I feel like this game has too much correct play.

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rekenner
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:02 am

I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby rekenner » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:43 am

What makes this game interesting is the random events. Let's take one of events that you can get early in the game, finding a planet with an unknown intelligent life.

You can either:
Try to communicate.
Take some of them onto your ship.

What an interesting choice! Could you get a crewmember if you take one onto your ship? Learn something? Maybe just make some scrap? Trying to communicate leads to a couple cool things, however...

If you've read spoilers, you'd know that there is never a reason to pick the latter choice. At best, you take no damage, at worst, you take crew loss. There's not actually a *choice* here, it's entirely a "Have you had your hand burned by this before?", which... discourages experimenting. It discourages you from exploring the one interesting thing this game has going for it. There's pretty much a correct option and an incorrect option for each one, and it comes down to playing the game a bunch to just remember them, or referencing a spoiler. It feels like I could very, very easily code a bot in python to win the game fairly often, just by picking the correct outcome, if combat wasn't real-time.

I think a good change would be to give *every* action a positive outcome, even if it comes with a negative. Even if the negative way outweighs the positive. (I'd consider a ship to ship fight a positive outcome, given the reward for winning). Something like, for the above, or for the giant arachnids, the surviving crew gets some combat experience. For the event that loses you a crew member to disease, if you get that event later, you get a blue option where your crew's immune system is stronger, etc. It would encourage experimentation (even if you take a net loss, you at least aren't just burned for it.). Combine this with choosing what crew members you lose, as I've seen suggested elsewhere, and even losing a crew member could be a small net gain in some odd situations.

(I also think that blue options always being the best is a bit... eeeeh, but those you at least have to somewhat earn)

Another example: There is never a reason to destroy a ship as opposed to boarding it. It's the correct play to get a teleporter as soon as you can, as it'll more than pay for itself. It's the correct play to board every ship and win via boarding action in every situation. You get more scrap, you get more misc stuff, you sometimes even get items or crew. It's even easier than just straight ship to ship combat. An indicator of a good run is going to be an early teleporter. How... lame, really. Now, this I don't have quite as much of a suggested fix for that works with balance, but more scrap and less misc items from destroying a ship and then more misc items and less scrap from boarded ships seems sensible.
mastercats
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:00 pm

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby mastercats » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:23 am

I aggree that escape pod or what ever that almost always pops out and auto kills again lmao or the crazy dude on the planet x.x. Some options just aren't worth trying
DaemonX
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:23 am

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby DaemonX » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:20 am

I agree about options that only have negative or negative / neutral outcomes. You can't even gamble on them!

However the teleporter is a specific way to play. Playing heavy investment in weapons early means far less damage taken, so you save some scrap there.

Moreoever, sometimes you don't get enough crew or access to a teleporter early. If you have built up a decent alpha-strike weapons array, then that's probably better for that run. You can't beat the boss with a small boarding crew and nothing else. You can't do boarding against medbays if you have no way to bypass shields.

So if I find burst lasers and a bunch of enigs and zoltans, or an early pre-igniter and pegasus, I'm sure as heck not going boarding on that playthrough no matter how good the scrap is.
Gorlom
Posts: 519
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:06 am

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby Gorlom » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:23 am

mastercats wrote:I aggree that escape pod or what ever that almost always pops out and auto kills again lmao or the crazy dude on the planet x.x. Some options just aren't worth trying

The mantis escape pod can give you a mantis crew member. how is that not worth trying?
Spazticus
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:01 am

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby Spazticus » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:42 am

I acknowledge that it's just my luck, and that the gambler's fallacy may apply here, but every time I've opened the pod, I've lost a crew member. I've had that event at least a dozen times now, and tried opening the pod about 50% of the time. (Again, my luck just sucks. ;) ) If I happen to get that event early on, it's generally not so bad. However, when I have less than six crew, and each of them have mastery of at least one skill, I don't feel so optimistic about that particular risk.
Gorlom
Posts: 519
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:06 am

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby Gorlom » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:44 pm

Spazticus wrote:I acknowledge that it's just my luck, and that the gambler's fallacy may apply here, but every time I've opened the pod, I've lost a crew member. I've had that event at least a dozen times now, and tried opening the pod about 50% of the time. (Again, my luck just sucks. ;) ) If I happen to get that event early on, it's generally not so bad. However, when I have less than six crew, and each of them have mastery of at least one skill, I don't feel so optimistic about that particular risk.

There is a blue option if you have a slug i think. No idea if that does anything but eject the pod though.
Hissatsu
Posts: 68
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:35 pm

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby Hissatsu » Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:43 pm

Mantis escape pod can give you either mantis or human crew member!

But yes unfortunately some game events have bad and good choices, which means that you always know what to chosoe after you did it once. For example, its always the blue wire. Also, its always better to communicate to the unknown species. I'm not against risking (like, 50% get crew 50% lose crew) but when option is only-negative, you ask yourself why is it there.

Btw, blue choice isnt always good. With cloak you get a lot of "stay hidden" blue choices which mean you will skip a battle, which means less loot!
mastercats
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:00 pm

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby mastercats » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:30 pm

If i'm flying around early with a boarding ship i'm never opening that pod, picking up that crazy guy, or sending my crew to go fight a giant spider. Heck m crew not gonna go search the station, they dont even see the color red when it comes to wires. That's me though beucase i play the boarding ships and if i lose a member early its GG :P
Agent_L
Posts: 206
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:47 pm

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby Agent_L » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:35 pm

rekenner wrote:Another example: There is never a reason to destroy a ship as opposed to boarding it. It's the correct play to get a teleporter as soon as you can, as it'll more than pay for itself. It's the correct play to board every ship and win via boarding action in every situation. You get more scrap, you get more misc stuff, you sometimes even get items or crew. It's even easier than just straight ship to ship combat. An indicator of a good run is going to be an early teleporter. How... lame, really. Now, this I don't have quite as much of a suggested fix for that works with balance, but more scrap and less misc items from destroying a ship and then more misc items and less scrap from boarded ships seems sensible.

Not really. If you're killing the crew, the enemy never gives up. You can't unlock the Slug Cruiser, you can't get free crew member from slave ship (well, you can. If you kill all crew you get a CHANCE, and if you force them to surrender you get 100%)

When I'm invading I'm always wondering "what have I lost?"
CIA maps of Portugal Please God, don't let Portugal to go to war with USA!
mastercats
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:00 pm

Re: I feel like this game has too much correct play.

Postby mastercats » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:42 pm

Agent_L wrote:Not really. If you're killing the crew, the enemy never gives up. You can't unlock the Slug Cruiser, you can't get free crew member from slave ship (well, you can. If you kill all crew you get a CHANCE, and if you force them to surrender you get 100%)

When I'm invading I'm always wondering "what have I lost?"


Actualy if you invade a slave ship you get a crew get a crew guy pretty often (the slavers the come up to you demanding you give up a member have a chance of just not having any slaves). Additionaly if you board a slav e ship you get the option to pick what crew you want. On top of picking you get you also have the option of using advanced teleporters to get an additional free slave before the battle even starts :P.