Instakilled the second I leave my Home World

[SKC]

So I think I met our wonderful friend the, "Instakill Invisible Pirate Ship" who has now grounded me to my Home World such that if I even take a step outside in the open for more than a minute I'm hit with invisible, missiles from what I'm reading, out of nowhere.

If I so much as attempt to leave the planet, I'm Instakilled. I tried with multiple ships. Now, I'm lucky to have a Warp Drive, but that doesn't change the fact that this Pirate is utterly ruining the game for me.

Is there a reason it hasn't been changed, or nerfed?

 

[Snk]

Radar jammer.

 

[SKC]

Radar jammer.

Thank you for your response. I learned that from searching the forums, but that's kind of my point. This game is far too harsh on new players. Mechanics like this are simply going to drive players away.

 

[K10wN]

It's a missile from a pirate base that's likely killing you. If you're on single player use "/god_mode name true", fly to it, select it (Press F while looking at the diamond), then use "/destroy_entity_dock". The missile turrets on the Alpha Pirate Station are a little OP.

...and as suggested, always use a radar jammer!

 

[Snk]

Thank you for your response. I learned that from searching the forums, but that's kind of my point. This game is far too harsh on new players. Mechanics like this are simply going to drive players away.

No, it isn't. The game used to be way easier. Blowing up a few times isn't something to whine about.

As a side note, radar jammers should be in the tutorial.

 

[0ldSkull]

Just be aware of the current bug "AI can shoot lock on missiles on radar jammed ships." I'd been wondering if the Alpha pirate station had lock-on missiles, as I got killed over 3km away more than once with no warning--with an active radar jammer.

I'm somewhat torn between "space is a dangerous place" and "that's stupidly ridiculous". It might be OK if a suitably balanced warning mechanism is added to give the player a chance, but the jammer bug also needs to be fixed.

 

[SKC]

No, it isn't. The game used to be way easier. Blowing up a few times isn't something to whine about.

As a side note, radar jammers should be in the tutorial.

Agree to disagree I guess. The learning curve in this game is far greater than it needs to be and I seriously doubt it isn't scaring off new players.
[DOUBLEPOST=1420233345,1420233310][/DOUBLEPOST]

Just be aware of the current bug "AI can shoot lock on missiles on radar jammed ships." I'd been wondering if the Alpha pirate station had lock-on missiles, as I got killed over 3km away more than once with no warning--with an active radar jammer.

I'm somewhat torn between "space is a dangerous place" and "that's stupidly ridiculous". It might be OK if a suitably balanced warning mechanism is added to give the player a chance, but the jammer bug also needs to be fixed.

So if you snuck into the base and destroyed the turrets, problem solved?

 

[Lidren]

While it might scare off new players, they should have realized that its an alpha. Its an excuse, but a legitimate one. Know what you're getting into and its not nearly as scary.

 

[SKC]

While it might scare off new players, they should have realized that its an alpha. Its an excuse, but a legitimate one. Know what you're getting into and its not nearly as scary.

It doesn't matter what they, "should" have realized, what matters is people buying and playing the game. The terminology of "Alpha" has been so distorted that most people now simply assume Alpha is Beta and in a decent state. The industry has confused people so much by abusing the term, "Alpha" in an effort to get more sales.

There's a saying, 'The customer is always right.' Whether or not people should know better, or should recognize the state of this game is irrelevant. In the current industry releasing a game in Alpha state is going to scare off people from ever playing the game again if it doesn't make a good first impression.

Starting you in the middle of space with a bunch of items and hardly any explanation of how to use them, let alone an understanding of planets, salvaging, pirates, etc, is not how you keep people playing your game.

 

[Lidren]

While I agree with you in general, there are currently only testers, not customers (this is totally my opinion and not schines, I know they're trying to care for their customers as such). Even people who purchase the game are tester/contributors more so than customers.

While I would love for everyone to have a perfect experience with the game and stay with us for the long haul, that is simply not going to happen with the game in the state its in. If people enter the player pool ignorant of that alpha status (willfully or accidentally) then they're going to have a bad time. It is neither avoidable nor unexpected, and the responsibility rests on the players/testers, not the devs, who are already doing as much as they can to alleviate this along with every other of thousands of issues.

 

[Snk]

Agree to disagree I guess. The learning curve in this game is far greater than it needs to be and I seriously doubt it isn't scaring off new players.

It may scare off new players, but that makes the community more mature and pays off in the long run with a more rewarding experience.

 

[Marduk_Zoekoff]

it has lock-on missiles, range of 3.2km, 24/24/24 M/dp/od nasty if they hit you. Fly in 3.2km move back out and wait for the missiles to reach their limit, they have a super long reload so you can get in with a small ship blast one of the three turrets and get behind part of the station or fly back out of range before the other two can lock and re-fire. A larger ship with a good bit of anti-missile turrets can stand off just outside 1km (beam turret range) and beat them down with cannon missile fire.
[DOUBLEPOST=1420240766,1420240586][/DOUBLEPOST]hmm quote's got missed but that was in relation to what an alpha station uses.

 

[K10wN]

it has lock-on missiles, range of 3.2km, 24/24/24 M/dp/od nasty if they hit you. Fly in 3.2km move back out and wait for the missiles to reach their limit, they have a super long reload so you can get in with a small ship blast one of the three turrets and get behind part of the station or fly back out of range before the other two can lock and re-fire. A larger ship with a good bit of anti-missile turrets can stand off just outside 1km (beam turret range) and beat them down with cannon missile fire.
[DOUBLEPOST=1420240766,1420240586][/DOUBLEPOST]hmm quote's got missed but that was in relation to what an alpha station uses.

