So Anyway I just started Blasting : Cosmoteer

[@sabetwolf]

My only really big recommend is a 2nd mining ship. It'll make your play time much smoother/faster - you get to go around blasting, the 2nd ship just follows around and cleans up in your wake

[@rickytleung]

A 2nd ship dedicated to mining, processing raw resources and just storage is a good idea. Basically build your own space station that you can park near a friendly space station.

[@gcl2783]

"All my designs are cube-ish". FJ is a whiskey powered Borg.

[@tree_eats]

"a little bit of bounty hunting" Wew, the ship went from a row boat to a container ship. This is going to be a good episode.

[@Hust91]

Glad to see a new player making videos about the game, you're in for a lot of spaceship and lego-like happiness! Also I commend your name choices, full phrases are absolutely the best way to name ships (named a nuke-carrier 'We Have To Stop Meeting This Way' and another ship "To Whom It May Concern"). Do hit me up if you want to try to the coop mode with a somewhat experienced player, it can be hard to find people to play the coop mode with consistently.

[@DawidSikora]

One last suggestion - you can assign crew from quarters to specific places. It matters a lot. I suggest you using quarters in the back to man the weapons and set them to only man weapons as they'll never need to go back to their rooms so the people from rooms closer can pickup the job of powering it up. It will make your ships that little bit more effective. Check during fight - sometimes you're not manning all the weapons. If you lack the people then just turn off a weapon or two - it's more effective to have ship a bit overstaffed than a bit understaffed

[@DaFreak860]

not to backseat, but I do want you know, that similar to rimworld, a stack can only get so big before any more of that one item takes up another slot, so you may want to get a dedicated barge and have your fighter without storage for the weight, and have that barge capable of deconstruction, mining and crafting since things like sulfur have a larger stack-size then the ammunition that you can craft of it, making it more storage efficient. You can also place markers on the map, it allows your fighter to go around and kill everything while you place markers where the corpses are, so that they are not lost or forgotten, as you go around with the barge later to collect them.

[@NickAndriadze]

Wow, so glad this turned to be an actual reoccurring series and not just a one time Cosmoteer overlook. This game is amazing and its target audience is indeed people like you, as its genre is more or less a sci-fi sandbox logistics game!

[@AussieAwesome]

Francis didn’t build a gun ship. He build a freighter with some shields and guns strapped to the front. And this freighter is more effective then every other ship.

[@stevenwojtysiak6392]

Not sure if it has already been recommended, but it made a huge difference for me to pause and mark kills with custom markers so it is easier to find the loot after mult-ship battles. Especially when the ships get bigger and they take longer to kill, making the loot spread much further out.

[@Kaldris]

Francis has discovered the ultimate shape and that shape is 'Squarish Blob'

[@gcl2783]

Reminds me a little bit of the original Space Pirates Vs Zombies

[@Paikis]

That cannon shot (21:05) into your unshielded side could have completely destroyed your whole ship. If the reactor (which it hit!) had gone up, bye bye ship. Enjoying the play through so far. MOAR!! :)

[@ianconnolly7454]

Can't wait to see how Francis breaks this game like he breaks all the others

[@jimm9776]

Full on Pro Gamer and role model, no foolin'... but we aren't supposed to look up to people our own age *cry*

[@d.6325]

I still haven't watched this video but I expect an ion kite or railkite. Outrange your enemies and be faster than them to win every match.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Might take a bit of time to break the game we have to see how far we can push the base weapons first. Though I have a strange feeling we will end up going down the path of the Rail gun sooner than you would think.

[@deredware9442]

@@FrancisJohnYT Railguns are so much fun. You can basically slice anything in half with them from super long range.

[@brendanrobertson5966]

@@FrancisJohnYT Railguns or Deck Cannon; there are pro/con to both pathways depending on the foes you encounter in the system.

[@howzittoyah]

Much like how animals keeps evolving into crabs, Fracis' ships keep evolving into blocks.

