Feedback Required v1.13 - New starter planet

Initial impressions - literally just ten minutes in to a new start - I bloody love this!

Descending in the Pod, aiming at a little green patch I can see thinking it'll be a good area to touch down. Almost immediately do a 180 as I see a couple of Drones there - with a couple of CVs patrolling further out. Spot a small wreck on a hill in the opposite direction, make a bee line for that. Fall short. Clamber up a hill. Drone shows up and I hide behind the small wreck - which was smaller than I thought - but not before I loot two cans of food from it. Nice.

Thought: being able to get at least some plates from salvaged steel blocks with the Survival Tool would be nice...

I pop out from behind cover a take some shots at the now in-range Drone with the Sniper rifle. Six (of ten) rounds spent, but it's down. Looted stuff that'll be useful later. Head out towards that green space - Drone appeared to come from that direction - and I can now see it has numerous plants and resource rocks. Have to hide in a hole mid-way to avoid a drone, I was ready to engine with the Sniper/Pistol but it moved away.

I make it to this little green(ish) oasis in the middle of open desert and hills. I dig in, place down the Portable Constructor and the H2O/O2 Gen. I head out collecting everything I can. I return and offload what I collected, queuing up some BioFuel for the H2O/O2 Gen. While waiting for production, I spend a little too much time - like five seconds - watching a three-way CV battle overhead, which is pretty darn cool. I then hear the splat of Drone shots hitting the ground so I dive back into the hole I dug. Oops. Turned to engage it, but it moved away.

This is dead fun.

What I hope for: One of those CV's goes down. I loot it and make it my own lol. In the likely rare situation where a CV does lose a thruster and crash, please make this possible. Prior owner likely to be VERY unhappy with me, so I have to fight or flee to have any chance of keeping it.

 

Yeah, I get the reasoning, it's all good. Does placing a player core still delay the despawn? It's been a log while since I played with Planetary Patrol vessels...

One did get shot down though and I managed to get some decent loot from it, so that was quite cool. I assume the shot-down CV will eventually respawn?

This is a very fun starting scenario.

 

I am all for this. About time!

I suppose I should also add; I also support easier or story mission starter planets because not everyone wants intense. It is just nice to have variety.

 

Will get a chance to play more later but I took a quick dip and I did enjoy some things.

Liked:

- Upon touch down was almost immediately beset by a drone but also watched several in the distance fight it out and got some simple but nice loot.
- A planet patrol vessel wrecked a whole bunch of drones and that was fun to watch.
- Predator selection was nice but we can always use more loot ba.. I mean, golems
- Planet choice is a nice one - the large expanses of desert give a lonely feel.


Constructive criticism:

- Add more sniper ammo to the starting supplies.
- Add more O2 to the starting supplies.
- Remove the hoverbike -> this is a harder start and there is plenty of surface rocks for people should they want to build their own.
- Planet needs about 4,000,000 more drones. If this is a conflict zone, it should feel like it; it should feel alive. Make sure they are infinite spawning.
- Do the patrol vessels respawn? Can we add like 20 more?
- Planet needs more wrecks. Like, a LOT more. If this is a conflict zone it should feel like it. Also, I noticed one faction was Epsilon, but was the other Farr? I ask because I might be able to make some wrecks tomorrow if I have time.
- Did I mention that the planet needs more wrecks? I add this again because the planet is sparse on the resources - which is fine, we just need the loot.
- If you want, you could also add a lot more resource spawns in addition to the need for bunches more wrecks -> shower us with stuff while the conflict rages around us. We will love you.
- Two patrol vessels passed near to each other but did not engage? Should I have waited? As in, were they going to eventually come to blows?
- Can we have some more dangerous biomes? Like have some CV wrecks in irradiated biomes or something? Or, just more dangerous biomes in general?

 

Interesting to hear your saw PV vs. Drone exchange of fire @Fractalite , that's one thing that was missing for me. For me, while opposing PV's were shooting at each other, opposing Drones did not. Nor did Drones and PVs exchange fire, despite close proximity. I was watching for this hoping for some "free" drone loot.

FYI: Factions I'm seeing are: Pol, Col, BoF, Eps (Enemy) and STR.

I found the starting supplies - I changed no settings on game creation, other than naming the game and selecting the new starting planet - to be spot on. Pistol ammo felt generous, Sniper ammo less so but it made me be more accurate to conserve rounds. I was crafting my own very quickly.

O2 was never a worry and I got production up and running for that - biofuel-powered - promptly too.

I'd second the need for more PVs, they're awesome to watch. Can't quite put my finger on why I like seeing this Faction on Faction stuff so much.

