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[puke]

I almost disregarded this because it is a free game on steam, and I assumed there was some sort of P2P or P2W catch to it.  THERE IS NOT.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/404410

This is a pretty cool looking Escape Velocity like game.  In the same vein as Naev, and to some extent similar to Star Control.

Indy developer, free and open source.  No steam workshop, but you can go to the main forum and find some moders or you can go to the Git repository and find the sourcecode if you want to do something with it.

Have some pics:

[My Name is Immaterial]

Yeah, Endless Sky is pretty fun.
(PTW)

[forsaken1111]

Yeah, Endless Sky is pretty fun.
(PTW)

Bit barebones at the moment though (also ptw)

[puke]

Been playing for the last day, seems pretty good.  I think it has more going on than Naev, to be honest.

Not sure how far faction missions go, but I've already been on several multi-part stories and I'm not even flying a ship geared for combat. 

If I was, it seems like there is a pirate fighting campaign, some sort of civil war, and I hear there are bounty missions and such.  I'm having a pretty good time just being a courier and light freight / passenger mover. Occasionally boarding a pirate ship to pick up some extra cash.

I think that is the way to get rich, keep a well-armed boarding ship and sell the ships you capture.  You have to balance the revenue against the death benefits you are required to pay out, so you need to make sure the fight is as asymmetrical as possible.  Large ships would require a sizable boarding party to capture, and you'd take many losses.

You can build fleets even, and have multiple ships following you around either escorting you or hauling your cargo.  Naev will probably never implement that feature, for example.

There are some things that you cant do well, such as managing inventory across multiple ships (trading parts, keeping parts in inventory without installing, uninstalling without selling)

But other things are really well done.  Commodity price heat-map, overlayed on the star chart, for example.  AMAZINGLY useful.

[Mattk50]

This looks like a load of fun. Gonna try it while im macroing up characters in other terrible video games.

[Culise]

What a curious little game.  I do love the price, though, and I've been bouncing all over the place looking for a good game like this.  I think I'll give it a whirl. ^_^
...maybe tomorrow, when I'm not exhausted.

[Girlinhat]

Protip: Start with a passenger shuttle, and do some runs.  When you can get a medium-sized cargo hauler, trade missions earn more money than passenger missions, as you can build a route of missions.  When you get even larger, like 2+ heavy freighters, simple trading is the most profitable, as locations never deplete and markets never saturate.

Hunting pirates is also insanely profitable, especially if you can find an occupied system where you can sell things off as you farm them.  You can let the locals shoot a pirate, and as it gets low on health spam the 'b' button - for boarding - the navy will normally kill pirates, but if you've flagged it for boarding then they leave it disabled.  Bring rifles and extra crew.  Harvesting components is very valuable, though whole ships is obviously the most valuable - passenger shuttles are nice for throwing bulk troops at the enemy.

The game DOES get progressively more hostile as time goes on.  Certain events happen and pirate activity increases at a somewhat gradual pace.  Luckily as pirates increase, your ability to let the navy tank them and then you 'b' them also increases, so your money should raise as well.  Play a bit conservatively, and try to get nuclear drives from the region north of Sol, they're as expensive as a ship but they give you either amazing power or very small size for the same power.

[puke]

When I first spied a couple of 400 or 600 profit-per-unit routes, I had ideas about buying a few freighters and farming them for a bit.

But when I actually had the freighters, "bulk" deliveries and "large bulk" deliveries started opening up.  that could pay 200K or more.

Passenger moving can pay out, too.  Even with a small ship, you can move strike breakers or large families for 100-200K.  I have just seen a 600K payout for moving 70+ passengers.

So, whatever you want to do, there is a way to do it.  And packing in a little freight never hurts when you have the space to spare (it can pay for your crew salaries and missiles, for example) but I wouldn't make it the primary focus.

Boarding though, this is definitely the way to go.  I have not been doing any in a while, but will probably get back to it after I sell off these mules and trade up to a larger warship.

Anyone following this who is not familiar with Naev (not another escape velocity) should check that out also:  http://blog.naev.org/

[puke]

packing in a little freight never hurts when you have the space to spare (it can pay for your crew salaries and missiles, for example) but I wouldn't make it the primary focus.

Possibly I was shortsighted.  quick mental math here, for 1000 in fleet cargo capacity, every 100 profit per unit nets you 100,000 total profit per run.  An optimized route might have 400 profit in one direction, 200 in the other, call it average 350 profit per unit for a good route.  5 bulk freighters will make this about 1m per trip.

