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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: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?  (Read 100046 times)

Serenitis

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #30 on: February 28, 2015, 01:38:36 PM »

Weapon groups with alternating fire set only display the arc and range for the currently active weapon, rather than displaying all the arcs for that group which is way easier to play with.
There are some setups where alt. fire is so much better for constant damage, but it is such a pain to use because you can't see where you're firing except one gun at a time.

There is no option to not select a wepon group, so it is impossible to fly with all weapons automated and just concentrate on maneuvering.

Why do frigates get such a huge boost from navigation? They don't need it, while the larger ships get very liitle and need it so very badly.

Why is the pursuit option such a deliberately horrid and spiteful trap? Especially where pirates are concerned. (If they don't care enough to lower your rep for attacking them in the firast place, they shouldn't care about you chasing them either.)

<esc> still doesn't quit / exit everything. :P

Editing the ship variants in game creates a new folder "starfarer.res" to store this info in. Great, no probs. But why is it sat in C:\ rather than in the game folder?
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WKOB

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #31 on: February 28, 2015, 01:41:48 PM »

Quote
There is no option to not select a wepon group, so it is impossible to fly with all weapons automated and just concentrate on maneuvering.
In case you weren't aware, pressing 6 is essentially this. It will still show the arcs of the last selected weapon group, but the weapon group will autofire if enabled.

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Megas

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #32 on: February 28, 2015, 03:54:06 PM »

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Why do frigates get such a huge boost from navigation? They don't need it, while the larger ships get very liitle and need it so very badly.
Yes, and this is why I use nothing but frigates (and Atlas for commodity runs) by endgame.

Other annoyances with Navigation:
* Frigates have five dead levels.  Others have seven or eight dead levels.
* Skill progression is arcane and hidden from the player.
* Ships bigger than frigates only have +1 by level 5 - they get the greatest bonuses near level 10.
* The Stellar Navigation perk at level 7 is hidden.

Also, burn boosts are locked in high Technology, specifically Mechanical Engineering 7 for Augmented Engines hullmod (most powerful hullmod in the game - all ships should take it if they can - no exceptions - its that good!) and Navigation skill.  You pass on Technology, you will have a very slow fleet.
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Aeson

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #33 on: February 28, 2015, 05:46:58 PM »

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Why do frigates get such a huge boost from navigation? They don't need it, while the larger ships get very liitle and need it so very badly.
Calling the skill Navigation implies that the speed bonus comes from an ability to find shorter paths for the trip. If so, you would expect to see faster ships gain a greater boost to their apparent speed than slower ships would. If the length of the standard path from point A to point B is D, the time taken for the trip is D/(ship speed). If, through your navigational wizardry, you find a path between points A and B which is 20% shorter (i.e. pathlength is 0.8*D), the time taken for the trip is 0.8*D/(ship speed) = D/(1.25*(ship speed)) => your ships are effectively 25% faster. Finding shorter paths improves apparent travel speed in proportion to the speed of the ships following the path, and so faster ships would benefit more than slower ships.

Looking at how Navigation changes ship speeds in relation to their base speeds, it appears as though it could be a rough approximation of a percentage bonus. Still leaves you wondering where you're finding the shortcuts, though, especially shortcuts of the magnitude implied by the bonuses. I think that since the game doesn't appear to bother with orbital mechanics for ships traveling in a system it might be nice if instead of boosting burn speeds Navigation simply improved the interception algorithms (in addition to the hyperspace exit points bonuses), since the standard one appears to be 'aim for where the target currently is' rather than 'aim for where the target will be if it follows its present course at its present velocity' or, for planets, 'aim for the point in the orbit where we should meet it if we start trying to go there now.'
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Megas

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #34 on: February 28, 2015, 07:14:16 PM »

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There is no option to not select a wepon group, so it is impossible to fly with all weapons automated and just concentrate on maneuvering.
In case you weren't aware, pressing 6 is essentially this. It will still show the arcs of the last selected weapon group, but the weapon group will autofire if enabled.
6 does not work, but any unused empty group from 2 to 5 will work.  Strive to keep 5 empty for this purpose.  That said, it would be nice if 6 worked.

