Infinite Space Insights: Rebalancing a Hypothetical Sequel

Infinite Space Insights: Rebalancing a Hypothetical Sequel

As good as Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars is, I would not be surprised if its sequel turned out to be even better still. However, for this to happen, some of Sea of Stars' balance issues need to be addressed as follows:

• Currently, Gorgar's Garthan capital ship (one of the possible allies the player can encounter) may spawn even if the Garthans' home world (whose host star system is always a white F-type star, which is hotter than a yellow G-type star, but cooler than a bluish-white A-type star) and correspondingly higher Garthan fleet strength is not present on a randomly generated sector map. Preventing the Garthan capital ship from spawning  under such circumstances would thus make such a scenario more challenging by reducing the potential maximum attainable score, but on the other hand, would reduce "wastage" of fleet slots (of which there are six - four for capital ships and two for fighters). 
• Related to this, In Sea of Stars, it is possible to have a maximum fleet size of five vessels (three capital ships and two fighters) if the map contains Zorg and Muktian home worlds, but recruitable allies that fly Zorg and Muktian capital ships are absent in addition to the Damocles and Kestrel (both of which are quest-specific). while both the Zorg and Muktian fighters can be recruited from the map by visiting the systems where they are found (and in the former case, after transferring an item from your inventory to the mercenary owning said Zorg fighter). Preventing a Garthan capital ship from spawning as a recruitable ally under such circumstances would thus remove the possibility of potentially having too much dead weight on the player's roster.
• If any one of the Zorg, Muktian, and Calatian home worlds are present on a randomly generated map, the probability of negotiating an alliance with them should initially be 100%, by giving their respective allies a 100% chance of spawning on the map at the start of a game. To balance this out, such behavior should be incentivized by increasing the credit bonus earned through diplomacy.
• The probability of quest-triggering items, fleets, and discoveries spawning at the start of a game should be decreased from 100% to 20% or 25%, to reduce the probability of completing the corresponding quest and gaining its associated score bonus.
• If Esmerelda (who will steal a random item other than the Klakar Beacon from your cargo hold and deliver the former to the homeworld of a randomly selected faction, including your own, or your ship's towels if you have no such items) is present anywhere on the map at the start of a game, either or both of the only two items capable of capturing her (the Toy Robot and Lookout Frogs) must also be guaranteed to spawn alongside her, albeit in a different system from where she can be encountered in both cases. This makes it more likely for the player to earn her associated 500-credit bonus; to make this task even easier, both the Toy Robot and Lookout Frogs could grant the ability to detect Esmerelda's location on the map by marking it with a dashed blue circle (assuming the player has never previously encountered her), to allow the player to actively seek her out upon storing either item in their cargo hold. Neither item should be 100% guaranteed to spawn at the start of a game if Esmerelda is absent from the map, though, nor should they be able to detect other potential passengers (Phredd and Smetlov's Brain) - both of these rules are retained from Sea of Stars.

Hopefully, if Digital Eel (which has been the franchise's developer since the original game) were to ever consider developing an Infinite Space IV, they could (should?) at least examine the possibility of implementing at least some of these balance adjustments into the next installment.

Infinite Space Insights: Graviton Beams and Their Tabletop Counterparts

Infinite Space Insights: Graviton Beams and Their Tabletop Counterparts

The Graviton Disintegrator in the Infinite Space trilogy is a unique weapon - not for its characteristics, but for being the only beam-based (and thus non-projectile-based) weapon of any kind ever fielded by the Yellow Kawangi, with each of their Dreadnoughts carrying four such weapons (two up front and two more at the rear). Due to its immense firepower, it (along with the Nova Cannon, which the Yellow Kawangi also fit to their Dreadnoughts, albeit only one per ship) can only be acquired during normal gameplay by creating it from a Timeless Bauble, and even under such circumstances, you'll never be able to have more than one. However, in custom scenarios, it's possible to arm most capital ships with multiple Graviton Disintegrators for a massive increase in damage per second. So how does this weapon work? Let's find out.

