My Star Sonata 2 Journey: Feedback from a Returning Player

[onyx wyvern]

I'd like to preface this feedback with a few notes. This "feedback," if it can be called that, will be broken down into digestible sections for easy access to noteworthy information.

Coming Back to SS

Over the years, this game would occasionally drift into my thoughts. It felt like a puzzle set that I never truly finished. Recently, I found myself with about two months of free time to binge into a hobby of choice after work and school. I wanted to see if I could set a goal and see it through, if the game's systems would allow me to.

I decided to aim for reaching tech 23 and to try out the modern systems implemented over the years. As I set this goal, I had some preconceptions about how things would play out if I fully committed to playing Star Sonata again:

• I wasn't sure of the time commitment needed.

It could take anywhere from 2-4 months of continuous playtime. Gameplay designs adding consequences to decisions or hindering experience, whether deliberate or random, could extend this time. For instance, if a team or player decides to attack, or if I'm severely outmatched by termites.

• Many systems I remember have likely become obsolete.

I could be underestimating the extent of the game's changes, rendering any previously correct information I had useless.

With these questions in mind, I scoured the public Discord and wiki for answers. I found that my goal was achievable with enough dedication, and my knowledge of the game, as it used to be, was sufficient to at least point me in the right direction from the start.

Starting Afresh

I decided to start from the very beginning. I created a new Steam account, downloaded the SS Steam client, created new login credentials (no subscription), and then spawned in the Nexus.

Levels 1-100 (Day 1, First Hour)

The Nexus was a bit different from what I remembered, but not by much. The controls and basic systems felt good. The Nexus augmenters at the AI base, along with the improved stats on some of the easily accessible ships below T3, also helped, even if their effect was minimal. After acquiring a set of T3 skills, I went to deep space, then to Lyceum, and finally to Paxius, where I completed some missions and acquired a faster travel ship and a few means to combat harder content.

Drones were woefully useless in the early stages of the game due to their combat potential being derivative of your ship's combat potential and any obtained skills, both of which were negligible at that point. Missiles and Fighters, on the other hand, were the direct opposite. I found myself shredding through any target, and they became my bread and butter.

Levels 100-500 (Day 1, Days 2~3)

Skill levels were the main impediment to progress. To unlock certain content or obtain noteworthy improvements, I needed to meet specific quest skill level requirements or skill level thresholds. I don't remember all the roadblocks I went through, but I know that the first most important skills were as follows:

All skills can be trained to T12 in the jungle, so acquiring Warp Navigation 2 was first on my list. Warp Navigation 2 can be obtained by killing goblins near Lavanite, and Warp 3 can be gained with Paxian Medallions stockpiled through explorer missions and Mira dailies.

Leveling was fun, and I got to experience a few new early game additions. The Onyx Overcoat from the Colored Empire and some zone items obtained through Arctia and Valanite were nice.

The Thick of Things

Levels 500-1500 (2 Weeks)

Once I got all my skills to T12, I decided to do some main missions and unlock some trade-in quests. I found that another limiting factor at my level was going to be credits. Luckily, I joined during the Halloween event. I knew players seldom went out of their way to farm trolls in the EF layer, so Halloween-themed AI became my go-to for credit generation. Planet drills sold for 1-2.5 billion credits between metal, silicon, and nuclear waste, and troll augmenters were worth around the same.

Around level 800, I had all my core skills at level 19 and decided to experiment with other classes. I checked out every class except Seer, Berserker, and Shield Monkey. They all felt good in their respective T19 ships, and the main augmenters I used were always 2 Heracles Augmenters and a mix of any others that played into the strengths of the specific classes (I used 4 Heracles Augmenters for Speed Demon).

When I hit level 1000, I stuck with Fleet Commander and bought a mix of fighters that would kill all the T20 skill bosses. The Mint fighters were enough to shred through every boss, with Space Blue Delta specifically for Copper Blob. Cerberus fighters were also a good alternative for Blob.

Around this time, Halloween was ending, and a universe reset was in progress. This meant my money well was drying up, and I needed to find new means of acquiring wealth. While leveling, I checked out prospecting, remembering it fondly, and learning that it's not as profitable in F2P locations. The next best option was one I exploited well, disparities in the player market economy. Either out of philanthropy or unlucky logistical mismanagement, I found a vast majority of credits just by selling niche items from player shop to player shop. Then, I found even more by selling a huge amount (over 7000) of scorched trade badges, insignias, and signets to the AI base in Tortuga, unlocked through their mission chain. I flipped 1 billion credits into over 100 billion in a few situations, grinded out a few more levels, and explored all of EF with the help of the online map and a Panther.

