• Flux

In its most basic form the mechanic is very simple, you go to a location, use a combat scanner and are shown the enemies available. Each enemy has a variety of attributes which are predetermined by a set of rules.

A basic combat scan being performed on the navigation screen

Levels and difficulty

Enemy difficulty is indicated by the colour of their level

The most simple of these rules is the level of the ship, each system within Oort Star contains a selection of enemies ranging from a minimum to a maximum level. As you progress through the game and travel further from Satora you will encounter more challenging (higher level) enemies.

Satora contains level 0 - 5 ships, as you can see in the screenshot, enemy levels are displayed in white, green or red to indicate the difficulty of the fight. There are no artificial mechanics to make higher level ships more challenging to lower level players. So, a level 30 player could attempt to kill a level 40 ship should they think they are more powerful than average level 30 players.

Ship types

A selection of enemy ships, showing one of each primary type

Just like players, enemy ships will follow the 6 primary types, one for each specialism. These 6 types of ships are then broken down into sub categories and classes, resulting in hundreds of combinations spread throughout the Universe.

Ship types determine the way the enemy ship will behave, for example combat ships may be more aggressive than mining vessels. Transit ships may have a higher tendency to try and run from battle compared to explorers.

Sub categories and classes will provide variation in the ships abilities, survivability and power. These variations will remain consistent throughout the game, so if you meet a low and later high level Leto Class Death Dealer, you can expect the higher level version to have more powerful equipment but fight in the same fashion.

Customise your scanning

There are several types of scanners and which you equip comes down to personal preference, some will provide more information whilst others will cover a wider range. Some examples:

• Basic scanners: These will scan the furthest distance but only return basic ship information.
• Drone scanners: These will only scan at close range but will inform you of any drones a ship is carrying.
• Missile scanners: Close range scanners providing information about missile types and quantities.

Short range vs long range scanners

As you upgrade your ship you will be able to mix and match scanners, meaning you could equip multiple scanners at once. Some combinations include:

• Basic scanner + drone scanner: Long range drone scanning.
• Drone scanner + missile scanner: Short distance scanning providing both drone and missile information.
• Basic scanner + Basic scanner: Providing extremely long range scanning but only basic information.

Conclusion

I have only touched on the basics of combat scanning with this post but hope to have provided you with an insight as to how the system will work. It will be interesting to see what scanner customisations you will value and whether quantity or quality will be the most desired.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.

• Flux

The variety of combat scanners will allow for nearly any combination you can imagine, let's use some made up numbers.

Say the basic scanner has a range of 5.
You might find a mixture of missile and drone scanners with ranges 1, 2 and 3.

This means from combinations you could end up with ranges of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 10.

In other words, it's not as simple as short, medium or long range, it is a choice of the exact numbers you wish to use.

• Tallaran

Love the idea that ship types will have behaviour and that behaviour will remain constant. I'm not the best combat pilot :) so it will make my life easier for sure to know which types I should steer clear of and leave to the more artful combat pilot.

• Captainvillem

Looks like combat is going to be fun. Cant wait to get to grips with this soon.