Spam

Man, the definition of Spam sure has changed over the years. It used to mean “a rapid fire repetition of the same line in chat.” Then it went to “any repetition of the same line in chat.” Then to “if the same person typed more than one line in sequence.” Stupid shit.

Communism

Some guy on facebook said:

So basically, no incentive for anyone to study hard and spend thousands or dollars and hundred of hours more to become a physician or any highly skilled profession to serve the community.

I’m sure there are many other aspects of Communism that are wonderful in theory, but in reality it simply doesn’t work.

I had to respond, to stand up against this childish thinking, and correct it like I would an unruly child. You’ll find my response below:

The “Communism” argument is so tired, expired, and disgustingly weak. People who try to hold back man from reaching towards civilization’s peak. People who stick “Communism” on any fucking thing that goes against the greed machine that Capitalism breeds. Grow the fuck up and share your toys with others Donald Trump. Stop trying to dump selfish ideas out your ass, camoflaged in the crap of false patriotism, shit stained nationalism. But, bitchy little “toddlers” throw tantrums, God I can’t can’t stand them, billions of toys locked away in his room, tellin’ us “we have the right to be greedy?” That’s not a goal, that’s what a rich man tells you when he doesn’t want to share. Get that crap outta here.

I’ll line by line these for you:
If your primary incentive for becoming a physician is money, you’re focusing on serving yourself, not the community.

A person shouldn’t have to spend anything for a college education of their choice.

Success shouldn’t be measured by how much cash you managed to stockpile.

Succcess should be measured by how positively you effect others lives.

TLDR: Dude, most parents I know teach their kids to share. Sharing /= Communism for fuck’s sake. Social growth /= Communism. Greed /= Good. Some rich motherfucker telling you “Vote for me, I won’t tax you.” just means he doesn’t want to BE taxed. And guess what? He taxes you, and makes damn sure to destroy any laws that require him to pay you a decent wage.

Freedom of Speech

What’s going on in America today disgusts me. White Nationalists, Klu Klux Klan, American Freedom Party, Aryan Nations, etc. ( more here ) spray painting hateful messages in public places ( article here ), violently killing two men who stood up for a muslim woman ( article here ), plowing into protestors ( article here ), and other disturbing, terroristic acts.

The movement has gathered so much momentum, that Donald Trump was aided by these groups in his candidacy to become President of the United States ( potus ). That this happened in American History, that we the people allowed these Nazi groups to gather so much strength that they helped get a candidate elected as President, after my grandfather and his brother fought and killed Nazis in World War II to protect humanity, warns us that we’ve got huge problems in the United States of America. How did we let this happen?

America’s past is bloody and violent – slavery, civil war, world wars, etc. The Civil War was absolutely caused because the confederacy wanted to continue to keep slaves ( article here ). The civil war ended legal slavery in the United States. World War I ended a violent struggle for power to control others. World War II ended the Nazi agenda of genocide, and Japan’s struggle with it’s own fear of getting stomped flat by western powers. ( article here ).

I can get into smaller examples around the United States of America that show these thought patterns in action, ranging from the hanging and burning alive of African Americans by Klu Klux Klan members, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, to a teenager posting a video online of KKK hanging a black man ( article here ). I can show many instances of Nazi thinking causing acts of violence against others who don’t fit the Nazi idea of what a human should be ( article here ) – remember, Hitler used fear to gain support when he started. From this, we can see that any groups who promote these past violent acts, these past violent thought patterns, must be stopped.

The main argument I see today in favor of these hate groups has to do with the United States’ Freedom of Speech as applied to Hate groups:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

People who espouse this as the reason that we must continue to allow these groups to do this fail to see one very important point clearly – Nazis committed genocide because of what they thought, because of the Nazi thinking process. I’ve seen defenses like this:

I disagree. Our freedom of speech is at the very essence of who we are as a nation. It’s easy for me to say that they can’t speak when I find there ideals repulsive. What happens if they gain power and shut down my speech because I stand for equality regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

One thing this individual, who’s name I’ve omitted, fails to see (or ignores) is that these Nazi groups can use the Freedom of Speech to rally like minded people to them, and if they become numerous enough, they will take over our country right in front of our eyes, which might be what’s happening with the election of Donald Trump. If these people do take over, you can expect that our Freedom of Speech about what’s right and good for human life will be obliterated.

Do you want to allow the United States of America to go back to slavery? Do you want to go back to genocide because you feel your race is superior to others? Do you want to go back to allowing those governed by greed, who have money, to have the power to govern (World War I)? Let’s get back to the question I asked a few paragraphs up.

How did we let this happen? We did nothing. We pretended that there’s nothing going on. We stayed in our semi-private personal bubbles, where the effects of recent times might not have touched yet. We allowed ourselves to feel that our votes and voices don’t matter.

There’s a difference between speaking out, rallying, and promoting actions that help people live peacefully, and speaking out, rallying, and promoting things that the Nazis did, and the Nazi way of thinking.

Freedom of speech ends as soon as you make a solid threat. It ends when you call your boss a f**khole when he’s standing behind you without you knowing. It ends when you say something hateful to friends or loved ones that hurts them deeply. “Freedom of speech” for too many equates to “there’s no consequences to my words.”