[@salemprompthous3820]

I'd highly recommend going into the logistics of the game. Editing crew, streamlining their behavior, can maximize the ship efficiency with a much smaller crew size. My personal best ship (inspired by @JDPlays): three point defense in each direction, no shields and minimal armor (to reduce mass, thus increasing engine thrust efficiency) and two rear-facing missile launchers, tossing out nukes as they swoop behind enemy lines. All running smoothly with 8 crewmembers in each Nuke-Interceptor. From there, do harder zones to ramp up fame and build a fleet of those Nuke-Interceptors, with one "cruiser"-class ship to take point and have all the enemy ships' attention, while the nukes gets lobbed in from the other side. (Does require some attention, as a missed nuke will continue on, and damage whatever it hits, even your own "cruiser". Learned this the hard way 😅)

[@brendanrobertson5966]

FJ: makes first jump into a new system. New System: "Hello, there..." < proceeds to core his ship from stem to stern with railguns and BFG cannon >

[@DawidSikora]

When you design ships doors placement is EXTREMLY important. I know it sounds weird and at first you wouldn't want to mess with it but the right placement can cut the travel time from power generator a lot which means you're increasing the effectivity of what your crew can do. You also almost NEVER want your people to walk through storage areas or other rooms as the travel speed is halved EDIT: also - doors help fires spread so try to have as few of them as possible, only covering the best routes from generator

[@chalor182]

"I think they tried to scoop up some of the iron plate we wanted" you mean their hull? Lol

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Well when that hull stopped be attached to their ship it became free iron plate, which they were then robbing off us. We were the aggrieved party in this for sure :)

[@jamesb7994]

You made another space-box. It is beautiful!

[@krissimonis3604]

Ahh... the endless race for ever more dakka. I love it. :) Please show us those beam weapons next time.

[@bjw8qsrmhgxn4wwk30]

Theres a mirror mode when ship building, and a map marker too if you need to remember where scrap ships are.

[@asureaskie]

Crew role assignments and dedicated delivery routes are an absolute must in this game. You can get away with roughly 1/2 the "recommended" crew with a good setup, while a poor setup won't run properly with even 150% crew.

[@williamhess180]

we are borg, resistance is futile. on a side note, you can assign slots in your cargo area for a specific item.

[@wolfen210959]

"we shall add your biological uniqueness to our own", or words to that effect. lol

[@blaze5802]

I'm just waiting for him to discover that he can push ships & stations into the sun or nearby pirate bases with no consequences!

[@d.6325]

sshhhh blaze hehehe

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

I'd argue that Francis should stop putting storage on his single ship, so that he can turn it into a more lightweight and less bulky, but just as powerful, dedicated combat ship, and leave the storage towards another dedicated cargo ship, and either have a 3rd ship that processes simpler resources, like ores and scrap, into more advanced resources, like ship parts and ammo, or put the refineries onto the cargo ship, so that it can refine resources as it transports its cargo. Also, if I wanted to design a combat ship, I'd make it into a wall of guns that's much wider than it is short (like a B-2 stealth bomber), and move all of the thrusters in the rear, including the rear-facing thrusters (yes, you can design a ship whose thrusters are fully encased within the rest of your ship), safely tucked away behind the wall of guns. I'd also add redundant shield generators to protect other shield generators while they're recharging.

[@stephanw7770]

Also the best part is to design and redesign and beautify your vessel. Combat is really secondary

[@RK-qg8ko]

As was said in one of the best intros (for "Dreadnought") - Size matters. So, in Rimworld you bury the ship's reactor almost underground, cover it with concrete from all sides, and here you place it in the bow of the ship with almost no protection - you will soon learn your lesson =) And the larger the ship, the greater the logistics problem becomes. It's like a Factorio in space. The crew here waits in crew quarters, so it is better to locate them closer to their places of work.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I can see compartmentalisation becoming important in the future. The way I usually figure out a game is to push a mechanic until it starts to break down. That teaches you it's limits and what the other mechanics are there to cover for. So as things start to not work as intended anymore I will have to figure out how to fix it.

