[Spaceship RPG] Rebel Galaxy

[GreenGoo]

There's a nice mini-star destroyer destroyer that I love the look of and armament, but it's so slow and has almost no cargo space. Lately I've put a lot of importance on cargo space.

I could upgrade, but I'm not losing my battles (so far) so the increased firepower, while nice, is not necessary yet, and the decrease in cargo space is not worth it.

[Cortilian]

The large merchant guild cargo extension makes even the smallest cargo space pretty awesome.

[LordMortis]

So should I be buying this this weekend?

What's the verdict on gameplay experience? In my brain this is mercenary Tie Fighter. Like if you played the Millennium Falcon instead. Only I read it's on 2D plane and you don't have squads and you don't beat off a dozen other ships... so my mind is definitely off. Sell me on the game.
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Man, we really need a mercenary Tie Figher game... Where you end up playing something like the Millennium Falcon or even Firefly or something.

[GreenGoo]

So should I be buying this this weekend?

What's the verdict on gameplay experience? In my brain this is mercenary Tie Fighter. Like if you played the Millennium Falcon instead. Only I read it's on 2D plane and you don't have squads and you don't beat off a dozen other ships... so my mind is definitely off. Sell me on the game.

You do have to beat off enemy pilots though. A lot. You are constantly beating people off. Sometimes with two hands. The beating off is extreme.

[GreenGoo]

The large merchant guild cargo extension makes even the smallest cargo space pretty awesome.

I've got the largest extension that is not merchant guild. I'll look for the merchant guild one. I'm rank 10 in the guild, if that matters.

[Cortilian]

Then you qualify. It's like +36 to cargo hold or something like that.

Just checked it's +32 to cargo and can be purchased at your local guild station. . Required rank 5.

[GreenGoo]

Will swing by tonight and grab it. I think what I'm currently using is around 18 extra space and cost about $107k or something like that.

I didn't know there was anything near 30 space available.

[Daehawk]

Id love a full Firefly game. Even if you didn't play them...though Id prefer to be them....and in the same universe just running missions and trying to keep ahead.

[Daehawk]

Since discovering the SURPLUS cargo area of my ship and having you guys explain what it is I now check it off and on to see whats in there. Im always picking up stuff without noticing what it is. This go I found some Neutron Beams. They are better than what the store sells in broadsides . So now I have beams for both turrets and broadsides. I like beams in broadsides

[Paingod]

Then you qualify. It's like +36 to cargo hold or something like that.

Just checked it's +32 to cargo and can be purchased at your local guild station. . Required rank 5.

I prefer to run the Large Smuggler's Cargo hold. It's only +12, but that's 12 cargo slots that aren't scanned for illegal goods. Since I started using the Smuggler's cargo holds, I haven't had a problem with picking up everything and still staying on the right side of the law. I routinely stop at stations for armor refreshing and missiles, so dumping my excess cargo is pretty standard practice after every 2-3 fights.

What the game could really use is a selective Tractor setting. I'd love to open a menu and tell my tractor to ignore BioWaste, Nuts & Bolts, and Soy Paste. I've love even more for a Component item that auto-tractored in items so I didn't need to basically fly around battles holding "E" all day long. I don't even look at what's been dropped. I just hoover it all in. No reason a $25,000 AI Component can't do that grunt work for me.

I'm loving my Minotaur Destroyer. I expect that I'll need to move up to a Dreadnaught at some point, but I don't like the thought of moving so slowly.

This go I found some Neutron Beams. They are better than what the store sells in broadsides . So now I have beams for both turrets and broadsides. I like beams in broadsides

Since I discovered them, I've been using those exclusively. I haven't gone back to try out the other broadsides in ... ages? Not since the starter ship anyways.

[Daehawk]

I take all anti Korian missions but still no kool turret loot.

[Paingod]

I take all anti Korian missions but still no kool turret loot.

They're frikkin' rare. I've found two from Invasion ships (found by looking at the map, like a Pirate Lord or Convoy). I found one floating in a random Cargo Container in the Thanatos system inside a Junk Field (noted in my Spoiler on page 7, I don't know how random the map generation is). The last was a random drop off a random Korian Frigate in a random fight (which may or may not have been an Invasion ship - it was the first one I found and I wasn't paying attention). I keep killing every Korian ship I can find and haven't found a new one in over 10 hours of play.

