Octopus Overlords

Max Peck wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:24 pm No, I have not done that thing that I didn't know was a thing.

If you ask the guy giving the exam for tips, he emphasizes that you have access to all of the tools you have available in there. Look around.

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 3:05 pm

Max Peck wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:24 pm No, I have not done that thing that I didn't know was a thing.

If you ask the guy giving the exam for tips, he emphasizes that you have access to all of the tools you have available in there. Look around.

Spoiler:

There is a debug computer inside. Make like Kirk and reprogram the simulation.

Damn. Did not know thats an optiin. Gonna have to remember to try that

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:47 pm

Alefroth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:30 pm

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:13 pm Have you tried flying backwards?
Go forward, fire when you can, then start backing up while continuing to fire.
It would be nice if you could double shields a bit like in xeing and the other star wars flight ganes.

This seems like a strategy for ground combat. How can you back up when they are all around you? Also, you can fly backwards?

Whenever I've jumped into an area the enemy have all gathered in front of me for the most parts. It's nit until I get in short range do they split up.
So what i do is this.
1) jump to system.
2) head towards enemy cluster.
3) as soon as I'm in weapons range I open up while coming to a staop.
4) times varies but as soon as it even looks like they are gonna split I start backimg up with the S key. Just keep holding it down while reversing.
5) if they get too clise, slip them a UNO Reverse as move forward then boost.
6) keep going forwa4d a bit then turn around and start all 9ver.

I've been able to kill 2 mayve 3 ships on my first run.

Huh, I didn't know you could reverse. I'll have to check how to do that on the XBOX.

99.3 hours in Steam, just finished what I thought was the finale of a big series of faction missions, turns out to be just another intermediate goal . I'm doing again what I've done before, left off the big mission progression to clear my hear and do some trading. I upgraded my ship with more cargo space and now I'm filling that up again. I need to go sell off some stuff.

Alefroth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 5:17 pm

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:47 pm

Alefroth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:30 pm

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:13 pm Have you tried flying backwards?
Go forward, fire when you can, then start backing up while continuing to fire.
It would be nice if you could double shields a bit like in xeing and the other star wars flight ganes.

This seems like a strategy for ground combat. How can you back up when they are all around you? Also, you can fly backwards?

Whenever I've jumped into an area the enemy have all gathered in front of me for the most parts. It's nit until I get in short range do they split up.
So what i do is this.
1) jump to system.
2) head towards enemy cluster.
3) as soon as I'm in weapons range I open up while coming to a staop.
4) times varies but as soon as it even looks like they are gonna split I start backimg up with the S key. Just keep holding it down while reversing.
5) if they get too clise, slip them a UNO Reverse as move forward then boost.
6) keep going forwa4d a bit then turn around and start all 9ver.

I've been able to kill 2 mayve 3 ships on my first run.

Huh, I didn't know you could reverse. I'll have to check how to do that on the XBOX.

I started doing doing kamikaze runs toward enemy clusters to minimize shield damage. Point to cluster. Max speed. Hit boost. Fire all weapons at a single ship in the first pass, then stay on him as they pass me and split up. I've found you don't even need to wait for a missile lock when you fire the missile at close range heading straight at a ship. That usually kills 1 ship after the first pass and turn around. Then head straight for another enemy ship that's firing at you and repeat. I find boosting straight towards them and playing chicken minimizes damage overall.

FYI. Found another use fir WD-40. It really is a fixall!

https://reddit.com/r/hmmm/s/Z4ysRsSDuS

coopasonic wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:56 pm
I'm now on NG+3 and level 131

I'm under the impression that one of the reasons to start a NG+, is that after a while the levels come slower and slower and it's harder to get skill points, etc.. But when I see that you're level is still going up (and hence, NG+ doesn't set your level down) - I think I am mistaken about that? Or no, are you just getting to higher 'top levels' with each NG+ ?

The other reason is to find the creators Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune and control of his world

Unagi wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 8:41 pm

coopasonic wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:56 pm
I'm now on NG+3 and level 131

I'm under the impression that one of the reasons to start a NG+, is that after a while the levels come slower and slower and it's harder to get skill points, etc.. But when I see that you're level is still going up (and hence, NG+ doesn't set your level down) - I think I am mistaken about that? Or no, are you just getting to higher 'top levels' with each NG+ ?

