StarMade Development Direction

[godmars]

This all sounds amazing!! although I have one question. will you be able to assign the npcs as pilots for ships if your were to make a "fleet"?
for instance, they would fly next to you and they organize which ships goes where based on how many are following you?

Defining a living quarter for example, gives you the ability to assign a NPC to live in that quarter, making them available to work in another quarter, whether it be in the recreational quarter as a barman or as the pilot of a ship.

 

[Matyze]

The game is impressive as is, so I can't wait to see all these features implemented! I like the idea of adding some challenge to maintaining a ship. And I love the chair idea! What a great way to merge everyone's suggestions ^.^

 

[Lecic]

What? You just dock some reactors. The softcap isn't really a problem, its just a design consideration.

Docked reactors are less efficient than built in reactors, due to the need for power supply beams. It's still more efficient than just pure reactors on the main ship past the softcap, but on a pure per-block scale, fleets of ships near the 1mil power softcap are more efficient.

 

[StormWing0]

Basically what this new crew thing will do is make it so we have to pick between having 1 super large ship or, 50 small ones who's total mass is the same. :P

So those that make fleets vs those that just make a single death ship would be about even in a fight if you just look at the pros and cons of each. :P

 

[Lecic]

Basically what this new crew thing will do is make it so we have to pick between having 1 super large ship or, 50 small ones who's total mass is the same. :p

Hah, no. Knowing what we know about small ships vs large ships, you probably wouldn't even need half the mass of the big ship in small ships.

Big ships are going to be reserved to station assault (as they can hold their own against huge station guns for longer) and for command roles in the future.

 

[Xelanthol]

Oh man this is amazing! The devlogs are my favourite thing to read. I was always curious about the future of starmade-I always see the devs referencing these design docs they have, and now we have a chance to see what's been planned.

Really excited for physical cargo, I think that's a great step. Hopefully we can interact with shipyards + their internal storage to design ships with more then enough stacks of items.

Hope to see continued improvement in terms of industry. Would love to see factories be a modular, multiblock structure. End game equipment would require specialized factories!

Anyways, great post. Cheers.

 

[SkyHawk024]

I'm legitly worried now, not only is a crew something you have to take care of but if it becomes mutinous, thats a whole new story to worry about. I guess those of us with titan classes will find out how good a captain we actually are when this is released.

 

[StormWing0]

I'm legitly worried now, not only is a crew something you have to take care of but if it becomes mutinous, thats a whole new story to worry about. I guess those of us with titan classes will find out how good a captain we actually are when this is released.

There are people like me that will find a way to overpower those exploiting crew. :P In any event as long as it doesn't become something we need to maintain our edge over others I'll be good to go. There should be as many pros to using crew as there are to not using crew if you want to balance it. As for them becoming mutinous having a setup that rotates out crew constantly enough will put an end to that.

 

[Lecic]

There should be as many pros to using crew as there are to not using crew if you want to balance it.

Why? Seriously, what is the issue with making crewed ships superior to uncrewed ships? Uncrewed ships get one advantage- they can't be transporter boarded, because they don't have rooms to board.

 

[StormWing0]

Why? Seriously, what is the issue with making crewed ships superior to uncrewed ships? Uncrewed ships get one advantage- they can't be transporter boarded, because they don't have rooms to board.

OK How about Unique Pros the other won't be able to have than? :P

 

[therimmer96]

Unique Pros

isn't that just a synonym for advantage >_>

 

[Super_Dork_42]

I love how these changes will mainly do two things for SM. First off it will shift from you being a one man crew to being a captain. Secondly it will make sure nobody ever calls this game minecraft in space again.

 

[StormWing0]

I love how these changes will mainly do two things for SM. First off it will shift from you being a one man crew to being a captain. Secondly it will make sure nobody ever calls this game minecraft in space again.

lol They'll likely still call it Minecraft + Eve = Starmade. :P

 

[nightwalker_007]

Err, to elaborate, let's say that because my NPCs are registered to the faction I am in, any other faction member can edit what the people I paid for are doing. While I don't really like that, let's just say that is the future case.

For a newer player, they might not expect other people to be able to edit their NPCs because they paid for them, and won't expect it if it happens. Only until they ask around and find out someone else had affected a change would their "wtf" moment be resolved.

...which is why I'm strongly for player-based ownership of entities, not just global faction-ownership. I don't want to go spend hours making a neat ship, then have some member of the faction snag it, regardless of the faction member's rank.
[DOUBLEPOST=1446321327,1446320019][/DOUBLEPOST]How about station schematics instead of just blueprints, and a special station building ship instead of buying a magic station block with credits?

I'd also like to see improvements to the ship design mechanism so developing a ship (or station) can be done entirely from the shipyard/design computer instead of having to enter a core. This will also allow players to enter into a design mode when in their ship instead of having to place a shipyard computer block on a station, planet, or asteroid. This would make ships more of something that can be "lived" in and more useful, even if factories can't be placed on a ship.

I've also noticed that schematics don't save display text, and it's impossible to set inventory filters when in the virtual build mode.

 

[Curithwin]

Sorry not read all the replies since there are SO much of them, but to help out with personnal storage you could impliment some new pieces of equipment that'll help in this respect. EVA suit - When worn they will increase the amount you can hold per stack by the <default> x <EVA rating> (for example), but in this form players can not use any other piece of equipment and move at 1/2 speed. Also if a player gets OUT of the EVA suit the game will calculate the size of the stacks you have and put all excess over your weight INTO the EVA suit that can act as a chest storage allowing the characters to get out and get back in as needed without too much inventory sorting.

 

[RODLON]

So you will be able to have a star trek bridge that actually makes sense apart from decorative? I can't stop thinking about it :D
Right now most of my ships have a small cubic room with the core and all computers.

 

[Panpiper]

I find that my interest in games waxes and wanes. A great game can hold my attention for a couple of months easily. Starmade has held my attention for that length of time, twice already. Of late, my interest in Starmade has been waning, but that does not mean my interest is at an end. Fallout 4 will be out shortly, and there is no question I shall not be seen for at least a couple of months afterwards. I shall without a doubt however return to Starmade, and apparently the game I shall return to will be something far richer still.

 

[SkylordLuke]

You're looking at 14k blocks before you even start in on power, storage, hull, shields, etc. Thats already a fairly decent sized ship to start with.

my signature is overloading!!! :P

 

[Keptick]

Why? Seriously, what is the issue with making crewed ships superior to uncrewed ships? Uncrewed ships get one advantage- they can't be transporter boarded, because they don't have rooms to board.

And they can't be overtaken by a mutiny.
And their efficiency won't drop drastically if crew gets killed (because no crew).
And they won't have a running cost (hiring crew will cost credits).
And you won't have the added distraction of managing crew.

There's probably other reasons I didn't think of.

 

[Super_Dork_42]

Why? Seriously, what is the issue with making crewed ships superior to uncrewed ships? Uncrewed ships get one advantage- they can't be transporter boarded, because they don't have rooms to board.

To me the main advantage is that crewed ships make your roll more of a captain than a do-all. If you like running around a huge ship or making logic to route it all through one station then go ahead, but having a crew lets you have a security patrol too, so you can't be boarded as easily. Even if I liked having to do it all myself instead of being able to be a captain, I would still have a security crew on board.