SPAZ: Space Pirates and Zombies

[Elcs]

I just noticed this game on steam. It looks like a revamped escape velocity. Anyone play both? Does it have a good branching storyline like EV:Nova?

Never heard of EV until a few days ago and this is the style of game that I love.

The story itself is completely linear.

 

[power_hour]

Thinking about picking this up. I am just wondering how deep the story really goes and if there is much of an economy? And are the ship hulls interesting? I think I played EVE too much and afraid I am going to be comparing it too much to that. Then again at least I won't be falling asleep during combat

Well I am downloading the demo right now and I love the fact this wasn't made by EA... might just take a chance, I have spend more on lousy dinners.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Damn how do you complete the second part of Big Fish? I keep getting my ass handed to me

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Which mission is big fish? And what's your equipment/research breachdown?

 

[Worthington]

game is crazy fun. I'm not sure what it is about it but it will eat up all your free time.

 

[Elcs]

Damn how do you complete the second part of Big Fish? I keep getting my ass handed to me

It's not too hard at all!. Took me just 5 attempts on a Beam-heavy Insane difficulty game.

AIM at the Hammerhead. LEFT SIDE. It only has light armour there and you can pierce it much quicker.

Pro Tip: Once the Hammerhead has been taken down, the enemy fleet retreats.

Setup with one Beam-heavy ship (or the Ion Cannons) to strip the shields off the Hammerhead. Crawler is your best bet here imo but any forward firing ship will do it (Right Hook and Big Bus are good)

Use two Colts as your sidekicks. Colt's are the best (heavy forward fire) and hook them up with the heaviest armour you can on their front. Their job is to strip armour and deal damage. I prefer 2x cannon and 1x beam with two boosters (cannon, beam or shield to suit you)

As soon as the Hammerhead warps in, go to Tactics and set both small ships to attack, follow them in hard and fast, strafe yourself around to aim up against their Left Side (preferably as it has light armour, sides and back have medium and front is heavy and silly).

I think you have about 90 seconds between the cutscene and your mothership being destroyed.

Further tips: Leech Beams might be useful to you as they drain the reactor of the Hammerhead, reducing it's damage output and keeping your ships alive slightly longer.

If you're speccing into cannons, Particle Cannons are going to be your saviour. Load up heavily on these and spray death.

 

[Magusigne]

This game is pretty much in my Genre of choice with Star Control 2 being my favorite Game.

Mini-Review- It's like EV:Nova -Lite

Definately a fun game..worth the 11 dollars I paid for it, and considering it was produced completely by 2 hobbyists it is a damn fine game. However there are a few critiques of course...the main issue is that it leaves me wanting for more depth.

Initially when you start the game it randomly creates a new galaxy...and like any good game like this it allows you to adjust the galaxy size. I of course opted for a huge galaxy so that I could explore and get everything out of the game I could..however this became a huge pain as mission points and technologies simply were spread more sparsely around requiring uncessary jaunts through vanilla star systems.

The game gets a bit repetitive when your seeing the same type of missions over and over again...UTA vs Civ...etc...etc. There are only 2 factions to side with your work completely reset upon entering another star system (Somewhat makes sense with storyline) however is pretty much pointless.

Mining in the game is also fairly pointless as it's easier to obtain "Rez" by doing missions..and most types of ships don't have the cargo hold to even make mining worth it.

You can get into a "Stuck" point at the game if your randomly generated galaxy didn't put certain tech's in your vicinity before needing to overcome significant opposition to open new galaxies.

Also you can't "trade" or buy new ship designs (like EV:Nova needing like uber faction allegience to get rare ships). You simply encounter them enough times and destroy them and eventually you'll reverse engineer the ship.

Lastly, your mothership has a set number of hangars (ship slots) with set sizes. You linearly upgrade the mothership by completing missions. It would be nice to see an initial tech tree..or also the option of the Star Control ship point system (Large ship of certin class worth 12 points...or you could choose 4 3 point small ships in that hangar slot).


