[Beta 2] Difficulty question for devs

[HangarPilot]

What drives the difficulty progression in Station Mode?

We know the regular game progresses left-to-right. So you simply take your time and when you choose to, you move on to the next sector and the next...

Stuck on a rock playing sit-and-spin we lose that choice. Next thing you know the Exodus fleet wants stuff you're unprepared to provide. Then aliens and bots start plopping in when you don't have point-defense. Then pirate shuttles are landing on your little rock. Someone else had noted it seemed game difficulty was increasing but NPCs weren't keeping pace and getting murdered (and ships going derelict).

Is it simply time? Are we playing "beat the clock" and you better have this-or-that before day X?

I'm hobbling along still trying to get my feet under me and it seems like the game is happily moving on with or without me. ;)

[Blizzard Kronic]

same here I,ve made it pretty far and got 26 point defense up and they still attack you way too quickly ,plus if you destroy their dropship they still invade you. my people cant get away to do any actual work.

[Death Approaches]

just like your starting 10 turns in eden story ship mode, just ignore the mission spam requests, you won't survive anyway, a pistol and no armor, no spare resources, it's just gonna put you in a worse situation. :-) try though to do all the fleet ones for the prestige points; nothing tops prestige in station mode; they're always available not having to track down the fleet, and while it might take many days for you to get your supplies or people from the fleet, tech unlocks are transmitted over subspace communications! they're instant.

you want my initial asteroid startup method, assuming you're taking 6 crew and default allocation? immediately abandon one of the builder pods on asteroid station start, make a starfighter. very first thing! ok ok you can build beds first I guess. :-) but quickly. you'll need it. as soon as you get the energium generator built, get an ore processor up. easiest one to sell services for, and you need it yourself... go turn on ore processing in station services as soon as it's built. the money will roll in, and you can't refine anything from your processed ore at this early, anyway. you'll be able to buy your food and needed supplies, even afford to give away stuff to the beggers who hail you, to boost reputation so you can see their scopes sooner, too. then go about your space life as you normally would.

yes some of it is tied to days passed, others tied to what you've researched and built.

[HangarPilot]

...go turn on ore processing in station services as soon as it's built. the money will roll in...

Interestingly that's the first thing I tried. Immediately started getting smacked with "negative service ratings" because the ore process takes "forever" to produce any actual goods. Ended up going with Repair services at the start.

At the moment I think my run is borked. Too much time (or whatever the discriminating factor is) has passed. I need more crew but cannot survive the missions. You can only send 3 shooters if you hope to bring anyone back with you. I used my meager prestige points to buy a crew member ... but they never arrived (reported as a bug).

I just sent every viable shooter (and 2 shuttles) in a desperate attempt to find crew ... and right after they left bots landed on my asteroid (3 walkers and about a dozen hamsters). The three people left behind didn't stand a chance.

I'm not saying it's "too difficult" ... I just need to know when/where/how the difficulty increases. You're sending 3 people out on missions with no trouble and then *poof* it's a ship 3 times the normal size with multiple nests and a dozen haulers. There's no indication or warning that you're sending 3 people to do an 7 person job!

[HangarPilot]

Additional question for devs - What qualifies as "happy with service"?

When I initially tried Ore Processing, it seemed I was getting negative ratings anytime I didn't have all 4 resources available for auto-trade.

However now I'm trying Arms Dealing ... but I'm only making 2 of the available weapon types yet they seem to be "happy" with the service anyway.

[Nebelbiber]

Originally posted by HangarPilot:

I'm not saying it's "too difficult" ... I just need to know when/where/how the difficulty increases. You're sending 3 people out on missions with no trouble and then *poof* it's a ship 3 times the normal size with multiple nests and a dozen haulers. There's no indication or warning that you're sending 3 people to do an 7 person job!

The missions should have a difficulty indicator, so you can decide to try an easy mission or a more difficult one that possibly gives more loot.