The "trucking" aspect is the weakest part of this game

[Malidictus]

I like Star Trucker. Always been a fan of playing as the pilot of a large machine, exploring its interior, storing cargo and maintaining systems. It's why I'm a fan of the "Far" games (Lone Sails and Changing Tides), as well as the similarly "americana" Pacific Drive. As such, this game is right up my alley. The truck is a lot larger than it seems in the trailers, its subsystems are cleverly laid out and I'm a fan of the controls panel where almost all buttons are interactive.

The problem, unfortunately, is that this game's "theme" doesn't really fit its setting, or indeed its general suite of gameplay systems. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with trucking in space, but the 18-wheeler tractor trailers look entirely out of place, with their exhaust stacks that don't exhaust anything, their air intakes in space, etc. That alone would be fine - it's the theme that the game is going with, so fair enough.

No, what really grinds my experience of the game to a halt is the attempts to translate terrestrial US-based trucking regulations into space. As such, I have to deal with psychic weigh stations which somehow know I sold cargo before getting weighed and fine me regardless. I have to deal with "space highways" and speed limits, despite being... you know, in space. I have to wonder if my interstellar spaceship "truck" has hit 80 000 miles after flying dozens of lightyears.

I don't mind playing a simple game just hauling cargo. I have countless hours into Snowrunner, to the point that I even started making mods for it. But Space Trucker feels a bit too... artificial, in the way that Disney's Treasure Planet putting tall ships in space did. Interesting idea and it could be very compelling, but trying to crowbard aspects of a historical setting into a futuristic setting where they don't belong just fundamentally undermine willing suspension of disbelief. And in the case of a video game - add a lot of hassle that really doesn't need to be there.

And the worst part about all of this is... I almost never get to actually play around with the internals of the truck. The most I've done so far is replace batteries a few times, and a single CPU. 99% of the time, I don't have a reason to get off the seat. I've seen salvage a total of three times, and it's never been particularly compelling. I've gotten into quite a few accidents and had to patch holes a few times, but that's one very simple task. Sure, I stop in a lot of places (I swear, this game is more stop than go), but everything's handled from the chair. On a good run, the only part of my cargo trailer that I'll ever see is the mag plate on the end.

Maybe I'm just not the target audience for this game, fair enough. Never was much for those Europe Truck Simulator style games. Star Trucker is certainly not BAD by any stretch. It just feels like a game that spent so much time trying to be a trucking simulator in space that it kind of forgot about the "game" aspect of it.

[Hakgova]

I understand everything you are saying here and agree. But like you said at the end, you probably are not in the target audience. I play must "realistic" space games but to me this is just beer and pretzels fun side game that I play every once and a while. I know it is not realistic but more tongue in cheek.

[Malidictus]

It's not so much about the realism for me. The game's fairly realistic when it comes to ♥♥♥♥ systems and movement mechanics. I think my problem is that the game feels like a Saturday Morning cartoon, or something like U.S. 1, where characters are named things like Papa Grill and Wide Load and Baron von Blimp. Something like that requires a much more cartoony, tongue-in-cheek setting, while the presentation very much plays it straight. So we end up with a setting that's trying to be both a dry trucker sim and a wacky retro-futuristic thing that just doesn't add up.

And my issue is that this isn't just superficial. Gameplay feels the exact same way. The game gives me a wealth of systems to play around with, but most of them barely come into play. Missions are all "hook up trailer, travel to place, release trailer", yet the actual travel is mostly cluttered station space, with the actual long-distance segments entirely cut out. That's like a truck sim that's all loading cargo and driving around parking lots, but fades to black whenever you get out on the highway.

I'm not expecting a gigantic No Man's Sky open world - not every game needs that. But it wouldn't have hurt to actually give us stuff to do during FTL travel, maybe stuff around the cab and sleeper. I don't know - it feels like the fun part of the trip happens behind a loading screen while the boring tedious part is all I ever get to see.