Overall a good buy, and hopefully we'll see more updates and perhaps an even larger game like this by the dev's.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I don't know what is going on... running a Right Hook and two colts, I had noticed the weak left side, but it doesn't matter what I do the Clockwork keeps getting destroyed in about 30 seconds.

Don't have leech beams yet. Setting the Colts to attack the Hammerhead results in them lasting about 2 seconds even with a shield booster and level 6 shield tech.

Nor do I have particle cannons...

 

[Elcs]

Mining in the game is also fairly pointless as it's easier to obtain "Rez" by doing missions..and most types of ships don't have the cargo hold to even make mining worth it.

Overall a good buy, and hopefully we'll see more updates and perhaps an even larger game like this by the dev's.

Mining is an almost essential part of the game, especially on Insane. Furthermore, when your maximum Rez cap is just 2,500 you should have a ship capable of 250 Rez capacity (The Tug) and the Mule (Large ship in the second stage) has a 1,000 Rez capacity when the max Rez cap is 10,000.

Lastly, the amount of development and refinement between my Preview in May and my Review at release is astounding for just a two man team. There is meant to be a patch within the next few weeks which will further balance things (Cannon guys, expect a nerf) and from what I have heard from Blorfy, some of the 'Coming Soon' items on the front page will be introduced.

 

[Elcs]

I don't know what is going on... running a Right Hook and two colts, I had noticed the weak left side, but it doesn't matter what I do the Clockwork keeps getting destroyed in about 30 seconds.

Don't have leech beams yet. Setting the Colts to attack the Hammerhead results in them lasting about 2 seconds even with a shield booster and level 6 shield tech.

Nor do I have particle cannons...

Rush the Hammerhead, strip it's shields and poke the weaker side armour.

What weapon tech have you focused on mainly?

Beams: Go for the first or second generic damage beam on your Right Hook, you might get away with no Reactor Booster depending on your build. Fly it in and strip the shields. With 3 beams and 6 beam tech, even Medium Armour melts quite fast.

Cannons: Probably one beam on the Right Hook, two cannons on it with a Reactor Booster. Strip shields, use the cannons only on the armour and when it's changing towards orange, add the beam back in.

If you have the right tech, a Gravity Missile from the Right Hook might make things a little easier by slowing down the Hammherhead.

This mission is really much easier than most people make it out to be. The Hammerhead is mean and isn't a soft target but it melts faster than a base does.

 

[Magusigne]

Really debating what ship to run with.

I unlocked the Right Hook and from there the game really opened up. However...It's a great ship..but I find myself thinking the Grinder might being a fun ship to try out with it's Single Huge Cannon and utility slots...

So far I have The Mule, The Right Hook, The Grinder and the bomb ship

 

[zinfamous]

can't wait till this is on sale.

certainly sounds like it is worth 15 bucks, but steam has made me a cheap ass.

 

[Elcs]

Really debating what ship to run with.

I unlocked the Right Hook and from there the game really opened up. However...It's a great ship..but I find myself thinking the Grinder might being a fun ship to try out with it's Single Huge Cannon and utility slots...

So far I have The Mule, The Right Hook, The Grinder and the bomb ship

Personally prefer the Grinder if I'm running beams. Currently sitting with a Huge second beam, dual first beams on the turret, medium shield booster, medium beam booster and two small reactor boosters.

I'm not much of a fan of the Right Hook, but it's ideal as an assassin. Moves fast, manuevers in nicely and can strike and the weak spots of larger ships. Don't find it too handy in larger or prolonged engagements due to Reactor issues.

 

[PowerYoga]

I actually completed big fish the very first time, I'm not sure what I did but I wrecked the ship very quickly. Was using big bus and 2x rangers. 3x beams on the bus and all the rangers used the scatter shot missile things + beam/cannons.

