Encounters DLC

[Mel]

I'm quite new to Everspace, and loving it so far. I can't spare a lot of time into the game but I'm planning on playing it consistently for some time to come. What I want to ask is, when exactly should I buy Encounters? Should I play the game to the point where I'm fed up with the base game, or would it be better to buy right away? It feels like I will not be appreciating the new content thanks to my lack of experience with the base game. Long story short, I'm torn between buying the expansion right away, and grabbing another game on sale.

[Zankaze]

You can maybe wait having around 20-30 hours into the game, it was when I started having seen most of it.
Either way, the expansion is great, you should definitely get it.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

if you hate the base ship, get the op dlc ship. starts with a lightning cannon that makes killing corsairs a cinch. also has a far better shield to start with, like better than anything availible at all in the base game.

[Suzaku]

I feel it's hard to recommend waiting too long, since there's a lot of credits to be made from all of the little quests the new NPCs can send you on. Once you've upgraded everything, credits have very little use, so getting the DLC to fatten your credit purse might help improve your early-game experience as well.

[Tariff Sheriff]

I say add it in, I bought it after my first 4-5 runs and it's been awesome. You get a ton more credits and the sidequesting is a blast. Some of the new devices and weapons are really crazy, but the game throws more challenging foes at you as well so there's some give and take with the difficulty.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by Otter:

I say add it in, I bought it after my first 4-5 runs and it's been awesome. You get a ton more credits and the sidequesting is a blast. Some of the new devices and weapons are completely overpowered and broken asf, but the game throws more fodder enemies at you and constantly spams corsairs rocking a jump supressor after section 2 so there's some give and take with the difficulty.

fixed that for ya.

Edit: also, what is this sidequesting i keep reading about? ive yet to find a single npc that isnt story placed to halt progression. and the closest to side missions ive gotten are those stupid popups like "break 40 floodlights in 1 mission", which wouldnt be TOO bad if it werent for the fact that if you spend any time at all to try doing so, orkar start spawning all over the place.

[Mel]

Originally posted by KINGS The King:

Originally posted by Otter:

I say add it in, I bought it after my first 4-5 runs and it's been awesome. You get a ton more credits and the sidequesting is a blast. Some of the new devices and weapons are completely overpowered and broken asf, but the game throws more fodder enemies at you and constantly spams corsairs rocking a jump supressor after section 2 so there's some give and take with the difficulty.

fixed that for ya.

This made me laugh. Thank you all for your suggestions. I really don't want to decrease the difficulty by using an "OP" ship, or weapons. I'll experience the base game until I'm confident I saw enough then I will buy the expansion. This game is truly amazing, and I believe it deserves the support of its community to further improve the experience.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

id suggest not buying it at all unless youre cool with the fact that their dlc consists of nothing but things better than you can get in the base game, which you get from the start. its basically like selling a dlc in dark souls that adds a weapon with 2000AR and armor with no weight and 90% damage resistance.

[Suzaku]

Originally posted by KINGS The King:

id suggest not buying it at all unless youre cool with the fact that their dlc consists of nothing but things better than you can get in the base game, which you get from the start. its basically like selling a dlc in dark souls that adds a weapon with 2000AR and armor with no weight and 90% damage resistance.

I wasn't going to say anything before, but it's become impossible to ignore. I genuinely can't take you seriously.

The new Sentinel ship has the highest energy and device slots, but is hampered by allowing only a single primary and two secondary slots, limiting it's potential firepower.

The Lightning Gun is a neat weapon with its arcing damage and good range, but suffers from low dps, meaning you're stuck in combat for longer periods of time, keeping you in danger and leaving less time to loot the area.

The new Shield ST might have the highest hitpoints, but it also is the slowest to recharge. If it gets whittled down, it takes 16-20 seconds (depending on rank) to start recharging. This leaves you extremely vulnerable considering you have no armor, low hull durability, and the second-lowest mobility of all of the ships.

Everyone has their preferred play-styles and loadouts, but please refrain from making such exaggerated claims to sway other people's decisions.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Originally posted by KINGS The King:

id suggest not buying it at all unless youre cool with the fact that their dlc consists of nothing but things better than you can get in the base game, which you get from the start. its basically like selling a dlc in dark souls that adds a weapon with 2000AR and armor with no weight and 90% damage resistance.

I wasn't going to say anything before, but it's become impossible to ignore. I genuinely can't take you seriously.

