Stellar Tactics

I like what this game is trying to do, but it still has a lot of rough edges to it despite being in Early Access since 2016.

The writing seems a bit stiff at times, I'm not sure if it's being written by someone who doesn't use English has their native language so there's some translation issues or something.

I had an issue where every time I ran the game, it would take several minutes before it would actually launch and show in my taskbar, and while I was waiting for that my system experienced and complete slow down where my mouse cursor moves incredibly slow making it so I cannot use my PC at all while I'm waiting for it to do whatever it is while it is launching.

I posted on the forum but never got a reply.

Again, I like what the game is trying to do, but it's still a long way off. One of the things that got me raising my eyebrow was the fact that there was a loading screen for literally a second whenever I pressed the M key to being up the map.

It's not even a very detailed or helpful map neither, so I'm unsure why it requires a loading screen. I can handle a lot of jank but this game's jank coupled with the 2016 date, so we're nearing 10 years in Early Access, it just doesn't leave a great impression in my opinion.

I do hope it continues to improve though, but like I said, I really like the overall idea of this game.

Seems like an interesting game, if you can play it. I have never seen a more buggy mess, every loading state it crashes and don't get me started on the loading times.
As it is right now I would not suggest it to anyone as it is not in a playable state, it crashed 5 times in 15 mins and now it corrupted my last save.

Totally awesome turn based game + awesome dev! + Awesome name!

This game seems like its on the right path, but it has a few issues that prevent my from wanting to go much further into it. First of all, the idea of what this game is going for, is definitely what I have been looking for. There are a couple of designs I would have done differently like, if your going to have 3D top down on foot missions, then I would kind of expect the same for your space ship (minor gripe but would have been easier to design).

Things that are annoying:
- Getting stuck on nothing , as stated by other people after you warp into a different section or the map (referring to on foot areas of the game). 50% of the time when you warp into a confined area like an elevator. You will have 3/4 of your party members will be able to move around but one of them will be stuck (can be fixed my crouching).
- Blacks out only occasionally with the overhead camera view but it does happen (for me it happened on the first level of the game, and at my bosses Christmas party).
- Can't attack after awhile when your fighting on foot, as it seems to want to lock your next action in long fights. I have noticed this seems to happen mainly when using single fire mode on your guns
- In space Z axis movement is realistically kind of pointless, as everything you need to do is mostly point and click. The shielding system on your ship is literally setup for only the XY axis and not for top and bottom. There could be a point for the Z axis movement but I have only put 12 hrs into the game so I don't really know yet.

Things that are awesome:
- Maned combat seems to be nailed down pretty good, as it always makes me want to keep upgrading to and continuing on to find the next group of enemies that will suffer the wrath of me. Its fun and engaging and some what addicting, with all the many items, equipment mods, as well as the levelling system, really kept me wondering if there would ever be an end.
- The different layers of game play will definitely keep the player occupied for a very long time.
- Ships look really good and there are so many different ones that I would never get bored of trying to find the next best one.
- Game looks pretty good for an early access game. There are defiantly bugs that need to be ironed out but after that, I don't think this game has much further to go.

Out of everything, the one thing that seems like it could be happen with this game is "Feature Creep". Adding a lot of different features into a game is awesome, except when they are incomplete and buggy. This game seems big enough that it could be suffering from this issue and I would absolutely hate to see that here. Because of some specific bugs this game has, kind of doesn't make me want to play certain things in this game as is, but this is an early access game and that is just what it is.

