Space Sims/Strategy Games Catch-All

Approaching Infinity is now on Steam, so buy it you f*cks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5...

I backed that game on Steam 7 years ago for... cheap! Why should I buy it again?

Answer - It’s only $9.89 and it’s been SEVEN YEARS in development! Help a dev out and just buy it on Steam lol.

It never was on Steam, it had a Kickstarter then languished on Shrapnel Games for five years. This new version is very much improved over the old one, which you'd know if you listened to the podcast I did with the developer last week. Sir.

Sir!

Meant to say Kickstarter. Just checked my page this morning. (And yes, I knew that lol.)

What is it with Shrapnel? It’s gotta be supported by a bunch of 60+ Grogs these days. I went to buy a new copy of SP:MBT for the first time in 17 years, and they only offer it on DVD! NO download option... WTF? I don’t even have a DVD on my system anymore...

Veloxi wrote:

It never was on Steam, it had a Kickstarter then languished on Shrapnel Games for five years. This new version is very much improved over the old one, which you'd know if you listened to the podcast I did with the developer last week. Sir.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/rhwJW0o.gif)

I still have the kickstarter version installed, but haven't touched it in years. Will have to check out the new one.

Mixolyde wrote:

I still have the kickstarter version installed, but haven't touched it in years. Will have to check out the new one.

Same here. I'm staring at the cart now on my work Mac so I'll probably click it sometime today and try it tonight when I'm back on my gaming PC.

Bob's comment on the SGJ show about Shrapnel saying "we haven't published anything in a few years" seems to still be true. They have some stuff I'd be vaguely interested in taking a look at, but 40 bucks is a bit of a flyer to take on something written for late-90s PCs (plus the $20 I'd also need to spend for an adapter to put my DVD drive back in).

Robear wrote:

What is it with Shrapnel? It’s gotta be supported by a bunch of 60+ Grogs these days. I went to buy a new copy of SP:MBT for the first time in 17 years, and they only offer it on DVD! NO download option... WTF? I don’t even have a DVD on my system anymore...

Shrapnel sucks. I'm surprised they're still around at all.

garion333 wrote:
Robear wrote:

What is it with Shrapnel? It’s gotta be supported by a bunch of 60+ Grogs these days. I went to buy a new copy of SP:MBT for the first time in 17 years, and they only offer it on DVD! NO download option... WTF? I don’t even have a DVD on my system anymore...

Shrapnel sucks. I'm surprised they're still around at all.

Me too. Maybe Slitherine will buy 'em...

Crying Suns is so fantastic. I went with the Android version to save money, and squeeze in time more than I could sit down on PC. It doesn't have the most recent big update with officer skills or whatever but I'm still loving it.

This game is the basic frame of FTL, and then just digs in some systems a little deeper. You still travel sectors with fuel, your most important resource. And then scrap you salvage and use as currency. There's sectors with an alert moving behind you so you can only visit 5 stars per sector. You gain officers with certain skills and can assign them to stations on the ship. And ship mounted weapons have a cool down. And some random events give you different solution options based on the skills of your crew, if you have the right member. 5 different unlockable ships with varied starting setups and max upgrades for different systems.

All that sounds familiar?

Then throw in squadrons, up to 4 for each side. 4 different types of ship/drone, with a weapon triangle on 3 of them. A hexagon grid to fight with squads from the other ship, with neutral obstacles or turrets to influence battle. You can have ship-to-ship weapons, or squadrons only weapons, or hybrid. Depending on how many slots your ship has and what you find, you could be heavy squadrons or weapons or balance for battles. You can switch squads in battle, bringing them back to heal and sending out fresh. If a squad gets destroyed that slot is empty for a bit. Destroyed squads get repaired slower than ones you call back and are less effective as damaged squads, but still can be redeployed. Some ship or squad skills actually favor using damaged units, like some drones which do AOE damage when destroyed.

