Criss' Thread

[Criss]

Hello!

Aside from managing social media I work on a lot of the in-game assets that will be present in the StarMade universe. A few others and I will use this thread to show off the work being done on the latest builds and maybe tease future releases. We will also talk about the design philosophies that go into each build and help define who these factions are and why they build the way they do!

Now we want to give some personality and purpose to the way we build. The various factions will prefer to build into certain technologies over others. To keep things simple we will refer to ship sizes as Small, Medium, Large or Extra Large. Below you will find albums with limited information on the various races. Read further posts on this thread to learn more detailed information as it is posted!




Edit!
A lot of you have shown concern over systems and performance of these ships. Despite me letting people in the thread know that we are listening and willing to make a few changes (PD turret on the freighter) people are insisting that I am not listening. I will be cutting down on the repetitive comments with regards to criticism. We do not need pages of the same suggestion when I acknowledged it. If you have something to say post about it once. If you agree then hit the agree button. Lets keep it simple and clean!

Edit 2!
The original post is being moved down below. I will be including a new album above with some new information and it will be updated with all the TG assets being worked on. The other races and builds will get their own album in time.

Spoiler

To start we have the Trading Guild or TG for short. We have seen the TG. But who are they? What do they stand for? The answer is simple. Money! The TG exist in this universe to make a profit. Much of what they do is meant to expand their reach and make new acquaintances to sell stuff to.

The TG naturally want to cut the costs down on their vast fleets of freighters. As such they often utilize inefficient heat sinks and limit the amount of shielding they have on their vessels. The most advanced part of a TG ship is the jump drive, which enables them to make quick deliveries of cargo.

With their large quantities of cargo, it only makes sense they have large engines as well right? That said, they are not powerful. This is mostly an aesthetic thing so the freighters won't be as agile as other vessels.

The internal amenities are limited. It's mostly the necessities ; bridge, crew quarters and a kitchen.

The rest is cargo space. Additionally all the doors on the side open up and can be activated in sequence!


That's all for now. I hope to start a weekly thing where I reveal a bit more as to what we are working on. There are already plenty of assets ready to be shown off. Next up we will take a look at the new and improved stick shop. Feel free to leave feedback and questions below!

 

[FlyingDebris]

Fancy~

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I can't wait for the trade-guild and pirates to be flying their own different ships!

 

[Lecic]

That ship should have PD on it. It makes sense that the trade guild would go for a cheaper option of protection against missiles than shield tanking.

 

[flpsantoss]

so the TG will have many weak ships because they are more focused on transporting goods and profiting than fighting

 

[Ithirahad]

Soooo trading guild ships are just going to be incredibly cheap-and-easy targets, then? Doesn't seem realistic...

 

[Darkkon]

I imagine that the Trading Guild, rather than spending extra money on each ship to give it better weapons and armor, might just hire a Mercenary Faction. Perhaps they have a trade deal even. Each convoy of Trading Guild ships could have two or three escorts, with the size and power of the escorts dependent on the number of ships in the convoy.

 

[Ithirahad]

I imagine that the Trading Guild, rather than spending extra money on each ship to give it better weapons and armor, might just hire a Mercenary Faction. Perhaps they have a trade deal even. Each convoy of Trading Guild ships could have two or three escorts, with the size and power of the escorts dependent on the number of ships in the convoy.

Seems to me it would be a lot cheaper to strap a pair of big ol' turrets to your trade ship, strap on some extra shield capacitors, and hope for the best.

 

[Darkkon]

Seems to me it would be a lot cheaper to strap a pair of big ol' turrets to your trade ship, strap on some extra shield capacitors, and hope for the best.

Well if you're trying to maximize cargo space, turrets do use up some of that space (RP wise at least. Need space for ammo and the actual systems.) Of course, in game the difference is pretty much just how big you want the ship to be.

I do grant that mercenaries may not be the cheapest option in a lot of cases, so maybe they are only used in sectors that have a large number of pirate attacks? otherwise, the defenses of the trade ships themselves should suffice to fend off hostile asteroids.

 

[Lecic]

RP wise at least. Need space for ammo

I disagree. There's no ammo in the game (unless you count warhead torps), so that makes no sense from an RP/lore perspective.

 

[Darkkon]

I disagree. There's no ammo in the game (unless you count warhead torps), so that makes no sense from an RP/lore perspective.

