North American Sandbox Servers - NASS Main (Artificial Vanilla Config)

[MossyStone48]

WARNING: My humor might be hard to follow. Just take this post with a grain of salt and slice of lemon.

TL: DR; Welcome to NASS. I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

--Personal Notes from WarSong--

Correction: -MOSTLY- Vanilla config. Don't ask me what we changed. It was so long ago I friggin forgot.

NASS main has been open to the public for a long time. We see folks come and go. Kinda the idea. Play on NASS for a bit, get the hang of the game and then find a server you like better. Find those mining bonuses or w/e you're after. After a short recent convo with Comr4de I'm tweaking the beginner loadout to encourage users to 'stick around'. This means I've added two items: A Build Inhibitor and one filled out BP. Don't get too excited tho. The BP is for a customized Isanth Zero dubbed the "Isanth Private". Original + catchy. I know. This ship has a few goodies for someone just starting out. Pull the ship apart and use it to build your first base or use the Dual Jumpdrive and Salvage Beam to go resourcing. Easy stuff.

Now remember how I said NASS is 'mostly' vanilla? Well there's no BP set to spawn as NPCs. That means Pirates only show up at pirate bases. Less loots but also less unintentional NPC griefing. Keeps the Database lean too. Less laggy. Great for everyone, right? This might change. But I'll make sure it's something cute and annoying rather than a Heavy Cruiser showing up in your front yard. Some scrubby little drone. Turret fodder at best.

So we get to the good bit. I'm here for suggestions from people who plan to use NASS. Some suggestions I'll take seriously and others I'll ignore for w/e reason. I'm not going to even try to be fair about this. I'm looking for good and well thought out ideas. After all some of us prefer our corn on the cob and some of us prefer it nuked from orbit. That's not to say I won't consider a bad/trolly idea. Some of those work out great. Just don't expect this to be even remotely democratic. Fair warning? Cool :3

What else? Oh here's a link to the server rules:
The Deal

Spoiler: And the Caveat

That's all. Looking forward to that feedback. Suggestions on newbie load out and anything else (suggestion wise) you guys wanna toss my way.

WAIT!! That's not all! If you act now...

After some recent issues with the server we're considering a MAJOR upgrade. The real issue is the expense. Doomsider is shouldering all the rental burden himself. He could use some help and we're considering offering donor incentives. Nothing game breaking just convenient.

We have a server we're looking at in NY. It is beastly. It should be able to handle several simultaneous 'faction sized' mining ops.

The subject here was tweaks to config and load out for newbies. I'm also adding whether or not we should move forward with this upgrade (it's already happening) and gauge how much support from the players we can count on to offset the new monthly financial strain on Doomer's personal cheque book.
Also a sticky point; What should the incentives be?

HERE is the schedule as it stands: (All quantities in USD)
1 -4: Shadow Rankup unlocking access to addition starter ships (time limit applies)
5-9: 1 Protected Sector adjacent to your faction's homebase. Plus Shadow Rankup.
10: Second Home. IE: a 2nd protected sector where ever you want it. Includes 1st Protected Sector + Shadow Rankup.
NOTE: Second Home must be place in an unoccupied cluster or one your faction claimed.
(All benefits expire after 1 month on a set date)

These are still up for discussion so we're not accepting b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ donations yet.

With a total of 40 USD of support we can offset the costs. That's 4 Second Home supporters.

Specs of target server:
Dual L5630 XEONs - thasa 16 cores total
32gb ram - prolly DDR3
240gb SSD - bcos SSDs are pure love
1 GBPS - pretty standard these days

ONCE we open up donations you can use the Paypal link on NASSzone. Not gonna link the donation box here. It's not there right now anyhow but will reappear when all this is hammered out. Just make sure to message me and I'll dbl chk with el jefe. W/e incentives we settle on I'll then apply manually once all's verified.

Addenda; Caveats for donation rewards:

- 1 upgrade per faction. If you have a 30 user faction and your scrubbiest member chips in at the 5 dollar level before your leadership OK's a Second Home donation you're stuck with the one we processed first. Because refunding through Paypal sucks. This may change in the future but for now let's KISS (Keep It Simple Stud-muffin).

- Factions keep their upgrade even if the member who donated leaves/quits/rage-salts. They can form their own faction with <obligatory Futurama meme reference> and if they want to upgrade THAT one we'll let 'em.

