The game I want to play

[Panpiper]

There are three things I most enjoy in a game; exploration, collecting, and building. Exploration helps me collect things. The things I collect are used in building. The things I build facilitate exploration. Combat is actually just a necessary evil for me, an obstacle to be surmounted by exceptional building.

Currently Starmade has building (and working on it's attendant combat) at a higher degree than pretty much any game out there. What it is currently mostly devoid of is exploration and collecting.

I am well aware that the game is still technically in a very early alpha stage of it's development, that building and combat had to be addressed before anything else could be, and that we ain't seen nothing yet. I do however want to put my two cents out there in the hope that it stimulate imagineering.

Exploration needs to have a purpose other than "look at that". We need exploration to find stuff more exciting than yet another asteroid we can use to make shields. Exploration needs to be so compelling that it becomes the motive for our next ship build, the goad to weather dangers, and a reason sufficient for us to invest time. To that end, collectibles need to be both findable and rare, and those collectibles need to be seriously valuable, much more so than the raw materials we are currently familiar with.

I am also aware that the current structure of the game prohibits the introduction of a myriad of new blocks (unfortunately), so unless that changes, the variety of such collectibles needs be limited. A block I would suggest be introduced for use as such a collectible would be a 'magic' block (named however is deemed appropriate, universal nanites, tesseracts, artifacts, whatever) that when attached to another block changes the attributes of the block by a factor of ten. A shield capacitor block linked to such a magic block would store ten times the shields, a power block would function as ten times it's number (adding to length), etc.. Each block it could be attached to would have it's own differing effect.

This would not be imbalancing as everyone would be capable of collecting these blocks. Their numbers should be kept quite rare, so while a thousand block ship could in theory ultimately be built with half artifact blocks after a player explored and collected for six months, a million block ship could not be unless they invested the combined efforts of five hundred 'years' of game play (that would be one BIG faction). Even then, such a million block ship would only be as powerful as a ten million block titan, and the investment in it would make it too valuable to risk.

Such artifacts should be extremely rare in the heart of the spawn galaxy but become less hard to acquire (relatively speaking) as one ventures closer to the outer edge and the rift. The alien bases and ships that would drop such artifacts should be significantly more powerful than standard pirates, up to and including titans of their own, and their bases should require faction fleet action with titans to bring down.

 

[timethatswasted]

This probably belongs in the suggestion thred, and it's been discussed before in the form of buffs for ships.

Though adding a bunch of extra blocks may not be practical, adding meta items that do exactly what you are suggesting would probably work.

I do agree that the game needs something more to strive for. Bench has stated that the next round of updates will be more environment and PVE foucused. Maybe we will see something like this.

 

[Gristle]

If in fact Block ID's are a limiting factor now, in the Alpha stage, then this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later as it is bound to only become more of a constraint as the game evolves and matures.

 

[Edymnion]

If in fact Block ID's are a limiting factor now, in the Alpha stage, then this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later as it is bound to only become more of a constraint as the game evolves and matures.

Yeah, bottom line is they're going to have to use larger bit sizes for the blocks. We're going to need a lot more block types.

 

[Rixxan]

Yeah, bottom line is they're going to have to use larger bit sizes for the blocks. We're going to need a lot more block types.

We're gonna need a bigger ship.

 

[Drakkart]

The game i want to play:
I love the building already needs a bit more polish sure but it goes in theright direction. everyone is able to build a ship that is operational and works for a purpose. We have an interesting weapon system, hp system, armor system in place, so battle is covered as well sure a little more polish here and there would suit... (not make every effect depend on ships mass! take into account ships dimensions / mass)

But what the game is lacking is:
- multiple procedural generated factions, either fighting for dominance in a system or suffering from others fighting or flousrish because of others fighting. some even totally unimpressed by what is going on around them for they are more like intelligent lifeforms not careing, minig folks which do not care whom they pay taxes to, factory of corporation being selling and trading with both war parties...
- goods that serve as food/fuel/ something to create a constant demand of (fuel is tricky though it must not cause stranded players.)
- a real economy based on these goods so there actually could be real trade. buy from where stuff gets produced deliver it to where it is most needed = great profit
- pirate faction asking for cargo first before they start attacking and also a more clever evaluation if attacking would actually make sense.
- we need cargo scanners ... so on multiplayer some real pirating and bounty hunting can establish.
- and all these factions being well aware of what they are lacking. security, goods, a service... generating quests. recon, salavage (battle scrap or ressources), deliver, fetchup, fight, bountyhunt. build structure for purpose x in village y so they have a sheriff, doctor, whatever... yeah sounds pretty generic i know but i like such stuff in games when it is not the main focus of doing stuff. because normally there would be npc traders doing the hauling and pirating and bountyhunting... Loads of these on a busy station! so you get the feeling of just being one of many who inhabitat this system.
- on top of that some nebulas or Ancient systems which just have a story to tell of who was there millenia ago. or houseing a species being very protective of their cloud. Places of mystery and wonder...

