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Starsector is an open-world single-player space-combat hyphenated-description game

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Posts

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    2) You can also correct this by holding "s" to pump the brakes, or hitting Emergency burn to make a more immediate course change.

    Sustained burn also seems to have a navigation bug regarding star avoidance*. Sometimes I can't get it to path me to an object in low solar orbit because it keeps trying to escape the Corona. EBurn will usually fix this too.

    *In one instance it flew me through the star because it zigged right instead of left when trying to reach a point beyond it.

    ArbitraryDescriptor on
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    NebulousQ wrote: »
    6) If you do the tutorial, you will get some storage space at a planet. It costs money every month to store things there! Depending on how much you have in that planet's storage there will be a fee. You can find abandoned stations where you can store things for free.

    Ah, I wondered what abandoned stations were for. I did notice you could store things there, but I wasn't sure if it was safe.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    2) You can also correct this by holding "s" to pump the brakes, or hitting Emergency burn to make a more immediate course change.

    Sustained burn also seems to have a navigation bug regarding star avoidance*. Sometimes I can't get it to path me to an object in low solar orbit because it keeps trying to escape the Corona. EBurn will usually fix this too.

    *In one instance it flew me through the star because it zigged right instead of left when trying to reach a point beyond it.

    The navigation isn't trying to escape the corona. The corona is pushing your ship away from the star. It gets more severe during solar flares.

    The reason that you can more easily make headway when not sustained burning is because sustained burn has a lower acceleration modifier. And so, while able to go faster, is less able to counteract the force of the corona.

    Its also harder to escape a black hole when sustained burning (but changing to anything other than e-burn might be a bad idea)

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  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Yeah -- you can fly "through" all of the celestial objects in the game, some of them are just actively pushing you away and give you huge penalties for being close (ie stars). There will be times when a nav buoy or something is right on top of a star, and you have to emergency burn to get enough acceleration to be able to reach it and interact with it.

    Also god damn the pirates still hate me a lot. I have a lot of defenses, but they've just sent 2 fleets that each have 9 Atlas MK 2s alongside 50 other ships. Leave me alooneee.

    Fiatil on
  • BasilBasil Registered User regular
    Burning through hyperspace storms to avoid getting scragged is a thing, too.

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  • swphreakswphreak Registered User regular
    My first outing after completing the tutorial was something. Got a scavenge mission from a scientist to recover an AI core. Flew all the way to the bottom of the sector map without too many issues - a storm here or there and pirates tried chasing me for awhile. At the destination, I ended up reloading the game like a dozen times trying to beat the automated defenses. I finally gave up rying to pilot and just let the AI drive while I ordered all my ships to focus fire. Barely inched by without losing any ships (my frigate had like single digit hull left). I should probably look into getting some more smaller combat ships.

    My reward ended up being a corrupted nanoforge and a bunch of blueprints, including a Paragon Battleship, Shade Phase Frigate, and an Afflictor Phase Frigate. Now to get back to civilization in one pice.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited August 2019
    OK, what am I doing wrong in the tutorial with those miners kicking my ass even when I'm engaging one half of their forces at a time?

    edit: the ships I salvaged have zero CR which I suppose isn't in my favor.

    Echo on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    OK, some combat tutorialing later and I managed to take stuff down.

  • AxenAxen My avatar is Excalibur. Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
    I've seen someone describe the combat as a "slightly more in-depth Mechwarrior" and despite the top down view I feel like this is a fairly accurate statement.

    It does take a bit of getting used to for sure. I know I spent my first hour or so sucking at it and wondering why I kept seeing this game at the top of recommended charts. But once you get it you get it.

    It also helps that the AI (both friend and foe) are surprisingly good.

    A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Random Tips:
    • Supplies are everything. Try to max them out whenever you can, as you need them for traveling, repairs while traveling, and combat. Fuel is a bit easier to anticipate how much you'll need, but anytime you deploy for combat you're going to use a big chunk of supplies
    • The navigation skill is great to have -- +1 maximum burn makes it a lot easier to catch things and avoid anything you can't outfight. On that note, take care with lugging along a giant cargo ship or something as it's going to slow down your entire fleet -- you're probably better off using several small freighters/tankers until you're fielding capital ships.
    • Safety Procedures under Industry is also great to have -- 50% reduced effect of D Mods (the bad mods that you get from scrapped ships) is great for pretty much everyone, as is 0% reduced combat readiness from using emergency burn.
    • Surveying to start off is a great way to make money. Take the salvaging skill and take whatever exploration missions pop up -- the pay is decent (~70k), but they often lead to systems with tons of goodies. Derelict stations and habitat modules often have AI cores (which sell for 3x their list price to the Tri-Tachyon) and super fun nanoforges and other lost artifacts that sell for 400k on the black market. You can totally make money with combat to start, but it can be hard to balance supply cost with an increasingly large combat fleet if you don't have other sources of capital.
    • Colonies are pretty cheap to start, but a fairly large investment to get going. However, they do make lots of money once they get going -- just make sure you're sinking money into some of the more expensive defense options before it gets too lucrative and attracts pirates from all over the galaxy.

