Introduction to starfarer
(by Alexander Mosolov, Fractal Softworks)
Starfarer is an in-development single player space combat, roleplaying, exploration and economic game. The player is a space captain who can seek out fortune and glory (or infamy) however they choose. An alpha version is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Some of the major features are:
lots of customizable ships - with many weapon and hull modifications choices
a progression system for your character, officers, and crew
an economic system that can be affected by the player to bring about lasting changes in the game world
extensive modding support
It's likely to be a while until an official 1.0 release, though. So, what's actually done? What's in the current alpha version?
Combat
The combat system in Starfarer hearkens back to classics like... well, really, there's a long chain of top-down-space-combat games, from Spacewar! on, to hearken back to. (For me personally, Star Control I and II are a major inspiration. Too bad they never made a third one.)
So, you use WASD to pilot the ship, and the mouse to pan around and fire/use shields. The core concept is "flux" - weapons fire and shields generate it, and your ship has a maximum capacity, beyond which it will overload and become defenseless. Flux dissipates over time, and can be actively vented - which also leaves your ship defenseless for a time, but gets rid of flux quickly.
Let me lay out some of the tactical considerations that come into play in Starfarer, and hopefully give you a feel for how the game plays out.
shields are directional, and have a maximum arc - so, flanking tactics can result in hits getting around the shields without needing to bring them down
armor is location-based - turning your ship to avoid repeated hits on damaged areas helps it last longer
weapons and engines can be disabled by heavy damage or EMP weapons
weapons have limited arcs of fire
a variety of missiles, bombs, rockets, and torpedoes, and point-defense options to counter them
fighters, bombers, interceptors - and carriers that allow in-combat refit and repairs
What does this all add up to, though? The goal is for the game to reward short-term planning, rather than reflexes.
For example, let's say there's a bomber wing coming after your flagship. If you didn't see it coming, a single pass can leave your ship a glowing ruin, and you racing to your shuttle pod to transfer command (yes, the shuttle pod is actually in the game). If you do see it coming, though, you have all sorts of options - from ensuring you have enough flux to absorb the hits on your shields, to shooting down the bombs, to using some fighters or frigates to intercept the bombers before they even release their payload. All of these need varying amounts of time to carry out, with larger ships requiring their captain to anticipate threats further in advance to be successful.
Ship Customization
If the combat system is inspired by Star Control, then you could say that ship customization draws inspiration from Mech Warrior.
The core concept here is "ordnance points". Each ship has a maximum, and equipping weapons and hull modification uses these up. Each ship also has a set of weapon slots, and there are three categories of weapons to choose from (energy, ballistic, and missile), with variously-sized weapons in each category.
For example, the Wolf-class frigate has one forward-facing medium energy hardpoint, three small energy turrets, and two small missile hardpoints. So, what kind of choices could you make in equipping it?
Let's start with the medium hardpoint, since that's going to be a significant part of the ship's firepower. The two main choices here would be to take a long-range support weapon (helpful if the Wolf is part of a fleet), or a shorter-ranged assault weapon (more desirable if the Wolf is on its own). You could also put a small weapon in this slot, and leave more ordnance points for hull mods.
The three energy turrets could be used for additional support weapons. Being turrets, they're also well-suited for point-defense weapons - since those need to turn to track missiles. More damaging weapons could also be used in a specialized build - for example, the Anti-matter Blaster has enough firepower to cripple a frigate in one shot - but it's also going to max out your flux, so that shot had better not miss.
The missile slots can be used to round out your design. The philosophy behind missiles is that they provide a burst of exceptional capability in any one role, at the expense of very limited ammo, and the risk of doing nothing at all, should the missiles be neutralized. For example, taking two racks of Harpoon MRMs (medium range missiles) will let your Wolf be a threat to even something as large as a cruiser - but only if you catch it overloaded or venting. If those missiles hit the shields or are shot down by PD, though...
Any ordnance points left over after you've chosen the weapons loadout can be used for hull modifications. These provide passive bonuses to various hull stats - flux dissipation, speed, maneuverability, armor, weapon range, etc.
What's Next?
The current campaign is all about fighting battles to build up your fleet to fight more battles. If you called it a persistent wrapper around the combat gameplay, you wouldn't be far wrong, but that's going to change in the upcoming builds.
Right now, we're wrapping up a new addition to combat - ship systems. These are active abilities specific to each hull - for example, one ship might have afterburners, another a combat teleporter or a weapons booster. The idea is to give each hull more personality - there are only so many combinations of weapon slots you can come up with, before it starts being more of the same.
After that, we'll start on character progression - so that you can build up your character alongside your fleet, though it will still remain combat-focused at that point. Beyond that, it's on to multiple star systems (right now, there's just the one), and higher-level campaign mechanics that will give you more things to do than just battles to fight, and give you more compelling reasons to fight those battles.
