Really ticked off after Industrial Action (SPOILER ALERT)

[Offutticus]

So, spoiler here. Don't read further if you aren't prepared.

I got to where they do the Industrial Action.

The aftermath of that? Why do I continue playing the game then? I got the ship fixed. I'm out of debt. And now I can move on?

The whole purpose of the game, to me, is to cut up ships and get out of debt. Without that debt, the only reason I may continue is to just have fun cutting up ships.

And no way in heck will I start another profile just to sit through all that story stuff again. Bad enough the first time around.

There's other problems within the story line but, really, this one just did it for me. I have no real goal now other than to get some more stickers I don't have room for. And reach the top skill level. Whoo Hoo.

To me, it would have been best to save that for when the player got out of debt ON THEIR OWN. This would give them more fundage to leave on Beulah (which I think is part of the endgame story). It would have been a good place to end the story.

Just my 2cent rant.

[Mandemon]

Originally posted by Offutticus:

The whole purpose of the game, to me, is to cut up ships and get out of debt. Without that debt, the only reason I may continue is to just have fun cutting up ships.

And no way in heck will I start another profile just to sit through all that story stuff again. Bad enough the first time around.

Yes, that's it. Story is over, now it's just ship cutting. You don't need to stop right away, but overall you have completed the game. All that is left is meditative zen of ship breaking.

Originally posted by Offutticus:

There's other problems within the story line but, really, this one just did it for me. I have no real goal now other than to get some more stickers I don't have room for. And reach the top skill level. Whoo Hoo.

Debt was never a real issue, honestly, since it didn't affect anything. It was more of a story thing. What is the difference between having debt and no debt, mechanically? If you want, you can set your goal to earning 1 billion credits.

Originally posted by Offutticus:

To me, it would have been best to save that for when the player got out of debt ON THEIR OWN. This would give them more fundage to leave on Beulah (which I think is part of the endgame story). It would have been a good place to end the story.

Well, story does make it clear that one goal of the Union is to cancel debt. If you want, you can go full Kai and generate debt for yourself.

[Offutticus]

Full Kai! LOL I like that.

What you say makes sense. I was/am angry but will get over it. Thanks for talking me off the cliff.

[Samseng Yik]

The story is never my focus of this game anyway.
It just like riding a horse to destination while sight seeing the flower and scenery around.
I like scrapping ship apart. Nothing to do with story and money.

[M.V.Petra]

I read the spoiler anyway because I don't care about the story in the least, had the voices muted and just ignore them. But now I know there's no point to clearing the debt cuz the game is just gonna be like "lul, never mind" after a point. Like, literally, there were people playing this game before there even was a story that played just for (and eventually did) completely paying off their debts. The fact that it's just going to get handwaved away before you even make a real dent in it, along with some other things I've noticed almost make it feel like the game was designed so you have to play it LESS than what is was in the early stages of EA.

I mean, I didn't do the math or anything, but I'm almost positive that it took a lot longer to rank up before the story was a thing. Now I don't even have to finish a whole ship before I rank up. Every rank is "Here's a new kind of ship or a new feature. Okay, are you done playing with it? Rank up, here's another." It almost feels like they wanted it to push more towards people with short attention spans, like they don't actually expect you to finish the ship you're working on, just do one shift, get like 50% done with the ship and then just get a new one instead of finishing the first, and just want to push you through the game, the only goal, and the story as fast as possible because they're worried you'll lose interest if it takes too long

[Samseng Yik]

Originally posted by M.V.Petra:

I read the spoiler anyway because I don't care about the story in the least, had the voices muted and just ignore them. But now I know there's no point to clearing the debt cuz the game is just gonna be like "lul, never mind" after a point. Like, literally, there were people playing this game before there even was a story that played just for (and eventually did) completely paying off their debts. The fact that it's just going to get handwaved away before you even make a real dent in it, along with some other things I've noticed almost make it feel like the game was designed so you have to play it LESS than what is was in the early stages of EA.

