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

Author Topic: Endgame?  (Read 4395 times)

Oathseeker

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Endgame?
« on: October 25, 2014, 12:17:00 PM »

Hey everyone,

I just found out 0.65a came out and spent my entire day playing it. And I really love the direction it's going in.
There are however a few things that really keep this game from being fun for a long time. The early game seems way too easy for me, it took me about an hour to get my first million through selling food to starving planets. And after that money becomes irrelivant. I just keep a stock of food in every sector and make a few more millions as soon as someone has a need for my food. This also means I'm about lvl 40 in the space of two hours. The exp gain from trading should probably get some sort of deminishing return.
But there are already a few topics about this so I won't bother going in to it much further. I don't actually have a problem with being rich and high level fast, that just means I can get to the endgame faster!
Unfortunaly there is really no such thing as endgame. As the economy is right now, in all my playthroughs it seems to reach an equilibrium after a few months, meaning there is almost no more trading to be done unless you actively disrupt the market by buying all the food everywhere. There are almost no pirates, so they don't do enough damage to disrupt the market and offer no challange to the player. All pirate fleets can be beaten with just one or two ships, and even the biggest faction fleets are no match for my 2 falcons and a few fighter wings.
Ofcourse there will be many mods coming to 0.65a soon to remedy these, and many other, problems. However I feel like it's a pitty I have to rely on mods to actually make this game enjoyable for more then a few hours. And just spawning some more and stronger pirate and faction fleets would already go a vary long way to doing that.

I ofcourse realize that this is simply an alpha build and the developer is focussing all his time on creating actual gameplay mechanics rather then content. But I just wanted to have said it, since I couldn't find any posts about the (lack of) endgame. So am I the only one who feels this way? Am I just unlucky with my playthroughs? Or do people just not bother mentioning it?

Let me know what you think.
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Alex

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2014, 12:22:22 PM »

And just spawning some more and stronger pirate and faction fleets would already go a vary long way to doing that.

Just a quick note on this, since it's rather non-obvious: if you keep attacking the same (non-pirate) faction in the same star system, their patrol fleets will ramp up in power a *lot*. That's probably the best way to get into large battles consistently.
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Nanao-kun

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2014, 12:29:31 PM »

I'd like to mention that leveling up has become very easy. I often end up thinking "I'll put this particular skill off because I can get another few levels in the next half hour or so" rather than caring anything about priority.
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Oathseeker

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2014, 12:30:11 PM »

And just spawning some more and stronger pirate and faction fleets would already go a vary long way to doing that.

Just a quick note on this, since it's rather non-obvious: if you keep attacking the same (non-pirate) faction in the same star system, their patrol fleets will ramp up in power a *lot*. That's probably the best way to get into large battles consistently.

Ah that's vary good to know. Thanks! Two follow up questions: Does this increased pirate activity have an effect on the sector's economy (aka, more traderoutes getting plundered etc.?
And does this also go for factions?
 
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Alex

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2014, 12:31:32 PM »

Ah that's vary good to know. Thanks! Two follow up questions: Does this increased pirate activity have an effect on the sector's economy (aka, more traderoutes getting plundered etc.?

If trade fleets and smugglers get taken out, yes. Otherwise, no.

And does this also go for factions?

You mean if two factions fight, will it ramp up? Yes, it will.
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SafariJohn

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2014, 12:33:25 PM »

I think for the most part it's a given that not much goes on in the endgame, currently. The 7 systems we have access to right now are only a itty-bitty part of the Sector, which, IIRC, has thousands of systems spread across it.

So once content starts being added and the player stops being the only active agent in the universe, then we'll see more interesting stuff going on.

For now, just keep on smashing all those pirates who are somehow able to afford Onslaughts.


When the Sector starts opening up, I'd like to see military fleets scale up more. I mean, if a bounty hunter can sustain 20+ ships in his fleet, why can't a developed planet with millions of people support hundreds of ships to defend itself.

Just think fighting a System Defense Fleet composed of about 300 ships. It would basically be a wave encounter. 20-30 ships at a time attacking your fleet. Every time you kill one another takes its place. You would probably end up destroying wrecks just to clear up firing lanes.
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Oathseeker

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2014, 12:36:24 PM »

If trade fleets and smugglers get taken out, yes. Otherwise, no.

