I'm obviously not playing this game right...

[caidicus]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it feels like the games' difficulty is really uneven. I don't know where to start with what I am having trouble with, but let's just pick one thing and go from there.

First of all, I have no feeling of progression. I have upgraded my ship twice, from the little gunship I started with, to a corvette, then to my new ship which I think is a frigate.

The thing is, they're all pretty weak, pretty fragile, and each time I upgrade my ship, all the enemies also get disproportionately more powerful, too.

I've done a couple "Station assault" missions, and found the only way to complete them is to ram the station, which kills it instantly. I should say, it killed it instantly. As soon as I upgraded my ship to the larger one, I could no longer one ram kill them. Now I have to stay and fight, but this leads to the next problem.

I do almost no damage, with any light gun I equip. It seems my shields go down in seconds, due to having 10+ missile volleys thrown at me, every five seconds or so. If an enemy sat still and let me shoot at them for 10 minutes, I still wouldn't be able to destroy them. Ramming them is the only thing that damages any enemy I face, but that leads to the NEXT problem...

It's REALLY hard to track where an enemy is, either because I don't know how to effectively fly, while also keeping the camera on an enemy, or whatever, or because enemies constantly just fly around you in circles, staying out of your field of view. I could use auto-fire, but that leads to the NEXT problem.

Auto-fire is useless for two reasons, one, it doesn't focus on a single enemy and even if there's one enemy, it seems to shoot whichever part of the enemy ship has the most shields, never getting through. The second reason is that which I mentioned before, that guns do no damage anyway.

I also have a grapple beam to "grapple" enemies, but all it seems to do is throw them up or down from my ship, and still outside of my view, so I just whip past them anyway.

So, basicallly means nothing, because either way, I'm going to be outpowered by the enemies I face.

Then there's the missions themselves. I can only collect one at a time. Ok... Sure... Considering I'm making about 200-300k a mission, plus whatever pennies I get from "loot" (garbage), it's going to take me a $hitload of time to make enough money to buy most of the upgrades I see in the drydock.

I'd be very interested to know how smarter people than me have figured out how to enjoy this game, as I currently feel like it's a complete waste of time. No matter how much money I make, and how much I upgrade my ship, the game is going to match it and make it completely worthless.

Am I missing something?

[caidicus]

Originally posted by Zombie101:

If you want a quick way to lvl try trading. All you have to is get from point A to B. If your smart you did your research max your profit you can make alot money and get exp.

Personally I been capturing ships. Run a common kill this guy. pays be 300k for the kill and bonus I get the ship. I can either research it or sell for scrap what I personally update my personal ship. I love know the enemy once owed it. Plus it thing but profit.

For battles I use a 58 shield 1 engine 40 weapon power layout really works well. Skills repair when not in battle. And Enhanced Shields 40%. Weapons I suggest best plasma tier 3 with artimis III. Always earn enough for that 1.5M weapon rail or Beam or Plasma. It serve you for a good long time.

Keep a Eye on your power layout it auto 100 when you warp.

I know nothing about power layout, to be honest. Also, I'm still at the first station, and the research button is greyed out, so I can't use research.

[zeko_i_mrkva]

Originally posted by caidicus:

Originally posted by Zombie101:

If you want a quick way to lvl try trading. All you have to is get from point A to B. If your smart you did your research max your profit you can make alot money and get exp.

Personally I been capturing ships. Run a common kill this guy. pays be 300k for the kill and bonus I get the ship. I can either research it or sell for scrap what I personally update my personal ship. I love know the enemy once owed it. Plus it thing but profit.

For battles I use a 58 shield 1 engine 40 weapon power layout really works well. Skills repair when not in battle. And Enhanced Shields 40%. Weapons I suggest best plasma tier 3 with artimis III. Always earn enough for that 1.5M weapon rail or Beam or Plasma. It serve you for a good long time.

Keep a Eye on your power layout it auto 100 when you warp.

I know nothing about power layout, to be honest. Also, I'm still at the first station, and the research button is greyed out, so I can't use research.

Hover over your minimap radar to tweak your power

[Captain_Brian]

Originally posted by TheMihic:

Hi caidicus,

Game difficulty - generally if set on easy damage is lowered so battles are longer - if it's set on higher difficulty dmg is increased so battles will take less time to complete. We are working on adjustments.

Investing in skills and perks, combining different weapons and enhancing them should give you advantage, however there is also matter of good positioning in combat, speed management and so on. Maybe if you could give more in-depth description of situation someone could give you better advice.

FIRE AT WILL fires at all enemies in range of a weapon, if you want to auto target and attack single enemy you also need to use MARK TARGET, both option are on context menu (MMB - default keybinding).

