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[Micro102]

Well, I'm disappointed. It seemed my ship only had 1 health left, but when I tried to repair it it said i was fully armored. Thena random damaging event happened and I lost

How do I repair my ship?

[LordSlowpoke]

critical damage is sort of bullshit, as it leaves you in no position to undo it other than replacing your ship entirely and when you're driving your spoiler tier around there's no real way to do so

planetside shipyards should be able to fix something like that at least, i'd be fine with space stations going vOv

[Micro102]

Really? So there is a separate healthbar that is unrepairable, forcing you to constantly buy new ships?

[LordSlowpoke]

no, crit simply removes a bit from your max armor

[Reverie]

Huh, I never heard about this game.

[Niveras]

Downloaded what I presume is r187, yet the ordering items still doesn't seem to work. I tried to order a light from a weapon shop, and despite trying a dozen times (leaving, doing other things meanwhile, then going back) it never stocked a flood light.

The reason I was trying to buy one is because, apparently, your visibility can actually hit 0? I don't really understand how visibility works. I presume lights extend it, but I don't know how the sensornet aids it (I still had 0 with a sensornet but no light), or binoculars.

Additionally, the completely random permanent damage that your ship takes is too frequent. Often times it is even things like "an explosion in the cargo bay!" (cargo bay empty...), "direct hit to the bridge!" (while not even fighting); basically, things that make 0 sense while just traveling. It's probably not at all helpful to suggest it here, but if permanent damage is going to stay I suggest that it only result from combat. I'd also prefer to see the random "traveling" damage removed entirely (if you want to make space travel more expensive, just increase fuel cost).

[Retropunch]

Additionally, the completely random permanent damage that your ship takes is too frequent. Often times it is even things like "an explosion in the cargo bay!" (cargo bay empty...), "direct hit to the bridge!" (while not even fighting); basically, things that make 0 sense while just traveling. It's probably not at all helpful to suggest it here, but if permanent damage is going to stay I suggest that it only result from combat. I'd also prefer to see the random "traveling" damage removed entirely (if you want to make space travel more expensive, just increase fuel cost).

I completely agree, although I think just drastically toning down the frequency of damage (asteroid hits and whatever) would be better, as I feel some (smallish) random damage is good to keep you on your toes.
 
However, I really don't like the permanent damage idea. However I do like the idea of 'critical damage' which costs more to repair and can only be repaired at certain places. I can't remember what other game did it, but armor had a 'superficial durability' number and then a 'base durability' number, most damage affected superficial durability as well as a little bit of base durability until superficial was depleted, and then base took all the damage. If base was completely depleted the item was destroyed. Superficial was cheap to restore, base was not.

I really enjoyed this mechanic, as it added a few more choices as there was some armor with really awesome base durability but low superficial, and vice versa. 

[BigD145]

Get on the Prospector forum and let magellan know.

[getter77]

So, here we are, at the end of my vacation.
Didn't get as much done as I would have hoped, But some things happened none the less. Enjoy

R189
+ Ship inspections now may fix structural damage
+ Monsters on high grav worlds have more hps and are slower.
+ Mining stations now have mines again
+ No more unlimited supplies in shops
+ Space is still as dark, but suns are a bit brighter
+ Slight changes in retiring crewmembers
+ Added a list of star trek shipnames with 268 names (and found another B5 name: Ares)
+ minor bugs and continued polishing
+ Savegame versioning

R188
+ Refracturing

[sambojin]

Ka-Bump!

R197 seems to work fine. It has more stuff, less bugs, and things like that.

Has anyone had much of a go at ship designing? I have a tendency to start with a troop transport (vets and room for more officers/crew from the word go), but it's not exactly hard to design a better one.

Hull 3 (I know it's really low, but you've gotta save costs somewhere)
Shields 1 (more cost saving)
Sensors 4 (sensors are hugely important. Saves time, saves fuel, gives science officers experience)
Engines 3 (it isn't a combat ship, run away!)
Weapons 1 (for other modules, crew or fuel pod. Even good weapons fit in one slot)
Crew 15
Fuel 80 (it's a throw-up between 85 fuel/sensors 3 and 80 fuel/sensors 4. Both save wages, one from the beginning, one all game. I went with sensors 4. Sometimes you find awesome stuff you won't be able to use otherwise, on ships, planets or in stores).

