What to do in the long game...?

[whaleyboy]

Hi all, I've been playing ST for a couple of weeks now and have been loving it! What I'm wondering at the moment is now I have over a million credits and there don't seem to be any better ships to buy than the one I currently own and I've explored most of the galaxy, what should I do to keep myself motivated to play? What are some long-game strategies other people are using? Are there any ultimate goals I should be aiming for?

I suppose I could just go to a harder difficulty level and do it over again with a different class of player, but if my end result is the same (an impressive ship and lots of cash) it's difficult for me to get excited about it. Some things that would motivate me to keep playing could be things like:

• Become leader of an entire planet
  
• Own a whole fleet of ships
  
• Conquer the galaxy!
  
• Start my own faction
  
• Research new technologies (new weapons, warpdrive, etc)
  
• Discover wormholes to other parts of the universe
  

Things like this give the player an ultimate goal that seems to be lacking currently. This isn't a criticism of the game as I still rank it as the best game on Android at the moment, but more of a wish list I guess, and a question to other players as to what keeps them coming back for more.

[BlastGT1]

Higher difficulty levels are the main goal, because you're fighting to survive, in addition to achieving your monetary and other goals.

I would also suggest trying out different ship upgrades and configurations, or pick a faction to go against and just piss them off, or if you're brave, go for Independent Captain award by reaching -121 rep with all factions.

I'm tired of customizing sigs every time I flash a ROM. This time it's plain old Torp City!

[Fenikso]

For me the game is basically interesting until it is about survival in a grim universe. The state you describe (enough money, best ship, no one can pose threat to me) is basically game over - you won - lived happily ever after. Until one day met Aliens ;D.

It is time to try harder difficulty. See how long you can hold on on Impossible .

[ab357]

I mainly play on Normal. My main motivation right now is to keep my Captain from becoming a Ghost again. That means staying below 2.2 some odd billion credits.

The quickest way to dump a 100+ million credits is to dump an Officer and hire another one.

Now I do occasionally venture into the world of permadeath on higher levels. However I hate starting over. However on the plus side, everytime I create a new Captain I'm taken back to the evening I discovered ST

Oh, and like the others advised, go ship shopping. I keep a fleet of 20. The only negative if you consider it a problem is you have to switch ships to see how you have them configured. With most players not surviving too long, it isn't a priority to be able to see what your ships have from the main menu. LOL

[slayernz]

The game has so much depth and complexity that mastering the game on a low difficulty level (eg Normal or even Demanding), has no correlation with your ability to survive at even Crazy. Again, even if you master Crazy, you're probably still yet to fine-tune your strategies to survive in Impossible.

Put another way, on lower difficulty levels, the game is far more lenient on any mistakes you inadvertently make. It's easy to think "Hey, I've beaten Normal difficulty - this is boring", but have you figured out how to get the most efficiency out of your ship? Have you discovered how caches and proper use of rumors move you from pure turn-by-turn survival to some semblance of success?

If you are succeeding on a regular basis at higher difficulty levels, then don't forget there are a bunch of challenges/awards that you can strive for. Getting the award where every faction hates you and wants you dead is possible - but figuring out the strategy for getting back into the good books of one or more factions is where the real challenge is.

Even making up your own challenges. Taking your most despised enemy (let's pick randomly and say ... Steel Song), and making them your friends is kinda fun. I went from -18721 RP to +400 RP. I got ranks and everything. Then I blew them up again - because a leopard really can't change its spots.

Also - $1m credits is easy. Getting $1m credits within the first 200 turns is more difficult. Doing it in impossible is ... not impossible, but damned hard!

[ab357]

@ slayernz Yes I totally agree with your comment regarding playing on Normal. It's my main domain because of no permadeath. But notice you haven't seen me bragging about having a Captain at lvl 100 on a higher difficulty. LOL

Because they haven't lasted long enough! I just hate starting over without my better ships and credits. . But I do play on the higher levels. I even venture into Crazy and Insane to see if I can even make it from one planet to another. LOL

[BlastGT1]

I made the mistake early on of going from Basic to Challenging, and died at level 5. I had to go down to Normal and work my way up to it. I have yet to move up from Demanding to Hard. I'm almost dreading it, because I too hate to start over.

I'm tired of customizing sigs every time I flash a ROM. This time it's plain old Torp City!

[ab357]

@blast yeah that's around where my Captains were offed. LOL

[BlastGT1]

I did pick up a very good tip for survival on these forums, however. Use the Surrender button, take the cargo hit because it beats dying.



Don't read this, it's my sig. If you read it, you might go insane like Fenikso!

[Fenikso]

Aug 24, 2012 0:06:37 GMT -5 BlastGT1 said:

Don't read this, it's my sig. If you read it, you might go insane like Fenikso!

Damn you once again! *Shopping for torpedoes like crazy*

[whaleyboy]

Thanks for all the great replies! Seems like challenging myself on the harder difficulty levels is my next step...the added complication of 'perma-death' should make it a lot more interesting! I'll see how far I can take a career in the Military first, then, when they least expect it their military hero will turn into a rouge pirate overnight and cause havok around the galaxy! Muhahaha!

[Deleted]

@ whaleyboy - sounds good, but if you want a real challenge hire a veteran officer and a templar officer and go alien hunting.

There's nothing more contenting than the smell of sizzling alien flesh (as Rabid Rabbit wil tell you) ;D

[phantombudgie]

On perma-death levels, every turn becomes much more exciting and tense, as you try to reach survival-level at around 12-20 depending on your difficulty and profession. Then things calm down for a while, if your play style is not too antagonistic, but once you reach level 70+ you occasionally start to meet ships which are significantly above your level and your game can be over as quick as it began.

I have a couple of back-up captains playing on Demanding, so if my current captain dies I can go straight back into a game where I can make some headway and blow up some pirates quite easily (but check which factions you are friendly with if jumping in from a very different character!) I find this eases the pain of the loss of a captain if you don't have to grind through several failed attampts to reach level 12 immediately after.

[whaleyboy]

Wow...perma death really does add excitement to the game! Been playing on demanding for the past couple of days and have really been enjoying the sense of danger you get when entering a battle. WAS enjoying it...while doing a routine courier contract I came across an alien for the first time ever. A bit annoyed to be honest. After putting lots of time into my character I was destroyed by seemingly invincible aliens without any hope of escape or victory! It seems very unfair that a random encounter can end your game without any chance of surviving. Why are aliens so powerful? It feels like a game of minesweeper where landing on the wrong square kills you instantly...not fun.

[BlastGT1]

The escape shuttle upgrade is a lifesaver for this kind of situation.