STELLAR TACTICS

https://youtu.be/sURsD_zgOD0?si=GfcWlcNJCKHDI5wX

A thousand years, the cannons roared,
Humanity lost, its soul ignored.
Fields turned crimson, skies grew black,
An endless march, no turning back.
The planets trembled beneath the fight,
As men and machines extinguished light.
Brother slew brother in a desperate race,
Until no victors stood, just empty space.
Then silence came, a fragile reprieve,
Peace arrived, but none could believe.
The guns fell quiet, the skies turned clear,
Yet shadows lingered, a world in fear.
For as the blood dried on the soil,
The earth betrayed with a new turmoil.
A virus crept, unseen, untamed,
Consuming all, its wrath unclaimed.
Plants withered, rivers turned foul,
The forests died, the oceans howled.
The creatures fell, the cattle too,
And mankind dwindled, their fate askew.
Few survived this toxic blight,
Huddled in darkness, shunning the light.
Cities crumbled, dreams turned to dust,
And hope lay buried, consumed by rust.
Yet fate was crueler still to bear,
An asteroid struck with a fiery glare.
The earth convulsed, its crust unbound,
Mountains shattered, seas unwound.
The survivors clung to fractured ground,
Their cries unheard, no solace found.
But in despair, a spark remained,
A will unbroken, though heavily strained.
With tools of war repurposed anew,
They forged the stars, a path they drew.
Ships of steel, of hope and light,
Carried mankind into the night.
Through blackened voids, where silence sung,
Their journey vast, their story young.
They sought new worlds, a place to thrive,
To rebuild, to dream, to feel alive.
But the stars held danger, shadows vast,
Aliens, rivals, echoes of the past.
Creatures lurked with claws and teeth,
Ambushes set in systems beneath.
Rogues and pirates, mercenaries grim,
Each battle fought on a razor’s whim.
With weapons honed and courage steeled,
Humanity’s fate was boldly revealed.
No longer shackled to one pale sphere,
They ventured onward, shedding fear.
Empires rose, alliances strained,
Through trade and war, new power gained.
Each choice, a thread in the cosmic weave,
Each loss, a lesson, a wound to grieve.
In this vast expanse, their story grew,
Adventurers bold, the tried, the true.
For among the stars, they came to see,
What they might become, what they could be.
From ruins grim, a phoenix soared,
A race reborn, its spirit restored.
Their tale was endless, yet just begun,
As they chased the light of a distant sun.

"Star Trek Online" single player, with all its issues and none of its merits. The game I've always dreamt of, coded by my worst nightmare.
It starts slow and easy on the problems, all of them apparently minor but when weighted together they start to drag the experience down: wobbly camera and not enough zoom out make for a more miserable than infamous NWN2's. Characters get stuck on nothing, every other door. Hard to read tiny fonts. Terrible icons. Lots of pointless walking around, no handholding waypoints but little to no descriptions, and the rooms look all the same. Imprecise interface, almost as bad as Silent Storm's, lacking QoL tools I've been used to since X-Com, in freaking 1994. Impossibly long loading times, putting Cavemen 2 Cosmos, the king of bloatware, to shame.
All this through an extremely long and obnoxious tutorial, I'm tempted to guess long enough to drag you past the 2 hours threshold. And once you think you're through... more tutorial! But this time it's underground ancient ruins with spiders. The second most banal and hated level, after the sewers/underwater one.
If you finally manage to endure this torture, the game starts to open up to a giant field of "almost there". You can have a crew, but only 4 people. You can crew your ship, but only 4 stations. You can buy ships, but it involves weeks of grind. You can take on missions, they're all "go there, kill x through this corridor, which is all of them". You can be ambushed, but since maps are long sequences of rooms you can see it coming a million miles away. Actually, you already learned it during the tutorial, when the only room you're allowed to skip is a giant chamber and of course its boss keeps the key you need for the last door. Because nothing says "science fiction" more than being blocked by a stone door while wielding an atomic fusion-powered weapon.
Not a single aspect of this game stands out, everything is worse, way worse, than what's already seen elsewhere.
I'm probably going to play it some more, since I can't refund it and being a sucker for anything with spaceships, but I'd rather stick to Star Trek Online as a free player for my fix.

Too much sandbox, not enough story for me.

AI art assets

Great game overall. Can't wait to see the final verison of this game

a blend of Shadowrun Returns play style, Fallout 3 skills and Skyrim skill system... in space. Overall VERY pleasant experience. Skill DO seem a bit grindy but I acknowledge I'm an impatient person so probably take that into consideration.

Love it so far, even though I'm not very far in. It's early access but very playable, and very addictive. I'm playing on Steam Deck, and really wish it had built-in controller support. There are some community configurations, but even with Steam Input there's ALOT of commands, and I haven't found a way to set everything up. Even so the majority of commands can be covered with Steam Input and some creative controls. I also REALLY wish the developer would increase the fonts a bit, or allow scaling. It's quite small for playing on a handheld. All of that said, I *am* enjoying it alot and plan to keep playing. Oh yeah, for a one man development team it's even more impressive! Please, please, PLEASE bring native Steam Deck support to it!

