Starsector - RT 2D indie space goodness

[MartinK]

Here’s a radical idea: Get rid off the RPG system. Geting more money, better ships and a profitable colony is enough of a player progress and is feel more natural than the standard experience point model. Consider that to my knowledge the very first space opera RPG (Traveller) had no character advancement system whatsoever.

 

[Fenix]

Transcendence plays perfectly without personal progression if diety powers doesn't count like that.

 

[Sarkile]

I've owned this game for a while, but just started playing it a few days ago. It's pretty great. What mods do people recommend?

 

[Arrowgrab]

Here’s a radical idea: Get rid off the RPG system. Geting more money, better ships and a profitable colony is enough of a player progress and is feel more natural than the standard experience point model. Consider that to my knowledge the very first space opera RPG (Traveller) had no character advancement system whatsoever.

Well, technically it did have advancement (in terms of characters improving their skills and attrbutes), only it all happened during character creation. IIRC, you could additionally achieve a very small amount of further improvement during the campaign, but it was strictly limited and required disproportionate cost and effort. So yeah, in practical terms, your Traveller PCs didn't improve in the traditional sense during play.

 

[what am i doing]

So far I'm really enjoying the writing for the quests. It's not excessive but it adds a lot of flavour where the game needed it. Gameplay-wise I've not really noticed a difference, haven't done much combat or built any colonies yet, though - just surveying and smuggling. There's also more Domain era loot to be found.

Spoiler

I recently went on a mission to drop some researchers at a distant outpost. It turned out a beta AI had taken over the place and was using the researchers already there to its own ends (monitoring Remnant activity, I think). I initially tried negotiation; it threatened the researchers' lives and tried to convince me to give it some equipment in echange for their freedom, tried to convince me that I'd face retribution from "human-omega" if I let their lives be lost (omega being AI God, I guess). I thought about it for a while, almost agreed to its demands, but eventually decided to send in a team of marines. They retrieved the researchers and destroyed/retrieved what was left of the beta core.

Good stuff

Edit: I think maybe now the criteria for a "perfect system" are far more stringent due to Domain tech limitations. Players are now more encouraged to spread to multiple systems if they want to use Domain archeotech. Conversely, I think expeditions / raiding are toned down a bit so they're less severe, plus

Spoiler

Being able to reactivate the gates means that even if you don't find a gate in the system you want to colonize, the whole idea of something being far away from the core worlds don't matter so much. So if you find a really good system way out in the middle of nowhere, there'll be a gate somewhere nearby anyways.

Additionally, one thing that really bugged me in the last patch was that if you wanted to use the blueprints you found to make ships, you had to have a colony. Now, Merchant contacts (at least on planets with Heavy Industry) can offer you some nanoforge production capability, with the caveat that you have to bring your own blueprints. There is a credit value limitation, but it might be tied to the merchant's importance or how much work you've done for them. At any rate, it's a welcome change.

 

[panda]

Nexerelin for 0.95 has been released.

I've owned this game for a while, but just started playing it a few days ago. It's pretty great. What mods do people recommend?

^^ + bunch of factions you like and QOL mods.

 

[Rafidur]

Anyone knows when nexe- ah.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Keep in mind that there are still bugs... Nexerelin author has a little hotfix for one already, but only in a forum post: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9175.msg316677#msg316677

 

[Ezeekiel]

Alright, last time I played this was on my previous pc... Time to redo all my personal modifications by hand...

 

[MartinK]

I wonder how much it pisses Alex off that people outright refuse to play his game without Nexelerin.

 

[AgentFransis]

Why would it piss him off and why Nexelerin in particular? People often play with dozens of mods.

 

[what am i doing]

I would think Alex would be happy about the mod. He has said that he doesn't want the game to be too much like a 4X, and having a mod that does that means people are less likely to pester him to take the base game in that direction.

 

[AgentFransis]

He has said that he doesn't want the game to be too much like a 4X

Did he? That's funny since the game is already a 3.5X. All Nex does for the player in that aspect is reuse the existing raiding mechanic and switch ownership.

But I agree with the sentiment. I strongly dislike the colony mechanic, it's lame and boring and doesn't fit the game. Exploring and surveying is fun. Searching for rare blueprints and manufacturing ships and weapons is fun. But colony development and the associated "economy" is banal and protecting your colonies from never ending raids is especially lame since it directly counteracts the main aspect of the game, which is exploring and bounty hunting. And thematically it's pretty weird as well. You play as a mercenary admiral and suddenly *bang* you're an interstellar nation out of nowhere.

What he should have done, and hopefully it can be modded some day, is to allow you to manufacture stuff at friendly planets and/or a neutral location like Prism spaceport. Keep the colonies for people who like them and still allow you to use the blueprints if you don't.

 

[what am i doing]

Did he? That's funny since the game is already a 3.5X. All Nex does for the player in that aspect is reuse the existing raiding mechanic and switch ownership.

Yes, although I can't recall the exact post.

What he should have done, and hopefully it can be modded some day, is to allow you to manufacture stuff at friendly planets and/or a neutral location like Prism spaceport. Keep the colonies for people who like them and still allow you to use the blueprints if you don't.