We have laws to bind back our actions for a reason. I’m going to get graphic here to show my point. It’s not allowable to promote rape, to rally for rape, to promote the thinking around rape. No, hell no. That’s disgusting, immoral, putrid. The thinking involved with rape is just as disgusting as the thinking behind the actions of the Nazi regime. The genocide of Jews, and anyone not fitting the Nazi agenda, is disgusting. We cannot allow this to continue.

Did I make my point clear for you now?

Hellcat5’s Guide to How to Write a Guide

We’ve all been to forums that confuse us worse than Donald Trump. The game developers put a lot of effort into creating the game, but sometimes they don’t do much to organize the forums in an intuitive way. Or, the players create topics all over the place that have nothing to do with the forum’s structure, and the moderators don’t do anything to move the topics to an appropriate section, or delete them if they’ve got nothing to do with the game.

Game developers and publishers should pay attention to this because it shows a lack of attention toward the gaming community, and negatively effects the length and value of the game life-cycle by causing new players to become confused when trying to seek answers. When players can’t find answers to their gaming questions, they leave the game. Confusion isn’t fun.

When you find a game you enjoy playing, it’s great to bring more players to the game. If these new players can’t find answers to their questions about the game, they’ll leave. I wrote this guide as part of my series about how player communities can take action to improve game forums and wiki entries when the developers and forum moderators seem uninterested in doing so, or, perhaps, don’t have the ability or resources.

I’ve written this guide in two ways: one for those who enjoy exercising their minds, the other for those who want a quick reference guide to follow.

Quick Reference:

  1. Write out the points you want to explain in an outline to keep you on track.
  2. A writer writes best when a writer writes the least amount of words possible.
  3. Don’t talk down to your readers.
  4. Don’t use un-necessary big words.
  5. Know what a phrase is.  Know what a clause is.  Know how clauses fit together to make sense.
  6. Don’t use passive voice to explain how to do something.
  7. Write what you know.  Let your writing speak for itself.
  8. Know and use grammar.
  9. Don’t use rocketships as paragraphs.  Organize your writing neatly.
  10. Don’t make your writing look like a coloring book.
  11. don’t overuse images, but use enough to clearly guide your reader.

For those who might enjoy a ride down an erudite rambling road, or, for those who want to know more:

What makes me an authority on “How to Create a Guide?”  I could dazzle and bore you with extensive, interminable, long words, but I won’t linger on that.  I might befuddle and bemuse you, but I don’t intend to confuse you more than necessary to explain that a writer writes best when a writer writes the least amount of words possible.  In short, be short.  Don’t drag on, or try to impress others with lengthy vocabulary, but also try to use the best words to represent the ideas you intend to communicate.  

In today’s world, on today’s internet, we see many people writing in a way that belittles, criticizes, or patronizes others.  If you want to put on display a weak ego, one seeking to aggrandize itself, go for it.  I write this in risk of seeming pretentious, but I think if you decide to think about it, you’ll find I’m not preposterous.  Don’t talk down to your readers.  Don’t use un-necessary big words.

Be sure that your phases fit together to create clear functioning sentences.  Otherwise, you end up with phrases that might make sense to you, but only bring your reader to a state of ambivalence or apathy.  Make sure you write all those delicious details swirling about in your head down on paper.  Or in this case, in the post.  Know what a phrase is.  Know what a clause is.  Know how clauses fit together to make sense. [ Clauses and Phrases ]

Avoid passive writing.  Examples – “the dishes were done,” “the car is at the house down the street,” and “this will be the place where every question is answered.”  These leave unanswered questions, which interrupt the logical flow of sentences into the paragraph into the page into the chapter into the book.  Who did the dishes?  Why is the car at the house down the street?  Who drove the car to the house down the street?  Passive writing serves only to confuse by leaving out important details about actors (those who commit actions), which steps away from the purpose of language, which is to communicate what we know to others.  Don’t use passive voice to explain how to do something.  Know how to identify passive voice. [ What’s the Problem with Passive Voice ]

Some people try to assert themselves into the role of “authority,” or to convince you that they know what they’re talking about by using logical fallacies.  Example:  “I have 5 years experience with cooking hamburgers, so I know how to run a hamburger restaurant.”  No, you know how to cook hamburgers. Or,  “No one who knows what’s really going on will say that.”  Don’t be an imbecile, thinking it’s best to try to establish the role of authority by covering your lack of knowledge with empty statements of emotional compulsion that play on the human nature.  Doing things like that only serves to hurt the community.  You can look at America and Trump to get the idea.  Write what you know.  Let your writing speak for itself.  [ Your Logical Fallacy is … ] [ Pragmatic Disorder ]

Some people almost instantly discredit themselves by ignoring the basic rules of written communication.  Don’t rush when you write, neglecting grammatical problems because that communicates a frantic disregard for clarity and a lack of interest in precision.  Why should readers want to read a guide by someone who doesn’t pay attention enough to notice multiple mistakes?  Doesn’t that imply that the writer might have missed important details regarding the topic to which he’s writing?  Know and use grammar.

