cool! just working through the options atm and figuring out how to configure the ships, not to mention the colonies. Had a nice encounter with a ai force, pretty small but also pretty indestructible, at least i managed to configure the CL quite right which kept me safe, their Cruiser was quite amazing and i was already happy to have those 2 slow slow carriers on destroyer size not destroyed. Will i keep them, configure the force in a different way..... what will i add, Also using the fast carrier cruiser size atm, the thing is a bit underwhelming all in all with only a small amount of ordnance points, and with heavy systems shielding that increases combat performance as a must atm since all battle deployments turn out to be quite lengthy......... etc etc etc

Had to do some hard work before being able to deliver some new shiny piccies !

Atm trying to combine both prospect and bounty hunting tasks just to be sure to make the most out of fuel efficiency in 1 run and such, a bit of practice before the game is fully released and i have a go at the iron man mode, etc etc. Most of the times there are enough jobs broadcasted when i get back into com range with the core worlds.

Still nothing to spectacular, bounties are in the 1kk range and most survey fee's hang around the 6ties something 7ties.

Now after a week of play combat remains one of the more satisfying aspects of this game. Only to be able to make use of the provided orders such as evade that huge #@$^@#$^ everyone but focus on those little side dishes or guard/ capture retreat to is quite the relief, most of the time your captains try to obey without any goofy actions such as leaving sides unprotected etc.

The tech difference is also quite handily worked into the designs and their advantages. New and Sleek does not automatically mean better, for worse.

I primarily tend to work with groups, in the spirit of the almighty weber and consorts, though the game does not come close, which maybe is for the better, all the I have the better range with missiles etc and the whole tech race that evolves around ECM and ECCM ( which i find a bit lacking atm ingame but that might be me ) missile range and damage is nice to read about but to have such a thing implemented in a game , CMANO maybe ?
With specified direct orders now and then just to keep it running. No personal commanding of a ship though, i leave that for the younger crowd ;-)

In this engagement the CL and the DD manage to restrict almost half their battlegroup comprised out of 4 CV's ( sort off CV it can launch a wing you know ) and a civilian grade DD with the backup of the squadrons launched from our own CV ( and some minor long range support weaponry ) While the 2 destroyer variants fight it out

I started my second-ever character in Cyberpunk 2077 and my first female character. I normally play as a guy but I'm open to playing a female character if the protagonist is voiced (EG: Fallout 4, which was the first Fallout game where I played a female character). I didn't intend it but she gives a bit of a Floor Jansen (Nightwish/ex-After Forever) vibe.

EDIT: Apparently, my screenshot was over the file size limit. I uploaded it to Imgur.

The first manufactured fleet by the Gogian republic is a technologically advanced Cruiser. Aimed at both research and conquest ( these are the voyages of the ... USS Voyager ... )
This will turn out as the new pride, and the new vessel for the beloved admiral.... if not for numerous problems that could be mostly accounted towards huge ambitions, failing quality management control and tbh IMHO a low budget...

During the blessing ceremony the traditional thrown bottle of champaign managed to damage a sensor suit, can you imagine ? Luckily the reserve engineering crew on standby managed to keep this fact a secret for the public. What also kept a secret is she was moved to the docks afterwards still not to be seen in public ever since

Also a first, The Persean league, known for its friendly stance towards everyone except downright dictators, launched a fleet to disrupt some of Gogians mining operations !

Now to skim the outreaches of the sector searching for precious blue prints of even more arcane technology !

Onwards Gogians!!

It's somehow so satisfying flying a ship that came out of your own industries, even if it's got 1 or 2 d-mods. But at least with by newly acquired corrupted nanoforge, by which I mean nicked from the luddic church, I should get some better quality ships.

OT, took a bit of an openttd break: trying to buy up enough land to build the largest airport in the game. Unfortunately the city cannot appreciate the greater good, and keep on fighting me as I try to level a large area for the monstrosity...

Blueprint raiding ? I'm not really into that though..... the threshold is slowly degrading with the other factions poking their noses into my shit more and more often. Still in the race for that magic remnant find, at least the colonies provide a steady stream of income. I have one earthlike planet and production is off the charts! with 10% of the weapons and hulls market firmly in control it can only go upwards if i manage to provide the same blueprint towards other planets. The hazard ratings of the other planets is a huge so profits won't be nearly as high as on the Earthlike planet.
I did happen to find an elite ranked overseer for one of the colonies. At drift in his still working cryopod, bugger was so grateful he only expects a salary of 25k.... gratitude goes a long way, still with the ground defense bonus, stability +2 rating and 1 extra production for all resources produced i'm betting he will turn one of the mining initiatives to a great success if i ever manage to grow that colony into a prosperous environment with a couple of million inhabitants. The Hegemony already decided on paying a visit, free traders and such, not to mention the Church too who both happen to be still friends at this point. I can sabotage their efforts with the contacts build during the freelancer years but it will either cost me a story point and some money or a huge decrease in opinion if called upon a favor... Choices Choices, at least your early warning about building starbases as soon as possible was one aimed at the right address. The first raid aimed at one of the primary worlds was easily subdued by its defenses. Hull quality is at 40% leaving only 2 to 3 d-mods per hull completely relying on the own manufacturing process at this points. It is pretty nice to see how the blueprints you discover are slowly implemented in the fleets build automatically. I do belief you can have a say in the fleet composition used but that seems to be a rather arcane tool.
Also accidently discovered a story told in the universe which was a nice surprise, during the outer rim expeditions, managed to come across a couple of surprises, including a ...... neutron star, jumped in blindly, scared myself shitless while exploring, managed to remember your picture where you hide behind a planet, attempted the same, lost about a 1000 supplies in the process, not to mention some lives lost and barely made it able back into friendly territory!

