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Deleted member 49574

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 12, 2018
454
Norway
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You are the captain of a starship venturing through a massive open universe. Customize your crew and take command at the helm of your very own ship as you explore a galaxy torn apart by internal strife, alien threats, and political intrigue.

Command your ship and crew as a space pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, and more in Star Traders: Frontiers – an epic space RPG from Trese Brothers Games. Venture forth into a massive open universe, rich with adventure and the lore of the Star Traders. Choose your path by assembling and commanding your custom crew and spaceship in a constantly evolving galaxy torn by internal strife, political intrigue, and alien threats. Will you fly as a pirate terrorizing shipping lanes, join the solar wars as a military captain, or track targets across the stars as a fearsome bounty hunter?

- Explore a rich, open universe: Discover endless procedurally-generated galactic maps, meet unique characters, and take on enemies to conquer the galaxy!
- Become an intergalactic captain: Take on the role of a spy, smuggler, explorer, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, and more (26 jobs total)!
- Customize your own spaceship: Choose from more than 350 upgrades and 45 ship hulls to build your very own vessel to venture across the vast reaches of space.
- Assemble and tailor a loyal crew: Assign talents and equip specialized gear for every spaceship crew member.
- Experience an ever-changing narrative: Decide to make friends or foes with other factions and influence political, economic, and personal vendettas.
- Mold the crew by your choices: As you make decisions and set the tone for your ship, your crew will grow and change to match. Destroy enemy ships with all hands on deck and your crew will become more bloodthirsty and savage. Explore distant worlds and loot dangerous wastelands and your crew will become intrepid and clever ... or scarred and half-mad.
- Varied Difficulty Options! play with save slots to try out different builds or storylines or turn on character permadeath and enjoy classic roguelike experience
- Achievement Unlocks: accomplish story and challenge goals to unlock additional optional (but not better) content like new starting ships and new starting contacts

First there was the Exodus – when survivors of a great war left the ruins of the Galactic Core behind in search of a new home in the stars. Scattered worlds were claimed on the fringe of the galaxy. Each pocket of survivors held on to an isolated set of worlds while trying to rebuild under the great law of Shalun. Three centuries later, technology has brought them back together again. Discovery of the hyperwarp has bridged what was once an unimaginable distance between far-flung colonies, long-lost families, and political factions.

With that reunification has come great economic prosperity. The hyperwarp reestablished the transportation of cargo, goods, and technologies between the quadrants – but it has also brought great strife. Political rivalries have been rekindled, blood has been shed in age-old feuds, and the fires of war have been stoked. Amidst the political infighting, a ruthless revolution is rising – and the fervent explorers of the hyperwarp have awoken something that was better left asleep.

Our very first game, Star Traders RPG, took hundreds of thousands of gamers on an interstellar adventure. Star Traders' success and overwhelmingly positive reception helped to launch Trese Brothers Games. It was the adventures of our community's star-crossed captains that put us on a trajectory to share more of our worlds, ideas, and dreams.

We set out to capture the loneliness, bravery, and camaraderie of people living together in a spaceship sailing across the stars. It is with great pride that after releasing four other games in the Star Traders universe, we've created a sequel to the original Star Traders RPG.

Step onto the bridge of your starship, take to the stars, and create your own story in Star Traders: Frontiers.
 
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Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
Terrific game, highly recommended - especially on mobile devices. If you like Space Rangers, Star Control or any other sprawling space fare, it's an easy recommendation. Looks incredible on my Android tablet, plays wonderfully.
 

deadfolk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,525
Any idea how this would play on a decent size phone? Been interested in this game, but I know I'd never bother playing it on a tablet.
 

baconcow

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,814
Gonna pick this up when I return from my exam. Can't wait! Looks quite ambitious.
 

Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
Any idea how this would play on a decent size phone? Been interested in this game, but I know I'd never bother playing it on a tablet.

I'll install it on my phone - nothing huge, just some Sharp model - and see how it plays. Will let you know.

EDIT: Here's a bevy of screenshots from the phone version. Pretty damn playable, so no doubt on larger mobiles, it'd be even better.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zm1sWVafYhgxJ26e9
 
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deadfolk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,525

Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
It's also really refreshing to see a super-affordable premium-priced RPG like Frontiers rise above a depressingly broad array of F2P/IAP-ridden efforts, especially stuff like the withered skeletal version of Space Rangers on mobile.
 

KefkaPalazzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,593
Star Traders is a good free game and this looks like a huge improvement. Thanks for the heads up, will have to grab this at some point.
 

Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
How complex is this? Is there a steep learning curve?

I think I might bite at that price.

It's pretty comprehensive. Lots of tips, gentle upswing for new players. Huge game, though. All sorts of missions, ships, classes...feels like the devs have perfected their concept with this.

Is it similar to FTL?

Sort of, but think of it more as an open world sci-fi RPG with turn-based starship and away team combat. Among other things. Kinda like a straight-laced Space Rangers descendant. Kinda.
 

Grug

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,644
Just took it for a quick spin. Definitely not a game to try and learn just before bed.

Looks like a lot of systems in place. Might wait for a YouTube tutorial before leaping fully in. Looks very well crafted though.
 

Kasai

Member
Jan 24, 2018
4,281
This looks really tempting. I've been looking for really any massive RPG to play on my phone, and I dont have the $30 to drop on TWEWY, so I think I'll have to get this.
 

Pellaidh

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,167
How complex is this? Is there a steep learning curve?

I think I might bite at that price.

From my experience (which was about half a year ago I think, so things could have changed since then), it was like this:

There's a ton of stats and numbers that all seem to interact with the game and each other in a ton of different ways, and the game does (or at least did back when I played it some months ago) a pretty terrible job of explaining just exactly how any of it works. It's pretty easy to have a vague idea about things (like more strength makes you better at melee combat), which is enough to get by. But exact details are harder to come by. From what I remember, not even the game's wiki had any concrete explanations.

And even past the numbers, there's a ton of systems going on in the background, like faction relations, or a simulated economy.

Now, you don't technically need to know how any of this actually works to just play the game casually. The actual gameplay mechanics (combat, smuggling, exploration, spying and whatever else) are all super simple. For example, I could easily create a pirate character and just rob merchant ships to make money with no real knowledge of the background mechanics.

The problem with that though, is that it just wasn't really any fun for me. The actual gameply mechanics like combat are so simplistic that just by themselves aren't any fun at all. Most of the professions in the game are literally just you clicking a button and seeing the results. And the ones that aren't (like ship combat) are just not very fun. For example, this is a permadeath game, but judging enemy strength is very hard (at least I couldn't figure out an easy way to do it). So it mostly just ended up with me running away from anything remotely threatening (even just taking too much damage is an easy game over). Which was pretty easy to do since you have a ton of skills that make running away almost guaranteed.

This means that the actual fun and engaging part of the game presumably comes from interacting with all of these background systems that at a first glance don't even seem to matter. And in this regard, the game seems pretty great, as there's a ton of these systems to play around with.

Basically, I'd consider this to be one of the most complicated games to actually learn how to play to the point where you can have fun. I spent something like 10 hours on it and still couldn't do it. And I think games like Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis have a way overblown reputation for complexity. I understood enough to play it pretty successfully, but not enough to actually have fun with. And I could never figure out if I actually had things mostly figured out (and just wanted the game to be more complex than it actually is), or if there was actually more happening behind the scenes. I'm guessing it's the latter, going by how much its fans love it.

Still, for the price, I'd still suggest it, since I'm clearly in the minority with my opinion. And even with my negative opinions, I'd still say the game is worth trying out for that little money, as there are a lot of things it does incredibly well.

TLDR: It's easy enough to jump into, but exact details of all of the mechanics are not really explained very well.


Is it similar to FTL?

Other than the fact that they're both set in space and feature spaceships and permadeth (well, it's optional here), not really. FTL is basically focused exclusively on the combat side of things, while this is focused much more on the overall management side of things. It's almost somewhat like comparing FIFA to Football Manager in that they're both football games, but focused on two completely different things. If you played FTL purely for the combat, this isn't anything like that. But if you wanted the out of combat elements like ship management and exploration to be the focus, the game might be for you.
 

SolidChamp

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,867
It's actually $10 on the Canadian iTunes Store, but I bought it anyway.

Trusting you guys on this. lol
 

Yerffej

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
Don't know if the game would be my jam but can I get that song somewhere? I dig.
 

corytrese

Member
Jan 30, 2019
4
United States
Just wanted to post and say hi.

