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Cory Trese , fallen

I'm shooting for the 25 explore missions:

My very first mission;  I got lucky. The Prince says go to Tennath (wild zone) and bring back independents with some kind of box.

How do the cards work: What did I do, what was I thinking.
I didn't see the "Uncover Contact" on the first deal.  Hmm did I land in the right wilderness?  Took off and landed in the other wilderness zone on Tennath.  Hmmm didn't see it there either.  Ok back to orbit land back in the first one.  So it's a like poker?  You will get dealt random cards but the deck will contain the card you need you just have to keep exploring right?  You get dealt a fresh hand every time.  In one hand we got jumped by pirates killed the sobs!  Right on! really enjoyed that.  This exploration deck process is very cool it's random not canned same event every time on same planet.  You feel like you are an explorer wandering in the unknown.  

Combat Screen: When I first saw the mock up at the producers meeting I had my doubts.  Cory you were right!  I love it.  Hovering mouse over any friendly or enemy shows their status sweet feature. Hover on talent descriptions saves allot of time no mouse clicks. Very cool choices.  I hope more combat talents be displayed for these troops when they level up.
 I could have sworn I had one of those baddies down to 12 HP but  on the next round when I hovered it was back up to 100.  I don't want to report this as a bug before I've had allot more practice fighting in the wilderness. Andrew body animations gun fire etc are looking great it's visceral because these are your people/crew, wince when you see them take a big hit.  That's the first impression of my first fight.  Now I want more practice to better see whats going on.

Cards/danger: Does the quadrant danger level and the planet danger level influence the number of nasty encounters are in the deck?
If you have strong explorer numbers does that lessen the number of nasty cards in the deck and make it more likely you will draw the card you need?
+3 Uncover Contact does this card mean I get three strong dice added to getting the card.
-1 Lost Card.  What does that mean to my odds of failing the roll, how do I know what I'm rolling against? 

What happened: Here's how it went down before the crash;

 On the first round the Uncover Contact card didn't get dealt so I thought I might be at the wrong location. But after several rounds including a battle with enemy ground force.  I got dealt this hand and succeeded In getting "uncover contact"  Diggin it baby.  




Exploration round  result card displayed;  "Whatever trail we were on turned cold"

 I asked myself did I just blow the mission?  Better hit the status button (upper right screen) and have a look at the mission.

Result: Crash to Desktop, crash report sent 

I don't understand all the tech terms.  But automation is a great idea there will be a huge amount of information coming over the next few years
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Could look for an off the shelf inexpensive product suite someone has already created to solve this exact type of problem?  We can't be the only ones that need it?

There does need to be some kind of auto update.  Perhaps a tool that does a complete overlay, or routinely deletes the old databases replacing it with the latest databases. Maybe set to trigger on the same day every week.

Perhaps it could be tied to trigger automatically when a new release comes out.  Even if the release is basically a bug fix there is a good chance new information has been added between releases.

A programming language is a good option but bugs can creep in making it one more thing to fix, however you often gain more flexibility if you need to change format to include new types of  data.  Or if it was something like a google doc, the auto update archives the last update then deletes/replaces or creates a new google doc. 

Out to pasture X Mainframe programmer complicating the process.

Startup Ships:  When creating a new Captain you can purchase one of eight types of ships. The priority you set determines what you can afford to buy.  Right now the Budget is very straight forward.  This will change when Ship customization is ready.  This is how I think it will work.  The priority sets the budget, if you buy a ship under budget the remaining funds can be used for customizing the components of the ship prior to launch. ST2 will not let you purchase a ship over budget, you must raise the priority to make a more expensive purchase.

* Under the A through E columns x/y  x=the cost of the ship, y=the amount left over for customization.  If you want the most expensive ships, then you will have to set "A" priority.



fallen , Cory Trese
Startup ship cost:  I know startup customization is in progress.  I'm guessing and built the table showing how much of the budget gets spent based on a-e priority.  I figure the left over amount will be used to purchase customized components to add to your new ship?  It is also a use it or lose it system, you can't have class "A", purchase a cheap ship, and pocket the change for game play. 

Cory Trese HUMONGOUS Help! Thanks

wascalwywabbit

 I played the fool on that one! I did misunderstand what I was reading.  You are absolutely right.  I'll change Frenzied Blades in the character tables to something like "Adds 6% chance of critical hit".
For the others something like "Adds 30% damage to critical hits".  Similar descriptions for Deadly intuition, and Dance of Shadows.  Thanks for reminding me.

fallen
Closing Thoughts:  A melee fighter is battling a tough monster.  Finally the fighter scores a great critical hit only to see the monster has 10 hit points left.  The monster is going to get one more full attack before you can kill it.  If Selen could get even half the additional critical damage as the others that would help with this problem.  For an archer this often is less a problem because they are firing anywhere from six to eight spaces away, and very likely will get the kill shot before the monster can close.

In this limited case I must compare Tamilin to Selen.  They each have talents that increase the chance that a critical hit will occur. (27% vs 31%).  How is it a melee fighter gets 0% extra critical damage and the ranged fighter gets 60% extra critical damage?  My Selen builds fight side by side with Vraes.  In big V's dungeon and others like it she leads the attack to move the mages forward to a safer location while Vraes protects the rear flank or creates a diversionary attack. I think level 10 F-B with 40% beats the heck out of zero.

The original black and white "Gunga Din" movie becomes hilarious when he keeps getting shot and getting up again to blow the bugle to warn the fort of impending attack.  About the eighth time he does it I can't help myself, and bust out laughing.  As Cary Grant said "You're a better man than I, Gunga Din".  I'll stop here, and stay behind the parapet.  Thanks for considering it.  

fallen

Oh Lords of the Underdeep hear my cries and grant my boon     

It costs Selen 20 Talent points to get a 31% Chance of landing a critical hit. Frenzied-B(10) 15% + Dance-S(10) for 16.
It costs Tamilin 10 Talent points to get a 27% Chance of landing a critical hit. Deadly-I(10) 27%.

Frenzied-B(10) and Aimed-S(10) are 2 points apart in accuracy and 14 points apart in damage. The extra 14 points of damage Tamilin has makes a big difference in base crit damage.

Modern times have arrived in the Underdeep. As a result I think Selen's best melee attack has become obsolete.
Frenzied-B(10) is Selen's primary melee attack. Would you consider adding +Crit Damage to this Talent so she can keep up.

As the game progresses Selen's dialog shows first her wonder and then becoming a convert/worshiper of the consort of Death Ryethin. Should Selen be denied Ryethin's gifts with the passage of time?

Balgair has burned his finest clothes, put on sack cloth, and dumped ashes on his head. On his knees he begins a pitiful pilgrimage to all the wineries in the Underdeep in his quest for Selen's well being.

(Do you think he'll buy it? Shut up Vraes don't jinx it!)   

Thanks fellas - I'll add a notation to each of the three characters.