Is Single Player any good?

[Ruggy]

I've looked at previous discussions to see if this game is playable as Single Player, however, those discussions are pretty old and I'm wondering if the AI has improved before I buy this game. I've seen people complain about the AI and others say that the AI isn't that bad. So, what are your experiences with single player?

[Mollerz]

I was wondering the same.. and I found this lil known youtuber named mezso. I went through his begginer guide.. and am half way through ep.1.

So far he is laying it out well enough in SP mode. I am interested in this game now and since it is on sale am checking vids out.

Let me know if you see any cool ones.

[Johnny Copperhand]

This game is not worth it solo, It's still a good game and worth it during 50% off but playing solo is not that fun

[Lordawesome]

As a solo player i cant tell you it becomes a very different game.

most of your time will be spent micromanaging items and giving your crew orders. Gunner ai are more reliable than players but the game is very difficult. There are limited subs the ai "work" on without being stuck on a door or a ladder. the recent ai changes really help. its fun yeah but the down time is brutal when your alone. so the new gardening update should help

My current list of why solo is annoying tho

ai dont drop diving suits in cases or manage oxygen.

Having an artifact that breaks ♥♥♥♥ messes with the ai and they ignore more pressing problems.

ai are not robust monster killers when they board.

too few starting crew. Hiring an assistant ASAP before leaving is a must so they can man the guns leaving just about no money left for anything else.

You must reissue orders to ai everytime when leaving an out post. which is super annoying.

[MycroftCanadaNS]

Originally posted by Ruggy:

I've looked at previous discussions to see if this game is playable as Single Player, however, those discussions are pretty old and I'm wondering if the AI has improved before I buy this game. I've seen people complain about the AI and others say that the AI isn't that bad. So, what are your experiences with single player?

It can be a bit smothering at times playing solo. That is all I play. I'm not much of a fan playing online so at the moment it seems I have to do a wee bit more than what I would like to do as Captain.

The A.I is dumb but that is expected for the first early stages of game development. One moment they can surprise you the next you would like to bang their heads against the bulkhead for being so freaking dumb.

Outside of that the game is very cool, it just is, and the dev has been doing a fine job on the game. I only hope they take a month, and just work on the A.I.

I bought the game at full price just a week ago, and I personally think it is worth every penny spent (no, I am not friends with the dev team. I don't even know them but I can see a great game when I come across it).

[RiggedQuarter]

right now? No. And even then multiplayer has tons of issues with actually trying to run a full game due to missing entity errors despite the update :(

[KnEe_GrOw]

I started out playing multiplayer but lately have been playing single player a lot. I'm really enjoying the solo game after the new frontiers update, traveling around the campaign map and discovering the new locations is really cool. The added mechanic of being able to "spread" colonies to give you more safe ports really adds depth to the decisions of where to go byond "the highest paying mission is over there".

I haven't ran into as many of the AI problems that others have mentioned. Sometimes I'll find 5 diving suits in a ballast, but for the most part they have been pretty good about putting the suits back where they belong. It might help that I built some subs to make it a bit easier to manage by yourself, but weird pathing and welding doors shut instead of fixing holes aren't really issues I've been running into. Currently the only task I can't ever trust them to do properly is, steer the ship, and get to hull breaches faster than a human would during combat.

I haven't gotten into game yet since the most recent updates but so far I've found each new update for the game the AI get a little more manageable. It does get quite a bit harder the further you get and the learning curve for the game can seem pretty steep, but it's a ton of fun and seems to only be getting better and better as the devs put out consistent meaningful updates. I would say if you have seen some videos of the game and it looks like something you would be into it's worth getting!

[Martin]

I play only Solo and like it very much. Hopefully the devs bring more fixes and content for solo players!!

[lordFrith]

single player is good, i only play solo and can manage to do all types of missions and play full scope of game. Baro is quite a difficult game in general

obviously as mentioned above you will have some micro management as AI can't do complex human planning stuff you'll have to do that yourself. E.g. i have to sort crew inventories to get them properly equipped as i want it, or leave captain to steer while i do the crafting as the mechanic. given that AI's will never be autonomous like a player i think SP largely requires you to enjoy this sort of multitasking gameplay

so... still some bugs and unfinished behaviour in the AI's but definitely enjoyable in current state and being improved all the time

[Bozhdynsky]

SP is good at the moment. To be very good it needs more content. More storylines. Factions. Various missions. Mining. Expeditions. Easy inventory management. Crew management. More various orders for the crew to do on their own, like ammo run or cleanup. Much higher sub costs, so they need to be grinded by any means and not just bought after a couple of missions.

[Paraplex]

i love it single player.but can be hard.cause your npc crew is not human and so dont act human.you got to have eye on them.but now with the newest patch it should be better.so yeaa ....single player is nice.i love it.

[Ruggy]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I think I'll buy the game and give it a shot. I don't mind micromanaging and minor bugs, plus I have seen some gameplay videos and I really want to play it now haha.

[The War of 1812]

Originally posted by Ruggy:

Thanks for the replies everyone! ...

If you want to play, I'm new too! Send me a message.

[Ruggy]

Originally posted by The War of 1812:

Originally posted by Ruggy:

Thanks for the replies everyone! ...

If you want to play, I'm new too! Send me a message.

I have satellite internet, so I usually have 700 ping when playing games online. That's why I was asking about single player. Thanks for the invite though!

[BoogieMan]

My opinion, but I don't think the game is very viable with less than 4 human players.

The bots are good enough for basic tasks but they have minimal self preservation, they will not take care of their own basic needs such as getting new O2 tanks and you have to reassign orders for everyone every time you get a load screen.

You constantly have to swap characters to micromanage their inventory and buying stuff from the ports is a nightmare because you have to haul everything yourself and it takes ages doing it alone. The extra time spent hand holding your AI crew also makes you waste more reactor fuel as you spend more time messing around with all these various mundane tasks. It would be nice if when you docked at a station your sub would be powered by it until you detach. So you could spend some time babysitting without wasting so much fuel.

Salvaging a wreck by yourself? Want to gather the free loot? Have fun by yourself! It'll take forever and a crapton of 02 tanks.


The single player mode has an extremely unforgiving start, you have basically no money, an incomplete crew, a sub that is pretty meh, and I've spent almost my entire time playing without a ship doctor or security officers because there was never any to hire. It seems like 60% of recruits to hire are assistants, 30% electricians and engineers, and 10% security/doctors.


I think the inventory management is a bit of a pain because it's overly simplified. Everything takes the same amount of space. A single pistol round takes the same space as body armor or a toolbox. Very small items like small ammo and some medical supplies need to be able to stack to some degree.


I'm personally going to refund and maybe check back in a year or so. I personally don't mind micromanagement when it provides a benefit, but when it's mandatory for basic stuff it gets really tedious. It's probably a good bit of fun with a larger group of people, but for solo or just two people (like my situation) to much time is spent on mundane inventory management instead of having fun.

Until the bots can take better care of themselves and help with hauling tasks I don't think the single player tag on this game is justified. Can it be done? Sure. Does having to do most things by yourself take too much time away from the other aspects of the game? Absolutely.