A little grindey, the opportunistic missions are a little more fun, but this could be a solid way to make money.  The small freighters seem to have the best cargo per dollar investment ratio, though I'd probably put regular hyperdrives in them to increase their range.

Boarding though, this is definitely the way to go.  I have not been doing any in a while, but will probably get back to it after I sell off these mules and trade up to a larger warship.

Just tried it out some more with a bactrain, and could regularly pull 1m for salvaging smallish ships without losses (110 crew, all with rifles) but daily crew cost is up there and getting ships in tact in pretty unreliable.  might need more practice.

It seemed much more lucrative when I had a tiny ship and just like 10 extra guys with grenades making a daring assault on a 3m ship, but now that my costs are higher and the odds are safer, it just seems like a PITA.

I do covet me some alien tech though, so I guess I'll have to get boarding sooner or later.  I hear the trick to capturing large ships is to provoke them into counter attacking you during a boarding action, so you can wear down their numbers by defending.

[Mattk50]

fun game, got myself a fleet going with 6 freighters, two mules, and an assortment of captured interceptors and light warships.

The game has quite a few problems, death benefits will destroy your savegames if you dont see them coming(even if you lose the ship 2 seconds after capture you need to pay 90% of the ship's cost if you lost any crew boarding it), allies pointlessly finishing off pirate ships without even looting them let alone boarding them, and imo ships die and warp in/out way too fast compared to the glacial turn rates. Missiles can come flying in from way offscreen too despite the play area putting you within a screen of the main area of the system. Also the way when you warp into a system your fleet will be spread allover the system kinda sucks, makes it easy to lose very expensive ships if it pops out next to an enemy cruiser or something.

But hey, it's open source, i should mod the shit out of it and if people like my changes maybe they'll push it to steam.

[puke]

For boarding, load up with overwhelming numbers and grenades.  Board with 100 men or more, and you can take medium ships without losses.  But be careful, because you'll be paying tens of thousands per day in salaries.

I have learned some new things! 

- you can hold down J to synchronize your jumps with all ships in your fleet going at the same time!  Undocumented feature? Saw the dev mention it in some thread...

- there is an 'i' screen where you can get detailed ship information and see some basic pilot stats.  You can use this to move around which weapons are in what mounts, for example.

- you can PARK ships on planets with spaceports, using this same feature!  pay no crew wages while the ships are parked!  Keep your big ships in storage while you fly some little scout on a long mission.

- selling an outfit will put a limited supply in that planets inventory, so you can effectively swap items between ships.  If you sell three things, you can then buy those three things back.  There are no inventory numbers displayed, but this is how it works.

- in the latest version, you can jetison cargo (to make room for plunder) on that same 'i' screen, or so the patch notes say.

The main story arc seems to be HUGE.  I keep thinking its almost done, but according to Github I'm only somewhere near the middle of it.  There is also a ton of side storys, and seemingly something like 3-4 other alien races besides the 2 I have already encountered.

I thought this game was going to be simple and small, but it is totally epic.

[Mattk50]

haven't found any story arcs yet, but now i'm up to that 24m heavy warship with the 500 cargo, tons of bunks, tons of hp. It's pretty overpowered honestly, you can get as much outfit points as you want trading off the cargo space.

One issue. I captured a ship after looting it's reactor and engines(in order to decrease the death payout in case i lost any crew). It's in a system without an outfitter but i can park it on the planet. Is there anything i can do or do i just need to let it float there alone forever.

[puke]

It's in a system without an outfitter

Oops, no, I think that one is hosed.

Capturing without engines or maneuver or reactor and no outfitter or spaceyard?  I think that's a no-go.  If you have any kind of outfitter, even one without the parts you need, you can refit it by selling the required refit parts to the outfitter and then re-purchasing them for the other ship.

But if you've got no outfitter at all?  I think your stuck.

haven't found any story arcs yet

The main mission arc is for the Free Worlds.  Surely if you're that far you've already seen news of their independence and such.

Always check spaceports when you land, that is where most of the mission triggers are.  And I think the FW stuff triggers in their own space, which is in the south.  You can see who owns a system by clicking on the owner name in the galaxy map, then it will colorize the map based on ownership.

The map is actually pretty impressive, I didn't realize it had all these little tricks in it.  You can click on basically any word and get specific information displayed.

that 24m heavy warship with the 500 cargo, tons of bunks, tons of hp. It's pretty overpowered

In some ways, for sure.  There are better purpose built ships, though.  Other dedicated warships are stronger at fighting.  Dedicated people movers are better at boarding actions.  I think the low end freighter has the best cost (and crew) to cargo ratio, but unless you want like a hundred of the things then the giant super freighter thing with 600 cargo is a better dedicated hauler for trade runs.

