History VideoGame / Starfarer

[[http://fractalsoftworks.com/ Starsector]] is an independent [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]]/[[WideOpenSandbox sandbox]]/[[StrategyGame strategy]]/[[GenreBusting trading/exploration/space combat game]] by Fractal Softworks.

You start your captaining career with nothing to your name but a few thousand credits, a small crew, and a [[WithThisHerring single light frigate]]. Or two ships if you choose the easier start. Through blood and sweat you will gradually build an army, amassing control of fighters, bombers, interceptors, carriers to repair them in, various frigates, supply transports, fire support ships, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, all the way up to massive capital ships. And almost every single one of these ships can be further customized to fit your needs.

Combat is hectic and extremely detailed, feeling like the love child of StarControl and MechWarrior. You have direct control over your flagship, and use a tactical map to set objectives and standing orders for the rest of your fleet. Your AI officers will then assign available ships to complete those objectives, leaving your flagship to support the fleet however you feel is best. You have a limited amount of command points to set objectives with, and for the most part you can't regain them - once spent, the points are gone for the rest of the encounter. While this sounds like a ScrappyMechanic, it actually works well due to some rather good AI.

Larger battles have an element of CaptureTheFlag to them, with various types of control points appearing on the map that give bonuses when captured. Taking them grants more command points, extra fleet points to call in reinforcements from your main army, and even direct boosts to your fleet such as maneuvering bonuses and radar extension. Capturing these early (and preventing your enemy from doing the same) helps to turn the tide of battle in your favor immensely.

The game is still in early development, with new versions arriving every few months. Don't be scared away by the fact that it's still in alpha; there is a massive list of features implemented so far, and combat is already more rich and rewarding than most finished games. At the moment it's still less than full price to pre-order, which gives access to the alpha.

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!!Starsector provides examples of:

