[Beta 2] Winner Winner - Chicken Dinner!

[HangarPilot]

I won! Okay, I had quite a few "false starts" but I reached the end. It wasn't what I was expecting ... but it's good and I'll do better next time.

1) Love it. I've said before that every update has been worth the wait ... and Beta 2 continues that tradition. I had ZERO interest in Station mode because it sounded boring ... but you hooked me in with that teaser progress update a few months ago ... and I now think I might actually prefer it. (Of course I'll have to play this mode for 1000 hours or more to test that hypothesis ... good thing my wife is getting me a new mouse for Christmas!)

2) The star map is genius. I thought the idea was derelicts "drifting by" ... but we're actually in orbit and our path takes us through asteroids, debris, nebula, etc. ... and you can "predict" what's about to happen (if you actually stop and "read" the map before sending your team on Away Missions)!

3) Away Missions are my favorite feature. (Although the automated vents should get "honorable mention"!) Missed out on some great loot because I didn't realize you can send cargo containers home! Should have read the release notes closer the first time!

4) Looking forward to starting my next run (probably tomorrow)! Now that I know what to expect, there's quite a few things I will do different. Even in Normal mode I generally reach the end and just start a new game. Part of the "fun" for me is the research and leveling up your crew and "progressing" through the game. It's great that you offer the perpetual option to just move on to a new location and begin again. I was intrigued by the Station-to-Ship transition and was a little surprised to find it's really a Station -> Station -> Ship transition. I didn't know I'd have to build a whole new station before I could build a ship. No worries. That's fun too.

Another solid update. Thank you so much!

[aksel_bugbyte]

Wohoo! Very glad you like it.

We're also happy with how station mode turned out, it plays a bit different than the normal game mode so it gives some nice variation to the game as a whole.

Awesome that you noticed the orbit in the starmap. Everything does move in a orbit there and all ship movements etc. have their own trajectories.

The away missions spawn when NPC ships get attacked by aliens, rogue bots or pirates.

Thank you for your feedback and all the other feedback you have posted, we are going through all of it and adding/tweaking the game mode here with time!

[HangarPilot]

Originally posted by aksel_bugbyte:

The away missions spawn when NPC ships get attacked by aliens, rogue bots or pirates.

Yeah, sorry about all the bug reports about ships "disappearing" ... took me a while to catch on.

I think I only serviced 1 Pathfinder ship because all of the others got intercepted. Maybe they should be "immune" for the sake of the story? They can't seem to stay alive for their 7 days of travel time.

...and all the other feedback you have posted...

What a kind and diplomatic way to phrase that! I know I'm spamming bugs and ideas and there's perhaps some eye rolling when my name pops up ... but I think that even when I send a bogus bug report it's helpful (i.e. he clearly doesn't understand how this works ... maybe it needs to be explained better).

Hmmm... Maybe I should get a new keyboard for Christmas as well so I can start spamming some "1.0" ideas to you?

My next run should get me to 2000 hours! I think it's safe to say Space Haven has solidified itself as my favorite game of all time. I'm sure Chris Roberts will be heartbroken that you've knocked Wing Commander off its throne!

[aksel_bugbyte]

Sure! =)

Quality bug reports whether they are just not understanding or true bugs are both valuable. And we often use such bug reports to make changes to make something more clear.

Can think about the Pathfinders! Did you move out to such an away mission and did they continue their journey towards your sector? (I can't remember how it is at the moment)

Keep the feedback coming and awesome to hear you enjoy our game!

[HangarPilot]

Originally posted by aksel_bugbyte:

...
Can think about the Pathfinders! Did you move out to such an away mission and did they continue their journey towards your sector? (I can't remember how it is at the moment
...

Once I realized they were actually being intercepted, I took one of the Away Missions to verify ... sure enough it was the Pathfinder ship. But I "think" it was aliens ... the crew was gone except for 1 person. I just took the loot and left.

Next run I'll pay more attention and see if I can "save" them and get them to resume. By the time I realized what was really going on they'd stopped coming (with the status page showing 100% for Pathfinder support).

[Death Approaches]

oh crap, is that what's happening?!

I was wondering about that! if I'm dealing with early game, low-crew/bots scenario, I tend to ignore those calls too, it's just too much strain on my build-up and logistics to spare 4 good weapons troops for an away team... wasn't sure if they were glitching out and not arriving, or what. that they can be targets of attack along their journey is quite cool, if that's what's happening! I too will put effort into rescue/recovery deployments now!

[HangarPilot]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

oh crap, is that what's happening?!...

Care for another lesson learned the hard way?
Each mission "type" has certain rewards. For example, alien infestations are likely to have crew to join you. Once you destroy that alien base ... those events stop happening (which makes sense). I took out the alien base and basically cut myself off at the knees because finding crew became very sparse.

On a separate note ... I tried "buying" crew from the Fleet ... but 3 of the 5 times that I tried it they never made it. Don't know if they were actually "intercepted" also ... or if it's a bug.

[Death Approaches]

the 1st one is news to me, the latter I have had happen too; maybe this should be reported? it wasn't just crew and the shuttle DID show up, but it and the cargo container of purchased bits, were both empty; only had the starting 6 crew still, so it was easy to see they didn't stealth join and flew from the shuttle instead of docking on the pad and walking in... the shuttle and the cargo container just started slowly drifting off... but the points were already spent. tried loading an autosave a few days back, still happened, so I just "refunded" the spent playerPrestigePoints="#" value via xml editing and moved on...

if it happens again I'll keep the save(s) that are relevant and report it.

[HangarPilot]

Originally posted by aksel_bugbyte:

...
Can think about the Pathfinders! Did you move out to such an away mission and did they continue their journey towards your sector? (I can't remember how it is at the moment)
...

FYI - Submitted an in-game report and referenced this thread. Yes, if they are intercepted by Pirates you can free the crew and they will continue their journey (but that seems pretty rare ... about 1-in-10). However for Bots/Aliens the crew is gone.