1.4, here's thoughts 'bout it.

Man, I ain't been around a while. But I do still love this game, and 1.4 is a good excuse to come back to it, and to here...

Having had some time to play with 1.4, I'll open with that I like what we've got in this as a start. The various techs and whatnot added to the game could really expand things nicely when integrated more into the base game; while the Bounty Hunting isn't as "separated" as the Mech update was from the normal game, it does still have a bit of disconnect going. The multi-planet/star questlines could give the villager/Tenant quests a bit more variety if worked into the normal rotation. Of course, any off-planet quest should probably have a higher prize pool, something particularly nice like rare furniture or a costume bit, cuz I'd be pissed to travel to two other planets and get rewarded with a friggin' seed or torches.

I love that more and more stuff is Printable, hooray for making building/decor easier. That you can Print the Mech Station is fantastic and adds even more to a garage-like build. I love that the gangs are carrying unique weapons, AND that you can at least obtain the melee ones. I got the baseball bat, but I need, NEED the little yappy dino-head-on-a-stick. More Stuff to obtain is always good.

Yay for new monster variants. I still wanna see more RNG monster parts added to the mix, but hey.

But... let's get onto the hopefully-constructive criticism. There's some things that I really think need tweaking ASAP....

1. One issue with Bounty Hunting is there's not really a good sense of progression/escalation going on. Just the nominal stats-getting-higher as you progress to more dangerous stars. It gets very samey and repetitious even with the different variables. This could be done better with just a few tweaks...
   - Cut the first Gang's target roster in half. Start folks off small, and get us out of that shoddy first HQ quick.
   - Increase the number of "high-profile" bounties the higher up the rank you go. Three high-profiles per board towards the end perhaps. Maybe have the higher-end beast-hunt missions have to deal with more than one critter. Is that possible?
2. Give us a dang teleporter bookmark to HQ... after a point, of course. Having to physically travel back to HQ after every dang mission is just boring. I feel like by the time you get to the third base, fourth at the very latest, there should be a teleporter so you can quick-hop to pick up your reward. I got no beef with having to haul aft to a bounty the old-fashioned way, but the back-and-forth just eats up a TON of fuel and time.
3. Notch down Nox. The Dantalion mission itself is tough but fair, and judicious play will get you through no problem. I have no issues with that. But the Swansong fight is just... well, it's not as not-fun as the various Ancient Guardians (a part of the game I've kinda not played in a looooooooooooong time because they're obnoxiously hard for not a lot of reward), but still a sudden massive difficulty spike. At the VERY least, can the orbs she summons get their HP sawed in half and make them drop a bit more Mech Energy? I'm hitting them with the most powerful weapons in the game and it takes forever to crack them open and release that sweet mech-restoring juice, by which point Nox has already hit me with too much artillery. (Nox is also distressingly good at foretelling where you're gonna be and hitting you with the laserbeam.)
4. This is the lowest priority, but... given how limited opportunities are to collect the "gang" weapons, at least until maybe you beat the last "gang" and the whole thing maybe opens up? I don't know, I've not beat Nox yet to see what happens after, if you can just keep Hunting forever... any rate, maybe tweak to weapon drop rates a bit more favorably?

Those are the big things... and one small thing. There's lots of other little stuff of course, but much of that can go towards a more content-rich update... I'd like to see "cyberspace" expanded to larger areas/installations, even outside of Bounty Hunting. More decor and costume bits and blocks are always, always appreciated. I do still want to see some expansions on the dungeons/microdungeons, with more variants of existing ones ("wrecked" versions of existing villages/dungeons would be nice, maybe inhabited versions of the already-wrecked ones), some altogether new "village" types for each race, some more NPC races (I'd like to see the Ursas running around, why not make Creepers and Maggots NPCs?), more just random microdungeon types in general. More RNG monster bits as noted. I feel like the game's got enough mechanics to last a while, now's the time to flex what can be done with them, and just load up the cosmetic content.

Now, to throw myself into another fight with Nox, and see how long I'm willing to put up with this before just /admin'ing my way through it... wait, that doesn't affect Mech energy, does it? f***...

wow Nox has a second form to the mech once you whittle her down, yeah, this is horsepucky. She needs a nerfing something FIERCE.

