KickStarter Star Traders: Frontiers - space sandbox game by Trese Brothers

[Reapa]

What are advantages of a small ship? Is it more maneuverable? Could it be a good boarding vessel?

I was thinking of maybe making something akin to that but not sure is it possible.

small ships get hit less in combat and are better at changing range/running away.
They allow small crew but it isnt something bad. Small crew lvls up faster.
Boarding is fine on small ship but you must know what you are doing. Im still polishing my technique, once im done ill write proper guide.

Biggest issue is number of available modules. For that reason you will have to remove all weapons but 1 torpedoes(to be able to execute crippling attacks). Speaking of best small ship: bolt raptor. Its medium space is at least 1 too small. Once you add mods that help you with boarding and distance change, you must secure armor. Without high rating you will be destroyed by the time you get in range. You want armored barracks4(can be installed even on small ships), every other mod crew mod armored... and another armor mod(medium or small if cant fit).

As for strategy: if ship is like smuggler and will run, start with bounty hunter crippling attack. Otherwise go for armor/range change.
You want to get in 3 distance to start executing gunners boarding talent. On win you want to use 'throw wrench' twice(its mechanic talent). It will disable enemy guns and from now on you will be safe.

Boarding paired with lack of guns is good as you wont damage enemy crew. This way after win you can conscript high lvl pilots, mechanics and so on.

i don't like the idea of going into battle with the goal to lose crew and conscript crew from enemy. especially since you can't chose which of your people will die.
on hard, every time you go into battle with a small ship with 1 gun, you risk losing the game. I've lost games with big ships. all it takes is a little bad luck and your engine is badly damaged. you can't retreat even with talents, you can't dodge well any more even with talents and while you try to repair your engine your whole ship gets blown to bits.
my advice would be to run from all and any battles especially with a small ship and preferably with talents that help you run even before combat starts.

 

[Reapa]

while on this subject, i believe ship combat is very flawed. probably mostly due to the extremely small impact your stats and skills have compared to the RNG. a "maybe you can escape using this skill" is just not viable in ironman; it's the equivalent of blink or teleport not working in DCSS even though you have the skill to use it. and anything less than ironman is just not worth playing.
damage disabling your ship parts to the point you can't fight back any more is also bad. yes there are skills that repair your ship, but while you use one of those you get hit again for even more dmg than you repaired.
for some reason you chose movement first and guns second and talents third, but talents get activated first, then you shoot your guns, and by the time you can move, your engine can't push your ship any more.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Emily]

while on this subject, i believe ship combat is very flawed. probably mostly due to the extremely small impact your stats and skills have compared to the RNG. a "maybe you can escape using this skill" is just not viable in ironman; it's the equivalent of blink or teleport not working in DCSS even though you have the skill to use it. and anything less than ironman is just not worth playing.
damage disabling your ship parts to the point you can't fight back any more is also bad. yes there are skills that repair your ship, but while you use one of those you get hit again for even more dmg than you repaired.
for some reason you chose movement first and guns second and talents third, but talents get activated first, then you shoot your guns, and by the time you can move, your engine can't push your ship any more.

I am not really sure tho about the ship combat. On one hand it does depend on
RNG and every ship has a chance to be destroyed at every combat ... HOWEVER

i have to consider that a kinda more realistic and exciting approach to the game, where being a star captain is kinda never a guaranteed thing and every mission is a possible death sentence. And while rewards are great the risks are great as well.
So idk, all in all i think their approach isnt really bad or anything, just more realistic type.
And historically u had major ironclad ships get blown up by a lucky shot to their ammunition chambers, kinda similar here with the engines which are always the soft spot.

 

[Reapa]

while on this subject, i believe ship combat is very flawed. probably mostly due to the extremely small impact your stats and skills have compared to the RNG. a "maybe you can escape using this skill" is just not viable in ironman; it's the equivalent of blink or teleport not working in DCSS even though you have the skill to use it. and anything less than ironman is just not worth playing.
damage disabling your ship parts to the point you can't fight back any more is also bad. yes there are skills that repair your ship, but while you use one of those you get hit again for even more dmg than you repaired.
for some reason you chose movement first and guns second and talents third, but talents get activated first, then you shoot your guns, and by the time you can move, your engine can't push your ship any more.