The best mining idle on the market. 10/10

Absolutely enjoying this game

Despite occasional crashes, I have to say I love this game. It is of course, still in production with regular updates but I am REALLY optimistic for the final product. One of the BEST early access games I've bought thus far.

Great game.

(Edit: changing review to positive for the sole reason of wanting this game to be a success, but the review focuses entirely on the not so good parts atm).

I've had this wishlisted since the day it went up for EA on Steam and finally decided to purchase it over 8 years later. I'm going to be frank about it...there are some vital parts that feel extremely lacking compared to the game's store description as it stands right now.

To summarize the main issue with ST, it's the epitome of "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" as opposed to the advertised "deep character customization and living world". The 'carrot' to chase and grind for is also not enticing enough; the balance of time invested vs what you get in return for that feels off, with a lot of unnecessary tedium involved in the gameplay loop atm.

ST boasts a unique and ambitious combination of genres / ideas which sound awesome as a concept together, but if everything is as generic as it is now then people are simply going to play lets say 4 different games which each excels in the 1 type of gameplay they offer, e.g. Troubleshooter for the ground combat turn based gameplay, Elite Dangerous for space sim, PoE for loot dopamine etc. instead of bothering with ST, as there would be no reason to.

Biggest gripes I felt that led to me struggling to find the will to continue after 30 hours of playing:

The loot to equip your characters with is incredibly generic; there are 7 character stats and the only affixes that any gear can have = a + to one of those stats. Green gear = always a +1 to 1 stat, Blue = +1 or 2x +1 to 2 different stats, Orange = +1 to 2 or 3 different stats or +2 to 1 stat and +1 to another, and Pink can give +3 to a stat and at least +1 to 2 other stats. And that's it; that's the entire itemization of gear.

!!WE URGENTLY NEED MORE UNIQUE GEAR 'CHASE ITEMS'!! That have -innate- effects similar to weapon module effects

Example of innate armor affix: "restore all action points on kill once per turn". Unique gear with these affixes should have a rare % chance to loot them. Also another very important thing about gear which needs an update asap = a bigger difference in weapon damage stat for weapons that require a higher weapon level to use.

The gear for your space ship is almost equally unimpactful between rarity types and is again incredibly basic to the point of losing interest in chasing upgrades very quickly. Example: white FTL drive is 1400 something speed while orange FTL drive is 1600 speed. And that is supposed to be a carrot that you'll have to grind very time consuming faction missions for to get enough points to buy that single piece with (for a single ship, you'll have to do the same for each other ship as these pieces are only compatible with the ship you've got set as main)

Now, as for the fun of doing those missions and variety...I was quickly disappointed. There are different faction mission types but all of them will end up with you doing the same thing: Warp to x gibberish name planet, few minutes of totally uneventful travel to mission location, enter mission location (load screen), have unavoidable encounters with enemies that you really don't want to fight, but are forced to in order to proceed to final dungeon room. Rinse n repeat.

Not only does the disappointment stem from the lack of 'dungeon' biome and enemy type biome variety, but it's especially the amount of tedium involved in the mechanical part of the experience. First, you must always remember to press reload button after every single battle or you'll have to waste PRECIOUS action points during the actual fights (having to repair gear and weapon jamming during battle is already annoying enough as is).

Then there's the crazy high enemy Perception stat; especially in the cave biome area where there are no closed door rooms you'll be spotted by enemies so far away that you don't even see them as red dots and this combined with its wacky pathing and big rooms will make it a huge slog to get to the last room (which you'll have to do for all types of mission objectives every time).

As for the combat itself: You'd think these fights would at least be fast due to how often they occur, but no...Even if you're lvl 9 with turn order affecting stat investments (Dex is the main one that raises it) in the lvl 1 enemy planets, almost all enemies will still move before any of your characters except maybe the dedicated hacker in your group. You can't rush the enemy either, because due to them noticing you from very far away, the grid based combat starts with a big gap between you and the enemy. And moving costs AP; so much that most you can do is move up to an enemy and then have no AP left to actually attack.

