Hi!
I'm new to BSFC, Ive been playing it a lot, and like the game, but sorry to say I'm struggling with enjoying how the game plays. Here is what I mean, my input, and suggestions…
(All my input only comes from the 1st scenario.)
Game Balance:
It seems the only two viable methods are…
01. Fighters: Offence/Defense mix – Shields – Evasive – Missiles load out
Split the total population between only engineers and pilots.
Split engineers between repair and hangers. (Or manually alternate them. More on that later.*)
02. Any base configuration that has plasma cannons.
Dump 100% of population into engineers.
Split engineers between repair and weapons. (Or manually alternate them. More on that later.*)
The lucky / random research kills the game for me when PAIRD with the limited viable methods to achieve an endgame setup. For me, I load up, and if I don’t get the research I need by the 4th research acquirement (Plasma or Missiles depending on what way I'm playing.) I just quit the game. Ive tried to hold out “for fun”, but I'm up to my 10th energy upgrade, with no Plasma, and I meet my inevitable end… that’s not fun. Its also very not-fun to get some tiny boost to “Fighter Engines”, when I don’t even have any fighters. Or, what's the use of getting “Orb Cannon” (a weapon that misses 75% of the time if its shooting any anything that’s not flying directly at the battle station, more on that later also.**), when I already have 4 Lasers equipped on the station?
I never use Marines, and I never use reinforcements. (Except for figher pilot reinforcements) the cost to the temporary value just isint worth it. I personally don’t even like Fighters, because I need to keep buying pilots. (Add an infirmary for wounded pilots who return to the base.)
Id rather build a Plasma Cannon. Once its built, its there for good, unless the whole station goes with it.
Game Control:
There is a global frustration I have with micro-management controls. I don’t mind micro management, even like it, but when the process becomes tedious in a way that takes away from the game, I don’t. Here is what I mean…
* Engineers: My station is at full hull and max fighters. So I go in and take them all off of both repairs and hangers and put them all on weapons. Oh, tough round, hull at 50%. Let me go in and do that all over again to move them to repair. And back, and froth, and back, and forth, and back, and forth…
Now, don’t misunderstand, moving them when needed is part of the game! However, I wish there was two simple buttons… “lock” and “max”. Pressing “max” will move all engineers that are not “locked” to the desired category. Click in, click choice, click out…back into the action. That quickly.
This is even more pronounced with Shields!
Does anyone ever actually get to use the capacity shield?
It never has time to recharge all the way!
I go through the process of selecting “Fast”, until its full, then “Normal” until it fills more, then “Capacity” only if “Normal” is at 100%. But, as soon as I take a few good hits, in the midst of combat, the only setting worth using is “Fast”. Because
unless you got (randomly) all the recharge speed upgrades, and none of the capacity max upgrades, Normal isn’t worth it. If you get the max capacity upgrades, “Fast” becomes the best choice by far.
I think it would be fun to have a “Shield Capacitor Efficiency” upgrade available.
So the shield would only have one max capacity (that would still upgrade) and it would always recharge fast, medium and slowly. However, at first it would only charge fast for the first 25%, then normal till 75%, then slow for the last 25%. (It gets harder to strain against the energy push back as the shiled becomes closer to 100%.) Then after a “Shield Capacitor Efficiency” upgrade, it would boost either the fast or normal % by 10% (or whatever % would work best with the game). This way it could be upgraded to recharging quickly until 35%, or Normal could be upgraded to 85%. Etc…
** Firing Accuracy
I swear…every time an Orber ship is flying counter clock-wise around the station, and all 8 of my bolters are missing it 90% of the time, I start to yell out, “Lead the target! For crying out loud! Lead the target!”
It would be a good use for Marines that aren’t doing anything if they could be assigned to weapons to increase their accuracy. There could be modules you could build on the station that add to accuracy of adjacent weapons, or tech that adds to accuracy. Or if things increased projectile velocity. Anything please, because really…the Orb Canons cant get anything.
Extra Tech:
There is room for a lot of extra tech that would fit aptly into the game.
Scavenging = more credits from destroying ships
Augmented Barrels = additional range for weapons
Phasing Ammo = Shots that ignore shields
Custom Ammo = Ammo that does extra damage to specific components i.e. hull, turrets, hangers etc… Advanced Fighters = Fighters that can be loaded out with two weapon slots
EMP = No Physical Effect, additional shield reduction damage
I could do this all day so I'm going to stop.
J
Conclusion:
I am interested in buying the expansions, because I like the game, but right now I wont because I don’t have enough control over how I play the game.
KEEP the random tech option for those that want to play it! Don’t take it away, but I would MUCH rather have a tech tree.
If its going to be random tech, I need several more fun to play options to make that enjoyable.
I would like the micro management to be eased via additional user control features, “lock” and “max”, or “auto swap” settings,… oh yes! I almost forgot, the need to manually switch strategy for weapons, closest, strongest, hull, shields, etc… is another horrid unfun time consumer. All I would need to fix that is an option to manually override the default command. “Attack” is already an option when selecting enemy ships, but, it only works for fighters, not the weapons of the Battle Station.
So, I mean it, I do like the game, a lot really. That’s not sarcasm.
J
I hope youre not done adding and perfecting what it has to offer, Id like to buy the expansions if a little bit was added to the tech tree, and a lot more player control was added!
Nil