    Fiatil on
  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    Axen wrote: »
    I've seen someone describe the combat as a "slightly more in-depth Mechwarrior" and despite the top down view I feel like this is a fairly accurate statement.

    It does take a bit of getting used to for sure. I know I spent my first hour or so sucking at it and wondering why I kept seeing this game at the top of recommended charts. But once you get it you get it.

    It also helps that the AI (both friend and foe) are surprisingly good.

    They're really good at flux management and not getting lured out of formation. I still have to ride the AI in furballs because I wind up getting separated almost immediately.

    (Which is exactly what one should expect to happen when the CEO wanders into the cockpit and asks to drive in the middle of a firefight.)

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Is there no way to search for star systems on the map? Ended up in a system where I picked up excess goods, there's a system where they (hopefully) sell for 10x but I have no idea where it is.

  • m!ttensm!ttens he/himRegistered User regular
    No way to search, but there is a toggle in the map screen where you can tigger system names only if there is a colony located in that system. This obviously is focused in the core worlds but at least reduces some of the clutter on the screen.

  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    Echo wrote: »
    Is there no way to search for star systems on the map? Ended up in a system where I picked up excess goods, there's a system where they (hopefully) sell for 10x but I have no idea where it is.

    The goods screen where you look up prices will also give you arrows for direction, and distance for each system -- you can typically figure out where to go from that, but it can be a bit tricky at times. All of the colonized systems are clustered in the center, and there really aren't too many of them.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    gadammit... i go to make a thread about starsector and then @m!ttens beats me to it.
    even worse, @EvmaAlsar links the sseth video that was my sales pitch for the game.

    I bought the game, its good, and sseth makes a good remark about how if you want a good game that's cheap and not some drm riddled AAA garbage, there are gems still out there to find.

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    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Fiatil wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Is there no way to search for star systems on the map? Ended up in a system where I picked up excess goods, there's a system where they (hopefully) sell for 10x but I have no idea where it is.

    The goods screen where you look up prices will also give you arrows for direction, and distance for each system -- you can typically figure out where to go from that, but it can be a bit tricky at times. All of the colonized systems are clustered in the center, and there really aren't too many of them.

    Right click, travel to

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  • swphreakswphreak Registered User regular
    I ended up starting a new game since I had made mistakes early on that made things harder. Plus, I decided to switch to the fast start with the cruiser.

    In my first game, I had wasted a bunch of credits in the tutorial by refitting the salvaged ships before talking to the tutorial agent. If you talk to the agent first, they'll give you a bunch of free weapons. Plus, I'm finding that exploration and salvaging is much easier this time around.

    In my last expedition, I found two gamma cores, one alpha core, synchrotron core, and corrupted nanoforge. Too bad I don't have a colony for the forges. Should I sell them or hold on to them?

  • FiatilFiatil Registered User regular
    I'm of the opinion that you sell the fancy colony enhancing stuff early on. You need a couple mil to be able to build up all of the defenses you need to have a stable colony, so I go with the cash to start with. None of that stuff is too rare, so you should be able to get more when you actually need them.

  • Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Oh and the nexerellin mod or however it's spelled makes the big factions much cooler. They actually go and hunt down pirate stations and colonize good worlds out there. A lot more interactivity.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    Oh by the way, with the mods.

    Grab the Another Portrait Pack and Portrait Pack. Lots of new portraits, of course, but the people that put them in the game for the most part tried to keep the same artistic motiff and flavor of the base game.
    But its awesome, because there are Easter eggs like some Halo spartans, the pilot from Brigador, some Macross and Frontline portaits, Baird from Gears of War, I *think* JC Denton from Deus Ex, and a lot more.

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    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • swphreakswphreak Registered User regular
    Yeah, I have the portrait pack that's "lore friendly". Definitely adds more variety.

