Post by Micah on Mar 23, 2015 20:51:04 GMT -5
I grabbed this game because I was looking for an Escape Velocity clone for android. In general, it mostly delivered. It doesn't have real-time combat like EV but that wasn't really what I was looking for.
One thing that I believe could be improved is the difficulty curve/game pacing. In Escape Velocity, there was always some next-tier you could shoot for that brought some new thing to the table. Initially, it was "get a ship with guns or more cargo". Once you had a ship with guns it became, "get a bigger ship with guns". Then it became, "get a ship that could make it out of the "safe" starting area of space and explore the further reaches where most of the alien races wouldn't even talk to you". Once you were out there you had to try to get on their good sides (quests) so you could interact with them and buy their ships (which were better than regular space ships). Once you did that you could try to fight the super-aliens. Once you could fight the super aliens you could start taking over planets which would give you passive income. Once you did that... well, that was pretty much the end-game.
The key here was that while the game was open world, you were really encouraged to work your way through the galaxy piece by piece and participate in a variety of content. Staying in the starting area and trading with your shuttle wouldn't do you much good if you wanted to advance, and even just tricking out your ship wasn't that great if you didn't really try to get to the out regions. Eventually you have to start getting into fights, you have to eventually do quests, gain rank, fight aliens, build a fleet, take over planets. Technically it was still open world, but there were sections of the world that required you participate at least some in the previous section before you could really do anything in the new section.
In Star Traders RPG it feels like there aren't incremental goals. There are a bunch of different pieces, but they all seem parallel to each other, different means to the same end. In fact, due to the XP/skill system, it is really detrimental to try to participate in all aspects of the game and instead you are encouraged to focus on just one (fighting, smuggling, trading, exploring, etc.).
I know some people like the "do whatever you want" type of game and I can appreciate that, but I do believe there is value in not penalizing the player for doing a little bit of each thing and also making the "optimal" path take you through each of the aspects of gameplay.
Some people will say that you should just start a new character that is an explorer, rather than a fighter but personally, am much less likely to replay the game once I feel like I have "won" just so I can go through it a different way.
One thing that I believe could be improved is the difficulty curve/game pacing. In Escape Velocity, there was always some next-tier you could shoot for that brought some new thing to the table. Initially, it was "get a ship with guns or more cargo". Once you had a ship with guns it became, "get a bigger ship with guns". Then it became, "get a ship that could make it out of the "safe" starting area of space and explore the further reaches where most of the alien races wouldn't even talk to you". Once you were out there you had to try to get on their good sides (quests) so you could interact with them and buy their ships (which were better than regular space ships). Once you did that you could try to fight the super-aliens. Once you could fight the super aliens you could start taking over planets which would give you passive income. Once you did that... well, that was pretty much the end-game.
The key here was that while the game was open world, you were really encouraged to work your way through the galaxy piece by piece and participate in a variety of content. Staying in the starting area and trading with your shuttle wouldn't do you much good if you wanted to advance, and even just tricking out your ship wasn't that great if you didn't really try to get to the out regions. Eventually you have to start getting into fights, you have to eventually do quests, gain rank, fight aliens, build a fleet, take over planets. Technically it was still open world, but there were sections of the world that required you participate at least some in the previous section before you could really do anything in the new section.
In Star Traders RPG it feels like there aren't incremental goals. There are a bunch of different pieces, but they all seem parallel to each other, different means to the same end. In fact, due to the XP/skill system, it is really detrimental to try to participate in all aspects of the game and instead you are encouraged to focus on just one (fighting, smuggling, trading, exploring, etc.).
I know some people like the "do whatever you want" type of game and I can appreciate that, but I do believe there is value in not penalizing the player for doing a little bit of each thing and also making the "optimal" path take you through each of the aspects of gameplay.
Some people will say that you should just start a new character that is an explorer, rather than a fighter but personally, am much less likely to replay the game once I feel like I have "won" just so I can go through it a different way.
