Genuinely can't figure out how Frantic Fixing is possible

[TGWeaver]

I played a lot of Focused Fixing mode, so on run 9 or something like that I switched to Frantic, thinking my experience would save me. I actually don't know how you're supposed to be able to win like this. I'm not the most efficient at various mouse movements and occasionally I'll have to run to the shop twice, but the time discrepancy and money difference is... I just can't figure out how to even make it work.
Focused mode lets you do 3 jobs a day and to even match this in Frantic, you'd have to complete each job in under 3 minutes, which feels impossible after the first day or two.

I made it to Day 7 and at this point I was getting ships landing with 5 or more broken modules. This takes almost all day to fix. I did so badly I alt+f4'd to restart the day.
Tried again and now I knew exactly what was coming. I stuffed my inventory with every item I'd need for this one ship before I started the day, even made the right pancake in advance. I knew what problems I'd face and what parts I'd need to replace. I worked fast. The customer's mood was still at the lowest possible point when I finished, and after that, I had to buy 3 day extensions just to have enough time to get a second job done, and even then it was by the skin of my teeth. Not once in the day did I have to stop and look things up, either. I ended up making about $1000 for the day, and the deadline is $2800, which I won't reach unless I'm psychic about other jobs, too.

How is this supposed to be possible, especially if you ever have to stop and look something up? Frantic doesn't even seem to give you significantly more cash than Focused, so you have to do the same amount of jobs, but how on earth are you going to fit in 3 jobs of 4-6 modules in 8 minutes? Day 7 was my limit, and there's no way I was hitting the deadline, even with every advantage and power tools.
I would love to see a recording of one of the devs playing Day 7+ just to see what a successful Frantic Fixing actually looks like.

[Reynard]

Totally agreed! Some possible changes that would make the mode more reasonable:

- Devs could remove or drastically reduce the penalty for *not* fixing broken systems. Players shouldn't be punished in frantic fixing mode for not having enough time to tackle a broken module (especially for ships that come in with 3+ broken modules).

- Another change could be that customer mood timers be rebalanced so that total time until the average mood should be a sum of benchmarked average fix times for each broken system. If a player gets a 2 subsystem job (1 refuel + 1 fix AI) and it takes on average 1 minute to refuel and on average 3 minutes to fix an AI module then the amount of time for a customer to reach average mood should be 4 minutes.

[TGWeaver]

I think outright removing the penalty for unfinished work in Frantic mode could help a lot, but even when I got two completely perfect jobs on Day 7, it didn't pay that well, so the economy might have to be slightly rebalanced for it.
Another problem is that Frantic is apparently supposed to have fewer tasks per module, but you're paid by the task not the module, so that means you make less money anyway! And by the later days I'm running into things like AI modules where everything needs replacing and the mood needs changing, so I don't think the tasks *are* actually much simpler even though they're supposed to be? Maybe the pay should be per ship, rather than per task? That way you could have much simpler, quicker fixes, but still get paid the same.

Mood timers seem completely miscalibrated, I literally cheated to get that ship done as fast as possible and customer's mood was still angry. They don't seem to be based on the amount of overall work.

Frantic Fixing feels like it's *supposed* to be about playing faster and looser, but in practice it just feels like Focused mode but with a time limit and way, way less money.

[PixZiro]

I usually play on focused mode but here is my day 7 on frantic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCAW_wYnOk
I also proceeded to make in onto day 10 in the same run.

[Peterowsky]

I've not yet played Focused Fixing at all, and only today after like 20 hours I've been able to make it to the end of Week 4.

It's frankly just a matter of practice! Aside from AI and some pancakes, I managed to remember how to deal with most issues so don't need to spend time reading the manual.

You can purchase a "chunky" vending machine from the shop, which doubles your income for jobs, but prevents you from being able to choose the job. This is not an issue, because it makes fast jobs very valuable, and a long job gets you thousands later in the game. My successful run today, I had 5500 coins or so by the time I got to the final stage.

