For those wondering about the differences between Star Valor, Starsector, and Star Traders: Frontiers, I thought that this was a good comparison. I’ve now played all three and I agree with the author’s assessments.
Yes, I have learned that this is crucial to scaling up.
I’m now piloting a Valor Mk III with upgraded weapons and equipment and I’m dying less often when tangling with multiple pirates. Working on my kiting skills but I get overwhelmed when drones are circling and I’m taking fire from a couple ships or more. That is “brave Sir Robin” time for me, so a speedy getaway ship is how I fly.
Oh! I was reading that comparison and remembered something I keep forgetting to mention:
The energy management in Star Valor is great! And I typically hate systems like that and refuse to engage with them. I’ve never actually enjoyed using them before. It ties in with the crafting/tuning too because 100% represents baseline for components rather than a cap, but if you have the energy management, you can actually push thrusters, shields, and weapons ALL above 100%.
This really helps contribute to the sense of progression. In the early going, I’d have to cut my engine and shields power down to be able to mine, but I can run all systems at 200% now. Of course, I could sacrifice some reactor space for other things if I wanted to.
I’d love to play a game more focused on exploration, but Starsector sounds more complicated than I would like.
Exhausting is the term used by the author when referring to Starsector and Star Traders and I concur.
And the irony that Starsector has amazing combat, yet most of us mere mortals struggle with it and turn most of it over to the AI. It is a fantastic game, it just made me feel like I wasn’t up to the challenge of piloting my best ship.
I really rather not discourage the Trese Brothers from the super support they throw at their games. I suspect that most people stop playing a game when it becomes exhausting and move onto the next anyway.
Someone needs to make a new Space Rangers game.
Star Valor is like game crack for me.
Look out Notorious Pirates, orald is comin’ ta getcha"!
I do need to move up from my Valor Mk III to something bigger and more shooty. Pirates kick my virtual butt.
I’ve been waiting a decade for that it seems. Space Rangers 2 is prolly one of my most played games of all time.
I really like this game. I guess i really am a pack rat when it comes to space stuff. you never know when those 7 Light Lasers I have will come in handy.
I would love a new space rangers game!
Was looking for a mixup game and ended up playing nothing else the last three days. Can’t wait to get back to it, and I’ll I’ve really done is try to make it rich as a miner! I’m in a Mule frigate now with a couple corvettes and a yacht flying wing. I think I might have the funds to upgrade to a Cruiser now.
I didn’t realize there was actual fighting over Sectors. The mining company just had all their stations blown up by a huge pirate fleet. Which sucks, because they paid great prices for my minerals and I had a bunch of missions that were almost done. I’ll get my revenge. :)
Unfortunately, in the current state of the game, PMC won’t rebuild a station there. Get your hands on a Donkey (class 5 PMC ship). I love mine.
Sweet. I’ll go see if I can hunt one down. The Mule has been a fantastic upgrade over the Ogre, can’t wait to see what the Donkey is like.
By the way, in the keybinds screen does anyone know what “Alternate Commands” hotkey is? Left Shift is also speed boost and that works fine, but I have SHIFT+5 set to a particular command (scavenge in this case). Whenever I hit SHIFT+5 all my escort ships undock so it must be bound to something else.
Anyone know how it works? It must be tied somehow to launching my ships but I can’t see that setting anywhere, so not sure how/why it’s doing it.
I don’t suppose you have shift bound separately? I only use one ship, but I’m certain there’s a key to launch ships. Check fleet controls?
Didn’t think I’d like the Donkey because it is so long, but after upgrades, it is a blast. I have my mining lasers and weapons to use on enemies at the front and have gunners in all the turrets.
Looking like ‘5’ is the key launching the ships, with or without SHIFT. So that explains that.
I don’t see this key set anywhere in the Controls page. Is there a separate screen for fleet controls or anything?
No idea, unfortunately
Wait… I’ve been avoiding projectile weapons in this game because I can’t stand having to futz around with ammo supply and running out in a fight, not to mention I’ve been so squeezed for every ton of cargo space in my mining rig.
I just dipped my toe into crafting (aside from upgrade components) and made a railgun. I took it out for a spin and realized that I had forgotten to buy any ammo but once I shot it, my ship created 250 railgun slugs. Can your ship produce ammo?! Or is that something related to the particular ship I’m in (the Donkey, which has been awesome as you suggested, @Misguided!).
Glad you like the Donkey!
There’s a passive on PMC ships. I never knew what it did, but I suspect that may be where the ammo came from.
There’s a perk that reduces the space required for metals/ores/crystals. It’s in the mining tree, but on the trading side, so you might not have noticed it (I missed it at first).
By the way, do you have a refinery yet?
I’ve been running around with an Advanced Refinery but a little while ago I had found a Flux refinery. I just didn’t have the equipment slots to slot it in until the Donkey, so now I’m playing around with it.
It’s pretty nice, for one Flux it will refine 10 ore. Currently, I still have the Advanced refinery equipped at well and then when I get a backlog of ore I’ll flip on the flux to catch up.
There is a PMC variant. Not as fast as the flux, but keep an eye out.