Well, how can
I go about this topic
to best get the point across…
 Ah.  Here we go.
While it might
be creative in your mind to
create odd
shapes to your paragraphs,
 you end
up breaking
apart phrases and sentences
 from the way we typically read them,
thereby aiding the forest
in making your reader
become lost on your point.

While you might intend this to generate more interest in your writing because “it’s a neato shape,” it serves up, at most, a brief interest in seeing words glued together in a rough word collage, with a side of frustration.  Ultimately, this repulses readers who otherwise might have read your guide if it were arranged in the common paragraph.  Organize your writing neatly.

Many people use high-lighters to give emphasis to different sections of books they’re reading.  Using bright colors is great for those who want to go back later to make notes or remind themselves of things they find important to remember.  However, the writer should sparingly use emphasis, instead leaving well formulated sentences and paragraphs to make his emphasis for him.  Don’t make your writing look like a coloring book for kindergarteners.  Likewise, don’t overuse images, but use enough to clearly guide your reader.

If you see something i’ve missed, comment below. And when you die, remember to scream.

Hellcat5’s Guide to Star Conflict

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Star Conflict”]
Created by: Stargem Games
Game Site: Star Conflict
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Support: info@stargem-games.com or Gaijin Support

Hellcat5 Connect: Star Conflict Profile || Hellcat5 on Steam

Hello!

I started playing star conflict back towards the end of april of 2017.  Since then I’ve spent 678 hours playing the game.  When I started out, I had a hard time finding solid resources for playing the game, and the information I read seemed mostly outdated or poorly written.  In fact, it wasn’t until I started playing the game that I actually understood what genre Star Conflict gameplay fits.  I wrote about that here:  Star Conflict – Moving up in Space Moba

After having read the old wiki “about” section for star conflict, I quickly ascertained that no one has been able to clearly explain the gameplay in terms of genre or relative games, so I wrote a new introduction paragraph on the wiki so that people can get a better idea of what Star Conflict core gameplay is like: Hellcat5’s revised wiki about section you can check the history of the wiki front page to see exactly what I did.

Other players have more hours than I have.  Some might think they’re more qualified to write guides about the game than I.  But, hours spent doing something doesn’t make one more qualified to teach others.  Having a higher pilot rating or more efficiency points doesn’t make someone more qualified.  Someone can take a destroyer with maxed out modules using g’thar’du into pve to make their pilot rating go up.  Same thing regarding efficiency points in battle.  Again, it’s easier to get high efficiency playing a maxed out, best in slot, destroyer than it is to play an interceptor or fighter (unless you’re playing the tai’kin or thar’ga).  That’s one of Rules: if you don’t know the exception to the rule, you don’t fully understand the rule.

I am the exception to the rule “a player must have x amount of hours in game and own all the rank 15 manufacturable ships (some players tell me they call them secret projects at one point) to fully understand the gameplay.”  Am I special?  No.  Other people with similar gaming experience as myself could see what I’ve discerned.  In fact, I’m less than special because I’m not an amazing flyer.  I have bad reflexes.  Does my lack of physical ability detract from my ability to completely understand and be able to convey to others how Star Conflict teamplay and gameplay works?  Does a general in the army have to be the best shot of all his men to lead them?  No.  And I’m certainly not a general, but you get the idea.

So what did I figure out?  Star Conflict is not an MMO RPG, yet many of the players have the MMO RPG mindset that they must have the top ship with top gear.  But, that just doesn’t work with Star Conflict.  Star Conflict is a space MOBA.  If you’ve played League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, or other similar games, then you’ll understand what I talk about in this article: Star Conflict – connecting the dots for people who’ve played league of legends or other moba games  If you’ve never played any of these games, maybe you should so you can gain a foundation from which to better understand Star Conflict teamplay.

I’ve had guides thrust at me, which I’ve not read through yet due to wanting to create this guide without any cloudy muck from past guides, or poorly formulated ideas.  If you’re reading this and you’ve written a guide for Star Conflict in the past, I’m not saying your guide is bad.  I don’t know.  I’ve not read it yet.  I will say if you spend much time in your guide talking about story elements or explaining the concept for why a certain faction has a specific attribute, you’ve clouded the issue, written with too broad a scope.

If you think that Star Conflict is a third person space shooter (I think that’s how the wiki about section classified it before) you don’t have enough experience with the different genres of online games to clearly denote what genre Star Conflict’s core gameplay fits.  Confusing though it is, I will say that third person and first person shooters today seem to be incorporating more elements of RPG and MOBA, but they don’t have enough of these elements to take them fully into the RPG or MOBA genre.  Star Conflict is a space MOBA.

The lack of a well-defined statement of gameplay (at least in English) is core to these poorly formulated guides that might leave the new player going, “wtf did I just read?”  Without a clear statement of gameplay, this brings players to try to define Star Conflict gameplay based on their personal gaming experience.  And you have the players who try to put themselves into a position of knowing just by saying, “oh, you can’t understand because you’re not max rank, and you don’t have x amount of hours like I do, and you don’t have the customizable ships,” etc.  But, if you ask those players solid questions about the structure of gameplay, they can’t answer.  But, more often than not, will try to convince you that they answered your question and that no one has a better answer.  This creates a bigger gap to bridge toward establishing a well-defined statement of gameplay.

