Support NeoGAF

[Woo-Fu]

Any tips/strategies for the space battles? Are there any clues when the enemy spaceship is about to use barrage or normal attack? It seems to me that the battles are primarily based on guessing and luck.

It isn't guessing or luck, unless you play that way.

If you know how a given ship acts in battle all you really need to do is pay attention to the rise and fall of the enemy's combat gauge to figure out what he is most likely about to do.

Like reading any other situation, it is just a matter of getting the experience to see the signs that have been there the entire time.

 

[Corto]

I hope you are all proud of yourselves... You made me buy this game with all the space opera epicness talk and what not... and I'm sure I won't regret it one moment for what I read here. Thanks.

 

[Cat in the Hat]

I need help, i'm stuck. I've visited every planet in both the areas unlocked so far. I fought Valintin for the first time and I guess I'm waiting on the military dude to return to base. I've been flying around for quite some time now doing nothing. Anyone know what my next move is?

 

[I should be doing hw]

I need help, i'm stuck. I've visited every planet in both the areas unlocked so far. I fought Valintin for the first time and I guess I'm waiting on the military dude to return to base. I've been flying around for quite some time now doing nothing. Anyone know what my next move is?

Have to recruit Tatiana.

 

[TheUglyDrunk]

I've read several replies comparing this to an early 90's PC game. Is this in the same, or similar vein, as Starflight? I had been following it for a bit, and then it kind of dropped of my radar.

 

[botticus]

It isn't guessing or luck, unless you play that way.

If you know how a given ship acts in battle all you really need to do is pay attention to the rise and fall of the enemy's combat gauge to figure out what he is most likely about to do.

Like reading any other situation, it is just a matter of getting the experience to see the signs that have been there the entire time.

That's kinda where the guessing or luck comes into play, isn't it?

 

[Enduin]

Just beat the game, my god was that so fun. 50 hours in all, I think I missed a few things here or there, but overall I covered as much ground as I could. The story was surprising good and didnt get totally ridiculous at the end and I have to say I was surprisingly attached to a lot of the characters despite not having a ton of interaction with them all.

I cant wait to start a new game+ and tackle the Extra Mode. Now more than ever do I hope this game gets a sequel, it was such a great ride and worth every penny, something I cannot say for most games these days. The gameplay was super solid but could become so much more if given the chance and the setting is absolutely fantastic, it really is a great tribute to games of old. I dont care if the sequels on the DS, the 3DS, Wii or Wii2 I just want an Infinite Space 2.

 

[I should be doing hw]

That's kinda where the guessing or luck comes into play, isn't it?

Some luck, mostly paying attention to timing though as well. Rule of thumb, most battles start with the enemy doing a barrage. I you have fighters I usually set those out immeadiatly, back off and put dodge on asap. Then get in full range and wait for thier attack first. Enemies can never dodge immeadiatly after an attack, that's universal as far as I have found.
Timing comes into it when you are waiting for the enemies attack, the longer you wait the more chance there is of it being a barrage. If they flash red shortly though it's probably going to be a normal attack.

I've found that Melee battles are much more luck based though. Some of my victories have come from what appear to be glitches were the enemy loops te same stance over and over. You sorta don't really know what they are going to do. So far l've found 2 varients in melée though;
- Stupid: You can just play catch up with thier stance and they will just counter you
- Anticipatory: They will guess you are going to counter what they have now so they will counter that.
I've also found that the former is performed by run-of-the-mill enemies like generic pirates and the latter is used by bosses and military-like guys. But still, from those two archetypes so far it can still be pretty random. Much more so than ship battles.

 

[Cat in the Hat]

Have to recruit Tatiana.

Who is that? What planet?

Oh god nevermind. I found her, thanks

 

[I should be doing hw]

Yeah, everyone seems to get stuck there. I did too, even moreso because my game glitched out and thought I didn't recruit her when I had. So I spent 2 hours wandering aimlessly until I finally went back to the tavern and recruited get again. :lol

 

[Cat in the Hat]

Yeah, everyone seems to get stuck there. I did too, even moreso because my game glitched out and thought I didn't recruit her when I had. So I spent 2 hours wandering aimlessly until I finally went back to the tavern and recruited get again. :lol

Yeah my wander time was around 2 hours too:lol Thanks goodness that's over I've been wanting to play this so bad. Good news is I got tons of money and exp from aimlessly traveling through space.