As a new player i would want to experience the new universe as a bustling busy place with lot of stuff going on and opportunity to earn a coin legally pretty much everywhere. even have the tutorial quests first serve npcs with building their ship so you can make some coin while doing the tutorial on the starting station without even having to leave it.

so basically before the trading guild send their own ships it first asks if someone would do a little hauling... not spawning their ships if the load is taken care of by a player... a real living and breathing economy with traders once spawned will keep them (or at least afew of them) on routes so as a player you could actually meet max the trader coming and going from the 3-9 stations again and again. well if a factory expands the whole system slowly gets out of sync ofc prices change trade routes get modified... persitance at least some of these npcs feel kind of real just doing their thing and probably still will do when you check back on that system later... or because of changed economy you will find this guy somewhere else hauling new routes... This probably might be the hardest nut for the devs for normally they would just let spawn a convoy make it's haul andthen it will get deleted afterwards. which is ok ofc for a lot of transactions but i just found playing games like pratrizier 2 and other games with trading that haveing named pirates and named traders creates so much immersion... maybe even get a tutorial quest regarding trading where you actually have to fly with a trader in their ship and they are just explaining how to make a decent buck pretty safely and what could be indicators for more riscier routes like switching faction controlled space at frontiers or such...

fauna and flora on top of that and i think the game would be golden!
hopefully there would be enough for mr. piper to explore then... i mean somewhen you will see the procedural patterns... but if for example finding a system with all the 4 (i just picked a number) different factory stations types and no minig station would sound like something worth finding...

 

[Jananton]

Being more a PVE player myself, I agree with what you're supposing in general Panpiper.

I'm actually awaiting the fauna update to see if there will be several types of civilizations in there as well, or the possibility for them at least. In my imagination I can see certain items (blocks) only obtainable from those. In other words certain civilizations create specialized items, they are the only ones that produce them and sell them. This doesn't mean those items won't show up in shops since one can be a trader that sells them to shops, but shops won't replenish them like with other items.

With the above in mind and to not break the game in that certain needed blocks aren't available or very hard to find anymore, the enhancer idea is very interesting. One civilization could be specialized in jump drive enhancers, while another has specialization in reducing power use and yet another enhances your scanner range for instance. The number of possibilities is endless when you think of it.

Greets,

Jan

 

[Mariux]

There are three things I most enjoy in a game; exploration, collecting, and building. Exploration helps me collect things. The things I collect are used in building. The things I build facilitate exploration. Combat is actually just a necessary evil for me, an obstacle to be surmounted by exceptional building.

Currently Starmade has building (and working on it's attendant combat) at a higher degree than pretty much any game out there. What it is currently mostly devoid of is exploration and collecting.

I am well aware that the game is still technically in a very early alpha stage of it's development, that building and combat had to be addressed before anything else could be, and that we ain't seen nothing yet. I do however want to put my two cents out there in the hope that it stimulate imagineering.

Exploration needs to have a purpose other than "look at that". We need exploration to find stuff more exciting than yet another asteroid we can use to make shields. Exploration needs to be so compelling that it becomes the motive for our next ship build, the goad to weather dangers, and a reason sufficient for us to invest time. To that end, collectibles need to be both findable and rare, and those collectibles need to be seriously valuable, much more so than the raw materials we are currently familiar with.

I am also aware that the current structure of the game prohibits the introduction of a myriad of new blocks (unfortunately), so unless that changes, the variety of such collectibles needs be limited. A block I would suggest be introduced for use as such a collectible would be a 'magic' block (named however is deemed appropriate, universal nanites, tesseracts, artifacts, whatever) that when attached to another block changes the attributes of the block by a factor of ten. A shield capacitor block linked to such a magic block would store ten times the shields, a power block would function as ten times it's number (adding to length), etc.. Each block it could be attached to would have it's own differing effect.

This would not be imbalancing as everyone would be capable of collecting these blocks. Their numbers should be kept quite rare, so while a thousand block ship could in theory ultimately be built with half artifact blocks after a player explored and collected for six months, a million block ship could not be unless they invested the combined efforts of five hundred 'years' of game play (that would be one BIG faction). Even then, such a million block ship would only be as powerful as a ten million block titan, and the investment in it would make it too valuable to risk.

Such artifacts should be extremely rare in the heart of the spawn galaxy but become less hard to acquire (relatively speaking) as one ventures closer to the outer edge and the rift. The alien bases and ships that would drop such artifacts should be significantly more powerful than standard pirates, up to and including titans of their own, and their bases should require faction fleet action with titans to bring down.

I think schema should take a look at this video.
It's about satisfying a vide variety of players (the game's most important aspects actually correspond nicely to all the player types mentioned in the video)