Levels are completely independent of NG+ advancement. Levels do come slower the higher you go, but that is to be expected. NG+ does give you the ability to replay all the missions so there is xp there, and there is one step of the main mission that gives 5k xp (in NG+ at least). If I hadn't built a crafting xp farm I probably would be closer to level 80 now in NG+5.

The only real reason to do NG+ is a major spoiler, unless you just want to play through the story again an see the impact of different choices.

coopasonic wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:04 pm

Unagi wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 8:41 pm

coopasonic wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:56 pm
I'm now on NG+3 and level 131

I'm under the impression that one of the reasons to start a NG+, is that after a while the levels come slower and slower and it's harder to get skill points, etc.. But when I see that you're level is still going up (and hence, NG+ doesn't set your level down) - I think I am mistaken about that? Or no, are you just getting to higher 'top levels' with each NG+ ?

Levels are completely independent of NG+ advancement. Levels do come slower the higher you go, but that is to be expected. NG+ does give you the ability to replay all the missions so there is xp there, and there is one step of the main mission that gives 5k xp (in NG+ at least). If I hadn't built a crafting xp farm I probably would be closer to level 80 now in NG+5.

The only real reason to do NG+ is a major spoiler, unless you just want to play through the story again an see the impact of different choices.

Okay, so there is a super secret good reason to do NG+ at least once. What I'm trying to get clear in my head is that if I want to 'settle down' in the game (buy homes, etc) - that I should probably do that in a NG+ game....
To be clear, I already own a 'dream home', I just don't know if I want to bother setting it up or not.


This crafting xp farm... is that something that stuck with you from NG to NG? or something you needed to build unique within a game.
(I suppose if that's a spoiler-y question - you can tell that it's perhaps too spoilery)

I have questions.
First, I too have a Barbie Dreamhouse through a trait or something I did firing character creation. When you go to NG+ and on, do you keep your previous trairs and dreamhouse and such?

Can you explain this xp farm you speak of? Pit in spoler please just in case nobody else wants to see it.

coopasonic wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:26 pm

Scraper wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:44 pm

Kurth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:07 pm I’m level 18 and have made it through the first main missions and am taking on some additional activities. The one I’m trying to run through now is Ground Pounder. I’ve hit a major stumbling block.

Spoiler:

Most of the mission is a series of ground engagements, which I’ve sailed through. But now I need to go into space and take out the Spacers’ ships. There are two different groups of ships in orbit around two different planets, and each group is made up of 3 ships. No matter what I do, I can’t defeat them. I can take out one of them with relative ease, but by the time I do, the others have knocked my shields down to nothing and finish me off with a few final shots. I’ve died a dozen times now.

I’m in the Wanderer (the ship my parents gave me), which I think is better than the original Frontier. I haven’t invested any skill points in ship combat except for “targeting control systems” or in beefing up my ships, and my Wanderer has not been upgraded.

Am I just in over my head, or am I missing something?

If you have the "Mantis" mission go and do that. It gives you a better than average ship for the early game and really good armor. Aside from that you can get a really good ship by finishing the Ranger faction quest line.

...and by Mantis, we mean

Spoiler:

Secret Base.

Yep. This is what I ended up heading out to do. I hope the ship reward at the end is enough of a boost to overcome my obvious piloting/space combat deficiencies! But I’m finding that this Mantis quest is pretty entertaining on its own, so I guess who really cares in the end?

That’s something I’m finding with Starfield: It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to Bethesda games. They add enough quirks and strange and funny and weird stuff to seemingly random quest lines that it keeps me interested. Nothing is really all that vanilla.

Inventory. Miscellaneous category. Some items have trashcan symbols, which obviously represent junk. Others have a gear/cog symbol (deck of cards, digipick, antique duck figure, etc. What does this represent?

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:09 am

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:02 am

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:39 am I just had something weird happen. I don't know if it was a bug or I'm doing something wrong. I've spent a skill point on Targeting Control Systems and now I'm racking up the required 15 to allow me to use another point. I've gotten to 14 and so I was happy to get into a fight with a few low level spacers. Without tracking activated I could shoot at them with no problem. However, once I activated tracking (the R key on PC) I was able to select the area of the enemy ship I was targeting, just like the 14 times before, but now if I pressed any of the three weapon buttons nothing would happen . But if I used ESC to get out of targeting mode my weapons worked normally. Any idea why this is happening? Like I said, I'd already destroyed 14 ships using targeting before, now it doesn't want to work

Hmm, I did modify my ship for a certain mission (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), could that be affecting the targeting?

