The Last Starship – Alpha12



There is now a free playable demo of The Last Starship on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1857080/The_Last_Starship/

Mark and Chris return with massive new combat zones, more story episodes, new parallax visual effects and tons of updates all over the game.

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41 thoughts on “The Last Starship – Alpha12”

  1. With regards to the infinite scaling in combat ranking, how does the game handle you being outclassed? If your rating keeps going up forever, sooner or later you're gonna be massively outclassed and get your whole fleet wiped with no way to address it outside of also trying to endlessly scale your firepower to match. If it works like that every player fleet is going to end up a bunch of squares with guns on every side in a perpetual arms race against the rating system.

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  2. Bounced off the game several times in the early alphas but Alpha 11 got me hooked, looking forward to trying Alpha 12.

    The main change to the existing content I would make that I don't think would require a huge amount of work would be telegraphing to the player when they should do the "???" bespoke missions. When I saw them on the map I assumed they must be super hardcore endgame content, so I did all the other content, built up a big fleet so I would be ready to tackle those missions (approx 35-40 hours playtime). When I got to them it was clear that they were actually tutorials for all the stuff I had just figured out on my own. This didn't affect my enjoyment as I had a great time throughout, but it was clearly a disconnect from what you had intended. Perhaps when the game thinks you're ready for them, the characters in them could message you wherever you are on the map asking for immediate help? I think the current system would work fine if they weren't also serving as tutorials.

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  3. It's me, the person waiting for the perfect time to buy the game.

    I'm very interested in the concept, but I have been burned by proof-of-concept Early Acess games once too many times. I'll give the demo a download when I get a chance

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  4. Love you guys as devs, bought basically everything you made, curious how this game changes over time.
    I have not bought this yet though. Tight budget.
    Some feedback:
    It looks promising but I already have Space Haven and SpacePirates&Zombies which honestly I prefer the feel of.
    Both hit their thing really well in a way that keeps you engaged at the level where the game is played.

    Something about tLS feels like you just play on zoomed out tactical modes all the time, very detatched feeling most of the time.
    Ultimately plays like SpacePirates&Zombies but without any of the charm and most of the cool effects are invisible as you hide away in tac view all battle.
    tLS got crew and interior but kinda meaningless. SpaceHaven (and PrisonArchitect) keep you engaged at that detail level during play. tLS is constantly too detached to be present in the ship and the lives of the crew. Aiming more for a bigger scale S.P.A.Z game would be more appealing imo
    Probs just not for me but there ya go feedback team!

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  5. I can't help but think that the combat while better is flawed in its design.

    I think part of the fun of improving the combat capabilities is eventually being able to overpower any foe. Additiaonally there is a fun element of taking on foes more powerful than yourself. Having combat always scale to you ruins challenge runs and the power fantasy many gamers enjoy.

    I would scale combat to the area you're in so poor back water areas can be over powered but fort knox will need an armada to stand a chance.

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  6. Is aim not affected, along with your evasion, when you're turning? Shouldn't there be a cost with the benefit, as that would lead to combat you really need to think about? It's looking amazing!

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  7. Are you using an ELO system for the combat rank? Is it possible to lose rank, or will you eventually not be able to defeat anything, because your rank has gotten too high?

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  8. You need cosmetic tile sets for the ship hull with different textures etc and maybe separate color options as well. Also more external equipment, similar to the solar panels. Big bulky stuff like tanks. Maybe some stuff needs to be optional inside or out with some game play pressure to save resources by putting it somewhere unpressurized.
    All of this will give the ships more visual diversity and more opportunity for people to make cool stuff that will get shares.

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  9. Good changes. I also haven't bought the game yet, but plan to once the game is released.
    Might I suggest allowing the values of your ships to still have an impact on what ships the combat zones throws at you? This would better reflect an enemy being willing to send out a stronger fleet when there's a more tempting prize on the line.

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  10. I do own the game. However, I have not played it since they're was the original demo and/or free test version (I don't remember exactly how that went down). I'm here because you guys are quality entertainment. You also teach me about games and game design.

    But yeah, I'm not here to decide if I want to buy the game. Nor was I when I didn't own it yet.

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  11. I have watched several of these updates and haven’t bought the game yet. The demo is definitely a positive and watching the direction you guys are taking the game is making me lean towards purchasing. I have a limited income so purchasing any game is something I have to put a lot of thought in.

    Keep up the good work.

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  12. I do like the idea of value of your ship contributing to who wants to attack you. Shouldn't be too big of an effect, but if there's more to take, more will be interested in taking it by force. That would force you to protect ships like the Aberration of Light.

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  13. Is there a way to change the center of the ship? For instance, say you started building at the rightmost (frontmost) portion of the ship building screen with the idea that all expansion would be to the left (rear)… If you change your mind and want to add more ship space to the right (front), as far as I can tell, you're SOL. (Also, when selecting your ship after viewing a different one it will zoom in on empty space behind the ship.) If there is no way, presently, to change the center of the ship that would be a nice feature to have.

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  14. But, surely, pirates would be more likely to go after expensive but poorly armed ships than after ships covered in guns where the rest of the cargo / equipment is worthless. So, while a more powerful ship should generate more powerful enemy fleets (because the pirates aren't suicidal), valuable ships with few weapons should probably be attacked more often.

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  15. I just love you guys, i am only secondary interested in the actual games. After i saw the "Prison Architect Alpha" video in which you proofed that you all a little bit crazy in the brain i knew i had to follow what you are doing. And as i am writing this, it's 12 years after said video.

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  16. I'm just wondering how this game is going to be different from another almost identical already great game, Cosmoteer, Stardeus or Space Haven?
    Are you guys gonna focus more on crew characters and traits, like in Prison Architect?
    Or even larger scale ships and true "cities" in space, if the engine can handle that in combat?
    Or, yea. Its just hard for me to see what this game has to offer that Stardeus or Cosmoteer or Space Haven havent already done very well?

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