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Author Topic: Prospector, a roguelike in development  (Read 285681 times)

BigD145

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2175 on: March 21, 2015, 07:04:49 pm »

So I started playing experimentally, but... have no idea what to do, how to make money, or how to do anything.  What... what do?

Explore everything! Die often! What else would you be doing? Other than printing out the keybindings and ship radio commands....
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2176 on: March 21, 2015, 07:43:53 pm »

This doesn't help me.

BigD145

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2177 on: March 21, 2015, 08:09:12 pm »

Selling complete surface maps makes money. Picking up ores and selling them makes money. Finding *redacted* special planet makes early retirement. Other than that, explore the universe.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2178 on: March 21, 2015, 08:22:27 pm »

Who do you sell it to?  I've explored planets but been unable to like, talk to anyone important...

gimlet

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2179 on: March 21, 2015, 08:26:32 pm »

Sell the maps and minerals to the guy in the office on the space stations.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2180 on: March 21, 2015, 08:27:02 pm »

...what office?

BigD145

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2181 on: March 21, 2015, 09:39:15 pm »

When docking with a space station there should be a "____ _____ ____ office" somewhere in the list of things to do.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2182 on: March 21, 2015, 09:44:20 pm »

Apparently not every starting station has one.

BigD145

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2183 on: March 21, 2015, 09:49:32 pm »

Apparently not every starting station has one.

The small stations are not nearly as good as the regular ones.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2184 on: March 21, 2015, 10:56:22 pm »

After finding some better stations, I'm still not sure how you're supposed to progress in anything.  Scanning planets gets you paltry little money, and collecting resources if decent but so many planets are unsuitable to exploring that they're rather rare.  And I've got 5 veterans with gear, but trying to attack ANY creature gets all of my crew killed.  How do you do anything, when it seems like EVERY encounter is deadly?

Okay but seriously, I landed somewhere and first step, it rains sulfuric acid and my gunner dies.  I go to dock, and my science retires.  Hiring another is 45 wage per mission, despite my last science being 10 wage.  So there's my crew just faffing away and my money draining.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2015, 11:41:49 pm by Girlinhat »
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puke

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2185 on: March 22, 2015, 01:35:54 am »

5 is not much.  You could take some planets if you had really good gear, but you're going to need 10-20 to be vomfortable getting in fights.

Be cautious about atmosphere type before you land.  Be wary of exotic or toxic unless you have armor.  Have extra space suits, and visit your ship often to repair them.

(moving to the ship refills air, fuel, patches suits)

"i" nspect things - ground tiles, dead aliens - for more science values.  attempt communication with any non-hostile creatures.

By a little stock when you can, and favor selling your discoveries to the company you are invested in.

If you want, you can turn off autoselling and micromanage whivh corp you sell what to.  Geodata is more valued at the exploration corp, minerals more valued by heavy industries.  I think another is medical that pays for lifeforms?

Live captures can profit you, have cages or stasis fields, and anesthetics to offer animals.

use ranged weapons to fire on things before they close to melee.

radio for ships guns to fire on things you can't take.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2186 on: March 22, 2015, 02:07:46 am »

Well, it seems hot planets are impossible at the beginning because lava springs up randomly, so that kinda limits me to cold or normal worlds with earth-like or no atmosphere, which isn't many...  So with such limited options, how do you make the money needed to get started enough to survive the rougher planets?  And is there any way to track the value of trade goods across multiple stations, other than visiting them and hoping the price is good?

puke

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2187 on: March 22, 2015, 03:03:56 am »

Yeah, stay off lava worlds until much later.  Even with large crews and good armor, you can get randomly jacked up.  Also, many of the unique worlds are downright deadly and you might want to avoid them unless you dont mind dieing to learn what they are for next time.  or savescumming.  Some are easy and lucrative though, so it is a gamble.

I actually do go for the exotic atmosphere early in the game, I just keep the ship nearby.  Walk 10-20 squares, and then radio for it to land 5 squares in front of you.  always keep the ship near, and fall back to it for healing and repairs.  If you cant fight things, don't be afraid to make generous use of the ships guns.  if it starts raining acid, get back to the ship.  even if you dont take injuries, most equipment is not acid proof and you could have things damaged.

in the early-early game, you can make money just from performing scans.  Repeatedly scan planets from orbit until you have most of a map, and then move on.  Keep a small crew, all you really need is a scientist, but it helps to have a pilot also as he may gain some experience from navigating asteroid fields or whatever.