I am not really sure tho about the ship combat. On one hand it does depend on
RNG and every ship has a chance to be destroyed at every combat ... HOWEVER

i have to consider that a kinda more realistic and exciting approach to the game, where being a star captain is kinda never a guaranteed thing and every mission is a possible death sentence. And while rewards are great the risks are great as well.
So idk, all in all i think their approach isnt really bad or anything, just more realistic type.
And historically u had major ironclad ships get blown up by a lucky shot to their ammunition chambers, kinda similar here with the engines which are always the soft spot.

it's not even the biggest problem if your engine is shot. it's a problem if it's only damaged and you can't escape nor move in to attempt boarding and your enemy doesn't disable your engine entirely before your hull breaks. because if your ship explodes it's game over. if your engine is disabled you just get looted. if there's a surrender button and i didn't see it, then there's actually no problem at all. but if there isn't, it badly needs to get implemented.
EDIT: there is no surrender button

 

[Emily]

while on this subject, i believe ship combat is very flawed. probably mostly due to the extremely small impact your stats and skills have compared to the RNG. a "maybe you can escape using this skill" is just not viable in ironman; it's the equivalent of blink or teleport not working in DCSS even though you have the skill to use it. and anything less than ironman is just not worth playing.
damage disabling your ship parts to the point you can't fight back any more is also bad. yes there are skills that repair your ship, but while you use one of those you get hit again for even more dmg than you repaired.
for some reason you chose movement first and guns second and talents third, but talents get activated first, then you shoot your guns, and by the time you can move, your engine can't push your ship any more.

I am not really sure tho about the ship combat. On one hand it does depend on
RNG and every ship has a chance to be destroyed at every combat ... HOWEVER

i have to consider that a kinda more realistic and exciting approach to the game, where being a star captain is kinda never a guaranteed thing and every mission is a possible death sentence. And while rewards are great the risks are great as well.
So idk, all in all i think their approach isnt really bad or anything, just more realistic type.
And historically u had major ironclad ships get blown up by a lucky shot to their ammunition chambers, kinda similar here with the engines which are always the soft spot.

it's not even the biggest problem if your engine is shot. it's a problem if it's only damaged and you can't escape nor move in to attempt boarding and your enemy doesn't disable your engine entirely before your hull breaks. because if your ship explodes it's game over. if your engine is disabled you just get looted. if there's a surrender button and i didn't see it, then there's actually no problem at all. but if there isn't, it badly needs to get implemented.

Agreed on the surrender button .
There should also be some ransom u have to pay for safe passage or some other form of punishment as a lot of times the cargo is not a sufficiently big/realistic one.

While we are at it, it would also be good to rethink why would killing a pirate ship or even a smuggler(altho this one is debatable) ruin reputation for u. That makes kinda zero sense, if anything it should do the opposite and make u more loved that u got rid of the pirates.

 

[Reapa]

while on this subject, i believe ship combat is very flawed. probably mostly due to the extremely small impact your stats and skills have compared to the RNG. a "maybe you can escape using this skill" is just not viable in ironman; it's the equivalent of blink or teleport not working in DCSS even though you have the skill to use it. and anything less than ironman is just not worth playing.
damage disabling your ship parts to the point you can't fight back any more is also bad. yes there are skills that repair your ship, but while you use one of those you get hit again for even more dmg than you repaired.
for some reason you chose movement first and guns second and talents third, but talents get activated first, then you shoot your guns, and by the time you can move, your engine can't push your ship any more.

I am not really sure tho about the ship combat. On one hand it does depend on
RNG and every ship has a chance to be destroyed at every combat ... HOWEVER

i have to consider that a kinda more realistic and exciting approach to the game, where being a star captain is kinda never a guaranteed thing and every mission is a possible death sentence. And while rewards are great the risks are great as well.
So idk, all in all i think their approach isnt really bad or anything, just more realistic type.
And historically u had major ironclad ships get blown up by a lucky shot to their ammunition chambers, kinda similar here with the engines which are always the soft spot.

it's not even the biggest problem if your engine is shot. it's a problem if it's only damaged and you can't escape nor move in to attempt boarding and your enemy doesn't disable your engine entirely before your hull breaks. because if your ship explodes it's game over. if your engine is disabled you just get looted. if there's a surrender button and i didn't see it, then there's actually no problem at all. but if there isn't, it badly needs to get implemented.

Agreed on the surrender button .
There should also be some ransom u have to pay for safe passage or some other form of punishment as a lot of times the cargo is not a sufficiently big/realistic one.

While we are at it, it would also be good to rethink why would killing a pirate ship or even a smuggler(altho this one is debatable) ruin reputation for u. That makes kinda zero sense, if anything it should do the opposite and make u more loved that u got rid of the pirates.

if the pirate or smuggler belongs to a faction then he works for that faction so it makes sense for you to lose reputation with that faction.
there is no central government to outlaw the practice of pirating and smuggling in this universe as far as i can tell. and even if there were, you'd still lose reputation with that faction even if you gained reputation with the government.
freelancer had pirate factions. everyone there was a pirate. killing one of them would not make you popular with that faction.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

What are advantages of a small ship? Is it more maneuverable? Could it be a good boarding vessel?

I was thinking of maybe making something akin to that but not sure is it possible.

small ships get hit less in combat and are better at changing range/running away.

my experience says the exact opposite. no amount of speed can substitute a big crew and the amount of equipment you can mount of bigger ships, actually i lost many times smaller ships because they were unable to move away while on the biggest, slowest one i always, *always*, dictate range.