I mean, I didn't do the math or anything, but I'm almost positive that it took a lot longer to rank up before the story was a thing. Now I don't even have to finish a whole ship before I rank up. Every rank is "Here's a new kind of ship or a new feature. Okay, are you done playing with it? Rank up, here's another." It almost feels like they wanted it to push more towards people with short attention spans, like they don't actually expect you to finish the ship you're working on, just do one shift, get like 50% done with the ship and then just get a new one instead of finishing the first, and just want to push you through the game, the only goal, and the story as fast as possible because they're worried you'll lose interest if it takes too long

Faster rank up help cut away the tediousness of refilling thruster, o2 and others.
Developer want us to focus more on the gem of this game.
Aka, scrapping the ship and not resource management

[M.V.Petra]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Faster rank up help cut away the tediousness of refilling thruster, o2 and others.
Developer want us to focus more on the gem of this game.
Aka, scrapping the ship and not resource management

If that were the case, then why even bother with the progression and the story at all and not just make the free play sandbox the main game mode?

[Ootlander]

I have to agree with the OP, even though the amount never mattered to the game play at all, working off that debt was something that felt tangible to work towards. After the game wiped out my debt, I scrapped maybe 2 or 3 more ships and just lost interest.

[Fly]

What bothers me about it is that interrupted feeling. For the first time in the game, the story actually felt like I had some sort of impact on it and what I did actually at least nominally mattered. There was a reaction from the game to what I was doing, where before there was simply none. You cut the ship apart or you don't, you progress or you don't, you salvage something or you destroy it, nobody gives half a rat's behind, until that very last mission when what you do actually provided some sort of relevant feedback.

And then the story just ends. That was when it should have started, you know? Like, the company now pushing back, bringing in someone to replace Hal and break the now united front of workers apart, with Lou (and hopefully you) trying to keep them together.

For the first time it felt like I have some sort of agency in this game and then it just ... ends.

[Mandemon]

You could look it from other direction: individual doesn't really matter. No single person can change everything. You can't break unions alone, nor can you break LYNX alone. Because you are a single person, on a single station.

Nobody could truly oppose LYNX until large number of their ship breakers united to fight as one large body. Sure, you can not do the industrial action, but you are just one person. There are still others out there who will do it, and they outnumber you.

IMO gamers today have inflated sense of worth, thinking that their actions are only ones that matter. Sure it feels nice to achieve everything, but sometimes you just don't actually matter.

[Sperber]

Shipbreaker is really just a work simulator dressed up as a story campaign game. One could say that the whole story mode merely exist to teach new players the mechanics. Except for that one mission at the end, not once does the things you do in the game really interact in any way with the story. I'd consider the whole thing just a long tutorial (that overstays its welcome at times).

I'd easily compare the game to the unique addictiveness of Euro Truck Simulator 2, where you're always eager to get the next delivery job done. Here you always want to get the next ship smoothly dismantled without incident.

If the developers are smart, they will keep releasing free updates and improvements to the base game together with paid DLCs with new ships - just like ETS2's formula of success.

[Offutticus]

Originally posted by Ootlander:

I have to agree with the OP, even though the amount never mattered to the game play at all, working off that debt was something that felt tangible to work towards. After the game wiped out my debt, I scrapped maybe 2 or 3 more ships and just lost interest.

In EA, I think I had reached 3+Billion debt free. Felt good to have beat the system. Wasn't a dang thing I could do with it.

And yes, leveling up seemed awful fast. Some things I zoomed past and never got the tutorial for (that is, if one existed).

While I love breaking the ships, with that as the only goal, I don't see myself investing much more time into it. And I doubt I would buy any DLC or whatever. The devs have my money now. Heh, I guess they are LYNX and I am but one of the clones.

[superchimp]

Originally posted by Offutticus:

So, spoiler here. Don't read further if you aren't prepared.

I got to where they do the Industrial Action.

The aftermath of that? Why do I continue playing the game then? I got the ship fixed. I'm out of debt. And now I can move on?

The whole purpose of the game, to me, is to cut up ships and get out of debt. Without that debt, the only reason I may continue is to just have fun cutting up ships.

And no way in heck will I start another profile just to sit through all that story stuff again. Bad enough the first time around.

There's other problems within the story line but, really, this one just did it for me. I have no real goal now other than to get some more stickers I don't have room for. And reach the top skill level. Whoo Hoo.

To me, it would have been best to save that for when the player got out of debt ON THEIR OWN. This would give them more fundage to leave on Beulah (which I think is part of the endgame story). It would have been a good place to end the story.

Just my 2cent rant.

I completely agree, when my debt got cancelled I was thinking... what was even the point of buying the equipment. It didn't matter anyway. The game gives you ways to cut your costs eventually and earn more... for no reason.

I had the same... well now it all seems kind of pointless feeling.