* AfterTheEnd: While the game's lore is only explained in [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/02/21/the-state-of-affairs/ blog]] and [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=437.0 forum]] posts at the moment (and subject to change if/when the devs decide on something better), this is the current state of things. The sector of space where the game takes place was in the process of being colonized by the Domain of Man[[note]]the ruling government of Old Earth and its colonies[[/note]] when every jump gate connected to the Domain shut down simultaneously. Most of those living in the sector were simple colonists, completely reliant on technology yet lacking any understanding of it. Many planets were only partially terraformed, and the collapse of the gate network left them borderline unlivable[[note]]such as farmworlds without farms or even ''soil''[[/note]]. Everything quickly went FromBadToWorse, much worse. It's now been just over two hundred years since the Collapse, and ever-increasing amounts of technology have become LostForever due to the constant conflict.
* AllThereInTheManual: There's an in-game Codex that gives a good level of detail on every ship, class, and variant in the game, down to individual weapon systems, ship stats, and even the in-universe history of that particular ship or weapon. It's missing a few entries in the current version that the campaign fleet overview shows, but nothing major. Just about the only combat-relevant information it doesn't tell you are the firing arcs of a ship's weapons. Those you learn from experience. Painful, painful experience.
* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Sometimes the range of a ship's weapons will be barely more than the length of the ship itself.
** The Tachyon Lance [[JustifiedTrope justifies this]] by saying that, despite the weapon's theoretically unlimited maximum range, the projectile is 'hardcoded' to disintegrate and become harmless beyond a certain distance in order to reduce the chances of severe collateral damage. Several projectiles remain dangerous beyond their listed range -- missiles in particular can still damage anything they collide with even after they run out of fuel.
* ArtificialBrilliance: The space combat has been the focus of development so far, and it really, really shows. Enemies flank, micromanage flux and shields, viciously take advantage of any momentary weaknesses, and otherwise perform well in combat. You can also set your own ship to autopilot and reap the benefits of flawless precision - it's actually recommended for large scale fights.
** Toned down a bit since the introduction of crew - most enemy ships will only have regulars manning them, meaning their AI is artificially degraded. However, that same update also gave another boost to combat AI - enemies won't fire heavy flux-generating weapons when near overload, and they keep track of such things as where your weapons are pointing versus how long it would take them to raise shields. Omni-shielded ships border on DemonicSpider levels sometimes.
* AsteroidThicket: Battlefields contain asteroids in surprising quantities. Unusually, they do next to nothing to your ships, so you can simply ram them and continue on your merry way.
** According to the developer, collision damage is based on relative mass, and the largest asteroids are only about the size of the smallest frigates. Collision damage also seems to be kinetic, so it's greatly reduced while you have armor remaining. It's still probably not a good idea to ram something with, say, a Hyperion.
* AttackDrone: Wasp Interceptors. They have the largest squadron size (six ships), are extremely fast and maneuverable, and armed with a PD laser that makes mincemeat of missiles and unshielded fighters. Unfortunately, they are made of tissue paper.
** Wasps have crew now, but that same update also introduced true drone systems. A few ships can now summon a swarm of tiny drones to defend them. The drones can be repaired if recalled, but unlike fighters, they are lost for the rest of the battle if destroyed. The sole exception is the Tempest, which can summon a single very powerful attack drone that will eventually regenerate if destroyed.
* AwesomeButImpractical: A savvy forum-goer realized that bomb bays[[note]]powerful explosives that aren't fired, but instead share the velocity of your ship when released[[/note]] count as ballistic weapons. One of the most common frigates in the game, the Lasher, has five ballistic mounts. Bomb bays cost a very small amount of build points, meaning you can afford hull mods to boost ballistic ammo and range. Since each bay fires once per second, one of these bad boys can send dozens of bombs (each doing 600 damage) hurtling towards a target. It's kept in this trope because bombs are ridiculously vulnerable to point defense - to the extent that a well-defended capital ship might not get hit by a single one - and even with the ammo boosting hull mod, you can only make four or five runs before the ship becomes a flying paperweight. Not to mention, flying directly towards anything that requires this level of firepower [[DeathOrGloryAttack tends not to go well for you if you miss]]. But against an undefended or disabled target, it's absolutely devastating.
* AwesomeYetPractical: Salamander [=MRMs=], an EMP missile with AI that [[{{Roboteching}} automatically flanks ships]] and heads straight into their engines, disabling them. Incredibly useful even if it fails since it forces the enemy to focus defenses on their rear, giving you a clear shot at their front.
* TheBattlestar: A given, as the gameplay intentionally resembles modern naval combat [[RecycledInSpace in space]]. The Astral and the Odyssey in particular combine flight decks with massive levels of firepower.
* BoringButPractical: Energy weapons. They bypass the TacticalRockPaperScissors used by other damage types entirely. They tend to have decent range, and there are multiple cheap hull mods to boost this further. Most energy weapons either don't use ammo or recharge over time, making them very useful for protracted engagements. The only real downsides are that they generate more flux and are somewhat micromanagement-heavy due to the gameplay mechanic mentioned under ChargedAttack below.
** Sure, you could plan out massive fleet battles, risking your expensive capital ships and their crew to enemy fire. Or, you could just send in interceptors and speed-boosted close support frigates to capture and hold control points, wiping out the enemy's initial scouts and choking off their supply of points, preventing them from sending in their main fleet in the first place (see UnstableEquilibrium below).
* CasualInterplanetaryTravel: Fuel will be eventually used to travel between star systems, but navigation within a star system consumes no resources and costs nothing.