You also can't escape from ANY battle, so no matter which strategy you employ, it's incredibly time consuming to complete a mission objective. All this with no loot carrot whatsoever, because the gear is as basic / boring as it could possibly be. Oh right it gets worse; gear rarity tier that can drop is actually tied to enemy strength tier (e.g. regular mobs will never drop blue or higher gear, 1 skull never drops orange or above). It would be way more fun if this was completely random.

Quickly going through space related issues:

-Facilities are carbon interior copies despite having different names (e.g. outpost, research facility having no interior distinguishment from one another, nor different functionality)

-Vendors are nearly entirely irrelevant and we don't need 8 in each outpost if 1 merchant sells all of the same stuff which 5 others are partially selling

-Every time we leave a planet or building, we need to click top left for the FTL icon to appear. Top left data should always be open by default

-438983 'different' planets but the only distinguishment = diff gibberish name and diff planet color, needs lots of work to feel less generic

-Fast travel beacon points are ALWAYS far removed from an outpost; dev I get that you don't want people to make money too quickly by doing cargo missions but it defies all logic to force a ~3 minute flight period from !Quick! travel point to x outpost or any planet for a mission EVERY SINGLE TIME. Either move some of the beacon points of some planets with an outpost in it closer to it OR let us quick travel between beacon points without having to FTL out of a planet first. Having to go through these motions (and load screens!!!) adds so much tedium given how often it has to be done.

OR: give higher tier drives and ships a bigger speed increase. Yes it will make the game more 'arcade' paced, but that's the only way your game is going to feel like it 'clicks' (as it stands, arcadey space games like Starpoint Gemini 2 have more engaging space activites and better pacing than this).

-Space combat does not feel exciting enough, hostile ships need to be more hostile (vs other NPC ships as well)

-Components and ships need to become more distinguished through more stat effect additions beyond just raw stat number increases, e.g. special effects for specific ships like an Epic tier warp drive for a very low cargo capacity ship that allows it to warp directly between beacons

-Crew recruitment is totally pointless; the first 3 level 2 perm crew you can recruit will gain skill/weapon stats A LOT faster per 1 lvl up than new recruits (who are always same level as main char). Give players a valid reason to recruit and train new recruits, e.g. unique character traits

Dev I love your spirit but please hire some help or employ AI for stuff like icon design so you have more time to spend on fleshing out these more pressing critiques cause you gotta think of it from a consumer PoV as well like me who's been waiting for 8+ years (1/10th of the average male life span!) and concluding this still rather barebones state. I hope to see improvements in accordance to what I mentioned here and that I may one day actually enjoy this game, before I die of old age.

The game is an absolute treasure. Its like WasteLand 2 but with space added to it. You can mine, trade and do space fights. For the price this game is a steal. I cant wait for further updates.

While it lacks a lot of plot, that's often the case in a nice sandbox game. I like sandbox games.

Nothing like it exists, space RPG. Isometric. Squad based tactical shooter, somewhat of a cover system. Simple game but its interesting 26 hours in.

I picked this up yesterday and I am glad I did. For an early access title it is very very solid and reminds me a lot of a tabletop game called Stargrave. Im looking forward to further work on this title by the developer, I think this game will be a home run for turn based tactics and sci-fi fans out there.

Great Game !

I'm pleasantly surprised of how much I'm hooked by this game.
Stellar Tactics has everything I was looking for in a space rpg.
Tactical turn based ground combat, ship combat, exploration, trading, mining, salvaging, crafting, factions, missions, character progression and loot.
No crashes, no major bugs so far and in its current state as of nov 2024 it's fully enjoayble.

its ok game still early access

Great game. I had this on my list for a long time and recently found out it was being developed by one developer. I like to support the smaller companies because they are the ones pushing the limit and making game they would like to play and don't care what some marketing department says.

Stellar Tactics delivers. It's a hybrid of several types of games, creating a full universe ready to explore and conquer in numerous different ways. It's a turn based, squad based, tactical fighter in the veins of XCOM and Wasteland. It's a ship battler in the traditions of Eve and Star Trek Online (ones I'm familiar with). It's a trade simulator with merchant skills like Privateer. It's an exploration game with thousands of star systems to explore and plunder. It has skills and stats galore. Oh, and it's an RPG with an expanding story and quest system. Factions... oh yeah, that too, and you can play them positively or negatively. Probably forgetting a few others too.

