Hardspace: Shipbreaker, blue collar space sim about salvage

Thinking about it some more, i think a better, but realistic in scope (unlike something like partnering with frontier), idea would be to have 3 or 4 ships arrive every game day and have the player bid on them (against AI) for the salvage rights. Then you have the game day(whatever that is) to extract what you can and try to make money over your salvage bid (plus dock/equipment rental, etc). Additionally, the ships could come in at various states, from pristine, to extensively battle damaged and so there’d be a ‘value rating’ (assuming prestine) that you could use to determine your bid. Like a 10M cruiser, that had substantial battle damage might only get a 2M bid. Finally, there could exist ‘secret’ value in ships like a smuggler having undetected cargo, or a combat vessel having an experimental weapon, that could reward detailed-oriented salvagers.

I still don’t have any idea about what to do with your money, but for some reason I find the thought of accumulating wealth to be more interesting that the thought of reducing debt…

I think that also sets up friend challenges and leaderboards very well - so for a daily quest, for example, we’d all bid on the same ship and see who made the most money (there’d have to be some cutoff to prevent lowball bids, ie, bids below a certain value(unspecified) will be rejected)

As an alternate mode, perhaps. Not as the main one, imo. Don’t remember how much of the story content is in the game yet.

You don’t find the thought of climbing out of a $billion debt depressing and/or futile?

Not a fan of bidding mechanics, though I appreciate where it could fit thematically.

It is. The whole setting is garbage though. I hope the devs just throw it all in the trash and focus on making a salvage game with pleasant progression.

With just a light retheming these same mechanics could give a mulitpolar world of salvage companies / freelancers each progressing through these tech trees with far more pleasant sinks than the current game currencies have to offer.

Oh they should also trash the CorpBucks secondary currency, not least because it takes away another excuse for whatever the hell they are doing with the SpaceBucks.

I say so because I love :) Its already a fun game but could be oh so much better if they reworked the game economy.

Or it’s just another roguelike? So play it that way until they fix it?

This is fake and my attempt at satire:

I dunno, the more i think about it, the more this game distresses me.

Meh - most games are about shooting other people, if we start to really look at what is happening.
Its just a fun gimmick and probably a little bit of a commentary on corporatism.

At least they tried to do something other than the standard thing every single game out there does. Props for that!

The game opens with a menu choice that includes “plastic free” options and then you move to a screen where you confirm you give up any sort of labour rights, operate “At will” based on corporate desires relinquish control over your own data and will vote in elections in a way desired by your corporate masters.

You know, science fiction.

The whole game is a “haha” that transforms into Futurama’s “I made myself sad.”

I love it.

They should really lean into it though. Make you go back to your apartment built for three shared with four other people, have you develop health problems based on your constant exposure to radiation and the substandard air quality in your dwelling, etc.

It’s early access. I’m sure the breathing difficulties and loneliness DLCs will be coming.

okay, I laughed at that…and shuddered a bit.

I may be wrong, but as I understand it the “game economy” has nothing to do with the $1bn of debt. Maybe that will change later in the campaign, but it seems to me that the only economy with real gameplay impact is around the upgrade currency.

Also coming soon, the update that plays Lynx Co-selected, mood-improving music nonstop inside your helmet.

For a small recurring free Shipbreakers can upgrade to the commercial-free version. For a larger daily fee they can enable the option to turn the music off.

In their recent AMA on Discord, they essentially said the same thing. The $1bil debt is meant to be oppressive. They have acts 2 & 3 planned which they intimated will probably change things up. Maybe you get dirt on Lynx from a video log, maybe there’s a rebellion, who knows?

That said, I got my debt down to 750 without too much trouble; the bigger ships are a lot more profitable. I imagine with adding more and bigger ships it’s doable in the “normal” progression up the upgrade tree. Maybe clearing your debt ends Act 1. The game is still at least a year away from release.

In the Homeworld series, repairing or salvaging a ship only took a few seconds.

Why have none of you (except @Charlatan, passingly) mentioned the soundtrack yet? It was up to an RPS commenter to clue me in, sheesh! I’m glad they did, too, because that’s good listenin’.

● “Open Shift” Mode Added

It’s a full campaign with Shift Timer and the Oxygen Drain removed. Players can enjoy scavenging without any time pressure.

● Key Bindings have been added to User_Config.txt

In-Game key rebinding is coming soon! To change the binding yourself, read our How To.

These two features please me greatly :)

Yeah I’m glad they let folks choose the campaign they want too.

It’s not sandbox mode, but close.

Edit: Was Free Play always an option or am I sinking into feeble mindedness?