The Big Decision

Levels 1500-2500 (2 Weeks)

When I reached level 1500, I knew I needed to go P2P to continue towards my goal. I was hesitant at first, but I decided the best course would be to buy FLEX at the lowest price anyone would sell it for. I initially asked around privately but got no responses, so I bought one on the market for around 80 billion credits. I'm lucky I did because a few days later, the price of FLEX jumped to over 100 billion for the week after.

I did my Serengeti dailies and subspace monthlies and jumped up a significant number of levels. I created a team in anticipation of setting up a wild space base of operations and did some research into how that would work. I had little experience with base building but had a lot of intuition to draw upon, and after asking a few questions to confirm a few things, I decided to set up.

I want to thank Kelsier from team Zygort Traders and Tornado from Star Revolution X for answering some of my more pretentious questions. They helped me understand the threat of termites and how preparations against them would look.

Around this time, I also accidentally added a random new player to my team through a misclick. I wasn't interested in having any teammates due to the nature of how I planned to play, but I concluded that my new teammate was in fact genuinely new to the game. I helped them out through advice and items that I had, and they stayed with me even now.

After a few more days, I got all my skills to T22 and a few notable items that felt powerful. I also helped get my new friend caught up with T20 through the Serengeti, we did a complete T21 Olympus run, and he even attempted and successfully killed a few subspace bosses alone.

I found the galaxy I wanted to build in and, looking back, realize that an exotic galaxy was definitely overkill for one character who just needed metal, silicon, and nuclear waste: I’m only utilizing 2 planets out of the 20-25 in the galaxy. To be honest, it was reckless, and if termites decide to punish me tomorrow, I will question what took them so long.

I started by transporting raw T0 commodities to get a feel for the logistics, then transitioned to transporting IC commodities created on their respective planets. Around the time I felt the galaxy was self-sustainable beyond a doubt, I reached level 2500 and could start the T23 missions in the Empyreal Encampment.

The Current

Level 2500-Now (2 ½ Weeks)

Tech 23 wasn't as difficult as I surmised. By this time, I had started to realize that many of my conceptions around Star Sonata I believed when I was younger were just outright wrong and mostly viewed through the lenses of doubt, suspicion, and a general fear of direct dedication. Many of the things I wanted to do simply couldn't be done because I hadn't spent enough time trying to figure them out.

Take, for example, the Vicar ship, which is used primarily for its general-purpose aura generator. They cost around 150 billion credits on the player market and I never questioned how one is obtained or built. They can also be built with fewer than 500 million credits and a few hours of dedication to see it built to completion from a Seraph ship and an Absolution ship.

Building my first Empyreal Ship and its class-specific upgrade had the same premise. The materials, if bought pre-built, cost a small fortune and can easily be navigated around with a few hours' time investment. Farming Solarian DG bosses for the gear requirements was busy work, but I already had most of it through leveling.

I also got most of the T22 commodities (Perilium and the like) through Kalthi dungeons and prospecting. While the Noctis upgrade was cooking, I reached level 3000 and checked out the Red Rouge content. The innovation of how the Red Rouge content operates is one of the best I've ever seen from this game. It's like a dev took the concept of how Hermies spawns the Pretender Lamb AI if you are close to him in the galaxy and made a great design decision around it. The drops are great, and it's fun and fulfilling overall. My hope is that the dev team can reverse-engineer that design to earlier stages of the game.

End of the Road

I met my goal, and my free time is at an end. More work hours and a new semester are approaching, and I feel like I've finally completed my puzzle. I have never been good at describing things in greater detail, but I now see the gameplay loop Jeff might have intended when he made this sandbox game. I see how it can lead to such a crippling addiction if one gets trapped in its wonders and novelties. I see how it can bring the brightest of people to become so dedicated that they would spend so much to be its keeper, like I did once.

I had fun, which was important because for a long time I didn’t want to try to have fun with this game for stupid reasons; reasons so old and spiteful I couldn’t even remember them fully. So, I’ll leave this game with fond memories instead.