- More to come. Maybe. XOXOXO -WarSong

That about covers it. Still taking those suggestions. So newbie loud outs, server setting tweaks and finalizing donation incentives. Need them suggestions. Fire away.

 

[Bogdan]

Questions​

"-No spawncamping or homebase camping."
" This means no camping enemy bases with large ships."
Does this mean no blockades, carried out my moderate (not large) ships allowed?

Spoiler: Isanths?

Isanths?

"No abusive or harassing behavior. No racism, nazism, communism, heavy cursing, avoid insults and spamming the chat."
But roleplay conversations are ok, as long as they don't disturb (too much) other players, yes?

Spoiler: Maybe a bad idea

"No joining a faction for the purpose of sabotage or spying."
Does that mean our intelligence department is banned? Because it is within our faction and spies on other factions?

Pirates, Trading Guild.​

I would recommend something like Bonne Pirate Drone for the pirate ships, if you can get the permission of the creator. It is not too strong, but still enough to kill lazy guys with no turrets at all.
I would recommend something like these for the trading guild:
Police Cruiser
Police Fighter
https://starmadedock.net/content/police-battleship.4904/

Or if you want a civilian one, something like this maybe? Trading Guild Micro Freighter (Light Fitting)

 

[Lecic]

No spying? I can understand no sabotage, but no spying?

 

[TwoNiner]

No spying? I can understand no sabotage, but no spying?

Spying is a pretty low tactic, but hey that's just my opinion

 

[HeartUponSleeve]

As much as I can understand you want to keep your "mostly vanilla config" a mining bonus buff will make ships easier to acquire and therefore more PVP/PVE and overall more content
[DOUBLEPOST=1464869729,1464869618][/DOUBLEPOST]Also I think the no spying rule should be amended, Going into some newbie faction just to steal all their shit and leave them with nothing is not ok, but unfactioning a homebase in pave the way for an attack or gaining intel is fine imho

 

[MossyStone48]

NO mining buff. That's what's ruined every other server out there.

And no spying or sabotage stays.

We suggest RP convos stay in their own channel. Not where the general public can see them. Goes for mumble too. If you're gonna RP take it to a faction room. Leave the general conversation areas out of your loop. That's with a please from me personally.

With no mining buff there's no reason for leaving AI blockades or even placing users in a blockade. Maybe a patrol through the area but you can't just park there. Make an effort for criscaeks. Itsa game.

Spoiler: The Aristocrat's Game

--SPYING--

SPYING needs to be defined. And right now I can only define how I think it goes. This can be totes overidden by el jefe (doomsider) and I will not undo what another admin did no matter how much I disagree with it. So another admin's version of SPYING might come and smack right into a pusillanimous state and there's nothing anyone can do for you.

*AHEM*

I define spying as joining a faction with the intent of leaking any info to a rival faction or factions.

This often includes personal details someone might say in faction chat thinking that it is a safe place to speak freely. This is Doxxing behavior and is really beneath us all or anyone playing a GAME. So to avoid that; Anything spoken or written in confidence should not be repeated. Essentially nullifying the entire function of a spy. The rule errs on the side of caution and bans spying outright.

--EOF--

Those rules are not mine. Those belong to the server. Those are stone until all the admin fuse into one entity, change the holy document of NASS law and spend an afternoon at pottery barn to meditate on if the alterations should stay. Only then does it get the Nintendo Seal Of Approval and become changed forever. Doomsider himself is unlikely to reverse action taken by an admin he's trusted. And trying to get another admin to reverse an action not only results in a likely ban of your faction leader but also likely the faction membership. Erasing your presence from the server. You never existed. And the admin who helped you? Gone. That's a single strike policy.

Back on topic: We're talking newbie load out and server tweaks guys. Suggestions other than mining buffs?

 

[Lecic]

As much as I can understand you want to keep your "mostly vanilla config" a mining bonus buff will make ships easier to acquire and therefore more PVP/PVE and overall more content

Mining buffs don't really increase PvP, just the size and/or number of the ships involved in PvP. You can see this on servers like GenX and SS vs what LCB was like, where the amount of PvP was pretty much the same.

Back on topic: We're talking newbie load out and server tweaks guys. Suggestions other than mining buffs?

