Some basic part questions (and some suggestions)

[Waste_of_skin]

I just started playing again (I played some back when there were 3 types of ship), and have some fairly basic questions.

I guess part level is just linear, and higher level parts generally have better stats (eg. a level 2 part will be better than an equivalent level 1 part) ?

I ask because I just hit level 6, and I've got a bunch of level 1 - 3 Advanced/Optimized/etc. parts that I've been afraid to get rid of. I didn't want to sell off a bunch of "high quality" items, and then find out that they're still useful, despite the level.

The significance of the level was hard to check, because with all of the different types of part (weapon, etc.), "classes" (Advanced, Optimized, etc.), and attributes, I couldn't just check my inventory for equivalent parts at different levels to compare them. I tried, but just finding two equivalent parts was next to impossible.

Which brings me to my next point ...

I take it that this has been mentioned many times before, but I still have to bring it up again. It would be a huge help if there were sort/filter options for the inventory; by level, "class" (eg. Advanced), type, and maybe some other things, like specific attributes (eg. "increases weapon damage by a fixed amount" or "increases weapon damage by a %").

It also would be nice if newly added items were flagged somehow in your inventory. When you have areas giving you parts after you complete a mission, it says what types of parts you got, but then when you go to your inventory, it can be next to impossible to identify those parts to see what you actually got, since new items fill in empty slots (from items that you sold). When it's just generic parts, it may not be that important (since the part probably won't be that good anyway), but when you get a higher quality part, you might want to know what that part actually does. :-)

Next question:
Is there some kind of ranking for the different "classes", like Fractal > Optimized > Advanced? I have the feeling that it's something like that, but, again, it's hard to compare them in the game, because it's hard to find equivalent/similar parts to compare.

On a side note:
I just got a level 5 Strengthsource (?) relic that looks promising. The main attribute is +10 Ability points, which sounds really good, but I haven't tried it yet. I think that that's the first part I've seen that boosts ability points, and 10 seems pretty significant (considering that my ship is only level 6).

[Shadow Mommy]

Relic > Etalon > Mythical > Fractal > Advanced > Optimized > Generic

The higher grade, the more part properties/amplifier slots part has. Highest grade ones also have exclusive properties.

Next: Not all part properties scale with part level, so a level 1 part may be as strong as level 90. This can be useful as you don't have to replace all ship when you level up.

(1/2)

[Shadow Mommy]

There's part highlighting which does what sorting should do - not as well, but it's all I can do, because of primitive inventory system.

(Spaceship > Manage)

I've been working to make highlighting easier to use and allow highlighting parts with certain properties.

Relics, that are rarest parts, don't have scaling properties and have unique effects - Strengthsource is the only relic that increases ability points.

Oh and suggestion to label new parts is a good one, I'll see what I can do.

(2/2)

[Waste_of_skin]

Thanks a lot for the reply.

For the relative grade "quality", I had an idea how the lower levels ranked, based largely on how many I was seeing (the assumption being that higher grades would be rarer), but I haven't seen enough of the higher grade parts, like Mythical, to get any real idea how they ranked. Thanks for the list. (Now I just have to remember it :-)

The fact that some properties don't scale with the part level complicates things. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. It just makes things a bit more complicated. I thought that I'd be able to safely get rid of anything but the most "exotic" lower level parts. Now I'll have to actually put some thought into it. :-)

I don't think I'd ever tried the "Manage" button. :-) I did play around with the Highlight option once when I was at a part vendor, but I hadn't thought about it as an alternative to sorting. That does help.


> Strengthsource is the only relic that increases ability points.

Interesting. I guess I scored on that one. I'm guessing that the +10 won't be as significant at a higher level, when I have more points, but right now, 10 more seems like a lot. I haven't actually tried the relic yet (and then I'll have to figure out where to use all of those points :-).


On a completely unrelated note:

I did have a couple of other, somewhat minor, suggestions for the in-game achievement list.

When you unlock a new achievement, the button blinks, encouraging you to look at the achievement list, but if you want to actually see the newly unlocked achievements (I usually do, to see what the achievement was actually for), you may have to scroll through many pages, looking for the new one(s).

You could avoid all of that scrolling if any newly unlocked achievements were moved to the start of the list. That may not be a good idea, for one reason or another, although I guess you could handle that by making it optional (eg. have a "New" button that would only show the new ones, or just put them at the start of the list). Or the whole idea may just not be practical/possible. I just thought that I'd throw it out there.

Another idea that's not a big deal, but would make things a little easier, would be if there were buttons to jump to the first or last page in the achievement list, rather than having to scroll through every page. Again, just throwing it out there. :-)

[Shadow Mommy]

I might be showing stars or something to indicate which grade is higher -
e.g.:

relic *******
advanced ***
generic *

That should make it less cryptic.

I know about achievements, and what would help, but I don't know if I'll ever get to it.

