I've been playing this game for about two months and having a literal blast (forgive the horrible pun..actually don't, it's pretty bad). If you like the idea of building ships and old fashioned space shooters, this game may be for you.
The game plays on a fairly vast open map, the only goal is to conquer the whole map which is done by activating space stations for your faction and defeating the other factions ships and stations. The gameplay IS a bit limited and consists mainly of shooting things but the combat is well done and frankly i've spent a lot more time building ships than actually playing the game. You start with the Terran faction (all ships shown on my pic below I built with terran parts) but you can unlock several other factions to play (by destroying some of their bigger ships) which all have their own weapons, block shapes, etc.
Normally you can't mix different factions parts and weapons together BUT if you use the most popular mod for the game (which coincidentally my brother is responsible for...he's the one who got me into the game) called Re-Assembler, the mod unlocks all factions parts for you to use together, broadening the possibilites. Actually what it does is give you a new faction called re-assemblers which can use all the pieces.
You build a ship a bit like Lego...every piece has attach points and you can only put pieces together if they are attached to another one by at least one attach point. So...some of the ships you can see on my pic, they might seem obvious, but some took a long time to build...because you have to get the attach points to connect properly. To be honest, building aesthetically pleasing ships often means building a not so efficient ship. Personally i'm very focused on the aesthetics, less on the performance. For example, it's not reccomended to put any weapon outside the hull becaue they will get destroyed easily once your shield drops (supposing you have any)
The flight is inertial, you have to have side and counter thrusters on your ships if you want it to turn, stop or reverse, physics are really well done. Naturally, the bigger your ship, the more thrusters you need (mass is factored, each piece has a specific mass value adding to the ship's total mass). For side thrusters (meant to help you turn) the further from the center of mass of your ship they are positioned, the more efficient they will be. Interestingly in this game...ships do not explode unless their command module has been destroyed, the hull/weapons/thrusters/pieces just get destroyed. As such, it's possible to have only your command module remaining and still survive (the command module produces its own thrust)..as long as you manage to flee. Your ship repairs and rebuilds (or rather...re-assembles..hence the name) over time as long as the parts aren't getting hit. Weapons wise, you've got beam, turrets, lasers, charging weapons, missiles, drones, mines, rockets, sniping cannons etc. It's all actually very well balanced. The shooting itself can sometimes be ridiculously intense. As in, HUNDREDS of lasers and missiles and shots all over the screen (to the point where it will actually slow down the game even...)
You fly an individual ship but space stations will spawn CPU controlled ships (your designs) when they have enough resources (CPU ships will collect resources when they see them but you can also do it yourself). You can also equip your ships with factories which allows you to spawn more ships yourself. You can also at anytime in the game use a command function to click CPU ships from your faction and command them to join your wing (the function can also be used to tell stations which of your designs they should prioritize to build).
Resources are gained by either killing ships or harvesting plants on asteroids that produce resources. Then you need to turn these resources in at stations in exchange for cash. The cash is used to unlock hull pieces and weapons AND to upgrade the maximum P rating your ships can have. P rating basically means how many weapons, thrusters and shields your ships are allowed to have (each of those pieces have a P cost). For example, in the picture below, the Veles light fighter, which is the first ship i built, uses only 171 P while the Carrier or Battleship use 8000.
One of the nice thing about building ships is that you can upload your fleets online. Doing this will mean that your fleet will appear in other player's games, though they will be cpu controlled.
Note that the game does not have classes of ships, the ship classes you see in the pic below i determined myself because i thought it would be more interesting this way. I wanted to build a proper fleet. Note also that in the picture the scale changes for some of the capital ships, if i'd kept the same scale as the smaller ships they wouldn't have fit. Building such gigantic ships is not REALLY reccomended i suppose but i have to say, their hull is so thick they are almost indestructible...but also ridiculously slow.
One of my favorite feature in the game is the tournament mode, in this mode you can set any of your ships to fight one another in timed rounds. The catch though is that the CPU handles the ships. So all you can do is watch. The fun of it can be to try to build the ultimate ship, the one that will beat all others.