Yup, that's what it was alright. I switched to another one of my ships, took it to orbit and started shooting at the first ship I found and targeting worked fine. So the issue was apparently that I had modified my first ship for a special mission and that removed the tracking.

And with that mission over I've verified that my tracking is working again, so nothing to worry about.

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:43 pm Can you explain this xp farm you speak of? Pit in spoler please just in case nobody else wants to see it.

Minor spoiler defining XP farming

I actually wish it wasn't that way. Crafting XP in Fallout 4 was a PITA. If you enjoyed settlement building, you could end up gaining several levels just working on your settlement, then end up seriously under-geared as you hadn't leveled up organically with the rest of the world (upgrading along the way.) It also meant that chunks of the game experience could be missed completely, as you leveled past certain level thresholds and changed what was spawning.

I found this guide to item prefixes. The prefixes for mods and perks are mostly pretty obvious, but the ones for quality aren't unless you are looking 2 items that are the same except for the quality prefix and can compare the stats:

COMMON (no prefix): Standard.
CALIBRATED: Better.
REFINED: Even better.
ADVANCED: Even more better.
SUPERIOR: Best.

I hadn't really given much thought as to whether weapons have some sort of inherent quality level until tonight, when I had the chance to compare a couple Old Earth Hunting Rifles (literally acquired on Old Earth) and noticed that one of them (common, with no quality prefix) had only half the damage stat of the other (with a "Refined" prefix), even with identical mods installed.

I kind of wish that they hadn't gone for the Diablo-style loot rarity. It's a good system, but it's been overdone.

One thing I am thankful for, though, is that they got rid of the useful junk, reverting to Fallout 3/Skyrim style useless junk. I liked the 'scavenging' feel of FO4, but after a while I just felt like a vacuum, picking up a dozen items in every room. It got old fast. I do wish that the scanner highlight for crafting materials was a different color, though. It would save a lot of time.

Alefroth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 5:17 pm Huh, I didn't know you could reverse. I'll have to check how to do that on the XBOX.

Well it doesn't look like I can reverse on the XB version, but I did discover you can switch space flight to a Newtonian model.

On PC you reverse by slowing to 0, then continuing to hold the decelerate key.

My character taking a selfie on Akila:

One hundred hours in and I just figured something out... if you are surveying for minerals/resources, I thought you had to always scan a rock to get a legit scan result. I didn't realize you can also scan an area on the surface and get the same result

Also, I found a new weapon that seems to be pretty good as well, and that's with me only having one rank of Weapons Engineering:

jztemple2 wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:26 am One hundred hours in and I just figured something out... if you are surveying for minerals/resources, I thought you had to always scan a rock to get a legit scan result. I didn't realize you can also scan an area on the surface and get the same result

I did not know that. That would have saved some time.

I did discover tonight that you can scan dead fauna. It's better than trying to stay alive while scanning a pack of Hunting Dumbshits.

Blackhawk wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:10 am On PC you reverse by slowing to 0, then continuing to hold the decelerate key.

It should be similar on consoles. Use whatever button you use to slow down and continue holding that down until you stop and go reberse. If that just stops you try letting go when you get to zero. Then press and hold it again

jztemple2 wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:26 am One hundred hours in and I just figured something out... if you are surveying for minerals/resources, I thought you had to always scan a rock to get a legit scan result. I didn't realize you can also scan an area on the surface and get the same result

Ate you talking about those kllarge patches that say iron for example? If so, how do you scan those? I've tried and nothing gappens.

Kurth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:47 pm

coopasonic wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:26 pm

Scraper wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 1:44 pm

Kurth wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:07 pm I’m level 18 and have made it through the first main missions and am taking on some additional activities. The one I’m trying to run through now is Ground Pounder. I’ve hit a major stumbling block.

Spoiler:

Most of the mission is a series of ground engagements, which I’ve sailed through. But now I need to go into space and take out the Spacers’ ships. There are two different groups of ships in orbit around two different planets, and each group is made up of 3 ships. No matter what I do, I can’t defeat them. I can take out one of them with relative ease, but by the time I do, the others have knocked my shields down to nothing and finish me off with a few final shots. I’ve died a dozen times now.