Plenty of fuel, plenty of crew. If you come across any good engines or sensors, at least you get to keep them without needing a new ship. For 3500 credits it lets you save up for tier 3 stuff, entirely skipping tier 2 if necessary. Although, see below, so you don't waste credits. Hull points are a hassle, but the difference between 3 and 5 still means constant repairs either way. You can upgrade to diamond armour (or the next one down) pretty damn cheaply on a tier 1 ship, then watch your HP and repair costs skyrocket, but at least you'll have the HP even with this design. Use your weapon if you find a good one for on-planet bombardment, but it mostly lets you transition to a tier 1.5 drop ship with a crew pod (25 members) later on, or dump on a fuel pod if you get a duff sector or wages screw you. Once you've got some cash, start upgrading that away-team as much as you can.

It's hard to design a ship that is specifically "better" than the tier 2 ships are by default, point-for-point. Kind of. You can make the above with more crew and a few extra hull points and have it more flexible and actually worth the cash. It might be better to skip the whole tier and either just use your transport until you've saved for tier 3, or make the below, which is a definitive upgrade to the starting TT. Kind of.

But here's my best attempt at a reasonably purchasable ship:

Hi-Tech Drop Ship.

Hull: 5
Shield: 1
Engine: 3
Sensors: 4
Crew: 20 (upgradable with crew pods)
Weapons: 3 (you sort of can first-strike with it, but the weapon turrets are actually for crew and fuel pods).
Fuel: 90
Price: 5000

It's better than a drop-ship (honestly, sensors and engines ARE that important) and can hold plenty of weapon modules or pods as you want them. Worth the 5000 credits, where it's hard to say if a drop ship or my upgraded troop transport would be worth buying at all. This one is.

---------
What are people's thoughts on the traits system? I tend to sell down some initial credits until I can pick 4-5 traits, then pick Aim (everyone is now a sniper) and Haggle (an absolute fortune gets saved in the long run). Maybe a couple of extra space suits for your officers if you want. I get another science officer straight away so scans work better as well as bio pickups, then whatever you want with leftover credits (more officers and one squad leader usually). Rummage through the starting locker, and remember to manually assign space suits to your science guys first.

[puke]

mmm, will have to check out the latest version.

I tried ship designing a few versions back, but the ships you can build are not as good as the high end stock ships.  At least, it seemed that way to me at the time.  A Heavy Explorer (or whatever it was) seemed to have more capabilities than anything I could design on my own.

Might have changed since then, or I might have been doing something wrong.

[sambojin]

There is a bad trade-off on custom ships compared to stock. I tend to think of it as the advantages of mass production compared to specific custom orders.

There's also a few "Have it now, expensive, or have it later, still expensive" trade-offs.

It costs more to add 5 extra crew bunks than it does to add another weapon turret to a custom ship. But an extra weapon turret can hold a weapon or a crew pod, as well as some other things. Crew pods hold ten extra crew. But will you be able to buy a crew pod? They're not too cheap anyway. Will you find or buy a decent weapon? A weapon turret is a potential, whereas a basic stat works straight away.

Fuel seems to cost more than a fuel pod would on a weapons turret as well. Maybe. It was close. But I can customize a weapon turret, fuel just does fuel things.

Hull points are expensive, but it's cheap to upgrade armour, even all the way to diamond. Then it's very expensive to repair that armour afterwards.

It just depends on what you want to fit into the constraints. You'll pay either way, but is it now or later? When you've got a 5000 credit limit for a tier 2 design, it's better to pay later, even if it costs more in the long run.

Sensor, shield and engine slots mean nothing until you actually buy the damn things. But I'm always finding lvl 3 sensors and engines early-on, then having to put a comment on the map on them so I can come back to them later. Way later. After I've saved up. After I've got a better ship. After I've remembered not to blow all my cash on my away-crew for the umpteenth time. Thus the design I've made.

The ship components themselves aren't actually all that pricey in a store compared to the crap your away-team totes around. But having slots to put it on when you find it or when it's for sale, while making sure your away team still has its gold-plated horde of random gubbins? That's hard. Thus the design.

[puke]

sometimes worthwhile though.  Was just playing around with engine and sensors at 4, no hull or shields to speak of.  I was fast, but could not touch anything that might have dented me (gas giants, nebulaes, dangerous landings)

Also, you can buy something with speed and sensors so that you can make a good income on scans, and maybe locate a nice derelict.  I found a destroyer, and a heavy scout just floating in space.  Went with the heavy scout and then could start doing things that would abuse the hull.

and man, never use the expensive armor.  so hard to repair!

[Girlinhat]

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

[Neonivek]

Well... later on you are going to make money hand over fist. It actually pays to explore less at the start of the game.

But that is more of an exploit.