While I found some useful loot in the handful of wrecks I discovered, I too would love to see more of this. More "chunks" of PV's to show that the fight has been raging for a while perhaps. Like with resource asteroid spawns, are "chunk" spawns possible? I.e. a chunk of CV spawns and falls to the planet from time to time. Simulating stuff going on out of sight sort of thing.

For me, despite all the additional action, the single biggest challenge for me has bee food. I'm having to roam further and further afield from my campsite (aka hole in the ground) just to find food. Very little in the way of food-baring plants, have hunted a few critters but, in one biome, none were dropping meat. Still, this adds to the challenge.

 

I don't know if this is some quirk of the new planet, but...

I seem to be getting Troop Transport spam. It started when I shot a drone while driving my new HV - I'd gotten out to shoot the Drone with a T2 Sniper Rifle I'd looted. Upon shooting the Drone, I got the Troop Transport incoming warning. One arrived, touched down, then immediately flew off. No troops deployed.

Later, I got the message again, just while driving around. A Troop transport flew over me, turned around - instant 180 degree flip - and flew off whence it came. It did not land, nor even attempt to do so. However, several troops spawned below it. I moved away. Later still another Troop Transport headed right for me. It tried to land, but could not due to getting stuck on a wreck. After a minute or so stuck, it took off and flew away, as it moved away, several droids spawned where the Troop Transport had been. The Troop Transport showed as Zirax, but I cannot recall the exact faction.

So, I'm being chased by spawning Troop Transports that can deployed troops without landing. I'm liking that this new planet is a bit more challenging, but this feels a bit cheesy. It's been about 20 minutes since the first Troop Transport warning, and I keep getting chased by them. I'm about to establish a proper base soon.

Unrelated feedback. It's a real shame that the HV Constructor cannot build a basic Minigun Turret. I'm about to build a base just to build once for the HV.

 

A quick question @Taelyn if I may...

I've established a proper base now, building on the prior "campsite" location. Mostly underground but I built a covered hangar to build an HV in. Building a base on this planet does not appear to trigger any sort of Base attack, despite hostile factions being present and having the right POI that'd usually trigger attacks. Is this by design? You're going easy on us if so lol.

In addition, my main concern with a static Base was of course the roaming hostile PV's - a new one (Krill is it?) has showed up, so there are often TWO hostile PV's buzzing around. I've noticed they'll shoot at ME or my HV if I'm out and about, but they've not once shot at my Base, despite getting quite close - aka flying right overhead - my Base hasn't taken pot shots at them either. Note: I've manually popped into one of the Bases Cannon turrets and can clearly see that the hostile PV has gotten in weapons range, yet no shots fired. Next time it's close, I'm gonna manually shoot at it.

Is what I'm experiencing a balance choice to make things easier? For me, all default settings, this start has been great fun, but a little on the easy side. Luck of the seed perhaps?

As an aside, what sort of "awareness" to PV's have of each other? I've never seen a PV make a bee-line for an enemy PV, it's more like they just happen to get in proximity as they wander. They then often just as readily wander out of range too. Initially, when I first started, it looked like two PV's were hunting a third PV - the one that ultimately crashed (loot!) - but since then I've not seen anything other than a brief exchange of fire as two PV's pass each other.

Thought: what if a PV under attack called in some Drones to help out? That'd be cool. Or, maybe, some SV's! (I can still hope lol).

 

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

What I meant is that do opposing factions "see" - aka detect via sensors at a distance - each other then actively engage a hostile target? I don't know how a ship's sensors work in terms of under the hood game logic. I mean, I notice a PV or Drone appear to see or detect me, change vector and head towards me. However, I've seen instances of opposing faction PV's fly close to each other - but not quite in weapons range - yet show not other reaction to said proximity, like they might have if *I* had been flying an opposing CV for example.

Perhaps here isn't the right place for this discussion, but this is something that's rare to see outside of this new Starting Planet. In space, I've seen faction on faction conflict, but that was in a Mod Scenario, which might have different behaviours.

To be clear: I love the feeling of stuff going on at a scale where the player is currently irrelevant to the parties involved. I like the feeling that I am nothing to these battling PV's. However, it's good to understand what rules they're playing by, if you see what I mean. Seeing that two on one PV fight was epic, especially as the single PV lost and crashed. Thinking that it only occurred because they happened to get in close proximity, is different to them spotting and actively targetting an enemy vessel.

Here's the thing, I've progressed well. Decent starting base - with squishy bits well underground - basic (Cannon) Defence Turrets up. A super-squishy HV to aid resource gathering. In theory, if an enemy PV "saw" and actively targetted me, I'd be in for a bit of a fight... which is sort of what I want. However, they seem to be totally uninterested in me, unless they happen to get in weapons range - just like they are with each other.