I’ve started three video series regarding Star Conflict.  The first covers a series of simple build and gameplay guides to successfully win playing the pve mission Defense Contract:

The Second covers daily contracts through which you can gain a variety of ship crafting resources:

The third covers gameplay tips:

Over the next few weeks, I plan to clarify the statement of gameplay through my guides, and I plan to continue to add new guides going forward.
when you get blown up, remember to scream.

Click Here to go to the Post on the Official Star Conflict forums.

Related:
Star Conflict: Connecting the Dots for People Who’ve Played League of Legends (or other MOBA games)

Star Conflict: How to Level Ship Mods Quickly and Free

Star Conflict: Genre Wars

Core Resources:

Community Resources:

Star Conflict: Genre Wars

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Star Conflict”]
Created by: Stargem Games
Game Site: Star Conflict
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Support: info@stargem-games.com or Gaijin Support

Hellcat5 Connect: Star Conflict Profile || Hellcat5 on Steam

In these days of Trump, people seem more interested in being right themselves instead of asking others “why?”  They jump up and down declaiming how “this goes against everything I know, this can’t possibly be right or good – it’s too different.”  This resistance to inquiry sometimes goes into “How dare you compare my beloved game to a genre I can’t stand.”   So, I’ll start this out by saying this – from what you know, you’re 100% right that it’s not a MOBA.  But, you’ve not asked me why I call it a space MOBA.  What relations do I see between elements of MOBA gameplay and Star Conflict?  I’ll get to that, but I’ll start with a few differences between third person shooters and Star Conflict.

Third person shooters don’t require much about character build.  You don’t have to think about how you can supplement your resistances to different types of damage, you don’t have to think about the ratio for survival that occurs between damage reduction and damage pool.  Everybody gets x amount of hit points, life, health, whatever, and that’s that.  Unless the third person shooters pulls in gameplay elements from other genres.

With third person shooters, your character wasn’t designed for a specific role on a team.  You get no benefit from sticking together except cover fire from team mates, or another takes out someone targeting you.  You just grab your gun and go.  This is great for people who want to relieve stress from a long day at work, and who might not enjoy what they consider tediousness of other gameplay genres.  And, yes, some third person shooter games have team roles, but they’re not complex, and don’t require planning out a build for that role.  If this is the case, that a third person shooter has roles, this mechanic comes from team battle arena games.  Remember the rule of exception?  Team battle arenas took it from RPG games.  But my point isn’t to talk endlessly about my knowledge regarding the origin of different game mechanics.  Roles on a team did not originate as a third person shooter mechanic.

In third person shooter games, you might play on a team, but the teamplay doesn’t go beyond positioning tactics in the gameplay.  You might hide around corners, behind cover, you might see someone about to take down your team mate, but instead you take that player out, you might communicate to your team to call out location of an enemy player,  but you don’t have a tank (destroyer), a healer (engineer), characters that can slow or stun enemy characters(tackler and ecm), characters that disable enemy character’s abilities (ecm), etc.  This gets into teamplay mechanics that general third person shooter fans consider too complex.  Unless, of course, the person enjoys mobas and rpgs.  And yes, there are people who can’t stand RPGs and MOBAs – who only play shooters.  I call these people core shooter gamers.  I could talk about how third person shooters don’t give players gold to use later, or experience points, but enough about third person shooters.  Lets talk about the differences between Star Conflict and MOBA.

In MOBA games, you have creeps.  For those who don’t know, creeps are NPCs that walk or run in a line towards each other to go have a mini battle between themselves.  They don’t have tactics, they just beat on each other until they die.  If your strike kills the creep, you get gold – except in Heroes of the Storm.  Always an exception.  Star Conflict doesn’t have creeps.  All the ships you fight against in the different game modes have an AI, albeit a simple one.

In MOBA games, your character starts at level 1 every match.  Each level you gain grants you an increase in stats, and sometimes gives you the option to level character abilities.  Leveling is usually rather limited, and greatly effects team power during the match.  Star conflict has a limited permanent ship leveling system.  For the exception, I played a MOBA game years ago that had a permanent character leveling system, but unfortunately I don’t recall the name.

MOBA games have a base to defend.  The primary goal of MOBA gameplay is to destroy the enemy’s base, and one doesn’t have to be on the team with the most kills, or personally have the most kills to win.  Personal kill score (PKS) is a mentality that third or first person shooter gamers carry into team games that can actually cause the team to lose. Players who focus on their own kill score ignore the necessity of team power.  In Star Conflict, you don’t have to defend your base against the enemy player team.

MOBA games have a top down camera view.  But, some newers MOBA games incorporate a third person view, such as Smite.  It’s arguable that camera view defines a game genre.  I consider third person and first person shooters to be sub categories of shooter games.  For me, the defining elements fall with gameplay, and not camera view.  I think you get the idea, so now I’m going to get into similar elements Star Conflict has with both shooter games and MOBA games.

