Anyone know if Starcom is any good? Reminds me of a game called Transcendence that I played years ago.
It's very much more in a Starflight vein, but it has some Transcendence in its DNA. The first game was great, the second, which came out today, looks to be even better.
Do I get X4 now finally?
SPAZ 2 appears to be a new low
Ixion... still $2 cheaper at Fanatical than Steam, but I've been meaning to grab it.
Drox Operative 2 back to lowest point again.
Expanse Telltale at $15 again
Both Underspace and Lonestar on the wishlist and on sale but still in Early Access. I usually like to wait.
Do I get X4 now finally?
SPAZ 2 appears to be a new low
Ixion... still $2 cheaper at Fanatical than Steam, but I've been meaning to grab it.
Drox Operative 2 back to lowest point again.
Expanse Telltale at $15 againBoth Underspace and Lonestar on the wishlist and on sale but still in Early Access. I usually like to wait.
X4: I find it to be an uphill climb getting into it, but once you plateau, it's pretty special. But depends on what KIND of experience you want. I find it great for being an admiral, but less so a fighter pilot.
SPAZ 2: Now *I* want to play it. Solid pick up.
Drox Operative 2: Just do it, my brother. Just do it.
It's very much more in a Starflight vein, but it has some Transcendence in its DNA. The first game was great, the second, which came out today, looks to be even better.
I just looked up Transcendence on Steam. Glad the guy got to finish it!
The Expanse Telltale game is well worth $15.
Sorbicol wrote:Anyone know if Starcom is any good? Reminds me of a game called Transcendence that I played years ago.
It's very much more in a Starflight vein, but it has some Transcendence in its DNA. The first game was great, the second, which came out today, looks to be even better.
Starflight? Sold!
Starcom looks interesting but I always get nervous when "Ship Customization" is a thing. How important is it in that game? The combat looks action-y but I don't want to be gimped if I really don't like spending time picking equipment. I prefer the Diablo style.. "if there's green numbers it's better". Don't make me have to learn newtonian physics in order to enjoy my space game!
Starcom looks interesting but I always get nervous when "Ship Customization" is a thing. How important is it in that game? The combat looks action-y but I don't want to be gimped if I really don't like spending time picking equipment. I prefer the Diablo style.. "if there's green numbers it's better". Don't make me have to learn newtonian physics in order to enjoy my space game!
That's also my only concern. Once I have time to play I'll update on this.
Starcom looks interesting but I always get nervous when "Ship Customization" is a thing. How important is it in that game? The combat looks action-y but I don't want to be gimped if I really don't like spending time picking equipment. I prefer the Diablo style.. "if there's green numbers it's better". Don't make me have to learn newtonian physics in order to enjoy my space game!
Ship customization is VERY important as you'll get upgrades via research and gathering more resources. THAT SAID, I hate building ships in games...except these. Their hex-based ship designer is brilliant.
I need to know how Starcom plays on a Steam Deck.
Carlbear95 wrote:Starcom looks interesting but I always get nervous when "Ship Customization" is a thing. How important is it in that game? The combat looks action-y but I don't want to be gimped if I really don't like spending time picking equipment. I prefer the Diablo style.. "if there's green numbers it's better". Don't make me have to learn newtonian physics in order to enjoy my space game!
Ship customization is VERY important as you'll get upgrades via research and gathering more resources. THAT SAID, I hate building ships in games...except these. Their hex-based ship designer is brilliant.
I'll probably watch a few videos. UPGRADES I'm fine with if its obvious. The Laser Gun +3 is obviously better than the Laser Gun +1, so its a no brainer. I just don't want to have to min/max on a mission or objective basis, and I don't want a wrong (or even non) choice to impact my gameplay. I saw the hex based ship customization, and I'm worried that if I make the wrong choice in hex c-3 or I put the thing in hex d-4 rotated the wrong way that the whole mission goes to pot.
Oh nononon there's no minmaxing here.
I'm enjoying the game. So far, it's actually chill. Something like a simplified Cosmoteer (which I highly recommend). You don't have to worry about the layout of your ship so much, and the crew does not have to carry batteries around (which is an important part of the tactical challenge in Cosmoteer; distribution of energy through corridors and around damaged areas is an interesting puzzle to solve).