 

[Mejilan]

That's kinda where the guessing or luck comes into play, isn't it?

Not really, no. If you see his yellow outline drop to green, all he could have done was dodge. Follow it up with one or more normals. If he gets to red, you better damn well have dodge enabled. Even if he does a normal instead of a barrage, you can immediately counter with a followup (preferably barrage) before he can do anything else.

If you're decently equipped and pay attention, there's not much luck to it beyond the "dice rolls" you normally see in RPGs. The game gives you all the information you need to adjust your tactics on the fly.

 

[botticus]

Not really, no. If you see his yellow outline drop to green, all he could have done was dodge. Follow it up with one or more normals. If he gets to red, you better damn well have dodge enabled. Even if he does a normal instead of a barrage, you can immediately counter with a followup (preferably barrage) before he can do anything else.

If you're decently equipped and pay attention, there's not much luck to it beyond the "dice rolls" you normally see in RPGs. The game gives you all the information you need to adjust your tactics on the fly.

Well yes, but the basic question was "is there any way to tell if they're going to attack with barrage or normal" and the general answer is "no".

Why did they just take away half my crew?

 

[Mejilan]

To be fair, most RPGs don't tell you what attack an enemy is going to do, barring perhaps the tell that precedes the occasional uber attack.

 

[GeekyDad]

Ugh...put the game down for a couple of days, and now I can't remember what the heck I was supposed to be doing. :lol

Oy. That's the only thing I really don't like about this game. It has a surprisingly cohesive story, but they ask too much of you in terms of commitment. It's just not the kind of game I can play straight through without moving back and forth from other games.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Man, you know what Infinite Space looks effing great on? An XL.

(For clarity, I've been playing it on a Phat til now.)

 

[Nimyh]

Yeah my wander time was around 2 hours too:lol Thanks goodness that's over I've been wanting to play this so bad. Good news is I got tons of money and exp from aimlessly traveling through space.

Same here, two hours wasted because I didn't check the most obvious place (Lutsk tavern) :lol

Well yes, but the basic question was "is there any way to tell if they're going to attack with barrage or normal" and the general answer is "no".
Why did they just take away half my crew?

Meh, it's better to take a normal while dodging than take a barrage while not. Also, try to stay just in range and pull out after doing your barrage so you can recharge.

 

[I should be doing hw]

Spoiler

Let me know which choices you make, especially about the upcoming Escando sector.

Spoiler

I've sided with the government. I'm finding the first official mission fucking hard though, their battleships for either of the 2 fights are too durable. I haven't once destroyed one. I went back and grinded so supe up my current 3 ships as much as I could but still nothing. Any help with how you beat them?
I think one of the merchants told me that they use railguns too? That might be why they are cutting through my fleet like butter also?

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Spoiler

I've sided with the government. I'm finding the first official mission fucking hard though, their battleships for either of the 2 fights are too durable. I haven't once destroyed one. I went back and grinded so supe up my current 3 ships as much as I could but still nothing. Any help with how you beat them?
I think one of the merchants told me that they use railguns too? That might be why they are cutting through my fleet like butter also?

Yeah, their guns are really strong, and their defenses are super tough. Where your at now is when I switched over to fighters as my main strat. That said, I made the OTHER choice, so I don't know what your prizes and stuff will be.

I just got through most of

Spoiler

act 2 chapter 4

, just need to head back to a planet to move into the next chapter. I'm grinding up enough so that I have two battleships and two carriers instead of a carrier, two battleships, and a cruiser, but man, I'm not sure that's necessary.

In

Spoiler

act 2 chapter four I chose to go after the N guys, who are high tech but low number. I CAN NOT ADVISE THIS ENOUGH.