I'm Cory, one half of the Trese Brothers team that made Star Traders: Frontiers.

Happy to answer any questions / redirect blame for bugs to my brother.
 

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,869
OR
I was big into Trese Bros. games a few years back on Android, had no idea they brought this franchise to PC, I'll definitely need to check this out. Thanks!

Just wanted to post and say hi.

I'm Cory, one half of the Trese Brothers team that made Star Traders: Frontiers.

Happy to answer any questions / redirect blame for bugs to my brother.

Hey man, thanks to you both for the great Android games over the years, they were a breath of fresh air in a F2P world. Definitely looking forward to checking this out!
 
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corytrese

Member
Jan 30, 2019
4
United States
I was so into this until I saw the character designs. They're really really ugly...

Sorry to hear the artwork was a miss for you on this title. I'll pass the feedback along to my brother.

Next game we'll have learned a bit more and hopefully future character designs will be more to your liking.

I do sincerely appreciate you taking the time to look at the game -- sounds like we almost had it :)
 

Nightfall

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,957
Germany
Sorry to hear the artwork was a miss for you on this title. I'll pass the feedback along to my brother.

Next game we'll have learned a bit more and hopefully future character designs will be more to your liking.

I do sincerely appreciate you taking the time to look at the game -- sounds like we almost had it :)
Hey, didn't see the post about you and your brother. I really appreciate you reading my feedback.

Don't get me wrong, the game is right up my alley and it looks really interesting and kinda like the old Master of Orion games (spent countless hours with 2).
I like the ship designs and the UI. But the characters are not so great. They remind me of those Bitmoji (I think that's what they're called?) designs. So it looks kind of cheap compared to the rest.
But I'll tell you this, I will keep it on my Google Play wishlist and knowing me, eventually I'll break and buy it.

Also the fact that it's a premium game and no online or in-app bullshit makes me really happy.
 

Unicorn

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 29, 2017
9,527
Have it on steam, but goddamn this on phone makes so much sense.

How is it on battery life and how are touch controls?
 

Deleted member 33382

User request account closure
Banned
Nov 16, 2017
363
It was an easy choice. iOS players in particular seem to be pretty excited about the premium no-IAP approach.

I didn't expect it to be a big deal, our previous title is the same way but the response this time was different.

Brilliant game so far. I bought it because of no IAPs. I havent had a game contribute to my battery drain this much since KOTOR. 100% down to 30% in a night.

I hope you guys get some word of mouth coverage.

I think i got really lucky exploring a wild planet. Found some salvage which netted me 120k in trade right off the bat. Got some nice upgrades for my ship.

Only negative is Time Limits = Bad. I know a lot of them are pretty lenient, some being upwards of 6 years but they still suck.
 

Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
Re: character art, I think it's fine. Given the amount of characters in the game, plus customisation, they've done well. It might be a few levels below Darkest Dungeon or Deep Sky Derelicts, but still very serviceable. The simple animations are welcomed.

The ship designs and planetary backgrounds, though? Super good.
 

deadfolk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,525
Probably going to grab this today.

Funny - for years I wanted to be able to play proper games on a phone. Now it's possible, I find that I never actually do. That's my major hesitation with this. I'm hoping that I actually play it!
 

Alex Connolly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
596
Kagoshima, Japan
With so many f2p games these days, people are extra welcoming to no nonsense premium games

Definitely. I fell out of love with the mobile game market for years after everything seemingly succumbed to that sleazy, conniving F2P business model. Even now, I immediately scrub past anything that doesn't have a premium price tag on show. Or, if it *is* F2P, a cursory examination of the IAP price range will tell me everything I need to know. Usually, that the game in question is given the flick without further investigation.

There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 49574

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 12, 2018
454
Norway
Definitely. I fell out of love with the mobile game market for years after everything seemingly succumbed to that sleazy, conniving F2P business model. Even now, I immediately scrub past anything that doesn't have a premium price tag on show. Or, if it *is* F2P, a cursory examination of the IAP price range will tell me everything I need to know. Usually, that the game in question is given the flick without further investigation.

There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

Yeah there are definitely exceptions. Like i just installed Hexonia today
A civilization-lite game. it has 2 free civs and the other civs are paid iaps. thats it. (no ads or other iaps outside of the civs)

I think GACHA is the worst f2p offender.