The build model is accretion and improvement more than anything else, as new techs bring in new gear.
Veloxi wrote:Carlbear95 wrote:Starcom looks interesting but I always get nervous when "Ship Customization" is a thing. How important is it in that game? The combat looks action-y but I don't want to be gimped if I really don't like spending time picking equipment. I prefer the Diablo style.. "if there's green numbers it's better". Don't make me have to learn newtonian physics in order to enjoy my space game!
Ship customization is VERY important as you'll get upgrades via research and gathering more resources. THAT SAID, I hate building ships in games...except these. Their hex-based ship designer is brilliant.
I'll probably watch a few videos. UPGRADES I'm fine with if its obvious. The Laser Gun +3 is obviously better than the Laser Gun +1, so its a no brainer. I just don't want to have to min/max on a mission or objective basis, and I don't want a wrong (or even non) choice to impact my gameplay. I saw the hex based ship customization, and I'm worried that if I make the wrong choice in hex c-3 or I put the thing in hex d-4 rotated the wrong way that the whole mission goes to pot.
So far I've played a couple hours of the first game Starcom: Nexus and I've upgraded my ship twice using just blueprints that automatically outfit the ship.
So I played a bit of Starcom: Unknown Space last night. I’ve been looking for a while for a good space game to play; this was nowhere on my radar, but I gave it a shot anyway.
It’s much more of an arcade action game than a real space sim. Newtonian physics, but with inertial dampeners (the ship comes to a stop reasonably soon after you stop applying thrust). It took a bit of getting used to the wasd tank control movement and mouse targeting, especially since the turrets have their own rotation speed, but I pretty quickly was able to kill some raider scouts. Then I was tasked with destroying a raider base and felt like I was barely scratching it, while getting pummeled. I went back to base, and decided to add a power generator to help with excessive energy drain from my two turrets, and on a whim also tried adding a third turret though I was afraid it would again be too much energy drain. I went back to the raider base and absolutely annihilated it.
This game is exactly what I wanted.
I like that ship modification is so easy and intuitive. Removing parts gives a 100% refund on input materials, so there’s no reason not to try different things. My only worry is that the game might be kinda short. I played about 2 hours last night and have already unlocked maybe a quarter of the tech tree…
Agree with merphle. Im about 2 hours into Starcom: Unknown Space and absolutely loving it.
So glad you guys are enjoying Starcom!
Good to hear. Guess I'll at least add to wishlist
For those trying out Starcom, there is an auto-fire plasma button (I think it defaults to G but I rebound it to right mouse). This significantly helps in combat if you are struggling, but more importantly, it makes mining SUPER simple. Especially when you combine it with triple tractor beams with range enhancements, you can just plow through an asteroid field and hoover up everything in almost no time. Makes grinding out materials for upgrades (when you are short from combat encounters) so much nicer.
Ooh, nice tip. Thanks!
I'm enjoying Starcom too. Thanks Veloxi!
I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate and commend Starcom: Unknown Space's autopilot feature. It's so damn intuitive to use, and flies the ship in such a smart way to get to your destination as quickly as possible using EVERY means available. I can't imagine how much effort they put in to getting that to work so well, but I like it.
That's all. 
It's a better autopilot than any of the X games.
Enemy ship AI, on the other hand, is a teensy bit dumb. Either that, or I'm an absolute genius at shipbuilding and combat piloting, and I don't think it's that. I've built up my starter Scout-class ship and researched tech such that I'm able to take on literally more than a dozen Explorer-class and an accompanying Cruiser/Destroyer. Yes, it basically relies on good ol' circle-strafing and hovering juuuust outside their range, but still - they should be able to overcome that.
If anyone's curious, my ship layout:
1 Lander module up front
5 Plasma Turret Mk 1s (2 on each side, 1 in back)
3 Generator Mk 1 behind the command pod
2 Engine Mk 2 on each side
1 Engine Mk 1 in the middle
And some bulkheads, half-deflectors, and void wings to round it out.This lets me constantly fire without any energy drain, and constantly afterburner without any energy drain. Doing both of those simultaneously does have energy drain, but I can get a good 5-10 seconds of it before it becomes a problem.