[Daehawk]

Ive found an area of the map where there seems to be a lot of Korians so maybe Ill get lucky just flying around or running missions.

I just had a good and bad run all in the same one. Good because I got dropped out of warp in a asteroid field and noticed a rock that was different from the others and when I blasted it it gave me 3 of those special diamonds. Each one sold for over 18k back at base. And thats where my bad happened. I had to slightly fly around the planet to go to the base to dock and right as I hit the button to dock I see SKIZA HAS EJECTED,,,damnit. Stupid cyborg ran into the planet and blew up. Just like someone else here mentioned. And since I docked she was lost when I undocked. Good again because while looking for her I noticed a lot of cargo floating around...free loot! Looks like a lot of other AI just slam into the same planet. Bad again because I had to rehire that SKIZA idiot there at the station and instead of the 8k it originally cost me to hire her it now cost me the profit from that free cargo of 18k. Weeee what a circle jerk. But at the least the diamonds jacked my profits up high so have 70k+ again.

[Daehawk]

I was letting the intro music play and them fight while I was doing something and when I looked back I saw whats in the pic below. Is that a solid gold asteroid!???

[GreenGoo]

I'm up around 62 (maybe 52?) cargo storage on my heavy frigate. Vanguard I think it's called.

Also, if you don't respond to a militia's hail, you lose 50 militia faction and they open fire. Just, fyi.

Lastly, I managed to scare some enemy faction into becoming friendly. First time that's happened.

[Daehawk]

I seem to be liking this game more and more the longer I play it.

EDIT: And Im a little stuck lol. Im on that mission with the militia to take a base with troops. I spent a good 14 minutes surviving and clearing out enemies. I killed the mall and got 2 of the 3 generators down then as Im heading for the last one before the troop ships come I see an explosion and get MISSION FAILED. I can only guess the last militia ship died cause I couldn't find one after that. ^%$#. Think Ill wait and get a bigger ship so I can clear that faster.

[Daehawk]

Ive just been pulled over by the militia for contraband,,,even after getting the smugglers cargo bay. Doesn't always work. Maybe it depends on how close you are because I flew right beside a militia ship. I just give them the cargo no big deal. Hope it doesn't harm my rep at all. I have militia and citizens pretty high.

I think my favorite battle song is the one that has the rhythm or beat that makes it sound like Spirit in the Sky. Fun to fight to that.

[Daehawk]

Here I am racing 3 other ships at warp to the nearby station for drinks

I did end up passing them.

[KDH]

.... smugglers cargo bay. Doesn't always work.

the smuggler's hold only works for 4 illegal items (tons) .. so it's easy to tractor in enough items to blow through that and not know it .. I just recently dumped mine in favor of a merchants guild hold, 30 tons or something (plus my ship's 20 ton hold) .. this allows me to hold onto cargo longer and wait for a good price ... I was always outside the law with the smuggler hold anyway


outlaw biowaste and then only outlaws will have biowaste

[LordMortis]

And you got me. Downloading now at my pokey pokey rate.

Edit:

I think I'm getting too old. The controls don't don't jive for me. Back to TBS for me.

[GreenGoo]

I just hired Steve to cover my flank. At over 100G's, he'd better bring more than just politeness. Also, He prefers Stephen.

I've got a lot of Mk4 stuff, but not in weapons, unfortunately. And my cargo space is 62. I've got a lot of leeway to carry around expensive stuff and still salvage a lot during combat.

[GreenGoo]

Got me a little repair bot. It's not bad. It won't repair hull armour, but it'll get your systems up and running again, which is actually pretty nice when you're in deep space.

Moved up to the Radovich, the boxy hauler. I have 68 cargo space. I'm not 100% sure on combat yet, but so far it's been pretty good. Had a really great furball with multiple enemy destroyers, and the Mk4 Neutron broadsides were tearing them up. I'm also experimenting with a Mk2 shield buster and a Mk 4 ion cannon just to see how those work. The shield buster runs out of ordinance fairly quickly even with very restrictive ai.

