Bay 12 Games Forum

I was contracted for the past months (a week or two after opening this thread) to help out the game (primarily with bugtracking and QA when time allows). The dev seems intent on seeing this through to the end, although it's hard to say necessarily what his priorities and their order are. He has his own way to push it forward, but IMO it has been healthily moving forward.
He's a very chill and wholesome dude. He clearly felt the pressure from being a relatively tiny/small community of Beta Testers from the first game, to blowing up and getting the same or more views on Youtube than videos from things like Starfield or Star Citizen, which I seriously doubt he ever wanted to "challenge". He just wanted to make a sequel that had sandbox/open-world gameplay and more procedural generation than the first one, and boom.

There's definitely a lot to do and fix for it to become a complete whole, not to say a polished one that is really worth playing for more hardcore and seasoned space-people. I still see a lot of potential on it, especially if he goes after extending Construction features into being able to build on planets, and including ground battles with different units, as well as making planets more unique. Overall, he can go anywhere he wants with this. So much so people requested some features (which wasn't the right moment to add IMHO) like Capital Ships and big ships like a Carrier and he went on to add it. I've also had a chance to propose an addition and alternatives (limb damage and dismemberment, similar to Kenshi) and the dude went silent for a few hours and only came back when that stuff was working.

Ignoring any current poor implementations - as those can simply have their code edited, a new build released, and everything gets changed/improved - my only worry design-wise is the contrast between the more complex and hardcore allure of Faction/Empire-building, with the Arcade-style FPS and Ship combat. I believe the game could do better if it took the direction of Mount and Blade in Space and decided between an Arcade or Hardcore audience. The game's design seems to beg for that.
Right now, Arcade people enjoy the fast-paced progression and gameplay, but hit a brick wall with later features (e.g. Faction warfare).
Meanwhile, Hardcore people would rather remove all the RPG elements and make combat more intricate and involved (no levels, damage models for spaceships and ground units, add more "weight" to everything, etc).

Although I really love hybrid games in both design and concept, all my favorite games have probably bumped into this and all pretty much decided which kind of people they'd cater to. Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, Kenshi, Space Rangers 2.. I'm sure they knew they weren't going to be casual material.
It's interesting to see an indie game try to tackle the issue and sit in-between groups of people, but usually it's a struggle that costs way more time and money than its worth for an indie title, which takes away from the finished product potential.
Last time I remember a project force its hand (and its design) to keep its made-for-casuals label was X Rebirth..

Of course..this is just a theory. A game theory.
(vomits)

My own blurb: I was a mod on Shores of Hazeron for awhile (to those that vaguely remember that), among other things, and that may have influenced some of the things I helped make here.

You just sold 2 copies. I don't even care yo
I'm a ways off, but I intend to make a Youtube channel with my wife and this looks like a great one for co-op play.
It seems like you guys got a lot of work in your hands. HMU if you are ever expanding the team.
Keep it up, and great luck with the development!

TL;DR:
Janky, early access space game that reeks of potential. Mixes some Freelancer, Elite, Star Citizen and many others into a light, but very fun package.
There are also hints of other games here, like Mount and Blade, but some of those are not developed, fleshed out, or roadmapped clearly yet.
Currently rather buggy and janky but solidly performant, made by mostly by a one-man team as a sequel to his first space game.

Extremely surprising of a mix featuring Space Combat, Ground Combat, Freelancing/Mercenary/Bounty Hunting/Mining/Exploring features and missions, Faction Building and Management (taxing your people and pilots, choosing for more aggressive approach or more peaceful, etc.), Wingman/Squad control, story quests, using Star Gates or warping directly to systems slowly (to avoid the cops and enemies camping gates), using drones to rip people out of Escape Pods and delivering them to justice, silly dialogue, angry aliens, a hoverbike (for some reason) and more.

STEAM LINK
DISCORD LINK
SplatterCatGaming video on it

Full Stupid Intro:
Are you into space games, and ready to try something new?
But the new things are often shallow, not janky enough, and not filled with weird complexity, and they are no longer in Early Access so you can no longer rage at a new bug or laugh at a new completely unbalanced mix of parameters, perks, gear, skills and combos?
Or even worse...are they actual scams, claiming to be single-player games but running on servers with options to trade things for cryptocurrency? And/or the last update was 3 years ago but they keep posting new screenshots of new models and concept art?

Do you want to fly a space ship, jump out from it, and hit someone in the head with an Energy Shotgun?
Is this intro obnoxious enough yet?

Then look no further. Check out Spacebourne 2: the return of Jason Dragonbourne today.


Stupidity aside, I've played the first game from this dev and thought it was a very decent one-man-team space indie game.
I didn't enjoy the storytelling enough to get to the end, but I remember reading the dev saying he wanted to do something more sandboxy, but it was too ambitious for him at the time (or something along those lines). Now, it seems like the time has come for him to develop unhealthy habits and develop his own ambitious indie sandbox space sim!

This game is in the vein of Freelancer, where you fly a ship and do Freelancer (literal name of the guild) and Mercenary missions to your hearts content.
But you can also join the mining guild and mine. Or land on planets and do dungeons. Or harass factions. Hunt a bounty on your way to being an explorer and using probes and to find secret locations. Or play through the story, rebel against alien overlords, protect humanity, build a faction, configure your factions' "constitution", lead pilots in space fights and soldiers in ground fights, research, level up, unlock, get legendary gear that fires so fast it breaks the game's sound system..you get the picture.

