I mean, the dev does say 6+ (6+ and 6S+) only due to space so I'm pretty sure smaller phones won't work...
Thanks. Per your question about sandbox, the goal is to be famous & talented enough to join a major faction, access their best ships, mods and weapons, then help them conquer the rest in epic fleet siege battles. Along the way you find recruits and run into lots of interesting encounters... or you turn into a pirate or drug smuggler yourself.
Thanks! Oh, in case you guys skip through all the tutorial text (pfft, who reads 'em?!)... don't forget to use your skill-points, touch-hold your pilot while docked to bring up the skill tree. It's a flexible one, lots of builds available. And don't be in a rush to fly into space, check your modules hangar and equip the starting weapons & modules. Don't be rushing into space "naked", for the universe is harsh and uncompromising. I'll be back tomorrow morning (Australia) to answer any queries.
The description says iOS 9+ but the requirements say iOS 8.0. Which is it? I'll be playing on an iPad Air 2.
First impression after playing for half an hour or so: A bit too sandboxy/open for my tastes. I see the dev mentioning all those interesting things (recruits, encounters, etc.) , but currently I am flying around rather aimlessly trying to figure out where to go. Hope that'll change at some point. Newtonian flight I'll never warm up to, screw realism I prefer the totally unrealistic but easier to handle non-Newtonian flight we see in most other space games. Any chance to get a toggle for that? What is the thingie in my screenshot (red arrow)? It shows on the map, just like lifepods (white dot below my ship). I spent at least 5 minutes trying to pick it up, to no avail.
Loving the game, have a few observations and I'm hoping the Dev can help: 1. I am unable to sell any weapons (by dragging, etc). 2. I was able to purchase a frigate without the proper reputation. 3. It consumes battery at an alarming rate (40% in one hour of game play). 4. It's not obvious what weapon sizes will fit in each ship (missile bays and module placements are marked as s/m/l but weapon bays are not).
After 15 minutes of playing on my 6S+, I think I'm done. The "realistic" physics are absolutely awful, I'd have more fun with fake physics (I spent 4 minutes flying around in a circle to try and get to what I'd assume is this game's equivalent of a jump gate, only to be blown up 30 seconds after I managed to get stopped in exactly the right spot), the buttons and icons are way too tiny, and the fonts used and colors picked are very difficult to read. In as far as I can tell, there's no actual tutorial, just a 60 second walkthrough on what each button does, and it appears that the game is entirely sandbox, rather than a single player game with a loose story. Even EVE has NPC missions designed to get you started.
I am loving the flight. It reminds me of subspace/continuum! I have always wanted that same feeling of flight on ios!
The Flatspace port from the early iOS days > space sim of all. The first star nomad had a pretty similar feel.
You start the game really weak. You have to slowly build your ship to get to that other stuff. At first focus on hauling cargo between planets and picking a few weak battles. Start upgrading your ship and things get a lot more interesting. There's definitely a steep learning curve at the beginning of the game. It gets a long easier once you master the control style and upgrade your ship. That is a life pod. You pick them up and exchange the survivor for money. There's addon for your ship that makes picking them up a lot easier. But you got to earn it.
@klink: I went with a bountyhunter (trading is for wussies ) and am making progress. Got a really lucky shot in on a Pirate Cruiser, resulting in over 10k bounty for that one kill alone. My problem wasn't starting out weak, that's expected. More a "ok, now where do I go? Where is all the fancy stuff?" thing. Just one or two pointers would have been enough. E.g. "You know that in system Burblnoz they run a pilot academy? Always have some young hotshots there, eager to sign up with anyone willing to give them a chance." I just upgraded to the next best Corvette, saving up for a nice-looking 50k ship now Fully agree with jasonlitka that the flight model is awful, just hit the edge of the map: good luck getting away from there again. That I sucked with Newtonian flight as early as Asteroids, and things didn't get better 35 years later only makes it worse Primary wish for an update: "normal" flight model. And no, the Lifepods look different (white and square). Them I can pick up easily, no problem (if I can hit them... cue more complaints about the awful flight mechanics) Those green thingies in my screenshot I cannot grab, no idea why. Last for now, I can confirm that on an Air1 it drains battery like it's going out of style as well. ~20 minutes playing, almost 20% down. That definitely needs optimising, and lots of it.
I love a good space RPG, I still play GoF2 regularly. I also love a developer who isn't afraid to go premium, so I'm buying in.
Thanks! Argh, now that's flatout bad UI. @Ah_Phan: Any chance to change that? And while we are at it, add a tractor beam as automatic equipment for all ships, so you can pull the stuff in from farther away. Next one that goes on the list is a better UI for the skilltree, and an option to respec anytime. I just wasted a skillpoint, thanks to large fingers.