AMA

• Why didn’t you use your old account?

A mix of personal reasons, but the most logical one was that I hadn’t played Star Sonata in so long. I felt that the power gained with my old account would be underappreciated and too overwhelming.

• Did you encounter any bugs?

Lots. But nothing that hasn’t really been documented and brought to the attention of devs through the ticket system.

• How was your early game experience, such as the Nexus?

It was fine. I don’t think it needs changing, and I think if a brand-new player has the dedication to get through it, they will, like the rest of us; like my teammate Xilvana. This game will not be for everyone and after 15 years, that should be obvious.

• Any suggestions for future content?

The base building aspect of SS has always been its dark horse. Having it incorporated more into the other core aspects more seamlessly will be a great improvement. For example, maybe “temporary” bases that can be deployed like drones, but in a new galaxy layer for T23-T24 content. They expire after a short time but can be upgraded the same way Y and Z gear is built. Maybe some galaxy level tower defense where mobs can only be damaged by “base” tagged weapons and take no damage from other sources, and in parallel have mobs that can only take non- “base” weapon damage. Have them drop stuff that is used to build improvements and items on said base.
If something like this can be incorporated, then in theory, it can be reverse implemented to easier zones and stages and maybe even in the Nexus as an early base-building tutorial.

• What was the biggest “ah ha!” moment?

There were many, but the most memorable was looking at the resistance formula on a graph and finding out where the optimal diminishing returns would be. It is why I chose the augmenters on my T23 ship. It is a clever design, and it works well.

• Why did you name your team “The Society”?

It's from a sci-fi novel series called Red Rising by Pierce Brown. The Society is the governmental body and doctrine in that book, and I wanted to RP by myself before I gained a teammate. Most of my ships are named in homage to dreadnoughts in that book series.
The series is great, and I recommend reading them to everyone that enjoys science fiction novels like Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

• Will you keep playing?

Probably not. I’ll log in here and there to make sure the HQ isn’t starving, but I don’t plan to play after this universe ends. I’ve told Xilvana that I didn’t plan to play long term, so I’ll do what I can to get them onto a more dedicated team that can help with content.

Thank you for reading.

||To my friend: It’s been some time. I went into exile without warning, and I sincerely apologize for that. I had a panic attack one morning and made a few permanent decisions I’m convinced I cannot take back. I felt like I was a burden on all of you and questioned if I deserved to lean on friends like you guys when the tide was overpowering. So, I left and tried to work towards becoming a better person. It’s been difficult but I think some progress has been made, albeit alone. Tell the 2 Germans and the musician I wish them well. S&P.||

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[hollow cradle]

Thank you for the well written feedback. I feel like some of this would be helpful for anyone looking at the game on Steam who might be pondering whether or not they want to play it.

And I'm glad the Red Rogue content was enjoyable, we're definitely planning on expanding on it. 🙂

I wonder who you are from Salt and Pepper though...

[soft harbor]

According to my files it's Archipelago

[pine thorn]

Great break down super-subnet! I really appreciate the effort you put in to giving the game and writing this review.

I do hope you could come back at some point and kick the pants of our end game boss fights!

Definitely fills me with determination seeing the good reception here!

I do really like the lense of what is effectively a solo/ solo plus one setup. We've been trying to ensure the streamline of the balance of our skill zones going from t20 and up are ones that are completely doable solo without a wealth of game knowledge. It's great to see that realized in practice.

[warped mango]

A good read before work. Thank you.

[static robin]

What did you do KD dgs with, and up to what DF did you do them to?

[onyx wyvern]

I started doing them successfully with T21 equipment. A fleet of Kidd fighters was enough to break the regens of some of the bosses. It took time, but with enough patience and AI management, I was able to kill the Turtle, the Squid, Honey Badgers, and the legacy Paxian ship bosses. Two Zebra bots and some Banu wild bots helped. There were many other bosses I couldn't beat or didn't bother with when factoring in the time versus potential reward. Some bosses I probably could have beaten with a better strategy and tighter maneuverings around the solar bodies present. When I got T23 equipment, the Empyreal Mining Fighters were a great addition, DPS-wise.

I didn't venture very far DF-wise. Probably 450 was the highest I tried, very close to the Paxian Stronghold entrance.