Starminer Review Summary

Positive overall game experience: Players generally have a positive impression of the game, describing it as good, phenomenal, and enjoyable with great performance.

High potential and interest: The game is seen as having great potential and being interesting and unique. Players find it complex and engaging.

Relaxing space mining gameplay: The game is appreciated for its relaxing and enjoyable space mining and building mechanics, which players find fun and immersive.

Beautiful and smooth graphics: Players praise the game's smooth and beautiful graphics, which enhance the overall gaming experience.

Engaging and addictive gameplay: The gameplay is described as engaging, addictive, and relaxing, with a unique gameplay loop that keeps players interested.

Controls are frustrating and unintuitive: Many players find the controls difficult to master, overly complicated, and frustrating. The controls are described as janky, buggy, and hard to figure out, leading to a clunky and unintuitive gameplay experience.

Lack of automation features: Players report a lack of automation features, with the existing autopilot being described as unreliable and poorly functioning. This absence of automation makes certain aspects of the game more tedious.

UI is cluttered and confusing: The user interface is often described as cluttered, overwhelming, and confusing. Players find it difficult to navigate, especially when building, and suggest that the UI needs improvement.

Game crashes and freezes: Players report experiencing multiple hard crashes and freezes, which disrupt the gameplay and require frequent reloading.

Lack of translations: The game lacks proper translations for certain languages, such as German and Chinese, which limits accessibility for non-English speaking players.

Complex control scheme: The game features a complex control scheme that includes various modes and options, requiring a learning curve to master.

Modular ship and station building: The game features a detailed modular building system for ships and space stations, allowing players to construct various types of vessels and structures.

Realistic space movement: Movement in the game is based on realistic physics, including inertia and gravity, making navigation and control more challenging and immersive.

Physics-based simulation: The game includes a physics simulation that governs interactions and movements, adding a layer of realism to the gameplay.

Slow and relaxing gameplay: The game is designed with a slow and deliberate pace, providing a relaxing and methodical experience for players.

Smooth performance and optimization: Many players have praised the game for running smoothly with well-optimized graphics. The game performs well on various settings, including high and ultra settings.

Performance on different hardware: The game runs well on a range of hardware, from old PCs to high-end systems with DLSS and ray tracing enabled. Some players noted good performance on midrange and even laptop systems.

Technical issues and bugs: Players have encountered various technical issues, including black screens, early access bugs, ship bugs, and game-breaking bugs with resource gathering drones. Some players also mentioned stability issues and bugs with new releases.

Graphics and DLSS settings: Players have noted the benefits of DLSS and DLAA settings, with some reporting stable frame rates and good performance on ultra settings. There are also mentions of no immediate ugly artifacts from DLAA.

Specific performance issues: Some players have reported performance issues with large ships and noticeable jumps in performance when switching between ships. There are also mentions of performance issues being fixed by reloading the game.

Recommended for specific audiences: The game is highly recommended for fans of space/logistics games, slow-paced and complex space-themed RTS fleet managers, and those interested in asteroid mining and large spaceships.

Appreciation for developers: Players appreciate the efforts of the developers and have positive feedback for them.

Controller and speed-up support: There is a need for support for third-party controllers and an option to speed up time in the game.

Not for everyone: The game might not be suitable for those who are not fans of this type of game or those looking for an arcadey or pure space mining experience.

Future potential: Players suggest that the game might not be for everyone yet, but it could be in the future as it develops further.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $25.00.

Session length: 10.0h.

Players generally find the game fun after completing the tutorial, which can take several hours due to its depth and occasional bugs.

Reported time to anchor: 3h.

Friction: Bugs in the tutorial; Steep learning curve; Complex controls.

Unlock drivers: Completing the tutorial; Understanding game mechanics.

Chill Miner: Slow-paced, methodical mining and upgrading of spaceships. Motivation: Relaxation and enjoyment of a slow-paced, complex mining experience. Stance: buy.

Early Access Supporter: Supportive and patient, focusing on the potential of the game. Motivation: Supporting game development and enjoying the progression of the game. Stance: buy.

Space Sim Veteran: Experienced and comparative, focusing on the mechanics and challenges of the game. Motivation: Enjoyment of complex and challenging space simulation mechanics. Stance: buy.

The game generally performs well across most hardware cohorts, with higher VRAM configurations experiencing smoother gameplay. Lower VRAM setups and Linux systems also report good performance, though with some isolated issues.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Mostly smooth performance with some minor issues and crashes reported.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Good performance with occasional crashes and noticeable performance jumps.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Surprisingly good performance even on lower-end hardware, with some latency and crashes.

Steam Deck: The game has received mixed reviews regarding its performance and controls. While it runs smoothly on Linux and is compatible with Proton out of the box, users have reported issues with controls, usability, and a steep learning curve. The controls are particularly problematic, with some users finding them difficult to master and others outright calling them poor. Despite these issues, some users appreciate the game's complexity and realism once they get past the initial learning phase.

Linux and Proton: The game runs smoothly on Linux with Proton, requiring no additional tweaks or experiencing any issues. The overall experience is positive with no notable compatibility problems reported.

UI improvement suggestions: Players suggest adding velocity vectors or prograde/retrograde symbols to improve the user interface.

Early Access status: The game is in Early Access, which is a notable point of discussion among players.

Steam Deck compatibility: Players are discussing the game's compatibility and performance on the Steam Deck platform.