I’m in the Wanderer (the ship my parents gave me), which I think is better than the original Frontier. I haven’t invested any skill points in ship combat except for “targeting control systems” or in beefing up my ships, and my Wanderer has not been upgraded.

Am I just in over my head, or am I missing something?

If you have the "Mantis" mission go and do that. It gives you a better than average ship for the early game and really good armor. Aside from that you can get a really good ship by finishing the Ranger faction quest line.

...and by Mantis, we mean

Spoiler:

Secret Base.

Yep. This is what I ended up heading out to do. I hope the ship reward at the end is enough of a boost to overcome my obvious piloting/space combat deficiencies! But I’m finding that this Mantis quest is pretty entertaining on its own, so I guess who really cares in the end?

That’s something I’m finding with Starfield: It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to Bethesda games. They add enough quirks and strange and funny and weird stuff to seemingly random quest lines that it keeps me interested. Nothing is really all that vanilla.

FYI. if you are still in the Nantis mission, check all the bodies and the inside of the station for datapad logs that hive uou the backstory. There may be a computer terminal or 2 but I don't remember. IIRC, they are also an optional part of the mission and you can folliw waypoints tocall the valid datapads, but I'm not positive.

Punisher wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:49 am

jztemple2 wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 12:26 am One hundred hours in and I just figured something out... if you are surveying for minerals/resources, I thought you had to always scan a rock to get a legit scan result. I didn't realize you can also scan an area on the surface and get the same result

Ate you talking about those kllarge patches that say iron for example? If so, how do you scan those? I've tried and nothing gappens.

You have to be in scanner mode, then just point the crosshairs of the scanner at the area, when you are close enough, and press "E" (on PC).

I upgraded my Beowulf a bit, still need to get a further skill point for the final round of upgrades:

Unagi wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:34 pm

coopasonic wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:04 pm

Unagi wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 8:41 pm

coopasonic wrote: Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:56 pm
I'm now on NG+3 and level 131

I'm under the impression that one of the reasons to start a NG+, is that after a while the levels come slower and slower and it's harder to get skill points, etc.. But when I see that you're level is still going up (and hence, NG+ doesn't set your level down) - I think I am mistaken about that? Or no, are you just getting to higher 'top levels' with each NG+ ?

Levels are completely independent of NG+ advancement. Levels do come slower the higher you go, but that is to be expected. NG+ does give you the ability to replay all the missions so there is xp there, and there is one step of the main mission that gives 5k xp (in NG+ at least). If I hadn't built a crafting xp farm I probably would be closer to level 80 now in NG+5.

The only real reason to do NG+ is a major spoiler, unless you just want to play through the story again an see the impact of different choices.

Okay, so there is a super secret good reason to do NG+ at least once. What I'm trying to get clear in my head is that if I want to 'settle down' in the game (buy homes, etc) - that I should probably do that in a NG+ game....
To be clear, I already own a 'dream home', I just don't know if I want to bother setting it up or not.


This crafting xp farm... is that something that stuck with you from NG to NG? or something you needed to build unique within a game.
(I suppose if that's a spoiler-y question - you can tell that it's perhaps too spoilery)

The only thing that persists between NG and NG+ and each iteration beyond is your character. No equipment, no ships, no outposts, no relationships, no money, no inventory, no exploration/scans. You start NG+ with your level, your skills and unspent skill points, your research, including progress on research. You get the Frontier again and another ship and a spacesuit and that's about it.

I'm on my 5th NG+ and I am not impressed. The only value NG+ has, in my mind, is the value you give it. There is one thing you can do in NG+ that you can't do in NG, and unfortunately it feels pretty pointless while also being painfully grindy.

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:43 pm I have questions.
First, I too have a Barbie Dreamhouse through a trait or something I did firing character creation. When you go to NG+ and on, do you keep your previous trairs and dreamhouse and such?

You keep your character traits and background. I have no idea what that means for the house as I don't have that.

Punisher wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 9:43 pm Can you explain this xp farm you speak of? Pit in spoler please just in case nobody else wants to see it.