As a medium weapon, it can be installed on any capital ship that has at least one universal, medium or large turret. Most factions whose capital ships do not have weapons as fixed equipment are fitted with these turrets as standard, with the Calatians being the sole exception. Their Dreadnought and Super Dreadnought are the only capital ships from that faction with these features, whereas Calatian Cruisers and Destroyers lack such turrets and are thus incompatible with the Disintegrator. However, the Calatians' near-exclusive focus on short- to medium-range combat makes their larger capital ships a good fit for a Disintegrator-based loadout; a Dreadnought or Super Dreadnought armed with one (or, in the latter case, two) of these Yellow Beams of Death (as the player base calls them) can be extremely dangerous to any target that ventures too close to it.

In terms of operating principle, the Graviton Disintegrator emits graviton particles to pull its victims apart through inducing an immense gravitational pull at the point of impact, causing the target to collapse under its own mass. This echoes how its Warhammer 40000 equivalent, the Graviton Destructor and Ruinator, works against small targets (although larger targets are generally immune), with Titan-scale Horus Heresy-era equivalents being potent enough to obliterate other Titans. Similarly, the Graviton Disintegrator is explicitly stated to not having any known defenses against it. This explains why it is inadvisable to attack a Yellow Kawangi Dreadnought at close or even medium range - the Disintegrators will simply tear up any ship that's close enough, so a long-range assault with multiple missile-based weapons (or even a single Nova Cannon or Cobalt Torpedo Tube) is the only viable option for countering such a massive ship without having to use a Limited Vacuum Collapser to overwrite it.

Above, from top: The Graviton Disintegrator in the Infinite Space trilogy may not have the range or availability of the Tachyon Ray Gun, but it is vastly superior in terms of damage per second.

The closest BattleTech equivalent to the Graviton Disintegrator (in terms of firepower) would be the Binary Laser Cannon. Essentially a pair of regular Large Lasers fused together (but weighing 9 tons instead of 10 for dual individual Large Lasers), it generated too much heat relative to the amount of damage delivered compared to a pair of Large Lasers. However, it became viable again after Double Heat Sinks reentered production following the distribution of the contents of the Helm Memory Core, and in MechWarrior Online it serves as a shorter-ranged, but lighter, alternative to paired Large Lasers.

Within the context of MWO, two Binary Laser Cannons (which are distinguished by their white beams) should be sufficient for most Heavy and Assault 'Mechs; some chassis can safely handle three, but four is generally overkill in terms of mass and cooling requirements. However, in the right hands, Binary Lasers can be even more effective than any other Large Laser within their range profile. A common strategy is to combine a pair of Binary Lasers with several Inner Sphere Extended Range Medium Lasers, thus providing a viable backup option and good range synergy.

Above: This Stalker STK-7D is a good example of a Binary Laser-based build in MWO, where the ER Medium Lasers serve as backup for its main armament - a pair of Binary Laser Cannons that complement the Medium Lasers perfectly in terms of range profile.

In short, Graviton Disintegrators may be among the rarest weapons in the Infinite Space trilogy, but they can be among the most potent in the player's inventory if they can acquire one, by performing a similar function to graviton-based weapons and Binary Lasers in Warhammer 40000 and BattleTech, respectively, as among the deadliest beam weapons (if not the deadliest) in their respective fictional universes.

Infinite Space Insights: Lone Wolf Frigate

Infinite Space Insights: Lone Wolf Frigate

Happy New Year to my fellow Infinite Space Explorers! My first Infinite Space trilogy-related post of 2026 will be about my first Sea of Stars playthrough attempt of the New Year. Here's how it went.

Above, from top: My first Sea of Stars playthrough of 2026 - a practice run for my next maximum difficulty attempt (as evidenced with the NPC strength and nebular area having been set to their minimum values - the highest settings for both are necessary for high score runs) - began like any other: after wiping out a Tan Ru fleet around that faction's home system and salvaging some of the high-end equipment stored there, I went on to deliver a Crystal Fish to the Tchorak, thus forging an alliance with them, before zapping two Garthan fleets with the advanced weaponry and technology I'd acquired.