Like many games that try to do everything, I want to say that it does them lightly, but it doesn't. Every system has enough complexity to be interesting in itself. I can level up ship fighting and getting bigger and badder ships. I can focus on ground tactics and develop my characters in a full squad based system with lots of choices in abilities and skills... perks even. It's hard to say where it falls short, though I'm sure there are games out there that would specialize in one area of this a little better, but overall, the mix is well done and nothing falls short. This is what you get with small developers who just want to build a better game.

It's also in EA, but the game is a fully functional game. I've only experienced one odd hang in 45 hours of playing that caused me to reload. It's very stable and fleshed out. The story is interesting though I'm pretty early in into it. There are only three chapters so far, and I'm barely into the first, so a ways to go on that, but there is plenty to do in between missions.

There are a few negatives though. The graphics are outdated. The AI could be smarter though it's fine for me. Some menu designs are a little clunky and hidden, hard to find and navigate around, but it's all functional once learned.

Can't say enough how impressed I am that one person has created this whole thing. Take a look at it. It's got a lot going for it and it's beyond most games from the big boys that would sell most of this as extra's in many DLCs. This is a definite gem in the rough. I purchased it at full price and threw in the DLC for some extra support to the developer. Even at that price it's a steal, but if you're on the fence, pick it up on sale and I would be very surprised if you regretted it.

The game runs very slowly for the slightly under average graphics. No option to increase animation speeds or text pop-up speeds. Looks like it'd be fun if I wasn't spending half my time waiting for the game to run.

This solo dev passion project is an action point based squad tbs with a spaceship management/exploration/resource gathering themed intermission layer. It has some rough edges but ticks a lot of boxes. I enjoy the classless progression and crafting system the most. Like EVE, it has high engagement and low engagement activities, so you can either chill and mine while watching something or doomscrolling, or you know, play the game actively. That's not for everybody but it's a green check for me.

I want to see this game live. I want to see the dev have the opportunity to continue mashing the keyboard. Gaming is enriched for having this game and other projects like it.

Not that fun. Feels and seems generic. This game is still early access and no real signs of anything happening.

Reminds me of the old Traveller DOS Game. Having a blast, Sorry for the Pun!!!

Better than starfield :) only one thing is missing, option to enter my own ship would be cool

There seems to be a lot of bugs still in this game. I've had it crash on me 3 times in 2 hours. The other thing is I got the Hacking tool ... used it on one door and failed and since then all doors have remained locked. I can't get out of the starting crew quarters. Surely that can't be right? I've swapped the tool around the players but it still doesn't work. Very dissapointing.

This is pretty great so far apart from the game often completely freezing when loading, or exiting, which doesn't exactly add to the experience. I am very curious about the gameplay once it opens up more. The dialogue and story is well written, combat is fun, reminds me of Wasteland 2 and similar turn based RPG's but i do have a feeling it'll get better later on.
I'd rate it 7/10 right now, it would get higher if it wasn't for the freezing.

I also dislike how it would've been so easy to make the game work with mouse only, right now you need the keyboard to move the camera, most of these games will move the camera if the mouse pointer hits the sides of the screen.

Fun as expected.
Wasteland like RPG but in Space

After over 40 years of playing games, I'm tired of reading. Please hire voice actors or stop writing several books worth of reading in your games. Also, an interactive tutorial would be fabulous.

Basic. Very basic features.

The UI is meh.
Combat is basic
Graphics are basic
Game play is basic.

The idea of a game like this is intriguing and i would surely buy a game like this but in the today's technology.
I tried to play it but it is really not that interesting.

I give it a 5/10 for effort.

This game has a very deep and well thought system. You can either follow the storyline or roam around freely. You can either fight in spaceships or with your ground team. Bot level and upgrade seperately. You can get items for ship and team with looting and you can craft even more. Currently im 80 hours into gameplay and i have not even done much in the story because there is so much to do.

Why is this game lag so bad?

It's a great game so far. It's still early but the developer has put in some good work.

An excellent game made by a dedicated developer. It's one of those games that I've been looking for for some time and I'm glad I found it. Hope you keep working on it! It's awesome in it's current state and I will continue to play it. I am recommending all my friends try it out :)

It's a fun space game and the dev has been consistent on updates for years.
Honestly a very good space adventure.

