New guy with renewed interest.

[mamastoast]

Hey there, first off I'd like to make it clear that I'm sure a lot of what I'm about to ask is readily available somewhere. I've been recently starting videos of the game again, and frankly it all seems to be a bit much to dig through to get to these key points, so I figured I'd just ask the community here. I hope you don't mind .

I'll just give a general background to where I'm coming from, feel free to skip ahead ^^.

So, yea, hi. I'm a 3D artist, and a building addict. Some years ago I was looking at the different available creative space games, and honestly wasnt impressed with what I saw in Starmade. It didn't look very good, the character models were awful and it all just seemed quite... discount'ish looking. So, I decided to dedicate my time to Blockaderunner. Sadly, it would seem Blockaderunner is not gonna be anywhere near playable in the forseeable furture, so I decided to give Starmade another look.

Boy was I impressed. This is not the game I remember throwing off to the side. I must say there are some really impressive looking ships out there, and somehow the overall presentation just looks a lot tighter than last I saw it (even though the character models are still... ugh).


So, to get to my burning questions.

1. First of all, in the videos I've been looking at, it seems that interior decoration has not been a priority to the devs yet. I've done enough research to find out that chairs atleast are indeed a "planned feature", however I was wondering if there are any furniture mods, or other things that might help me make decent looking interiors?

2. Secondly, how's the singleplayer/pve experience. I'm obviously a bit of a noob, and honestly not really interested in any kind of pvp. I'm mostly in it for the whole "building/living in your own spaceship aspect". I don't mind playing with other people, but I'd just like to know if there is any point to playing alone? Is there anything to do once you have your spaceship?

3. I was also wondering, how active is to community is general? While I'm not really one for factions and battles, an active community is of course key to giving a "Point" to it all. I'd just like to get a general feel of how many peolpe are actually interested in this game. No need to sugarcoat it if it's been dropping in activity, I'd just like to get an idea.



I think that's about it honestly. I'd really appreciate it if some of you would take time and perhaps illuminate these dark passages in my brain. I know that i a lot of communities asking such basic questions is often met with hostility, I hope that isn't the case here

 

[Criss]

Welcome!

1: No mods. Our in-house 3d modeler is focused on getting assets ready for fauna. Because of the nature of 3d decorations, it is not a priority.

2: Single player consists of building and exploring a limited set of content at the moment. If you intend to simply build a ship and show it off to people that are interested in a pretty ship, you will be joining the majority of us.

3: The community is generally more active on the site. There are a number of youtubers out there that consistently play. It was probably more busy when the yogscast filmed the game however. That was over a year ago now.

 

[KiloZulu]

I hope that they will be including more design blocks in the future. I can't imagine them not doing so.

While they don't have a specific "chair" block, you can sit on any block by looking at it and hitting "o." Players have come up with a number of designs using blocks and wedges to suggest the shape of a chair as a stand-in until the actual block exists.

PVE is going to be completely dependent on the community of the server on which you play. I can tell you that on the server I play on, all interaction with other players has so far been peaceful (although I know there are some PVP elements out there,) and our focus has been on PVE adventures. PVE is pretty lacking to be honest, but that is a reflection of the game's design state. There is little to interact with in the universe at present. Sure, there are stations and planets, AI pirates, traders, and the rare NPC, but they are all either static or placeholders for future development. There's a great big universe to explore, but it is pretty dry stuff at present.

I'd say that most players are either building for PVP now or building for the PVE they hope will some day come.

 

[Winterhome]

While a lot has been added to the game in the past year and a half to two years, it's not quite at "completely playable, amazing fun" levels yet unless your primary interest is in building ships and engineering fun contraptions.

As the others have said, there are currently no mods that add furniture or sub-block decorations, though there are a couple of mods that have, at least in the past, added custom blocks. I'm not sure if those are still intact or not. A modding API is on the way, though. Eventually. Most of us just use the existing 1m^3 blocks that are available, and other parts (Capsules, light rods, etc) as furniture and decoration. It's not "pretty", but it gets the idea across.

PVE is still pretty much how it was a year and a half ago. If you shoot a pirate station, it calls for backup, and spawns X number of pirates from the list of blueprints that are enabled for pirates. Stations, including pirate stations, are a lot prettier now - since we had a community station contest a while back.

PVP is far better than it used to be, but for the most part, it's limited by the game's economy. Some servers are trying to set up a config that encourages PVP more and makes certain commonly used blocks much cheaper, though. I'd keep an eye on the top few servers, myself. GenXNova, Shattered Skies, and Elwyn Eternity are the big three right now, and I know for a fact that EE is trying to create a better, funner config.


The community in general has been staying about level in terms of activity for a while now. It'll pick up again when the game adds more singleplayer-friendly features (NPC factions, missions, better AI spawning and universe simulation, etc).