 

[Vagiel]

And.. I think it's time to restart. I know have the titan ship ( the one that costs 1.1 mil) I have upgraded guns and crew equipment and I don't find any kind of activity lucrative since the faen prince pays average 500.000 for prisoner missions so there is not much reason to bother with other contracts.

Do things escalaye in further eras or i just going to fly around destoyides everyone? I am playing on normal by the way so I can't complain about lack of difficulty.

 

[LordofSyn]

And.. I think it's time to restart. I know have the titan ship ( the one that costs 1.1 mil) I have upgraded guns and crew equipment and I don't find any kind of activity lucrative since the faen prince pays average 500.000 for prisoner missions so there is not much reason to bother with other contracts.

Do things escalaye in further eras or i just going to fly around destoyides everyone? I am playing on normal by the way so I can't complain about lack of difficulty.

The game difficulty does increase as your career continues and there are more Eras and stories to pursue and even more are being added.

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Emily]

Xeno ships are brutal.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Commissar Draco]

Cought some Shekels and bought it on Steam to show my appreciation for devs work; completed the Prince line very interesting and with nice twist or two. My only regret was to pick Dragoon Cruiser over either Interceptor or Cutter. Someone has save with all starting ships unlocked? Not going to grind ten fights to get starting ship its very bad idea.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Emily]

OMGGG is there no way to transfer upgraded weapons and modules from old ship to the new one when u buy it??

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Emily]

OMGGG is there no way to transfer upgraded weapons and modules from old ship to the new one when u buy it??

ofc not. it would make no sense: I had this custom doors installed in my lada, why cant i put them on my porsche?

I agree with modules such as barracks. But certainly not all modules should be considered as such.
Weapons, sensors, pilot guidance and many others would be feasible to transfer surely.

 

[Commissar Draco]

OMGGG is there no way to transfer upgraded weapons and modules from old ship to the new one when u buy it??

ofc not. it would make no sense: I had this custom doors installed in my lada, why cant i put them on my porsche?

I agree with modules such as barracks. But certainly not all modules should be considered as such.
Weapons, sensors, pilot guidance and many others would be feasible to transfer surely.

All the compartments are standardized and modular there is no reason to not give player option to put his ship in dry dock and rip all the staff he wants to transfer to the new one. Weapon Locker AI its fricking software or firmware update I cant transfer this? what is this Space MicroCuck? But game is perfectly playable when you stick to one ship and just ugrade her; heck its another thing which makes the setting WH40K light: the ancient ships cared by and upgraded by generations of Captains and Crew. Anyways once the workshop support is out I hope that Mods will fix this and add more customization and tunning options for things like weapons and ships.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Commissar Draco]

You can be even attacked by your own factions pirates and being penalized for defending yourself against faction rouge agents even when you are of high reputation and standing in factions; game is obviously far from being completed and needs plenty of things to make it more fun to play like turning on the weapons from previus turns during combat and more of random events on planets (so far i found only two) but today there were to patches one bugged leveling the second fixed this. And this is from two guys studio. Now I wish Vince used such engine and made beautiful 2D game with hand painted screens which reminds me of HoMM2 and 3 instead of shit level and dated 3D.

 

[Morkar Left]

You can be even attacked by your own factions pirates and being penalized for defending yourself against faction rouge agents even when you are of high reputation and standing in factions; game is obviously far from being completed and needs plenty of things to make it more fun to play

I agree that some reputation losses should be completely take out. Sometimes it doesn't make much sense and other times it leas too much into an unnecessary downwards spirale. But callling the game far from being completed is a joke...

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[thesheeep]

I must say, the game really dragged me in the first few hours.
But now I'm about 20 hours in, and am kind of... bored.

There is certainly a lot to do and great freedom, but everything is just the same.
Trading in itself isn't really fun (when is it ever? Buy low, trade high, repeat...) but a means to stay alive.
Crew combat isn't bad, but not very deep, either - and always the same.
Ship combat has the same problem. Not bad on its own, but after dozens of fights, you notice you always click the same buttons and it almost always goes the same way, too.
Both crew combat and ship combat could use some movement/obstacles/cover system and more opponents than always 1vs1 in space.

Spying, Blockading, Patrolling and Exploring are all the very same thing: basically drawing a random card from a hand, hoping to draw the right one, with some abilities to remove/upgrade cards. Meh.
I truly wish that card game would be replaced by some actual activity that fits the description and contains some actual gameplay - like crew combat or ship combat.
Some kind of Crazy Labyrinth for exploration would be nice.
Maybe a common tactics/strategy part for patrolling and blockading.
And spying... no idea, but maybe one thing can keep that card game.

I know it is a lot to ask considering the team size, but as it is now, the game really doesn't have much long lasting appeal.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I must say,

Sorta same here, it really feels kinda like a Space Rangers-Lite. I'm sure I'll play it more over time but I think it really fares better as a RL(shortish perma-death bursts instead of week-long campaigns), for now at least.