I think that since the game doesn't appear to bother with orbital mechanics for ships traveling in a system it might be nice if instead of boosting burn speeds Navigation simply improved the interception algorithms (in addition to the hyperspace exit points bonuses), since the standard one appears to be 'aim for where the target currently is' rather than 'aim for where the target will be if it follows its present course at its present velocity' or, for planets, 'aim for the point in the orbit where we should meet it if we start trying to go there now.'
That reminds me of one more thing that is annoying:  Game sending your fleet where target is now instead of where target will be.  It is a UI issue, and it should intercept without any resource tax (or otherwise impose fake difficulty), so that the player does not get frustrated and try to intercept manually (while grumbling).
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WKOB

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #35 on: February 28, 2015, 11:50:50 PM »

6 does not work, but any unused empty group from 2 to 5 will work.  Strive to keep 5 empty for this purpose.  That said, it would be nice if 6 worked.
Huh, works for me, and has since... pretty early in the game's cycle. I know for a fact, because I often prefer to have all weapons on auto-fire for certain set-ups.
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Serenitis

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #36 on: March 01, 2015, 03:51:23 AM »

Okay, cool. So a phantom/empty group will work for automated weapons.

Calling the skill Navigation implies that the speed bonus comes from an ability to find shorter paths for the trip.....

Its just a convenient label for a game mechanic, it could just as easily be called anything else. And any amount of guessing about what in-universe things are in play to make this the way it is (as fun as they are) don't detract from the fact that slow ships are very unfun to play.
A possible way to balance between larger and smaller ships is to keep the max speed of everything the same, but give larger ships a penalty for acceleration and turning. So fleets of frigates could dance around like they do now, but fleets with larger ships get progressively harder to maneuver as bigger ships get added to them.
A side effect of having large ships in your fleet would be having to plan where you want to go before you set off, and having to weather to consequences of something you can't evade because you can't just switch directions instantly any more.
Then you could use the navigation skill to ease those restrictions a little, and have a speed boost skill (if needed) under one of the engineering branches.

Might work. Might not.
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frag971

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #37 on: March 17, 2015, 11:31:37 AM »

I would love to have a dragon age origins -esque ai editing where i can select exactly what my ship would do in what situation. This way i could taylor my playstyle into it.
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Let's say I'm captaining the ISS Slightly Lopsided Isosceles Triangle here.

Flare

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #38 on: March 17, 2015, 03:22:04 PM »

I have been recently running a frigate party, and while most of the frigates are able to deal with most fleets provided I jssue the roght commands + luck, there are instances where my frigates are running head long (and without) support against powerful cruisers or capitals with loadouts that will give frigates no chance. As per the other suggestions before me, a little bit more control would be great. In particular, thd avoid order would help a whole bunch.

Also, some of the interactions when dealing with patrols is very frustrating due to their consequences, and consequences of subsequent limited options can be. When should I refuse them for example? At the start, when they're scanning me, when they'rve issed the amount, when exactly does what? None of these options are clear to a person interacting with the patrol.
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Quote from: Thana
Quote from: Alex

The battle station is not completely operational, shall we say.

"Now witness the firepower of this thoroughly buggy and unoperational batt... Oh, hell, you know what? Just ignore the battle station, okay?"

