RPGWatch Feature - Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander: Early Impressions

Myrthos · April 25, 2016

After a limited number of hours playing Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, Silver brings us his very early impression, with the promise to come back with more info at a later stage.

As for the space station itself you will find it familiar if you have played XCOM. It looks like an ant farm from side-on but the amount of potential facilities you can construct is much larger than XCOM. You will need to clear out ruined areas before new facilities can be built and that means assigning an officer to the task. I had my first experience with ground combat when this task was interupted in which I was given the option to flee before battle started or engage. It works much the same as ship combat with your officers abilities being used in complementary fashion.

Make sure to pay attention to the tech tree as various facilities can only be constructed once you pay for the research. The tech web is handily colour coded for different areas like yellow for fleet tech and purple for starbase facilities etc. You will need to spend materials and dark matter to acquire technologies which will be available instantly. Pro Tip: I found it most useful to focus on officer tech and starship level tech.

More information.

Myrthos · April 25, 2016

Thanks Silver, for these first impressions of the game.

MassiveDamageInc · April 25, 2016

Thanks for a great first impressions write-up!

One thing I wanted to point out.. this isn't really a rogue-like. You can save at any time outside of combat. So the whole warning about losing officers that you've spent hours building up isn't a fait accompli unless you're imposing "iron man" mode on yourself.

We will have an "iron man" mode eventually for those that want to have that option.

cheers,
Ken

greywolf00 · April 25, 2016

Not a huge fan of the graphics, but the systems sound interesting. Will have to give it a go at some point.

Ironmonk · April 25, 2016

I hope this game don't fail... I have been following many similar games that blends strategy+rpg elements in space setting and most of them ends up being crap.

utergatuk · April 25, 2016

i have this on my wishlist... thanks for the impressions!

Terry · April 26, 2016

Is this only on steam or will it be on GOG as well?

Silver · April 26, 2016

@Terry

No Leaf Clover 21 Apr @ 10:04pm
Any other buying option in the future?
Like, will this game hit GoG ?

cassentra [developer] 22 Apr @ 7:58am
It's not something we're considering for the Early Access version of the game.

So basically they will look at other platforms when early access is done.

They Live · April 26, 2016

I'm really tempted by this one. I've gone pretty EAphobic in the last years but this one looks promising...

wolfing · April 26, 2016

I wish it wasn't pixel-art. I'm 46, I already went through the pixelated era. That fad has to die now!

forgottenlor · April 26, 2016

Thanks, Silver. Your impressions have made me glad I backed this one. I'm looking forward to playing it.

Terry · April 26, 2016

Thanks for the info Silver, good job on the early impressions, keep up the good work.

wiretripped · April 27, 2016

Thanks Silver! Game sounds pretty good.
Looking forward to its release.

Hastar · April 27, 2016

wolfing said:
I wish it wasn't pixel-art. I'm 46, I already went through the pixelated era. That fad has to die now!

We're the same age you old bastard

I agree on the pixelated era. Wait a second what were we talking about? Get the hell off my lawn.

Thrasher · April 27, 2016

Nice preview, Silver. Thanks!

screeg · April 28, 2016

Thanks for the preview. On a YouTube video I watched, when the player lost a ship, his officer "ejected" and survived (which seemed very very lame). How did you lose an officer?

I purchased this one, but I'm not going to play until 1.0.

Silver · April 28, 2016

screeg said:
Thanks for the preview. On a YouTube video I watched, when the player lost a ship, his officer "ejected" and survived (which seemed very very lame). How did you lose an officer?

I purchased this one, but I'm not going to play until 1.0.

That never happened to me. My ships got dusted attacking an outpost. After I got a news report informing me of the officers I had lost then I was asked to select a new officer for a replacement. It may be a random chance thing because its never happened to me so far.

MassiveDamageInc · April 29, 2016

screeg said:
Thanks for the preview. On a YouTube video I watched, when the player lost a ship, his officer "ejected" and survived (which seemed very very lame). How did you lose an officer?

I purchased this one, but I'm not going to play until 1.0.

Thanks for supporting us during Early Access!!

As for officer deaths, there's no "ejection", if the ship is blown up, the ship is gone, the crew on board is gone and so is the officer.

Having said that, we're exploring the idea of having a pre-death state where you can have a chance to save your ship if you act fast enough. We're considering this as a toggle-able option.

SpoonFULL · April 29, 2016

To the developers: are you guys thinking of bringing Halcyon 6 to GoG?

Thanks

MassiveDamageInc · May 1, 2016

SpoonFULL said:
To the developers: are you guys thinking of bringing Halcyon 6 to GoG?

Thanks

Yes, for our 'final release' after we exit Early Access

RPGWatch Feature - Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander: Early Impressions

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