I'd been driving the Vanguard for so long that I'm just happy to have a new ship, and the fact that it's fast (not sure what these ratings mean, but it does seem faster in Warp) and has huge cargo space makes it fun.

[Paingod]

Got me a little repair bot. It's not bad. It won't repair hull armour, but it'll get your systems up and running again, which is actually pretty nice when you're in deep space.

Yeah - I've been debating selling that off. The repairs are slow, and generally really inexpensive. I'm at a point where I can finish a nasty fight and run back to a station and my armor costs $32,000 to repair (which the 'Bot doesn't help with) but my other components cost $1,200 and I can't say I even notice them performing poorly. Since you can sell it back for the same cost as buying it, there's no loss of cash there and you can save some over time... it's just not worth keeping if you get to a point where $1,200 isn't a lot of coin anymore. I don't go into battle without polished armor, which means I can also get my internals touched up cheaply too.

It's funny to get back for repairs and discover I've been literally scratched, 1% armor damage, when I was worried that my armor took a good pounding. Turns out I was able to spin and Deflect just as my shields collapsed on that side.

Since I hit stations a lot for touch-ups, I'm less worried about cargo space. I know I'm taking a little loss, but I sell everything they'll buy when I visit.

[Hyena]

I'm loving this game like I haven't in a while. Reminds me of Privateer in just about every aspect. And that's a GREAT thing to me.

[ColdSteel]

I'm loving this game like I haven't in a while. Reminds me of Privateer in just about every aspect. And that's a GREAT thing to me.

I figured this thing was going to be pretty good when one of the devs (Travis) said before release that he still enjoys playing it himself and at this point in any game's development, he's usually sick to death of it and never wants to play it again. There seems to be something about it that makes you want to keep playing. It's actually kind of relaxing in a weird way.

[GreenGoo]

There seems to be something about it that makes you want to keep playing. It's actually kind of relaxing in a weird way.

I noticed this too. I realized I could just keep playing and playing and playing. Collecting cargo, running missions, rescuing deep space distress calls, selling for profit, incrementally improving my ship. And there is not much stress involved. I'd say none but I got ambushed at a delivery point and the firepower directed at me was immense. I had to boost out and come back chipping away at the siege.

I recently ran into Murathi strip-miners, which are all Radovich's, the same as I'm driving. Man, 3 or 4 of them surrounding you sure feel BIG and scary.

I finished a collect your own gold and drop it off mission for 500k, but my next turns cost about 500k each, so it's slow going even with that (and the mission was fairly slow as I had to accumulate gold over time and then fight my way through the ambush I mentioned above).

Still enjoying the game, but less avidly than my usual main game. Just nice and peaceful space running.

[Hyena]

There seems to be something about it that makes you want to keep playing. It's actually kind of relaxing in a weird way.

I noticed this too. I realized I could just keep playing and playing and playing. Collecting cargo, running missions, rescuing deep space distress calls, selling for profit, incrementally improving my ship. And there is not much stress involved. I'd say none but I got ambushed at a delivery point and the firepower directed at me was immense. I had to boost out and come back chipping away at the siege.

I recently ran into Murathi strip-miners, which are all Radovich's, the same as I'm driving. Man, 3 or 4 of them surrounding you sure feel BIG and scary.

I finished a collect your own gold and drop it off mission for 500k, but my next turns cost about 500k each, so it's slow going even with that (and the mission was fairly slow as I had to accumulate gold over time and then fight my way through the ambush I mentioned above).

Still enjoying the game, but less avidly than my usual main game. Just nice and peaceful space running.

I had a Radovich as well, until I got the Manticore. Man, do I love that thing! Heavy hull, and while it says slow speed, with the Mk5 Booster, I don't notice it a BIT. Plus, by that phase of the game, you're fighting mostly giant capital ships who's maneuverability is as bad as yours, it doesn't matter. It has 8 turrets, so I don't even need to turn broadside; just angle it a bit where all the top-mounted, front-facing turrets can blaze away, and I just follow my targets around, firing off missiles every once in a while to take the shields down. Missions went from High/Very High risk to Average and even a few Low risk once I got it. And now the Radovich's seem small when I pull up to them.

