Starstruck Vagabond

Fantastic game, very easily pull me in for several-hour playtimes, and I'm still only in the top corner of the starting quadrant. Definitely recommend.

Is there a way to rebind the controller buttons? Rotating the tools being X-Y (on X-Box controller) kinda messes with my head, I think I would fare a lot better if it were the bumpers, or at least X-B so they're Left-Right instead of Left-Up.

I made a mod! https://raggaaa.itch.io/sv-challenge-mod

because no one has posted anything here in a while. I would like to say I am still very much looking forward to buying this with really money on steam. and I am still enjoying the build I have been playing. Travel on and god speed Yahtzee. 

Hello! It's been awhile, I believe it's been maybe over a year, but I saw the game on Steam, so came back tried the most recent version of the game (0.1.9), and I have some notes. I really hope a final version of the game comes out, because I'd love to see it, and play with it, but even just with an hour of playtime I noticed some things:

Things I Like

- The Writing, Although It's Yahtzee, and I've loved all his things so far, so I don't know why this would be any different.

- The way it feels to keep upkeep upkept. It's very satisfying, but I do kinda wish there was more to do.

- The ship's minigame, think it's nice to have another option for flying.

- The multiple ways to make money. It's nice to be able to feel like I can be more than just a space trucker, and have lots of options.

- The ability to have biscuits on hand basically constantly so we don't get stumped, but that also means that stamina never really becomes a problem, just an annoyance.

Things I Don't Like So Much

- The lack of stuff to do while on-ship. Just bumming around the ship doesn't have much to do. Perhaps this gets better with more rooms, characters, and upgrades, though.

- The main character sprite. It feels very bulky. It'd be nice to see options for different builds, even if it was just "Skinny, Bulky, and an Inbetween" Help with feeling like your character if yours

- The noise of the generator. It gives me a migrane very quickly.

- The fact that you seem to be stuck with clothes once you buy them. Bought a tie just to try it on, and can't figure out how to take the damn thing off.

- How you can get three "Warp Drive Required missions when you have no warp drive."

- The speed that stamina leaves. It's very annoying to have to stop loading the ship to go eat a bisciut.

Things I'd Like to See
- A way to remove clothes you don't like, or store you clothes so you can make outfits. Or maybe a "Here's what you'd look like with this before you buy it" option at least.

-More stuff on each planet. Not like an entire world, but just like... Random shops or bars or even buildings that couldn't be accessed just to help it feel more real.

- A volume slider for different things. Like being able to turn machine noises down, or voices down without getting rid of both?

- The ability to talk to shopkeepers, even if it's just "Hello, and welcome to The Shit Store Where You Buy That Shit"

- A way to delete things you no longer need. I have 12 boxes that a bug made useless, and now I can't do anything but drop them in a loading zone and let it sit there forever.

Bugs
- If you Alt-Tab during diolog, then it skips the whole thing way too fast to read. This is a problem when it's important.

- Was moving some cargo into the ship, and one of them was "lost" so it cancled the quest, even though I still had all ten on there. I think my character somehow picked it up during the animation and the game couldn't register it's existance when the scene faded back in.

I hope this is continued, you definitely have something here, I would pay if you decide on a full release (once all the glitches are fixed). The only thing I can think of at the moment is perhaps making it easier to find the best spot to place the onisiris planet scanners, I often have to waste a lot of energy trying to find the location.

Crash on derelict. 

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In the prelude there are some issues:

- When going outside my objective is interrupted by needing to clean the solar panel

- When aligning the port thruster I can continue 'aligning the circle' even after it is aligned so it becomes unaligned again. It still says 'aligned' though

Remember in Elite Dangerous how there was contraband cargo, and in some spaceports you could get fined for having contraband?

How about having illegal goods, which need to be surrounded by other boxes so they're hidden?  

