Trese Brothers Games (Star Traders: Frontiers and more)

Instead of cluttering up Mr. Brains Super Space Thread with discussions about a game that no-one can ever find again, we talked about making a Trese Brothers thread, since they make wonderful games, and really deserive their own thread.

Since no-one did so, and people kept talking about that one game in the same thread, here is a thread were such discussions would probably be more fruitful.

Its interesting to me, that their games all seem to take place in the same universe, seeing how the Templars are a part of Space Traders: Frontiers as well.

This is their latest game - I bought myself, but is trying to to hold off playing, but word is generally that its pretty cool, and that the developers are super fast and observant about issues.

Is it possible for someone to move all those posts in the other thread over here?

Yay new thread! I really need to get some time in with this this weekend.

I bought this but only played like 30 mins since I didnt have time, the little I played I was overwhelmed by the UI.

Ill try again during the weekend since the description made it sound like my dream game.

It’s fun so far. It reminds me of a solo board game turned into a video game, with the constant rolling against skills in the corner, random encounters and exploring/spying/patrolling using event cards.

I like it, but it feels very casual. Something to have running in the background and play through a few turns between the endless work meetings.

I’m glad that the failed rolls get a warning sound so I can check the message. It helps to inform me why I’m suddenly a crew member short, or why my gun is suddenly malfunctioning. Failing a couple ship ops rolls on a long transit could be important if I’m likely to run into enemies, because some of my weapons may be off line due to malfunctions.

I’d like there to be some log I could scroll back through or just a pure count of how many times a roll has come up and how many times I’ve passed/failed.

As of now I’ve not decided to, for example, let a gunner go and replace them with a pilot because I’m repeatedly failing navigation rolls, but I might do if I had more information.

Overall, this doesn’t feel like it’s going to be the story-generator I always hope for when I buy a game like this, but I am enjoying it a lot.

Can we just call him Mr. Brain from now on?

A Trese Bros. game was the first game I ever picked up for my then-nifty, new smartphone (Star Traders RPG Elite). Definitely a throwback. Haven’t played it for a long time.

Played it almost solid when I was sick this week. It is brilliant. I absolutely love it. It feels a it little bit like playing a Fading Suns RPG!

Yeah, it definitely has that flavor, which is a few billion points in its favor. :)

Hell yeah! Also I suggest playing it a little bit like a roguelike (sorry @tomchick) just expect things to go badly and you will be restarting. One of the Trese bros said this is the expected pattern of play, so best to embrace it :)

Just like the RPG indeed!

The captain’s log in this game is pretty handy. They also said they’ll be adding a full pop-up flight log so you can check everything that went on. You can also get to the combat log by hitting the L key in combat.

So far I’ve managed to save up 50K by trading and missions. Captain is level 7, officers and crew mostly 5/6. No combat at all so far. I’ve been choosing the peaceful options to save cash early on. I dumped one of my 7 pilots to bring in a mechanic because I kept failing some repair checks in-flight. Hopefully that helps because repairs at the starports are expensive. Of course he’s level 1 and the pilot crew I dismissed was level 5 so it will take awhile to get full benefits. Probably best to make those kinds of crew adjustments ASAP.

One thing that’s kind of surprised me a bit is that the storyline text for the story missions is surprisingly good. I’m really enjoying it.

I can see this game giving some folks a Fading Suns vibe. For me, having played the Templar game in the same universe, it’s more of a cross between Dune and Warhammer 40K vibe.

I’m playing it as if it were a rogue-like, which as there’s no manual saves I guess it fits some of the bill. I’m not sure how much there is to do beyond a certain point, but I usually run into trouble before I get bored with a game, so it’s hard to say. I usually only visit three or four systems max before something calamitous happens, which is a tiny part of the default map. Having a nice ship helps prolong things quite a bit though. I am a little disappointed that the main story—or least the first mission that you receive—is the same regardless of which faction you start with.

It reminds me of the Curious Expedition, in that it’s a rogue-like (or rogue-lite if you’re a snob) game that I like to play in short bursts and can see myself coming back to frequently. I have some issues with it, but I enjoy it overall. Lifting the combat system from Darkest Dungeon was a great idea.

I’ve visited about 15 systems and haven’t run into any trouble at all. The devs said to avoid combat early in the game until you get upgrades to your ship and some combat talents for your crew and that’s working for me pretty well.

The thing about avoiding combat is true, but sometimes you get sent to hostile systems on missions and have to take a few shots before you can escape. My current (third) game is going better as I’m playing more cautiously–maybe too cautiously–and started with the best ship available. I also take as many saving-throw talents as possible to cut down on ship and crew damage while traveling. That’s probably a huge cost saver. I think reducing the difficulty is a factor too.

Agreed. Even worse it is not ignorable like Skyrim’s. Indeed if you DO ignore it then the Prince ends up giving you -900 faction which keeps going more negative every week. I would love for them to remove that.

I’ve been on the fence all week, and finally grabbed it today. That said, an observation and some questions based on just futzing around:

There needs to be some sort of confirmation before flying to a planet. I took 2 unexpected trips just clicking on the map trying to figure out what things were.

Very first trip my crew immediately mutineed, right out of the gate. WTF?

The captain has a morale of 17/50 at the start. WTF??

I had an alert that said 4 crew members were ready to level, which I took care of. But the log said 13 leveled up in the spice mines. Bug, or am I missing something?

The non officers auto level up in their careers (because they cannot change jobs) but you manually level them up with their abilities (which happens once every X levels.)

Officers you get to do both because they can change jobs.

So to put it another way every time a crew or officer member levels up its either a job rank or a new ability. For non officers the only option for job rank is to say “yes” so the game auto handles it for you.

Err hope that makes sense.

It does, thanks.

The thing that bothers me most is that everything carries a penalty. Even simple trading. You will piss off someone real bad; basically you are breaking the trade bans of another faction.

Also destroying ships and taking debris or getting rewards (loot, ransom etc) all will reduce the reputation.

It’s like they want the universe to hate you no matter what you do. I wonder if there’s a design point to this.