Star Conflict basic gameplay includes shooting at and destroying other players’ characters.  In some modes, this is primary focus, while in others it’s secondary.  This is similar to games like Quake, CS:GO, call of duty, etc.  The same similarity exists in MOBA games (shooting enemy players), except that in MOBA games basic attacks aren’t skill shots, they’re selected shots.  The basic attack in star conflict requires skill to hit the target like shooter games, unless you’re using one of the auto aim weapons or gravity weapons, which require much less skill.

So, why did I say “Star Conflict is a space MOBA” ?  If you’ve read my previous articles about space games I’ve been exploring while waiting for Star Citizen, you’d know that I defined space MOBA to cover these arena battle space games.  Sure, they don’t have all the elements that the standard MOBA does, but these games have many similar elements.  I’ll talk more specifically about why I classified Star Conflict as space MOBA now.

Star Conflict focuses on using roles in team play to win, similar to MOBA games.  In Star Conflict, we have the support classes, the tanks, the fighters, the crowd controllers, and disruptors just like in MOBA games.  Playing complementary roles using team play tactics has a much better chance of giving you a win in game instead of rushing off to find the closest enemy alone.  A fighter class tackler ship with an interceptor class ECM going after a tai’kin have a much higher chance to take down that pesky tai’kin Than a gunship running with a covert ops.

Star Conflict has a similar item system to MOBA games.
  In MOBA games, you can customize your character’s items according to what you’re facing.  Star Conflict allows you to customize, but requires you to do so outside of the match, but gives you options in battle by allowing you to select from a set of different ship roles and customizations to fit the match instead of doing this in the match itself.  RPG games have a much broader range of items your character can equip.  And, typically RPG items don’t level up.

Star Conflict has a separate character level and player level.
  Ships have their individual synergy level, and players have their rank.  Like League of Legends, as the player levels up, he gains access to more powerful mods to boost his ship with.  This is similar to leveling up in League of Legends because summoner level gives you access to more powerful runes and masteries.

So, after all this, there will be some who will say, “it’s still not a MOBA.”  And that’s all they’ll get from what I’ve written.  They want to be right, and that’s that.  Others will instead see my point, that Star Conflict has elements from MOBA games, and to attract more people to play, needs to be re-branded with emphasis on the team play mechanics, and so that the developers can create a better match making system from having a solid statement of game play.  Otherwise, no true meta game can ever manifest.  But, that’s another topic for another time.

If you want to read the comments on the official forum that inspired this response, click here.

Core Resources:

Community Resources:

Star Conflict: How to Level Ship Mods Quickly and Free

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Star Conflict”]
Created by: Stargem Games
Game Site: Star Conflict
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Support: info@stargem-games.com or Gaijin Support

Hellcat5 Connect: Star Conflict Profile || Hellcat5 on Steam

One person commented on Star Conflict: Moving Up in Space MOBA stating that it takes two weeks to level a ship mod to max. If you’re playing two hours a night, maybe that’s true if you’re not doing the daily Loyalty quests from each faction’s hangar. However, each faction (example: Empire) has two different sub-factions (example: Wardens and Legion), and a daily contract (given by the Contract NPC – example: E. Hoist in Empire the hangar) for each, totalling 7 daily faction missions. Currently Ellydium doesn’t have sub-factions.

Leveling ship mods requires two currencies:

Loyalty – an experience point type for leveling ship mods.

Credits – standard currency used for buying ships, ship mods(including weapons), and with crafting elite ships (example: gargoyle, Dart, etc.)

One of the two sub-faction missions is generally harder. One mission generally requires you to kill a certain number of ships with one of your top rank ships. Example: If you’ve reached rank 7 with Empire, then you need to use rank 7 ship to complete the mission. You don’t have to use the same faction’s ship to complete the mission. You can use one of your top rank ships from any of the other factions.

The second mission would be something like Gain 5000 effectiveness in battle with a top rank ship. Again, you can use a ship from any faction, as long as it’s in your top rank. These missions change each day, but you can’t get to the next one without first completing the one you’re working on. This way, you don’t lose any of your hard work by accidentally clicking “cancel.”

At rank 15, Empire faction Wardens gives around 131625 Loyalty vouchers, but requires you to kill 200 enemies in pvp. You don’t have to win these pvp matches for the ship kills to count toward this, and you don’t have to get the last hit on these kills (other players can help destroy these ships) for these to count toward the total. Looking at a mod I have at mk3 (blue color) on my rank 15 thar’ga, I can see the entire level from mk3 to mk4 is 131700. So, with this in mind, at most it would take 4-5 days to max a mod from mk1 to mk4 completing one of these quests a day. Remember to set the mod you want to level fast into the research slot also. This will give you loyalty vouchers from the battles you fight while doing the loyalty voucher contracts.

If you compare that progression to other online games, you’ll see the progression isn’t bad at all for a max rank ship. (example: League of Legends takes quite a while to get to level 30 summoner, unless you pay for an experience booster, same with DOTA 2, or Overwatch, etc.) Keep in mind, this isn’t a solo play rpg game, nor is it an MMO. This is a MOBA type game, designed for using the ships’ roles with tactics and teamwork to win matches. You can’t expect to level as you would in Fallout 4, or witcher 3. Having a maxed out, max rank, ship doesn’t mean you’re absolutely supposed to in.