You can have only one freelance mission at any given time.

I hope this helps a bit. :)

Your game is fundamentally broken.

I know you guys have to tow the company line, but really, y'all must know that all of the main gameplay loops need to be totally re-done to make this game fun.

As it stands, it is completely repetative and the farmville aspect to this game really sucks. Y'all need to remove all the real world timers and balance the game based on player actions.

The game is wayyyyyyyyyyy too grindy, and the stuff the player actually does is pretty repetative and not particularly fun.

It's a reall shame, I love the concept that y'all were going for, but I don't think y'all hit the mark.


Combat needs to be totally redone to be easier to control, more fun, less repetative, and more tactical.

Weapons need to be redone so that there is more than just the 3 types of main weapons, need more variety and tactical differences instead of just the bland rock paper scissors thing they got now.

The economy needs to be redone. Perhaps instead of real time resouce gathering based on number of gas\junk\etc platforms, the platforms should instead each just boost how many resources are given by the player actually doing things. (It could represent a transport capacity, so if the player assaults an enemy base, convoy, mines asteroids, etc, they boost the % gained and represent additional transports hauling the materials back.

In general, the basic gameplay loop needs to be made fun, exciting, and based around the player actually doing things. Right now the gameplay loop is: wait. wait. wait. repetative gameplay. wait. wait. wait. same repetative gameplay. wait. wait. wait.

[Desolator]

The economy needs to be redone, the rest of the game doesn't. there's enough strategy involved in positioning etc in combat that you'll run into when you try and take bases alone or when you're outnumbered 3-1. That said I'd love to see more weapons, but I'm not overtly bothered by the current selection.

[Captain_Brian]

Originally posted by Desolator:

The economy needs to be redone, the rest of the game doesn't. there's enough strategy involved in positioning etc in combat that you'll run into when you try and take bases alone or when you're outnumbered 3-1. That said I'd love to see more weapons, but I'm not overtly bothered by the current selection.

There is absolutely no strategy in combat other than try to rotate your shields away from the enemy (if possible) then shoot at them with your 3 marginally different types of weapons. Combat is the same at lvl 1 as it is at lvl 30. Just a very short quick list of improvements that need to be done for combat:


-Need to be able to actually lock onto a target so that it won't switch when you look at anything else.

-weapons need a greater % chance to miss to allow for dogfighting

-smaller ships should be harder for larger ships to hit, giving them usefullness later in the game and allowing for mixed fleet tactics

-there should be weapons for smaller ships to allow them to be specialized for anti-capital ships and likewise capital ships should be able to be specialized against smaller ships (like actual naval combat and most other rts space games) They could be unlocked as the game goes on, allowing for combat to evolve and change over the course of the game.

-Need to have actual variety in weapons so that gameplay at lvl 1 is different than lvl 30:
---Point defense for anti-ship\heavy weap
---spinal mount weapons
---ion weapons to disable certain systems (engines\shields\light weapons\heavy\ etc)
---weapons that charge but pack a big punch
---flak weapons
---dumb-fire missiles
---weapons that are manual-aim only but have some type of advantage
---large missiles that require laser lock that force the player to stay aiming at the enemy

-Need subsystem targetting to surgically disable parts of ships

-Need to allow the ai to fly the ship so players can focus on firing, many have trouble doing both with the current control scheme.
---Add multiple pilot commands for this ai pilot:
-----manual (how it is now)
-----aggressive (maintains firing arc on target)
-----evasive (attempts to manuvere to avoid damage while still trying to maintain firing arc on target)

-Need to be able to be able to actually control your fleet during combat. (Marked target is not good enough and they usually ignore it a lot, a paused local map to manually issue commands and attack orders would help.)

-Need fleet commands that are fast and easy to issure during combat: (Prioritize platforms, prioritize smaller ships, prioritize largest ships, prioritize damaged ships, maintain tight formation, maintain loose formation, etc)

This is just a few of the top of my head and that's just for combat. All the other systems need more thought and depth added to them. This game could be great (and sell well), just settling and being content with it's current state is going to doom the franchise eventually.

[Thorne]

Originally posted by Captain_Brian:

Stuff

TL:DR:
"I would like your game a lot more if it was totally different from the existing product, included features as of yet unimplemented by any space game on the market, and I want that as a free content patch."

Seriously, there's "Let's improve what we have" and then there's "I want a Pony! NOW!"

[Desolator]

General disclaimer: imo you shouldn't be able to fight against something more than two sizes larger than you and win. thoughts below reflect this.