Originally posted by TGWeaver:

Mood timers seem completely miscalibrated, I literally cheated to get that ship done as fast as possible and customer's mood was still angry. They don't seem to be based on the amount of overall work..

Caring too much about client mood is a mistake. A good mood nets you a few coins extra in tips, but a completely inconsequential amount.

[TGWeaver]

Originally posted by PixZiro:

I usually play on focused mode but here is my day 7 on frantic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCAW_wYnOk
I also proceeded to make in onto day 10 in the same run.

Ah, thanks a lot for this! It really helps seeing someone else with a different perspective. It confirms a few things I was saying: Only really enough time in the day for one job, at this point, and no tip from the customer because their patience wears out before you're even halfway through it. A little under $1,000 in profit for the day after expenditures, but *half* of that was from the Chunky bonus, which I find incredible. That must be a big factor on this run, then.

I guess I was wrong in assuming I wasn't doing enough, then. Relying on profit boosters seems like the way to go. That said, the patience meter still seems impossible to satisfy.

Great work on that day by the way, very smooth.

[Perogi]

Originally posted by Peterowsky:

I've not yet played Focused Fixing at all, and only today after like 20 hours I've been able to make it to the end of Week 4.

It's frankly just a matter of practice! Aside from AI and some pancakes, I managed to remember how to deal with most issues so don't need to spend time reading the manual.

You can purchase a "chunky" vending machine from the shop, which doubles your income for jobs, but prevents you from being able to choose the job. This is not an issue, because it makes fast jobs very valuable, and a long job gets you thousands later in the game. My successful run today, I had 5500 coins or so by the time I got to the final stage.

Originally posted by TGWeaver:

Mood timers seem completely miscalibrated, I literally cheated to get that ship done as fast as possible and customer's mood was still angry. They don't seem to be based on the amount of overall work..

Caring too much about client mood is a mistake. A good mood nets you a few coins extra in tips, but a completely inconsequential amount.

Hmm this is interesting, I'm going to try this. I was always trying to get money tree as early as possible but I struggle to make the 2.5k rent on frantic. I'll try out chunky next time instead thanks.

Focus mode is definitely significantly easier. Runs take longer but there's never any real danger of losing (also I think focus is less fun... just me). I think extending the mood timer for longer jobs on frantic is something that should happen just because it doesn't seem to be working as intended, but as others pointed out tips don't make a big difference so this won't make frantic mode easier. I think the only way to make frantic mode balanced is to dramatically up the money you get in it, either by buffing tips a huge amount or just giving frantic mode an across the board increase to money earned.

Another issue I've observed is that reactors are absolutely not worth it and the worst job possible to take. If you get a reactor with 0 fuel and 0 coolant you have to extract the reactor immediately to avoid it melting down. However, you only get paid for fixing the fuel and coolant, normally easy jobs on their own that give you a pathetic amount of money. Basically, the job doesn't take into account the fact that you had to scramble and spend time to take out the reactor. Reactor jobs are high risk and low reward, they absolutely need to be reworked.

[PixZiro]

After all my hours of playing I realised the chunky vending machine is the best thing to make money, I always buy it as soon as I can.

[Shirakani]

I tried Frantic and all I can say is if Frantic were the only game mode available, it'd be an instant refund after 15-30 mins. Not sure how anyone even remotely thinks that mode is fun.

Focused is great. Lets you truly explore what the game is about: Fixing ♥♥♥♥, and also having pride in doing high quality fixes. It should be the default mode.

[Astral]

Frantic seems fine to me. I just don't expect tips, but I frankly don't care about tips since they're only like 5 coins or something. Missing omens tips stinks a little, but whatever, I get omens from other things. Meanwhile I can easily take more than 3 jobs, and that's supposedly the limit for non-frantic? So if anything I don't understand the reason for not playing frantic. The downside (no tips) is so minimal that it doesn't matter.

