Star Conflict

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So apparently Star Conflict has been in open-beta for awhile. Steam picked it up recently and I gave it a shot. I've put 8 hours into it so far this weekend and have been enjoying it quite a bit.

For those of you who have played World of Tanks it is quite similar, a free-to-play online game where you fight in relatively short matches for money and experience which you use to buy and outfit new spaceships.

So far it is incredibly polished and quite impressive for a beta, I've had no issues with disconnections or slowdowns, the worst I can say about it is that occasionally the matchmaking system takes a minute and a half instead of the more usual 20 seconds.

IMAGE(http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/12/list-star-conflict.jpg)

Saw it in the DLC sale lists this weekend.

What's with all the DLC for a free game? Are they actual improvements, or just skins? Or shortcuts to unlock stuff that you can get for free?

Ah, this is by the War Thunder dev. I'm enjoying the beta of that, so I might give this a go, too.

Found this gameplay look on youtube:

EDIT: If you have a War Thunder account, you can log in with that. So I'm using the same thing across both games once I get it downloaded.

Alright, I'll join your little gang.

How is it with mouse and keyboard?

Stele wrote:

Saw it in the DLC sale lists this weekend.

What's with all the DLC for a free game? Are they actual improvements, or just skins? Or shortcuts to unlock stuff that you can get for free? :?

It's a Free to Play game. So you can play it for free and grind out upgrades, new ships, etc, or you can buy XP boosters, in game currency to buy things directly, etc. (I assume).

I don't know exactly what the model is on this one, but that's generally how most of these go.

Some of my favorite multiplayer games of the last year have been F2P. It is no longer the realm of crappy games for Facebook people, or the types of games played in Korea (although many borrow from that design).

EDIT: Total Biscuit also has a vid on it. He generally will go into the business model pretty well.

Looks like there are three factions. Empire, Federation, and Jericho. Any preference if we start as a group?

Stele wrote:

Saw it in the DLC sale lists this weekend.

What's with all the DLC for a free game? Are they actual improvements, or just skins? Or shortcuts to unlock stuff that you can get for free? :?

Actually, going through the ship screen a lot of them (a quarter?) are marked as Steam DLC. I haven't really looked at them in comparison to the free ships yet.

MannishBoy wrote:

Looks like there are three factions. Empire, Federation, and Jericho. Any preference if we start as a group?

You can play and join with people of the other factions, so it doesn't much matter.

Alrighty, the Corporation is called "Gamers With Jobs", created at a cost of 3000 gold coins, my first annoyance with the game. I can't give us the GWJ shorter tag in addition to the corporation name because I can't afford the 1000 gold coin charge, a much greater annoyance.

Well anyways, it's done now. If you guys start posting your names I'll start sending invites!

Yonder wrote:

Alrighty, the Corporation is called "Gamers With Jobs", created at a cost of 3000 gold coins, my first annoyance with the game. I can't give us the GWJ shorter tag in addition to the corporation name because I can't afford the 1000 gold coin charge, a much greater annoyance.

Well anyways, it's done now. If you guys start posting your names I'll start sending invites!

MannishBoy

I'm a big fan of pew pew laserguns but the game somehow doesn't appeal to me as much as War Thunder does. In War Thunder you target with your entire aircraft so it's arguably more about the flying than the guns. In this game you have turrets so combat is basically shining lasers at each other until someone pops. You can't really evade fire because ships don't move that fast, so there isn't any dogfighting to speak of.

Tamren wrote:

I'm a big fan of pew pew laserguns but the game somehow doesn't appeal to me as much as War Thunder does. In War Thunder you target with your entire aircraft so it's arguably more about the flying than the guns. In this game you have turrets so combat is basically shining lasers at each other until someone pops. You can't really evade fire because ships don't move that fast, so there isn't any dogfighting to speak of.

In playing a round or two, I'm kind of getting the same vibe. Not sure.

Looks fun. Downloading now.

MannishBoy wrote:
Yonder wrote:

Well anyways, it's done now. If you guys start posting your names I'll start sending invites!

MannishBoy

Hmm, turns out that I can't send invites to people that aren't signed in, so this will take a bit more coordination.

MannishBoy wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I'm a big fan of pew pew laserguns but the game somehow doesn't appeal to me as much as War Thunder does. In War Thunder you target with your entire aircraft so it's arguably more about the flying than the guns. In this game you have turrets so combat is basically shining lasers at each other until someone pops. You can't really evade fire because ships don't move that fast, so there isn't any dogfighting to speak of.

In playing a round or two, I'm kind of getting the same vibe. Not sure.

That was my impression at first, but I no longer think that's the case. As I have gotten better and have payed more attention to the skilled players, piloting skill has begun to be more and more of an issue. People that fly right across an open expanse get sniped and lasered to death, while those that skirt from asteroid to asteroid to close the distance survive.

I generally play in a Frigate (the largest, slowest craft) and I'd say that in around half of my deaths a nimble fighter staying behind me where 0 to 2 of my six turrets can reach him is instrumental in my death. This is especially true in Jericho or Empire frigates, Federation Frigates come with combat drones which help in that situation.

I will check this out some this week. I've been having a blast with War Thunder so, we'll see about this one. If you see me on during the day send me a message through Steam.
Pilot name is same as GWJ name.

I agree that the combat is much more nuanced than I thought. I finally got a chance to play in an interceptor, and noticed that I could finally start dodging incoming fire and "dogfight" with opponents. Really enjoying it now that its more than "paint by lasers".