To an extent this is kind of in with the current patch as there are some mission givers who will let you do that. It can be a pain finding them though (roll of the dice at bars) and it would be nice if there was a more consistently available means of doing it.
Edit: I think you can basically find them at any place with Heavy Industry. But the amount of d-mods is linked to production quality (ie, a pristine nanoforge means less chance of defects) so your best bet is to visit Chicomoztoc and Kazeron until you encounter one such person at the bar, then develop them as a contact.

 

[MartinK]

I started a colony and have no issues with pirates despite being at -60 relationship with them. Perhaps it was toned down. Not taking commision and thus not being dragged to war probably helps too. The income form the coloby was cut down drastically, but I play with Nexelerin in Starfarer mode, so it should be somewhat better in vanilla, but not as broken as it used to be.

 

[Haba]

So does anyone know if anything on the... uh... "end game content" -side of things has changed in the patch?

 

[Rewrite]

After being disappointed with Endless Sky, I found this thing to dick around with.
And I already dont like how you start in a combat freighter with 6 gun ports and a second ship with drones and 3 gunports...
I'd wish you start in a 2-seater and a pack of cigarettes.
In Endless Sky you can start in the shitties fighter available and deep in debt, not that it is a tough start or game but its flavor...
Great thing about SS is that you can set the combat speed to any value you want, but only at game start in settings.json

 

[Rewrite]

I just fought a pirate freighter and shuttle 5 times in a row. Lost all of them. Let the AI fight to see what would happen. It won. Seems I'm retarded.

I tried focusing the fighter down after it takes shield dmg and tries to run. But he is faster than me and my fucking drones refuse to follow it. So I then have to fight their freighter too and overload... My "carrier" also desperately, at all costs, is keeping distance and wont fucking engage.

The fucking AI fighter also is dodging left and right and front of me and he is fucking faster tahn my turret turn speed, wtf, so he actually manages to dodge...

It seesm that drones dont ever run out? Weird. Winning strat seems to be turtling...

 

[Rewrite]

The controls are also questionable. You can strafe with Shift but only orthogonal to where you mouse points, but guess what else points where my mouse is? My goddamn turrets... So if I strafe, I aint hitting shit with weaps that are not front and center.

 

[Blaine]

The subject matter here are the two best top-down, spaceship-themed games to be released in many years, and this guy registered to triple post and complain about how much he dislikes them.

Well, at least you registered not only to discuss games, but to discuss games that aren't AAA popamole.

You're wrong and your taste is poor, but you're wrong in a refreshing and acceptable way.

 

[anvi]

Don't mind Blaine, even reasonable criticism of a game sounds an alarm in his bunker.

 

[Blaine]

Don't mind Blaine, even reasonable criticism of a game sounds an alarm in his bunker.

When I have reasonable criticisms to air about a game, I post my thoughts once—which may take the form of participating in a short discussion—and then move on with my life.

You, on the other hand, have revisited the Factorio thread time and again over a multi-year period to rant about the game. That isn't reasonable; it's obsessive.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/search/146510220/

Between February 2017 and today (a more than four-year period), you've posted 87 times in the Factorio thread. The thread is only 27 pages long, so your 87 posts represent approximately 13% of all posts in said thread.

To reiterate, that's 87 posts about a game you don't even like, distributed over a more than four-year period. Since I actually enjoy Factorio, I've had to put up with your half-decade-long insane grudge every time I replay the game and wish to discuss it.

 

[Zanzoken]

So is this kind of like "Sid Meier's Pirates" in space? Because that's the vibe I'm getting.

 

[Blaine]

So is this kind of like "Sid Meier's Pirates" in space? Because that's the vibe I'm getting.

Not even close.

It is tactical, real-time, top-down fleet combat on scales ranging from small (a few ships per side) to large (a couple of dozen ships per side). The capabilities and roles of the various ships vary widely and even the same hull can be highly variable, so learning loadouts and fleet doctrines is part of being a skilled player.

That's the heart of the game. The rest of the systems (which include character progression, exploration, logistics, economics, faction warfare, etc.), while well realized and adding quite a lot of interest to the game, are in support of this core gameplay.

 

[anvi]

Don't mind Blaine, even reasonable criticism of a game sounds an alarm in his bunker.

When I have reasonable criticisms to air about a game, I post my thoughts once—which may take the form of participating in a short discussion—and then move on with my life.

You, on the other hand, have revisited the Factorio thread time and again over a multi-year period to rant about the game. That isn't reasonable; it's obsessive.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/search/146510220/

Between February 2017 and today (a more than four-year period), you've posted 87 times in the Factorio thread. The thread is only 27 pages long, so your 87 posts represent approximately 13% of all posts in said thread.

To reiterate, that's 87 posts about a game you don't even like, distributed over a more than four-year period. Since I actually enjoy Factorio, I've had to put up with your half-decade-long insane grudge every time I replay the game and wish to discuss it.

I might have liked it if they finished it, but they didn't because of your kind.