Well I can’t at all say no to that. ;)
This is still accurate.
I think the developer stated that the number of different blocks some races get is because of difficulty but in my opinion it is more because they are unfinished. In any event, even if it makes it harder, the primary effect for me is to make them less interesting (because they have less options and less “fun” blocks).
Still, the starter race has a ton of different blocks and there are 1-2 races with just a bit less blocks and 1-2 more with still a decent number of blocks. I got dozens of hours out of this game.
magnet
2643
I’ve been playing Battlestation: Harbinger (iOS, Android) and really like it so far.
You start with a spaceship in a map filled with random sectors, and slowly shoot your way through to a target sector. Sounds familiar, but there are a lot of things that make this game unique:
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Your ship is a capital ship, and it moves like ships in Nexus: Jupiter Incident. That means it moves very slowly, not in 3D. Positioning is essential. You also order it like a cap ship game: set general targets for your weapon systems and watch them fire on their own as your fighters swarm around doing their fighter stuff. This is not a twitch game.
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There are fun RPG elements. You can buy systems with multiple upgrade paths, and enemies drop loot that you can install on your ships. But the install slots are limited, and very soon you will have to choose between two equally awesome weapons.
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Semi-dynamic events. Colony ships ask for an escort to a hostile sector, then set up a starbase that provides free repairs for the rest of the game! You retreat from a battle by warping to another sector, the enemies follow you! They show up in that sector with a friendly starbase, and the starbase blows them up!
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Fleet management! You can buy up to two more ships, outfit them, and order them around. But keep an eye on your flagship, because if you lose that one…
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Permadeath! Oh yes. Nice fleet you had there, shame about that last sector.
Now just to manage your expectations, this is not Nexus Jupiter Ops. It’s not even FTL. It’s a neat little mobile game (no IAP) with roots in the tower defense and roguelike genres. But from what I’ve seen, it does its job well.
I read this article and now have zero interest in the game. Switchology for switchology’s sake, all that Newtonian and frame-of-reference stuff died to me in Elite II, and I’m happy with Hohmann transfer orbits staying in KSP.
schurem
2646
Well, color me intrigued. Good, deep switchology can be a story generator if its not entirely on its own. On the other hand, I will never ever find the time to learn it all.
Just saw this on steam. Looks interesting. http://store.steampowered.com/app/363510/
Yup, bought it immediately, can’t play it until Friday though. :/
Thanks for the recommendation on Battlestation, magnet! It’s slowly chewing up my time.
I like pushing sim buttons, but for a future spacecraft I would envision less button pushing and more AI assisted workflows. That may be where he is headed, based on some of the comments in the article. There’s some cool potential with auto-configuring the craft to certain profiles, or some frenetic damage control where you need to shunt power around or jury rig things. I don’t want to spent 10 minutes toggling physical switches to undock, but – assuming he eventually moves the primary interactions to HUD’s – I think there’s a lot you can do when you have a deep simulation of spacecraft systems underlying it all. You could end up with little Apollo 13-esque cascading failures that you have to think your way out of.
I really like some of the little touches in what he has so far, such as having your cockpit windows, which are really just external cameras, flicker to life. Of course with any futuristic fighter craft you’d have the actual cockpit nestled in the interior.
Anyone here played this (STAR-BOX: RPG Adventures in Space) long enough to give it a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down?
I got it, but sadly won’t be able to touch it until Friday.
I played for about 45 minutes. I would give it a thumbs-down.
It likes to crash a fair amount, especially the first time you change the resolution.
You will want to change the resolution because it is very… laggy feeling in full screen. The developer made a comment about the game engine not liking anything above 640*480.
In order to change your loadout and armor you have to go to a special station on your ship. If you want to see what your stats are (or the other crew members) you have to go and talk to the science officer.
The ship to ship combat is simple, at least at the beginning. Attack, move closer or farther away, and some other options that I assume will be fleshed out as you go through the game. It doesn’t feel like there is enough feedback on the fight. You get a numerical value for your shields, and one for the enemy shields. you don’t see the enemy ship while fighting.
The on foot combat is basic as well, feels very floaty. It is fun to watch your mech(s) run around and kill things while you loot everything in sight.
Definitely do the tutorial, if you don’t accidentally click past it while starting a new game. This was very easy for me to do.
Overall I like the ideas the game is trying, but, the technical issues and weird UI make me want to avoid playing it.
Hey Brian, your SGJ podcast about Everspace made it sound interesting. Did you get any word on a possible release date?
Thank you for listening!! If I recall correctly, its at least a year.
I played the Battlestation ios game a bit.
Pretty fun, but simple.
Help could be better. There are icons without titles for basically everything so it is pretty much push it and see what it does.
Don’t buy the plasma bombers. Their AI seems dumb as hell. My carrier was circle strafing with another capital ship and my bombers were COMPLETELY unable to hit the enemy capital ship. Either they would not lead the target at all (and this is a slow capital ship, NOT a fast fighter) or they would actually fire at it from outside their range and the shot would expire before hitting the target. The outside range thing happened a lot as they would keep that range and just keep uselessly plinking away. Very disappointing. Laser drones are nice though since they always hit.
I took a look at the Kickstarter, and they’re estimating October of next year, I guess. Of course, with Kickstarter projects you never know whether the timetable will hold.
Big article on Ars about this early access game.
I didn’t realize that one of the planned expansions is a boarding and FPS combat module.
Edit: Ah. The article was already posted. Still, I didn’t know about how crazy ambitious this is. I think too ambitious.
