Starmade V0.158

[Vakna]

In my opinion the devs should focus more on future proofing and a LOT more internal testing before releasing changes that have to be turned around and completely redesigned a few weeks later (i.e - the big shield stats mess).

I realise the game is alpha and that means it's a prototype, but you have paying customers and are letting the whole world have access if they wanted, that means a greater responsibility for cleaner releases than if you were doing a closed alpha.

 

[Cybertooth]

Or, the players could just accept that what they're playing will change. Something worth noting, is that historically, i don't like change. But i've allways understood that big changes are going to happen, and ships will have to be refitted, maybe thats why i don't go crazy like some have in the past when something changes.

Great update by the way! :D

 

[kinwaras]

Love the new features aswell as the thrust update and shield split,, however shield stats need to be balanced a bit/alot.. i thought that shields was rather fine before with the large capacity while slow combat recharge and now the blocks should represent twice that amount but as either so a 50/50 split of shield cap and recharge, should make the shields like before..

 

[Alpha_Squad]

Seems as though we have entered the 'Stealth or Die' era again. At least the copy/paste and undo/redo functionality is a great improvement.

 

[1adog1]

I'm not gunna lie, if the weapons systems were the same as they were before the weapons update, I'd be complaining about the shield change as well. But actually, I was really hoping for either a shield debuff or a weapons buff now that weapons have such a low rate of fire. If I may make a suggestion though, instead of completely nerfing the fire rate of weapons while increasing their damage, why not balance them out so that you can have a fire rate of around 50-100 rpm for weapons depending on they're type. Because at the moment, even with this shield update (although really helpful) having a rate of fire of 6 rounds a minute is useless.

 

[Alpha_Squad]

I have figured out the engine crisis. The engine thrust is no longer proportional to the dimensions, rather only the volume of the blocks that are engines affect thrust (aka linear). Not sure if this is intentional or not.

[Edit]: Shields don't appear to be requiring a proportionately large amount of energy for their size.

 

[KingTiTa]

Hi, i get this error on my server: Serious exception on server serialization failed

The problem we have on our server is that it doesn't save all changes we make to bases and ships. We recieve this error since the update.

Creating a new world doesn't fix it.

 

[Ithirahad]

...However, this still doesn't fix the space friction issue. I'd recommend that either:

a) Schema adds "Space Anchors" as one person suggested, or
b) A space friction-toggling block, which might be easier to implement, was added.

 

[Vakna]

Or, the players could just accept that what they're playing will change. Something worth noting, is that historically, i don't like change. But i've allways understood that big changes are going to happen, and ships will have to be refitted, maybe thats why i don't go crazy like some have in the past when something changes.

Great update by the way! :D

I like change, it's good for the game that things are developing this fast, all I'm saying is that the devs should do more internal testing before releasing patches to the public. It's not a good sign that a system is changed, then literally a couple weeks later it's flipped on it's head and completely redesigned yet again. These things should be thought through and tested to work out issues like that before they are released.

I love this patch, I love all the features added and I think the shield redesign is a big step in the right direction - I just really don't like how it was executed. I'd rather wait a bit longer for a clean patch, than have everything flipped around every week and make the hours you put into the game pointless.

 

[Lancake]

I like change, it's good for the game that things are developing this fast, all I'm saying is that the devs should do more internal testing before releasing patches to the public. It's not a good sign that a system is changed, then literally a couple weeks later it's flipped on it's head and completely redesigned yet again. These things should be thought through and tested to work out issues like that before they are released.

I love this patch, I love all the features added and I think the shield redesign is a big step in the right direction - I just really don't like how it was executed. I'd rather wait a bit longer for a clean patch, than have everything flipped around every week and make the hours you put into the game pointless.

Although you have a point about poor execution. This is still alpha so we are pretty much all testers. We complain about badly balanced stuff and they will take a look and make a better change. + There are always game breaking bugs that can't be found by the small amount of testers we have (not everyone has a mac for example). I personally consider ever player as a tester, most of them have great ideas and pretty much every feature you see is suggested by someone.

Since a lot of new features gets implemented, balancing is often temporary. The new hull system will completely change weapons again so what use is spending weeks on perfect balance when it's going to be change anyway?

Fantastic update btw, now the advanced build mode is even better!

 

[deathsoul097]

Personally, I think that the shields got way too much of a nerf. The capacity blocks should have the same capacity as before, IMHO, but the recharge rate should be determined by the Capacitor thingamajigs. Oh, and engines need a bit of a buff, IMHO. They are way underpowered. I get that cap ships should accelerate slowly, but only being able to hit 25Km/h? That's just silly, especially when before the update I could hit 150 after about 20 secs of straight acceleration.

EDIT:

Also, am I the only one seeing that Symmetry doesn't work, when you try to set it while using a larger placement area? It used to before, but if I set Adv Build to place like a 2x2x2, then I cant set symmetry.

 

[aceface]

i like however the new shields, because now it will not take 10 years to down them

 

[Ithirahad]

i like however the new shields, because now it will not take 10 years to down them

I, however, feel that the nerf was well-meant but EXTREMELY heavy-handed, especially considering that we need to REMOVE shield blocks to add the new regen blocks. Shield capacity wasn't actually too overpowered before; the only issue was that the shields regenerated way too fast. A smaller nerf to capacity would be fine too, but not this.

Also, after doing some testing, I find that thrust is still a bit underpowered... The curve is okay, but the base value needs to be quite a bit higher.

 

[PizzaPress]

...However, this still doesn't fix the space friction issue. I'd recommend that either:

a) Schema adds "Space Anchors" as one person suggested, or
b) A space friction-toggling block, which might be easier to implement, was added.

An AI that auto-returns you to a spot, and being able to "link" yourself to a ship when you log out.

 

[aceface]

wow 73 comments is a lot in one day!

 

[1adog1]

I, however, feel that the nerf was well-meant but EXTREMELY heavy-handed, especially considering that we need to REMOVE shield blocks to add the new regen blocks. Shield capacity wasn't actually too overpowered before; the only issue was that the shields regenerated way too fast. A smaller nerf to capacity would be fine too, but not this.

Also, after doing some testing, I find that thrust is still a bit underpowered... The curve is okay, but the base value needs to be quite a bit higher.

A funny thing actually, I was working on a capital ship that's supposed to incorporate all the new stuff in these updates. Well after I found out my power system was inefficient, I cut out a checkerboard of the rectangle that was my power generators, and decided to save the space in case I needed it for anything unexpected... I just used that checkerboard of space for shield generators and am now getting 100,000 shield regen per second with 1.25 million total shields. How's that for good luck lol

 

[aceface]

is it just me or are shields not going down?

 

[Unnamed25]

is it just me or are shields not going down?

Just when i read that a pirate started doing shield damage to me!

 

[Sen OTS Tier]

So 0.1584

Thrust on my fighter has doubled from around 220 to 450ish. A good change. Also, and this one really surprised me, the mass of my fighter dropped from 240 to about 80. This is a really cool change which helps with my smaller builds. As for my large, WIP ship, thrust has increased from 6000 to 10000. Pretty neat.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Shield strength seems to have doubled in the latest patch but this seems to favor larger ships. My carrier has twice the shields pre .15 and my fighters now only have 1/5 the shields previous to .15 and this is without giving them any new regen blocks.