* CharacterCustomization: You can refit your ships with a wide variety of weapons, depending on what type of mounts they have (using a slot system reminiscent of [[MechWarrior MechWarrior 4]]). If you have leftover build points, you can use them to upgrade ship subsystems or flux capacity/venting speed. You will also be able to customize your character in a later version, but at the moment all you can change is the name and portrait.
* CharacterLevel: The ship's crew gradually level up as you fight (Green - Regular - Veteran - Elite), becoming more accurate in combat, speeding up repairs, and even increasing the efficiency of ship subsystems (represented by a slight boost to ship stats). You can reassign crew to different ships, [[UniversalDriversLicense where they will be just as proficient]]. Hull damage will kill crew members, meaning heavily damaged ships have basically undergone a LevelDrain.
** There are also plans for officers and a customizable main character, who will presumable follow this trope as well.
* ChargedAttack: An odd example. Energy weapons get a hefty bonus to damage (up to 50%) if your flux meter is high. This is the ''only'' situation where a high flux is useful.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Various weapons are colored according to their damage type. High explosive rounds are yellow or orange. Kinetic weapons are white. Energy weapons are visually distinct enough to not need color coding. You can identify missiles by size, color, and how bright the exhaust is.
* ContinuingIsPainful: If your fleet is wiped out, you lose everything and are reduced to a single very weak ship, which could be [[JokeCharacter anything from a personnel shuttle to a fuel tanker]]. Since it's likely that you've pissed off several factions by this point, you'd actually have an easier time starting over with a new game.
** Not nearly as annoying after the introduction of the Abandoned Storage Facility in version .52a. Now when you wipe, you just need to make your way to Corvus I and grab whatever ships and supplies you have stored there (provided, of course, that you ever reached a fleet size where it was necessary to mothball some of your ships in the first place).
** Not to mention that if you win a difficult battle, chances are you'll have lost several ships - probably valuable ones - and seeing as the chances of an enemy ship being in well enough shape to be boarded and used are very low, it's unlikely the ships captured and loot is valuable enough to compensate for the loss of your ships. Something one should also remember is that to be able to board the more valuable ships you'll probably need a good amount of marines that cost quite a bit as well if you buy them in bulk.
* ControllableHelplessness: This is the main effect of a flux overload, where all you can can do is try in vain to get out of the way of oncoming attacks. Flux venting is similar, but voluntary and with beneficial effects.
* CrapsackWorld: Constant war, loads of piracy, and planets that can't survive without trade (which tends to get disrupted by the previous). Not a fun place to live. Even ignoring the immediate threats, the entire sector is in a downward spiral due to the gradual decline of technology.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Very possible with the customization system due to the limited build points on most ships. Many default ship variants can only perform one role well, and get torn to shreds if they try to do anything else.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Any SubsystemDamage apart from armor damage is only temporary, so ships can still perform at peak efficiency in terms of speed and firepower as long as they have even 1 point of hull integrity left.
** Also applies with crew, where even having one less than the skeleton crew required makes a ship completely unusable in combat. It makes sense with frigates where that one person could be ten percent of the entire crew. When you can't use your Onslaught because you are missing one person out of the needed five hundred, less so. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], however, as this is the ''skeleton crew''. Most ships can hold around twice that many people, this number is just the bare minimum needed to run all systems.
* DamageSpongeBoss: Or at least the closest thing to a boss in this type of game, capital ships. Early on, you can have your entire fleet ganging up on a single capital ship for several minutes before it is destroyed. Special mention must go to the Onslaught, which has 1,750 armor and 20,000 hull integrity. There's a reason they form the backbone of the Hegemony System Defense Fleets.
** Ships with 360 degree shield coverage are worse, since they're immune to flanking. Have fun trying to take down that [[ThatOneBoss Paragon]] before it wipes out half of your fleet![[note]]The Paragon has an exceptionally efficient 360-degree shield emitter that only takes 60% flux from incoming attacks, a 25,000 point flux pool, and dissipates 1,250 points of flux per second. It's also an omni-shield, so if it goes down, it can immediately be raised again to confront directional threats. Even if you manage to get past the shield, it's only slightly less durable physically than the Onslaught. Not to mention it has ''twenty-three weapon mounts'', so you're taking a beating the entire time you're trying to get past its defenses. To top it all off, it also has a ship system (Fortress Shield) that allows it to temporarily increase its shield efficiency tenfold, while still being able to drain soft flux.[[/note]]
* DeflectorShields: Many ships have them, and they come in two types: omni and frontal. Omni can point in any direction, raise very quickly, and can be rotated towards threats, but tend to have a narrow arc of protection. Frontal [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin only point forwards]], raise slowly, but tend to have much wider coverage - sometimes up to 360 degrees. Shields work by transforming damage against them into flux. However, flux added from shield damage does ''not'' drain over time like regular flux[[note]]with the exception of beam weapons[[/note]], meaning ships have to drop their shields eventually or risk overload.
* DevelopmentGag: In the data files of a previous alpha version, there was an unfinished ship system called the Infernium Injector. When asked about it, Alex (the developer) said it was leftovers from an idea that didn't work properly. Fast forward a few months, and a new hullmod appears, the [[SelfDeprecation Unstable Injector]].
* DuelingGames: Screenshots will inevitably draw a comparison with SpacePiratesAndZombies. However, whereas S.P.A.Z. has very simple arcade-like gameplay, Starsector took the simulation route.
* {{DRM}}: In-universe, DRM is largely responsible for why everything has gone to hell. The only remaining way to produce advanced technology is with an autofactory, and they can only function if a Universal Access Chip containing the relevant blueprints is inserted. The ancient corporations that produced these chips included specialized code and circuits that made unauthorized duplication next to impossible, and very few were shipped into the sector before the Collapse. The end result is that required technology like ''tractors'' became increasingly rare, and every autofactory or UAC lost is a permanent blow to the sector's [[TechnologyLevels tech level]].