"Even I get boarded sometimes." -Han Solo

Went to a ship in distress and had a ton of cargo on my platform. Forgot I had to take it off to get on the ship. Tried to go back and it crashed the game. Super fun game though. I love the concept ever since you showed it on your YouTube channel!. Thank you for the demo!!

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Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)

I often get extra cargo that I can't get rid of.  I also can't dump it on an uninhabited planet because of the cargo warning

I got a rumor of an upgrade unit for sale in a system with no inhabited planets.

I get the action number 1 Error when departing from a derelict ship, though I still keep anything I picked up from it upon reboot. Though I can repeat the process and get unlimited resources and upgrade units.

Love the game so far in spite of the glitches. Can't wait for more.

crash on v0.1.9

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for object obj_cargoplat:

Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0

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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)

Recently watched your Extra Punctuation about the binary hippy v fascist choice mechanic in games. 

Please spend 5 minutes making a Mother Theresa vs. Skeletor game for itch.io. I was thinking a Mike Tyson's Punch Out type game, but really any genre works. Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2, Donkey Kong, Wolfenstein, Cooking Mama... really anything would work.

Encountered a crash in v0.1.9

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of Draw Event
for object obj_cargoplat:
Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0
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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)

It was a pleasure to join you in the process of iterating on this game. Best of luck with the process of making it about something!

I've tried a couple of versions of the demo now, including 0.1.9, and to be honest, I struggle to get into it. I think this is primarily because the planets feel same-y, barren and unpopulated whether they're inhabited or not; hopefully this is something that will change once the full build with the story is done, because some background NPCs would really make a difference. Obviously though, I understand why they wouldn't be in a preliminary story-less build.

Gameplay-wise, I didn't like the default keyboard/mouse controls very much, and having to remember to hold the space bar to leave the ship was frustrating. I also found setting destinations and switching to the banking controls annoying when mouse and keyboard controls seemed to trip over each other in the menus. I also never seemed to be able to reliably close the PDA without button mashing.

I think my main criticism however is movement speed of your character; walking around planets or trying to patch up 900 hull breaches around your ship is like pulling teeth. I don't think it would hurt the work-a-day vibe to just be able to get around quicker; it'd make me feel more inclined to actually explore.

The good news is that I haven't experienced any crash bugs or frame rate issues, and my laptop is extremely ancient so that's saying something. I do think the mechanics of the game work well, even if I'm not sure it'll ultimately be a game for me. I think, for me at least, I need the story in place before I can really settle into the primary loop as intended.

I've loved the Dev Diary series so far, and look forward to its continuation.

This is small, but I just wanted to point out that it's possible to get a job wherein you have to go to another sector before you have a warp drive.

a couple of gripes from my play of 1.9:

- I'd sometimes get a crash when I returned to my ship from a derelict or distressed ship to my own

- When I had cargo jobs too big to load up in one go, the game would cancel them after my first trip due to "lost cargo", making jobs bigger than my cargo platform impossible. The now undeliverable cargo also remains permanently

- the warning not to actually abandon cargo seems to be impossible to ignore. Unlike the warning not to abandon a surveyor, it seems to just repeat if I keep trying to leave. This removes the only way to deal with the "zombie" cargo produced by the previous bug, which I suspect might eventually fill every space I could put it if I'm not careful.

- For some reason, the distressed ship with the blob monsters you have to squish absolutely tanks my framerate, which is a pity because otherwise it would be a really fun task.

- The game really needs more money sinks. Aside from a handful of cosmetics, the only thing I've paid anything for was a second air cycler after I got the warp drive, and even if I did a complete visual redesign after every job I still couldn't keep up with my profits. Probably not ongoing costs because those would be stressful if they're big enough to do the job and annoying if they're not, but maybe some small upgrades you can just buy with cash, like maybe a shelving unit that you can place two delivery crates on.

- I've got a couple of rumors about things at specific coordinates in specific systems, but how do you find specific coordinates?