The new Sentinel ship has the highest energy and device slots, but is hampered by allowing only a single primary and two secondary slots, limiting it's potential firepower.

The Lightning Gun is a neat weapon with its arcing damage and good range, but suffers from low dps, meaning you're stuck in combat for longer periods of time, keeping you in danger and leaving less time to loot the area.

The new Shield ST might have the highest hitpoints, but it also is the slowest to recharge. If it gets whittled down, it takes 16-20 seconds (depending on rank) to start recharging. This leaves you extremely vulnerable considering you have no armor, low hull durability, and the second-lowest mobility of all of the ships.

Everyone has their preferred play-styles and loadouts, but please refrain from making such exaggerated claims to sway other people's decisions.

1: if you think only having 2 kinds of missiles or only 1 weapon limits anything, when the ship starts with the most op standard weapon in the game, you sir are insane.

2: the only drawback f the lightning gun is that youll constantly agro G&B on accident. otherwise it melts shields almost instantly, and 2 hull damage upgrades make it melt hull just as fast.

3: honestly, theres very real difference in practice on a 10 second cooldown for the shield recharge vs a 20 second. where as having nearly tripple the HP (shield) means ALOT. if youre able to outrun enemies far enough that they wont be able to shoot you for 10 seconds, you can do it for 20 just as easily, but in the starter ship you get shreded to cheese the first time anything grazes your shields. in the DLC ship you can tank 4 fighters and 3 drones all circle jerking you for a good minute or two.

indeed. everyone has their own playstyles. but the way the games designed, theres only 2 that are actually viable:
1: max shields and max firepower. kill everything you see, rush headlong into every single fight.
2: avoid everything at all costs and just jump through as quickly as possible while pretending youre actually having fun getting one shotted in the later 2/3 of the game.

exaggerated? the DLC is a paid cheat engine script that only goes halfway to mantain the illusion that they actually balanced the game for the broken ass ship/equipment they added.

side note: i found one of the npcs. he gave me a quest like 4 sectors away from me. oh so useful when i get a quest on the 2nd area that tells me i have to get past the story roadblock before i can complete it. youre better off loading cheat engine and just maxing your credits than wasting time on these things.

[Stryke(r)]

Originally posted by KINGS The King:

First of, the sentinel is statwise, pure objectively not the best ship in the game. Technically it's the interceptor.

Saying that the lightning gun is the strongest weapon is also false - technically it should be either neutron gun or the ancient shock rifle. Personally it might be the fusion blaster M6-A. If you would actually reach sector 5 or higher you would maybe reconsider your opinion on it.

And as for the shields: I rarely play with shields (good thing you can actually adjust the difficulty to your liking - e.g. hard mode and/or enhancements) - if your not good at dodging and try to face tank as much as possible, then yes the new shield might save you. For any decent player, the XC versions are far superior. (again i rarely use them)

I've seen you rampaging on the dlc in another discussion. Did it add some very very strong devices/weapons? Yes. Most of them have a downside tho (except maybe the static discharger). The interseting thing about it however, is that a lot of the weapons from the basegame are still better than any of the ones added by dlc (since neutron gun tends to blow up in your face).

(this is taking you seriously - i highly recommend you beat the game on hard/hardcore mode tho before diving further in with your judgement)

And then here's a quick reminder that one should never feed the trolls.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

true, the nuetron gun is a beast and a half. but good luck actually hitting anything that moves with it unless you pop on velocity mods. which, just for the record, makes it faster than the 40mm's velocity. i dont think that the lightning gun is the strongest weapon, as its not. but to make that a starting weapon? you have literally no reason to upgrade to something else UNTIL sector 5. you know, as long as you dont luck out and get a corsair with a supressor on its back.

i mean, ill give them one thing. they added the goo gun, and that thing while having insane dps, cant hit a damn thing further than 200 meters away dispite its supposed range and very small spread.

[Hyndis]

Originally posted by Godric:

This made me laugh. Thank you all for your suggestions. I really don't want to decrease the difficulty by using an "OP" ship, or weapons. I'll experience the base game until I'm confident I saw enough then I will buy the expansion. This game is truly amazing, and I believe it deserves the support of its community to further improve the experience.

Ignore that guy. He's bonkers.

The DLC ship is an interesting beast. It has the most device slots, meaning it can install the most equipment (tractor beams, EMP, shields, drone disassemblers, etc) however it can only install one primary weapon. There's no switching primary weapons because you can only fit one on that ship.