[@RK-qg8ko]

@@FrancisJohnYT The logic of the game will become more clear when you start capturing ships (to do this you need to transfer at least 1 person there). You don’t have to keep them later - see how they work inside and then take them apart if you don’t like them. In addition, when dismantling enemy ships, you only receive part of the resources from the modules. Therefore, it is cheaper to take the whole ship and build the necessary modules on it. Also, resources are not processed 1 to 1, for example, from 1 unit of sulfur, you get a bunch of ammo (I don’t remember exactly how with iron, but it seems like more than 1 plate from ore) - therefore it is more profitable to carry resources with you and produce what you need on the move. If you need money, look at what resources are most expensive at the station, put a recycler on this business - there is usually a lot of it in the asteroids. And if the station lacks the necessary resources, you can also buy them from merchant ships that regularly fly up to the station. And it’s not necessary to do all the quests in the system, as soon as you hit the fame limit - you can fly to the next =)

[@rupertbear4447]

Just a quick tip you can assign crew to do specific jobs like gunners, pilots and support crew (moving batteries around) stops your crew from doing jobs they don't need to do. If your guns run out of energy and there is no one to fill them, then the gunners will go and get batteries not good. Same for shields make sure you assign certain crew to fill guns and others to just fill shields makes your crew much more efficient.

[@hameighthesliceofham7467]

I love this game please keep playing it

[@Ralthen]

after you blew the space station you could have opened blue print mode and added a cockpit and some engines and turned it into another ship for cargo hauling or flown it to a nearby base for easier reclamation and sale

[@ChrisHinton42]

Well, now I see others commenting about crew logistics, so maybe this is not any new information. Regardless: AFAIK the recommended crew is a basic estimate assuming "default" crew logistics. If you can make your crew more efficient, you should be able to make your ship much larger before you get more fame. For example, you can add moving walkways, and specialize crew for a subset of tasks, and/or for a subset of rooms. From what little I've played myself, it seemed pretty tedious, but you seem to have a tolerance for that when min-maxing. I've seen other KZbinrs even partition their ship into separate parts, such that the crew *cannot* path between parts. Thanks for the video.

[@yeremiakristianto6196]

A Borg cube, but without the assimilation thing. Because why assimilate when you can just BANG BANG BANG!

[@loho6894]

Love the play through, the gun cube returns 😂. Might actually make sense in space where aerodynamics don't matter.

[@stephanw7770]

Best at start to make 1 kill ship and 1 cargo ship. You kill cargo ship takes care of getting resources and kill ship protects you.

[@alespetranek8487]

This is a great "little" game. Cant wait to see you learn all the more advanced tactics. Hope for a long series. High level enemies can be tough nuts to crack and brute force is not always the easiest tactic. Some later enemy designs are really well thought out. They can be hard to kill and dangerous too. In my opinion the best tactic is having a alfa strike flagship and a couple of flankers to find the weak spots when dealing with the "bunker" enemies. Ahh I wanna play this again, but it's a big small game and I am busy with Xcom files for now.

[@Genesis8934]

33:05 Have you uh noticed the cursor for selecting modules is a Vulcan salute? 😂 Nice detail tbh.

[@tasslehoff5488]

Just want to say, your series has again made be buy the game. Great videos man

[@ChristopherPride]

Joining a bunch of other people in recommending a second cargo ship that follows you around with a minimal crew and mining lasers and a resource collector. Also you probably want to check out the crew priority system. You can set up crew to hold specific roles with relative priorities for different responsibilities.

[@Genesis8934]

Okay. This game just made it from my wishlist to my cart for this steam sale (2023) lol.

[@bruhder5854]

I'd honestly recommend having 2 fighter ships and 1 storage/mining ship, armed with point defense systems to assist in hairy battles. Having 2 fighters just means you've a far better chance of crippling enemy ships as you can have them maneuver around the enemy ship in opposite directions.

[@DoctorFudgeBrownie]

Absolutely love it! Do more please

[@markfrellips5633]

Definitely recommend making a second utility ship for mining and storage. The danger of course both the risk of making a bank worth robbing and runs the risk of hoarding rather than utilization. Once you get a taste of playing with two ships, it opens up thinking with fleets and pack tactics. The game is surprisingly a great tactical dream.

