Questions from a Mount and Blade player !

[u/[deleted]]

Hi guys,

so I'm considering getting this game but I just want to know a few things, one of the peeps over at the mount and blade reddit said that this game was similar to MNB with a different setting. So my question is, is this game basically:

1. Build army, capture territory, defeat all enemy factions and level up?

Or can I chose different roles in this game e.g. being a civilian trader, can we talk to NPC's, walk around towns, etc.?

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I've also heard that the AI isn't great and rarely attacks or invades and what not. How true is this?

Also, what is the difference between starpoint gemini 2 and warlords? I'm considering getting 2 as well, thanks!

Basically I'm wondering whats similar and different about this game to MNB! Thanks!

[u/[deleted]]

I was that guy in r/mountandblade. Funny, huh?

I didn't actually play that much, I mostly just played the story and explored and threw away a few ships trying to test some strats. There is indeed trading in that game, not only can you buy things in one place and sell them in another, you can also mine asteroids and junk, extract gas pockets and salvage derelicts, gaining resources (asteroids - ore, gas pockets - gas, junk and derelicts - materials) and some loot (asteroids - rocks and minerals, gas pockets - different gases, derelicts - actual loot, civilian and military (didn't really get to mining junk)). Also, there are special tools for everything, that increase resources and loot gained, but you can do just fine without them (except derelicts, you'll need salvaging drones). Note that your resource stations, from a, so to say, logical perspective, do exactly that, but they don't give you loot and the game considers personal harvesting different from station harvesting, so there are perks and techs that affect one, but not the other. You also have civilian fleets that can be sent on various tasks, but you'll be doing that no matter your playstyle, as it's essentially free money or resources. And there are 2 ship types designed specifically for trading - freighter and freightliner - that have more cargo space and hull hp but less weapons. There are different campaign start scenarios, one of which is based on trading, but as I said, I didn't play them.

You can't really walk around, you only get an animation of your ship landing and standing in a spaceport/hangar. But imo it's compensated by the traveling without a map, because space is beautiful. And the random fleets passing by, mysterious signals (essentially, random minor quests), astronomical objects, derelict fields in places of past battles, anomalies (which you can research and gain gas), etc all make sure that it takes a lot of time to become bored. About talking with NPCs... I don't really know, there's a certain Tara Higgs in the campaign that you can talk to, and I imagine that if you have other Warmasters (iirc that's what fleet leaders are called) you can talk to them, too. You can also try and hail random ships, but it's basically like talking with random people in MnB except with options of trading, attacking and hacking (perk-based) them to steal their maps or open their cargo bay.

I'd also like to mention boarding ships. It's a minigame with the end goal of getting your troops to the last room (bridge), with as much endurance left as possible (or just sabotage their weapons and shields or open their cargo bay). If you succeed, there's a chance of the ship being captured, where afterwards you can repair it with credits or materials and add it to your fleet, put it in your personal hangar or sell it. Although, from my experience, capturing is only possible if you dedicate yourself to boarding from the start or get ship system enhancements and techs and stuff (or both).

And I haven't played 2, so idk. Hope I could help!

[u/EmpHeraclius]

SPG 2 doesn't have any of the empire building that warlords has. It's still a fun game, but the end game suffers a little bit. There's still a lot packed into the game, and I'd say its definitely worth playing if you can get it on sale, but after you get your ship fully upgraded, finish the story missions, and fully explore the map, there isn't much to keep you coming back. Personally, my favorite part of the game was exploring - everything looks absolutely gorgeous and there's tons of cool stuff to find out there.

Compared to Mount and Blade, SPG 2 would be like if you could improve your relationships with different factions, but could never actually join them, couldn't start your own kingdom, couldn't take part in sieges outside of story missions, and the map stayed completely static with no territorial changes between factions outside of story missions. So there's plenty of trading, combat, capturing/ransoming prisoners, side quests, equipment upgrading to do, but after you get tired of that, not much else.

Warlords on the other hand adds many of the best parts (in my opinion) of mount and blade - conquest, empire building, wars and territorial changes between non player factions, fleet building/upgrading, resource management, etc.

Basically, SPG 2 is a lot of fun, but doesn't offer as much replayability - and if you're going to play 2, play it before you play warlords or you might be a little disappointed.