Really, this game is a huge contender for the best spacer award 1919, together ( probably ) with Shadow Empire and probably Distant Worlds 2

Currently playing Metro Exodus. At first I had a hard time to progress in the game (more precisely on the first open world map). I was even considering to lower the difficulty level. It even discouraged me to continue playing because easy difficulty is meant for casuals. ;) Somehow I was able to push forward today and I'm not having any major difficulties since then. Graphics is good, but ray tracing isn't visible as clearly as it should be. Cyberpunk 2077 pushed this feature to a maximum and it doesn't impress in other games that much anymore. :)

still if someone says raytracing the first game that comes to my mind is control and not cyberpunk

maybe, in a couple of years when i switch gpu's my choice will change too ;-)

Control also profits a lot from ray tracing, especially the reflections. But ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077 is on a whole new level. On my playthrough I decided to sacrifice a lot of performance to be able to play with this feature enabled and it was worth it! :)

Think it's the first game I've seen in which you can actually hide from a star behind a planet :)

OT,
- spruced up my transport network a bit. Here's a quaint little town, with a joined airport-train station, with buses collecting passengers across town
- back to starsector, another benefit of broadsides is being able to lay down the pain in two different directions
- encountered my first paragon, which was an unnerving experience
- I don't think I can solo it with my ship, but with at least 1 other ship helping me we brought it down

the game is to cool...... really, this will be my next gratutious space battles..... that silly game that reminded me of my youth where i was drawing space battles after watching an episode of robotech, spend 700 hours ( 400 hours drunk ) in that silly game.

now this one is reminding me of every military sf novel i've enjoyed since older ( sober ) and it seems there are also some amazing mods to be found that bring the game up to speed.

the combat analytics mod is certainly worthwhile once up to date with the current version
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11551.0

and if i make it to the point where fleet sizes become extreme ( for example the amount of points of ships deployed as reserve ) i will give enlarging the fleet size ( which apparently can done manually ) a try
increasing the amount of memory in the code seems a bit of a hassle and with the current specs aiming at a much older machine i do hope that my state of the art 2020 build pc will prove good enough ( much faster clock cycle... faster ram speeds ... lets see )
the addition of other races and some bigger galaxy also seem pretty oke but to be honest, the amount of time you are already spending in this game at this level, i would at least have an option of having more colonies/send more fleets out etc

anyways

- after hard fought pyric victory i did not have enough supplies to make the trip back towards a starbase or planet for resupply ( AND I ACCIDENTLY FORGOT TO RECOVER ONE OF THE TOP LINE CRUISERS LOST IN BATTLE !!!! )
- Phase corps in action, running with 3 of those atm, 1 destroyer and 2 frigates and the right technology perk which also provides an extra level of stealth when ' going dark ' - currently using the destroyer in combination with 2 other destroyers to ' clean ' the rim of the battlefield from any stray cruisers and the occasional carrier

It's a real gem for sure :) and spacewise will probably occupy me until Distant Worlds 2 come out, or I dive back into Kerbal.
But yeah, there are some great mods. Nexrellin or something like that is also quite interesting, if you can tolerate the UI not really intended to handle it's added features.
And I already had to increase battlesize, otherwise it puts me at a serious disadvantage in most fights. Now I can field my conquest, astral carrier and a few cruisers || frigates in any battle.

Work has seriously caught up with me, so starsector is a bit on the backburner for now. Nevertheless a couple of shots:
- Taking on a scary looking hegemony onslaught. I've got soloing these down to an art with my conquest.
- Damn ludic terrorists were using this station as a base to create cells in my Manaan water world colony. Were...
- Aftermath of the biggest battle I've had yet. Wasn't even planned. I accidentally ran into them on my way to a bounty, as they were heading to assault one of my colonies.

doubled max deployment points towards 800, increased reserved ram to 6 gb's .. yea i'm having fun ,colonies are now good for about 150k on a monthly basis, though fully resupplying the fleet is at around a 100k . full fuel tanks and at least enough supplies to either have one major battle or go twice round the sector

check out this encirclement maneuver, the enemy does manage to keep one side free but by then it is actually already to late

Very cool. I might have to max the deployment points as well, so that I can use my entire fleet at once. I recently tried to take on a [redacted] fleet, but their capital ship is the stuff of nightmares... Perhaps if I can field my entire fleet will I stand a chance.

OT, briefly checked out an old favorite again after many years: Deadlock Planetary Conquest. Quickly uninstalled the bugger though, before it turned into a huge timesink.

it is still very charming, i do need to copy the game onto a iso and mount it to get undisturbed sound quality
but yea.. enough time sinks already as it is