Begin Rant – If you’ve played Dota 2, Overwatch, League of Legends, Smite, Heroes of the Storm, or other team based battle arena games where characters have roles, you know that if you happen to max out your character’s items, you can still lose. Look at how many Vaynes (a carry champ in League of Legends) lose because teammates don’t know how to play the role they pick. For the love of god, stop thinking you need to have the newest champ (ship) with level 30 masteries and perfect runes to win.End Rant

About Cache Containers

Cache Containers – after battles you get to scan for rewards. Sometimes you’ll uncover different caches. These caches contain parts for advanced weapons or ships, or blueprints. The list below in Core Resources shows you what each container has within.

Unlocking Cache Containers requires a green crystal currency called Iridium. You can get iridium in the daily missions in the “Launch” menu marked by a purple dot. You are guaranteed an iridium drop from the purple drops after the match. You must win the match to get this purple drop. You can keep playing the match type until you win to get the iridium reward.

Cache Containers give a random reward from 5 possibilities. If you don’t like the time it takes to get lucky rolling what you need, you can, of course, pay for the item from other players through trade. Since all trade items are for elite blueprints, weapon parts, or ship parts, you pay Galactic Standards (cash shop currency) for these trades. If you don’t want to spend money on the game, you can sell parts you don’t need to get Galactic Standards. None of these items are necessary to win.

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Star Conflict: Connecting the Dots for People Who’ve Played League of Legends (or other MOBA games)

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Star Conflict”]
Created by: Stargem Games
Game Site: Star Conflict
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Support: info@stargem-games.com or Gaijin Support

Hellcat5 Connect: Star Conflict Profile || Hellcat5 on Steam

The info I’ve found for Star Conflict doesn’t do much to connect the dots between gameplay from other games. I’m going to do that here so people with experience from these games can get a head start. Star Conflict has 10 roles split between 5 different ship types. Below I’ll give you the relation between the ship roles of Star Conflict and roles from other MOBA games.

Primary tank – Destroyer – This ship is the hub around which all battle should occur between players in kill count games. These ships have massive firepower, and can deal a ton of damage. They can have shield walls or repair drones. If the player ops for repair drones, he can also repair teammate hulls. Weakness – small ships can get close to this beast, and be almost untargetable, while doing damage to this ship. Also, the active ship modules (skills) are destructible. Yes MOBA player, imagine players from the other team being able to destroy the tank’s skills for a period of time. These don’t come into play until at least rank 7. Until then, use the guard frigate as tank.

Healer – Frigate: Engineering – These ships can give passive hull and shield regeneration, along with team movement with warp gates and small shield walls. Also, at later ranks, these ships can use a weapon that heals teammates while hurting enemies. Weakness – they don’t have many escape options, and don’t do a lot of damage, so they need some protection from other teammates.

Secondary Tank – Frigate: Guard – Defensive Crowd Control – These ships can guard an area, shooting down missiles almost every second, slow all ships within a given range, damage all ships in a given range, make their allies disappear, and take a TON of damage. Weakness – once the enemy does manage to take out the shields, the hull is usually pretty weak. They’ve MEGA slow turtles, best to hang out around the destroyer and Engineer frigate.

Attack Damage Carry (adc) – Frigate: Long Range – Snipers – what else is there to say? These guys sit way out, and pick off whatever ships happen to fall into their sights. They have the ability later to hide themselves from your targeting system and scanner, and they can do an escape backwards jump at later ranks. You’ll usually find these guys alone way out at the edges of gameplay. Sometimes they sit with the other frigates and destroyer, but not often. Weakness – they have the general weakness of all frigates – a lack of speed. They can be deadly up-close with the right weapon equipped, so don’t try to go alone to take one out. And, they can jump backwards to put you back in range of their all powerful scope of death.

Crowd Control – Fighter: Tackler – you thought you could move? nah – This ship has many disabling abilities and it can mark your ship to take more damage from all sources. it’s not fast like the Interceptor ship, but it can stealth and sneak up on those pesky little quick interceptors, and completely destroy frigate and destroyer rotation and movement. Often overlooked at how powerful they can be, players who know usually destroy many hopes and dreams. You can kill destroyers with a single tackler. Weakness – they’re not very beefy nor fast. Stealth can be revealed by recon role. Damage is mediocre, but consistent.

Support – Fighter: Command – Buffs Galore – These ships buff all other ships around them with resistances, movement speed, and attack damage – depending on what active mods the command player takes. They have the ability to rush into battle with other fighters and interceptors, taking a ton of damage while giving buffs to allies in range. They can deal steady damage. At later ranks, they can destroy the shields of a guard in under 10 seconds. Weakness – Once their special shield ability runs out, they’re not hard to destroy. They don’t have any escape mechanisms, relying more on other teammates flying around them to help peel off attackers.

Melee – Fighter: Gunship – Brawler With a Gun – these guys are mobile and deadly. Up-close they can take out destroyers. Everything they have has to do with destroying other ships quickly. They can remove disablers from themselves. Weakness – they’re not as fast as interceptors. They don’t do well alone, unless they’re only facing one other ship that’s not fitted to destroy them.