[@bloodfith1]

You should probably learn how to do crew management soon. It's not 100% neccecary yet at your current ship size but it will come in handy soon. Having dedicated haulers for energy, guns, and pilots as well as where you place the crew quarters can make a massive difference. Efficiency is key. You can also make multiple ships if you've got the crew for it at some point, like a dedicated fabricator/mining ship and a gunship.

[@guyincognito1406]

What’s a reasonable way to figure out how many for what roles? Completely new, all I did was operator roles are furthest away since they seem to stand all day, not sure what else to do if it will hurt or help.

[@bloodfith1]

@@guyincognito1406 It's too complex to talk about in a single youtube comment so i'm going to try to be brief. To be as efficient as possible you want to have every single crew member (when fighting at full power) to be away from bed and every job to be at 100% capacity with the minimum amount of crew required. This is, perhaps paradoxically, easier for larger scale ships than smaller ships as more areas to be signed off means more crew and more chances of equal distribution. You could move operators to a completely seperate part of the ship that is only connected via airlocks. You can even remove the doors to said airlocks at that point and the ship will function the same if you've got the setup correct. Loaders should be close to the cannons haulers should be near energy sources and consumers etc etc So the tldr that sums all of this up would be to minimize travel time, where 0ms travel time = 100% efficiency

[@cf453]

@@guyincognito1406 It's very hard to quantify rules-of-thumb because each extra square of travel makes a difference. I keep a second creative mode save where I design ships, set the guns to infinite fire, and pilot a long distance away. This lets you see how the ship performs under maximum load, and where the weaknesses are. You can also do this within a campaign save, I just like the flexibility.

[@beheroot]

crew quaters are excelent shield :> ie you put them around reactor or cockpit (remember about corridors :P) and they serve as additional shield that protect what is REALLY important 17:00 you made mantis shape ship :D I cant wait to see what you will do with ION cannon or rail gun... let me say - they stack >:> downside is that you targeting with whole ship, not just guns but maan. Once you have that, you are OP as hell :D

[@TENGILL]

You should look in to crew assignment. Have dedicated crew people so they do not run around and change positions. Have a weapons team, a loader team, a engine team and a general team.

[@mahmutucak2293]

This game took faster than light gameplay and made it even better!

[@jkep6643]

After you clear a sector you want to mine it out since the value of mined goods is 100+ times more valuable then all missions in a starting sector enough to buy all blueprints and build a huge battleship and a salvage ship I recommend having one of each and swapping crew between the two and leaving the unused one at a station.

[@bruhder5854]

I wanna see you try a diagonal ship. I've not played around with those yet but the idea seems interesting. You get each thruster to move you diagonally which increases your thrust capacity and then there's the added bonus of putting shield in front of them. Same goes with weapons.

[@danfr]

Interesting, Francis got a little lucky IMHO. He only encountered a missile enemy and was luckily far enough for it to only hit the shields. I only played the demo but when I encountered a missile enemy they got too close and as a result the missiles hit the rear of my ship and tore it to shreds. Likewise I also encountered several ships and platforms with Ion Beams. First one I got careless, getting in range of a platform while harvesting pirate ships, and it practcically tore my ship in half from the side.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I think I will have to put some thin bands of armour down the sides to prevent things like that happening. For not the flying brick of lots of shooting is killing enemies so fast that defence has not been a priority. But I can see that changing as we move to the new level.

[@danfr]

@@FrancisJohnYT Sounds like a reasonable upgrade. I will note that the shields can still take Ion Beams so it's really a matter of not carelessly exposing your unguarded sides. And point defence are quite good at dealing with missiles. So the real lesson to getting hit by a missile circling around to the rear was to not go out free of point defence.

[@Altair565]

You can target inside the mirror view, this might save you from zooming in and out all the time.