You can set up an outpost where you can gather all the materials to craft certain items with minimal effort. Details in spoiler: I only did it to get the Level 100 achievement. Otherwise it seems pretty unnecessary. There is another take on this that uses animal husbandry outposts to set up a shooting gallery of high xp targets.

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 11:04 pm I kind of wish that they hadn't gone for the Diablo-style loot rarity. It's a good system, but it's been overdone.

I haven't played the recent Diablos, so I don't know how much the rarity system has in common with them. What had been throwing me is that in Starfield, rarity is related to the number of perks attached to the weapon and has nothing to do with quality, so a white "superior" weapon will be much better in terms of damage output than a gold common weapon. I need to rewire my brain to look for the quality prefix keywords instead of just the rarity colors when initially evaluating gear.

Max Peck wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:49 am

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Sep 17, 2023 11:04 pm I kind of wish that they hadn't gone for the Diablo-style loot rarity. It's a good system, but it's been overdone.

I haven't played the recent Diablos, so I don't know how much the rarity system has in common with them. What had been throwing me is that in Starfield, rarity is related to the number of perks attached to the weapon and has nothing to do with quality, so a white "superior" weapon will be much better in terms of damage output than a gold common weapon. I need to rewire my brain to look for the quality prefix keywords instead of just the rarity colors when initially evaluating gear.

I’m using CRAS as my reminder word.

And thanks for those replies, Coop

I haven't reached the point where XP farming sounds like something I need. Maybe later...

I did take a break from a dozen hour plus (so far) Crimson Fleet mission, or missions, I guess at certain points the mission changes names but it is the same overall arc. I took a Constellation job board task to go survey a moon orbiting around the planet Faraday. I ended up doing surveys of all the moons and the planet itself. By this point doing surveys on planets with no flora or fauna are pretty easy, but it is the things you come across that make it interesting.

For instance, on one of the moons I came across an abandoned drilling station. So I'm figuring Crimson Fleet or Spacers, etc. No, it was some nasty creatures who would have been much more of a threat if I didn't have a whomping big gun . What was good was that each was worth 41 XP. And there was some loot to gather although by now I'm just picking up resources, credits and aid, getting cheap guns and spacesuits is pretty much of waste of my time since I've got about 400K credits in the bank . Anyway it was a nice diversion and a way to clear my mind before jumping back into the Crimson Fleet mission(s).

Max Peck wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:49 am I haven't played the recent Diablos, so I don't know how much the rarity system has in common with them.

White = common
Green = uncommon
Blue = rare
Purple = epic
Gold = legendary


Or some other variant of the color/rarity system that Diablo 1 invented. They have used weapon types in the past, just not rarities. It's a good system, but it's overused. Besides, it's a system that makes a lot of sense in fantasy (where it represents different levels of magical enchantment), but it's always a stretch in modern/sci-fi games where the items are purely mechanical.

I get the colors, it's the same spectrum that Borderlands (and pretty much every MMO that I've ever played) uses. What I didn't get right away is that the rarity only captures the number of perks attached to the weapon and is completely independent of the quality. In a game like Borderlands, the relative quality is communicated by a level number, while in Starfield it is communicated by a prefix label. It is very intuitive that a level 50 weapon is more effective than a level 5 weapon. I haven't been reading many gameplay guides, so it wasn't immediately obvious to me that Superior is better than Advanced which is better than Refined which is better than Calibrated, even when the Calibrated item is gold and the Refined item is white. That didn't click for me until I was comparing a plain-jane rifle to the refined version and saw a stark difference in the damage rating when every other stat or mod was identical.

In other news, I recently discovered that it is possible to mine asteroids for resources (by blowing them up). That struck me as funny because a few days ago I was thinking that the space combat reminded me a lot of Star Wars Galaxies, which also had asteroid mining that involved blowing them up.

As does No Man's Sky (and they seem to have taken a lot of their inspiration/mechanics from NMS.)

I appreciate the clarity on the item quality. I think I noticed that subconsciously but never really made the conscious connection. It's a shame I didn't know it 100 hours ago.

Note that my colors list wasn't taken from from Starfield - it's just the standard 'baseline' that similar games have used. Vermintide/Vermintide 2/Darktide use the same system, wherein an increase in rarity increases the number of perks (in VT2 it is no perks, 1, 2, 3, and then 3 perks with maxed values.)