It’s been so long since I played the first one it’s hard for me to make a comparison in a lot of ways. I should actually reinstall that one again just to have a baseline comparison.
Okay, one thing I noticed immediately: you changed some of your UI sounds! It sounds dumb but I find them a lot more pleasant so that was nice. :) I’ve only just started my first game, but holy cow does it seem more intense than I remember the first Drox. It might just be tiny small sample size and RNG but I’m trying to save the Scavenger from getting wiped out by the Herzog and the Brunt and it’s been a battle. I don’t remember the Herzog from the first one, were they added in the expansion or did I just forget? They’re total jerks.
I’m also liking seeing the minor races. One of them in my game started out in the machine age but I’ve kind of been watching over them where I can. The Herzog were hitting them but I saw they became a Protectorate of the Brunt so I’m not sure if that saved them. They’ve actually gotten to the point where they have surpassed the Scavengers, at least in the power charts!
The 4X background aspect of it just feels more dynamic than I remember the previous game being. I’m not sure what has changed or if it’s a perception thing on my end, but I’m more engaged in that part.
Like I mentioned above, I’m liking the way the combat feels. Dodging projectiles seems more important now so I’m having to make sure I keep my thrust/speed up. I made a mistake of dumping points into Command too quickly before I had good enough thrusters to handle the bigger class of ship and I paid for it for a while as I hit a drought in finding new engines/thrusters right then as well. Lesson learned!
Well this game is SO much faster than the first, and I think it’s overall a good thing. In the first game it took forever to win or lose a sector. Now I’ve won two and lost one in just about two to three hours. The new ramming mechanic is GREAT, and while I kinda hate asteroids now, I kinda love 'em too.
Sorry. “Powers that be”. I recall from the previous game that you would be required to go fight a particular faction or that sort of thing. Apologies if that’s vague or factually confused…it’s been awhile. I just remember having fun up until that point and then immediately quitting and never playing again after it made me do something I had no interest in.
Ok, by context that’s what I thought you were talking about, but I wanted to be sure. I took out the Drox commands stuff, although I might eventually put back in the bonus suggestions.
I’m finding loot acquisition to be pretty frustrating so far. I think the issue is in a regular ARPG, it doesn’t matter too much if your ring or boots are really out of date, you can get by. Given how important each piece of equipment is in Drox Operative, it can be really frustrating when you hit a drought on something like generators that give you power grid.
In my case it is the race-specific loot (in my case cloaking devices) of which I haven’t found a single one in four hours of play time. This is pretty frustrating because the unique equipment is one of the things that differentiates each race. It took me until the 2+ hour mark before I found a single cargo bay and given the crunch in inventory space, I jetissoned my starter equipment including the cloak, assuming I’d find a better one. So basically for four hours, I’ve been missing the unique equipment for my ship. At the very least, I think race’s planets should sell their unique equipment but I haven’t had any luck visiting Shadow planets.
Along with the cloaking device, I can’t find engines or shields for the life of me. Weapons, armor, computers, I’ve had hundreds. I’m L14 and I’m still running around with the same shield I had at level 3. I haven’t had an upgrade in the thrust department in ages as well, although it’s not quite as long. Things pop my shield in a single shot or two now basically and since I’m more invested in Engineering than Structure that screws me because while I’m finding armor plates, they’re quite a bit out of my range.
Given the loot droughts above, it makes me feel like I need to invest in all stats. I know that’s to be expected to a degree, but I mean I don’t feel like I can specialize much yet. The fact that I tried to lean more engineering than structure is screwing me right now because I can’t get my defense and survivabilty up, no matter how good my Helm skill and computers are (which raise defense).
Still having a lot of fun with the 4X part and the gameplay itself but a lot of things around loot are feeling a little frustrating at the moment.
That’s a shame. That was one of my favorite things, as it really mixed up the game. I think the times just needed to be longer for these goals, and they should be opt in.
For everyone else, I’m pretty sure I will add them back in at some point. I took them out temporarily because even with the minimal choice you would still get them. Since then I believe I have fixed the bug that was causing that (again Drox 2 only).
If added back in, I’m pretty sure they will get a fairly large time boost. Also, I’m thinking of splitting the minimal choice to none and suggestions only.
Yeah this is critical for people to enjoy them the way they currently are (lose conditions, as opposed to something like my victory points mission choice idea). Basically, assume that the player is in the worst state possible to fulfill the quest: they’re on the other side of the galaxy, haven’t found the given race, and the race is the strongest race in the galaxy (and say you need to destroy it). The time needs to allow for those worst case conditions.
This patch makes radar much more useful, simplifies race statements, fixes federations, decreases scanning times, protects low level systems more, describes some of the newer systems better, balances a bunch of things better, and fixes a ton of other more minor issues.
Not me. I’d love for it to have twin-stick shooter controls, but for now I’m doing well with mouse + kb.
Is it intentional for Ancient Refill Stations (or whatever they are called) to only give a 2% shield regen boost now?
I’ve played the alpha about 90 minutes so far. I like the faster speed, but I happen to be in a system with a billion illusion monsters hiding behind anomalies, so I’m not travelling far before cracking open every object I find and fighting what’s coming out. I’m not getting a faction boost for defending NPC player ships that require escorting, but I’m sure I’m just overlooking something.
The problem with controller support is that you can’t navigate the menus or the inventory without the pointer. The game needs the ability to jump to buttons and items so you can use them easily.
