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Starsector: Spaceships, RPG elements, laser fights. .6 update out! Everything cooler!
durandal4532
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So Starfarer looks really interesting.
You can grab the game here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/
Why does it look interesting?
Woah there calm down okay Starfarer is a game in the tradition of Star Control and Escape Velocity. That is, a game in which you play a brave starship captain who is making his or her way in the world via trade, diplomacy, and combat.
You begin with a single ship, your "flagship" of your "fleet of being a loser". You have options about how you want to grow that into something impressive. You can modify your ship, acquire holdings for sweet cash money, or buy/befriend/capture ships to integrate into your growing fleet. Everything you do makes everything else you do a bit easier.
The economic model is something the developers are hoping to make a bit more interesting than varying commodity market prices. Essentially, it seems like they want to create RPG-like "economic encounters" in addition to having a simple underpinning trading system. The example they give is that you can encounter illegal weapons shipments. Destroying them ups stability in a system, leaving them lowers it. Your decision would depend on whether you want a stable trading partner that likes you or an unstable planet you might be able to grab for yourself.
Combat takes place in a top-down perspective, with you piloting the flagship of your fleet and giving general strategic orders to your captains. The direct control takes the form of WASD turning/acceleration and mouse aiming and firing. After tooling around in the tutorial/early mission there are already some things I love about the combat.
For one thing, there's a great system for using multiple ship weapons. You can quickly swap which weapon you control in order to focus on an enemy with whatever hurts them most. Flak cannons for fighters, big HE shells for giant ships and whatnot. But oh, you say, what about when multiple enemies are attacking at once? Well, that's where automating weapons comes in. Press Shift+3 and your flak cannons will auto-target incoming fighters.
The basic mechanic in combat is that ships have shields and armor. Shields take damage from certain weapons, such as lasers, very poorly. Armor takes damage from certain weapons very poorly too. So what you do is knock down shields with lasers and the like, then pound on armor with explosives. When shields get knocked out, there's a moment of paralysis while systems reboot. If you drop shields before they're forced down, you can avoid that. It's all reasonably simple, but provides some decisions to make at a steady rate.
Other ships in your fleet mostly seem to mind their own beeswax, going to the location you planned in order to fulfill whatever mission you ordered them on. There's little to no micromanaging. The idea is that you go into combat with a plan for your fleet, and they carry it out without your direct orders. They're still playing with ideas about how to make the AI fleet respond to various RPG-type stats like the individual ship captain personalities and such.
Right now, they're focusing on getting the combat bit done up right. So what they've done is release a playable alpha for $10 that is pretty much just combat, but divided into missions. So far I've had a whale of a time with it. If you're like me and have been waiting for a game like this since the last one you played, I'd say it's worth a look.
Here's a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foklpwLu7v8&feature=player_embedded]Starfarer Mission Demo
Anyone else given this one a shot? I really have wanted a game like this since EVN, and I feel like this is pretty close to delivering all I was hoping for and more. The current build is also just a fun space-fightery thing.
UPDATE
- There's a new system and faction
- There's hyperspace and jump points, meaning you can travel via the overworld hyperspace. It's hypersparse at the moment, but it's actually pretty cool. It's basically similar to in-system controls/events, but it's different-looking and I'm excited for hyperspace related events.
-All new combat sounds
-Battles now start with ships on Travel Drive, so you zoom in faster, even though the maps are the same size
-You now have Combat Readiness, which has effects on your fleet's capacity to field ships and stuff
-New logistics ships, general focus on making fleet logistics make more sense
-New UI, more info packed in it
-New fighter mechanics, they now depend on you having actual flight decks to repair and refit them, but they're also kind of invulnerable so long as there's a carrier I think
-New battle mechanics like chasing people down or sending out scavenging crews
Real neat stuff, and then a bunch of backend things that are mostly about making modifications easier.
You can grab the game here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/
Why does it look interesting?
Woah there calm down okay Starfarer is a game in the tradition of Star Control and Escape Velocity. That is, a game in which you play a brave starship captain who is making his or her way in the world via trade, diplomacy, and combat.
You begin with a single ship, your "flagship" of your "fleet of being a loser". You have options about how you want to grow that into something impressive. You can modify your ship, acquire holdings for sweet cash money, or buy/befriend/capture ships to integrate into your growing fleet. Everything you do makes everything else you do a bit easier.
The economic model is something the developers are hoping to make a bit more interesting than varying commodity market prices. Essentially, it seems like they want to create RPG-like "economic encounters" in addition to having a simple underpinning trading system. The example they give is that you can encounter illegal weapons shipments. Destroying them ups stability in a system, leaving them lowers it. Your decision would depend on whether you want a stable trading partner that likes you or an unstable planet you might be able to grab for yourself.