- There should be some kind of opportunity cost to prevent taking every single sector sidequest the moment you pop in and getting to them eventually maybe, because it clogs the menu and makes the act of choosing sidequests kinda meaningless. Maybe have an upper limit on how many you can have active at once, and canceling them to make room for different ones costs a fee.

- Not a gripe, but on the subject of how to deal with health my suggestion is that if your health runs out completely you collapse, and wake up again in a medical facility. Either due to medical bills, a rescue fee, or whoever rescued you rifling through your pockets, you lose a hefty but not devastating percentage of your total money (25%, maybe?). Your current job might also be canceled due to the delays.

I got stuck when i got 20 crates dropped on me in the loading dock.

Suggestions for upgrades

shelves in the storage wing (only holds delivery boxes)

bigger storage room

a fridge for the galley (only holds food items)

gameplay suggestions

let us walk thru boxes on the loading dock

make the star map a hex-grid (that way there can be a truer center of it)

also maybe a side quest to visit you're home system

Oh also, in the prologue, the planet's comms display already refers to "Mundaneium" when it ought to still be "Miraculum" or whatever.

Noticed two bugs that might be related (and also may have already been reported.)

When changing the control mapping, pressing the button you want to assign also registers as using that control; specifically, remapping the use button caused the remap option to be immediately reselected, then re-remapped, causing the button to briefly oscillate between the two states. This would sometimes end with the button being properly remapped, but not most of the time. (This most likely happens with all of the controls, but I only remapped use and back, with back predictably backing me out of the menu as I made the change.)

The other bug has to do with missions getting canceled. At the beginning of my second or third delivery mission, as I was moving the first half of the crates onto my ship, I was informed that the mission had been canceled due to missing cargo. I accepted another mission and began loading new crates and unloading old ones. This seemed to be going fine at first, but on one of my last two loads, the same missing cargo alert popped up. Both times this happened, I had picked up a crate immediately upon re-entering the ship due to either continuing to hold down the use key after activating the lift, or accidentally retapping it. Due to this, I think the game lost track of the crate because I was holding it when the ship loaded in, so it didn't detect it where it thought it should be.

These problems seem related to me, because I think that a touch of input delay on certain actions would at least partially solve both issues.

I should also note that I'm still able to take the same delivery twice and as of this version have seen deliveries canceled due to lost crates. I wouldn't be surprised if me doing the first exploit helps make the second bug happen.

First thing first, while I like the new piloting mechanics, making the minigame super rumbly to set yourself up for a vibrator joke when you review your own game later is totally cheating.

As for the bigger change with the delivery missions, I feel like it didn't work for me. On the one hand, I barely noticed that most of the systems were locked down, since I didn't really have any reason to be going anywhere unless there was delivery to do. I suppose this serves as a way to tell players who use survey devices a lot or just have a bunch of extra money and need upgrade units, "No, go do more delivering first!", but for normal gameplay it's kind of an oddity more than a mechanic.

Meanwhile, the lack of time limits made things feel both relaxed and rushed for me at the same time. The moment you finish a delivery, the guy gives you a new mission, and since it will always be on your planet and you don't have to worry about not being able to finish it on time, there's no reason to say no. But in that typical RPG way, the game expects you to just blow off that obligation at some point to experience the other stuff the game has to offer. Maybe the inclusion of story stuff will help with that, but obviously I can't speak to it.

I also feel like it takes some challenge and tension away. It's clear that I would like a tougher version of SV than what you're trying to make, but in this version there's so many decisions and calculations that don't matter now. Do I have enough warp fuel to get to the destination, or a good place to buy/collect it? Who cares? I'll get there when I get there. Should I put off repairs and gun ahead? Of course not, you'll have to do them eventually, so there's no reason to not 100% clean everything now.

So, I played the most recent alpha. This game is extremely slow. I get that it is somewhat the point. However when I was flying from point A to point B, there was simply nothing to do even in the piloting minigame. Unlike previous versions, there was no way to speed this up. So, it was a really dull experience.

