supply.
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ahrenjb

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #33 on: October 22, 2014, 06:05:33 PM »

In previous plays I had always gravitated toward high-tech ships, primarily because of their speed and lack of ammunition restrictions. With the new update, I decided to try something new rather than the same old stale fleets that I had run before.

I like to bite off more than I can chew, so I've had my fleet wiped out a couple of times. Currently though, I've got an Enforcer and a Gemini. These two seem to work pretty well together, and I find myself taking on fleets of 6-8 destroyers and frigates with a pretty good success rate. Doing a tech-first build, and the navigation skill has really helped to make up for the lower speed of the "low" tech craft. I'm considering adding a cruiser to the mix, maybe a Falcon.

Really enjoying this update, the universe just feels a little spare currently. What IS there is so much more alive, but there just aren't enough systems / existing systems don't have enough factions or bases in them. Looking forward to the modding community catching up.
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Sundog

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #34 on: October 22, 2014, 07:04:03 PM »

Both characters were played with iron mode enabled, normal start, full damage, and max fleet size.

Bounty Hunter Playthrough:
  Early game - Enjoyably Challenging. The initial 3000c per frigate bounty in Corvus got me a good start. Bounty hunting nets good income, but expenses for repairs, travel, upkeep, and new ships frequently made my financial situation volatile. I destroyed something like 20 named bounty fleets before ever seeing one with a bounty of more than 30k, that's when things got easy.
  Mid game - Cakewalk. The payout for killing named bounty fleets suddenly jumped from 30k to ~70k, but the fleets themselves were only marginally more powerful. Larger bounty fleets had often taken serious losses before I arived, meaning I frequently earned oodles of money for trivial fights. Military markets started opening up, offering combat cruisers that easily steamroll the weak (D) ships.

Smuggler and Aspiring Drug Lord Playthrough:
  Early game - Easy. Lacking the scruples to avoid the black market makes it really easy to turn a decent profit, even with very little cargo space. There's no risk of combat casualties and only minor risk of unprofitable investments due to the ability to side-step tariffs. I amassed a small fortune of over 300k before everyone started hating me.
  Mid game - Brutal. The pirates begrudgingly tolerate me now, but half the legitimate factions won't trade with me anymore and the other half try to kill me on sight. Smuggling is much more difficult now that I can't even dock unless no patrols are nearby. I'm struggling to work my way into the good graces of the pirates, but they keep falsely accusing me of smuggling at pirate stations, which periodically worsens my reputation with them. All the worthwhile trade fleets always seem to be too well guarded for my small fleet of frigates to take on, so I haven't even tried proper piracy yet. The only destroyers anyone seems to be willing to sell me are the crippled (D) versions, but I recently had the good fortune to find a rare Madusa on the black market. I'm looking forward to finding out how the game changes now that I have the power to kill those pesky patrols and succulent traders >:D

ahrenjb

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #35 on: October 22, 2014, 07:56:01 PM »

This might not be directly related, but I didn't want to create a new thread. How do I get my reputation up from friendly to cooperative? Ending food shortages doesn't do it, and it seems that I'm capped out with Independents and Hegemony in the 60s.
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TaLaR

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #36 on: October 22, 2014, 10:07:17 PM »

This might not be directly related, but I didn't want to create a new thread. How do I get my reputation up from friendly to cooperative? Ending food shortages doesn't do it, and it seems that I'm capped out with Independents and Hegemony in the 60s.

Bounty hunting can eventually get you to 100 with everyone except pirates.
I get +3/5 for named bounties and up to +3 for generic pirate fleets.
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Megas

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #37 on: October 23, 2014, 06:45:25 AM »

@ ahrenjb:  Maybe fight bigger fleets with cruisers in them?
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ahrenjb

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #38 on: October 23, 2014, 09:45:00 AM »

@ ahrenjb:  Maybe fight bigger fleets with cruisers in them?

That was key, thanks Megas and TeLaR. By fighting larger named bounties I was able to get up into cooperative. Current challenge is reaching cooperative with all factions but pirate.
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Mattk50

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #39 on: October 23, 2014, 01:46:00 PM »

I still feel more limited by the lack of available to purchase ships than funds or money. Kinda a problem for fun gameplay, even if i do find an apogee one day, if it dies what do i do, search for it forever all over again? it's just annoying.
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Debido

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #40 on: October 23, 2014, 09:03:01 PM »

Don't search for the exact same ship to replace it, make do with something else of a similar ship class, the game forces you to adapt and change your fleet configuration and tactics that you employ to win.

The game isn't hard by any means, often I can't get all the weapons I want either so I store what I can find, and mount what I have available to my ships. The ships builds I have aren't ideal, but that's alright, that's the challenge. Me personally I haven't even seen a single AM blaster in my playthrough and have had to mount more PDs on my Medusa's front small energy mounts.

It's more of a challenge, and it makes it more fun! If the game had no patrols, tariffs or you were always given the ships and weapons you wanted the game would be too easy - and unenjoyable because of that.
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SafariJohn

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #41 on: October 24, 2014, 06:21:19 AM »

I think I've run into 3-5 dozen AM blasters in my run of about 1.5 years thus far. Get in touch with the guys I trade with and they'll hook you up with all the blasters you need.
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Debido

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #42 on: October 24, 2014, 06:31:08 AM »

Hey...hey...

(start of a joke) What if...Starsector has an "Auction House" for players instead of multiplayer?
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SafariJohn

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #43 on: October 24, 2014, 07:14:45 AM »

Dang, now I'm tempted to start an "Auction House" thread.


I've got a good Lasher (D) for sale; comes with 5 AM blasters. Weapons sold separately. Warning from the health inspector: risk of tinnitus extremely high.
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Aereto

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Re: So, what do people think of the difficulty?
« Reply #44 on: October 24, 2014, 03:49:12 PM »

Harsh-like difficulty on Normal with Full-Damage as I try my hand on the new sector. I may be fine with trading, though the tariffs are not easy. With a lone combat-ready ship, there is not a chance in getting a second combat-ready ship from the start.

An ok idea trading at start with one hermes/hound/cerberus under wing, but needs decent combat ships to protect... then there's the toll.  :o Crossing between factions can be a bit risky, since it's not only the pirates that would sink your fleet, but also the faction taxes.

In the meantime, it will take some time getting used to this version.  ;)
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