StarMade Dev Update: Introducing Faction Points

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    Right now i am thinking the station contest is about to end. the next update is gonna be huge.

    Those new contents are coming like crazy, and i like everyday i have a new bit to play
     
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    maybe call them something more sci fi than faction points...

    maybe flux crystals - and they charge the invincible flux shield of your homebase or something like that
     
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    maybe call them something more sci fi than faction points...

    maybe flux crystals - and they charge the invincible flux shield of your homebase or something like that
    Could work, but you don't want to add "lore" to something that might change. They might get new functions not compatible with them being "flux crystals" like they are used to claim space, or the fact we get them from member activity. For now we should keep their "gameplay" based name though. +1 though if we make a change like that in beta, when the system is unlikely to change.
     

    therimmer96

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    wut? thats just a name nothing complicated in that...
    The fact that it does not clearly indicate what its on about. Faction points is clear, Flux crystals is completely unrelated.
     
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    The fact that it does not clearly indicate what its on about. Faction points is clear, Flux crystals is completely unrelated.
    I don't think the name that Aceface used was really the point at all, I think they were just trying to say that it would be interesting if there was a bit of back story behind the concept of faction points. The idea of lore isn't complicated unless you get confused by integrating story into your game. "flux crystals" was just a cool sounding name, if anything your attention to only half of an uncomplicated suggestion is what is unrelated.
     
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    Throwing random name in : Cubatoms XD (as that system is now wrecked iirc, the name is free to use, right ?)

    You collect Cubatoms and spend Cubatoms for your faction.
     
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    Eeeee! I've been waiting for this stuff for sooo looong. :D It's amazing to start actually getting it set up, and amazing to lift the veil off of some of what is on the way. And as always, we have Schema to thank for making all these things happen.

    The way I see it, StarMade is one of the most amazing games I have ever played in almost every area except when it comes to actually doing something. Now we're adding in things to do. There will be so much more reason to play, with so many more things to accomplish and events to deal with. This is only the beginning. This is quite a bit like the move from Minecraft Classic to the survival Minecraft that took the world by storm. (Though this won't make StarMade any less of an amazing platform to just build ships and stations in for those who just want that.)

    I personally lean towards singleplayer, and the effects of these new faction mechanics will obviously impact multiplayer long before singleplayer simply because players on servers can make the most of it right away. Singleplayer requires a sufficiently complex AI enemy designed to understand the system. But I don't mind a little waiting. The future is bright. ;)
    I don't think the name that Aceface used was really the point at all, I think they were just trying to say that it would be interesting if there was a bit of back story behind the concept of faction points. The idea of lore isn't complicated unless you get confused by integrating story into your game. "flux crystals" was just a cool sounding name, if anything your attention to only half of an uncomplicated suggestion is what is unrelated.
    Don't worry, lore is taken into consideration. However, gameplay always comes first. (Not true in all games, especially atmospheric ones, but true for StarMade.) "Faction points" is something that makes sense and can be understood quickly, and that is more important than the backstory players will not be reading while being killed and losing faction points.

    Besides, the term "faction points" could actually be made part of the lore, it would just need to be written right. Perhaps it would be something like colloquial slang for the cumulative resources a faction has, physical or otherwise, but specifically referring to the way it ties into galactic politics when in action. Or maybe it refers to the system people prefer to use when trying to quantify something abstract like faction power and display it in numerical form. (Tallying "points" based on a variety of factors that relate to faction power.) Don't worry; it won't be left a giant loose end. It could be one of two terms used for roughly the same thing, with the other being something more solid and lore-bound. (And "factions points" as slang used for the reasons I mentioned earlier in this paragraph.)

    EDIT:
    Throwing random name in : Cubatoms XD (as that system is now wrecked iirc, the name is free to use, right ?)

    You collect Cubatoms and spend Cubatoms for your faction.
    Cubatoms are by no means gone from the StarMade lore. Their existence as the fundamental particles that create the universe remains. Actually, the Fabricator's ability to carry large amounts of potential matter relates to the behavior and physics of Cubatoms. (I love dropping little hints and bits of lore.)
     