    I guess it would help if I made sure to upgrade my ships' weapons every once in awhile. Just took down a bounty and it was so much easier since refitting before the battle.

  • Al_watAl_wat Registered User regular
    I picked up this game today, I'm just learning the ropes right now. Did the three basic tutorials.

    With regards to combat controls - I noticed that in the settings you can flip the strafe control default on and off. What do you guys recommend? Do you have it set to strafe by default, or strafe by holding Shift?

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    I tried both, I found myself hold shift to strafe. So now its automatic mouse pointer means nose of ship, automatic strafing

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    I prefer the ship point towards the mouse cursor, personally, so I use auto-strafe.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Al_wat wrote: »
    I picked up this game today, I'm just learning the ropes right now. Did the three basic tutorials.

    With regards to combat controls - I noticed that in the settings you can flip the strafe control default on and off. What do you guys recommend? Do you have it set to strafe by default, or strafe by holding Shift?

    It depends on the ship. I generally use shift to strafe because

    1) there are situations where you will want to have cursor control outside of ship control and having to hold shift at this point can be cumbersome

    2) As ships get bigger the maneuverability profile of ships changes which makes regular piloting generally more optimal.

    Specifically ships have acceleration speeds for all directions. You get max acceleration going forward and a percentage of max acceleration when strafing (which is left, right, backwards). For frigates this is 100%. For Destroyers its 75%. For Cruisers is 50%. And for Capitals its 25%.

    Ships like the Onslaught, while they might look like they want a symmetric design, probably dont. Simply because flying to the side of a fleet and then broadsliding* is a more efficient maneuver due to the 25% strafe acceleration penalty.

    The Odyssey, being the best player ship in the game, also does not do well piloted in strafe mode and since i pilot that a lot its the method i use.

    *The broadslide is usually/often/better utilized on true broadside ships. The idea is simple. Get going towards/in the direction you want to go and stop accelerating. Then maneuver the broadside of the ship to the proper orientation. On the Onslaught this will likely be the front of the ship (to bring the built in energy cannons into range) but may not always be. For large ships with low strafe acceleration this tends to keep velocity a LOT higher than otherwise and make you generally harder to pin down.

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  • Al_watAl_wat Registered User regular
    That stuff makes sense. Maybe if shift was a toggle instead of a "hold down" for strafe it might be better. I wonder if there is a mod that addresses that?

  • BasilBasil Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Spacers. I'm here to talk about mods.

    How do you feel about wanzers?

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    How about now?

    Meet Diable Avionics:
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    This is one of the higher quality mod factions currently being kept up to date and ready for play. Big on articulated fighters, teleportation, machine guns, micro missiles and flight decks! See those little greyish boxes along the capital ship's flanks? Those are micro missile launchers. Many of their ships can service at least one wing of wanzers. One of their ships is a wanzer. Watching a few flights in combat is an absolute treat, and the spectacle just grows with fleet size.

    A fun trick the author included is a special ability on a couple of small carriers, you can take direct control of its wanzer wing, or regular fighter wing if you're so inclined.


    If giant transforming robots aren't your thing, how about SCIENCE!?
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    Blackrock Driveyards is a little more grounded. Industrial design aesthetics meet Unsafe Science in the form of singularity engines and lobsters. Plasma throwers, exotic autocannons, high mobility, swift flux dissipation, passable armor and a tech base that evokes vanilla mid-tech that spun off into a new direction. Rather than going into Phase technology like vanilla high-tech, they decided that radiation poisoning sounds rad. These ships tend to fare better in a player's hands than alone, but they're great fun to fly and observe in combat. Not a single ship in this line is unpolished, all of them are worth having a look at.


    These are two of my favourite factions to keep around. Both are compatible with Nexerelin, the 4x style mod that ensures there is only war.

    Others I'm fond of include Scy Nation and Dassault-Mikoyan. Scy ships are fragile and fun to break but come with super neat guns like hacking comlinks, while Dassault-Mikoyan ships are nimble, include ALL THE FLIGHT DECKS and toss EMP damage galore- this makes them a fantastic counter to Diable fleets.

    Scy ships are also quite pretty by my reckoning:
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    In flight, those engines have a nice red glow out the rear and tend to gutter out when shot. It is to the point where several cruisers have engine restart for a special ability.

    This second from the right Dassault carrier is good fun to fly, even if it looks a bit wan out of the game engine:
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    The Big Ol' Mod Directory is worth perusing if any of this caught your eye.

