If I could change or add one thing in Star Traders

[captain nemo]

Have the game be more exploration in normal & make some of the lower / easier achievements & upgrades available for use in normal for the casual players.

I like the dry docks button I finally ran into the planets where I left a ship.

If you need to count years, turns or ships to get an upgrade. Then have it reset to zero if you get the lucky escape screen. Yes I saw that when I hit Ram by mistake before the confirm button was put in.

I like the idea of changing out upgrades, but I thought Cory had said that couldn't be changed. If that's the case could you list or show the available upgrades, again I'm thinking in normal. Have them colored or add a line that says it can be used in normal level.

[slayernz]

Okay I got it ... after much deliberation and pondering, I have come back to what has been a desire for like forever (read: "months and months") now.

I would still love to see support for having multiple ships in a fleet. This would mean:
1) I would be able to have a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest... a shining planet known as Cadar Prime.
This fleet would be able to provide additional cargo capacity, and fire support during battles. However, they would also be still be vulnerable in attacks (enemy might have multiple ships too). You would also have to worry about fuel costs, backup captain skills, etc)

2) you will be able to do "convoy protection" type missions, where you can fly along with a few other ships (they would follow your ship movement). Your job would be to make sure they don't get vaporized by errant torps ...


3) I forget (3) ... lemme come back to it if I remember.

4) you would be able to CAPTURE enemy ships without having to ditch your own ship in deep space. This alone would be a feature I would give up my first mate's left nut for! Even being able to tow the enemy ship back to port into a dry dock would be a brilliant addition to the game.


I still can't think of 3 ...

[boeu]

4 would be good

[noesis]

Slayernz, I like it !! especially number 4 - Don't know if you guys are old enough to remember the old Microprose game "Pirates" on the Commodore 64 but it allowed similar game mechanics as in capturing ships while keeping your own ship and distributing cargo amongst all the ships holds in your fleet - yet operated differently to the points you made about combat. Ahh the memories, having fleets would be awesome !.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

May 13, 2011 13:00:15 GMT -5 noesis said:

Don't know if you guys are old enough to remember the old Microprose game "Pirates" on the Commodore 64 but it allowed similar game mechanics as in capturing ships while keeping your own ship and distributing cargo amongst all the ships holds in your fleet - yet operated differently to the points you made about combat.

I never played the Commodore 64, but I just looked up that game. It seems to be an early version of Sid Meyer's Pirates. I have the latest version downloaded from XBOX Live and play it on my 360 whenever I get a hankering to do some skillful maneuvering and let loose a few broadsides.

Yes, it allows you to have multiple ships in a fleet, but limits you to your flagship in participating in combat encounters. Each ship has a minimum and maximum crew requirement.

When you acquire a new ship, the minimum crew is taken from the crew of your flagship. If you do not have enough crew to meet the minimums, you can still manage to sail at a reduced speed with a skeleton crew setup.

Your cargo is distributed evenly between your ships, and you share supplied between the crews of each ship. If you sell a ship and do not have enough cargo space in your remaining ships to accomodate what is still in the sold ship, you can cancel the sail or choose to dump the cargo.

You move together with the other ships following your lead. I would suggest that the entire fleet moves at the rate of the slowest ship in it, and each ship added to a fleet should increase the chances of space encounters, with additional modifiers based from upgrades added in.

Of course, I have heard Cory post that fleets of ships are not in the scope of this particular game, so may I suggest this alternative?

Let a ship tow up to one other ship, with significant penalties. Water use increases, speed decreases, and maneuverability decreases by adding the hull of the towed ship, plus a towing modifier penalty, to the hull of the towing ship (with no benefit for engines or sails from the towed ship).

Cargo space of the towed ship cannot be accessed except at a port. Also, add the cargo of the towed ship, plus a towing modifier penalty, to the towing ship's cargo for any equation that utilizes cargo, such as water usage or chance of encounters. Modifiers from specific cargo should only be used in negative ways.

IE you can't get bonuses from weapons stored in the cargo of the ship you are towing, but towing around a hyper freighter full of artifacts behind your fallen cruiser should be an accident just waiting to happen.

This mechanic would also make it easier to move ships from drydock to drydock, without the inconvenient, costly, and often dangerous method of buying throw away ships.

What do you think?