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    Ithirahad

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    -no chairs yet
    -added scanners

    I don't even know what to think now.


    Are scanners going to be a part of exploration or just a "see if there are any people" type thing? Do they detect abandoned stations? Does scanners mean that we won't automatically get stations/planets/asteroids/ships in our nav menu? If so I will be so very pleased.

    Will we be able to convert FP into money (to buy ships n' stuff)?
    Go into the dev build, place a wedge so that it looks kind of like a chair (Slope side up), point at the sloped face, and hit O. Then zoom out and see what happened. :D
     
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    Go into the dev build, place a wedge so that it looks kind of like a chair (Slope side up), point at the sloped face, and hit O. Then zoom out and see what happened. :D
    While making the wedge sitting animation, I was surprised by how natural it ended up looking even though it's just a wedge. When the animation was actually implemented, I was amazed that sitting on a wedge felt so natural. I'm not saying it's better than a chair could be, but my desire for adding true "chairs" dropped dramatically when sitting on wedges worked out so well. It looks just like anything else in StarMade, yet functions surprisingly elegantly as a chair.

    ...while making the animation, I was also reminded of just how small Dave actually is. I find it's easy to forget. But even a single wedge is more than enough to serve as a chair. Also, a single block is already abnormally tall to be used as a table due to being a meter high. Go grab a meter stick and sit on a chair next to it; a meter really is pretty high for a table. My dining room table is 3/4 of a meter. (75 centimeters) Seems easy to forget the scale of things in StarMade.


    Oh. And don't just press "O" while looking at the slope of an upward facing wedge. Also try pressing "O" while looking near one of the four edges of the top of any cube block, whether surrounded by flat space or the edge of a surface. You'll either sit on the floor or sit on the edge depending on what the circumstance is, and you can really sit pretty much anywhere. Great for roleplay. Just get out of a big, crazy fight? Head up to the bridge and sit down to talk about it with the crew. In transit on a ship? It could be a long flight; take a seat. Just return to the hangar after flying your fighter in an epic dogfight? Sit down and breathe. Going to visit someone at their post? Sit down and chat for a bit. Waiting for someone? Find a place to sit and wait more comfortably. It's like Dave suddenly realized it was possible to relax.
     
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    The sitting animation looks really great Omni. You can also get a good view by holding shift and rolling the mouse wheel back to go into 3rd person, then sitting down. I really want a chair that is a "Captains" chair, one where you can sit on the bridge and control the ship. That would be really great for immersion if you walk onto the bridge and see the Captain in his "Chair".

    Especially if you could sit in the chair to control the ship, then hold down shift or something to move your head and look around.
     

    Ithirahad

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    Yaas... @Omni , I feel the same. It's really great. I was just sitting in a prototype fighter while SpaceKing was testing its weapons... It was interesting. I also now can sit on my bridge:



    If only I could control my ship from that big seat/throne... Then I'd be in Starmade heaven.
     
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    So this means that other unique players who just happen to have the same IP as you will not be counted towards your faction's FP?

    My entire faction is family members, we all play from the same IP.

    How does this work when you have a multiplayer LAN server running (everyone with the same internet IP)?
    I don't think that will be a problem as long as the server is on your LAN. My server logs show local IP addresses when someone logs in from the LAN.
     
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    EDIT:

    Cubatoms are by no means gone from the StarMade lore. Their existence as the fundamental particles that create the universe remains. Actually, the Fabricator's ability to carry large amounts of potential matter relates to the behavior and physics of Cubatoms. (I love dropping little hints and bits of lore.)
    Thank you for educating us! :D

    You should drop more hints and bits of lore :P
     
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    I am so excited! this looks like it will completely change the way we play! I have one reservation however, the duplicate item bug really makes the game imbalanced and will wreak faction warfare between folks that abuse the bug and those that don't cheat. The logs show when an item is duplicated, but it doesn't say by who or where. Will this be fixed in the next update?
     
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