Octopus Overlords

Kinda surprised nobody had posted this game yet? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161 ... ipbreaker/

A billion credits in debt, you managed to snag this hard job: breaking up old ships and salvage valuable components (and not-so-valuable hull material) while spending credits on oxygen, supplies, and more. You only have "15 minute real-time" shifts, so don't dawdle. But cutting the wrong component, or doing things in the wrong order will literally KILL you as the ship explodes, decompresses, or worse... If you don't salvage enough components to satisfy the contract, you get a stiff penalty! But if you do make it in time, spend a little MORE time to pay down on your debt... only 999 million left to go...

I'm kinda interested, but I already have too many games in my backlog.

I've been playing this off and on and enjoy it.

The core idea is really fun and well executed, but it still needs a little more variety in ship designs, and, while I understand why they have the 15 minute timer, I hope they come up with a way to alleviate the time pressure a bit. In the tutorial portion there is no time limit and it set up the expectation of being able to study a ship and take it apart at a nice, chill pace. It's still fun with the timer, but just not as relaxing, so I don't find myself playing it as much as I might otherwise.

I grabbed it since it was on sale for something like $16. Normally, I don't play early access games, but I wanted to support Blackbird and the concept was intriguing. Ron, at Gaming Trend posted a let's play video that whet my appetite.

I gave it a spin. I've had 3 crashes but no major bugs. I've seen some clipping issues. It's pretty good for just starting early access. There's a new patch today that I need to try out.

There is something kind of zen about gracefully taking apart a ship in space. As you advance in certifications, the ships add more subsystems. This increases risk, but also potentially profit. So far, it's promising.

It’s definitely on my radar, but I was thinking I’d just keep it on the wishlist for a while until it’s more developed or a ridiculous sale comes along. Glad to hear your impressions are positive!

Sepiche wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2020 11:59 am I've been playing this off and on and enjoy it.

The core idea is really fun and well executed, but it still needs a little more variety in ship designs, and, while I understand why they have the 15 minute timer, I hope they come up with a way to alleviate the time pressure a bit. In the tutorial portion there is no time limit and it set up the expectation of being able to study a ship and take it apart at a nice, chill pace. It's still fun with the timer, but just not as relaxing, so I don't find myself playing it as much as I might otherwise.

More or less exactly my experience and feelings

There is a 'free' mode without timer and consequences, but I still want consequences...

I'm watching it, but it is still Early Access and one of the reviews already mentioned the lack of content at this stage. I'll wait a while.

I like what I saw in the Steam video but there are a couple of improvements I think it can use:
1. The ability to occasionally scavenge small components that would allow you to build large tools or small robots to help you work. You could then upgrade these and/or bring them with you to the next job. I'm envisioning an end game scenario where you could dismantle an entire Death Star sized space station with your elaborate collection of tools and robots. These parts would constitute the 'loot' in the game. A game like this needs loot.
2. Just trying to pay back your debt is not much of a motivation. How the heck were you able to build up 1 billion credits of debt in the first place, and why is working this job the best option for paying it back? There should be a more believable reason for this. Maybe aliens are going to invade Earth and humanity needs people like you to go into space and dismantle everything up there so a gigantic anti-alien defense system can be built with the recovered parts in time to repel the invasion.

gameoverman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2020 11:01 pm How the heck were you able to build up 1 billion credits of debt in the first place

Too many Steam Sales

You make some good points however. I'm hoping that the story will flesh out a bit as development continues.

played it a bit over the weekend. The 15 minute shift is not a big deal for me. I am intending to play this in "day/real time" in that I'll do a shift each day before I do my "real work". However, I discovered when logging in today that the ship I was working on yesterday is gone - the bay is empty. And I have to select a new ship. No big deal, I thought. So I picked a new ship, managed to salvage the reactor core, a few seats, and some panels. At the 3 minute mark I was low on oxygen and decided to head back to the Hab and call it a day.

On a hunch I decided to quit the game there and log back in. Sure enough, the bay is empty again and I have to choose a new ship from the ship catalog. I read through the steam forums and it seems this is the norm after a recent patch. The explanation is that saving the physics of a given ship state would result in large save files.

So the upshot is that for now I'll have to work on a new ship every day.

The new patch added a 'zen mode' open shift option. It removes the time limit and the oxygen drain. It will have a separate leader board. Interesting that they're rapidly responding to feedback.

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 2:05 am The new patch added a 'zen mode' open shift option. It removes the time limit and the oxygen drain. It will have a separate leader board. Interesting that they're rapidly responding to feedback.

I saw an article about this. The writer liked the removal of the time limit but wanted the oxygen drain reintroduced. He was hoping that maybe they'd make it an option in the open shift mode.

Kind of a cool "behind the curtain" article from RPS, How Hardspace: Shipbreaker's devs made spaceships you can cut anywhere

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game about cutting up spaceships with heavy industrial tools for cash. It’s a thrill to drift in zero-G, slicing and chopping and severing hull panels, superstructures, cockpits, airlocks, partly because the way you take them apart is up to you. You know what you have to do as soon as you get into space; you just need to figure out how.

That was also the experience of developer Blackbird Interactive as it began to develop Shipbreaker and brought it to Early Access. The theme quickly crystallised, but figuring out how freeform cutting would actually work was a lot harder, setting stern technical challenges that were never really solved, posing questions about player freedom that resulted in surprising answers, and causing spaceship designers’ nightmares.