For exploration there are 2-5 planets at each star you explore. And many of them have more than one event. You have a chance to refuel at each star. There are several different types of stores. And there are planetary missions! You have commandos that you buy or gain throughout and can send up to 10 on a mission, with one of your officers leading them. It plays out reminding me of Aliens, with you watching blips back at base, except usually more successful. Scanning beforehand gives you a probability of resources gained, commandos lost, and chance to lose your officer. So you can choose which officer to send based on what you need and are willing to risk. There are also evac points throughout where you can come back early, but leave behind loot or injured commandos.

There's also an interesting mystery going on so far. You're a clone of an imperial admiral, woken up by an AI unit to find out why the base stopped receiving signals from the Empire. And the story is broken into chapters. So if you can finish 3 sectors, with a boss in each, you can move on to the next chapter, and start from there in future runs.

I've played little else the last 2 days. It's really scratched that old FTL itch, which I tried to play again a month or 2 back. I thought Shortest Trip To Earth was going to do that last year but the tutorial was overly complex and I bounced right off it. Deeper module customization is not what I was looking for, but Crying Suns with the deeper combat with squadrons is exactly what I need right now.

TLDR: Check out Crying Suns, it's pretty fun. And less than $10 on Android/iOS.

There's a free demo of Crying Suns on Steam. I'm downloading it now to check it out.

Nevin73 wrote:

There's a free demo of Crying Suns on Steam. I'm downloading it now to check it out.

Oh good point. I never did try that, but watched a few let's play videos, including veloxi's, before buying.

I'm not sure if Easy is actually easy or because I watched a couple videos and read a tips article, but I actually made it through chapter 1 my first try. And I think I only lost 1 of my 3 (upgraded to 5) health bars of my ship on the chapter boss. So I wasn't ever in danger of failing.

Ch 2 is going much the same. I may kick it up to normal, but I do enjoy seeing lots of story. And new ships unlock after each chapter.

I didn't think much of Crying Suns. It doesn't change much with different factions, and I think I got maybe four hours out of it before shelving it. I'd finished a couple of games and had no more interest in it.

Malor wrote:

I didn't think much of Crying Suns. It doesn't change much with different factions, and I think I got maybe four hours out of it before shelving it. I'd finished a couple of games and had no more interest in it.

I had a similar response. It felt like it needed a couple more passes in development before they released it. That said, it might feel a lot better on mobile than it does on PC.

Finished chapter 3 of Crying Suns today. Much more challenging bosses there. The sector enemies really start using stealth squads against you more in that chapter it seems.

I almost died on Easy, 2nd boss and I both down to last hull bar, and I eked out victory. Probably would have died on 3rd boss but before that found a cruiser with an artillery power. That was awesome and let me set up more defensively in battle with squads but still damage the enemy ship.

Got another of the elite officers unlocked too. Seems like I've found one each run, but I've been focusing on cryopod events as much as possible.

So friends, I've not spammed much around here of late because my current batch of freelance work has been keeping me busy, but I did want to let y'all know that on today's podcast (4PM Pacific) we'll be welcoming on the creator and developer of one of my now-all-time-favorite games, Star Fleet II, literal rocket scientist Trevor Sorensen. Please join us on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/spacegamejunkie/) live to hear me gush about the game. Hope to see you there.

Some of the new SW: Squadrons footage out today looked ... not great. I don't know how to explain it, but there just seemed to be something off about the way the ships were moving in a lot of the footage.

billt721 wrote:

Some of the new SW: Squadrons footage out today looked ... not great. I don't know how to explain it, but there just seemed to be something off about the way the ships were moving in a lot of the footage.

It's not just you. I'm the type of person this should be lightning on fire. But it's not. Like, at all.

I am so glad Star Fleet II has a demo account I can use to practice, because I am TERRIBLE at planetary invasions, especially at higher tech-levels.

IMAGE(https://forum.quartertothree.com/uploads/default/original/3X/e/b/eb1464f6ed6d2103fc292ab3ca1eff30e0f37f13.png)

I won this zone eventually, but I lost nearly three times as many troops as the enemy. I so need to practice because I can’t keep having those kinds of losses.

f*ck I love this game.