They did a GREAT job of ship scale on this. When you're in a small ship, the other ships seem monstrous, but once you're in those monstrous ships, everything else seems to scale down now that you're the big dog on the block.

[GreenGoo]

I've been ignoring the Manticore because it's a lot slower, has comparable weapon slots and less cargo space.

Also, I'm unsure how the game handles different defense systems on different hulls. Clearly a corvette with Mk 4 shields and Mk 4 ceramic armour is less durable than a dreadnaught with the same gear. Well, I say clearly, but I'm not entirely sure. It seems to me that when I upgrade a hull I get tougher, even with the same gear, but how this works exactly I don't know.

[Paingod]

I had a Radovich as well, until I got the Manticore. Man, do I love that thing! Heavy hull, and while it says slow speed, with the Mk5 Booster, I don't notice it a BIT. Plus, by that phase of the game, you're fighting mostly giant capital ships who's maneuverability is as bad as yours, it doesn't matter.

I still feel that it's a huge thing, but I'm usually one to take lighter arms and more speed vs. heavier armor and bigger guns. When I engage the Dreadnaughts in my Minotaur Destroyer, I tend to negate their broadsides with agility and stay in front or behind them.

Also, I'm unsure how the game handles different defense systems on different hulls. Clearly a corvette with Mk 4 shields and Mk 4 ceramic armour is less durable than a dreadnaught with the same gear. Well, I say clearly, but I'm not entirely sure. It seems to me that when I upgrade a hull I get tougher, even with the same gear, but how this works exactly I don't know.

I welcome differing data, but as far as I've been able to tell all equipment is identical across all chassis. What does change is the "Core" health - the damage you can take once the shields and armor have been pulled off.

So I think a Barracuda Corvette (small and Very Fast) has the same Shield and Armor health with Mk3 equipment as a Dreadnaught using the same Mk3 stuff... but the Barracuda packs less of a punch, takes longer to kill bigger ships, and if the armor is breached it dies quickly. Typically enemies in a sector seem to have roughly the same equipment as you can find in the stores - so a Mk5 sector is very dangerous to any ship with Mk3 equipment. Each step up in equipment is a substantial jump, too - meaning it's not a smooth scale that you can sort of circumvent. It's leaps and bounds at each step up.

[Hyena]

I had a Radovich as well, until I got the Manticore. Man, do I love that thing! Heavy hull, and while it says slow speed, with the Mk5 Booster, I don't notice it a BIT. Plus, by that phase of the game, you're fighting mostly giant capital ships who's maneuverability is as bad as yours, it doesn't matter.

I still feel that it's a huge thing, but I'm usually one to take lighter arms and more speed vs. heavier armor and bigger guns. When I engage the Dreadnaughts in my Minotaur Destroyer, I tend to negate their broadsides with agility and stay in front or behind them.

Normally I would agree, but when you get ambushed by 15 little tiny ships carrying lasers that will zap through your shields, then the capital class ships follow that up with a missile barrage to take out your armor, no amount of agility will save you. That was my biggest wake-up call. I had a drop off mission, and 25 meters (sm? km? space units?) from the station, I was surrounded by about a dozen ships. I tried making the run with the Radovich, and I never got closer than 10 before I got assploded. I went out to grab the minotaur, and waded through it no problem, and actually was able to take out the ambush. I truly didn't notice the lower agility of the ship, but I sure noticed the added health and firepower.

[killbot737]

I have noticed that the EMP flak is FAR superior to regular flak. If I get in a fight with a lot of fighters I just hold down that flak button and boom: disabled targets all over the place! I also like the laser broadsides because you can lock onto gunships and fighters and tear them apart real quick. Stupid Schizos and Bombers can suck photons.

The Mercs sell some special armor that has DR against explosions, and the Merchs sell one that does the same against fighter craft. The ion turret that the merchants sell seems pretty effective too. I've been going all guns, no missiles. I don't like to have to resupply, although ordinance crates tend to be plentiful.

[hentzau]

I'm really liking everything I'm reading here, but I have found that I just can't play PC games any longer. I think it's because I spend 10 hours a day working on one. I'm good with console games though, so I think I'll be waiting for the Xbox One version.

