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Post by En1gma on Feb 1, 2017 22:53:29 GMT -5
Every single Captain I've started has met the same fate: no more cash. While most of that goes elsewhere and will be brought up in another thread later, I'm genuinely struggling on Basic to keep W/F in the tank, especially when on the longer 4+ Quadrant jumps.
I wish the early contracts were limited in scope, or at least restricted to the quadrant we are in or no more than one jump away. The cost of the jumps alone is high, and there is no guarantee that the closest systems on the other side will have W/F, leading to frequent morale loss and constantly making the game even on Basic all about finding fuel.
I hope I'm not the only one getting this problem... I can play ST with moderate success and all, but so far with this I can't do anything but manage W/F. (I know it's just an alpha, this is just my 2 cents)
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Post by johndramey on Feb 1, 2017 22:56:04 GMT -5
I'm with you on this and have been having a tough time getting a captain off the ground. I've been limiting my early game mission selection to <2 jumps, but even that leaves me barely pulling in a profit sometimes.
I'm not sure if it's just my lack of knowledge about where to look for W/F, balance issues, or something else, but I tend to go broke very early. Spending thousands of bucks on repairs and doctor visits after any sizable voyage has been kicking my ass.
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Feb 1, 2017 23:02:16 GMT -5
I concur
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Post by grävling on Feb 1, 2017 23:11:30 GMT -5
Me too, but putting 4 points in 'Doctor' at character creation time has improved things.
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Post by ntsheep on Feb 1, 2017 23:17:50 GMT -5
I also have been having this problem. I was planing on creating a thread about it soon but you beat me to it En1gma  I've been playing on Normal difficulty and I could understand if I was playing at a higher one. I have often got missions that pay just around $2000.00 credits but it cost me double or triple that in the fuel cost to complete it. Throw in repairs, crew pay, medical bills and it's a no win situation from the get go. I know this is the alpha and we got a long way to go so I'm not focusing to much on certain things. Trying to keep some cargo to trade helps but trading right now is pretty confusing. I have the basic understanding of it and can get by ok, but for people that want to make their money this way it's a steep learning curve for the moment. I did see a new video got posted on trading and I'll watch it later for some tips. The videos are great by the way Cory Trese fallen |
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Post by grävling on Feb 1, 2017 23:31:22 GMT -5
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Post by fallen on Feb 1, 2017 23:50:03 GMT -5
Here are some suggestions that might help.
1) be picky about where you Fuel up. Fuel cost per unit is directly affected by Starport rating. Higher the Starport, lower the fuel cost. You can empty your warchest quickly if you buy fuel in places you don't need or want.
2) Don't take missions overs 1 jump until you've got cash (we are working on limiting scope better)
3) Do some local trading to build up money
4) Then, try some local exploring
5) then try some 0-2 jump missions. Take multiple at a time if you can.
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Post by resistor on Feb 2, 2017 0:02:50 GMT -5
Every single Captain I've started has met the same fate: no more cash... ...I'm with you on I'm not sure if it's just my lack of knowledge about where to look for W/F, balance issues, or something else, but I tend to go broke fairly early. Spending thousands of bucks on repairs and doctor visits after any sizable voyage has been kicking my ass. Just like the when we first started playing ST1, right? Good times... |
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Post by fallen on Feb 2, 2017 0:16:13 GMT -5
Every single Captain I've started has met the same fate: no more cash... ...I'm with you on I'm not sure if it's just my lack of knowledge about where to look for W/F, balance issues, or something else, but I tend to go broke fairly early. Spending thousands of bucks on repairs and doctor visits after any sizable voyage has been kicking my ass. Just like the when we first started playing ST1, right? Good times... Consider "sizeable voyages" like you might in Star Traders RPG. Don't try to cross the ST RPG map until you're ready. Traveling more than one or two Quadrants is extremely taxing for an unprepared, underfunded Captain. We can work on some early play tutorials that might help. I would generally recommend staying in your starting Quadrant for a while if you are struggling. I generally do. |
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Post by johndramey on Feb 2, 2017 0:33:59 GMT -5
fallen, thanks for the tips and I'll definitely take them into consideration. One question about the quadrants (and sorry if it's been answered or was covered in the exec meetings, I can't remember ever reaching a consensus on it) but there are stars in the quadrant that we can't see, right? We start with knowledge of 3-4 stars in our first quadrant and I've tried to find a couple more, but never really been able to yet. Am I just unlucky?
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Post by fallen on Feb 2, 2017 0:47:25 GMT -5
johndramey - places with low population, smuggler dens, completely wild worlds -- they are generally hidden in the fog. In time, contacts and other game events will become a source of revealing these (talk to a smuggler to learn about unvisited smuggler worlds) but for now, you'd have to go looking.
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Post by MintDragon on Feb 2, 2017 1:52:29 GMT -5
Right now the ship priority is also the cash start. I've been successful in starting with a smaller ship, but prioritizing ships fairly high, leaving a 20-30k credit surplus to bootstrap things.
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 2, 2017 1:57:08 GMT -5
Very interesting feedback! * Are you playing on Basic Difficulty? That will reduce the cost of fuel by a lot. * Missions are limited to ones that are close by, scaled by difficulty and Contact type. I'll try to work with fallen to make sure this continues to improve in upcoming phases. * Starting money / ship combination is very important if you're not able to rapidly turn a profit in trading or Exploration. * Play the other mini games as you go, trading, exploring. we're working on getting more play styles engaged so if missions aren't your thing, there are other ways to survive besides trading. |
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Post by xdesperado on Feb 2, 2017 2:19:14 GMT -5
I know Cory Trese suggested in the video to leave the Manually Assign Traits box unchecked but I suggest checking it. Reason being that you can go through and make sure your crew is stocked with the talents you'll find most useful. I find at least doubling up on Navigation talents helps. As well as making sure you have at least one Pilot with Sure Landfall and a couple with Expert Maneuver will help reduce fuel costs. A couple Electronic Tech's with the Storm Shielding Talent can help reduce any repair bills. Also keeping with reduced repair costs don't forget your Crew Dogs and the Safety Protocols talent. Finally, promote at least one crewmember and give them either Doctor or Combat Medic to help reduce injuries and cost of healthcare. |
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 2, 2017 2:27:02 GMT -5
I know Cory Trese suggested in the video to leave the Manually Assign Traits box unchecked but I suggest checking it. Reason being that you can go through and make sure your crew is stocked with the talents you'll find most useful. I find at least doubling up on Navigation talents helps. As well as making sure you have at least one Pilot with Sure Landfall and a couple with Expert Maneuver will help reduce fuel costs. A couple Electronic Tech's with the Storm Shielding Talent can help reduce any repair bills. Also keeping with reduced repair costs don't forget your Crew Dogs and the Safety Protocols talent. Finally, promote at least one crewmember and give them either Doctor or Combat Medic to help reduce injuries and cost of healthcare. Those are great tips. Maybe we should take those ideas -- in particular the additional Sure Landfall talents, make them a higher priority for the auto-assign talents? I think you are describing exactly the right case for that checkbox ... but it sounds like your suggestions would be a better default for new players. |
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I've been playing on Normal difficulty and I could understand if I was playing at a higher one. I have often got missions that pay just around $2000.00 credits but it cost me double or triple that in the fuel cost to complete it. Throw in repairs, crew pay, medical bills and it's a no win situation from the get go. I know this is the alpha and we got a long way to go so I'm not focusing to much on certain things.