That said, the Bactrain is certainly my primary.  And those other ships (mule) by the same manufacturer make up my secondaries.  The mules might be sub optimal as escorts though, there is no benefit to them having large crews or much passenger capacity of their own.  I've never seen a mission to move over 100 people.

Of course, even though I have it kitted out with atomics and advanced weapons, I still get creamed in some of the larger scripted battles.  So, it's not that OP.  If I was running a fleet of 5 or 10 dedicated warships, I'd probably do a lot better.

[puke]

- you can hold down J to synchronize your jumps with all ships in your fleet going at the same time!  Undocumented feature? Saw the dev mention it in some thread...

THIS IS WHY THE LITTLE SHIP ICONS TURN GREEN!  It means they are ready to jump!  OMG! head asplode!

hold down J, and release it after they all turn green. 

Wow, fleet engagements just got so much safer.

Also, another pro tip here:

- ships dont seem to be engageable by the enemy while they are not in the same system with your flagship. 

This means the best way to escort a convoy is to rush ahead of it and wait for it to arrive at the destination.  :/

extra random fun fact -- you can plot specific pre-planned jump routes on the map view!  shift click!  (or was it control click?  one of those...)

[Mattk50]

It's in a system without an outfitter

Oops, no, I think that one is hosed.

Capturing without engines or maneuver or reactor and no outfitter or spaceyard?  I think that's a no-go.  If you have any kind of outfitter, even one without the parts you need, you can refit it by selling the required refit parts to the outfitter and then re-purchasing them for the other ship.

But if you've got no outfitter at all?  I think your stuck.

haven't found any story arcs yet

The main mission arc is for the Free Worlds.  Surely if you're that far you've already seen news of their independence and such.

Always check spaceports when you land, that is where most of the mission triggers are.  And I think the FW stuff triggers in their own space, which is in the south.  You can see who owns a system by clicking on the owner name in the galaxy map, then it will colorize the map based on ownership.

The map is actually pretty impressive, I didn't realize it had all these little tricks in it.  You can click on basically any word and get specific information displayed.

that 24m heavy warship with the 500 cargo, tons of bunks, tons of hp. It's pretty overpowered

In some ways, for sure.  There are better purpose built ships, though.  Other dedicated warships are stronger at fighting.  Dedicated people movers are better at boarding actions.  I think the low end freighter has the best cost (and crew) to cargo ratio, but unless you want like a hundred of the things then the giant super freighter thing with 600 cargo is a better dedicated hauler for trade runs.

That said, the Bactrain is certainly my primary.  And those other ships (mule) by the same manufacturer make up my secondaries.  The mules might be sub optimal as escorts though, there is no benefit to them having large crews or much passenger capacity of their own.  I've never seen a mission to move over 100 people.

Of course, even though I have it kitted out with atomics and advanced weapons, I still get creamed in some of the larger scripted battles.  So, it's not that OP.  If I was running a fleet of 5 or 10 dedicated warships, I'd probably do a lot better.

Ah well, RIP, was a chance board anyways and i didnt take any crew losses so all's good. it will sit floating in system until something kills it.  It was supposed to be my new heavy warship (its a vanguard) but s'all good.

The issue with the bactrains and mules balance is that they have potential to fit an ungodly number of shield generators as well as reactors and anything else you want by repurposing all the cargo, the bactrain also has the largest bunk space of any ship i've seen so far and the mule has the lowest required crew for a medium warship and is also quite cheap while packing the most hp and the most turrets. The bactrain Also also have tons of turrets which the AI deals with much better than forward guns and are generally more powerful as well. Fit with reverse thrusters for extreme inter-system travel speed, scram drives cant even compete with that speed. Its a bit too cheesy for me but eventually im just going to try turning ALL the cargo on the bactrain into shield generators, i already have 4 of the max size ones. Im expecting to fit something like 20.

Generally i dont like how easy it is to just zoom through systems without any issue, it makes me wonder why any npcs ever die at all when they should just be going into hyperspace with inpunity.

The only news story i've seen so far was a terrorist attack of some kind. I've kinda been power running loans and running a 700 profit both ways run, multiplying my freighter count each time. Maybe i've progressed much farther faster than is intended. I'll check the spaceports though.