** In a more meta sense, pirated copies of the latest alpha (.53.1a at this writing) will occasionally display messages like "Food for thought: The RNG knows you're playing a pirated copy of the game. Enjoy the paranoia!". It's unknown whether the game actually does negatively impact the games of pirates, or if the messages are just there to psyche them out.
* EasyLogistics: Ammo and missiles are replaced for free after every engagement. Ship mods and refitting cost nothing but time. Any ship, no matter how damaged, can be (eventually) repaired provided there are enough generic "supplies" in your inventory.
** Averted with crew. It can be a lengthy and expensive side trip to replenish killed crew, and you can't use ships that aren't fully manned. It also takes a very long time to train them to elite status, so protecting ships carrying high-level crew is a priority. Also averted for squadrons, which get a ''massive'' penalty to repair time if there isn't an empty carrier or other ship with hanger slots in your fleet to repair in.
** This will also be eventually averted with fuel, which does nothing in the current version but will be used for inter-system travel later on. The fuel consumption stats are already listed in the game, so you can do the math and realize a fuel tanker will be a ''very'' good investment.
** A recent update added accidents, which occur when you go over capacity in any of the four supply types (fleet size, cargo, fuel, crew capacity), or when you run out of supplies to maintain your ships. Since everything is shared between ships, this means the loss of a capital ship (and its massive storage space) forces you to make some very hard decisions on what to toss out. The effects of accidents range from minor cargo loss to hull breaches and the complete destruction of ships.
* TheEmpire: The Hegemony, founded by a Domain of Man military task force that coincidentally arrived in the sector just after the Collapse. They tend to use ancient, battle-tested designs, and favor large fleets, heavy armor, and lots of ballistic and missile weapons. The Hegemony control some of the best worlds and have plenty of resources, but it's hinted that the gradual loss of technology is starting to take its toll on them.
** While the Hegemony is neutral towards the player, the task force that founded the Hegemony was mainly composed of disgraced soldiers being used for a glorified science experiment, and the devs have said that they aren't nearly as nice as they appear. Hence them being listed under this trope instead of TheFederation.
* {{Expy}}: The Hound, a converted cargo freighter with two wide-spaced engines, with the main armament being a huge gun bolted to the top of the ship. [[{{Series/Firefly}} Sound familiar?]]
* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Very common, though they actually have a five degree arc to make lining up a shot slightly less frustrating.
* FlechetteStorm: The Needler family of weapons, which fire concentrated bursts of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin large needles]]. They excel at dropping shields and overloading targets due to the high burst damage.
* ForMassiveDamage: Reaper torpedoes, at 4,000 high explosive damage a pop. For reference: the Onslaught, the most durable ship in the game, only has 1,750 armor (and high explosive does 200% damage to armor). Nothing in the game even comes remotely close in terms of pure per-shot damage (the closest runner up is the Plasma Cannon at 750x3, and that's a large weapon). It has a variant for each mount size, from a single torpedo for small mounts to twenty torpedoes fired in pairs for the large one. They are also one of only three missiles with a travel speed described as 'very fast', so they aren't easy to shoot down or avoid either. There's a squadron that mounts these, the Dagger-class, which consists of three ships armed with a single torpedo each. They are somewhat fragile, but the ability to do 12,000 damage in one run (and being able to rearm at a carrier to do so again) makes them amazingly devastating strike craft.
* GameBreaker: A couple of ships that the A.I uses in a suboptimal fashion can be utterly terrifying once the player gets their hands on them.
** The Hyperion-class Frigate has an extremely long-range teleportation ability that generates minimal flux when used, and also has two Medium energy hardpoints. The default loadout fits these with Pulse Lasers, which are entirely decent weapons for light engagements. However, the player can rip these out and replace them with either Heavy or Antimatter Blasters, giving it incredible damage potential with the drawback of running out of flux capacity extremely fast. Even Onslaught-Class battleships can be taken down quickly and easily via hit-and-run tactics that abuse the generous teleporting ability and insane speed of the Hyperion to consistently hit it in the unprotected rear and teleport away before it can retaliate. The ability to mount four Atropus or two Reaper torpedoes only makes this ship even more of a threat.
** The Paragon-class is a deadly foe, but the standard layout has poor damage output (Autopulse Lasers and Tachyon Lances) and lacks all but three out of fifty potential extra flux vents. By replacing the Tachyon Lances with Plasma Cannons, ripping out the missile hardpoints and cutting back on the small hardpoints, the Paragon can retain immense firepower combined with maximum flux capacity (50 vents, 100 capacitors) and hullmods that allow it to vent hard flux with shields raised. This allows the Paragon to go toe-to-toe with multiple Onslaught-class ships at once, hitting them hard with plasma cannons and tanking anything they can throw at it with good tactical use of the fortress shield. Putting flak cannons on the universal hardpoints also allows the Paragon to swat aside the massive missile barrages that is the Onslaught's main method of damage production.
* GameMod: The game has excellent mod support, especially considering it's still in alpha. [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=177.0 Several mods]] have already been created that add new ships, stations, and even factions to the game. It helps that much of the game's content is stored in easily edited text files and spreadsheets, and there's a mod API allowing you to implement new features into the game.
* GuideDangIt: Some mechanics are very poorly explained in-game, and many aren't even mentioned in the manual. The most frequently cited example is the concept of hard vs soft flux. Normal (soft) flux is generated by firing weapons and will dissipate over time, even if shields are active. However, damage against a ship's shields creates hard flux that will never drain as long as the shields are active (represented by a vertical line in the flux bar). This prevents shielded ships with high venting speeds from being completely invincible, but is never explained in-game.