Also heat isn't much of a problem for this ship, surprisingly. The Mk 1 turrets don't seem to generate any heat (bug? intentional for noob ships?), whereas the Mk 2 turrets run HOT.
Am I stuck in Starcom? I've hit every Flinger I can see in the map. The only action I get is to run into this area with like unlimited spawning Devoted missile firing ships. I can take one on very easily.. not 3 of them. I could build your ship design Merphle, but I don't think I have the mats. How much farming/trading are you doing?
The Everspace 2 “Titans” DLC released today. Dreadnoughts, leviathans, oh my!
Nice. There's an Everspace series thread somewhere.
I still need to do some post game stuff. Probably wait for DLC sale if it has good reviews
Am I stuck in Starcom? I've hit every Flinger I can see in the map. The only action I get is to run into this area with like unlimited spawning Devoted missile firing ships. I can take one on very easily.. not 3 of them. I could build your ship design Merphle, but I don't think I have the mats. How much farming/trading are you doing?
Enable the "show interesting things" (or whatever it's called) checkbox on the map screen. That'll show circles around everything that still has something left to do, though you still may not have the skills or have found whatever item / quest progression thing is needed to complete it. That's basically what I do when I fire the game up: pick a flashing circle, autopilot there, see if I can do something with it, then move on to the next one. Or just fly through open space towards a star that's far away, to see if there's something interesting in between.
As for mats, I hadn't done a lot of trading by the time I built that ship I showed. Most of my mats had been from just blasting asteroid belts (with the "g" key, thanks Wayfarer!), and killing lots of low-tier enemies. I also had slowly built my way up to that ship, by adding/replacing one hex at a time, mostly. Want more DPS? Add a pulse turret somewhere. Running out of energy when you fly and blast everything all at once? Add another generator somewhere. Not fast enough? Stick an engine on the back somewhere.
Also I made sure to scan every planet I came across, researched every bit of cargo I picked up, and put a lot of research points into making the pulse turrets better. And remember, your ship can fly backwards; some of the bigger ships you can just throw the ship in reverse and blast away while they slowly lumber towards you - and if you use the "g" key for turrets, they'll automatically blast any missiles that come your way.
Carlbear95 wrote:Am I stuck in Starcom? I've hit every Flinger I can see in the map. The only action I get is to run into this area with like unlimited spawning Devoted missile firing ships. I can take one on very easily.. not 3 of them. I could build your ship design Merphle, but I don't think I have the mats. How much farming/trading are you doing?
Enable the "show interesting things" (or whatever it's called) checkbox on the map screen. That'll show circles around everything that still has something left to do, though you still may not have the skills or have found whatever item / quest progression thing is needed to complete it. That's basically what I do when I fire the game up: pick a flashing circle, autopilot there, see if I can do something with it, then move on to the next one. Or just fly through open space towards a star that's far away, to see if there's something interesting in between.
As for mats, I hadn't done a lot of trading by the time I built that ship I showed. Most of my mats had been from just blasting asteroid belts (with the "g" key, thanks Wayfarer!), and killing lots of low-tier enemies. I also had slowly built my way up to that ship, by adding/replacing one hex at a time, mostly. Want more DPS? Add a pulse turret somewhere. Running out of energy when you fly and blast everything all at once? Add another generator somewhere. Not fast enough? Stick an engine on the back somewhere.
Also I made sure to scan every planet I came across, researched every bit of cargo I picked up, and put a lot of research points into making the pulse turrets better. And remember, your ship can fly backwards; some of the bigger ships you can just throw the ship in reverse and blast away while they slowly lumber towards you - and if you use the "g" key for turrets, they'll automatically blast any missiles that come your way.
Yep did all of that. The only things flashing are things I can't research yet. I'll futz with my ship some more..this is why I hate ship customization! I'm blocking myself because I have zero creativity on how to build a ship properly.
I saved layout copies of my ship as I went through each upgrade iteration. I could post pics of them if it would help you; I'm not sure if there's any means to do an actual export/import of a file to share.
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