The devices give you a lot of active abilities to play with. You can have an active ability for almost any situation, but your primary weapons are limited in selection. This means that you have to be clever with your gameplay. Use the right device at the right time.

Other ships, like the interceptor, have more selection for primary weapons. You can install a beam laser, a gatling gun, and even a plasma flamethrower if you want, and you can switch between those three weapons any time you feel like. The interceptor has fewer device slots and a lower power recharge rate in exchange.

I do think that the lightning gun perhaps too directly replaces beam lasers. It does comparable damage to the regular beam laser with a similar range, no charge time, its a hit-scan weapon, and the lightning gun also arcs, something that the regular beam laser cannot do. I think the regular beam laser needs some love, or something to differentiate itself from the lightning gun.

The neutron gun is a ridiculously powerful weapon, however the sentinel cannot use it. The neutron gun is very difficult to craft and you have to buy the blueprint for it by finding the right NPC with the right currency in your ship, but once you get a neutron gun and figure out how to use it you can wipe out an entire fleet by yourself. The trick to using it is that while its shots are very slow, when fully charged it also fires enormous bullets. The plasma balls it shoots are approximately the size of a corvette. They also have a similar collision radius. Upon colliding with anything the plasma ball explodes into a massive AoE. Note that you can indeed blow yourself up with your own neutron gun. The AoE doesn't care who's friendly or who's hostile in the blast radius. Even elite fighters can be 2-shot with this. Regular fighters are 1-shot, sometimes allowing you to kill more than one in a single shot due to the AoE. Think of it like a BFG 9000. Its pretty much that, but its not an easy weapon to obtain by any means.

[Giraffasaur]

Suzaku, Otter, Stryke(r) and Hyndis all bring forward some great points about the DLC.

Originally posted by KINGS The King:

everyone has their own playstyles. but the way the games designed, theres only 2 that are actually viable:
1: max shields and max firepower. kill everything you see, rush headlong into every single fight.
2: avoid everything at all costs and just jump through as quickly as possible while pretending youre actually having fun getting one shotted in the later 2/3 of the game.

I think you'll find that 1. is a fruitless strategy in Everspace, especially in later Sectors. Piloting the Gunship proves this point through and through, as you'll become floating debris without using cover or strategically useful Devices with good timings.

Also, you'll also find that 2. is also a fruitless strategy in Everspace except for speedrunners who care only for the speed of their run and don't care about Credits. Because of this, it leads me to believe you've been trying option 1, which would explain why you've been having trouble making progression in the game.

-----

I might offer another strategy: The explorer. This is the player who zips around quickly, gobbling up resources and dodging blaster fire like a fiend while capitalizing on the crafting system. These are the players that collect every single resource from the area.

Or another: The strategist. This is the player who uses cover to their advantage to capitalize against every single enemy they engage with, which is all of them, because they want the precious fuel in their opponent's coffers. These are the players who destroy all opposition from the area.

And finally: The professional. This is the player who has gained a thorough understanding of Everspace's mechanics and has maximized their timings, realizing they need to be both explorative and strategic while progressing at a quick pace. These players collect every single resource and destroy all opposition in every location they encounter, with enough time to zip out before the Okkar Forces Inbound can even wave a finger.

The beautiful element about these playstyles is that the equipment required can vary wildly because they do not depend on any specific loadout. And the DLC only expands upon these opportunities.

[Hyndis]

Originally posted by Giraffasaur:

These players collect every single resource and destroy all opposition in every location they encounter, with enough time to zip out before the Okkar Forces Inbound can even wave a finger.

But I like waiting around for the Okkar forces to show up. Sometimes it takes a while, but I always wait.

Then I destroy them all. My runs tend to be very slow as a result, but I sure do collect a lot of loot and a lot of credits.

[Giraffasaur]

Originally posted by Hyndis:

Originally posted by Giraffasaur:

These players collect every single resource and destroy all opposition in every location they encounter, with enough time to zip out before the Okkar Forces Inbound can even wave a finger.

But I like waiting around for the Okkar forces to show up. Sometimes it takes a while, but I always wait.

Then I destroy them all. My runs tend to be very slow as a result, but I sure do collect a lot of loot and a lot of credits.

That's another incredibly satisfying way to go about the run, which ends up netting higher kills for those after a crazy-high kill score. Doesn't help that much with Credits though, since Okkar during the Okkar Forces Inbound Phases have higher fuel drop rates and less everything else...but I digress. :D