Assassin – Interceptor: Covert Ops – Sneaky ship with a laser blade on the front – Yes, a huge laser blade. right on the front. Great for doing massive damage in a short amount of time, through a variety of ways, including death. They can sneak across the battle field, not invisible but don’t show up on the radar, and can’t be targeted for 20 seconds. They are very hard to hit because they can turn almost on a dime. Weakness – they don’t have many options for escape, other than the ability to turn almost on a dime.

Support (Warding) – Interceptor: Recon – teemo? nah. thank god. – No, these guys don’t follow the scout’s code, and drop tons of explosive mushrooms. They can drop one mushroom though. Don’t be close to it when it explodes. recon ships give vision of the battle field, and of specific ships. They have many escape options because they’re expected to go deep into enemy territory to give vision and get back to the team without dying. Weakness – not much here for hull and shield. catch one and kill it like a bug. Tackler and ECM food.

Disablers – Interceptor: ECM – do you feel stunned? – these ships can really screw up destroyers because they can turn off their shield walls, and they can do it at considerable range. These are fast like the other Interceptors, hard to hit because of maneuverability , but they’re weak if caught. They can be a distraction when going into stasis because they can’t be damaged for a short period of time. This gives other ships time to shoot at ships targeting the ECM. If you fly around wondering why you lost control of your ship, or you can’t target other ships, or you can’t jump or use afterburners, this ship is probably the reason. ECM combined with tackler is crowd control death. Weakness – fragile. Not many escape options from groups of ships.

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Star Conflict: Moving Up in Space MOBA

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Star Conflict”]
Created by: Stargem Games
Game Site: Star Conflict
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Support: info@stargem-games.com or Gaijin Support

Hellcat5 Connect: Star Conflict Profile || Hellcat5 on Steam

I’ve been searching for space warfare games while waiting for Star Citizen’s release. I first explored a cruiser class war game called Dreadnought. Then I checked into Fractured Space. While both games have their own merits, they didn’t satisfy my desire to dogfight in the middle of heavy cruiser battles in space.

I had marked a few games on my Steam wishlist to research. Among those, Star Conflict. I watched a few videos of “lets play” from a guy who didn’t leave much of an impression. I looked for more about it, but didn’t find much except the Official videos on youtube. I also checked Twitch, but not many people streamed this game. So, I decided to download it myself.

I found it very easy to start playing. Stargem provides a great tutorial through which you can easily learn the controls for the game. For those who’ve played other space games, or mmo games generally, the controls will be mostly familiar.

After losing myself to the gameplay for a few hours, I started to want to research more about the game. I wanted to look at other people’s ship builds, and experiences with teamplay. However, I didn’t find much about it. At least, not in English.

While Star Conflict seems to have a small following in the United States, it seems to have a noticeable following internationally. You’ll see the trade chat filled with Russian. If you want to make trades in game, you might want to get familiar with Google Translate to help you get what you need.

Star Conflict has a strong teamplay mechanic, similar to League of Legends, Dota 2, and other Moba games. At high ranks, successful combat relies on knowing ship types, roles, and how these interact. I’ll cover these roles and ship types below in the info.

So, why did I write this? Simple. The gameplay for this is extremely exciting. Dodging slower moving shots from the Halo Launcher or Singularity Cannon, while trying to evade the fast interceptor ship on your tail, and while targeting the guy who’s coming right at you with a sliver of hull left (hull is ship health).

This is NOT the slow pace of Fractured Space or Dreadnought. This gets the adrenaline pumping. If you love the idea of dog fighting in the middle of bigger ships firing back and forth at each other in PVP (player vs. player), or fighting with a specific goal in PVE (player vs. environment) or practicing your skills in co-op vs. ai, you’ll probably love the gameplay you’ll experience in Star Conflict.

Now, I’m going to talk about free to play, because this game is free to play. I’ve read some complaints in game about “this game is pay to win.” Those people are idiots who themselves want to bypass the natural progression that happens in the game. In fact, spending money on ship upgrades cripples the player experience and advancement.

To connect the dots between the business model of Star Conflict and League of Legends (as example), you can buy paint jobs (skins in League of Legends) in Star Conflict. Skins in League of Legends are permanent. Skins in Star Conflict are permanent as long as you don’t change to a different paint job. The developers of Star Conflict need to make the skins a permanent purchase to give players the ability to switch back and forth with what they’ve bought before.

While it’s against the Terms of Service for League of Legends, people sell high level and rank accounts. In Star Conflict you can buy advancement of the same sort directly from the developers instead of doing something against the Terms of Service, and thereby illegal. But, there’s a key element people who complain about “pay to win” miss.

People who think of this game with a mindset of the mmo, of getting to the highest rank, and having a decked out ship, don’t understand the gameplay. They focus on personal glory, and not teamplay. any one person flying around in their maxed out high rank ship can get blown to hell by ships that are designed to take them down. Star Conflict is not an MMO. You don’t win by getting to the highest level with the best gear because Star Conflict is a Battle Arena game. In Battle Arena, the right combination of ship types and roles wins, if they use the tactics.