Serenitis

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #39 on: March 21, 2015, 09:52:56 AM »

I don't really care (too much) if the ship I'm boarding can't be salvaged and ends up in bits.
But why does it have to explode and take other stuff with it?
Sure it might be 'realistic', but its a terrible mechanic which punishes you on top of the already long odds of getting anything useful/interesting. And I can guarantee that if a boarding results in the explosion of anything besides a single disposable shuttle there will be reloading involved.
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Megas

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #40 on: March 21, 2015, 12:19:48 PM »

In theory, launch teams avoids the consequences of self-destruct.  Unfortunately, launch teams require more marines to succeed and chance of success is remote - half of that of a hard dock, which is less than 50% to begin with.  The only viable option for boarding is hard dock with either a big ship that can survive an explosion or a sacrificial Mercury or two that you do not mind losing.
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Serenitis

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #41 on: March 23, 2015, 12:36:10 PM »

Asteroids.

Very often there will be little chunks of rock floating about. Also very often your ship(s) will hit said bits of rock and go sailing off in some odd direction with no means of controlling/correcting them until the insertion burn ends, but by then it is often too late to do anything useful.
Usually this will happen in a pursuit, rendering the entire engagement a complete waste of time.

Having rocks hit by a ship at full burn just explode doing a bit of damage but otherwise having no other effect would be a far less aggravating mechanic.
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TheHengeProphet

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #42 on: March 25, 2015, 02:55:05 AM »

Patrols irritate me, but they make sense... It's basically like living in a universe run by mafiosos.

The Valhalla system is not worth the pain.  Any interaction there can cripple relations with other factions.  One trade with Ragnar Complex countermanded 4 hours of attempted relation-building with Tri-Tachyon...

I've been to Eos once, just to see what was up with the five bounties over there.

Boarding is punishing.  Lore-wise, the sheer inability to capture ships makes no sense.  With the rate of ship destruction that goes on, the entire sector would be grounded.

I'm left longing for a real use for EMP weapons...  I would like the ability to use them to shut down ships entirely, without causing much damage.

(piloted ship only) skills affecting simulations.  It provides a false sense of what the ship can do.  When building my fleet, I put each ship into the simulation against some benchmarking ships, on autopilot, to see if they can handle themselves alright.

I actually don't mind the AI.  Much.  They do some really stupid things, but since I tend not to go for (piloted ship only) skills first, I generally have a decent scope of ship capabilities.
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Silver Silence

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #43 on: March 25, 2015, 03:09:02 AM »

Having a really "heavy" ship in terms of mass plough through large asteroids as it burns onto the field. Smaller ships can just lose entire chunks of their front armour from hitting asteroids during a burn and it cannot be stopped. I've even had enemy kill messages pop up at random during the start of combat, presumably as one of their seriously wounded ships burns onto the field, hits an asteroid and promptly explodes.




(piloted ship only) skills affecting simulations.  It provides a false sense of what the ship can do.  When building my fleet, I put each ship into the simulation against some benchmarking ships, on autopilot, to see if they can handle themselves alright.


I was under the impression that ships will only be affected by your piloting skills if you are captaining it. So a fresh addition to the fleet shouldn't be affected by your skills when you test it out in sim as you're not the one running the show on that ship.


I'm left longing for a real use for EMP weapons...  I would like the ability to use them to shut down ships entirely, without causing much damage.


Does the Tach Lance not solve this, if you've ever seen one without mods? For a large slot burst beam weapon, it really doesn't do that much damage but will short circuit like half an unshielded capital.
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LeoMaximus

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Re: What are the things that annoy/frustrate you about Starsector?
« Reply #44 on: March 25, 2015, 03:48:22 AM »

Can we have a way to measure the effect our trading with other factions? i want to know the relationship boost or loss I will face if I go through a trade.

Also LOL overselling food to a starved market, "no we just need 1000 units of food to stop this famine you sold us 1001, you *** monster you shity profiter we are gonna report you now and blame you for this ***" you *** with the wrong people.

Oh can we know how much of our quantity of goods traded to a market will meet their demand or cause an oversupply, because some markets just become endless black holes of consumption.

Ah combat the AI works well but there are some issues, ships with warp or the ability to phase should really aim for the engines of ships not warp or phase into the front of the ship and eat a crap ton of ammo.
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