At that point then, it would only make sense to have energy weapons, which we have missiles and cannons. Cannons, last i remember (could be wrong though) were antimatter; and the missiles can be set up with guidance systems which is rather difficult when you just have a ball of energy.

I'm not talking about the fact that all of our weapons use energy when fired, I'm talking about the ammunition itself.

 

[Lecic]

Cannons, last i remember (could be wrong though) were antimatter

That was part of the "old lore," which was all place-holder and generally agreed to be very bad. Cannons are just cannons.

I'm not talking about the fact that all of our weapons use energy when fired, I'm talking about the ammunition itself.

There IS no "ammunition itself." Weapons JUST use power. Unless that changes, it makes ZERO sense for the TG to balance their ships around the idea of "ammunition."

 

[ZektorSK]

I don't understand... but it looks amazing !! :D:D:D

 

[Darkkon]

That was part of the "old lore," which was all place-holder and generally agreed to be very bad. Cannons are just cannons.



There IS no "ammunition itself." Weapons JUST use power. Unless that changes, it makes ZERO sense for the TG to balance their ships around the idea of "ammunition."

I think we're arguing different points here. I'm not trying to say that they should be balanced around the idea of ammunition, but that it makes sense compared to how they have been designed. If the Trading Guild is trying to optimize their ships for cargo hauling, and they have limited weaponry and defenses, then lorewise it would seem that they determined that adding larger turrets and defenses would be a waste of available resources. Now whether that specifically is ammo, energy, or money is completely up to whoever is making the lore. Space for ammunition is just one idea I had to explain it. It could also be that they don't want to waste space on a larger reactor core, or that the larger turrets require a more expensive technology.

I would also like to point out that saying "Cannons are just cannons" really doesn't mean much as cannons by definition usually fire some sort of projectile (ammunition). Now don't get me wrong, they could very well be using some form of energy based projectile like a high frequency pulsed laser, but again, a lot of the lore behind the weapons doesn't seem to be available. (could be wrong, currently at work so can't really do research.)

 

[godmars]

Soooo trading guild ships are just going to be incredibly cheap-and-easy targets, then? Doesn't seem realistic...

It will be if everyone and their grandma isn't riding around in a battleship. Otherwise, I agree.

Personally I think at the least they would have some kind of PD. Criss says their big thing is jumping so I don't really see why they'd need turrets if that's their main method of getting from point a to b

 

[Ithirahad]

Even with the game being what it is, I generally run around in corvettes and frigates (and my awesome mining frigate), except for when I tour the galaxy with my cruiser. If everyone did what I did it would still make no sense, because everyone's ships, freighters included, will generally be combat-optimized. :\

 

[Criss]

First I would like to ask everyone not get too carried away with off topic stuff or theory crafting around lore. There is a lot that has yet to be seen! Let's keep this about the ships as much as possible. Should have stated that in the OP.

That ship should have PD on it.

As it is a small freighter it might not have a PD turret on it. Though there are turret mounts on the top and bottom if you get your hands on one. There might be some variants that have turrets installed as well. Larger ships will certainly have some better defenses. These guys will probably spawn with an escort.

incredibly cheap-and-easy targets

Yes, but that doesn't mean they wont have their own military vehicles to balance it out. I just haven't shown them off yet. Every faction will hopefully be set to counter other factions in one particular way. The TG for example might have a better chance at escaping with their jump drives. Maybe they don't have to fight at all. There are already combat vessels in the works though so don't worry about them being easy pickings.

Another thing I should have mentioned is that these ships will certainly not be the best ships around. They will certainly cater to a playstyle which means they will be lacking in other areas of gameplay. They also will be built with RP in mind. We will be making use of crews on these ships once they are in so full interiors will likely weaken them a bit. We want the player to come across these ships and interact with them, but if they feel they can build better then nothing is stopping them

 

[Lecic]

a lot of the lore behind the weapons doesn't seem to be available.

That would be because it doesn't exist. It's up to players to decide what they are.

 

[Ithirahad]

Ah, so I see.

I really want to build a battlefreighter now, though... I just need to know how the damn system is going to be balanced first, so I'm holding off >.>

 

[Nauvran]

This ship looks familiar to me.
Really doesn't remind me of the

Spoiler: LDCT Tortoise "Al" cargo ship

:P