Quote:
Originally Posted by ibol
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Trading was never intended to be a primary early-game tactic, but it seems players have embraced it. Always accepting feedback,
Bob
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Feedback, eh?
Well initially I played some 6k turns on "Easy, no Perma-death" with the Light Explorer just to get a feel for how things work. Ship got crushed by a gang of Gruffs in sector 5. A single weapon with shorter range can't even escape from them. The loot was okay, but sparse making it tough to upgrade. I thought I was supposed to be less aggressive and trade more. Your comment shoots that theory in the head.
Now I am playing "Medium, with Perma-death" in an Assault Scout so I have two weapons. Things are much better all around. More loot, and better. I have equal weapon range in the first 4 sectors on Gruffs, and am doing better on the planetary explorations. It's feeling a lot more like I expected on "Easy".
Just got a Cloak device, and was dismayed to find it replaced my shield. The long cooldown and apparently short duration makes it appear only useful for running away when outnumbered. I expect to get a better feel for it from the manual, but without one (and no apparent ability to swap back the shield it replaced) I can't go pirate hunting any more. Without a shield, you have to hope to survive the first ambush hit, which still means expensive repairs. Makes much more sense on traders and lightly armed vessels.
It would help greatly if the "ship devices" slots had an icon by type that matched the type icon for the devices for sale, so we would know what is going to be replaced or is empty and available. As it is, we can't tell how many device slots a ship has.
Just unlocked my first new ship design (Stealth Raider), but a long way short on funds. Don't expect to be able to buy it in the Demo anyway.
Once you have explored a sector and found all the "goodies" (not that hard to do if you can survive the pirates and Gruffs), trade is the only way you have to try to build up credits to tackle the expected increased opposition in the next sectors. It's apparently the only renewable resource, albeit slow. Otherwise your only option appears to be to pump everything into the "Pay it Forward" so you can get better gear (when it becomes available) on the next ship and expect to die in sector 6 or 7.
On a small ship, having the landing party options like "Traverse Mountain Gear" and "Oxygen Replenisher" take up cargo space is a major pain. Something worn by individuals shouldn't take up that same amount of space as "Heavy Equipment". I can see that getting modded early on.
Played around with the Crafting as well, by salvaging everything replaced by upgrades. That appears to be the only way to obtain components for testing in the lab. Rather easily got a "Warp Buster" schematic on "Easy", but am just burning out components in the lab on "Medium". Without any idea of what goes with what, trial and error is a very frustrating process. Hope the manual has some basic approach outlined.
On the positive side, the achievements giving you "pay it forward" bonuses is a very nice touch. I would suggest you enable them in "Easy" mode, but reduce the size of the bonuses just to give people the idea of how it works.
I would have to say right now most of my issues have to deal with lack of information I expect to find in the manual. So far it's kept my attention sufficient to make me miss two meal times.
-Dubious-