In fact, no spoiler here because man: eventually you'll hit a point where you have to choose between a high tech, low number nation and the opposite. One of the prizes for the high tech side is the Absoluta, a 1800 M long ship that only needs 150 crew and has a passive ability that, if used as your flagship, boosts your entire fleet's accuracy by a ton. I repeat, I cannot advise this enough. It's amazing. Plus it has capacity. So now I'm fielding 100 fighters or over 270 dmg per second. I kind of want that to hit 300, hence the grind to replace that cruiser.

Let me know what your rewards are for the path you took. I'm really curious about the branches in this game.

 

[botticus]

For the first 20 hours of the game, it was mostly the mechanics that kept me interested. The last few hours, it's all story. Good thing too, since battles just got sort of impossible with my old ships. Had enough money for one Junkyard cruiser, and that's saved my ass for the most part.

I finally had to stop myself once I got to Regeinland so I could get some work done.

 

[Totakeke]

In

Spoiler

act 2 chapter four I chose to go after the N guys, who are high tech but low number. I CAN NOT ADVISE THIS ENOUGH.

In fact, no spoiler here because man: eventually you'll hit a point where you have to choose between a high tech, low number nation and the opposite. One of the prizes for the high tech side is the Absoluta, a 1800 M long ship that only needs 150 crew and has a passive ability that, if used as your flagship, boosts your entire fleet's accuracy by a ton. I repeat, I cannot advise this enough. It's amazing. Plus it has capacity. So now I'm fielding 100 fighters or over 270 dmg per second. I kind of want that to hit 300, hence the grind to replace that cruiser.

But fighters never miss.

*scratches head*

 

[Woo-Fu]

If you want to really screw the enemy AI, use a flagship that has High Stream Blaster in conjunction with your fighters.

You can sit on the other side of the map while your fighters pummel him. If he uses Anti-Air against your fighters you know his dodge is down so you hit him with the High Stream Blaster.

Most of the time, if you're sitting there with a red gauge he won't use AA against your fighters. I'd call that a bug or oversight, since 120 Intigo fighters doing ~500 damage per tick is a bigger problem than a slow-to-recharge ~1000 damage special.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Spoiler

I've sided with the government. I'm finding the first official mission fucking hard though, their battleships for either of the 2 fights are too durable. I haven't once destroyed one. I went back and grinded so supe up my current 3 ships as much as I could but still nothing. Any help with how you beat them?
I think one of the merchants told me that they use railguns too? That might be why they are cutting through my fleet like butter also?

Spoiler

Those are shield ships. You have to take them in order---and it will take awhile to kill each one---or you need to use fighters or formation foe to ignore formation bonus. Their weapons are fairly weak, except for the battleships. If you're taking serious damage from these guys you are due for some upgrades, since the trade-off with shield ship is high durability/low damage.

That is probably the most annoying part of the game, considering how long it can take to destroy those ships.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

But fighters never miss.

*scratches head*

Once you've launched fighters you should be firing your guns, also.

Quick Q: Is there a way to know how someone's leveling potential is? I just got this guy from Kallas & co named Galatas who has star engineer 4, but only a 9 Maintenance, so... I mean, he's only level 6. If I pop in some XP+ modules and grind a bit will he end up being my chief engineer?

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Special skills.

I see that some of my crew (maybe all of them?) have them but I don't know what they do nor how to activate them (or all they all passive?)

I just finished with the Novgorod pirates.

Is it something that unlocks later or am I missing something?

 

[I should be doing hw]

Spoiler

Those are shield ships. You have to take them in order---and it will take awhile to kill each one---or you need to use fighters or formation foe to ignore formation bonus. Their weapons are fairly weak, except for the battleships. If you're taking serious damage from these guys you are due for some upgrades, since the trade-off with shield ship is high durability/low damage.

That is probably the most annoying part of the game, considering how long it can take to destroy those ships.

I'm fine now I grinded enough to get another ship, it has 95 armor or something from the get go and all its weapons are missiles. It's pretty good, but I'll probably sell it soon when I get money because you can't upgrade any of them.
Hit a new snag though

Spoiler

I'm supposed to capture the rebel leader but his shit can go invisible. Every time I run into them he just escapes when I beat them. I eventually caved and said "I give up" and Alik starts saying I need to shoot at the center of the forces fleet. Wtf does that even mean? Where is that because it doesn't apply to the battles with the leader in it, believe me I've tried 7 times since then. :/

Who else got Afro guy? :lol

Special skills.