Ah awesome, so the economy is really interacting with the trade fleets. I was curious if it wasn't just faking it by just randomly creating events.

You mean if two factions fight, will it ramp up? Yes, it will.

That wasn't actually what I meant, but it was the third question I was going to ask :p
I meant do faction fleets also get stronger if you kill them. I assume so, since pirates are probably just considered another faction.

When the Sector starts opening up, I'd like to see military fleets scale up more. I mean, if a bounty hunter can sustain 20+ ships in his fleet, why can't a developed planet with millions of people support hundreds of ships to defend itself.

Just think fighting a System Defense Fleet composed of about 300 ships. It would basically be a wave encounter. 20-30 ships at a time attacking your fleet. Every time you kill one another takes its place. You would probably end up destroying wrecks just to clear up firing lanes.

Oh I am in no way worried about the future of this game. I was for a while, thinking it might go the way of Mount & Blade, in being an awesome concept but lacking the depth to be fun for more then a few days. But after this update i know everything is going to be fine. This game is eventually going to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was just talking about the current build.
But as it turns out I was just playing the game wrong ;)

::Edit:: Merged my double post
« Last Edit: October 25, 2014, 12:41:16 PM by Oathseeker »
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Alex

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2014, 12:41:39 PM »

I think for the most part it's a given that not much goes on in the endgame, currently. The 7 systems we have access to right now are only a itty-bitty part of the Sector, which, IIRC, has thousands of systems spread across it.

Not sure where you're getting "thousands", but that's definitely not true. I think a more reasonable number to aim for might be a one to two hundred or so, but we'll see. It could actually wind up being somewhat lower. (Come to think of it, the features page says "hundreds" of star systems, but that's *old*, and in any case, it's not thousands.)


That wasn't actually what I meant, but it was the third question I was going to ask :p
I meant do faction fleets also get stronger if you kill them. I assume so, since pirates are probably just considered another faction.

Oh, I think you may have misread what I wrote: pirates are the only faction that *doesn't* do this.
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Oathseeker

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2014, 12:44:12 PM »

Oh, I think you may have misread what I wrote

I may have....  ::)

PS: Thanks for the amazingly quick feedback btw, from the developer himself no less. I am deeply honored!
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Alex

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2014, 12:47:33 PM »

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it! Trying to stay on top of everything as best I can :) Definitely aware that things aren't perfect, but happy that this release has been well-received nonetheless.
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Oathseeker

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2014, 12:57:27 PM »

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it! Trying to stay on top of everything as best I can :) Definitely aware that things aren't perfect, but happy that this release has been well-received nonetheless.

Good to hear, to be honest I was vary pleasantly surprised with the amount of depth the economy system adds, being able to run planets into starvation and then finding out they actually noticed how badly I screwed them. Vary awesome details, which I honestly did not expect in a one man indy game, let alone one still in early development.
The main problem to me right now seems to be the lack destabilizing factors, such as strong pirates and inter faction wars. But like I said, after this patch I'm confident this game is going to be amazing. Keep up the good work!
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SafariJohn

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2014, 01:04:46 PM »

Hundreds... Thousands... Same difference!  :P ::)

There's actually more than just Alex involved, as I know David does the art, and there are at least two more people involved somewhere in production. Or at least it says something along those lines somewhere around here.
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Oathseeker

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2014, 01:12:10 PM »

There's actually more than just Alex involved, as I know David does the art, and there are at least two more people involved somewhere in production. Or at least it says something along those lines somewhere around here.

Ah well, my apologies to them then! Still, this game already has more depth then many games that are backed by a full studio and many millions of dollers, so my point remains valid ;)
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Aereto

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2014, 11:18:01 AM »

keep on smashing all those pirates who are somehow able to afford Onslaughts.
... Now I feel like I need to work on procuring more credits and defensive ships just so I could take on Pirate Onslaughts the same I deal with Hegemony Onslaughts: 4 AM salvos up the rear or the armor gaps my fleet made for me. I'm not going to describe how the latter came to be.
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Cycerin

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Re: Endgame?
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2014, 05:24:19 PM »

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it! Trying to stay on top of everything as best I can :) Definitely aware that things aren't perfect, but happy that this release has been well-received nonetheless.

Mix of procedural and handcrafted content then? Sounds like it could work out quite excellently.
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