Now I finally have a huge hull and I'm trying to figure out where to go to max out the rest of my tech. It's very hard for me to breach the gates and I can't farm enough goons fast enough to make it worthwhile to bribe.

Any ideas where I can go to farm huge ships? I'm also very heavy beam oriented right now but I heard cannons are real good late game. Don't have particle cannons (damn space station is lvl 3 and hates me) and i'm stuck with the basic beams right now. But i do have a leech beam which helps tremendously.

 

[Elcs]

Any ideas where I can go to farm huge ships? I'm also very heavy beam oriented right now but I heard cannons are real good late game. Don't have particle cannons (damn space station is lvl 3 and hates me) and i'm stuck with the basic beams right now. But i do have a leech beam which helps tremendously.

Level 50+ systems, pref at least 2+ strength on each side. Go into conflict zones where you are friendly with one side, there's always a huge ship or two flying around during the fighting.

If you are friends with one side, you can both wail on the other side to nab all the goodies. You can also be mean and try to get the friendly ships killed too by not giving them aid in uneven fights. Sometimes you can get yourself an extra blueprint here too.

Remember that certain ships are flown by certain factions only. For example, you will never see a Civ Hammerhead or Civ Sunspot.

Cannons are OP. They are awful early on but the Ion Cannon, Particle Cannon and Mass Driver are all crazy good. Fusion Beams are supposed to be amazing but none of the core systems I've unlocked on Insane have given me access to the Fusion Beam to try out. I'm personally mixing up the first and second beams to deal damage as neither the Leech, nor the Ion Beam deal damage to hull or armour.

Shield tech and your main weapon tech are ideal choices for maxing out. Subsystem tech is good if you use boosters a lot (Booster Overdrive) and Reactor tech can be useful for the Overdrive Reactor (tech 8). Armour is an odd one but if you've taken Armour 5 for Heavy Armour, you might consider pumping it up to 8 for Advanced Armour. A little less effective against beams and missiles but much lighter than Heavy Armour.

 

[PowerYoga]

ack, I'm still on lvl 30+ systems, no wonder I'm not seeing huge ships.

Guess I'll just chug along and blast my way through to victory. I unlocked the particle cannon but need some research to use it... hope its as good as everyone says it is!

really looking forward to it.

Also with leech beam + 2 lasers on the right hook I've never found an issue with energy. Of course I only have the 2nd lvl beam...

 

[Elcs]

ack, I'm still on lvl 30+ systems, no wonder I'm not seeing huge ships.

Guess I'll just chug along and blast my way through to victory. I unlocked the particle cannon but need some research to use it... hope its as good as everyone says it is!

really looking forward to it.

Also with leech beam + 2 lasers on the right hook I've never found an issue with energy. Of course I only have the 2nd lvl beam...

The particle cannon is as everyone says. Overpowered and chews through everything (except heavy armour) with relative ease. Even heavy armour doesn't last too longer against it.

With the Right Hook, I'd consider a Large Leech Beam to be a waste. I've hooked up a Medium Leech Beam on my Grinder's Dual Mount Turret to allow me continuous fire of the Huge beam and my other beam on the turret. Abusing Boosters and Booster Overdrive means I can keep my Reactor Tech lower whilst keeping my overall damage output high... at least for now anyway

 

[PowerYoga]

I'll try out the grinder. I unlocked it a while ago but had terrible times with it because of reactor energy. What beam are you using? I can't seem to unlock the other ones except scatter shot (is that a beam?)

Also missiles are sucking hard now and my wingmen's colts use up their energy so fast. I installed a leech beam on it but they don't seem to use it... wondering what to do with those fools.

 

[Elcs]

For the Huge beam, I use that blue beam which you pick up extremely early. For my double turret mount, I use that orange starter beam (for the range) and a Leech beam for the leeching.

