Objects in Space emerged from Early Access last week. I’ve seen it described as being captain of a spacefaring submarine and it’s getting good reviews. Anybody playing?
Seems worth picking up for $16 (20% off until Friday).
I picked it up after reading your post and played it for a couple of hours.
A spacefaring submarine is a pretty good description, if what you have in mind by that are the old C64 sims where you spend most of your time navigating on your map. There’s no outside view at all; everything is handled in your control room.
So far it’s proven–well, not incredibly hard, but slow in getting a financial footing. Most of the trade missions earn just a couple hundred credits, and there are docking fees that sometimes run to 100c. If you accidentally run through an asteroid field and run up some repair costs, you might come out behind.
I’ve done some riskier missions that earned a few thousand credits, but I’m still pretty much scraping by. I did take out a loan for a jumpdrive, which helps with longer range missions. I can’t yet afford weapons that would enable me to take bounty missions, though I’m not sure I want to go that route anyway.
I’m mostly liking it so far, and enjoy the aesthetic and writing. It’s not quite grabbing me the way my favorite games do, though, so I’m not sure how many hours I’ll ultimately put in.
Reading the reviews, this sounds very cool. I might check it out.
I decided to pick it up while it was on sale. Did my first trade mission last night and I see what you mean; made a profit of 80-something after the docking fee.
One thing that was not super obvious to me initially: buying a jumpdrive means you don’t have to use the jumpgates. For whatever reason, I thought that you had to buy a jumpdrive to get to other systems at all, and still had to go through the jumpgates. The gates themselves charge a docking/travel fee, which can make cargo runs untenable (another ~100 c per hop). But actually the jumpdrive replaces the gates, and you can hop to a new system for free (though you still have to travel to the right quadrant of a system to initiate the jump).
In short, buy a jumpdrive, and do long cargo runs. They’ll take a while and you have to be careful of pirates and asteroids, but you generally won’t lose your shirt on fees. Buy one on loan if you have to.
Is it like Sunless Sea meets EVE Online? How involved is the stealth/electronic warfare component?
I don’t have enough money to buy decent equipment, so I don’t know how much depth there is. So far, it’s just been get up to speed, turn off the reactor, and basically cruise ballistically until you get where you need. The problem is that the batteries are weak and so I lose all my sensors a few minutes after shutting down the reactor. So I’m sitting in a deaf and blind tin can. I can time things manually but it’s a bit of a pain. I also have no idea if I’m being shot at (haven’t been blown up yet, though).
In the starting systems, piracy isn’t too bad and you mostly don’t have to do this, but just a few systems away you have to be very careful. Maybe it won’t be so bad when I can afford better batteries/sensors/weapons/countermeasures/etc…
That’s not very far off. Change EVE to Space Rogue without a cockpit view.
Oh I loved Space Rogue, I even finished that game as a kid. Now I’m intrigued.
I started a new game now that I have an idea of what needs to be done. This time, I went into the advanced settings and started with a much larger amount of credits - enough to buy a jumpdrive and have plenty left over. Now if I could find a jumpdrive with a range that’s not bad or worse.
Did you know that the Origin classic is on GOG? I wonder if my notes on the various trading markets are still around…
I’ve been eyeballing this for a while, and finally pulled the trigger last weekend. So much for sleep.
Submarine in space is apt. Was losing my shirt on cargo runs (Jump Gate Fees and Docking Fees at space stations eat up most of your profit), until I found a good, short run (buy low at point A, sell high at point B, rinse/repeat=profit!). Tried circumventing gate fees with a jump drive, but the additional travel time (and added exposure to pirate attacks) wasn’t worth it.
Looking to upgrade with some armaments, and maybe go pirate hunting.
Okay, forget what I said about the jump drives; definitely handy.
Forget taking contract cargo runs; a good way to go broke, or hover at the poverty line forever. Take out every loan you can, get a jump drive, and buy/sell commodities directly. But electronics, computers, and precious metals cheap at point A, sell for $$$ at point B. Rinse, repeat.