The fleet I designed:
Anyway, check it out on youtube and steam. See if it's something you'd like.
The game plays on a fairly vast open map, the only goal is to conquer the whole map which is done by activating space stations for your faction and defeating the other factions ships and stations. The gameplay IS a bit limited and consists mainly of shooting things but the combat is well done and frankly i've spent a lot more time building ships than actually playing the game. You start with the Terran faction (all ships shown on my pic below I built with terran parts) but you can unlock several other factions to play (by destroying some of their bigger ships) which all have their own weapons, block shapes, etc.
Normally you can't mix different factions parts and weapons together BUT if you use the most popular mod for the game (which coincidentally my brother is responsible for...he's the one who got me into the game) called Re-Assembler, the mod unlocks all factions parts for you to use together, broadening the possibilites. Actually what it does is give you a new faction called re-assemblers which can use all the pieces.
You build a ship a bit like Lego...every piece has attach points and you can only put pieces together if they are attached to another one by at least one attach point. So...some of the ships you can see on my pic, they might seem obvious, but some took a long time to build...because you have to get the attach points to connect properly. To be honest, building aesthetically pleasing ships often means building a not so efficient ship. Personally i'm very focused on the aesthetics, less on the performance. For example, it's not reccomended to put any weapon outside the hull becaue they will get destroyed easily once your shield drops (supposing you have any)
The flight is inertial, you have to have side and counter thrusters on your ships if you want it to turn, stop or reverse, physics are really well done. Naturally, the bigger your ship, the more thrusters you need (mass is factored, each piece has a specific mass value adding to the ship's total mass). For side thrusters (meant to help you turn) the further from the center of mass of your ship they are positioned, the more efficient they will be. Interestingly in this game...ships do not explode unless their command module has been destroyed, the hull/weapons/thrusters/pieces just get destroyed. As such, it's possible to have only your command module remaining and still survive (the command module produces its own thrust)..as long as you manage to flee. Your ship repairs and rebuilds (or rather...re-assembles..hence the name) over time as long as the parts aren't getting hit. Weapons wise, you've got beam, turrets, lasers, charging weapons, missiles, drones, mines, rockets, sniping cannons etc. It's all actually very well balanced. The shooting itself can sometimes be ridiculously intense. As in, HUNDREDS of lasers and missiles and shots all over the screen (to the point where it will actually slow down the game even...)
You fly an individual ship but space stations will spawn CPU controlled ships (your designs) when they have enough resources (CPU ships will collect resources when they see them but you can also do it yourself). You can also equip your ships with factories which allows you to spawn more ships yourself. You can also at anytime in the game use a command function to click CPU ships from your faction and command them to join your wing (the function can also be used to tell stations which of your designs they should prioritize to build).
Resources are gained by either killing ships or harvesting plants on asteroids that produce resources. Then you need to turn these resources in at stations in exchange for cash. The cash is used to unlock hull pieces and weapons AND to upgrade the maximum P rating your ships can have. P rating basically means how many weapons, thrusters and shields your ships are allowed to have (each of those pieces have a P cost). For example, in the picture below, the Veles light fighter, which is the first ship i built, uses only 171 P while the Carrier or Battleship use 8000.
One of the nice thing about building ships is that you can upload your fleets online. Doing this will mean that your fleet will appear in other player's games, though they will be cpu controlled.
Note that the game does not have classes of ships, the ship classes you see in the pic below i determined myself because i thought it would be more interesting this way. I wanted to build a proper fleet. Note also that in the picture the scale changes for some of the capital ships, if i'd kept the same scale as the smaller ships they wouldn't have fit. Building such gigantic ships is not REALLY reccomended i suppose but i have to say, their hull is so thick they are almost indestructible...but also ridiculously slow.
One of my favorite feature in the game is the tournament mode, in this mode you can set any of your ships to fight one another in timed rounds. The catch though is that the CPU handles the ships. So all you can do is watch. The fun of it can be to try to build the ultimate ship, the one that will beat all others.
The fleet I designed:
Anyway, check it out on youtube and steam. See if it's something you'd like.
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