Combat takes place in a top-down perspective, with you piloting the flagship of your fleet and giving general strategic orders to your captains. The direct control takes the form of WASD turning/acceleration and mouse aiming and firing. After tooling around in the tutorial/early mission there are already some things I love about the combat.
For one thing, there's a great system for using multiple ship weapons. You can quickly swap which weapon you control in order to focus on an enemy with whatever hurts them most. Flak cannons for fighters, big HE shells for giant ships and whatnot. But oh, you say, what about when multiple enemies are attacking at once? Well, that's where automating weapons comes in. Press Shift+3 and your flak cannons will auto-target incoming fighters.
The basic mechanic in combat is that ships have shields and armor. Shields take damage from certain weapons, such as lasers, very poorly. Armor takes damage from certain weapons very poorly too. So what you do is knock down shields with lasers and the like, then pound on armor with explosives. When shields get knocked out, there's a moment of paralysis while systems reboot. If you drop shields before they're forced down, you can avoid that. It's all reasonably simple, but provides some decisions to make at a steady rate.
Other ships in your fleet mostly seem to mind their own beeswax, going to the location you planned in order to fulfill whatever mission you ordered them on. There's little to no micromanaging. The idea is that you go into combat with a plan for your fleet, and they carry it out without your direct orders. They're still playing with ideas about how to make the AI fleet respond to various RPG-type stats like the individual ship captain personalities and such.
Right now, they're focusing on getting the combat bit done up right. So what they've done is release a playable alpha for $10 that is pretty much just combat, but divided into missions. So far I've had a whale of a time with it. If you're like me and have been waiting for a game like this since the last one you played, I'd say it's worth a look.
Here's a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foklpwLu7v8&feature=player_embedded]Starfarer Mission DemoAnyone else given this one a shot? I really have wanted a game like this since EVN, and I feel like this is pretty close to delivering all I was hoping for and more. The current build is also just a fun space-fightery thing.
UPDATE
- There's a new system and faction
- There's hyperspace and jump points, meaning you can travel via the overworld hyperspace. It's hypersparse at the moment, but it's actually pretty cool. It's basically similar to in-system controls/events, but it's different-looking and I'm excited for hyperspace related events.
-All new combat sounds
-Battles now start with ships on Travel Drive, so you zoom in faster, even though the maps are the same size
-You now have Combat Readiness, which has effects on your fleet's capacity to field ships and stuff
-New logistics ships, general focus on making fleet logistics make more sense
-New UI, more info packed in it
-New fighter mechanics, they now depend on you having actual flight decks to repair and refit them, but they're also kind of invulnerable so long as there's a carrier I think
-New battle mechanics like chasing people down or sending out scavenging crews
Real neat stuff, and then a bunch of backend things that are mostly about making modifications easier.
We're all in this together
durandal4532 on
0
Posts
But definitely looking forward to the finished game.
One thing I like about it (which SPAZ doesn't have) is that it seems like as you take damage your systems/weapons can be destroyed, which I always want in a space game.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
It's a minor distinction, but it makes a difference to me. That said, I totally need to pick that up too.
Also: I have no idea if the game uses actual space imagery. I assume the backgrounds are mostly art inspired by actual images because actual images are usually weird resolutions.
SOLD
Where Space Pirates and Zombies is more about just smashing the crap out of everyone and grabbing the lewts, this game seems like it will have a bit more depth going on. Don't get me wrong, I've been playing the beta for SPAZ a ton and I'm having a blast, but the more games that explore this kind of fleet gameplay the better in my opinion. From Gratuitous Space Battles hands off approach to SPAZ's arcadey chaos, and now Starfarer's RPG/Strategy approach all of the bases are coming together nicely.
PEW PEW
[e] In standard fashion, I load it back up and have an easier time with the mission. Learned I could kinda direct where ships went in the battle overlay(?) (tab) screen. That was neat.
Yeah, the next update should address a bit more of that, getting the tactical screen up and running with the ability to give ships assigned roles/objectives above and beyond "go here".
Escape Velocity + Gratuitous Space Battles?
YES PLEASE
This is where I stopped reading. Sold.
A.) They're focusing pretty exclusively on sand-boxy, which is great but a thing I liked about EVN was discovering the mission-strings. It always felt like a fun way of exploring each sector before a nice big fight at the end. They have mentioned individual missions, though.
B.) Fights are so deadly. Like, I enjoy the balance in terms of fleet vs. fleet, but I've been blown up with no chance to eject so many times. I worry that as a small-scale trader/whatever you may just die a ton. If there's some way to avoid fights that shouldn't be an issue, I suppose.