Battle arena type games have common modes. If we think of games like Overwatch, League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite, Heroes of the Storm etc., we think of player vs. player arena battles or the ability to go into co-op vs. AI to practice pvp skills outside of real competition. Star Conflict has these modes, adding a PVE type mode and open space, where you can fly around a huge space map doing whatever you want outside of the battle arena, including trolling other players who’re trying to do their daily missions by destroying the cruiser that they’re trying to escort, or directly destroying the other players. It is open space after all.

By good design of the developers, it seems, if you die a certain number of times to other players griefing, you get put into a different instance so you can finish your daily quests. So, when you do happen to run into someone in open space who’s trolling, there’s a way out. It’s here, fighting against these trolling players, that I’ve placed the Katmandu Corporation. We help players who’re working on their missions get through to the other sectors.

If you’re up for the challenge of MOBA in space, of dog fighting in the middle of destroyer battles, or playing the destroyer yourself, then check out Star Conflict. You can find resources here to help you with learning and improving your teamplay.

Related:
Star Conflict: Connecting the Dots for People Who’ve Played League of Legends (or other MOBA games)

Star Conflict: How to Level Ship Mods Quickly and Free

Star Conflict: Genre Wars

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Fractured Space: The Battle for the Best Space MOBA

[getTwitchRail scgame=”Fractured Space”]
Created by: Edge Case Games
Game Site: Fractured Space
ESRB Rating: M for mature
Support: support website
Terms and Conditions of Use: Fractured Space TCU

Hellcat5 Connect:

I came to Fractured Space after someone from the Dreadnought community recommended it. Right now there’s a war going on for who will end up being the League of Legends of space MOBA. While Dreadnought’s gameplay has a more robust feel to it (you can live longer during fights), and more survival options for the smaller corvette ship, Fractured Space, on the whole, has more advanced development. Edge Case Games well designed the controls, layout of the UI, and clarity of how to play. Granted, Dreadnought still isn’t out of closed beta. But, they should do well to look at what Edge Case Games did to entice players to play more.

Make no bones about it – Edge Case Games paid attention when Blizzard setup Overwatch to reward players with a lotto style of rewards from cash shop items. Sure, the chance might be small to receive skins, but it’s there, and in time through play, you can unlock cash shop skins for ships. I hope that Dreadnought will pay attention to this model too, because the gameplay is fun for Dreadnought, but they’ve got many other areas to improve before that game becomes something I’d go back to.

As a new player, Fractured Space walks you through each step of progression, explaining all the details of how to advance your career, and how to play. I love how easy the tutorial mode made sense for play. If all games did this, players would enjoy the games more because gone are the days when players read the game manuals. I might be one of the few old school gamers who still do.

At the end of the tutorial, I experienced a demo space battle with my new ship – the Pioneer. After this short battle, I gained credits and unlocked the “Solo Frontline Mode”. In this, I learned the basics of the MOBA battle. Capture the mining points to be able to upgrade the ship as it levels. Then, go for capturing the enemy team’s Base. If you can’t capture the enemy base before the timelimit, you go into sudden death mode, and which ever team survives, wins.

Frontline mode is a much smaller map than the later unlocked Conquest mode. Both map modes have available the option to play in either solo vs. AI, players vs. AI, or player vs. player. While not yet implemented, they have scheduled development for ranked play also.

Like League of Legends, you must buy ship upgrades, which are similar to rune purchases in League of Legends. These ship upgrades give play options for the ships depending on what play style you need for the battle you’re going into. They don’t actually upgrade the ship, but modify it according to your needs. You can decide that based on what other ships players decide to pick, or according to your own weaknesses during play.

Like League of Legends and Overwatch, you can buy skins for your ships. You can also buy credit boosters, crew, and crew implants. You can also purchase ship mods with cash. That doesn’t hurt the gameplay at all because the ship mods don’t give advantage over someone who doesn’t have the mods. You can play with the starter ship, the Pioneer, for your entire career if you want with no negative effect.

While you can spend your hard earned cash to purchase any of the above, you can also use the in-game credits to by all ship mods, crew, and crew implants. Each day you can earn three drop pods (these are lotto boxes) from playing 6 games. Through these drop pods, you can, by chance, win skins similarly to Overwatch.

During battle, I find that the battles themselves are very short, and the death timer is too long. Dreadnought does better keeping the action and excitement going for players in this regard. Few ships have escape options once you enter battle. If you’re not in a tank class ship, don’t expect to live long, or be able to warp out of battle before you’re destroyed. You might escape if you account for how many ships are shooting at you, and if those ships can disable your engines. Otherwise, stay behind your tank ship, and think about positioning like you would in Dota 2 or League of Legends because it matters.

I’ve only ran into one glitch so far (but others exist, and they have it pasted right into the the UI). At the pregame ship select menu, sometimes the ships and button text don’t load, and so you can’t select a ship in those instances. instead you get placed into the default Pioneer ship. At that point, you can either tough it out in the Pioneer, or alt+f4 the game, and re-open. There’s no punishment for leaving the ship selection screen, and so far doing this has fixed the issue.

Both Fractured Space and Dreadnought have their issues and their high points. I’m curious which game will come out on top, taking it’s place as the new League of Legends for Space MOBA. Or, will another game step on the field?

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