Read by Council Ship Systems - Reboot

[_Naperone_]

Ship Systems Reboot:
StarMade has all of the systems that you could hope for in a Sci-Fi, however, I feel that some implementations of this tech was done improperly or unfinished. I collaborated with siblings and friends who play the game to come up with this list of suggestions to make the overall StarMade ship experience better.

Power Generation:
Currently, the best power gen. system we could come up with is a "rod" of power or a spatially-inefficient square (which is a pain to setup.) We recommend a reactor of sorts which is expensive/hard to manage that can output massive amounts of power. This would be the most delicate part of the ship (comparable to Star Trek's warp core), meaning it has very low resistance to damage. And, based off of the size and stability of the reactor, if it was damaged critically, it could blow a huge hole in the ship and give off damage to nearby entities. In addition, ships could have a solar array where the output is proportional to the distance to the sun.


Shield Systems:
Shields are pretty straight-forward (regen/cap), and we thought it should be kept that way, however we weren't fans to the shields staying up continuously. When shut off, ships should keep the shield cap, and when they turn on, keep that cap. We played around with ideas regarding regen. and thought that the gen should increase when the shields are off, and in turn, decrease when up. Also, we found it difficult to give smaller ships shields, no matter how much R&D you did, so maybe add increased effectiveness shield regen/cap blocks. And as a final addition, we liked the idea of bubble shields rather than the current "masking" shields, as to give a better visual of incoming fire/effects. (effects being sun damage, energy drain, etc.)

Thrust:
Similar to Power Generation, thrusters should come in multi-block structures for increased effectiveness. (Maybe even capable of low FTL?)

FTL:
Rather than having FTL regulated by modules and their respective recharge, we thought FTL should be like RadarJammer, moving at FTL Speeds rather that FTL Jumps. So, altogether, you keep the modules, but it isn't based off of recharge, but a matter of energy. The amount of modules would be proportional to speed/power input.

Deflector
Referring again to Star Trek, we liked the idea of a deflector, being a common tool for administering shield drain and other effects to other ships while acting as a sensor array. In Star Trek, it simply acts as a scientific tool that could be re-utilized for tactical purposes.

So, the main stress of this is on the power and FTL systems, but the other ideas are also highly recommended. Let me know about any ideas/updates you have regarding ships' systems.

Thanks

-naperone

 

[sayerulz]

How about no magic star trek deflectors that solve all of their problems (seriously, I got so done with the solution to everything being "if we use the main deflector dish..."

Turning shields off giving greater regen sounds fine. Do fighters really need shields? They are already very tough. Bubbled shields were experimented with at a very early point in development, but had huge performance issues.

A more expensive or fuel consuming reactor is probably coming at some point. Certainly it has been suggested enough.

Thrust changes.... nah, I don't see any need.

Having FTL bring you to very high speeds causes physics issues with ships teleporting as their position updates to fast for the game to keep up.

A lot of you ideas seem to come from a desire to bring star trek mechanics into the game, which we really don't need. The point of the game is not to simulate xyz scifi.

 

[Madman198237]

Yes, we expect fuel and more powerful reactors, just as sayerulz said. Also, we do hope for high-explosive ship components (Reactors, missile storage, etc.)

NO, no bubble shields. The devs have said this before. Bubble shields are a definitive NO.

I like the idea of disabling shields for increased regen....also for RP surrendering.

No need to rebalance thrust or change how it works.

Yes, FTL needs to change, no, I don't think this is the way to do it. Too many collision/position problems.

Deflector, why? This is not Star Trek any more than it's Space Engineers....

 

[_Naperone_]

How about no magic star trek deflectors that solve all of their problems (seriously, I got so done with the solution to everything being "if we use the main deflector dish..."

Having FTL bring you to very high speeds causes physics issues with ships teleporting as their position updates to fast for the game to keep up.

A lot of you ideas seem to come from a desire to bring star trek mechanics into the game, which we really don't need. The point of the game is not to simulate xyz scifi.

1: As far as "magic deflectors", those are, as I said, universal tools. They are used for generating a kind of particle, that yes, solves a problem, but only by causing a certain effect; shield/power drain, weapon disablement, etc. SO, they aren't magic, they just, if used right, come in handy.

2: I totally agree, I played around with a push module and no max speed, and after awhile, I practically wasn't moving. BUT, I do feel that there should be a way to do this. (For example, moving the ship out of game phase, so to speak, plot it's course along the galaxy, then re-enter when the pilot stops the drive; just for example.)

3: These are just general ideas, the Star Trek references were just the best example I could find. No bias there, as I could easily search for another show that follows that concept. (Although I will admit that I'm just finishing Voyager : D )

Thanks for your input.

 

[kookster]

For FTL I think it just needs some simple changes, the speed idea would be cool but it would screw with physics in the game and the collision potential is to risky. I think they just need to make it so 1 it can auto charge by default no crazy logic tricks and 2 the amount of modules determines the distance you can travel instead of charge time. The more module the farther you can travel. Now the rate at which it charges could go many ways.

 

[HolyCookie]

First of all _Naperone_ please do not make a wishlist of suggestions. It may be strange to put out 4 suggestions within 30 minutes but right now, tagging this suggestion and referring to it if needed is very difficult. This is because when someone posts a list of suggestions in 1 thread, some parts are good, some parts are bad and some parts are already implemented. This means the thread will always get the wrong tag and the suggestion is more likely to be forgotten. It also means a extra work for the devs, say one fifth of the suggestion is really good and the rest is bad, this means that the dev has to read through the good and bad parts to know the full suggestion (while if split the dev would only read the good part) the dev also has to read through the comments which can also be filled with things about the bad parts. Making a list basically breaks the function of a councilor as filter.

As to your suggestions:
generation: already suggested
Shield system: could be pretty useful.
thrust: this would make big ships faster and small ships slower (respectively) because big ships can easily make clusters while small ships have to deal with the positioning of power generation, power capacity and weapon systems because they also need shapes.
FTL: already suggested
Deflector: already suggested
bubble shield: already suggested

 

[jstenholt]

The only meritorious idea here is the ability to shut off shields, which has been suggested before.

Everything else is par-boiled, half-baked, sounds like a smart idea but is instantly debunkable nonsense.