C.) I like the way they did weapons, but 4 slots? No no, my friend. I need like 12 buttons with various weapons, linkages, and automation options. I need all the buttons. We've got keyboards, let's use them!
But also, the guy from GSB actually gave one of the modders permission to use his ship images repainted as a part of a mod, which is pretty sweet.
I really want the .35 version, to see what actually being able to order people around with assignments is like. Just moving them around on the board leads to some confusion.
But I wish:
A) My ships flux/armor/ammo was more visible where I am looking during the fight
C) I was still playing Escape Velocity.
While the concept is extremely appealing, that's pretty much all it is at the moment from what I've read of the features that are in the game. If/when the project gets fleshed out some more, I may jump in.
They also just added an interesting little thing: captain personalities. Or they'll be in .35 at least. It's another little layer to customization/combat that I think is well-considered. Essentially, all ships will do just fine in most situations, but cowardly captains will focus more on avoiding damage if they're outnumbered, to the possible detriment of the assignment. Suicidal captains on the other hand, will never ever retreat from danger. They also talked about greedy captains and corrupt captains and a bunch of other types.
I'm enjoying the little simple elements they're tossing in. I am totally the sort of person who has been eager to assign a cowardly captain to a fire-support LRM ship and my suicidally brave ones to command wings of Torpedo bombers. All making sure that the ore refinery back home is crewed by loyal people and not money-grubbing jerks. They even made it just a single variable for you to tweak if you want to mod. I look forward to playing with the code.
Definitely don't think I would say the game at present is worth $10, but I'm very happy to support them in development because they seem to be doing a good job even this far out.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Then the OP mentioned Escape Velocity and I became VERY interested.
Starfarer looks like a meatier, more tactical SPAZ which sounds great in my book. I'll be keeping an eye on it.
The guys working on it are also very open to suggestions about possible improvements.
Campaign
Added crew advancement. Crew level affects:
accuracy of the ship's aim (autofire for player's ship, both autofire and otherwise, for AI-captained ships)
movement speed and ease of maneuvering (acceleration, turn rate, etc)
damage taken (to represent better maintained damage control systems, better repaired armor, etc)
Added per-fighter damage tracking and repairs. Hangar space is required to repair fighters.
Added basic campaign map (TAB to bring up)
Fleets get a movement speed bonus (up to 2x) when traveling far away from planets and asteroids
A metric ton of playtesting, balancing, etc
Miscellaneous
Sound - changed distance function (more distant sounds drop off in volume quicker)
Added rank insignia to ship icons in command UI and deployment dialog
Added way to set crew rank for ships in mission definitions
Changed random mission - now gives you control of a random capital ship, and the sides are even strength.
Added new mission - "Forlorn Hope" - featuring the Paragon battleship
Added difficulty levels (damage taken is set to HALF by default), options to show/hide various floating text
Mission score reduced by half when playing with half damage on
You can zoom out one more level (and zoom in one less) while piloting cruisers and capital ships
Added button to deploy all ships into battle, if fleet points allow it
AI
Improved AI aim - both autofire and manual. Aim quality depends on crew XP level.
Improved missile guidance AI
better aware of what weapons are dangerous (weighs whether they're pointed at the ship vs how long it takes to raise shields)
aware of flanking, will try to do it if possible
interceptors better at avoiding point defense capable ships
more sophisticated retreat behavior - figures out when it's not doing well, even if the relative forces deployed would indicate otherwise
I've had a couple minutes with it, and it definitely looks extremely mount-and-blade-y which is not a bad way to be. I'm still interested in there being some more trading/fuel/etc elements because I like the idea of not needing combat as the backbone of your fleet but daaang it's looking fun.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
One of the things that made EV a good time was that straight from the outset you felt like goddamn you want out of this podunk system but you can only jump 3 times, and you need to pay for fuel and dammit you better find work.
It's a good way of prodding you out of the gate I think. It falls into irrelevance reasonably quick, but starting off with no weapons and $50 for buying your first tank of gas makes it clear just how much you want to advance so you can see all that the map has to offer.
Still though I'm still about 5 minutes of play in because I haven't had any time so who knows.
Also, the limits are broken. I sold all my ships, bought a new ship that couldn't fit nearly enough of personnel, supplies, fuel, cargo and game didn't care.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Anyone have any early-game tips? Even the little pirate fleets I run into tend to have 2-3 frigates and fighters and tend to smoke my single frigate pretty quickly. Also, is there a way to select which ship I start with in the campaign? There don't seem to be any prompts for it on the start screen unless I am very dense (which is possible).