Star Traders: Frontiers Spice-All

Veloxi's interview with the Trese brothers caught my attention, and then I watched the video that Harpo posted. I had to watch it over several days, though, as I rarely get almost 2 hours of free time!

I've only played one Trese game (Star Traders RPG). I bounced off that one, but that's probably more because I don't really spend much time playing mobile/tablet games than because of anything in the game itself.

One of the comments from the YT video was:

Austin made this sound incredible in the first 30 minutes but the actual gameplay is kinda lame

While I don't think the gameplay is "lame", I did get the feeling that in my mind it didn't quite live up to the build-up either. I did like the story bits I saw, though, so I'm optimistic.

By the looks of it, though, this strikes me as the kind of game that really shines with repeated playthroughs following different paths. Unless it's a really short game, my work/family/gaming balance doesn't lend itself to playing a game through very often.

deftly wrote:

Looks like a little Elite, a little FTL, a little Darkest Dungeon.

To me it felt like Sunless Sea + FTL + Darkest Dungeon.

I've enjoyed it very much. And all those references came after the obvious inspiration - Space Rangers.

The closest this game comes for me, in feeling, is Sid Mayer's: Pirates. And that's a good thing.

In case anyone is curious about the level of developer communication with this game, they've posted 34 dev updates since November.

MoonDragon wrote:

The closest this game comes for me, in feeling, is Sid Mayer's: Pirates. And that's a good thing.

I played a lot of Pirates! back in college. The one thing that distinguished this game most from Pirates! is that your crew are actual characters, with names, skills, etc. In Pirates!, ships contain only a Captain and an unsigned integer to represent the number of crew. That's slightly better than SPaZ, where your crew were also a type of currency.

Hrdina wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

The closest this game comes for me, in feeling, is Sid Mayer's: Pirates. And that's a good thing.

I played a lot of Pirates! back in college. The one thing that distinguished this game most from Pirates! is that your crew are actual characters, with names, skills, etc. In Pirates!, ships contain only a Captain and an unsigned integer to represent the number of crew. That's slightly better than SPaZ, where your crew were also a type of currency.

You're absolutely right. But like I said, it was a feeling comparison, not so much direct mechanics.

Out of curiosity I pulled up Star Traders RPG in Google Play to see when it was last updated.

The latest version is v6.1.41 - 1/16/2018. I probably got this game shortly after I bought my Nexus (in 2013), so that's very impressive. This is the free version, too.

MoonDragon wrote:

You're absolutely right. But like I said, it was a feeling comparison, not so much direct mechanics.

Oh, I definitely agree with that. ST looks to be a bit deeper, but there's definitely a resemblance there.

This game is 20% off until Monday or so ($12 instead of $15).

I've only played around with it a little, but I'm hoping/expecting that playing it on a PC instead of mobile (like I tried with Star Traders RPG) will prove to be a more satisfying experience for me.

I've been watching a few videos of this game to get some understanding of how it plays, given what I've heard about the (lack of) documentation.

This is supposedly a Beginners' tips video, but I think it still assumes a slightly-more-than-beginner level of knowledge. I've watched a couple of his gameplay videos, though, and I'm not entirely sure about his level of skill in this game. He's done some things that seem weird to me, but maybe that's more a reflection of my own low level of understanding, or perhaps that playing a game in a livestream isn't easy. He also keeps referring to the crew's morale as "morality".

I've watched the first episode of a series by Mint Dragon, and think that this might prove more appropriate for someone new to the game.

I just dived right in. It's pretty self-explanatory.

(disclaimer: I have not watched above videos)

One thing that I wish I would have known from the get go: in combat, when a character dies, they are removed from the screen, and the rest of your characters pack to the right. Why is this important? Because your snipers get a default shooting skill that only works from distances of 3-4. So, if 2 of your guys die, your sniper will slip into position 2, and will no longer be able to fire. Shooter be warned!

Robear wrote:

I just dived right in. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Maybe, although I'm honest enough to admit that I've learned some stuff in those videos that would have taken me a while to figure out on my own.

Was catching up on some holiday '17 Waypoint podcasts and heard Austin Walker & Rob Zacny singing ST:F's praises. Followed up with their gameplay video and couldn't instabuy it fast enough. As luck would have it the game was 20% off during the latest Steam sale.

LOVING the grognard fiddly bits & menus, coupled with the eye-catching indie presentation. It's hella charming.

Looking forward to diving in.

I started playing this more after I finished my campaign in Stellaris, which was taking up all of my (limited) gaming time. I have about 12 hours in ST:F now.

