The psuedo-commission gives enough weapons in storage to arm all of the ships improperly.Ībout the only thing worth buying before re-opening the gate, besides crew/supplies/fuel, is a militarized Kite. I never have enough cash for even crew/supplies/fuel until after re-opening the jump gate. Prior versions: should not be spending money on ship weapons this early (this caught me as a tomato surprise on my first playthrough). My first goal is often just finding a suitable location with small enough pirate gangs to farm ships, or to survey enough or perform enough quests without getting thwacked to afford some competent fleet members. Unlike M&B, this 'out-playing' is actually super-satisfying, and not just an AI stompfest.Īs far as the campaign goes - unlike other members of the genre, ship upkeep is too expensive to just play it in a straightforward manner. This game is kind of like Mount and Blade, in that a highly-skilled player can generally take on larger fleets, and survive due to their ability to out-play the AI. Ship micromanagement is VERY important for most encounters, and second-by-second decisions can make or break your chosen approach. So a fair amount of the playerbase was well-versed in the combat before even touching the campaign, and that has certainly influenced subsequent balance. It might help you to understand that the game was originally just a very detailed combat sim, and the campaign and starmap and whatnot were added partway through development. I would suggest playing easy and, like Nirur Torir said, to play around in the combat sim until it doesn't feel so clunky. It can definitely fall into the 'hardcore' side of game design.

Starsector game