I have now 2-3 hours into 1.9 and I found two bugs:

 first, if you go on a derelict ship and leave (just leave no matter what) the game crashes, and you get the items you that were on the lift. but you can revisit the same ship.

second, if you complete a delivery and you go to your ship while the animations and come back, your will get another delivery offered. if you accept it its cargo boxes will come to the platform, but some cargo boxes from the previous delivery will stay. and if you take all the boxes back to your ship, you will get a message saying the deliveries are canceled. and you cant get rid of the boxes on a uncivilized planet, because it says you cant leave boxes of an active delivery.

I sunk maybe 30 hours into 1.8. Awesome unwindy/podcasty game, enjoying the primary loop but in my 2nd playthrough I was able to get most upgrades doing sector jobs and only did 10~ deliveries.

On version 1.9 after clearing out a derelict ship and attempting to cargo bay back to my ship -

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ERROR in

action number 1

of Draw Event

for object obj_cargoplat:

Variable <unknown_object>.w(104411, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0

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gml_Object_obj_cargoplat_Draw_0 (line -1)

I was able to replicate this error by doing the same.
Hope this helps.

I got my very first errors in version 0.1.9

I tried to go on a derelict ship and well...

I hope the final version lets you buy dispensers with different foods, I don't care about biscuits.

I'm not normally that into life sims, but I enjoyed your dev diary series so I figured I'd give this a try.

I think my biggest issue so far is that you can't talk to any of the NPCs. I kept pressing the interact button on reflex to talk to shopkeepers and the like, and was disappointed when nothing happened. It makes the NPCs feel like cardboard cutouts rather than people. The dialogue in the story scenes was really great, so I'd love to see more of it.

The other thing is that the game kinda has the roguelike problem of every area feeling samey. Inhabited and uninhabited planets each look basically the same to one another. Since the main draw of the game is the environments and inhabitants, I'd like to see more variety there, get to see all the weird alien species and architecture in the galaxy and such.

Minor issues: It wasn't clear to me how the job time limits worked. What constitutes a "cycle"? I think the bars in the lower left correspond to job timers, but that could do with clearer indication. I also wasn't initially clear where the "shipyard" for upgrading the ship was, since that computer is towards the edge of the screen and usually covered up by GUI elements, plus there is another computer terminal at loading docks that I assumed covered everything. Maybe stick both the "expected deliveries" and the upgrade terminal together?

And while I know you want to lock off the story content for the demo, I think it might be nice to at least give us the initial hook. You said in your videos that the protagonist's actions in the tutorial have some relation to the appearance of the cosmic egg and that motivates them to investigate; it would be cool to see what that relation is, as a hook to get demo players interested in the main story. As it is there's not much indication that there is going to be a main story at all.

I liked the personality matrix idea. I agree with your assessment that forcing the player to make dialogue choices for every line is just tedious, and I think this is a great compromise. I think it also adds mystery to the game, in that unlike in a dialogue tree scenario you don't know what all the possible dialogue branches are.

I had no idea the biscuit dispensary wasn't a core feature (since 0.1.8 was my first version), but I think it works great.

I'm not gonna lie, I thought the biscuits were a weird idea at first, but now I'm won over. It's a surprisingly strategic mechanic, forcing you to trade time in front of the vending machine for more stamina in a pinch or on an away mission. Note that while it doesn't cost stamina to take a biscuit from the machine, you can't still block it off with boxes and softlock yourself if you don't have enough health to make a path.

Making the junk give fuel (and thus less stopping time) was a cool intangible to distinguish it from the other missions. It, along with the captain's chair being the best food source, also encourages doing the flying minigame more, which I'm not sure is good. I don't know where the story is supposed to fit in to all this.

I turned the floaty notifications (thanks for that, and the shoutout), but if you still had them on I think the angry emotes with dirty components are kind of obsolete now.

Occasionally, the arrow pointing you back to your ship's loading platform will obscure textboxes