Just started playing this, made it to level 5 and started taking apart class 3 ships, the heavy shuttles with 4 nacelles. How *do* you cut apart the bridge so you can take it apart and get all the glass and whatnot? My cutter doesn't cut level 3 stuff. I just tether the whole thing into the processor and they always yell how much stuff was wasted.

One cool thing about taking the ships apart... If you find oxygen, you can use it to refill your own tank. But only happens on the passenger carrying versions, not the cargo versions.

Decided to start a new game in Open Play (no oxygen concern, no 15 minute work day). First Mackerel took 45 minutes. Next one 30. Third one is down to 25, and I was taking my time too.

Made it to level 7. Keep having something in the Gecko explode. Yikes. Went back to taking apart Javelines instead. At least those don't blow up without warning. I've tried taking apart 3 Geckos, and each of them SOMETHING blew up on me. I read that I was supposed to do something to the ECU, except I have nothing to interact it with. So I cut the pipe in the back (and then coolant leak gave me cold damage) Then 60 seconds later something in the rear of the ship blew up wiping out the back and collapsed my floor.

I think I've also tried taking apart the Gecko by disabling the engineering computer (emergency flush) and something ELSE exploded and killed me. ARGH.

At least I can take apart a Javeline and Mackerel easily.

How do you guys find the controller working? I get hand cramps with the mouse due to all those flicking motions with the tether.

Great, class V Javelins are not the same as the older Javelins. More complicated plumbing! But I think I managed to take one apart and claimed 7 mil out of 7.7 mil possible salvage. Phew.

Okay, took apart the Gecko successfully. A couple bits went into the wrong intake, but that's probably because I want to get the bits into the intake ASAP, even when it's NOT convenient to do so. I was trying to drag the tailcone into the processor. Too much mass. I should have tried to split them in halves with explosives.

Need to try the Javelin next.

Is it possible to ever get out of debt?

From what I understand, it's a cross between a Paranoia-inspired corporate dystopia and the coal mining company towns of the the late 19th/early 20th centuries. I'd be willing to be that if you do pay off your debt, you'll find it didn't get you anywhere.

Paingod wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:11 am Is it possible to ever get out of debt?

From what I heard...

I wager that cycle continues on and on.

There's apparently a tactic where you dump the ENTIRE SHIP (the smaller mackerel) into the barge and run back to the hab for the speed bonus. It's kinda hilarious when you think about it. It's only valid for RACE, the speed competition, and they tweaked the scoring so it's no longer an effective tactic, but it's hilarious when you see it.

I am almost to the max level, but I'm getting a bit burned out... as I am starting to make rookie mistakes... like pushing myself into the processor, blowing **** up accidentally (I'm supposed to chuck the thruster into the barge, I misjudged and slammed it against the hull, and it exploded) among other things. Need a break.

I see that this game (Steam link) is on sale for one third off, coincident with the released of Campaign Act II plus a bunch of fixes and updates. Any thoughts on whether it's worth getting now in Early Access or should I wait for full release? It has been in development for five years and Early Access for fourteen months, so I'm wondering if the game will ever even see full release...

By the way, the 33% off sale ends tomorrow at 1pm EDT.

The main mechanics are done. They're just tweaking the procedural ship generator and fixing up some problems with the physics.

The "campaign story" is really just some narrative shell around how soul-sucking the work is (can you EVER buy yourself out of debt?) and how heartless the Lynx Corporation is... Some workers are planning to organize a union, but obviously the company wouldn't stand for that...

Nothing wrong with buying the game now and see where the story goes. Just don't get too "married" in your overall progress, as they've reset all progress once already, and they will do so again at least once if not twice before 1.0 release.

Thanks for the reply. I'll probably grab it before the sale is over.

Well that didn't last long. The game won't even start. I went to Discord and they want me to download a .bat file to edit my registry. Nope, not going to put up with that. I've already asked for a refund.

Weird. Worked on my Intel / NVIDIA system like a charm.

Just started playing the 0.6x update. Works fine on my Intel 9th Gen i7 / RTX 2070 setup.

so this is on sale for around $16 @ Steam. I picked it up. Loved the atmosphere in the intro. I just got the training wheels taken off and now have to deal with factors like oxygen and fuel. Interesting game so far. But I'm trying to see how they can keep the game fresh.

They just released the 0.7 update with a new type of double-decker ship added.

Just in time as I'm getting a bit bored in Mechwarrior 5.

Help me understand.

I read that between shifts you can continue on the ship you were last demoloishing. That happens, but when I save and quit the game and come back to it, all my progress on the ship is gone, but the exp and money i earned remained the same.

Is this supposed to be this way? I don't 2 hours of game time to play in one setting, and this sucks if that's the case.

Unfortunately, yes, that's the way this game works. Saving the state of every bits and pieces in the yard would make the savegame HUGE and level load time intolerable. The devs basically said restarting the game with an empty yard is easier.

If you want to come back to the same ship, just leave the game running.

Well that blows.

Well, this has gone 1.0 and released from early access. It's 25% off to celebrate. Here's the PC gamer review.



I'll have to get back to it now that the campaign is complete.

Oh, same here!

I had re-visited it after one of their more recent updates, but stopped as I didn't want to reveal too much of the story until the full release.

• Ship Saving - Save your in-progress salvage for later!

nice

Unagi wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 6:14 pm

• Ship Saving - Save your in-progress salvage for later!

nice

Agreed, nice. Lack of in-progress saving was an issue for me.

Yeah, that was obviously a big issue they had with the design of their save-game state, I imagine. Took a long time for them to get that one checked off. I'm glad they finally overcame it.

Do folks prefer using a controller or keyboard and mouse?