[@impyre2513]

Point on refining materials, it's not 1:1. For example, 1 piece of sulfur gives a full stack of cannon ammo. I imagine iron ore is similar, a stack of plates per iron ore. While it can be profitable to refine materials, the biggest reason to buy the blueprints is to unlock higher tier factories. Also, ore is a far more efficient use of storage space for longer missions.

[@jodiac]

Railguns!!! Cold calculated elimination of enemies! Crooked asymmetrical ships! Wait… no that’s goddamn awful - Francis why would you hurt us like that!

[@bjw8qsrmhgxn4wwk30]

Francis you need to find the "save attack defaults" setting found in the ship hamburger menu in the bottom left menu. Means you can set it to attack at range all the time.

[@Tieberious]

Just so you know your guns are outside the shield and are taking damage when you get hit, also your ftl drive placement has efficiency based on mass and location look at the bottom right bars when placing :) Rail guns are my favorite in this game!

[@deredware9442]

It is worth refining iron mostly because it stacks better. You can fit more iron plate into the same space as raw iron.

[@zythaar8317]

You can set up you default attack range. It's handy if you don't want to drag it back every time you have to select a new target. Edit: I see you found the setting :)

[@KainYusanagi]

Disruptor shots go through shields, and cannon fire splinters on hitting shields; the fragments will hit through them but do little damage (it can add up, though). EDIT: Missiles were not hitting through shields, your shields don't cover the turret section of your heavy blasters. EDIT2: You want crew and energy levels over the green bar. If it isn't, then you are NOT producing sufficient energy or have sufficient crew for all needs. You also really need to start specializing crew so gunners stay gunning, and engies stay shuffling energy around, and command crew keep commanding. EDIT3: Fame cap is shown right beside the people. You have tons more crew available, but no crew quarters to house them, which is why you can't add them. There is also a limit to how many people are available on a station at any time, so you can hop between stations to get access to more crew, until you hit fame cap.

[@rush48192]

This game is one of the best i have played in a long time

[@Rikard_Nilsson]

If you want to outrange stuff you should go for railguns, they can also penetrate through the ship and hit components in the rear.

[@Turin35]

Christmas is coming early, so much Francis!

[@Roseyforyou]

Such a great game! More please

[@MrSharp905]

To win in this game you'll need to go faster in reverse then forward. You pair that speed with rail gun and you win. You can add booster to help change the reverse momentum. If you back off enough, the enemy agro wears off, they'll turn around, then you burst forward and hit them from range in the cockpit module. Easy win. ;)

[@MrSharp905]

Also you can build multiple ships. One fighter, one support, one miner, one factory ship, etc... So you fight and kill, then you bring miners to clean up.

[@cf453]

Railguns are so OP, I don't use them. Reverse thrusters become less relevant, and sideways thrusters become more necessary for flanking.

[@impyre2513]

I have a request. If you see the four blue buttons at the top left of the screen, the rightmost button allows you to create additional ships. Id like to see if you can build a fleet of small ships with similar firepower\crew. Would it be worth doing?

[@xyvernthederg5760]

"wiggle that ass" francis 20203

[@WhereTheGustGoes]

Luddic path's style of ship building is OP

[@All_Night]

I knew Francis' ship would become a Square :V

[@DawidSikora]

Investing in a mining laser and looking out for gold or uranium asteroids can give you insane money (1 full slot of iron plates is 500 quit (25x20) while 1 full slot of gold is 2500 (500x5)) so if you're lucky you can gain a lot even without processing it

[@alexanderperezcampos6766]

Can your weapons still be damaged poking out of the shields like that?

[@wolfen210959]

What? Don't be silly, this is FJ, he'd never make a rookie mistake like that, he's a pro gamer.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I have seen a few scratches but nothing serious yet. I have been advised that cannon shells do a bit of splash and can hit a little bit through shields, so it might have been that.

[@rhmagalhaes]

Bought it today for me and my son ❤

[@Anomynous]

Pay attention to the details on the engine; there's acceleration, best on smaller and there's top speed on bigger. Not too much of a problem... for now :-) Hyperdrive has efficiency based on blocks it covers. You'll see the coloring of your ship the farther from the hyperdrive.