 

After defeating the Swansong with help of certain command (I couldn't be bothered to try 10th time), the Bounty Hunting does continue - I'm now after Box Snake Pals gang, in Fiery Star systems. The Peacekeeper station remains the same tier, just positioned in new cluster of Fiery stars.

As for nerfing Swansong - definitely. If the Orbs are supposed to be things you crack up for mech energy, then boi, someone gave them two or three 0's too much on the HP counter. I mean, it took me 2 phases (anti-grav and ground) to destroy one Orb. Pah! Moreover, the octagonal net they create combined with Swansong's cloud of minimissiles is absolutely devastating, and, unless you've break some orbs (good luck with that) to give yourself a bit of maneuvering space, your mech is dead, simple as that.

I've loved the new Occassus lore books, but they're broken; the text is formatted in big chunks and that makes it go through the bottom of Codex window. And I don't mean few words/a line or two, I mean whole paragraphs of text are outta the box!

 

I was hitting orbs with the beam-sword and guided missile launchers at point-blank range, both level-4 damage weapons that do a couple hundred points of damage each hit. I could SOMETIMES break them in a single normal-gravity period; thankfully the explosions and sword-wave can hit multiple targets so sometimes I might get more than one. I was trying all sorts of weapon combos to no avail; I thought the heavy beam drill might be good for hitting lots of them at once, and it does, but it does such negligible damage.

Of course it only takes one round of slip-ups to lose way more than you regain.

And Nox is too damn good at leading you with both the laserbeam and lunging blade attacks. In a fight where your maneuverability is severely compromised by zero-g, even with the level-5 maneuverability thrusters, an enemy that can easily target where you'll be is infuriating.

I eventually just /admin'd and whittled her down very, very, very slowly with the most powerful handheld weapons available. I can't fathom how you're supposed to win against the second-form Swansong given it just keep lunging at you.

 

I guess my uhh idea was already on the game...on the uhh 1.4 update forum I think...





E: Took me 4 tries to realize that the best way to combat the mech was go ham with two sword arms...250 + 2500 = 500 x2 = 1k
dps...and this is the reward...



TIp 1: Just go around the rockets...
TIP 2: Low on hp? Spam those swords on the balls as they're the only one containg the mech fuel (it's RNG tho)
Tip 3: Phase 2 is a lot easier than phase 1...



E2: The sword is crap...

 

Swansong is a pretty cool and balanced boss imo, took me a few tries to figure out the best approach and finally kill it but it wasn't hair loss inducing. I would recommend high maneuverability boosters like the hammer ones, so it's much easier to dodge the missiles and laser beams. Be patient and focus on avoiding taking damage and keep destroying the balls. If you reach phase 2 with a decent energy pool you have won.

Also I got the action figure after my first kill, was that super lucky or are the odds very high for this boss ?

 

Now that's good RNG ye got there...a figurine on first try > w>
My first try on her was like "YEHHH first try!!!" with like 20% hp then she regenerated full hp...had to beam out to save my hardcore save
Did that til the 4th try and go ham with 2 swords and finally beaten her...

 

So, post-Nox, the gang leader quests are one-stop deals. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

 

Well the outlaws are endless too > w>

 

Yes, but I'm saying the gang leaders being one-stop deals like the common schmucks, rather than a multi-step hunt, or at least a bigger base with more minions protection them, is a bit... underwhelming.

 

*Sees a computer* Yeah that's totally the teleporter where WE are hiding -Outlaw Leaders

 

I wish there're more story to go through with Bounty Hunter feature, just like the OP said, quests were just repetitive.
Let's say we have gang line for each all race that we have to go for with separate stories and quests and we have to finish them all to reach the cultist gang line.

 

The B.H. questline can be boring if u do it again on a new save ; n;

 

The missions can get a bit repetitive but I must say, these missions make it easy to create a system. I grab missions, go to one of the locations , take down the target, explore and loot the planet, return to the ship and sell and craft, do mech stuff, then I continue this pattern till I have to return to the bounty board. Havent finished this quest line just yet but I am getting there.

 

Well the repetition is worth it 'coz you'll fight the boss we never fought again before BH update = w=

 

Come to think if we could keep accepting bargains from the bad gang, could we have another story route to join the bad guy and fight the police instead?

 

Not sure about that 'coz the main story has no other paths too other than forcing you to be the good one...