** The above has a further GuideDangIt to it, as beam weapons are exempt. They only generate soft flux against their target, balancing out their long range and constant fire. Unlike the above, this isn't immediately obvious while playing.
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Ships that lack shielding usually have higher armor and hull ratings to compensate. However, since shields can regenerate and armor plating can't, it really isn't enough to make them worthwhile.
* HeroTrackingFailure: The most visible symptom of low-level crew is the complete inability to accurately lead their target. You can fly in circles around them for eternity; they will ''never'' adjust their aim the few degrees it would take to hit you.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Ballistic weapons generally have far superior flux efficiency and/or range compared to energy weapons. The tradeoff is that the low-tech ships that mount ballistics are otherwise weaker than the high-tech ships that mount energy weapons.
* LethalJokeCharacter: The Hound. It's one of the pirate faction's basic frigates, and is so ridiculously easy to kill that most players never even consider piloting one themselves. Just looking at the stats paints a pretty bleak picture: it has a flux pool a third the size of the average frigate, one small ballistic turret with a massive blind spot[[note]]before a balance patch, the turret only covered a third of the ship; now it's a tolerable 290 degree arc[[/note]], a single medium ballistic forward facing mount that will max out your flux meter in about seven seconds of sustained firing, two very large and easy to hit engines, and to top it all off, it's completely unshielded. But then you realize it's tied for the top speed of any pilotable ship in the game - with the 'augmented engines' hull mod, it [[UpToEleven outruns interceptor squadrons]]. The AI just doesn't know how to play to the Hound's strengths; it's pretty much built for kiting ([[FragileSpeedster being made of paper doesn't matter when the enemy can't hit you in the first place]]). It really shines when you rip out the default assault chaingun and install a long range, slow firing weapon such as a Hypervelocity Cannon or a Heavy Mauler, both of which deal significant amounts of damage and come with plenty of ammunition. The Hound is fast and maneuverable enough to run ahead of a target, spin around to fire a shot, then turn and keep running, and your high speed means the single turret has plenty of time to take out any missiles they send your way. It takes a while, but you can eventually whittle down even destroyers [[OneManArmy singlehandedly]] with this tactic.
** Not to mention that since the Hound is a converted cargo hauler, it carries about 50% more fuel, crew, and cargo than other frigates, so you're less likely to run out of supplies at a crucial juncture. It even has the hangar space to support its own squadron of Talons, making it critical for a [[SelfImposedChallenge frigate and squadron only run]].
* MacrossMissileMassacre: To a much lesser extent than most examples (as even single missiles can be deadly in this game), but certain squadrons and some of the larger fire support ships can send multiple salvos of missiles your way. Cue OhCrap.
** The Hurricane MIRV deserves a special mention, as each missile fired [[RecursiveAmmo splits into seven smaller projectiles]]. There's also the Annihilator Rocket Pod, which fires two missiles per second. And since the Annihilator's a medium missile, many ships can have several of them mounted.
** When a ship is in extreme danger, it can go into 'panic fire' mode, where it launches most of its missiles in quick succession. The Buffalo Mk II, which was in previous versions something of a JokeCharacter, has become fairly dangerous due to this change (as lacking shields, it almost always registers as in mortal danger).
** The new Fast Missile Rack subsystem takes this to a whole new level. It allows you to almost eliminate the cooldown between launches, meaning ships with this system can fire almost a dozen salvos in the time a normal ship could fire ''two''.
* MegaCorp: The Tri-Tachyon Corporation, which predates the Collapse. They have extremely high-tech ships (with matching high prices), and favor fast ships, energy weapons, and powerful shields.
* OneNationUnderCopyright: Tri-Tachyon Corporation's eventual goal.
* OverclockingAttack: The defining trait of combat in the game. Ships have a stat called 'flux', which raises when they use certain weapons, take shield damage, are hit by ion cannons, etc, and drains slowly over time. If the flux hits capacity your ship overloads, leaving you to drift helplessly while very slowly venting flux. At any time you can vent it manually, causing it to drain several times faster than normal but disabling your weapons and shield for the duration. One-on-one combat against shielded enemies usually revolves around dealing kinetic damage to their shields to force them to either drop shields, vent flux, or cause an overload, leaving you free to unload everything you have into the now helpless ship. Venting speed borders on a OneStatToRuleThemAll since it affects combat so drastically.
* OverDrive: If a ship has an empty flux meter and doesn't have their shields raised, they get a hefty bonus to top speed. This makes retreat feasible, as your enemy can't fire at you without losing their ''own'' speed bonus. There is also a hull mod that boosts your top speed and map travel speed, but it is extremely impractical as it costs a ridiculous amount of build points and cripples your flux dissipation.
** The Burn Drive system is this trope taken to an extreme. It disables shields and steering while active, but allows certain glacier-slow low-tech ships to temporarily outrun most ships in the game. You never forget the first time you run into a Hegemony Defense Fleet and [[OhCrap see two or three Onslaughts come screaming in]].
* PointDefenseless: ''Strongly'' averted. A good point defense system can usually take out the majority of missiles in a salvo, as well as wreak havoc against fighter squadrons. Most capital ships have several of them. As a consequence, missiles are highly situational, and are usually only fired at disabled targets.