[@maxrobe]

I do like Starsector because of the sparkly screen mayhem, however this game has the dismemberment which it sorely misses. Now if they could smudge both together.........

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Their is something to be said for cleaving a ship clean in two, it just feels so good.

[@weye22]

As fun as it is to watch, I would love to see a game where a big box wasnt the most efficient design.

[@megascoops]

There are definitely more attractive & effective designs than what Francis is going for. Check out the Cosmoteer PvP tournaments. They get pretty nuts.

[@rakaydosdraj8405]

check out the diagonal designs.

[@SmallKittyPaw]

It isn't. This is just a tutorial area.

[@alexbennie]

Thanks to FJ's 'boxes' in Rimworld, ONI, etc.. I know my x17 times tables better than I'd have ever thought.

[@Hust91]

This is that game - the big boxes are not the most efficient. They're generally not very efficient at all because they get caught on things, and because very efficient ships are often designed around a single huge weapon system and the breech of said weapon system is usually the place needing the most armor whereas the sides need much less. Corners also get caught on things, so they're generally liabilities.

[@TheMrTact]

Don't worry, it won't always be easy. :D

[@Phelix22]

Francis...I feel like you really know your audience based on that outro lol. Watching the timelapase starship graveyard stripmine is immensely satisfying 🤣

[@gothicpando]

Mining laser is goat.

[@sicariusdracus]

What makes me laugh is that the ship green image DOES look like Frank.

[@JStankXPlays]

If they build the universe out to star sector level this game would be so sweet!

[@gus.smedstad]

Delicate Unicorn, Cosmoteer edition.

[@none-ve6qy]

Episode title suggestion for the next time you upgrade your ship: Space Ship of Theseus

[@cptnoname]

Your weapons can be individually targeted... you don't have to take just one system, or even one ship, at a time with all those guns

[@cameronhepburn5547]

LOL is that a 17x18 Rimworld room block in space?

[@Danbearpig]

There's no kill like overkill...

[@TheLukemcdaniel]

Who the hell is Will, and wtf did they do to piss everyone off that everyone's firing at the poor sod?

[@gothicpando]

And once you get tired of regular game there's some interesting mods.

[@stephanw7770]

Wait until you make a real big ship. Had refits that took over 10 min to finish

[@pwrserge83]

We are Francis of Borg.

[@Doomquill]

Yay more!

[@grimloncz3853]

Aaaand the brick returns.

[@hikanthus]

there's no kill like over kill.

[@lufmesquita]

Brute smarts is the name of the game

[@dunhill445]

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

[@Fireballof3]

I tried this game out about a year ago - it's a lot of fun, but when I hit the top end of the tech tree (rail guns, beam emitters), the interest dropped off for me.

[@Jarhead102]

There are 3 ways to kill an enemy 1. Take out all the control room 2. Take out all the reactors 3. Take put all the weapons AND thrusters

[@bruhder5854]

3rd yields the most beneficial components for you to salvage but is also the hardest to do. Control room is the next best because unlike with reactor, you don't get an explosion that destroys other stuff that you could've salvaged.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Once you get above 4 small blasters their is almost no way to "Take out all the weapons AND thrusters" We have so much overkill we keep exploding everything we fire a volley or two at.

[@cf453]

@@FrancisJohnYT Just wait...

[@gothicpando]

Your gonna want more armor.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

We already have two pieces of armour :) we will push on until we run into something that stops us dead and then we will adapt.

[@liska_dae]

Glass cannon.

[@Jere1515]

You are spending too much time playing with your prays lol you just have to destroy the cockpit or the reactor

[@mockingbert3023]

Would you be interested in adding astroneer or dawn of war to your playlist ? Both no stress games imo

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Astroneer scores a 37! have added it to the list. Dawn of War is a bit trickier as their is about 20+ games on steam with that name. I even played a Dawn of war back in 2004, it was an RTS base building strategy game, good times.

[@me-in-Australia]

Francis is Borg

[@elliotphoenix]

33:50 you monster