 

[Lecic]

1. First of all, in the videos I've been looking at, it seems that interior decoration has not been a priority to the devs yet. I've done enough research to find out that chairs atleast are indeed a "planned feature", however I was wondering if there are any furniture mods, or other things that might help me make decent looking interiors?

Modding currently isn't too much around here, because players can only add custom blocks that do existing features and use existing models. Config edits are common(I'd avoid them until you understand the vanilla configs), and there's also some nice shader mods. I recommend BearishMushroom's Shader Pack, as well as Crusade's Pop-up Message Fix.

2. Secondly, how's the singleplayer/pve experience. I'm obviously a bit of a noob, and honestly not really interested in any kind of pvp. I'm mostly in it for the whole "building/living in your own spaceship aspect". I don't mind playing with other people, but I'd just like to know if there is any point to playing alone? Is there anything to do once you have your spaceship?

There's not a ton to do in SP yet, but you can fight pirates with the ships you've built. If you're looking for a challenge, download increasingly stronger pirates from the workshop to test your might against.

3. I was also wondering, how active is to community is general? While I'm not really one for factions and battles, an active community is of course key to giving a "Point" to it all. I'd just like to get a general feel of how many peolpe are actually interested in this game. No need to sugarcoat it if it's been dropping in activity, I'd just like to get an idea.

Community is very active! That's not always a good thing, there's a bit of flame here and there between factions. But we generally are active and have a good time.

Good luck! Make sure you ask chat for help if you need any, we're always around to give a helping hand with systems or with aesthetic opinions.

 

[mamastoast]

Hey again, thank you for your responses. I'm sorry it's taken a whole day to get back to you guys. It's almost 4 am here, so I'm sorry or errors ^^.


Vanhelzing

1. That's the problem with decorational stuff. Due to the nature of it, it's rarely a priority, but it's honestly very important if you wanna keep a community going. I remember waiting for ages for vanilla minecraft to implemen chairs, and as far as I know, it hasn't even happened to date.
I realize there are ways of being "creative" with simple blockshapes, but it just doesn't do it for me personally.

2. I guess that's roughly what I was expecting. What are the general plans of the dev team? Are they focusing on the game becoming a fully playale game, or will it always depend on other players to create the meat of the game?

3. Yea I geuss that's natural. activity will always be higher right after such a bright spotlight. But as far as I can tell there are actually active groups of people out there, which is a positive. As I mentioned, I've been following blockaderunner, and due to the lack of playable versions, even I have given up by now.


KiloZulu

I see, so there is infact an actual universe to fly around in? That's something, even if it is "dry". There are two things that bother me in say, space engineers. One is the awful block sizes, making detailed ships impossible. And two is the extremely restrictive playable area.


Azereiah

Yea it's a shame about the mods. As for the making furniture out of blocks. I've already touched on it, and it just doesnt... work. I don't know... I'm a bit of a perfectionist and so far all the interiors I've seen (even on the most amazing exteriors) are just dead and don't feel like actual interiors. It would also help if some interior textures were added. I'm talking wood paneling, stuff like that.

It's a positive that the community is at a constant level though, I hope it'll keep it up


Lecic

I think I'l mostly be asking feedback on the looks side ^^. As much a tinkering with systems can be fun, my true passion is of course the visual. I saw a ship with like... fold down landing gear and ramps? That was rather impressive, and something that isn't possible in many other similar games. Perhaps you could explain to me the restrictions and considerations of these rotation blocks?

 

[Lecic]

Perhaps you could explain to me the restrictions and considerations of these rotation blocks?

They can only turn at 45* increments, and you activate them with logic. There's some tutorials on Bench's youtube channel I would recommend checking out.

 

[Criss]

Vanhelzing

1. That's the problem with decorational stuff. Due to the nature of it, it's rarely a priority, but it's honestly very important if you wanna keep a community going. I remember waiting for ages for vanilla minecraft to implemen chairs, and as far as I know, it hasn't even happened to date.
I realize there are ways of being "creative" with simple blockshapes, but it just doesn't do it for me personally.

2. I guess that's roughly what I was expecting. What are the general plans of the dev team? Are they focusing on the game becoming a fully playale game, or will it always depend on other players to create the meat of the game?

3. Yea I geuss that's natural. activity will always be higher right after such a bright spotlight. But as far as I can tell there are actually active groups of people out there, which is a positive. As I mentioned, I've been following blockaderunner, and due to the lack of playable versions, even I have given up by now.

1: Members of the dev team have certainly expressed interest in getting 3d models done for decorative objects, including the 3d artist themself. But it is truly a matter of priority. Gameplay comes first. We don't want to add a bunch of shiny gimmicks to the game, when the same people also could have put in a whole new feature, such as fauna. That is where the focus is for the art teams.

