Universal Star Nomad 2 (by Anh Huy Phan)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by TouchArcade Bot, Jun 1, 2016.

  1. razorracer83

    razorracer83 Well-Known Member

    #61 razorracer83, Jun 2, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2016
    Yeah, the physics are fine. Shoehorning a locked throttle on a giant fixed disc with an awkwardly placed brake isn't. The brake and afterburner should be with the other controls, and there should be a floating joystick option and joystick resize option (also option to either hold throttle or cut throttle when releasing d-pad). Honestly, this is the second worst implementation of movement controls I have ever seen on a mobile game, beaten only by Battle Supremacy Evolution. If it weren't for that, the game would be perfect. I normally don't nitpick, but I lost way too many bounties and got killed by frigate sandwich so much because of these controls.

    Rant mode over. Question time now. How do you build up faction rank? Because I can get the money for the Katana, but I have no clue how to get the required rank to purchase it.
     
  2. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    The first thing I did was implement a typical joystick option to pilot the ship like in other games. I quickly found it was not feasible because of a major reason:

    The right hand is very busy in SN2. When you start out, it's basically just launching missile and targeting. Quickly, it also have to control modules, active ability, squad/drone orders, and if you got unique ships with hull-mounted weapons (think Beam Frigates from Homeworld), it also has to fire the giant over-sized weapon. And opening cargo, jettison, looting, etc.

    This means the right hand cannot assist in piloting functions. It all has to rely on the left hand (thumb). But the left hand also has to handle other functions like boosting, star map, jumping. Often the left had is away from the joystick.. so I needed a control method that allows the ship to remain flying without any user input.

    Think of that pad disk not as a joystick, but as a "I want to move this way" and tap in that direction on the disk. Your ship will continue flying in that direction until you want to change or to come to a stop.

    I had a few testers play it and they gave similar feedback at the start, it was different to other control schemes, but they did adjust and said it was a good method. That's why I stuck with it, since at the time, I couldn't figure out a better way to adapt the mouse + keyboard.

    The factions will like you better if you perform actions that help them. This includes killing pirates in their systems (and only in their own systems!), killing Zerkers in their systems (avoid them early on!), trade goods which they desperately need to resolve a trade crisis. ie. If there's a viral outbreak, ship medicines there. If you ship enough, you will be recognized and given rep, fame, xp, credits. Though don't take too long, because it's a competitive system. NPC merchants also try to capitalize on trade crises. Similar to NPC Hunters on bounties. The longer a crisis is in place, the more likely the NPCs are going to resolve it.
     
  3. Ozes

    Ozes Well-Known Member

    Jul 29, 2012
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    I can't find the ui button to fire missles or get my guns working :(((
     
  4. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    They only load if you've equipped the modules. Did you launch into space without checking the hangar first? There's starting weapons and modules based on your career. Drag & drop into your ship slots to equip first. :)

    ie. If you fly into space "nude", without equip, the UI icons won't load as there's nothing to fire.
     
  5. Ozes

    Ozes Well-Known Member

    Jul 29, 2012
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    Doh!
    Thanks for the quick response I'll check that out in the hanger. Where is a good place to start as a hunter ?
     
  6. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    New Hope (then check the Star Map for hotspots with active bounties). Conserve your missiles, save them only to secure kills. Fire away when hostiles are low hull and on fire. Missiles are too expensive to waste early on. Let your friendly security forces take the brunt of the hostiles and zoom in to seize the kill. As a fresh rookie, be a vulture, an opportunistic hunter. :)
     
  7. Ozes

    Ozes Well-Known Member

    Jul 29, 2012
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    Thanks!!!
     
  8. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    Like AH says, New Hope and surrounding star systems are a good start (playing Hunter too, here) .
    In the beginning you really have to look for getting a few lucky killshots in, your weapons aren't strong enough to make a serious dent into anything.
    When a system is under pirate attack (you can see that on the Starmap), and you decide to join the fight: make sure to stay there and alive until the pirates a driven off and the system is declared safe again. Usually it takes a few minutes, but gives a nice additional reward.

    Same when you see an insystem mission (the green exclamation marks) to assist against a pirate attack. Play it carefully, make sure you survive to get bounty money for helping out; and increased faction standing, too.

    And if you see Zerkers, run. I got caught in 3-way crossfires (Zerkers, Pirates, System Security) twice already, let's just say it was a very short battle for me :p One good shot from a Zerker can take off half your Corvette's health easily.
     
  9. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    @AH_Phan: Next question :)
    You mentioned a Mission Log earlier, where do I find that?

    I had a mission (from one of those green exlamation marks) to bring a message to Neo Eden. Went there, even got a notification on the way that I have a mission to go there. But when I arrived, I couldn't find any way to deliver the message let alone claim my reward.
    Now I have no idea and no way to tell if I screwed up, if the mission is still active and I just missed something, or if it's a bug, etc.
     
  10. Ubisububi

    Ubisububi Well-Known Member

    Oct 8, 2009
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    When I got that mission, I just docked at the planet to trigger the quest conclusion. I've had a couple of escort missions that I ended up blowing off because nothing happened. Finally figured out that you have to kill at least one baddie during the escort to get the reward.

