Particle Fleet: Emergence

[crazyroosterman]

i played it for a bit 2 hours ago and so far I'm six campagian missions in and I'm digging it so far in the last mission i did i unlocked a pretty intresting ship whitch i whont spoil for those who havent played yet.
the narratives throwaway but the musics pretty dope (all 2 of the tracks I've seen so far) not much else to say till i get back my non toaster laptop realy.

[Aklyon]

The narrative makes more sense if you remember the one from CW3.

[crazyroosterman]

The narrative makes more sense if you remember the one from CW3.

haven't actually played that one but the story makes plenty sense its just not terribly interesting is all which is what I meant by saying it felt a bit throwaway(not exactly what I said but it doesn't feel fair to call it objectively bad when I haven't experienced all of if) also I forgot to mention that its been performing fine so far no performance issues at all.

[Misery]

Well, I picked this up (as if I needed ANOTHER strategy game right now...), and so far, this is pretty great.  It's a far cry from CW3 though; very different games, with the focus on highly mobile ships instead of turrets (though the ships also function as turrets as I find myself often having to leave specific ones in certain spots to hold back the nonstop blobs), and the variable behaviors and types of the Particulate.  Interesting how that stuff behaves... more of a threat that can come directly at you OR flow, but it doesn't have the same threatening property of simply drowning absolutely everything like the Creeper did.

So far the game seems quite a bit easier than CW3, at least for the campaign.  Part of it is certainly that energy production/usage is MUCH simpler this time around... no real focus on infrastructure.  Just grab energy mine locations and go.  Some people definitely wont like that part, I could go either way really.  I'm tearing through the campaign very quickly though. 

Love some of the creative mechanics here, the "grabber" ships sure are fun.  And as usual I like the fact that this is a very ACTIVE game... if I'm sitting around having a dull moment, it probably means I'm doing something wrong or just outright missing something.  This developer is really good at keeping their games' pace/flow going at a good rate.

I do think the campaign should have been tougher though.  That's one complaint I saw right away just randomly looking at reviews on Steam, some players were really put off by that.  Though the game is clearly focused on post-campaign content than anything else.

Music is great as always.

[crazyroosterman]

Well, I picked this up (as if I needed ANOTHER strategy game right now...), and so far, this is pretty great.  It's a far cry from CW3 though; very different games, with the focus on highly mobile ships instead of turrets (though the ships also function as turrets as I find myself often having to leave specific ones in certain spots to hold back the nonstop blobs), and the variable behaviors and types of the Particulate.  Interesting how that stuff behaves... more of a threat that can come directly at you OR flow, but it doesn't have the same threatening property of simply drowning absolutely everything like the Creeper did.

So far the game seems quite a bit easier than CW3, at least for the campaign.  Part of it is certainly that energy production/usage is MUCH simpler this time around... no real focus on infrastructure.  Just grab energy mine locations and go.  Some people definitely wont like that part, I could go either way really.  I'm tearing through the campaign very quickly though. 

Love some of the creative mechanics here, the "grabber" ships sure are fun.  And as usual I like the fact that this is a very ACTIVE game... if I'm sitting around having a dull moment, it probably means I'm doing something wrong or just outright missing something.  This developer is really good at keeping their games' pace/flow going at a good rate.

I do think the campaign should have been tougher though.  That's one complaint I saw right away just randomly looking at reviews on Steam, some players were really put off by that.  Though the game is clearly focused on post-campaign content than anything else.

Music is great as always.

yea the grabbers pretty neto aint it? my favourite ship so far though is

Spoiler for Hiden:

the massive RAM ship being able to send that into a group of threats and have it come of fairly healthy is wonderful

the destroyer feels a little bit pointless not that ill be using the default fleet outside the campaigns.

[Misery]

yea the grabbers pretty neto aint it? my favourite ship so far though is

Spoiler for Hiden:

the massive RAM ship being able to send that into a group of threats and have it come of fairly healthy is wonderful

Ah, yes, that thing.  That might be my favorite also now.  Out of so many units in strategy games that might be the one that fits my general gaming style the most.  Screw weapons and tactics and such, just SLAM RIGHT INTO IT.  Screw walls, too, while you're at it. 

Favorite moment so far, that really made me realize how strong that thing could be, was at one point in my last mission (the one where the cannons from Creeper World show up for the first time) where I had it sitting still for awhile since it wasn't time to fling it at stuff yet, this being after a confusing battle earlier, and I suddenly notice:  The ship is letting off little sparks constantly.  I'm thinking... what the heck is doing that?  There's nothing around here to damage it (this was near the energy mine, so it just kept healing).  So I moved it out of the way... and I found out it had been sitting *on* an emitter that entire time.  Just parked right on top of it.  And the emitter couldn't exactly break free so long as the ship had energy.  Parked it right back on top, got the Lathes over there, and BAMF, that was the end of that thing.  I was quite entertained.

the destroyer feels a little bit pointless not that ill be using the default fleet outside the campaigns.

Aye, that thing seems to be a light support ship at best.  The expendable one; if the big hammer thing isn't nearby, I find it okay to just ram something with the destroyer as a backup plan, when something needs ramming.  It sure wont last as long but it can at least take a chunk of stuff out that way and delay things until the hammer can get there.

As for other ships I haven't even messed with the editor yet myself.  It's interesting to see that the game actually divides scoreboards into two sets depending on wether you're playing a given map with the basic set of ships or a custom set.    I'm guessing that there's going to be a lot of custom maps specifically geared towards one or the other.


On a side note, maybe it's just my playstyle but I sure find myself microing the heck outta everything in this.  Granted I do that to a degree in CW3 as well, but even moreso here.