2: There are plans to allow a wider variety of pve elements. I think slowly we are realizing that even as a sandbox, it does no harm to have optional structured pve elements. There will be more things to explore, and more interactivity between the player and NPC's but I cannot go into much detail concerning that yet.

Lastly, I cannot tell you about what we have in store for the future. However, I can tell you how I feel about it. The public roadmap is available here: https://trello.com/b/9Kg5Jn6g/starmade-roadmap
Having looked at the full list (which is not entirely public yet), I have almost no concerns with how this game will play when it is finished. I hope this gets you a little excited, even if you want to wait for a more complete game.

 

[Ithirahad]

I agree completely, regarding interiors. While I understand why the dev team is doing what they're doing, I still kind of wish they had created interior decor before going and creating some massive new fauna system for planets that most people don't even like in the first place. Especially since I suspect that it'll work out to be a 'shiny gimmick' just as much as 3d-modeled interior parts (At least for another two years or so), because while Schine has said that it will be a meaningful gameplay feature integrated into the rest of the game... what is there to integrate it into? What use can a bunch of little aliens running around on planets and falling into the derpy cracks between segments be? Even in Minecraft, when it comes down to it most creatures aren't useful for much besides food (which nobody seems to want as a necessity in this game) and something to annoy you when you go out at night (which is meaningless seeing as you can just go around in a hovertank and not have to worry about mobs at all... or just avoid planets, which people largely already do due to other issues)

 

[mamastoast]

Thought I'd update this thread, since I decided to jump into the game.

I just wanna say that I'm very impressed. Everything seems to work smoothly, and it's great to actually have a world to exist in, even if it doesnt really contain much(it is Spaaaaaaaaaace after all). So far I've been building in "creative mode" just designing a great ship, which is coming along nicely, still WIP though.

I was very happy when I discovered the extent of the logic system. Some of the "logic" in it, is kinda odd, but once you get into it, its really fun actually making functional things on your ship. I'm also happy with the rails, they dont fly off randomly(looking at your space engineers), and they seem to just work most of the time. That said, I am at the moment having some major issues with a odd bug regarding my landin gear http://starmadedock.net/threads/phantom-landing-gear.8417/ (Any help appreciated)

It is rather cool that I can actually land on planets and stuff, even if I had major issues leaving them again at first (who knew I'd need THAT many thrusters).


I will say however, that the general controls are strange. The lack of a roll option when in not in a ship is deeply frustrating, and the default buttons in ships are oddly placed, you also roll at insane speeds in small ships. (Btw, I can't find the 3rd person view hotkey, maybe I'm missing somthing, I know its there, seen people use it in vids)


I was also surprised when I realized that there is no "cockpit" block. I placed my core in the middle of my ship, thinking that would make sense for a "core". But later realized that'd also serve as the only way to get into "flight mode" for my ship . I did a work around with a camera, but its kinda annoying.

As I predicted, the lack of interior decoration bothers me. I'm trying to make my ship feel legit and lived in, but its kinda impossible at the moment. I wish I'd atleast have wooden panelling for walls, but no . Of course chairs, beds, tables, desks, workstations would work wonders for this game.

(If you need help with 3D work, I'd be happy to help, shouldnt take long for me to fix up some furniture)

 

[iceman6491]

third person can be achieved by shift and scroll. Double tap right shift for free cam

 

[Ithirahad]

@your last post: Yeah, I think you just listed everything that's actually wrong with this game, and they're all relatively minor things. Sure, massive AI empires, an expansive fauna system, NPC quests, a farming system, better astronaut gear, an oxygen system, better planets, etc. would be (and will be) great, but for now these are probably the primary issues that should be addressed... Sadly they all seem to be rather low-priority at the moment for whatever reason.

 

[Criss]

you also roll at insane speeds in small ships.

Hold left control and move the mouse left or right to perform a more controlled roll.

no "cockpit" block.

It has been confirmed that another form of control block will make it's way into the game.

Of course chairs, beds, tables, desks, workstations would work wonders for this game.

Sadly they all seem to be rather low-priority at the moment for whatever reason.

With regards to decorative blocks, they are easy. We can put a new one in every few days. The issue is that these blocks do not really need to be tested. They do not break things like new mechanics do. The priority is to get the potentially game breaking system in place as soon as possible. The testers do not need to worry about finding the issues with a new block. Most of them work, and only ones that perform specific functions will break like rails. The new mechanics like fauna, shipyards, ship health. Those all need to be tested and they can only get pushed to a stable release once most of the testing has been done. The sooner that happens the better.

I suppose if schema is waiting on someone else for something (which doesn't happen often as he is the main dev) then he could work on some side stuff. The 3d artist has already expressed interest in getting 3d decorations in, but we can't put game mechanics on hold for something like pipes or beds, both of which have minimal impact on gameplay.