I didn't know I'd like this game as much as I do! Sure there are some clunky things about it, and it's been in early access for ever, but I am losing sleep lately wanting to take down just one more ship, mine just one more planet! Good job

Yep.

in this game you can do whatever you like if you like when you like which is very rare no time limits so you could play this game for years..... the only thing i would like to see is the ground party consist of six members not four and be abel to rename them... to the dev i belive your name is don well done and please continue with your great work

It's great, I just finished all the missions in the first solar system and just got my ftl drive. So far everything has been great, game play is fun, story is cool. I like the ship combat but it feels too easy even on hard difficulty. Ground combat on Hard feels good. I would like to see more intractability, there's not much to interact with on the ground maps. Regardless, this is a good one.

Amazing open world game with lot to do and have a great time.

There are many aspects of this game I enjoy. Its unique among games of its type Ive played and has classic mechanics done well, As a game in development it was given a solid foundation with alot of attention to detail. The in game assets look great in a functional way and the crafting system is unique with hundreds of components and alot of incentive to get good at mining lol. The developers have kept their word and the game is improving steadily.

I think I've owned this game in Early Access for about six years, maybe. I loaded it up originally, liked the eight hours or so of intro gameplay just to see if my instincts had been correct, and yes, confirmed, this had all the stuff I like in it. Then I went back to playing XCom 2: Long War 2, because we were all young once, I guess.

Then back to this game, as notification of a major update caught my eye. Played it again, a little more in depth. Updated visuals, updated ship transit and combat, new enemies. Shelved it some more.

New update notification flashed again, and it was around then that I realized that this studio was just one dude, and that it was still in Early Access.

Began playing it more, once or twice a month for a few hours. I obviously like it, and I definitely recommend it. The visuals and character movements have gotten sharper and smoother, as have the little details like reflections and different burst fires from different weapons. On par with, say, Colony Ship, but not as visual-heavy as GEARS: Tactics or W40K Chaos Gate, but certainly worthy in a turn-based game.

Character leveling is well done: incremental, raises fairly quickly with item/skill use (as my friend says: "....and then you walk around and push goat button until you get good at goat, then your mastery of goat makes it easier to walk around and get good at cow, and pretty soon you're King of the Barn or whatever") and the differences are actually detectable.

Combat has been the following: Too easy, a good challenge but fair, way too punishing without warning. So I think in real life that's exactly how it would go, which probably means that the game needs some leveling, because real life is not escapist and fun, and games are supposed to be. To be fair, I feel the same way about Battle Brothers and Colony Ship and Darkest Dungeon, and I love those games too.

I've been playing in such a fragmented fashion that I've lost track of the central story, but this has not left me wanting for things to do. As far as player choice sandbox-ness, this is close to being Kenshi in space, only turn-based and without the borderline personality disorder that Kenshi revels in. So take note: there's a good quest here with rich story beats, OR, there's excellent space to f××× around endlessly, sightseeing and killing pirates and salvaging scrap.

Final note: I unrelentingly suck at the ship to ship battles and dogfighting. This is a ME problem, not a game problem. I think it has something to do with my mind's spatial relations as pertains to notions like the horizon, and therefore which way is up, etc. I just keep barely limping along, mostly by fleeing, and then we land planetside and I forget all about that and jump back in to Hunter/Killer mode. Then it's time to leave again and to realize I'm terrible at shooting frigates and pirates and whoever else.

Last-last note: The game is very interesting. The way it has progressed, the fact that it's just one Dev, the very clear vision he has for final polish and story, the code-switching the player does to flip between piloting a vessel and walking around as Murder Hobo No.1, all of these things are super interesting. I don't know how much FUN it is, but it's certainly worth your attention.

And pay no attention to other reviews saying it's an abandoned game with no hope of seeing finish: simply not true. Major updates have come at a faster clip in the last eighteen months, and dev communication has been near constant in that same time.

So far I'm 4.5 hours in and chose the longer route.
I'm not even to my ship yet and loving it.
A combination dungeon crawler with some great features the xcom games could learn from .

Great loot if you remeber to save but I'm sure I will find more and an.interesring story for those inspired by scifi.

Bought the supporters pack to.zay thank you to thr dev and can't wait to play some more.

While so many of my games remain broken and depend on others to play with this in my.opinion is a gem.

awesome game,

Open-world Fallout Tactics IN SPAAAAAAAAACE!