** This is one category where the low-tech ballistics have a distinct advantage. Flak cannons have an area-of-effect, rendering any ship that carries them almost immune to bombs, interceptors, and missile spam. The low-tech Gemini freighter is considered a capable combat carrier solely because it can be fitted with two dual flak cannons.
** With a certain hull mod, even small weapons not tagged as point defense can auto-target missiles. This includes tactical lasers, whose long range, high accuracy, and decent damage make them very useful for this purpose.
** Crew level has a noticeable effect on point defense. Since crew experience affects accuracy[[note]]more specifically, the ability to accurately lead a target, so crew level mostly affects ballistic weapons, and beams are completely exempt[[/note]], and missiles are small and hard to hit, an unskilled crew is very vulnerable to missile strikes. And since large ships have crew requirements an order of magnitude higher than frigates, they tend to be staffed with cheap rookies. This makes assigning point defense frigates as escorts very useful.
** Played straight with certain point defense weapons like the [[MoreDakka Vulcan Cannon]]. Sure, it spews a ton of bullets at targets, but the range and accuracy are so terrible that it's actually less effective than systems rated at half the DPS.
* ShowsDamage: Ships glow orange where they have taken heavy damage, which means their armor plating has been stripped away in that spot. Yes, you create your own [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak points]] in this game.
** The glow eventually fades, but if you watch carefully you can see flashes of light emanating from the ship, and the hull shows cracks.
* SpaceFighter: Squadrons are the only unpilotable ships in the game, being multiple tiny ships fighting in formation. They have two unique abilities. First, they can fly through (technically over) other objects, including your shields. Second, they can revive and rearm the entire squadron in the middle of battle if any member manages to make it back to a friendly carrier. These can make fighting them [[{{Understatement}} somewhat frustrating]].
* SpaceFlecks: It's either this or there's something ''very'' wrong with the 'starfield' that serves as the map view's background.
* SpaceFriction: On the one hand, ships don't slow down if you let go of the 'forward' key. On the other hand, they do have a strictly limited top speed. [[FridgeLogic How exactly that works is anyone's guess]].
* SpaceMarine: You can hire them by the dozens, then use them to [[BoardingParty take over disabled enemy ships]].
* SpacePirates: [[MoreCriminalsThanTargets A surprising amount of them]]. They have fairly outdated tech, though, and are a great way to grind crew experience and loot.
** Ironically, the pirates are the ''least'' technologically stagnant of the factions, having several unique ships that are crudely retrofitted combat versions of the cargo haulers they steal from traders.
* StandardSciFiFleet: Ships are categorized as fighters, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and capital ships, though there are further subcategories of each.
* StarterEquipment: Other than the armaments of the frigate you start with, none. You buy ships as empty hulls, then have to track down the weapons separately. If you want the good stuff this means a trip to the well-defended pirate outpost.
* SubsystemDamage: Most weapons can be temporarily disabled if enough damage is done to them. This also works against engines. If a ship has two engines and you disable one set, [[CrowningMomentofFunny the ship spins helplessly until the engine comes back online]].
** This addition dramatically changed combat. For one thing, it made overwhelming frontal attacks feasible. If you can get past an opponent's defenses, their powerful forward guns will be quickly disabled. Beforehand, they would chew you up even as you were dealing the final blows to their hull.
* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Ships have up to three layers of defense: [[{{Hitpoints}} hull]], armor plating, and [[DeflectorShields shields]]. Only hull damage affects the ship, so most of a fight is spent breaching the other ship's defenses to get to the vulnerable crew inside. There are four types of weapons to help with this: [[ArmorPiercingAttack high explosive]], which is excellent against armor but very weak against shields; [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic]], which is the opposite; [[EnergyWeapons energy]], which is [[JackofAllStats somewhat effective against all types of defense]], and fragmentation, which does little damage against any defense, but will tear hulls to shreds once those defenses are gone (and is also good against missiles and squadrons, since they rarely have much defense). There are also EMP weapons, which easily disable ship systems but do minimal damage otherwise.
** A new addition is the Phase Cloak, which allows you to pass through solid objects at the cost of constant flux buildup. It replaces shields on ships that have it, though, so you'd better have good timing!
* TakingYouWithMe: Large ships go out in absolutely massive explosions when they die, dealing heavy damage to other nearby ships. Capital ships are easily capable of [[OneHitKill one-hit killing]] frigates when they blow. Thus, it's beneficial to get as close as possible to your enemies when you realize the battle is a lost cause to at least inflict some damage as you go.
* UnstableEquilibrium: How most battles on maps with control points go. An example: there's a battle between two fleets, each with twenty ships. You spend your starting fleet points to send in a few frigates and interceptors and order them to capture nearby control points. Those points can be used to bring in heavier ships, allowing you to launch an assault on the remaining control points. You'll probably grab a nav buoy or sensor array at this point, which grant absolutely massive bonuses[[note]]25 percent to the relevant stats[[/note]] to your entire fleet. After you take those you'll have enough points to field your entire fleet, while the enemy is reduced to a trickle of four or five ships at a time; meanwhile your nav buoy gives you bonuses to speed and maneuverability, and your sensor array reveals much of the map and boosts weapon ranges (meaning you smash the enemy before they can even get into firing range). The rest of the battle is just [[CurbStompBattle mopping up the remains]].
* VendorTrash: Eventually fuel will be used to travel between star systems, but in the current version it does nothing other than sell for a lot of credits.
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: Averted. You don't even need to send your flagship into an engagement in the first place. Even if your flagship is destroyed, you can transfer command to any other ship. This is accomplished by escaping in a personnel shuttle and flying across the map to dock with them.
* WithThisHerring: As the intro states, you start out with only a single frigate and a small amount of credits. You have just enough to buy two squadrons of weak interceptors, but it will be quite some time before you can afford a carrier to repair them in.
* XMeetsY: The developers describe it as ''VideoGame/StarControl'' meets ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2'' meets ''VideoGame/MechWarrior''. With the .50 beta campaign release, it adds a touch of ''[[VideoGame/MountAndBlade Mount & Blade]]'' as well.
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[[http://www.fractalsoftworks.com/ StarSector]] is an independent [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]]/[[WideOpenSandbox sandbox]]/[[StrategyGame strategy]]/[[GenreBusting trading/exploration/space combat game]] by Fractal Softworks.