[GreenGoo]

I hope for a future patch that balances beams and projectiles better.

Beams are just insanely better. It's kind of ridiculous to be driving around in a capital ship zapping everything in sight with industrial mining lasers.

For the record my Radovich is currently equipped with 3 Vridian lasers, 1 particle beam laser, 3 mining lasers, 1 scatter shot (Mk 5, found in a box. I'd still probably do better replacing this with a mk 4 anything laser) and 1 ion cannon (because why not. Again, replacing this with a laser would probably be a better idea).

There have been some tiny, tiny bugs that I've been meaning to mention whenever they come up but I always forget. One is that the range to tractor cargo containers remains 1.2sm even after you upgrade to the 2sm tractor beam. So regular cargo (yikyak meat for example) floating around in space can be tractored at 2sm, but containers are stuck at the old tractor range of 1.2sm, for whatever reason. This does not apply to ordinance containers, which can be tractored at 2sm. Weird little glitch, with little practical impact.

There are others but man, for a 2 man team, and only 1 coder, this game is remarkably free of significant bugs.

[Daehawk]

I just had one of those uncatchable pirate lords. i found a buoy and got some bounty markers and ran into a pirate lord at one. I chased him at warp but he seemed to stay around 15 - 20 ahead of me and slowly pull away. I followed him across half the system. Every time Id check my map and return I would drop out of warp to what sounded like enemy flak but nothing was there. I got tired of chasing him.

Is that a bug or do I need a better ship to catch and fight a lord?

[Daehawk]

Has anyone ever saw a trader killed in a distress call? I am a nice guy and always jump in to help but Im wondering if I just sat there would he die and I get to grab the cargo?

[Freyland]

They absolutely die.

[Daehawk]

Sooooo if they had something neat I could sit and wait and get no faction hit and get loot?...hmmmm....must....resist.

Still no kool lasers for me yet. I check every time I see those Korian guys or whoever they were. Maybe Im checking the wrong guys lol.

[killbot737]

Viridian lasers are definitely very rare. There are other types of rare loot that drops. I got an engine that was between lvl 2 and 3 at one point (forgot from whom), and the Badger-people have dropped broadside weapons which may have been cool except I was way past that level of tech at the time.

Traders can and do get asploded. Sometimes by me when we are maneuvering around and they get in between my turrets and the raider. Oops.

I think one of the latest patches added more cargo containers. When I first started playing I barely saw any, now they seem to be more plentiful, even showing up when I blow up the big bad guys. They are much more likely to have some kewl loot than before too.

[Daehawk]

Got my jump drive. Just finishing up some money missions before I leave. Seems Im being attacked more now after that last main mission in this first system.

Did anyone spare the fish guy when he comes after you? I killed him. got about the same money he offered to spare him..maybe more after bounties and cargo.

Im ready for system 2 but I still haven't caught a pirate lord. How do you catch them? The yare always moving it seems and stay ahead of me.

[KDH]

when in warp-speed, heading for a destination, zig-zag thru the nebula and debris fields that tend to be left and right of your path. This will identify them and earn you exploration credits ... the JUNK and MINE fields will always have 3 (yes, 3) cargo containers .. the only exception to this, and why I shouldn't say "always", is that you may have cleaned it out when there for a previous battle .. occasionally they'll say 'special' cargo container and have rare'er loot


in other news .. my merc has been dying a lot in the first battle after I hire them .. you'd think if you pay 100k for a punk from the block, they'd at least have the street cred to put up with the kids they went to school with ... it has made me gun-shy to pay money for them. ... Skiza, Grud, Sparrow, Stephen .. RIP

I took a mission to deliver 32 units of Gold Ingots (high-risk).. the destination is solid red diamonds, (seemed like 50, and not a bounty in the bunch). I approach one end of the line slowly, so as to not excite the entire hornet's nest .. and when I cross an invisible line in space, my engines are shut down via EMP that 'just happened', and I am surrounded by 30 fighters that never approached .... Merc insta-dead ... this happened 5 or 6 times (without a merc) .. I eventually left to take care of other trade since I was chocka-block full. I could only hope that their numbers would not be replenished because I left