what is this game like for 2 players?

[Sacrilicious]

Is it possible to do this co-op and have the rest bots?

or is it populated enough that public games can net 3 human players?

curious on experience takers but welcome all

[JBall]

I am a new comer too but I'd be down to go on an adventure. Pilot, eng, or weapons here.

[Sacrilicious]

oh i dont even have the game yet, im browsing and asking questions. is it pub friendly and populated?

[JBall]

Populated yes. Right now there are over 10 games going most filled.

[Capt.Cliff™]

Originally posted by Samington Miggs:

oh i dont even have the game yet, im browsing and asking questions. is it pub friendly and populated?

I strongley recommend takin a look at Interstellar Rift before you purchase.

Ironically, they both have aspects each other game need!!!

Suffice to say IR is the better choice.

[Sacrilicious]

thanks for suggestion cliff, will check that out too

[Capt.Cliff™]

Originally posted by Samington Miggs:

thanks for suggestion cliff, will check that out too

Manufacturing, Machine Operating, Mining, Refinin, Ship Contruction, Factions, Missions, Aliens Steam Workshop & more.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/363360/

[Richard02]

You should also check all the other very biased post that cliff made.
And yes, you can have 2 players and 3 bots, and the bots can be amazing if you know how to program them (there's a priority list you have to set)

[JeanH13]

Interstellar Rift requires a private server for multiplayer, or at least it did when I last tried it.

This game works fairly well for 2 players. Weapons and Engineer function decently with base AI programming. One of you will always have to be the Captain. Player 2 should either be Pilot or Scientist, as those roles are a bit more hands on for the bots to be stuck with.

You are not limited to your role. Any one can jump on a station and interact with it. Don't like the way Pilot Bot is driving? You can always jump in and manually take control of the wheel. Bots level up at the same rate as human players, and the Captain chooses how to spend their level-up talents.

[Capt.Cliff™]

Originally posted by |Party Up| Richard02:

You should also check all the other very biased post that cliff made.
And yes, you can have 2 players and 3 bots, and the bots can be amazing if you know how to program them (there's a priority list you have to set)

No biased posts made. Just facts. Some will accept them & others, like you, wont.

[Capt.Cliff™]

Originally posted by JeanH13:

Interstellar Rift requires a private server for multiplayer, or at least it did when I last tried it.

This game works fairly well for 2 players. Weapons and Engineer function decently with base AI programming. One of you will always have to be the Captain. Player 2 should either be Pilot or Scientist, as those roles are a bit more hands on for the bots to be stuck with.

You are not limited to your role. Any one can jump on a station and interact with it. Don't like the way Pilot Bot is driving? You can always jump in and manually take control of the wheel. Bots level up at the same rate as human players, and the Captain chooses how to spend their level-up talents.

Servers are set up to join.

[obliviondoll]

Cliff is *VERY* jaded about Pulsar, and has been pretty blatant about being so for some time. Interstellar Rift is, overall, not as polished or ready for release as Pulsar (and that's not to say Pulsar is release ready, but it's closer to it). There are elements to IR that are pretty awesome, but it's less stable, has less tools for managing your own multiplayer experience, and has a multitude of UI issues that are worse than anything in Pulsar.

I personally really love both games, and can definitely recommend either or both (depending what you want out of your experience). IR has a great ship design system, allowing you to custom-build your ship how you want it - a solo craft can be designed specifically to be a viable ship to run by yourself. 2- or 3-player crews can be explicitly built for. You can also go to the other extreme and build a ship for 6 or 12 or more people to crew, loaded with weapon systems a smaller crew could never handle. It also has prettier graphics, which is a plus if that's what you're into.

On Pulsar's side, you have actual hosting controls like password protection (yes, these super-basic things are missing in IR), and the game itself is more stable. It still crashes on occasion, but I've had "loss of connection to server" WHILE I'M THE HOST in Interstellar Rift as recently as a month ago. There was a similar bug in Pulsar, a LOOONG way back, but I haven't seen it resurface since it got fixed back then. General stability both of servers and the game client itself is an issue in IR. Pulsar also has AI enemies in ships like your own, as well as boarding of those AI ships, missions which involve derelict ships, and the ability to land on planets.

There are space stations in both games, and missions (given by quest-giver NPCs in Pulsar, and a much easier-to-find mission board on certain stations in IR), and both games have some variety of AI-controlled alien entities which are non-boardable ships that operate differently from your own (more varied options in this regard in Pulsar, but many of the differences are cosmetic rather than practical).

As for the actual question, though: Some ships are more friendly than others for small crews. The newest ship, the Outrider, is GREAT for a 2-person crew with bots. It works really well because of the compact layout of the interior, while the Roland's massive and spacious design, while awesome, is less friendly to smaller numbers of players.

The community isn't super-active, and there are occasional trolls about to watch out for, but you can usually find a few interested (usually newer) players if you host an open game, and are happy to chat with the new joiners to let them know what the plan is and make sure they fit with your goals.

[Winterification]

try empyrion :)

[Magic Bean]

Need another 2 for a new ship if anyone is keen.