You start your captaining career with nothing to your name but five thousand credits, a small crew, and a [[WithThisHerring single light frigate]]. Through blood and sweat you will gradually build an army, amassing control of fighters, bombers, interceptors, carriers to repair them in, various frigates, supply transports, fire support ships, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, all the way up to massive capital ships. And almost every single one of these ships can be further customized to fit your needs.

The game is still in early development, with new versions arriving every few months. Don't be scared away by the fact that it's still in alpha; there is a massive list of features implemented so far, and combat is already more rich and rewarding than most finished games. At the moment it's only half price to pre-order, which gives access to the alpha.

!!StarSector provides examples of:

* DuelingGames: Screenshots will inevitably draw a comparison with SpacePiratesAndZombies. However, whereas S.P.A.Z. has very simple arcade-like gameplay, StarSector took the simulation route.

** Ships with 360 degree shield coverage are worse, since they're immune to flanking. Have fun trying to take down that [[ThatOneBoss Paragon]] before it wipes out half of your fleet![[note]]The Paragon has an exceptionally efficient 360-degree shield emitter that only takes 60% flux from incoming attacks, a 25,000 point flux pool, and dissipates 1,250 points of flux per second. It's also an omni-shield, so if it goes down, it can immediately be raised again to confront directional threats. Even if you manage to get past the shield, it's only slightly less durable physically than the Onslaught. Not to mention it has ''twenty-three weapon mounts'', so you're taking a beating the entire time you're trying to get past its defenses. To top it all off, it also has a ship system (Fortress Shield) that allows it to temporarily increase its shield efficiency tenfold, while still being able to drain soft flux.[[note]]

* AfterTheEnd: While the game's lore is only explained in [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/02/21/the-state-of-affairs/ blog]] and [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=437.0 forum]] posts at the moment (and subject to change if/when the devs decide on something better), this is the current state of things. The sector of space where the game takes place was in the process of being colonized by the Domain of Man[[hottip:*:the ruling government of Old Earth and its colonies]] when every jump gate connected to the Domain shut down simultaneously. Most of those living in the sector were simple colonists, completely reliant on technology yet lacking any understanding of it. Many planets were only partially terraformed, and the collapse of the gate network left them borderline unliveable[[hottip:*:such as farmworlds without farms or even ''soil'']]. Everything quickly went FromBadToWorse, much worse. It's now been just over two hundred years since the Collapse, and ever-increasing amounts of technology have become LostForever due to the constant conflict.

* AwesomeButImpractical: A savvy forum-goer realized that bomb bays[[hottip:*:powerful explosives that aren't fired, but instead share the velocity of your ship when released]] count as ballistic weapons. One of the most common frigates in the game, the Lasher, has five ballistic mounts. Bomb bays cost a very small amount of build points, meaning you can afford hull mods to boost ballistic ammo and range. Since each bay fires once per second, one of these bad boys can send dozens of bombs (each doing 600 damage) hurtling towards a target. It's kept in this trope because bombs are ridiculously vulnerable to point defense - to the extent that a well-defended capital ship might not get hit by a single one - and even with the ammo boosting hull mod, you can only make four or five runs before the ship becomes a flying paperweight. Not to mention, flying directly towards anything that requires this level of firepower [[DeathOrGloryAttack tends not to go well for you if you miss]]. But against an undefended or disabled target, it's absolutely devastating.

** Ships with 360 degree shield coverage are worse, since they're immune to flanking. Have fun trying to take down that [[ThatOneBoss Paragon]] before it wipes out half of your fleet![[hottip:*:The Paragon has an exceptionally efficient 360-degree shield emitter that only takes 60% flux from incoming attacks, a 25,000 point flux pool, and dissipates 1,250 points of flux per second. It's also an omni-shield, so if it goes down, it can immediately be raised again to confront directional threats. Even if you manage to get past the shield, it's only slightly less durable physically than the Onslaught. Not to mention it has ''twenty-three weapon mounts'', so you're taking a beating the entire time you're trying to get past its defenses. To top it all off, it also has a ship system (Fortress Shield) that allows it to temporarily increase its shield efficiency tenfold, while still being able to drain soft flux.]]
* DeflectorShields: Many ships have them, and they come in two types: omni and frontal. Omni can point in any direction, raise very quickly, and can be rotated towards threats, but tend to have a narrow arc of protection. Frontal [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin only point forwards]], raise slowly, but tend to have much wider coverage - sometimes up to 360 degrees. Shields work by transforming damage against them into flux. However, flux added from shield damage does ''not'' drain over time like regular flux[[hottip:*:with the exception of beam weapons]], meaning ships have to drop their shields eventually or risk overload.