    Can't... Stop... Playing...

    Getting close to 800 rep with the starting faction. It's going pretty fast since I bought a drone cruiser on a pirate world. What the Dev says about the drone AI is true. Almost overpowered.
     
  11. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    You never could lock out certain devices, but you 'sort-of' could by looking for hardware like a camera, GPS, etc. and stopping with a Device Unsupported popup.

    It's a real bummer that Apple won't let 6+/6s+ be it's own category. It already has some of the iPad UI bits that the other phones don't, devs should be able to include it explicitly.
     
  12. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    Odd... I didn't notice anything happening when I docked. Guess I'll have to wait for AH to come back from his beauty sleep and reply ;)

    I hear you ;) looking forward to the evening here, where I can play an hour or two in one go.

    Nowhere near that yet, I still need to get 400 with the Free Union. But then I didn't have that much time to play so far.
    In SN1, the drones were really powerful already. With improved AI I expect them to become nasty little killers ;)
     
  13. razorracer83

    razorracer83 Well-Known Member

    That's okay. The game is so good, I'm willing to look and work past the control limitations. I mean I had it worse with the claw controls on Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on PSP, and I played with that limitation.

    Now, to unlock the Katana, which faction governs it, and what is the means of getting rep?
     
  14. Opiate

    Opiate Well-Known Member

    Apr 11, 2015
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    Initiate comm to other ships?

    Is there a way to do comm chat like in the pc version to initiate threats and things like that? I'm in neo Eden and failed to deliver the crystal somehow (maybe it's cause I docked somewhere else first to pick up goods for there to kill 2 birds with one stone). But now my standing for them is above neutral and the other factions are now hostile to me.

    Any way I can lower their faction rep like attacking their ships or anything to lower it? Friendly fire isn't working for me at all.
     
  15. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    I'm pretty sure you need the required standing with the faction controlling the starport where you want to buy it.
    E.g. at first I couldn't buy anything requiring 200 reputation in Free Union ports. When I hit 200 rep with them, I could. I'm almost at 400, will let you know if my assumption is correct.

    You gain rep e.g. for helping with breaking pirate blockade of a system, trading goods that are demanded (like AH's example of a virus outbreak and shipping medicine there), do insystem missions (fighting off pirates only, so far); and other stuff I don't know about yet, I guess.
     
  16. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    The log is more a "personal log entry" for more important random encounter missions. It pops up when you dock.

    Some encounters that involve the delivery of sensitive info (encrypted crystals), which the Pilot tell you to "hurry to somewhere", etc, really means it so if you dock else where and take your time, the crystal will self-destruct.

    If you choose to partake, make it the focus. If you fail those, no worries, just continue on in your journey.

    Some random encounter outcomes is not typical in other games, like you meet a random stranger, he asks you to fund him to do something to make more credits, and meet him somewhere to do it... when you show up, there's a chance he's not there. You were duped. ;) I had Steam players ask me this a few times thinking it's a bug.
     
  17. razorracer83

    razorracer83 Well-Known Member

    #77 razorracer83, Jun 3, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2016
    Thanks. I think it was Free Union who I needed rep in order buy the ship, because I was slightly under 200 and I couldn't, then I got my rep over 200 and I was able to buy it.

    Anyway, I got the Katana with small and medium turrets, all medium missles, the 15,000 wingman from the pirate base in the northeast, named Talon, and an automatic lifepod retrieval drone. I think it's going to be smooth sailing from now on.

    Trust me, I've played Out There: Omega Edition and seen plenty of that kind of dynamic choice mechanic. It's more "bug the heck out of me" than "bug".
     
  18. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    I basically ran out of UI space/icons so the active coms chat to threaten targets was removed. There's already too much going on with the UI once you have ability and active modules.

    Friendly fire was a big complaint early on for the PC version, it was toned down a lot. But on the PC you could control the firing of turrets with the mouse, so friendly fire was always your fault. Here, the turrets are mostly AI controlled and I knew if I kept FF, a lot of players would rage about it.. :(

    You can still kill them with missiles, if you target a friendly and finish them off, you will lose rep and eventually be hated. Though if you want to make friendlies enemies, just go help their enemies.
     
  19. AH_Phan

    AH_Phan Well-Known Member

    Aug 27, 2014
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    That encounter conclusion has a few outcomes, some good, some bad. But it's a good encouragement for pilots to explore other regions and meet new factions. :)

    800 rep already, wow, fast!

    Drones are overpowered if you spec your Pilot skills for Drones. But they need to be overpowered, because faction siege fleet battles to crush the other factions are HARD.
     
  20. razorracer83

    razorracer83 Well-Known Member

    I can see that being the case. I don't know if anbody here has played the PC/Xbox One game Starpoint Gemini 2, but in that game, if you specced your skill points and crew/gear toward fleet and fighters, you could make a very powerful carrier build, that, with the proper dreadnought support, could decimate fleets with it's fighter's like a swarm of locusts. Having properly buffed drones in this game would have the same effect.

    That reminds me, is there a way or place that you can respec? I don't know if that has been asked earlier.
     

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