Even with 6 in Reactor tech, it struggles with power unless I use the Leech Beam. I also run three beam boosters and 1 shield booster, leaving the tractor beam in place.

Even though I have level 4 in missile tech, I don't actually use them. I had planned to use Gravity Missiles but they were never forthcoming in early zone and I've explored half of the outer areas. Might respec for the extra 10 points.

Colts use their leech beams constantly, they're just small and hard to see. All weapons do not fire at precisely the same time. The top left slot on the Colt will fire first. If your Colt's are struggling with energy, swap out some of the weapons for boosters.

Remember, you can respec. It will form a data debt for you. You have to collect a certain amount of data doing your normal stuff to repay it before you will gain any more data for leveling.

 

[PowerYoga]

tried the grinder out yesterday and I'm not terribly impressed...

Maybe its because I don't have the double turret yet but having only 1 beam (used boosters in missile slots) really hurts. Finally got particle beam researched though but haven't tested it out yet. Should I replace the laser with it?

Also found schematics for fusion beam.... need 2 more pieces.

 

[Joemonkey]

one word: mines

Mines are way OP right now. Spec all you can into them, run in pounders/helix each with the best mines you have and you've just turned on easy mode

stay away from bombs and missiles if you can, I used to LOVE using them but they usually hit friendly targets and screw up whatever you're trying to do

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Rush the Hammerhead, strip it's shields and poke the weaker side armour.

What weapon tech have you focused on mainly?

Beams: Go for the first or second generic damage beam on your Right Hook, you might get away with no Reactor Booster depending on your build. Fly it in and strip the shields. With 3 beams and 6 beam tech, even Medium Armour melts quite fast.

Cannons: Probably one beam on the Right Hook, two cannons on it with a Reactor Booster. Strip shields, use the cannons only on the armour and when it's changing towards orange, add the beam back in.

If you have the right tech, a Gravity Missile from the Right Hook might make things a little easier by slowing down the Hammherhead.

This mission is really much easier than most people make it out to be. The Hammerhead is mean and isn't a soft target but it melts faster than a base does.

I got through it. I think the fastest way would be to concentrate on a couple of tech and get them to max then branch out later. Leveled the beams up to 6 and put a bit extra into cannon (level 4). Then used a crawler with 2 normal beams, 2 leacher beams, 4 disruptors and a cannon booster. The thing melted like butter.

Now I'm playing with zombies!

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I'll try out the grinder. I unlocked it a while ago but had terrible times with it because of reactor energy. What beam are you using? I can't seem to unlock the other ones except scatter shot (is that a beam?)

Also missiles are sucking hard now and my wingmen's colts use up their energy so fast. I installed a leech beam on it but they don't seem to use it... wondering what to do with those fools.

Check out who you have on your hanger booster slots - the Pirate guy you rescue helps with reactors/capacitors. Found it helped keep me firing pretty much indefinitely... until I was playing for a really long time against seemingly relentless zombies... even then a quick break and good to go again!

 

[Elcs]

The Grinder is nice if you get it just right. Can be a pig to get customised to the right combat levels. I've just screwed mine up by fitting the top engines (inertial) and replacing the heavy/medium armour with Advanced Armour. Increased the reactor drain and made the thing so damn fast/agile.

If you're beam specced, cannons won't be impressive. If you're cannon-specced, throw particle cannons in everywhere

I'm 2/3 on my Fusion Beam and trawling the inner core to find the next piece. It's annoying and difficult since I've already seen 4 pieces of Mass Driver blueprint (you need 3).

 

[Elcs]

one word: mines

Mines are way OP right now. Spec all you can into them, run in pounders/helix each with the best mines you have and you've just turned on easy mode

stay away from bombs and missiles if you can, I used to LOVE using them but they usually hit friendly targets and screw up whatever you're trying to do

Mines are not really OP, it's just that the AI likes to play around with the mine layer (dodgy target priorities).

They are most certainly not easy mode on Insane difficulty