* LethalJokeCharacter: The Hound. It's one of the pirate faction's basic frigates, and is so ridiculously easy to kill that most players never even consider piloting one themselves. Just looking at the stats paints a pretty bleak picture: it has a flux pool a third the size of the average frigate, one small ballistic turret with a massive blind spot[[hottip:*:before a balance patch, the turret only covered a third of the ship; now it's a tolerable 290 degree arc]], a single medium ballistic forward facing mount that will max out your flux meter in about seven seconds of sustained firing, two very large and easy to hit engines, and to top it all off, it's completely unshielded. But then you realize it's tied for the top speed of any pilotable ship in the game - with the 'augmented engines' hull mod, it [[UpToEleven outruns interceptor squadrons]]. The AI just doesn't know how to play to the Hound's strengths; it's pretty much built for kiting ([[FragileSpeedster being made of paper doesn't matter when the enemy can't hit you in the first place]]). It really shines when you rip out the default assault chaingun and install a long range, slow firing weapon such as a Hypervelocity Cannon or a Heavy Mauler, both of which deal significant amounts of damage and come with plenty of ammunition. The Hound is fast and maneuverable enough to run ahead of a target, spin around to fire a shot, then turn and keep running, and your high speed means the single turret has plenty of time to take out any missiles they send your way. It takes a while, but you can eventually whittle down even destroyers [[OneManArmy singlehandedly]] with this tactic.

** Crew level has a noticeable effect on point defense. Since crew experience affects accuracy[[hottip:*:more specifically, the ability to accurately lead a target, so crew level mostly affects ballistic weapons, and beams are completely exempt]], and missiles are small and hard to hit, an unskilled crew is very vulnerable to missile strikes. And since large ships have crew requirements an order of magnitude higher than frigates, they tend to be staffed with cheap rookies. This makes assigning point defense frigates as escorts very useful.

* UnstableEquilibrium: How most battles on maps with control points go. An example: there's a battle between two fleets, each with twenty ships. You spend your starting fleet points to send in a few frigates and interceptors and order them to capture nearby control points. Those points can be used to bring in heavier ships, allowing you to launch an assault on the remaining control points. You'll probably grab a nav buoy or sensor array at this point, which grant absolutely massive bonuses[[hottip:*:25 percent to the relevant stats]] to your entire fleet. After you take those you'll have enough points to field your entire fleet, while the enemy is reduced to a trickle of four or five ships at a time; meanwhile your nav buoy gives you bonuses to speed and maneuverability, and your sensor array reveals much of the map and boosts weapon ranges (meaning you smash the enemy before they can even get into firing range). The rest of the battle is just [[CurbStompBattle mopping up the remains]].

* XMeetsY: The developers describe it as StarControl meets [[MasterofOrion Master of Orion 2]] meets MechWarrior.
** With the .50 beta campaign release, it adds a touch of [[VideoGame/MountandBlade Mount & Blade]] as well.

[[http://www.fractalsoftworks.com/ Starfarer]] is an independent [[RolePlayingGame role-playing]]/[[WideOpenSandbox sandbox]]/[[StrategyGame strategy]]/[[GenreBusting trading/exploration/space combat game]] by Fractal Softworks.

!!Starfarer provides examples of:

* DuelingGames: Screenshots will inevitably draw a comparison with SpacePiratesAndZombies. However, whereas S.P.A.Z. has very simple arcade-like gameplay, Starfarer took the simulation route.

** Easy enough: the faster you go, the more energy you need to go faster, and engines have a limit to how much thrust they can output.

* AfterTheEnd: While the game's lore is only explained in [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/02/21/the-state-of-affairs/ blog]] and [[http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=437.0 forum]] posts at the moment (and subject to change if/when the devs decide on something better), this is the current state of things. The sector of space where the game takes place was in the process of being colonized by the Domain of Man[[hottip:*:the ruling government of Old Earth and its colonies]] when every jump gate connected to the Domain shut down simultaneously. Most of those living in the sector were simple colonists, completely reliant on technology yet lacking any understanding of it. Many planets were only partially terraformed, and the collapse of the gate network left them borderline unliveable[[hottip:*:such as farmworlds without farms or even ''soil'']]. Everything quickly got [[ItGotWorse much, much worse]]. It's now been just over two hundred years since the Collapse, and ever-increasing amounts of technology have become LostForever due to the constant conflict.

** In a more meta sense, pirated copies of the latest alpha (.53.1a at this writing) will occasionally display messages like "Food for thought: The RNG knows you're playing a pirated copy of the game. Enjoy the paranoia!".