I heard sector size is still only 2km on here. 5km would probably help reduce the amount of obnoxious sector switching and general lag that that brings with it.

Having enough starting credits to afford a station is an essential.

 

[MossyStone48]

OK starting credits. Maybe knocking down the price of a station would be a better idea. Because too many credits floating around are a big temptation to delay making a base and buy blocks at a store no one else found yet.

Sector size I need to check. One moment.. Yeah that's set to default. One reason too: 500 meter + ships. We wanna have fewer than two per sector properly docked and one sector away from a planet or LARGE base. Lag issues OFC. Large sectors would encourage someone to park their whole undocked fleet next to a planet and than a grumpy admin has to use a lot of /destroy_entity_dock.

-- Some Strongly Placed Guidelines Paraphrased from the Rules --

Your options are keep your ships and station conservative so you can park them in a protected area or risk spreading it out and using tons of FP to keep them safe while you're offline. Automated defenses are fine but only set to hostile on attack. No killing curious or dumb newbies. It's just good form.

The exception is if you're hostile to all where even a nubcake would see you as red and fly the other way. But if your turrets lag the server with spammy fire we might pop off your turret. We might poof your ship. Admin's call. No reversal.

Why keep ships so small? (You may ask.) Because if you have no piloting or combat skill your spam fire lag master shouldn't be able to save you. Keep your ships small, conservative and efficient and get some skills. You'll get that kill count you always dreamed of and have actually earned it.

-- Your Mileage May Vary --

 

[Comr4de]

I wouldn't mind a sector size increase, but I wouldn't go above 3000. That's when things start to get weird, namely with asteroid field spacing. Right now it's really easy to find asteroid fields in adjoining sectors, whereas with 10km it's just a pain in the ass to pull off asteroid mining.

This may be an overreach, but I would suggest the EI faction config. I know it would be a pretty major departure from the "mostly vanilla" concept, but it had a lot of benefits, namely that it granted territory a purpose to upkeep homebase protection. However, this may be disorienting for new players.

I'd also suggest using the current default gameconfig that is shipped with the game, on top of adding a BP. I started out yesterday with 5 salvage modules and 30 cannons, which is pretty brutal even by my masochistic standards.

 

[MossyStone48]

I can gift you the BP for the "Isanth Private" since you never got a chance to get one of your own on login. That's perfectly fair if someone requests one that never got it. I'd do the same for them. I'd hope the other admins would too. In fact I'm already logged into NASS right now if you have a moment to take delivery. Otherwise I'll just push it to your inventory somehow.

OK I may or may not have messed up the landing. Might wanna jump on and faction/dock the thing soon. or pull it apart. W/e's clever.

 

[Comr4de]

I'm at work for another few hours.

 

[MossyStone48]

Set price of a station to 20k. Everyone should start with enough.
Also reminded people to use the !help command to use Shadow Script in MotD.

 

[BDLS]

Out of curiosity, would you mind sharing the specs on the current NASS box?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I'm actually looking for a new server to play on. Do you have some challenging pirates? Stock Isanths aren't quite cutting it challenge-wise. I even have small fighters that can beat them.

 

[Comr4de]

I recommend getting an autoreboot script, Blackhawk crashed the server somehow and I guess we're stuck with it down until you see this

 

[MossyStone48]

I have no real idea what the specs of the box are.

No we don't have ANY pirates at the moment.

And server should be back up. There is a autoreboot but the screen session was hanging. So no call for it.

 

[ObiShawnKenobi]

Nice ass

 

[MossyStone48]

DEADLINE: JUNE 5TH 12pm (NOON) GMT
If you logged in before the system was set up to gift you an Isanth Private blueprint you can request one. Right up to that deadline. PM your request or flag me down if you're on the server while I'm logged in. HOWEVER; After the deadline, no matter how badly you need it, you ain't gettin it. Put your request in NOW.

Features:
-Dual Jumpdrives
-Enhanced Shielding
-Enhanced Power
-Enhanced Thrust
-Salvage Cannon
-Extra camera views
-Rail docking compatible

 

[Lecic]

So I heard some people got banned. Could you elaborate on who and why? I've been hearing some conflicting stories and I'd like to know for sure.

 

[MossyStone48]

This topic is specifically for suggestions and tweaks to the server config. PM me for something like that.