Modding
Starfarer is PC game through and through, so it stands to reason that it'd be moddable - to me, that's a huge part of the appeal, and a strength of the platform. Modding isn't just an item on the to do list - the game is already moddable, and there are many mods that add new ships, weapons, and factions - but don't take my word for it, take a look at this screenshot of the ships in a mod compilation. Frankly, I'm amazed by the amount of mods that are out there already, and flattered that so many people are choosing Starfarer as an avenue for expressing their creativity.
In closing, I'd like to say thank you to everyone that's supported Starfarer's development by preordering! It wouldn't be possible for me to work on it full-time without your help.
You can check out starfarer at the official website.
Some of the major features are:
Combat
The combat system in Starfarer hearkens back to classics like... well, really, there's a long chain of top-down-space-combat games, from Spacewar! on, to hearken back to. (For me personally, Star Control I and II are a major inspiration. Too bad they never made a third one.)
So, you use WASD to pilot the ship, and the mouse to pan around and fire/use shields. The core concept is "flux" - weapons fire and shields generate it, and your ship has a maximum capacity, beyond which it will overload and become defenseless. Flux dissipates over time, and can be actively vented - which also leaves your ship defenseless for a time, but gets rid of flux quickly.
Let me lay out some of the tactical considerations that come into play in Starfarer, and hopefully give you a feel for how the game plays out.
What does this all add up to, though? The goal is for the game to reward short-term planning, rather than reflexes.
For example, let's say there's a bomber wing coming after your flagship. If you didn't see it coming, a single pass can leave your ship a glowing ruin, and you racing to your shuttle pod to transfer command (yes, the shuttle pod is actually in the game). If you do see it coming, though, you have all sorts of options - from ensuring you have enough flux to absorb the hits on your shields, to shooting down the bombs, to using some fighters or frigates to intercept the bombers before they even release their payload. All of these need varying amounts of time to carry out, with larger ships requiring their captain to anticipate threats further in advance to be successful.
Ship Customization
If the combat system is inspired by Star Control, then you could say that ship customization draws inspiration from Mech Warrior.
The core concept here is "ordnance points". Each ship has a maximum, and equipping weapons and hull modification uses these up. Each ship also has a set of weapon slots, and there are three categories of weapons to choose from (energy, ballistic, and missile), with variously-sized weapons in each category.
For example, the Wolf-class frigate has one forward-facing medium energy hardpoint, three small energy turrets, and two small missile hardpoints. So, what kind of choices could you make in equipping it?
Let's start with the medium hardpoint, since that's going to be a significant part of the ship's firepower. The two main choices here would be to take a long-range support weapon (helpful if the Wolf is part of a fleet), or a shorter-ranged assault weapon (more desirable if the Wolf is on its own). You could also put a small weapon in this slot, and leave more ordnance points for hull mods.
The three energy turrets could be used for additional support weapons. Being turrets, they're also well-suited for point-defense weapons - since those need to turn to track missiles. More damaging weapons could also be used in a specialized build - for example, the Anti-matter Blaster has enough firepower to cripple a frigate in one shot - but it's also going to max out your flux, so that shot had better not miss.
The missile slots can be used to round out your design. The philosophy behind missiles is that they provide a burst of exceptional capability in any one role, at the expense of very limited ammo, and the risk of doing nothing at all, should the missiles be neutralized. For example, taking two racks of Harpoon MRMs (medium range missiles) will let your Wolf be a threat to even something as large as a cruiser - but only if you catch it overloaded or venting. If those missiles hit the shields or are shot down by PD, though...
Any ordnance points left over after you've chosen the weapons loadout can be used for hull modifications. These provide passive bonuses to various hull stats - flux dissipation, speed, maneuverability, armor, weapon range, etc.
What's Next?
The current campaign is all about fighting battles to build up your fleet to fight more battles. If you called it a persistent wrapper around the combat gameplay, you wouldn't be far wrong, but that's going to change in the upcoming builds.
Right now, we're wrapping up a new addition to combat - ship systems. These are active abilities specific to each hull - for example, one ship might have afterburners, another a combat teleporter or a weapons booster. The idea is to give each hull more personality - there are only so many combinations of weapon slots you can come up with, before it starts being more of the same.
After that, we'll start on character progression - so that you can build up your character alongside your fleet, though it will still remain combat-focused at that point. Beyond that, it's on to multiple star systems (right now, there's just the one), and higher-level campaign mechanics that will give you more things to do than just battles to fight, and give you more compelling reasons to fight those battles.
Modding
Starfarer is PC game through and through, so it stands to reason that it'd be moddable - to me, that's a huge part of the appeal, and a strength of the platform. Modding isn't just an item on the to do list - the game is already moddable, and there are many mods that add new ships, weapons, and factions - but don't take my word for it, take a look at this screenshot of the ships in a mod compilation. Frankly, I'm amazed by the amount of mods that are out there already, and flattered that so many people are choosing Starfarer as an avenue for expressing their creativity.
In closing, I'd like to say thank you to everyone that's supported Starfarer's development by preordering! It wouldn't be possible for me to work on it full-time without your help.
You can check out starfarer at the official website.
