Bay 12 Games Forum

I've had no trouble with Pathers, but my fleet is composed mostly of carriers with destroyer escorts and one missile cruiser, plus my Apogee. I suppose that is optimal against the waves of crap Pathers throw at you? Remnants on the other hand are much tougher nut to crack. My dude naturally has all the fleet-wide carrier skills maxed, plus the skill that gives extra CR to whole fleet.

But yeah, I think the new version of the game shows great promise for the future. Pirate and Pather spawning just needs to be toned down - maybe we should be able to do it ourselves with ground strikes to their planets etc. Colony management needs more depth. I think the game would benefit from fleet management options as well, so you could choose to pay your guys more and get morale bonus (CR recovery bonus?) or something.

I just think the game has nailed exploration, fighting and tuning starships now. What it needs to add is more into feeling like an admiral. Plus some travel, scavenging and exploration events in the same way as in the new Battletech would be nice.

Pather ships are trash, surely you can beat them? Just lure the fleets into following you, then fight them separately from the station.

I tend to always fly Apogee because it has 360 degree shields and lots of flux capacity. I use my ship as a shield before suicidal carriers or other more fragile targets, sucking in hits and using PD capacity against missiles/fighters. Extreme range beams at front for poking enemies into attacking me. Flying a more aggressive ship would likely be more effective, but eh, I can't be bothered to micromanage shields and maneuvers.

When I pursuit, I have a Wolf or Vigilant frigate for that.

Astral is the best capital ship for fighter spam. I lucked out and found a blueprint, it is the flagship of my faction's fleet now. Don't have one for myself, yet. I produced one and haven't used it yet. I as well salvaged Battlegroup XIV Legion, it is sitting at my home planet next to the Astral. Money is not problem; supplies and fuel are.

I'm getting the idea that setting up colonies makes so much money so fast because the core world production specs are so bad. Basically, nobody is producing anything, so your colonies can easily claim the markets. Honestly I think there should be larger, more civilized core and then a few lone fringe colonies (independents and maybe a couple of Hegemony military outposts) among unclaimed systems. Maybe you could find a lost colony in unexlored systems and claim it... and then a large part of completely unsettled territory. Trade should have a range limit as well, maybe you could build a chain of refueling stations to extend it... Stuff like that.

I think it is fine to make money with your colonies and claim a local niche, but taking over sector-wide markets with a few colonies less than six months old is very strange.

I got annoyed by the Luddite Pather terrorist cells and went and trashed their planets. Bombarded defences, then raided starports, farms and light industries. I wonder if it will have any effect? Could we reduce a planet into an uncivilized state by constantly hounding it and making sure no supplies get through? Could we then colonize it for ourselves?

You should just bribe the Hegemony inspectors, unless you want to fight them.

I can't be bothered to make new account on Starsector forums so nothing will come of these thoughts, but I think the game would benefit greatly from four additional qualities in it.

1) You should be able to define your faction politically. It could be just a dozen choices with three each, stuff like whether it is a libertarian economy, state capitalism or mercantilism etc. Same with political rights. I think human/political rights would be interesting because all the major factions in the game oligarchies at best, military dictatorships at worst. I imagine granting political rights would make fighting luddite and pirate infiltrators harder, but increase immigration. All of these choices would naturally have an effect on faction relations.

2) I think there should be some special solar systems to be found, especially once the large sector size gets added in. Stuff like an isolationist fringe colony out on the rim, automated refueling station orbiting a gas giant, little things like that to add atmosphere. Plus I kind of think decivilized planets should be special to colonize, requiring military presence (marines) in addition to crew, but having higher initial population growth (portraying wild natives rejoining civilization).

3) I think the game would benefit from Stellaris-like end game threats. So one game the Remnants active and start attacking everyone again, in another game the Hegemony starts an interstellar war, in another Luddites get taken over by the Path who start a Jihad/Crusade, striking against all the terraforming infrastructure etc, in another one of the gates activates for a moment to spit out a Domain fleet that was stuck in limbo between the worlds. Things that could completely change the world and challenge the player.
 
4) I think you should be able to retire, in the same sense as in Prospector, after which the game would tell a short story about what happened to you. Maybe you could choose how you retire; becoming an interstellar emperor is very different from outfitting a million credit expedition and leaving to find out what happened to Earth.

I think the attacks are caused by your market share in percentage.

I hope we can do something about faction planets in the future - and see wholesale war between factions. I'd really like to waste those Luddite bastards.

The new content is great and I haven't even started a colony yet, been looking for a perfect spot and saving money.

My only complaint is that have they changed carrier AI somehow? I remember my carriers being less aggressive in the past. I've equipped them with long-range missiles and PD, the point being that they should hang back and engage with fighters & missiles, but they are constantly getting into a brawling range. The officers commanding the carriers are steady, not aggressive or there is no officer at all.