Drox Operative Catch-All

Hey y'all, my preview is up, so I hope y'all enjoy it.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/previ...

So far I have been a bit disappointed with the game. As always I really like the setting that Soldak provides with a more living Universe with quests that matter, it's the actual gameplay which I am a little bit disappointed in. I feel like the equipment you have available doesn't quite give you enough toys to play with and strategies to keep in mind. In comparison to games like Torchlight in Diablo where you are managing both equipment and Skills/Spells, here you are really only managing the equipment side of things, and I don't think that it really pulls all of its weight. I think that you start out with a reasonable number of slots (3/3/3) but that it grows too slowly from there. I am on my third sector, and probably level 14 or so. I have heavily been investing in the larger ship path and now have the (4/4/4) ship, but I would like to have a larger ship for the skill points I have put in.

I haven't played since the weapon energy usage drops though, so maybe now I will be able to work out a combination that will feel a little more fun. Before my main weapon was taking so much energy to fire that I didn't really feel like I could try out some of the new toys like ECM and EMP that have been dropping.

Beat me to it! And yay! So having fun with this game.

Now that weapons are taking less energy I have been able to use some more active systems which has made the game more interesting for me.

.903 Patch Notes wrote:

fixed player fighters sometimes not attacking other enemy races (Shadowy Figure/xemu)

Sweet, I had that problem and temporarily shelved my fighters because of it.

I've not even used fighters yet, are they fun?

I enjoy fighters as a backup weapon, in some cases (mostly the enemies that drop mines) they vanish very quickly, but in other cases they absorb a nice amount of firepower that would otherwise come for you. They do modest damage as well, I would say that a full load out of five fighters more than doubles your damage output, but since they attack random targets instead of focus firing that doesn't matter as much as your own increased survive-ability.

I'm going to suggest that in the expansion he creates individual NPCs for the fighters, each with their own wants and desires in order to show what a cold hearted megalomaniac you truly are, Yonder.

They don't die that fast! Usually. I'm sure I have a similar cloning system set up on my ship for them as the one that brings me and my remembers back after we crash and burn.

Oh speaking of remembers, I was snoring them at first, but they actually level up along with you and increase their bonuses. The random crew members you very occasionally find aren't usually worth it, but if you succeed in one of the recruitment quests you generally get a very worthwhile member for your troubles.

Yeah, I've got two crewmembers now, one of 'em is rare, and they increase in ability along with ya. It's neat.

Sigh, I was gonna take some time off to focus on other games too, but nooooo, he had to patch it. Guuuh.

.904 is out.

I'm enjoying this game quite a lot and have probably played 10-12 hours so far, but it does remind me just how amazing Space Rangers 2 is. Every time I see a suggestion or complaint on the Soldak forums about how something should be handled differently (e.g., fog of war), I immediately think, "How did SR2 handle that?" and -- almost invariably -- SR2 handled the specific scenario in a clever way.

It's a shame really. SR2 has become my space game benchmark and so far none of the other space games I've played have really compared -- they always feel like they're missing something. With Drox, I like the living universe and the fast-paced combat, but I miss the persistency of the named characters from SR2 -- how you could begin to recognize your friends and rivals and move up or down the Ranger rankings.

ebarstad wrote:

.904 is out.

I'm enjoying this game quite a lot and have probably played 10-12 hours so far, but it does remind me just how amazing Space Rangers 2 is. Every time I see a suggestion or complaint on the Soldak forums about how something should be handled differently (e.g., fog of war), I immediately think, "How did SR2 handle that?" and -- almost invariably -- SR2 handled the specific scenario in a clever way.

It's a shame really. SR2 has become my space game benchmark and so far none of the other space games I've played have really compared -- they always feel like they're missing something. With Drox, I like the living universe and the fast-paced combat, but I miss the persistency of the named characters from SR2 -- how you could begin to recognize your friends and rivals and move up or down the Ranger rankings.

I totally hear ya. While one can't make direct comparisons since they're doing a lot of different things, there are so many things done just right in SR2.

Just how done is this game? Its going to be released "when its finished". So what still needs to be added?

I think he's just tweaking stuff now. I haven't seen any major functionality added since I picked it up (beta 0.9.0).

Yeah, seems like balancing and bugs. I'd say we're pretty close.

Nice, race specific slots and such! Can't wait to try it!

Sadly, no fix for the current win condition. Ugh.

Sometimes this game makes me angry. Playing today, large sectors, mostly just exploring. I found the Hive and had 70-ish relations and a mutual protection pact. I also had found the Lithosoids and had high 50's relations with them and a non-agression pact. Somewhere out there were the Talons but I only knew they existed because they had alliances with the Hive and the Lithosoids. I was tooling around minding my own business when all of a sudden the Talons declare war on me. The other two races honor their alliances and 10 minutes later it is game over. I never discovered even one system where the Talons were.

What aggravated me about this was that I had just turned level 9 and had a really sweet ship (coming off a pair of dud ships that were not working out so well).

I guess I should do more quests. But sometimes the quests seem a little bugged in the last couple of updates. For example, sometimes "kill some of this type of ship" quests sometimes seem like they "forget" and you won't get credit for kill those ship types.

Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time with this game. Just sometimes the beta-ness comes out and bites you on the ass.

Don't you get to keep your ship and stuff even if that happens?

Veloxi wrote:

Don't you get to keep your ship and stuff even if that happens?

Yes, the only penalty is an xp penalty similar to if you die.

You guys are right. I over-reacted when I saw the "You Lose" screen come up. New sector, XP debt, same ship.

Still, was aggravating, but no real harm done, except to my blood pressure.

As is my second preview of the game, since I can't stop playing the damned thing

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/previ...

So...I got in a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit over my head this evening and my ship was destroyed. Luckily my escape pod survived long enough to be rescued but MY DRAK CREWMEMBER DIED! I had been with him since level two!!! NOOOO! What SUCKS is that he leveled up a LOT, and now since he's gone, I can't use half of my equipment. GAH!

I restarted, therefore, as a Fringe ship due to my frustration. Dunno if I can go back to my Level 17 Hotspur now. Sigh.

Veloxi wrote:

So...I got in a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit over my head this evening and my ship was destroyed. Luckily my escape pod survived long enough to be rescued but MY DRAK CREWMEMBER DIED! I had been with him since level two!!! NOOOO! What SUCKS is that he leveled up a LOT, and now since he's gone, I can't use half of my equipment. GAH!

I restarted, therefore, as a Fringe ship due to my frustration. Dunno if I can go back to my Level 17 Hotspur now. Sigh.

Are crew deaths permanent now? I healed dead crew members in previous patches.

I didn't even know you could DO THAT!

Sorry, that was the first crewmember I'd had that died, totally didn't know they could be "healed".

Veloxi wrote:

Sorry, that was the first crewmember I'd had that died, totally didn't know they could be "healed".

Yeah, in my first game, I actually got rid of the dead crew members, not realizing they could be healed.

Also, the next update will have a couple neat features. From Twitter:

Soldak wrote:

in the next Drox Operative build you will be able to get info on why races like/dislike you and storage/production info on planets.

Veloxi posted about these on his blog:

Quickstart Guide. "If you are a beta tester (or plan to be one), please do not read this help page!!" Huh? Guess they want feedback on how confused we are, which makes sense.