[meins_RR]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

The "trucking" aspect is the weakest part of this game

Du sollst, mit Deinem Truck, ja auch nur Trümmer aufsammeln .......

[Suthriel]

I think, the trucking aspect should have been more like in the game Rebel Galaxy, where you have vast solar systems for cruising (and mining and fighting), and the different solar systems are just connected with similar jump gates. But there is way more stuff within the solar systems than here, and its not so cramped ^.^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNVe_aiqmXc

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Suthriel:

I think, the trucking aspect should have been more like in the game Rebel Galaxy, where you have vast solar systems for cruising (and mining and fighting), and the different solar systems are just connected with similar jump gates. But there is way more stuff within the solar systems than here, and its not so cramped ^.^

This is a much smaller-scale game than that, so the smaller maps are understandable. I think the mistake in worldbuilding, though, was making every location a densely populated one. Makes the entire game feel like city driving, because all we see is the "cities" while the "country roads" get hidden behind loading screens. We could have done with just two or so "populated" locations per sector, where players can trade and refuel, with each holding a distinct truck amenity - upgrade shop, paint shop, etc. Would make planning for fuel a bit more interesting, rather than having gas stations everywhere.

Alternately, we could have done more with jump travel. Rather skipping hours of time in mere seconds, jumps could take a couple of minutes. During this time, the player would get out of the chair and do maintenance on the ship, or maybe balance systems, etc. You know - something to make the actual travel feel like "travel", rather than teleportation. Wouldn't hurt to have a bit more depth to the ship maintenance, as well - stuff like air tanks, cargo nets, actual engine work out front under the hood.

As it stands now, Star Trucker feels closer to a prototype for an full game down the line. Core mechanics are in place, but actual content on show doesn't interact with most of them.

[Miles Mayhem]

The game is a bit rough on the edges, some elements feel not precisely aligned, bit like a late stage early access. Checkpoints for integrity (maybe not weight checks as this is a weird concept in zero g space anyway) because of regulations or to avoid accidents (like demands keeping hull integrity above certain threshold), speed limits etc. would feel less off when implemented a bit differently. But I understand this is less about realism but tongue in cheek humour and I enjoy it for that.
What I really do hope for, there will be a Star Trucker II with more variety in traffic and longer hauls (= true trucking)... the skyboxes ARE amazing and I love every sector, but it feels somewhat halfway done about that, too.
"Driving" the truck, dealing with the very neatly done physics... all these mechanics are really well done - enjoying the game a lot, the pros are way more than the cons, to me.

[Batslav]

Weight station don't make much sense since we do not land on stations we dock. Also they are for the truck itself only. I think that they can keep this as it adds new element to the game but with small change. Maybe it will be better if it's not called weight station and to be more like the border scanners to check what you carry instead so a name change can be enough.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Batslav:

Weight station don't make much sense since we do not land on stations we dock. Also they are for the truck itself only. I think that they can keep this as it adds new element to the game but with small change. Maybe it will be better if it's not called weight station and to be more like the border scanners to check what you carry instead so a name change can be enough.

Agreed. I think people would be less annoyed at the weight station if it weren't such an obvious "real world trucking" insert. In fact, I'd say the game could scrap the random police drone scans when entering a zone, and instead move that functionality to the Weight Station. Rename it to something like Customs Station and you're set. This would do two things:

Firstly, it would cut down on the security checks, meaning players would be encouraged to take risks moving contraband in bulk. Secondly, it would make the "Weight Station" aspect more believable. It would make more diagetic sense to have these AND it would make more sense that they'd fine you for dumping cargo.

But that that circles right back around to my original argument - the "trucking" aspect of this game is the weakest part of it. The developers could have adapted terminology and mechanics to match the setting, but they chose to replicate as much of US trucking as they could. It's why our interstellar craft still measure mileage in the tens of thousands, why our space ships are designed like front engine diesel trucks, why we have smoke stacks, why people talk about "transmissions", etc. Clearly, the primary focus was on retaining as much of terrestrial trucking, rather than fitting the space trucking setting.