I see that some of my crew (maybe all of them?) have them but I don't know what they do nor how to activate them (or all they all passive?)

I just finished with the Novgorod pirates.

Is it something that unlocks later or am I missing something?

Help, helps.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

I'm fine now I grinded enough to get another ship, it has 95 armor or something from the get go and all its weapons are missiles. It's pretty good, but I'll probably sell it soon when I get money because you can't upgrade any of them.
Hit a new snag though

Spoiler

I'm supposed to capture the rebel leader but his shit can go invisible. Every time I run into them he just escapes when I beat them. I eventually caved and said "I give up" and Alik starts saying I need to shoot at the center of the forces fleet. Wtf does that even mean? Where is that because it doesn't apply to the battles with the leader in it, believe me I've tried 7 times since then. :/

Who else got Afro guy? :lol

I did!

Spoiler

Equip multi-attack weapons on your fleet. You'll hit the whole enemy fleet, including the invisible ship.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Once you've launched fighters you should be firing your guns, also.

Not always. Times you might want to let the fighters do all the work:

1. You're lazy.
2. The enemy squadron has the ability to 1-hit one or more of your ships. Lots of story battles I'll take out the enemy carriers, cruisers, and destroyers with fighters before tackling the flagship.
3. You're using a full gauge to prevent the enemy from using AA against your fighters.
4. You're in a multi-stage battle and you want to go into the final battle with 100% health/crew.

On another subject, things you cannot kill shouldn't show damage numbers. Putting 50k damage into a ship that looks like it should die like any other ship but won't is ANNOYING, particularly when the flagship itself doesn't take even 1/10 of that before caving. I've gotten into the habit of killing every ship in story battles, for the extra cash, exp, and fame. There have been two battles where you can damage the other ships as much as you want, but they'll never die.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Not always. Times you might want to let the fighters do all the work:

1. You're lazy.
2. The enemy squadron has the ability to 1-hit one or more of your ships. Lots of story battles I'll take out the enemy carriers, cruisers, and destroyers with fighters before tackling the flagship.
3. You're using a full gauge to prevent the enemy from using AA against your fighters.
4. You're in a multi-stage battle and you want to go into the final battle with 100% health/crew.

On another subject, things you cannot kill shouldn't show damage numbers. Putting 50k damage into a ship that looks like it should die like any other ship but won't is ANNOYING, particularly when the flagship itself doesn't take even 1/10 of that before caving. I've gotten into the habit of killing every ship in story battles, for the extra cash, exp, and fame. There have been two battles where you can damage the other ships as much as you want, but they'll never die.

Oh, yeah, I'm with you there. There are absolutely times when you shouldn't be firing your guns. I was just explaining why the Absoluta's special ability isn't redundant with its ability to launch fighters.

Which ship can you damage but not destroy? Is it past Act 2 Chapter 7?

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Help, helps.

Holy fuck...I didn't even see that. -.-

Sorry about that.

Hmmm...well, after reading it, maybe they will want to change "Help" to "ballpark"

 

[corporateslave]

I just bought this game yesterday while looking for SJ. Since SJ hasn't been released yet where I'm at, I bought IS instead since I had planned to get it anyway. At first, as many have noted I was skeptical of how I'd like the game. I do not like the appearance of the MC or Nia for that matter. And it does start slow and somewhat cliche in nature.

However once I started playing, it started to click. It was then I realized I felt like I had Voltron and Robotech style animation in a game form with me piloting the SDF-1. And that kicks ass.

The fight mechanics were awesome at first but became a bit tedious until about midway through chapter one when I learned you can skip the animations. Then they became awesome again. The customization bits are definitely interesting and I like that the game reverses the typical party/equipment roles wherein here the ships are the "party" and the characters are the "equipment".

I'm sure it'll only get better going forward. So glad I bought this game.

 

[Mejilan]

Seriously, the L/R buttons make this game even more awesome!
You can use them to fast-forward conversations, skip cutscenes, cut down battles to about 1/3 their normal length, and even fast-forward space travel. Great stuff!