@brian
- can do that already (hotkey K)
- we have no flyable fighters / bombers, there'll never be dogfighter for the player
- I don't agree: weapons don't increase in size, thus they don't making targetting of smaller ships more difficult.
- There are: there's a reason destroyers have 4 heavy weapon mounts: they do a ton of damage and allow them to win against battleships if played right.
- agreed on ion and charge / laser targetting weapons, the rest don't add anything to the game unless you make PD separate from main turrets, and I don't see that happening.
- maybe, I feel boarding already takes this role
- Agreed on the AI being bad.
- see previous comment, I don't think we really need more control, we just need better AI
- this again ties into AI in general, better AI would solve these issues.

[San-Kyu]

Yeah I have very similar complaints about the game caidicus. Having played most of the X series, Freelancer, several non-4x space/flight sims like Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2, IL 2: Sturmovik, Project Sylpheed, Starfox 64, and quite a few more I can't recall, Starpoint Gemini: Warlords doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. Nor does it have much to offer in terms of the other aspects of the 4X genre.

I was excited at first but 28 hours in and I had to force myself to play more. I don't want another slog just spending 75% of my game time watching my ship fly through space or navigating the menus to do 20% of the game(equipment switching, trading, maps...), with the actual game part (fighting enemies, actually finding anything interesting) encompassing the remainder. Maybe the free-roam modes have strategic combat as you command you larger ships to conquer the galaxy but its essentially a poor Stellaris clone by then.

Does the story get better? I mean by do I get cinematics or whatever? Freelancer had alot of those, and thats like over a decade ago. Trent had so much more personality, as well as the side characters of that game than this. I get that the player is supposed to self-insert but the implementation of that in the game so far is utterly lacking. Good self-insert is either Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Story follows player actions, not here where you follow the plot's rails) or Persona 5 (At least you get 3 replies to people's actions, and your side characters are actually likeable, lots of things to do other than leveling up).

[twitch.tv/GFYE]

If you are playing on higher difficulties, the way dynamic elements spawn and regional scripts execute it can at times feel like you arent making progression but it could also be the way you've outfitted your ship. Have you fully maxed out your armaments with enhancements or higher quality weapons in each slot? Have you spent perks to improve your favorite weapon type too? I just recently hit Dreadnaught last night and it feels super powerful, even the battleship/cruisers I had before it felt like a meaningful leap in personal power. Are you using your WARMASTERS via the fleet system built into the game? They can be used to follow you and make battles easier too "plus even if they are destroyed they can be rebuilt AND gain levels if they survive encounters."

If it feels like your shields are going down too fast there are enhancements, perks, equipment, and different ships fleet mechanics " they draw aggro too" which can improve the situation you're having. You cant dive headlong into a battle even amidst other ships and expect to be ignored, enemies aggressively shoot at their closest target.

I know other people have commented about Marking and using auto-fire more proactively and that helps. You can also make sure you have selected "Turret mode" so that you can rotate the camera independent of your ship movement so you can position and change your ships positioning to spread damage across the four sectors of your shields.

You too can fire volleys of missles and other higher damage armamants, you simply need to find/research and buy they from the drydock. You can use the decoy consumable to cause enemy heavy weapons to miss you.

If you want to accelerate your progress in the game, learn which quests are easier and more efficient to gain credits or resources. If I want to make cash fast, I do hunting missions and try to capture the target so I can sell their ship back for millions. If I want more resources to build my empire I could do trading or mining missions and carry/find other cargo to sell at the end point.

Long story short, there are a lot of ways you could start feeling like you are progessing in the game. Between my comment and the others, you are definitely "missing something" so I would go about maximizing your ship and trying your hand at the multitude of ways you can acquire resources in game.


I would love to show you a few things. If anyone cares to drop by and chat with me I've been streaming my playthrough of Extreme the last 5 or so days. Maybe drop by and I can show/debate a few things with everyone? :)

[Joempire]

My issue isnt so much the difficulty progression as much as consistency. Currently Lvl 26. I was flying around in my swanky new destroyer killing everything, dreads included if they were alone. However I recently capped a crusier and gave it a try....which was bad. Suddenly I was fighting 3 dreads at a time with their escort legions.

Figured oook, back to my baby destroyer. Same deal. I had been flying around since corvette/frigates making about 900k a kill mission for similar sized ships. Took about 5min to do. Now im making the same money to kill battleships or dreads, but that now takes 30min. It can be done, but I feel like the game progression suddenly hit a wall income wise.

Side note, is it always just 50 reputation for everything? Been grinding some missions to see if I get any different types of missions or anything interesting but maybe have just not been at it long enough.

[HCGxKaLiBeR]

Enemy is based on your level not your ship. You need to get the best ship you can get as you level.