I’ve reached the rank of Subadmiral in Star Fleet II, which means I can now give orders to ANY ship in the entire sector.

IMAGE(https://forum.quartertothree.com/uploads/default/original/3X/c/4/c40b9716b6596df5d7369785b782179a679b4ff1.jpeg)

Bahahahah the fools!

Forgot to post that I finished Crying Suns a couple weeks ago. Never did die on Easy. So maybe that's too easy. But it was nice to get through the story and not get hung up on difficulty. After you beat it once you get chapter select, so that is nice if I want to go back and try certain sectors with certain ships or officers.

Ending boils down to 3 choices. Don't really like any of them. Was pretty sure where things were going as I got closer to the end. But then most of the final cutscene seemed unnecessarily cruel. Just a little disappointing to have such a bleak ending.

Still, loved the game overall and especially loved the combat. Mostly a deeper FTL that wasn't as harsh with RNG. At least on Easy. I'm sure Normal or Hard would be much more challenging and random. I may play a little bit more just to try out some of the 5 or 6 ship types you unlock.

At this point, waiting for the Android version to get the big officer update that the PC version got in July though before I jump back in.

Definitely worth $9 on Android/iOS. Not sure that it's worth $25 on PC. But pick it up on sale if you liked FTL and want a different spin.

billt721 wrote:

Some of the new SW: Squadrons footage out today looked ... not great. I don't know how to explain it, but there just seemed to be something off about the way the ships were moving in a lot of the footage.

Just have to echo this. I was excited about it in concept, but the execution just seems bad. I watched the footage and it seems like a real step back from Battlefront 2 in terms of fluidity of flight and a general sense of actually flying around in the middle of a SW battle. I'll reserve judgement until it's released, but pretty disappointing showing thus far.

Friends, with me being obsessed with it, and knowing it'll come out on Steam and GOG soon, I've begun a tutorial series for the amazing Star Fleet II, starting with videos covering each of the main functions/screens of the Battlecruiser. The upcoming second chapter will take us through all eight of the game's in-game tutorials, and finally, we'll go through the first two missions together. I hope this helps diving into SFII once it drops all that much easier for y'all.

Is it going to drop soon, then? *excited squirming*

Robear wrote:

Is it going to drop soon, then? *excited squirming*

Well by "soon" I'm guessing maybe Q1 of next year. Right now we're on 1.5D, and we're about to get 1.6. Trevor plans to drop it once it hits 2.0, and he's the lone programmer, so I'm guessing another few months at least.

Again, we do need more playtesters. The more playtesters we have to find bugs and give suggestions, the faster this will go.

I know, I know... I just can't even think about with the way work is this month...

Veloxi wrote:

Again, we do need more playtesters. The more playtesters we have to find bugs and give suggestions, the faster this will go. ;)

How might one go about becoming a playtester for this?

I was never able to play this back in the day due to no PC (or other system it was released for) until it was no longer findable in stores by me. Was very disappointed at the time it did not come out for the C-64 like SF1 did.

tboon wrote:

How might one go about becoming a playtester for this?

I was never able to play this back in the day due to no PC (or other system it was released for) until it was no longer findable in stores by me. Was very disappointed at the time it did not come out for the C-64 like SF1 did.

You can contact me via PM here or the contact form on my website and I'll give you Trevor's email address so you can email him, then he can get you all set up with the files you need.

Oh and they had plans for other platforms like Amiga, Atari and so on, but those were scrapped when the game flopped, sadly.

Robear wrote:

I know, I know... I just can't even think about with the way work is this month...

I get it, we'll still be at this for a while longer so you likely can still jump in in a little bit.

Hey friends, I'm sending out another call for Star Fleet II playtesters. The more people we have playing this, finding bugs and coming up with ideas to make it better, the faster it'll appear on Steam and GOG. If you're interested and have time, either PM me here or contact me via my website:

https://www.spacegamejunkie.com/cont...

And I'll give you the developer's email so we can get you started. It truly is an amazing game and, with help, more people can experience its joy than ever before. Thank you for your time.