 

[I should be doing hw]

Anyone else love waiting a while to accumulate Modules then go all out, ripping your current ship apart and then retooling it? It's the same satisfaction I imagine Rev-Heads get when they fine tune their cars. Such a simple feature that gives me such joy because of that simplicity.

Spoiler

Equip multi-attack weapons on your fleet. You'll hit the whole enemy fleet, including the invisible ship.

Thank you so much, I will try that tonight. Still how would I know how to do that with what the game told me? Very frustrating, gladly those instances of ambiguity are rare in the game. I didn't think you could help me out because you took the other path to me. I assume something similar happens? I'm not done yet so we'll compare notes when I am, I don't want any spoilers yet. I'm glad I chose who I did though, the leader of them is a really cool, down-to-earth character. I want to help him :lol

 

[Woo-Fu]

Oh, yeah, I'm with you there. There are absolutely times when you shouldn't be firing your guns. I was just explaining why the Absoluta's special ability isn't redundant with its ability to launch fighters.

Which ship can you damage but not destroy? Is it past Act 2 Chapter 7?

Spoiler

Late Act 2, don't know which chapter.

In one battle you fight against 4 shield ships and a battleship. The story hypes up formation foe right before this to point you in the right direction. I don't leave home without medic or medic 2 in my spc2 slot, though, so I never have formation foe. Shield ships take a beating, but you can eventually kill them. The four guarding this boss you can't. I poured damage into one for over 30 minutes. Gave up on that and sent the fighters at the flagship battleship and it went down in one wave.

Awhile after that you'll fight another enemy that looks like three battleships. It is really just one huge battleship. You can't destroy the other two---and at the end of the battle it will become obvious why they won't let you, heh.

Just annoying. In a more polished game after a few minutes of pointlessly attacking indestructible units one of your NPCs would spout some dialogue about how it wasn't working and that you should attack elsewhere... or they'd simply put up damage figures of '0' when you hit the units... or they'd have healthbars... or they'd physically display damage.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Thank you so much, I will try that tonight. Still how would I know how to do that with what the game told me? Very frustrating, gladly those instances of ambiguity are rare in the game. I didn't think you could help me out because you took the other path to me. I assume something similar happens? I'm not done yet so we'll compare notes when I am, I don't want any spoilers yet. I'm glad I chose who I did though, the leader of them is a really cool, down-to-earth character. I want to help him

Someone else had told me about that battle, and I really don't know if I could've figured it out otherwise. Maybe I would've intuited it, since I became a fan of multi-target weapons basically as soon as they were available, but I don't know. This game decides to give you information at weird times. Case in point:

Spoiler

Late Act 2, don't know which chapter.

In one battle you fight against 4 shield ships and a battleship. The story hypes up formation foe right before this to point you in the right direction. I don't leave home without medic or medic 2 in my spc2 slot, though, so I never have formation foe. Shield ships take a beating, but you can eventually kill them. The four guarding this boss you can't. I poured damage into one for over 30 minutes. Gave up on that and sent the fighters at the flagship battleship and it went down in one wave.

Really? I just beat that battle last night and I guess because I immediately did the send-fighters-to-the-boss tactic I never noticed. I agree, that's pretty silly.

 

[Neifirst]

Man, you know what Infinite Space looks effing great on? An XL.

(For clarity, I've been playing it on a Phat til now.)

I'm this/close to picking up an XL just for this game as I haven't owned a DS in a few years. I may just take the plunge after I beat FF13.

 

[botticus]

I really want to upgrade my fleet, but I think it could take an hour of grinding to do so. My poor Novik-class Destroyer is no match for anything, but it only nets me 15k in cash when I need like 30k just to buy the new cruiser I want to replace it with. Also need to replace my battleship. Of course by the time I do so, the next area will probably give me blueprints for a ship that's twice as nice.

Fighters are finally useful though; got 30 in my carrier so far. Takes a while, but they can kill off a good number of M and DD class ships on their own, so it's a start.