[kasnavada]

Aye, that thing seems to be a light support ship at best.  The expendable one; if the big hammer thing isn't nearby, I find it okay to just ram something with the destroyer as a backup plan, when something needs ramming.  It sure wont last as long but it can at least take a chunk of stuff out that way and delay things until the hammer can get there.

Ahah, I did that a lot . Bring the lathes in, then sacrifice the other ships for cover.

I tried some user-maps and a lot of them have custom fleets. They have varying difficulty though. One was very strange, only 1 emitter... which emits some kind of serpent particulate endlessly. Which cuts into different parts when shot. Watching that one move forward, backward, feinting like a sword sometime was really, really fun. I kind of wonder what advanced maps could generate once tricks like this one get better known.

[Aklyon]

So far the game seems quite a bit easier than CW3, at least for the campaign.  Part of it is certainly that energy production/usage is MUCH simpler this time around... no real focus on infrastructure.  Just grab energy mine locations and go.  Some people definitely wont like that part, I could go either way really.  I'm tearing through the campaign very quickly though.

The energy is a lot like CW2's wireless energy tech, but not sideview, and with relay ships instead of microrifts.

Also, the Hammer is great at clearing nebulae or repairing yours. So many of the blue dot weapon on one durable ship. My favorite ship would be the Varro over the hammer, though. Triple Mk7s on a non-custom ship is a great thing.

[TheVampire100]

I bought the game because you guys couldn't stop talking about it and raised my interest. I hope you are happy now.
Anyway, can't wait to test this. I really liked CW3 and if this is any similiar to it, this can only be good.

[crazyroosterman]

I bought the game because you guys couldn't stop talking about it and raised my interest. I hope you are happy now.
Anyway, can't wait to test this. I really liked CW3 and if this is any similiar to it, this can only be good.

your welcome  and it is good in fact its pretty sick.


also I always thought that blue dot weapon was a slower like the white it honestly never occurred to me it could be anything different but i guess that explains why I haven't been getting as much use out of that ship as much as I should.
not that it'll matter when I get round beating the campaigns and move on to the user generated stuff.

[Misery]

So, playing further into this, and.... yeah, at this point I freaking adore this game.  It's just as damn good as Creeper World, and honestly, these two games are the only strategy games I consider to be on par with Arcen's stuff.  I find them to be just that freaking good.

And just so creative.  I don't know how this developer comes up with this stuff (which is also something I've said about Arcen too, heh). 

The Hammer is still the best ship/unit ever.  I don't think I'll ever tire of ramming that into stuff.  It amazes me though that even a simplistic unit like that has tons of versatility.  The only ships that aren't too versatile are the anti-stunner things.

Wrote up a big review on Steam about this, as it's one that's worth the time to do that.  I hope the developer keeps going with this one... I'd love to see what other ideas he can come up with here.

EDIT:  Okay, I will say one thing:  The "giant freaking cannon" thing is probably the worst (most bugged?) element I've seen in these games so far.  It seems almost totally untested; fires through walls, extreme RNG as to wether or not it'll one-hit-kill a ship, extreme RNG as to what it targets, no ship in the game can withstand it since the death-particles can spawn ON a ship's core (....what?  This got past testing how exactly?) .... there's zero strategy to these.  At all.  Ugh.  It's bad enough that I'll probably always completely avoid any maps that have this thing.  Currently I'm just doing mission 15, which.... is so bloody boring since it almost entirely consists of waiting for things to very sloooooowwwwlllllyyyyy rebuild.  I may end up just saying "screw it" and jumping to other modes.

[Misery]

THERE ARGH.   That's done.  It only took a damn hour.  Ended up doing it by not freaking caring if the HQ went down and simply being hyper aggressive as if it was still there.  And then warping it back in when it was ready.

Bloody strange mission, in the end.  At least for how I did it, it ends up being entirely about the Omnis.  Reactors + cannons, and a big damn horde of the thing.  Little buggers are entertaining to use aggressively.  It's odd, the game doesn't really hint to the player much at how exactly to go about that, despite it being an important concept.

That cannon though... opinion on THAT hasn't changed.  Once that stupid thing was stopped, the mission went back to actually being interesting though.  Not that I didn't still manage to lose some ships though. 

[kasnavada]

I agree with the cannon part, but I just spread out my ships so 2 of them wouldn't be hit, reducing the rebuild to a minimum.

I found the omni reactor + cannon combo sooner than what you seem to have, and yes being aggressive with them is fun  .
It's a nice trick to have in a lot of situations because ships ain't that effective against land, and that includes enemies =).

[Misery]

Yeah, it took me awhile to realize that landing Omnis on mired land wouldn't kill them INSTANTLY like I thought it would; didn't figure that out until a certain mission kinda forced it (I forget which one).  And then it's like, oh, I can do even more stuff with these then...  cannons and reactors suddenly got extra useful.  Though I'm convinced that the Benign Emergent tech is the best of them.  That stuff is bloody strong as heck when directed to the right places.

Either way though I'd love to see a fix to that damn cannon; I actually cant tell if it's just designed badly, or if there's an actual bug there.  This developer just isn't the sort to leave something like that in there.  I mean, the thing can instakill the HQ via pure RNG and lock up your entire economy.  That's pretty bad.  It's really been my only complaint with the game so far though.

Well, that and the bizarre lack of tooltips on ships (on the panel for building them). 

[Aklyon]

I actually didn't have too much trouble with the cannon in Origin, I'd just split the fleet in two and stuck the destroyer in front of the HQ.

The cannons in Duty, however. Those were annoying.