[noesis]

Yeah Sid Meyer's Pirates - same game - original was released by Microprose but was developed by Sid Meyer - my fault I did actually think after posting it wasn't really a Microprose game, it was a Sid Meyer Game only released by Microprose software house back then (now defunct). I'm amazed it's on the 360 - but that's kind of off-topic. I like any idea that allows commandeering a ship and also keeping your own ship from either battle or dry dock.

[slayernz]

Sad to say that I played the first release of the game (back when it was on 2 floppy disks) on a C64, AND then I played the PC version (I think with standard VGA graphics). Finally, I played the 2004 edition. Each was just a slightly nicer version of the last - and oooh so addictive to play. In fact, I dusted off the game recently after playing STRPG, but haven't yet had a chance to get re-hooked. I spend too much time staring at a silly phone screen instead

[The Chris]

I would like a moving story with the game. By moving I dont mean emotional. I mean you have all these wars and events happening.

Flagged planets would be great, but they're at war right? I expect there to be winners and losers, so planets would trade hands. I'd also think it'd be easier to consolidate power than to have your empire shot gunned across the galaxy.

With the winners and losers, you'd need fleets being sent from the attacking planet, so running into that would give further reason why you bumped into these random ships.

It would also be pretty cool if each faction had a random pool of war heroes and villians. Like a specifically infamous pirate who's ship isn't the run of the mill and someone you wouldn't want to screw with. Thus defeating x enemy would give a great reward (if on a bounty, fame, or negative rep for his faction).

Pretty much suggestions for making the galaxy a more dynamic place.

[wheelofthelaw]

May 8, 2011 17:25:15 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Well then you probably want an additional button on top of "Dry Dock Ships" ... "Caches"
Clicking on that button provides a list of all the planets + AU distances. Two buttons per cache
"Details" and "Plot".
Click on "Details" and you can check out the contents of the cache (quantities, etc).
Click on "Plot", and of course you can set a course to get the stuff.

I'm definitely gonna second this suggestion. It would be really nice to be able to see how far away my caches are from the cargo tab, as opposed to plotting the course and going to the space screen to check each one.

[gearheadwhat]

Buildable ships. Being able to custom build ships at stardocks. I imagine a multi slider option, or something similar to how the exchange is. This costs of course. But being able to make a ship how you want within reason would be awesome. Maybe you would unlock ship plans as well, as purchasable items.

That, or just more ships. Quality ships. Especially in the military dock, for rank ships.

Fairly much just more ships or ship options in general, if any of the previous are too difficult to implement.

[crunchyfrog]

Just found this thread so I'm posting my other wish here too.

One aspect I enjoy in the game is the ability to take a captured ship as your own.
The process is problematic and I would request it be streamlined. Several times I've accidentally transferred my cargo to the new ship, hit the wrong button and I lost my cargo and have my old ship with no fuel. When moving cargo I get a message the new ship is overloaded, but it never says exactly what needs to be moved or why.
My request is that when we want to take over a ship, the process would prevent us from ending the transfer by way of a pop-up "are you finished/ are you sure" type message.
Another option would be that the "Take Ship" button would sort and transfer cargo by value, taking fuel and valuables to the new ship automatically as well as weapons, mods and crew so I don't have to manually sort through cargo to move over.

Read more: startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wish&action=display&thread=939#ixzz1Sefi43pd

[Cory Trese]

MMMMM Please avoid double posting, I have to read all of these myself and transcribe each request into an Excel spreadsheet for prioritization and considering in the next phase of design.

Double posting doesn't help me, or in general, forum systems.

Thank you for considering my request.

[aielman]

Final goal!


I know we have talked a bit about this off forum before, but seeing the rumor based final goal is the thing I am REALLY looking forward too. (unique ships would be awesome but if I had to choose one thing it would be having a way to "win" the game - and the win is in quotes because I think everyone agrees any win condition should not stop the character from progressing, just something for each character to shoot for)

[slayernz]

There's been a few threads on having a more robust story arc associated with STRPG, and even a retirement goal. I'm guessing that's still a work in progress while so many other aspects of the game have been tweaked/improved/magicified.

I'm okay with it not being implemented so long as down the track it is

[sgtcookie]

Lower the buy prices of all ships.

In ST, survival depends on getting a better ship. You can quickly find yourself outmatched, especially on the higher difficulties. I know that "You are bound to loose a few captains along the way", but currently survival relies far too much on sheer luck. Either you capture a nice ship early on, or you survive long enough to break the bank buying a new ship.

Personally, I would prefer the in-game rolls to be influenced by the ship's stats. Rather than the horseshoe taped to my device.