 

[Foxix Von]

Been slow going the past few days with work but I'm still diggin' this... but damn did this get brutal :lol

Spoiler

I mean she freaking blew the pirates head OFF, I litterally said "WHAT THA FOCK!?"

Did not see that happening lmao.

 

[botticus]

I'm a little confused in 2-2:

Spoiler

I'm trying to get Ochoa, but he's in his invisible ship. I finally chose "Give up" when prompted, and nicely lost 50 fame. Is that the only way to be able to hit him with multi-attack shots, or is there something else I can do?

 

[sohois]

So im currently stuck on a battle in chapter 7

Spoiler

Kalymnos path, the 2 consecutive battles at Najbaro, first against the nova nacio ships then against abato's ship

and i'm wondering what ships everyone had at this point. At the moment i've got the Kolonio carrier , the baradino battleship and a derzky destroyer in my fleet, with a rurik cruiser unused.

I've got plenty of g to spend, but most of the ships i have available are only very small upgrades against my current ships it doesn't seem worth it, though i did get some blueprints for a thalie(?) battleship just recently which i haven't checked out yet. Also it is worth using fighters at the moment, since they don't seem to do much, i'm wondering if i shouldn't bother with the kolonio for a while.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

I'm a little confused in 2-2:

Spoiler

I'm trying to get Ochoa, but he's in his invisible ship. I finally chose "Give up" when prompted, and nicely lost 50 fame. Is that the only way to be able to hit him with multi-attack shots, or is there something else I can do?

Your proposed strategy is correct.

 

[botticus]

Your proposed strategy is correct.

Well that's kinda silly. Not a lot to lose, but still strange. But in the meantime, I have gotten myself a fancy new cruiser with fighter capacity to retire my destroyer, and might have enough for a replacement battleship (again with fighter capacity!) in short time.

I think that will give me like 70+ fighters.

 

[Gattsu25]

Big ship in chapter 1 is repping me hard

 

[Lafiel]

Seriously, the L/R buttons make this game even more awesome!
You can use them to fast-forward conversations, skip cutscenes, cut down battles to about 1/3 their normal length, and even fast-forward space travel. Great stuff!

I honestly would hate the game if there wasn't a L/R button. The stock battle animations are pretty damn slow.

And i can't imagine space traveling without the l/r button.:lol

 

[botticus]

Your proposed strategy is correct.

Silly me for assuming it would be that simple.

Spoiler

I took the 50 fame hit and the next encounter... was the same. I've got particle lasers or multi-hit missiles on 3 of my ships. Do I just need to keep attacking and eventually he'll get beat up?

Edit: Scratch that, ALL my ships are equipped.

Edit 2: Got it finally. Fighters are a detriment in that battle. :lol

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Annnnd complete. Impressions to follow.

 

[Mejilan]

I honestly would hate the game if there wasn't a L/R button. The stock battle animations are pretty damn slow.

And i can't imagine space traveling without the l/r button.:lol

I let the full animations play out during boss battles, since they DO expand on that epic feel.
But if I had to suffer them for every single fucking random encounter, this game would definitely have caused me to smash my DS to pieces.

 

[botticus]

Annnnd complete. Impressions to follow.

How many chapters are there? I'm up to 2-4, moving so quickly! I'm horribly addicted now, sad that the first part of the game is so obnoxious.

 

[Enduin]

How many chapters are there? I'm up to 2-4, moving so quickly! I'm horribly addicted now, sad that the first part of the game is so obnoxious.

Youve got 4 more to go but theyre all pretty lengthy. But even then after that you have Newgame+ to carry your progress over in and see the missions you opted out of in the first playthrough and then you have the Extra mode which gives you every character in the game for your crew and pits you against a ton of bosses in rearranged sectors.

 

[Scatter]

Just finished the game in a little under 40 hours. Can't stop gushing about it. First game in a long time where my initial reaction upon completion was "i wanna play it again!" :lol

Kinda disappointed in what carries over in new game plus though, considering I spent all my money before the final battle. I really enjoyed the story!

Extra mode seems interesting, but I guess I'll start playing Strange Journey now.

My only complaint is how unexplained half the things in the game are. I finished the game without knowing what some of the skills on my battleships do :lol