I've been enjoying the game more than I expected, and that sense of heritage from Pirates! has only grown stronger. I hope this game finds the wider audience that it deserves. On that note, the game is 25% off during the Steam sale ($11.24). Anyone who's been on the fence should really consider jumping in. It's improved markedly in the short time I've been following it, and it's clear that the devs are all-in for supporting it.

This game is going to be an absolute hit.

Is it a full game? I see it is still in early access.

Robear wrote:

This game is going to be an absolute hit. :-)

I hope you're right about that. I'm a terrible judge of what people might actually want.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Is it a full game? I see it is still in early access.

Yes, it's still EA so by definition is not "complete". As far as "full", to me it feels like a full game that they are now polishing by adding more story arcs, and by incorporating quality-of-life changes based upon feedback (i.e. exactly how EA is supposed to work!).

The devs have promised not to make changes that break save compatibility, but of course they have added story segments that you can't see if you're past a certain point in the game. Fortunately, this game seems to be one that benefits from multiple playthroughs, given the variety of choices you can make during character creation.

They've posted their development roadmap and are making good progress against it.

Yeah, it's in dev. The skeleton and much of the flesh to fill it out are in place. I played enough to know that this is digital death by chocolate, so I'm holding off for now. Every time it updates - a few times a week - I can see them methodically adding more and more cool stuff - more stories, more professions, more skills, better tactical ground and space combat, more side missions, better trading... On and on and on. Think Space Rangers but not as... detached? I guess that's the word.

The comparisons to Sid Meier's Pirates are also apt; it has that flow to it that just makes you want to do one more mission, check out one more planet, and oh! my pilot leveled, gotta do skills, and I can make that passenger run in a few minutes, so maybe... Where did that faction ship come from, sh*t sh*t sh*t!... That sort of continuously engaging gameplay that marks truly masterful games from just good ones.

And that's based on EA from nearly six months ago. Seriously. No brainer.

RPS (Fraser Brown) posted a rather lengthy full review: Wot I Think - Star Traders: Frontiers

Spoiler:

RPS Bestest Bests

Hopefully some other outlets will also show interest.

Robear wrote:

This game is going to be an absolute hit. :-)

On their forum, someone asked whether the game has been a financial success.

Corey Trese wrote:

It far exceeded our expectations, to be honest. I expected we would peak around 300 concurrent players. Honestly there were many hours this weekend I could not believe what I was seeing. When we hit 1000 players I was jumping around the room yelling incoherently.

We have had a lot of players who bought during Early Access return to play. The concurrent numbers reflect that.

Its an interesting Steam forum to visit, compared to pretty much every other steam forum. The few times I've been there, not only have the developers been very active, but the community itself has been polite, and on point with their questions.

I guess civility begets civility?

It does. And honestly, the game is good at enough things that I don't really see people finding some area to unify in beating on. It's just a pleasure to play.

Yeah, those devs were on fire with community involvement during the Early Access period. Kudos them.

Sure am going to miss the weekly updates though now that the game is 1.0. I read on the Steam Store page that they did 88(!) updates during the 8 months that it was in EA.

The only other game that comes close is Caves of Qud, which sees content updates every week like clockwork.

They have several months more of updates to go, at a minimum. There have been maybe three since launch? These guys are dedicated!

They have a Discord that the devs are very active on as well. It's hard to imagine how they get anything done unless they never sleep.

The developers have just posted their post-release roadmap.

Trese Brothers wrote:

As we've said before -- the void is merciless and so too will be our update schedule. During the Early Access period, we worked constantly to engage the community, improve the game and crank updates. Now that we have gone to full launch status ... the plan has not changed! All the work we did in Early Access has created a very stable, multi-layered and deep game onto which we will be piling a relentless stream of updates. This powerful foundation will allow us to focus more on story and content, UI quality of life improvements and just exciting features.

This game is a gem.

It so is a gem. I can't stop playing it. Also, I'll be having the brothers back on our podcast soon! Yay!

Man Trese Bros. run their operation like a possessed demon.

God, I'd kill to have like 10% of their passion.

They do! I cannot believe the accuracy and speed with which they roll out their updates. I'm praying they are not death-marching to do that, because their team deserves the best.

Veloxi wrote:

It so is a gem. I can't stop playing it. Also, I'll be having the brothers back on our podcast soon! Yay!

Excellent.

That update schedule amazes me. From the sound of it they spend the EA period making the game rock solid, and now that it's launched they are free to tweak and upgrade as they desire without having to run around putting out fires and living in constant Crunch Time like some other studios I could mention.