Consider splitting into 2 game modes

[supagoat]

I think this game would benefit from offering 2 game modes with game play tweaked to suit each one better. As it is there seems to be a mashup of 2 things that don't go together well.

It's one part brutally difficult FTL-like game, and brutal difficulty is fine but it doesn't work well with the complex crew system and the story which gets very repetitive after multiple runs. To do well you need to spend too much time tweaking your crew at the start. FTL streamlined a lot of this stuff for a reason.

The other part is a space trader / privateer game which could be really fun but one foundation of that kind of game is making progress advancing your character / crew and ship, and in this game also making progress with the story line... But that's too hard to do with the brutal difficulty. Progress is constantly impeded, and it's too easy to get into a death spiral.

I think both of these game modes have merit and could be great but they're working against each other when put together. In the process of splitting I'd recommend examining each major system and deciding if it should be included in the game modes, and either cut or modify them to suit each game mode better.

[fallen]

supagoat - sorry that you don't think the different elements of the game work well together. We will definitely not be separating them.

A few suggestions --

First, use save slots to do your tinkering at the start. Then save your work to a save slot. This can be done even in Permadeath mode within the first year. Tinkering saved!

Second, difficulty is completely customizable. Turn off permadeath, turn it on, tweak any setting you like. Use one of the canned settings like Normal or click Customize.

[supagoat]

I decided to give it another try and I'm just doing missions... I'm making lots of money for what feels like no risk... I think making the reward for the other tasks in the game would make it more rounded.

[daveal]

Once you've got the hang of it, you can try increasing the difficulty. I played on normal for a long time. When I went up to "hard" it is noticeably harder even to run missions. Any passing ship combat could kill your favorite crew. I went through quite a number of combat crew deaths. But, I definitely feel like I got better due to the increased challenge.

[fallen]

Oct 6, 2019 13:43:07 GMT -5 supagoat said:

I decided to give it another try and I'm just doing missions... I'm making lots of money for what feels like no risk... I think making the reward for the other tasks in the game would make it more rounded.

Glad to hear you're doing well with missions! It's a great way to get early money in the game, but the easy missions don't last that long. Good luck out there!

[cerseisadvocate]

I would like to have the ability (with custom difficult settings) to play one something like permadeath light. Where I could save the game like every 5 ingame years while having all permadeth options on. I do not like to play without permadeth because it feels shallow with your decisions not meaning anything. But I am also very frustrated by falling back to nothing. Losing a few years but not everything would be a nice middleground for me to play with.

[fallen]

Thanks for the suggestion! At the moment, you can only save in the first year if Permadeath is enabled.