[same]

frantic is fun as hell

[Dagger Tongue]

Originally posted by Astral:

Frantic seems fine to me. I just don't expect tips, but I frankly don't care about tips since they're only like 5 coins or something. Missing omens tips stinks a little, but whatever, I get omens from other things. Meanwhile I can easily take more than 3 jobs, and that's supposedly the limit for non-frantic? So if anything I don't understand the reason for not playing frantic. The downside (no tips) is so minimal that it doesn't matter.

Up to four jobs, with the floodlights. And the tips get substantial on later jobs. Had one tip for 300~ish coins at one point.

But honestly, I don't like comparing the two modes. They're for different types of players. I *loath* time limits. They cause me anxiety. The focused mode lets me zen out and play, for the most part, and is my preferred mode of play.

[TGWeaver]

Originally posted by Astral:

Meanwhile I can easily take more than 3 jobs, and that's supposedly the limit for non-frantic?

Originally posted by Dagger Tongue:

Up to four jobs, with the floodlights. And the tips get substantial on later jobs. Had one tip for 300~ish coins at one point.

What day are you on? I was doing a bunch of jobs early on but by post-firstboss I don't know how it's even possible to get more than 2, even with floodlights, as I mentioned at length above. The clip that was posted was pretty efficient and still took over 6 minutes for a single ship at that point, to say nothing of tips not really being possible. Even if you shaved a full minute off that run I don't see how 4 is even possible.

[iD]

https://imgur.com/a/WU1jW2i
Just got almost 2k on frantic on first rent day with Chunky (bought day 1).
Played some on focused before that, its too slow for my taste and has too many almost fully broken modules, feels like a chore after first boss.
But someone might enjoy slow gameplay, sure.

[Dagger Tongue]

Originally posted by TGWeaver:

Originally posted by Astral:

Meanwhile I can easily take more than 3 jobs, and that's supposedly the limit for non-frantic?

Originally posted by Dagger Tongue:

Up to four jobs, with the floodlights. And the tips get substantial on later jobs. Had one tip for 300~ish coins at one point.

What day are you on? I was doing a bunch of jobs early on but by post-firstboss I don't know how it's even possible to get more than 2, even with floodlights, as I mentioned at length above. The clip that was posted was pretty efficient and still took over 6 minutes for a single ship at that point, to say nothing of tips not really being possible. Even if you shaved a full minute off that run I don't see how 4 is even possible.

Ah. Apologies. 4 jobs on focused mode with the floodlights. 3 jobs without. The light upgrade lets you spend 250 coins to buy one more repair job during a day in focused mode.

[D.Mentia]

Frantic's all about the prep work - keep your inventory and storages stocked with all the solutions for the most common problems you can see at any given number of days in. Anything that takes time to make, like fluids, fuel, cartridges, or pancakes, you can just make at the start of the day before you clock in, and whenever a ship is on its way to land, you go top up from your storages if it needs anything you don't have in inventory - you should get back before they walk away from their ship (which is also when the happiness timer starts).

Up until you pay your 750 rent, you should be able to fit just about all the solutions to all the possible problems in your inventory, so you can fix any ship that shows up, without having to go to the store or storage while it's there
After that you have to make some choices, but if you do it right, we're talking 1-2 trips to store/storages per ship, max, with most modules fixed straight from your inventory

In frantic, my strategy is on day 1 is as soon as you wake up, buy literally everything, go about 3k in debt. Day 2, you've got money tree, chunky, extra tips, more patient customers, electric everything, and you can stock up on pancakes and cartridges at the start of the day. Handle the customers fast via your stocked up storages, and you'll be over 1k by the end of day 3.

If you're doing the prep, you can process 3-4 ships a day even on the last week - but it's also kinda pointless, because a single ship will earn you 2500+, and more ships means more chance that you get forced to fix a reactor that's critical. I find it best to just fix one or two ships a day and clock out, at the higher levels, to actually survive until you can pay your rent - and money tree + chunky is enough to let you do it