Granted, the only thing preventing me from saying this is the "roughest of the rough" is due to the game looking and performing pretty awesomely.
There are plenty of corners to be rough at - the release version (a couple days ago) had as many typos than correct words. Dialogues can be silly and weird and clunky, with AI/synthesized voices until VA become a thing.
But as the Starfarer I am, I have to say I feel the force on this one.

Despite having a bunch of activities to do, like exploration minigames or more involved mining activities, things don't feel like they are there just to check some feature-list boxes.
It feels the game, given time, can become extremely solid and fun, with enough complexity to satisfy more Sandbox Sim players, but not enough to bog down on the dogfighting, space-marine fun.

Some areas feel more well developed than others at the moment, where others feel like Alpha level of development, but in my case..I had a bunch of fun despite all the shortcomings, and I am always looking forward to the next mission, finding and new feature or system unlock. Faction-building, for example, requires some campaign missions to be finished before opening up.

Overall, surprising amount of content for an Early Access release, clearly multiple influences from all favorite Space Sims, and a dev that seems determined on pushing through with it.

For those interested, definitely check it out now if you can deal with potentially bad bugs.
Otherwise, it's worth following and wishlisting it, since this thing mixes some Freelancer with Elite and Star Citizen (and others) in a light, janky package of fun and good times.

Granted, for seasoned veterans, the combat AI is kinda silly. But you can always make up for it by going into harder missions or territories.
The developer is very active on Discord, and suggestions and bug reports get added or fixed rather quickly. My own couple of reports and suggestions got added in a day.

There's some stuff that is still poorly explained or undocumented, so if you don't feel like going over to the games Discord, post here so the hivemind can help.

See you, Space Bournes.

Got a surprisingly small raid of 10 middle level raiders, decided that i'm not gonna bother and will just call cataphracts on them. Two cataphracts wore tuques instead of helmets, getting instantly shot down in the open. Third was a goon with full plate armor, axe and both shields.  Fourth was a proper one with full cataphract armor and a minigun, but didn't bring any ammo for it, probably because of excessive weight. EMPIRE'S FINEST.

The Empire can be so derpy with too many mods (or at least, with Combat Extended). Just a random note on mods regarding raid difficulty/loadouts:
I've experimented a bit with mods like Compressed Raids, NPC Bonus and Enhanced Raiders (Continued) to try and improve a bit folks overall loadouts. Adding Careful Raids on top of it all so things look more dynamic.
It made new Naked Brutality games very silly (first raid usually being 3 full-geared people, and with mods even Tribals are tough and Medievals often instakill nakeds/tribals), so I'm just going with Compressed Raid on somewhat minimal settings and I'd recommend it - some raids come in lesser numbers of raiders but with extra and improved gear, bionics and drug effects. It's all super customizable so I just disable any magical enhancements (by default, the mod literally magically makes people superhuman, which I dislike although I get the point). Since you can also config the chance those enhancements/'compression' happens, it's like adding a new type of raid with smarter, better deathsquads.

I know some combo and settings of mods can solve such derpy loadout and weight issues, but I was too lazy to configure them and balance to my modlist.

Also, that's a shiny explosion.

Yeah, the best time I've had with Empyrion was using the Reforged Eden mod, which makes a lot of things a lot more bearable, combat better balanced (and it feels like AI becomes more aggressive), and throws away/bypasses some of silly Empyrion stuff (like allowing you to use Capital Vessel weapons in places where vanilla, for some god-forsaken reason, does not allow you to).

Overall though, Empyrion turned out way jankier than I thought it would be. There's nothing out there quite like it, but I thought it was going to take a much more grounded and simulated direction.. it went for its arcadey and janky feel, with missions bugging out and the characters feeling like they slide rather than walk on floors. I have a hard time sustaining interest after building the first CV. Space combat also turned out to just be a slug-fest with little in terms of..anything. And even on its latest version, enemy ships are still buggy as hell.
As much as I hate to say it, the game's pretty cheap, which fits what it offers.

In any case, I really recommend trying out the mod (it's actually a scenario on the workshop) - it still Empyrion and still janky, but it actually grabbed me for a much longer time than vanilla, and the modders try hard to bypass or outright fix game issues with the limited methods and resources they have.

There's plenty of quirks and small issues, that's for sure. If the developer doesn't refresh the servers for too long, eventually the game lags or tries to implode.
I've had the same issue with creating character. Often, just restarting the game and creating the character with a different name helps. Make sure to save your character template (DNA) so if the worse happens you don't lose all your customization.

How get game?

For accounts, here
For download, here

Wait, this game is still kicking around? Thought it died went pay to play then died again. How is it these days?

More or less the same? Probably more stable than you'd think in some areas, with some new issues - as it always were, stuff gets fixed but even weirder stuff may come out of it.
All in all, I always had the worse lag from everyone I knew yet I'm playing fine for the most part.

The only current big issue for me is "quantum yeeting", where your ship gets thrown to the middle of nowhere, for no reason, and the only solution is to self-destruct it and lose everyhing on it.
You can still respawn it (without cargo or crew), but it really ruins plans or fun some times.
Some people never get it. Some, like me, get it a lot. I'm still trying to find ways to reproduce it or at least a hint of what could cause it - currently I suspect its due to certain Space Station designs, but no clue if true.

Other than quantum yeeting and occasional weirdness - prime component of the Hazeron experience - I'm having a good time.

E: Oh also, I've killed the Asteroid manually for the first time - previous times it either disappeared on its own or got killed by my defenses - and I discovered that giving a ship the Follow Order to follow it may just make the ship decide to suicide itself in the name of the Empire. Destroys the Asteroid, destroyrs your ship, and ejects you into space along with the body of your crewmates to watch the asteroid breaking up up close. Fun times.

E2: Fixed my derp with the links. Sorry!