I'm UMOarsman in game - would love a corp invite.

Played a few rounds last night. Won a couple, got completely trounced in a couple. Pro-tip: flares are useless against the player-guided missiles. Had three rounds where either a) there were no enemies at all, or b) half the players never loaded in. That last problem wasn't too bad except that in one match only two people on my side got in, and all the players on the other side made it in. That battle was very short and explodey, especially for me since I was the captain (??!!). I'm gravitating towards the frigates right now, and was actually able to use my drones effectively in the last two rounds.

I'm Aetius2 for corp invite.

On a related note to pilot skill, I recommend playing on Regular instead of Arcade. In the latter you have infinite respawns, you just keep coming back in any ship you like until the time runs out or someone accomplishes the goal of the Fight. In regular you respawn in each ship once.

I find it much more satisfying, as a kill means that you have permanently removed that ship from the fight. It also makes care and skill much more important, as throwing away a ship recklessly is much more costly. Because of that the people that play those matches also tend to be more skilled, as the people that die quickly either learn from their mistakes, or return to Arcade mode out of frustration of running out of ships halfway through the match.

Downloading through steam now. Not being a fighter jockey might be fun. You can't pilot a frigate in Freespace 2 after all.

edit: as long as the weapons are big and impressive, slowness is not a problem

Yonder wrote:

On a related note to pilot skill, I recommend playing on Regular instead of Arcade. In the latter you have infinite respawns, you just keep coming back in any ship you like until the time runs out or someone accomplishes the goal of the Fight. In regular you respawn in each ship once.

I find it much more satisfying, as a kill means that you have permanently removed that ship from the fight. It also makes care and skill much more important, as throwing away a ship recklessly is much more costly. Because of that the people that play those matches also tend to be more skilled, as the people that die quickly either learn from their mistakes, or return to Arcade mode out of frustration of running out of ships halfway through the match.

When you start and only have one ship, I think Arcade might be good.

MannishBoy wrote:
Yonder wrote:

On a related note to pilot skill, I recommend playing on Regular instead of Arcade. In the latter you have infinite respawns, you just keep coming back in any ship you like until the time runs out or someone accomplishes the goal of the Fight. In regular you respawn in each ship once.

I find it much more satisfying, as a kill means that you have permanently removed that ship from the fight. It also makes care and skill much more important, as throwing away a ship recklessly is much more costly. Because of that the people that play those matches also tend to be more skilled, as the people that die quickly either learn from their mistakes, or return to Arcade mode out of frustration of running out of ships halfway through the match.

When you start and only have one ship, I think Arcade might be good.

Oh yeah definitely, if you don't have the "full" complement of 3 ships then normal isn't a good idea.

So while you can't send corporation invites when people are offline, friend invites appear to be no problem, and then that makes it easy to see when people are online and send them the Corporation invites. I'm online now, as is Aetius, we'll have to see if we can get in a game together.

Aetius and I just got done pairing up for several matches and we had a lot of fun. We were on vent, and the much easier communication really improved things. Telling each other what we were doing, warning about incoming dangers or opportunities, was pretty great. I'm really looking forward to getting more goodjers in there, as I can tell that it's just going to improve with a larger proportion of the team communicating.

Ok, that first game in Arcade was super fun. I can lose a lot of time to this. I even bought new railguns for my initial ship. Now, if I earn up to the new Lynx, am I buying a new ship or just upgrading my current?

Grenn wrote:

Ok, that first game in Arcade was super fun. I can lose a lot of time to this. I even bought new railguns for my initial ship. Now, if I earn up to the new Lynx, am I buying a new ship or just upgrading my current?

Buying a new ship.

Also note that you can't sell old ships or buy more than one of a type of ship.

In as LtWarhound, toss an invite when you can. Setting a time to get a group together would be nice, my schedule is rather flexible.

Oh, LtGrenn. Send an invite.

Yonder wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Ok, that first game in Arcade was super fun. I can lose a lot of time to this. I even bought new railguns for my initial ship. Now, if I earn up to the new Lynx, am I buying a new ship or just upgrading my current?

Buying a new ship.

Also note that you can't sell old ships or buy more than one of a type of ship.

So I have to eat the cost of a ship? Or can I never buy more than 3 ships?

Grenn wrote:
Yonder wrote:
Grenn wrote:

Ok, that first game in Arcade was super fun. I can lose a lot of time to this. I even bought new railguns for my initial ship. Now, if I earn up to the new Lynx, am I buying a new ship or just upgrading my current?

Buying a new ship.

Also note that you can't sell old ships or buy more than one of a type of ship.

So I have to eat the cost of a ship? Or can I never buy more than 3 ships?

If it's like typical F2P games, you can buy more slots, hanger bays, etc. Most often with real money.

For instance, in Mechwarrior Online, you get 4 base slots, then you can buy more. They aren't generally that expensive, but I haven't looked in this game.

You do have to eat the cost of the ship, you can have a lot more than three ships, but only three (4 if you pay/wait a long time) are available in one battle. This is mostly a factor in Regular games.

Man, I've had my opinion of this game turn completely 180. After a few hours of learning the ropes and getting into T2, this is far more enjoyable than I thought. Great to get a few matches in with GWJers tonight!

This looks pretty cool. I actually applied to get into the beta a long time ago and never heard back so I forgot about it. I'll download it tonight for sure. Love me some space shootin'!

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