In the early stages of this playthrough, I was lucky enough to trade for, purchase, or salvage enough high-end weaponry and starship technology to improve the overall combat effectiveness of my ship. However, a pivotal moment came when I decided to overwrite an entire cluster's worth of star systems using a Limited Vacuum Collapser I had acquired. On this particular playthrough, there were only four recruitable allies (one each of a Zorg and Muktian fighter, as well as one each of a Garthan and Terran capital ship - I'd convinced the former two to tag along, but chose to annihilate the respective systems in which the latter two were found after realizing I didn't need any help from either of those units), and two of them were in systems that were within the blast radius (as was the Garthan home system, which I'd successfully visited before I activated the LVC).

Above, from top: Shortly after finding the Brood Towers (which lured three Ravian fleets to Glory, the Terran home system - I would later annihilate every single one of them to complete the quest), I decided to overwrite six star systems on the far end of the map using a Limited Vacuum Collapser - and escaped to the Urluquai home system, where I tore apart the hostile fleet stationed there (and bought some highly coveted equipment after the battle for good measure). Two of the recruitable allies (out of four instead of the usual five) were found in the blast radius, and were rendered permanently unattainable due to the LVC detonating before I hired them (although I deliberately chose not to add them to my fleet due to the fact that, given the chosen game settings, I could take on the might of the Ravians with just my starting capital ship and nothing else).

Without the possibility of deploying additional capital ships in combat, the Terran capital ship I had started out with had effectively become a lone wolf, since its destruction would result in an immediate defeat - fighters are not counted as capital ships for gameplay purposes. However, I'd traded in that ship for a larger Terran frigate, which had an additional large turret and offered an extra equipment slot to boot. Even though it was slower and less maneuverable than the Terran corvette I was previously using, and also had less cargo space (8 items instead of 12), I decided that the extra firepower and defense was worth it when facing the Ravian fleets.

Above, from top: I swapped my trusty Terran corvette for a larger, more heavily armed and armored (though slower and less maneuverable) Terran frigate, fitted it with dual Multi-Missile Launchers (which I purchased from the Muktians home system, where I established an alliance with them by visiting it with a Muktian fighter in tow), and used it to eliminate all remaining Ravian forces. I later visited the Zorg home system with a Zorg fighter as part of my fleet to form yet another alliance, and used that system as a trading post, before mopping up other hostile forces using my frigate to complete the playthrough.

By the end of the game, I only had one capital ship (a Terran frigate armed with two Multi-Missile Launchers and a Tachyon Ray Gun, as well as a Sardion Optimizer, Plasma Coil Cloaker and Meson Lattice Shield for improved accuracy, stealth, and protection) and two fighters (a Zorg fighter and a Muktian fighter, both of which were armed with a Proton Blaster and carried one each of a Mnemonic Sequencer and Electron Matrix Shield - the most advanced equipment other than weapons and thrusters that can be fitted to regular fighters), but even with so few vessels in total, the sheer amount of firepower, technology, and defensive equipment was enough for me to take on any hostile fleet without any fear of defeat, especially since there was no chance of encountering a Yellow Kawangi dreadnought on this playthrough.

Above, from top: This game ended with only three ships in my fleet - a Terran frigate, a Muktian fighter, and a Zorg fighter - but I didn't deploy the latter two in combat at all (not that I needed to do so, given that my Terran capital ship had been sufficiently upgraded to win any battle with the right strategy and tactics), so the Terran frigate was effectively a lone wolf. However, the lack of capital ship support (or rather, the possibility of it) severely reduced my final score to a sub-20k value. Even on the highest possible difficulty, I would've struggled to attain the coveted promotion to Glory system president with this force composition unless I was really good (and/or lucky).

In short, my first Sea of Stars playthrough of 2026 was... weird, to say the least, given that I deliberately missed out on both chances to add any capital ships to my fleet (although the LVC detonation also wiped the Garthans' home system off the map), but by the end of the game, it didn't matter very much due to my sole capital ship being heavily upgraded to face whatever new threats it encountered. However, this was a very rare set of circumstances, so here's hoping that the other playthroughs in 2026 will generally be more normal, with all six fleet slots (two fighters and four capital ships) being filled most of the time, and staying that way by the end of the game.