[Waste_of_skin]

Yeah, stars or something would help. Other than Generic, the names don't tell you much. :-)

Fair enough on the achievements. It's kind of a temporary problem (once you have the achievements, it's not an issue anymore), and I'm guessing that it's more of an issue earlier in the game, when you're probably unlocking achievements more often.

[BearPaw]

what I do to manage the primitive inventory is: I put all the stuff I want to keep on the right. the new stuff comes in at the left. this easily tells me what's new. then I sell 95% of everything I get, after each mission, and I sell old parts that I don't use anymore.

I love this game but it's kind of silly to have all this filler parts dropping that you just have to sell one by one for credits. I'd rather get less parts and spend less time selling. there are many obviously not good parts that drop with lower stats than what I have installed. these are just sell fodder. I'm not crazy about sell fodder, I think it's a very old concept

[Waste_of_skin]

Putting keepers on the right sounds like a good idea. Never thought of that.

When it comes to selling things, my problem is that I don't like to sell something unless I have another part that seems pretty clearly superior, and with all of the different attributes, it's hard to find items that are (more or less) directly comparable.

[Shadow Mommy]

what I do to manage the primitive inventory is: I put all the stuff I want to keep on the right. the new stuff comes in at the left. this easily tells me what's new. then I sell 95% of everything I get, after each mission, and I sell old parts that I don't use anymore.

I will add true item sorting eventually, possibly with option to sort by "newness".

I love this game but it's kind of silly to have all this filler parts dropping that you just have to sell one by one for credits. I'd rather get less parts and spend less time selling. there are many obviously not good parts that drop with lower stats than what I have installed. these are just sell fodder. I'm not crazy about sell fodder, I think it's a very old concept

Ideally player would get 5-10 parts per mission, but later I have added all sorts of mechanics - double drop chance, large drops from boss enemies, secured region contributions, "The Decision" modifiers and here we are.

What if I added "Auto-sell X and lower grade parts on pick up"?

You'd be able to choose the sell threshold grade, from generic to advanced, because I wouldn't want it to be possible to sell everything and then rely entirely on vendors.

[BearPaw]

yes, using the difficulty modifiers and double drop, and everything else, increases loot by a lot. off the top of my head I think I sometimes get 20-30 items after a mission

I'm only lvl 13 but I have the kithalia frame with about 140k dmg, so without modifiers it's usually pretty trivial. I think the only times I died were when I didn't shed enough ether (kithalia self damage).

I would change it so that instead of increasing the number of loot by a lot, it increases it by a small amount, and increases the quality of the loot. for example instead of chance of double loot, just chance of upgraded part.

I think autosell x would also help, and maybe also less work coding on your part.

speaking of selling inventory, another thing that would improve it would be to be able to mark all items that you want to sell for sale, and then sell everything in one go:

right now I do: check item stats, drag into vendor. one by one for x items after each mission, it adds up.

it would be a bit quicker if I could do: check item stats, click on it (it's now 'selected' or marked for sale), keep clicking items I want to sell, marking them all for sale, then in the end I either drag all selected together into vendor, or press a button 'sell all selected items'

[Waste_of_skin]

Originally posted by BearPaw:

right now I do: check item stats, drag into vendor. one by one for x items after each mission, it adds up.

You can just hit "x" to sell a part (the same key that you use to dismantle an item when you're in the "Spaceship" screen). I hadn't played the game since the last update (which changed the vendors), but I just checked and "x" still works.

[Shadow Mommy]

Originally posted by BearPaw:

yes, using the difficulty modifiers and double drop, and everything else, increases loot by a lot. off the top of my head I think I sometimes get 20-30 items after a mission

I'm only lvl 13 but I have the kithalia frame with about 140k dmg, so without modifiers it's usually pretty trivial. I think the only times I died were when I didn't shed enough ether (kithalia self damage).

I would change it so that instead of increasing the number of loot by a lot, it increases it by a small amount, and increases the quality of the loot. for example instead of chance of double loot, just chance of upgraded part.

I think autosell x would also help, and maybe also less work coding on your part.

speaking of selling inventory, another thing that would improve it would be to be able to mark all items that you want to sell for sale, and then sell everything in one go:

right now I do: check item stats, drag into vendor. one by one for x items after each mission, it adds up.

it would be a bit quicker if I could do: check item stats, click on it (it's now 'selected' or marked for sale), keep clicking items I want to sell, marking them all for sale, then in the end I either drag all selected together into vendor, or press a button 'sell all selected items'

Probably better would be just to remove double drop chance and increase loot quality from difficulty level, but I'm not sure.

For marking items - you already have this option, just it works the other way around - you can "lock" items, making them impossible to sell. To toggle lock move cursor over part you want to lock/unlock and press L (or Start with controller).

[BearPaw]

hadn't realized x sells items when in the store screen. good to know, that will speed things up :)