I'm torn..

[Gore]

..on if I like this game.
I'm a really big sucker for the genre. Played BAturinskys Void (A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ JEWEL!) to death. SPaZ and Space Rangers also. Also: Freelancer! <3
However, Endless Sky.. OTOH it's fun and got a lot of content to explore. I also enjoy the at times meditative grind of a very small game loop. Oh and it's free! And under very active development! So I'm really excited having found this game.

There is a lot of OTOH though..

1. Combat feels off. Dunno about y'all, but I never was able to actually fight (and win) somawhat fair fights. Combat is too fast for this and the controls are (or feel) too clunky. Shields are very underpowered, go down fast and don't come back up fast enough.
Essentially my combat loop looks like:
Have big fleet disable vessels by sheer numbers and overwhelming bullet hell. Find disabled vessel. Board. Make part of fleet. Repeat.
Although it's fun to board the next biggest ship and get moar power, it's still kinda boring and repetitive. I never have to adapt to an opponent and switch to a different kind of weapon or reroute energy to the shields or something like that. And thankfully so, because in the current state I'd probably not be fast enough.

2. Tying into this... Fleet management? I think this needs some serious QoL. Something like Templates of outfit combinations that I can apply.
Also.. It's kinda unnerving that on some planets I cannot buy some outfits, BUT I can buy a ship that has this outfit preinstalled. So, I buy the ship, sell the outfit, sell the rest of the ship and install the sold and now available outfit on the ship I desired it for. Serious question: Aside from "special" outfits like nerve gas or bleeding edge prototype quantum buster cannons.. I feel like a lot of the outfits (and ships) should have a much stronger commodity character. Why shouldn't I be able to order that BB fuel cell to a planet of my choice? Actually: Why not go for a similar pricing system? Outfits are cheapest where they are produced, and they get more expensive with every jump and increased piracy risk, but you can buy them everywhere?
Also unnerving: I can install outfits FROM the cargo, but cannot uninstall them INTO the cargo, but only sell them?
I can not command a boarding action from one of my fleet vessels but have to use the flagship?
I think combat and fleet would profit massively from a serious level up, kinda like a Real-Time-Tactics game (pausable or quasi turns) in which you have to issue commands to your fleet.
Also.. I feel repair and fuel should cost something, as it'S now, I have only incentives to take EVERY ship I see. I'm giving hard borg-vibes :D

3. Missions. First off, but not THAT important: Of course they are repetitive, that's something most of these sandbox games suffer from..
But what I think would really benefit the game is if the missions would not encourage quasi local grinding. Two examples:
a) TRADING/CARGO: In the beginning I just took all the cargo missions around sol. Filled up the rest of my cargo space with the most profitable good, went over and cashed out. Then the same thing backwards. Then some management of mortgage and freighters. Rinse and repeat.
b) BOUNTY HUNTING: Currently I tend to be stuck in bounty hunter missions, I take one or two, check out adjacent systems for the bounties. TAke more of those missions, check out more adjacent systems. But usually I just tend to go in circles as I do not want to leave my missions two-jump wide area. So I would have to actively ignore those missions and the lure of adding the next biggest ship to my fleet in order to explore something else.
Essentially the exploration does not feel as worthwhile as just staying put.

[Dolly ✨🌈🔧]

For point 2: You can install and buy outfits into cargo. To do this, de-select all of your ships in the outfitter. This will treat your cargo space as the destination.

[F91ProtectMyEnemies]

@Dolly how to de-select?

[Dolly ✨🌈🔧]

Forgot which of the two, but it's either Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on your currently selected ship. Basically, same as you would use to select multiple ships to install outfits in parallel. You can use the same hotkey to de-select ships instead of multi-selecting them.

(Pretty sure it's Ctrl+Click.)

Once your ships are all de-selected, you can interact with your cargo as if it's an extra virtual ship.

[Midnight Plugins]

on some planets I cannot buy some outfits, BUT I can buy a ship that has this outfit preinstalled.

A lot of people work on the game and many just look at the stat numbers without considering the lore limitations on who is supplying what to who.

Anti-Missile / Heavy Anti-Missile turrets are the worst offenders. The South has the best Radar Jamming and Cooling outfits for a reason!

The Quicksilver was upgraded to have reverse thrusters. This is a ship manufactured in Syndicate space but they gave it plasmas!

[noctilucus]

1) Are you playing at double speed? I find double speed is perfect for the game, except in combat - maybe better players can manage but that's the one part of the game where I need to go back to regular speed if I want to actively fight myself.

2) I get your point on the outfits. I'm guessing the developers force you to board with your flagship because being able to board with any ship in your fleet would make it ridiculously easy to capture loads of ships at once and snowball. Capturing is already the fastest route to profit as it is. Not sure whether there is a lore-explanation for it though...