Their range is dependent on the sector size for that server. If you have a sector size of 5,000m or 10,000m for example, they can get you from well out of sight.

I can't say I've been hit by them while I've had my radar jammer going, but they do fire and miss.

 

[Marduk_Zoekoff]

Ahaa I did not know that, I just captured one and looked at the range listed in it. it said range 3200m.
[DOUBLEPOST=1420245727,1420245520][/DOUBLEPOST]

Their range is dependent on the sector size for that server. If you have a sector size of 5,000m or 10,000m for example, they can get you from well out of sight.

I can't say I've been hit by them while I've had my radar jammer going, but they do fire and miss.

I sould say then 3.2k is the default range because I never changed sector sizes from whatever the default is.

 

[JonasWalker]

No, it isn't. The game used to be way easier. Blowing up a few times isn't something to whine about.

As a side note, radar jammers should be in the tutorial.

It is hardly whining when currently certain enemy weapons can reach out and kill a player without warning long before they have any hope of successfully countering them or are even aware they are in danger in the first place. To a new player being killed out of the blue, and thus being penalized for a failure they could not see coming, is not something most find challenging but instead massively frustrating and depressing. The former encourages one to continue playing and generates interest while the latter simply causes one to eventually give up and abandon any further attempts. Driving a sizable portion of initially interested players away to cater to the preferences of a small sub-group is not a successful strategy for long term survival. Also there is a vast difference between making a "hard" game that is also fair in its difficulty such as Dark Souls which creates a feeling of properly controlled challenge that invigorates and yields a sense of eventual accomplishment, and one that is just brutal for the sake of being 'hard'. This is a critical distinction that you may wish to examine further.

 

[philthy mcnasty]

Yeah, i think what would help is if there was a missile lock alarm, so that way if you know you are in trouble.

 

[aceface]

use claokers in combination with jammers, it takes a lot of power but you are completely invisible to all pirates!

 

[philthy mcnasty]

use claokers in combination with jammers, it takes a lot of power but you are completely invisible to all pirates!

Cloaking uses too much power. Part of the problem is that the people who get hit the most by pirate stations, do not have the resources/know how to make a good cloaking ship. They put a lot of effort into building a ship, only to have it destroyed by a pirate station. Thankfully, most of us have dealt with creepers/falling into lava after finding diamonds, so we have the mental fortitude to deal with this.

The other part of the problem may be chunk loading. I was killed by a pirate station, that somehow fired at me before it loaded. one moment i was mining an asteroid, the next a pirate station spawned and i was dead.

I have always hated the temporal anomaly episodes of star trek, however they have made it easier to cope with a lot of issues with the game.

Ship keeps moving to strange locations? temporal anomaly. Killed by a suddenly spawning pirate station? temporal anomaly. temporal anomaly is how i cope with all the sudden bugs that i encounter in this game.

i think that a very quick fix, would be to either spawn players onto a planet, or make it so that hostile stations only spawn at the edges of the spawn system. This would give people a chance to build a proper ship so that they can go exploring and stand a chance against pirates.

 

[SKC]

Cloaking uses too much power. Part of the problem is that the people who get hit the most by pirate stations, do not have the resources/know how to make a good cloaking ship. They put a lot of effort into building a ship, only to have it destroyed by a pirate station. Thankfully, most of us have dealt with creepers/falling into lava after finding diamonds, so we have the mental fortitude to deal with this.

The other part of the problem may be chunk loading. I was killed by a pirate station, that somehow fired at me before it loaded. one moment i was mining an asteroid, the next a pirate station spawned and i was dead.

I have always hated the temporal anomaly episodes of star trek, however they have made it easier to cope with a lot of issues with the game.

Ship keeps moving to strange locations? temporal anomaly. Killed by a suddenly spawning pirate station? temporal anomaly. temporal anomaly is how i cope with all the sudden bugs that i encounter in this game.

i think that a very quick fix, would be to either spawn players onto a planet, or make it so that hostile stations only spawn at the edges of the spawn system. This would give people a chance to build a proper ship so that they can go exploring and stand a chance against pirates.

1st change that needs to be made.

GAME STARTS ON A PLANET. Not in space with almost no understanding of how to make factories, salvage beams, radar jammers, pirates, etc.

2nd. Lock on sounds for missiles.

I agree with what you've said. The danger in this game should move outward from the starting position. To counter this, place a limit on the amount of resources in the starting Star System, such that you'd HAVE to leave the Star System to get resources to make Advanced Factory things.

This game just lacks a proper progression that wouldn't be that tough to make.

 

[aceface]

1st change that needs to be made.

GAME STARTS ON A PLANET. Not in space with almost no understanding of how to make factories, salvage beams, radar jammers, pirates, etc.

2nd. Lock on sounds for missiles.

I agree with what you've said. The danger in this game should move outward from the starting position. To counter this, place a limit on the amount of resources in the starting Star System, such that you'd HAVE to leave the Star System to get resources to make Advanced Factory things.

This game just lacks a proper progression that wouldn't be that tough to make.

you can still try to make a cloaker to at least progress right now. it's not impossible - but hard. this one here can take two pirates out in just a few seconds, recloak wait for reload time and kill two more and so on. http://starmadedock.net/content/stealthcruiser-mk1.1941/