Station capture is easy with Battleship and up. Fly just close enough to trigger the aggro. When you are done with the ships then fly close finish the missle turrets.

I now fly carrier with 4 MKII captial ships with me. I fly stright into the shields, deals with the turrets. My fleet deal with NPC ships. I think it is too easy now...

Getting money and level is easy. Just do Warmaster Hunt missions. You deal with one ship, pay millions and tons of XP. If you don't see the mission, save and load the game refresh the mission board.

[ponsemen_bg]

That thread reminds me to the Holy Bible..."Want and you shal be given" , "Ask and you should be Answered"
Sorry for that but i am in that kinda Mood rigth now!

[Desolator]

Originally posted by Joempire:

My issue isnt so much the difficulty progression as much as consistency. Currently Lvl 26. I was flying around in my swanky new destroyer killing everything, dreads included if they were alone. However I recently capped a crusier and gave it a try....which was bad. Suddenly I was fighting 3 dreads at a time with their escort legions.

Figured oook, back to my baby destroyer. Same deal. I had been flying around since corvette/frigates making about 900k a kill mission for similar sized ships. Took about 5min to do. Now im making the same money to kill battleships or dreads, but that now takes 30min. It can be done, but I feel like the game progression suddenly hit a wall income wise.

Side note, is it always just 50 reputation for everything? Been grinding some missions to see if I get any different types of missions or anything interesting but maybe have just not been at it long enough.

Farm gladiatrix for money, get rich, buy best gear / ships. Own everything.

[Noquid]

I ended up starting over with the new version Campaign since I was doing the old version tutorial scenario. I think I've read the whole thread but skimmed a few posts :)

Turret mode, R, K seems to keep the target on screen. If you want focused fire, MMB for context menu then choose the focus fire option (or whatever it's called).

Early on, I would be fighting another gunship and I got the ship down to 46 health and it wouldn't go any lower. (firing my light weapon(s) and doing absolutely no damage) After firing forever with no results, I figured what the hell and turned on Fire at Will, all the sudden the ship was taking damage again. Not sure if it was a bug or not but it has happened a number of times.

I'm trying hard to like/learn the combat system but I still don't like it. You could circle each other for eternity, seems like every ship has the same speed so a smaller ship is just a smaller ship with less firepower, hull and shields, not faster or harder to hit. Definately no dog fights. I usually end up slowing down to a point where I can actually point the front of my ship at the target. There's really no point in even moving when in battle with another ship (until it runs). That way at least you can rotate your shields.

How can I see the actual stats on a ship in shipbuilding? Yea I guess MKII is better but what are the stats? What are the loadouts? Can I tell it to equip lasers vs. railguns vs. plasma, etc.?

If I cap a ship and send it to my garage, where are the weapons that were pelting me with light and heavy loadouts?

[caidicus]

Noquid,

I'll save some post length and omit your quotes, but I am replyng to it, so here goes.

I agree about R and K, as well as marking the target, then fire at will. I turn it off and on, depending on the target. I've experienced the same issue regarding targets not dropping in health, after a certain point, and believe you when you say it started dying when you enabled fire at will.

Frankly, I think the game is a little glitchy, and there are inconsistencies that pop up out of nowhere. I kind of feel like it was pushed out of early access, a little too soon, as there are areas of the game that don't add up. One example of this is when you're being chased by missiles. If you sublight out of the fight, they follow you for a VERY long time.

If you, on the other hand, use missiles, they have a super short range. The missile behaviour makes it feel like the devs forgot to put distance limitations on the missiles, or even more likely, they made an error with how the missiles should behave when you go into sub-light. Instead of dying, they get super extended life, thanks to YOU jumping out of a fight.

The point you made about "where are the weapons and ship parts that were being used against me, after I cap a ship?", is another one where it seems the devs haven't fleshed the capture mechanics out properly. If you blow a ship up and/or salvage it, you have a chance of getting a module. If you cap it, that chance becomes 0, because the code says a capped ship is an empty ship.

I'm sure they validate it by saying "well, if it came fully fitted, it would make the game too easy" or whatever, but by NOT having any fittings on ANY captured ships, it seriously breaks the immersion, on top of destroying any possibility of the joy of capturing a ship with awesome stuff on it.

Another indication that the fittings are on the ship when it's caught, but not when it's delivered to your hangar, is that you can sell it immediately for a higher price than you could sell it for from your ship hangar.

It's as though the ship is fitted at the point of capture, and you can sell it for its base price plus fittings on the spot, but if you keep it, the station removes the fittings before giving you the ship.

Stupid design choice, in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.