3) I have a different experience, typically I find much better opportunities on longer routes once I've explored more systems. However, if you only travel to systems nearby Sol, you don't get as many lucrative job opportunities and it becomes sort of a vicious circle.
Also, by not exploring much, you're missing out on most of the galaxy, including storylines (don't forget to visit spaceports often) and many, many new discoveries including better ships & equipment.

PS great to see someone referring to Space Rangers! And Freelancer too of course...

[Gore]

Originally posted by Dolly ✨🌈🔧 (needs remote:

Forgot which of the two, but it's either Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click on your currently selected ship. Basically, same as you would use to select multiple ships to install outfits in parallel. You can use the same hotkey to de-select ships instead of multi-selecting them.

(Pretty sure it's Ctrl+Click.)

Once your ships are all de-selected, you can interact with your cargo as if it's an extra virtual ship.

YES! That Ctrl-Click worked great! Thanks a lot!

Originally posted by Midnight Plugins:

on some planets I cannot buy some outfits, BUT I can buy a ship that has this outfit preinstalled.

A lot of people work on the game and many just look at the stat numbers without considering the lore limitations on who is supplying what to who.

Anti-Missile / Heavy Anti-Missile turrets are the worst offenders. The South has the best Radar Jamming and Cooling outfits for a reason!

The Quicksilver was upgraded to have reverse thrusters. This is a ship manufactured in Syndicate space but they gave it plasmas!

Yeah, I'm not too great on the lore yet. That said, I could absolutely live with >>special<< outfits having export restrictions to other faction spaces or tariffs slapped on. Still, many "commodity" outfits are a tad too scarce for my taste.

Originally posted by noctilucus:

1) Are you playing at double speed? I find double speed is perfect for the game, except in combat - maybe better players can manage but that's the one part of the game where I need to go back to regular speed if I want to actively fight myself.

Sadly that's not my issue. I hope it will get better with more experience with the controls, but I honestly think the speed is too high for the amount of possible commands. Except of course when you have a swarm resp. fleet and minimize your actions to G, F and B...

2) I get your point on the outfits. I'm guessing the developers force you to board with your flagship because being able to board with any ship in your fleet would make it ridiculously easy to capture loads of ships at once and snowball. Capturing is already the fastest route to profit as it is. Not sure whether there is a lore-explanation for it though...

Yeah. Definitely the easiest way for rapid growth.

3) I have a different experience, typically I find much better opportunities on longer routes once I've explored more systems. However, if you only travel to systems nearby Sol, you don't get as many lucrative job opportunities and it becomes sort of a vicious circle.

It depends. The jobs itself, true, not as lucrative. But with increasing cargo space the free trading becomes more effective either way.
But the trading? Whenever I consider transporting a good for two jumps, I usually find that the same or another good brings (in this case) over 50% of the profit within just one jump. So I take this, and then select the next good.
Really rarely I find a two-jump trade opportunity that out-shines a one-jump..

Also, by not exploring much, you're missing out on most of the galaxy, including storylines (don't forget to visit spaceports often) and many, many new discoveries including better ships & equipment.

Yup. Sadly. Kinda what I mean: The incentives should pull me into the exploration.
Luckily, now that I've kinda found my cash-cow or growth-motor I'm indeed more inclined to invest time and opportunity cost into longer trecks into uncharted territory. But also partly just because of the repetitive nature of the alternative, so I am strictly speaking running away from some experience and not towards some other experience... :-/

PS great to see someone referring to Space Rangers! And Freelancer too of course...

Loved it to death! Although the RTS-mini-game could become a really tiresome grind the hyperbolic death matches were just amazingly strange with great rewards..

I also found that other game I referenced, of course it'S comparatively limited content and very minimal graphics, but for a friggin 15 year old flash game? GOLD!
Sharing the link in case you or someone else is interested in archaelogy: https://www.kongregate.com/games/Baturinsky/void

[callmetrivial]

Originally posted by noctilucus:

2) I get your point on the outfits. I'm guessing the developers force you to board with your flagship because being able to board with any ship in your fleet would make it ridiculously easy to capture loads of ships at once and snowball. Capturing is already the fastest route to profit as it is. Not sure whether there is a lore-explanation for it though...

lore-explanation= Piracy.
i think combat speed SHOULD be as fast paced and chaotic as it is... it breaks up the duldrum of grab stuff from here, fly to there... all you do if you dont get into combat is leave planet, turn, jump, turn, land. if you have really quick turning thrusters, you almost negate any delay. ALSO, if you wanna see some really intense combat.... get into a quick ship with cloak and use it to try and take down a much stronger ship. the game of tom and jerry is kinda ridiculous! especially if you are talking bout the Ka'het, those lil bastards piss me off something fierce
all and all, the game story keeps me coming back. ive played through multiple iterations, every time taking the time to read every word. nevermind the time spent between fights i know are coming trying to prepare a ship or fleet of ships for what i know is likely gonna suck and end with me losing at least one ship or getting blown to bits and trying again multiple times. the grind is life!
*edit* ALSO! i forgot about the addition of plugins! shout out to my boys at Ursa Polaris Inc!