There is actually a detailed price history thing in the trading screen, but I think that is only for the local station.  Honestly, I think commodity shipping is a waste of time.  I love me some trade and economic games, but you'll be better off burning that fuel for exploration and such.

Sometimes company offices will give you exploration missions (visit these waypoints) or escort jobs.  You can always offer to escort merchant convoys you find in space (radio them).  You can sell fuel to stranded ships sometimes, you might be able to extort them for 50-80 credits per fuel unit depending on your persuasion.

If you find some aliens you can talk to, try trading with them.  Have some cheap crap on hand that you can exchange for their primitive art items, and you can make a small fortune on some of that stuff.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2188 on: March 22, 2015, 06:25:48 pm »

How do you tell where you are on the starmap?  There's jobs for "go here" but I can't figure out where I am.

sambojin

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Re: Prospector, a roguelike in development
« Reply #2189 on: March 23, 2015, 02:18:34 am »

Get a Navigation Computer. You can get one at most stations that sell ship parts. I think they're about 350 credits. It remembers where you've been and gives you your coordinates. Probably down the bottom left or on the right hand side panel if I remember correctly.

Up your sensors level ASAP. The scout might be a better ship at the start than the troop transport just due to it's possible sensor rating. Then make a custom Hi-Tech Drop Ship like the one above for your tier 2 ship.

Don't fight anything at first. Ever. Run away.

Don't bother with trading. This is a resource collection game. And exploration. You can carry 1 gazillion resources and half a galaxy's maps, but only a few tonnes of cargo. Go with the former.

Press "i" on plants and trees. You sometimes get a few bio resources. Think of it as petrol money. It's not much, but every bit helps. It trains your science officers as well, which gives better scans, which means less faffing about.

Smith Heavy Industries tends to pay more for resources, and you earn most of your money early on by trading resources (and scans). So if given the option, trade to them. The bonuses get pretty huge later on.

If you don't have the money for a tier 2 ship, but want more crew, ditch the crappy ship weapon and put a crew pod in its place. It's about 1000 credits. You won't be fighting in space for a while (tier 3+ ship), and it's better to run than fight until you have a decent sized crew with plenty of weapons and armour anyway.

Science officers are great. Get two of them. They do semi-stack. Better scans, more bio data, and the more they level, the better it is. Get 3-4 of them later when you have cash, to cover retirements.

Medical officers are great too. They semi-stack with each other and with medics. Get two at the start. If you've got a troop transport, even fire the vets and fill whatever room leftover with medics. Regen is your friend. Get more later, and plenty of medics.

Armour is incredibly important. Get lots, even if it's crap at the start. More cheap suits means more crew can come along. Crew are like ablative armour at the start. With cheap armour. Everyone is essentially a redshirt guest star other than you, your science officer and your medical officer. Think Kirk, Spock, McCoy. Everyone else is just window dressing. Even Scotty can go fuck himself.

My optimum load out at the start with the troop transport/scout, after some basic resource collecting and scans (the star you start near is usually easy-mode, so grab everything you can from it) is: Captain, Pilot, 2x Science, 2x Medical, Gunner, 3x Medic. Chuck in a Squad Leader and some Vets or Snipers if you have a transport and some weapons and spare money. But science and regen is your first priority.

Redshirts are never any good. If you're going to pay someone, make sure they're good at something. You're wasting crew, money and experience otherwise. Get professionals, not mooks.

When you've got a small crew, 2-3 hover platforms and a mining drill are worth their weight in gold. Opens up plenty of planets and resources to you. No more lava/water/mountain problems. Costs a bit, but earns you that money back very quickly. Some of these planets are dangerous for other reasons though.

Get a set of binoculars and/or a sensor kit. Cheap as and increases your vision range. Get a headlamp and a ground penetrating radar as well. Planets are now about 3-4 times faster to explore and find resources on. Even just binoculars speed up everything remarkably.

An (Improved) AT landing gear is worth the cash in saved repair costs and wages easily.

If you get some good armour and a decent medical team, you can grind/train them by walking through geysers. Eventually they'll get so good that they're almost insta-heal.

That's just off the top of my head. The game is a little slow at first, you have to play as a coward, but it ramps up pretty quickly. Bonuses get bigger, you can buy some weapons and armour, then you've all of a sudden got a 70 man army toting plasma rifles, laughing at lightning squid swarms as you genocide them. Don't fuck with those squid until then though. Or the robots.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2015, 02:24:36 am by sambojin »
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