    Basil on
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  • SyzygySyzygy Registered User regular
    Ok seriously wtf is with this 9th battlegroup faction? They ALWAYS just straight up attack me for no reason, they always have massive teched out fleets, I can't beat these fuckers. There's no negotiation, nothing, they just beeline for me any time I get anywhere near them. Why do they automatically hate me?

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Sounds like a mod thing.

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  • BasilBasil Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I think they're from Arsenal Expansion. Probably a Domain era fleet that hates everyone.

    Basil on
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  • HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    Oh what's that? You still need help cleaning out the rogue miners? Sure I'll help with that!

    *gets murdered by a fleet of 12 ships*

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Well, I got the hang of the basics well enough so I figured I'd start over and do less silly mistakes.

    Are there any mods recommended to add right away that don't overhaul too much base stuff? I'm all for extra content and those faction mods above look juicy.

  • BasilBasil Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I'd jump into Nexerelin and whatever factions and quality of life mods appeal.

    What Nex offers out the gate is the option to start as a faction aligned agent, but you're free to use the standard unaffiliated start as well. It mostly just keeps things neat and tidy, now that the base game's feature set has grown. Configures the sector and what have you.

    There's also the little bit where the factions wreck each other's colonies instead of playing footsie.

    How much a faction affects your play will have a lot to do with which bits of the sector you hang out in and where they spawned so results can vary.

    I enjoy the faction representative experience, I typically start with whomever's ships I wanna use primarily.


    There are a handful of QOL mods in particular that I recommend :

    Autosave, this doesn't autosave out the box, but prints reminders now and then of how long it has been since you saved, as well as how many fleet actions you've seen during that time.

    Leading Pip, this mod shows where you might want to aim in order to hit your target at their current heading. I like it since I test new weapons frequently.

    Speed Up, this speeds up the game when you hold shift, outside of combat. This way, going dark or navigating hyperspace lanes is less of an exercise in patience. A++

    Console Commands, this is handy for configuring start conditions and ruining all your fun. I advise caution!

    Basil on
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  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Basil wrote: »
    Speed Up, this speeds up the game when you hold shift, outside of combat. This way, going dark or navigating hyperspace lanes is less of an exercise in patience. A++

    That's actually in the base game now, it's even in the tutorial when you head to the first system. I'll give the rest a look!

  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    Echo wrote: »
    Basil wrote: »
    Speed Up, this speeds up the game when you hold shift, outside of combat. This way, going dark or navigating hyperspace lanes is less of an exercise in patience. A++

    That's actually in the base game now, it's even in the tutorial when you head to the first system. I'll give the rest a look!

    SpeedUp also lets you speed up combat by 2X by either holding the middle mouse button or using Caps Lock as a toggle. It's great for when your fleet is mopping up, or you're in a large ship and still trying to get to the action.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Oh! Yeah, that's an upgrade.

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    Apparently personally smashing Pirate bases is a vastly more cost effective way to stop raids than building Batllestations and patrols.

    Also more cathartic.

    A 500 day 1m credit loan will NOT get a low level colony turning an adequate profit to pay it off (1.5m) in that time; not even close. But it will provide you with enough cruisers to swat the pirates bases cutting into your growth, and make picking up those 180-220k bounties on the bases harrassing other factions pretty easy.

    I now have colonies capable of the necessary >100k/m profit, but the total investment in time and money was considerably more.

    On cruisers: The Dominator is good in a fight, but I think my favorite is the Apogee because it has solid cargo, crew, and fuel capacity with a default burn of 8. Makes them great for the core of a fast exploration/attack fleet, paired with an extra tanker Colossus, and/or Starfarer for longer term salvage/colonization missions.

    (The Odyssey capship is a beast with some Flash Bombers. It feels like it could solo the T1 pirate stations)

  • swphreakswphreak Registered User regular
    Now that I’m getting the hang of things, and I’m up a few million space bucks, I figured I’d give starting a colony a try. After that, I figured I’d start over with, at the very least, Nexerelin installed.

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    I want to go the smuggler route when I restart.

    Skip the tutorial to salvage my Pirate rep, and play the high-speed, low yield shipping game to live the (blue-skill) Privateer life rather than that of the (yellow-skill) industrialist.

    (I guess I could still do that as the billionaire who still shoplifts for the thrill of it; but..)

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular

    (The Odyssey capship is a beast with some Flash Bombers. It feels like it could solo the T1 pirate stations)

    Bombers are Eh on the Odyssey. The true power of the Odyssey is plasma cannons.

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