Checking out this game on Steam I noticed another interesting game, Universim The Universim - PC Review , its in early access and was crowdfunded but it looks like a fun God-mode universe builder.
Whenever you’re in a port, check on Licensing from various governments, manufacturers, and shipping concerns. Take some “Easy” or “Medium” difficulty contracts from them. They won’t pay much at first, but after you successfully complete two of them, you get a “Kudos to you! More work for you!” email from them, and even more contracts become available, paying, 200, 300, 400+ credits each. Beware of any “Hard” difficulty level contracts; the money’s great, but some of them are essentially impossible in-game. Look real hard at the destination (distance) and delivery schedule. If you’re in doubt, pass on it.
Once you’ve bopped around multiple ports in multiple systems, and have acquired a half-dozen-plus licenses from various interests, your available Contracts skyrocket.
After that, keep an eye out for someone offering multiple contracts to the same destination, or for places you can hit en route to somewhere you’re already going anyway. Keep an eye on what they’re shipping, too; it’s likely to be a going commodity at your final destination, so you can do a bit of speculative trading as well, assuming you have the cargo space.
Speculative trading on commodities is where the real money’s at, and while markets fluctuate some, you can never go wrong trading in Computers, Bionics, and the Big Three precious metals: Erbium, Promethium, and Samarium. Gold and Rare Earths usually fetch a good price, too.
But don’t “flood the market” with a commodity you’re unloading at any single port. The Big Three metals almost always fetch top-dollar (you’ll likely never have enough to “flood” things locally with them, anyway), but almost all other commodities only get top-dollar on the first 2-5 units sold, with a price roll-off beyond that.
So “spread” your selling around multiple ports. The Leo system is a good Seller’s Market, with Columbus Trading, Prefect Outpost, Crassus Harbor, and Penitent Commercial always buying for a good price. Lagos Gas Port does pretty well, but still doesn’t quite match the offering prices of the other four starports.
Finally, don’t neglect passengers. They often don’t pay much, but if you can find someone seeking passage to one of your intended stops along the way, or even your final destination, go ahead and book them. If nothing else, the money they’re paying will help offset (or even cover!) Docking Fees.
Bounty Missions are fairly easy money (if time consuming at times), and are also essentially rated “Easy,” “Medium,” and “Hard,” but I’ve seen some “Easy” go for more money than “Hard,” so I don’t know what kind of logic the game’s using. It seems the more “cluttered” a system is (and thus more difficult and time consuming to safely navigate), the better the job pays. But the missions themselves are pretty straightforward.
First, get a Point Defense Laser. Get one with the best accuracy and range you can find.
Second, get rid of any cargo you have. Do NOT go pirate hunting with ANY cargo onboard. The game cheats, and pirates ALWAYS know if you have cargo, no matter how far away you are from them.
Third, jump to the system where the bounty says the pirate is hiding. Turn off your IFF upon arrival, and now start “mapping,” flying around and letting your sensors “map” the system as you go, watching your sensors for “terrain” (asteroids, and the purple and red/green nebulas) as well as your target. Don’t hit the terrain; that causes damage to your ship. There may be 3-5 pirate vessels in-system, but your target will be the only vessel of its class in the system.
Fourth, once you’ve located and identified your target, fly towards him. Get within range of your point defense laser, designate your prey as a target, activate (“Enable” on the control screen) your PDS, and sit back and watch it shred your prey.
And the good thing is, you don’t even have to kill him; just doing damage earns the bounty. As soon as you damage him, you immediately get an email saying “Bounty Complete,” even if your prey is showing you his ass and running for all he’s worth.
Also: I think the game cheats in favor of pirates with regards to terrain; they will happily run into large asteroid fields, as well as the red/green nebulas (the worst, most damaging kind) if they’re in danger; otherwise, they do tend to avoid them.
The worst part about freight runs and pirate hunting is that the game story running in the background keeps advancing, and you never know when you’re going to get a “job offer” (mission) while you’re fully loaded with top-dollar cargo, or so deep in an messed-up system (terrain-wise) that there’s literally no way for you to make the rendezvous (or even get to the area you need to do the mission) in a timely manner.