Oohh, is the beta live?!
I’ve just encountered a hilled lake so not hard to see why. :)
Starsector is how you do lifetime early access , correctly!
Played for a while…
Not sure I’ll play again…
There is no learning curve, its a vertical line. A load of sub-systems that were in the Alpha have now been removed. Its like Wollay’s reaction to criticism was to get rid of them. I suppose its possible some features aren’t available in this beta though. Also, character progression is locked to regions.
Its a shame, the game still has bags of charm.
I’d find that very surprising, since it launches next week. I think this is just a soft launch for existing customers so he can work out any major problems before it goes live.
Region-based progression has always seemed like a terrible idea to me, but I’m reserving judgement until I see how it works in action.
I’ve died 50 times in 30 minutes. This is more like Cube Souls.
There’s no XP anymore and you’re way overmatched right out of the gate. I’m getting my a$$ handed to me by chickens and cows. Here’s how every battle plays out (as a Ranger):
- shoot mob as it closes for melee
- do a little damage before getting killed
- respawn at Circle of Power (they are few and far between)
- Run back to mob, shoot again and whittle it down some more, possibly killing it but ending with few HP left for another battle…
- pick up a few coins and if you’re lucky a piece of gear that you can actually use
- repeat until you get a full kit of gear??? You don’t level up…
NPCs now give you quests to find special gear. It’s all by design, there doesn’t appear to be any procedural generation anymore.’ Hey, I hear there’s a pair of climbing spikes at SO and SO Farm!" Sure enough, a POI pops up on the map, run over there, find the spikes. Next NPC tells you to give to anbother POI for another Neat Thing and then you BACK THE WAY YOU JUST CAME for 10 minutes… and that’s where I got killed for 50th tiome and sent back to the one CoP I’d discovered.
Finally got to the next POI and there was a huge scripted battle and I was supposed to help the “good guys” that were outnumbered 20 to 4 but every enemy was way too much more me and I died aplenty. There was a new CoP nearby so I just get respawning and jumping back into the fray but I finally gave up and quit.
it’s a mess.
Given where the Alpha was, its really quite strange how its ended up here. I guess its an example of what happens when a game is developed in isolation and no feedback is solicited.
All these changes about removing XP progression make me super interested in this game. I’m kind of done with games working so hard to make it feel like my numbers are always going up.
Lot of thumbs up reviews before today…will be interesting to watch the tide shift…Steam discussions seem similar to what has been mentioned here.
Sounds like there is level progression but you get that level when you complete an area (obtaining the artifact).
The numbers aren’t the problem it’s the lack of any benefit from random combat in the open world. The risks are too great for a small random chance of a reward (ie a piece of gear you can use that is better than what you’re already using). At least with XP you felt like every battle was moving you a step closer to the next level and the benefits that came with it. If done well enough, gaining XP in an RPG doesn’t have to feel like work.
Having said that, I’ve spent more time in CW and I’m figuring things out and have improved my character/tactics so that I am able to win most battles that are my “level”…or whatever. I think the driving factor behind the majority of the hate the beta is getting is the lack of any information at the start and the fact that you’re dropped into the middle of the wildlands and cant fight your way out of a paper bag. Wollay is apparently changing some things in the next patch for new characters to make the start easier.
wonder when this will be released.
I felt like after six years I should at least fire it up, but my experience was pretty close to @GuildBoss. I got killed by a couple sheep.
Wollay said the next patch will be today and it will spawn new characters near (or in?) a town. Might make the start a bit easier but there’s still a lot more work to do IMHO.
It’s still brutal to start, but it’s better. Just streamed it for 4 hours. Had a great time.
I jumped in, ran around for an hour…jumped out, deleted. Was fun years ago, now not so much.
That was kind of my feeling as well, but I admit that was my attitude before I loaded it up so I may not have had the right mindset or given it a fair shake. It just seemed like in 2013 it was was revolutionary and a breath of fresh air, much less so now. Maybe I’ll give it another shot sometime down the road.
Does anyone know if Wollay plans any kind of mod support? Because a real kickass mod or two might make the difference for me.
I just went to get my steam key. When I tried to activate it it said it’s already been used. I contacted the dev but don’t have high hopes. Oh well.
Seems like this game is getting eaten alive on Reddit and the Steam forums. A lot of people aren’t very happy with the changes over the past six years. Resetting progression per region is going over about as well as I thought it would.
It seems unfairly brutal right out of the gate, and a lot isn’t explained. I had fun with my time with it, but yeah, I can easily see folks being frustrated. It needs a lot of work.