Edit: I want to do an edit here as, after loading my save just now, I'm seeing somewhat different behaviour. Two PC - one Kriel, one BoF - have been buzzing within view of my base for a while. I'm just standing there watching. They meander into proximity and fire is exchanged. The Kriel PV ends up fleeing - suddenly accelerating FAST along a given vector away from the BoF PV. The BoF PV seems to turn to continue the pursuit. Awareness! After gaining some distance, the Kriel PV, turns rapidly and is now charging back at the BoF PV...

It's been observed in the past that, sometimes, things stop working after an extended play period. Be they turrets or even critters. I played a long time yesterday. Upon loading, two PV's that'd been hanging around for a while, genuinely suddenly seemed aware of each other, whereas before they were doing their own thing. I just wanted to share this for full transparency of what I'm experiencing. Since reloading, things seems a bit more alive again... hopefully another CV to loot soon lol.

This does back up why I asked my initial questions though, behaviour seems different after a reload, following a particularly long play sessions previously, where the PV's seemed unaware of each other - no follow or flee behaviour, just happing to get in turret range before flying out of it again. This mirrors more what I was seeing upon first starting this game.

 

Question for you Scoob. So as to not derail this thread go here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/v1-13-main-storyline-operation-phoenix-lost-found.102839/

But once there, can you start a Ningues start and see if the captain is in the shuttle/scout ship cockpit(I think it is the... third or fourth step.)

Then, in the game you are currently playing, can you head to the Omicron system, start the new Operation Phoenix missions, fly to the space/trade station, go to the upper levels, "IDA" will hack into the console, then you will be directed to the lower levels to a Cafe. Once there you will get a quest update and then someone will "whisper" to you or something and the quest will update the right side of your screen to "Find Kezzel."

Is Kezzel present?

I ask because I tried to do both of these things and the Captain/Commander person is not present for me and Kezzel does not appear. I was curious if someone else was also getting this/these problems.

Never mind Scoob. Things got fixed.

 

Had my first (and then quickly after my second launch of the new hard veteran start planet!

first time down, landed and ran around a bit was caught by a drone in the open - quick end (I often like to play the game as much as possible "one life only"). So I restarted! I did see a CV shooting at something in the distance which looked great! VERY atmospheric.

On second game launch, was obviously ready for what was to come - but this time the Landing zone was a lot less "hot". Still some NPC shooting at other drones.

But once I had the hole in the ground made and mobile constructors down, everything becomes a lot more straightforward and manageable.

I love the fact that you have to be watching over your shoulder constantly because of the roaming CV's - gives provides a real tension.

I want to see/hear a lot more background warfare NPC on NPC. Probably a lot more quick respawn of drones, once a local POI patrol drone is down another should be dispatched to replace it. Any other mechanics that can be altered to provide a greater feel of a live fire war zone should be added- random NPC foot patrols (if we were in old D&D days - wandering monsters!). Perhaps some invisible spawners and invisible player sensors that trigger a spawn of rival factions to in a land skirmish. Perhaps a land transport is the centre and one faction is ambushing it. (The player walking into it triggers/witnesses the event). More Conflict Atmosphere in general.

I would like some more extreme weather events as well.

Need the struggle to survive (and the feeling of peril) continue beyond the for hour or so.

(is BP spawning disabled? I have not test that yet - but I think that it should not be on in this playfield)

That's my first impressions. Its a welcome addition so far!

 

I like the survival balance of this start.

But can someone explain to me why a PV of a faction listed as neutral would fire on and kill the avatar? e.g. Brotherhood of Farr is listed neutral to my avatar but a BoF PV just topped my boy for standing near an orange tree with the wrong attitude. Seems a little harsh!

I get that one has to avoid hostile PV's, but surely they have politics and dont just kill your avatar because they are PV's, surely faction rating should modify their behaviour.

That being the case, to me it doesn't make sense they would be graded neutral if a lethal threat. If they are lethal then grade them hostile. Conversely if they are neutral then they should not be a lethal threat. One way or another it does not make sense to me.

 

Also can someone explain why I can unlock multitool but not the ammo? Is that limited to this scenario?

See screeny, I unlocked tier 1 multitool and made the multitool but am not able to make ammo and it cannot function without it so is useless for base building or salvaging. Even if I could find prometheum to make the ammo I cannot make it as it is locked, tooltip says research in F3 but there is no research for the ammo in F3.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3550722848

 

It does unlock the ammo for it when you unlock the multi tool. The ammo doesn't need promethium either.
You're confusing the T1 and T2 multi tool.

 

Why can I see a "[GAL] Rising Light" PV and target it with the sniper rifle, then dodge the avatar down a burrow but don't get a faction readout along with STRY BoF and Kri for GAL?

 

Oh thanks, I see energy cell is not in the ammo section which is what confused me.