StarMade Active Development Timeline

[SchnellBier]

This may be a bit of-topic but I've heard and seen that once starmade reaches beta it will no longer be free... What will happen to current F2P players (Like me)? Will we be able to keep playing if we're long time members of the community? Or will we get a free upgrade?
Thanks,
Djmax

I can assure you that you have to buy the game to play the latest version in beta unless they come up with a crazy new idea.
I guess you can keep playing the old version.

 

[JonasWalker]

This may be a bit of-topic but I've heard and seen that once starmade reaches beta it will no longer be free... What will happen to current F2P players (Like me)? Will we be able to keep playing if we're long time members of the community? Or will we get a free upgrade?
Thanks,
Djmax

If I have to guess, I'd imagine that you would be able to continue playing the last alpha release of SM but would have to pay to gain access to the Beta.

 

[Madman198237]

You have a lot of time before Beta, most likely. Start watching for coins in parking lots or something. You'll probably have enough before the beta comes out.

 

[Shaker]

Of course your going to have to pay, ive alpha/beta tested countless games and not 1 has given me the game free afterwards.

At least you have seen the game before laying any cash on it, think of it as a demo. Now you know if you wanna buy it or not.

 

[Bench]

Can you comment on the scale of stellar diversity you are planning? Is it going to be much different then what we have now? Specifically a single stellar body per sector or could we expect larger and smaller entities. More specifically a gas giant that takes up a few sectors, or a moon orbiting a planet?

Expect us exploring a variety of different entities of different sizes, some large, some small. Some might be rarer but more beneficial to find, others you might want to avoid.

This may be a bit of-topic but I've heard and seen that once starmade reaches beta it will no longer be free... What will happen to current F2P players (Like me)? Will we be able to keep playing if we're long time members of the community? Or will we get a free upgrade?
Thanks,
Djmax

If you do not wish to purchase the game when it goes into Beta you will still be able to play any demo (Alpha) version for free.

 

[blalblagoo]

Chairs are still coming right?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

something else that hasn't been talk about in a while. Is Hyperdrive/Capital ship system still planned?

 

[jstenholt]

something else that hasn't been talk about in a while. Is Hyperdrive/Capital ship system still planned?

It's more than planned! It's Planned (Schine tm)

 

[Bench]

Chairs are still coming right?

Yes

something else that hasn't been talk about in a while. Is Hyperdrive/Capital ship system still planned?

Yes

 

[serge1944]

Will the planets be big enough for skyscrapers,clouds and capital ships?

 

[therimmer96]

Will the planets be big enough for skyscrapers,clouds and capital ships?

They can't know that until they're optimized to see how they perform.

 

[Thalanor]

Wow, just saw this. Now I know I'll be playing this game for many years to come.

 

[Valiant70]

Bench , are there any plans at all to add oxygen systems / life support to the game? Or has that been completely forgotten?

I know there are issues with the amount of computation required to figure out sealed spaces, but couldn't this be worked around by slowing the process of filling a ship with air and limiting CPU usage? Such a solution would even add realism because a large space would logically take more time to pressurize. As far as blowing holes in stuff in battle, all it takes is one hole to depressurize a whole chamber, so any blocks destroyed adjacent to an atmosphere-filled area would cause a leak. If you wanted to have faster and slower leaks, just count the number of blocks broken next to the atmosphere and go on that.

Are there more problems? Is this even on the horizon for Starmade's development?

 

[Shaker]

Bench , are there any plans at all to add oxygen systems / life support to the game? Or has that been completely forgotten?

Think ill RP as a robot who doesnt breathe haha

 

[Bench]

Bench , are there any plans at all to add oxygen systems / life support to the game? Or has that been completely forgotten?

I know there are issues with the amount of computation required to figure out sealed spaces, but couldn't this be worked around by slowing the process of filling a ship with air and limiting CPU usage? Such a solution would even add realism because a large space would logically take more time to pressurize. As far as blowing holes in stuff in battle, all it takes is one hole to depressurize a whole chamber, so any blocks destroyed adjacent to an atmosphere-filled area would cause a leak. If you wanted to have faster and slower leaks, just count the number of blocks broken next to the atmosphere and go on that.

Are there more problems? Is this even on the horizon for Starmade's development?

We haven't ruled out Life Support and all that would go along with it, however you do highlight our major obstacle which is maintaining performance. There's a number of ways we could approach it but more often than not it's issues like how do you determine what's a room; when a block is destroyed how do we handle the room; how do we handle open doors or rail doors/airlocks where there is two or more separate entities involved. There's a lot that we will need to investigate, and while yes it is a space game and it breaks the realism not having to have helmets on in space, we need to ensure whatever we choose to add in with regards to oxygen or life support, that it doesn't limit the freedom of building our players enjoy now, nor does it cripple computers' performance.

It is slated as part of Alpha development already, but as a period to investigate rather than confirming it will be implemented.

 

[Shaker]

To determine a room could a master/slave system be used? Say master a rec room block(invis unless in build mode) and slave the floor blocks, grey hull for example.

 

[ObiShawnKenobi]

Too lazy to read through the comments, but isnt there a trello website we have that's supposed to organize this for us?

 

[Bench]

To determine a room could a master/slave system be used? Say master a rec room block(invis unless in build mode) and slave the floor blocks, grey hull for example.

That helps in defining a floor space, but not for a 3d region. Also the look up can be a bit tedious on multiple blocks.

Too lazy to read through the comments, but isnt there a trello website we have that's supposed to organize this for us?

It's overdue for a update

 

[Shaker]

That helps in defining a floor space, but not for a 3d region. Also the look up can be a bit tedious on multiple blocks.

it looks like the majority of players build rooms with at least 3 high gap between floor/roof, would it be possible to tag the floor and it connects 3 blocks above at the same time? or fill the room with a invis block haha.
had an idea of how to break the room ideas, all walls will be blast door blocks for maximum movement between areas.

if you work out how to 3d region for rooms, its a step closer for the oxygen idea above

 

[Blaza612]

I say that for determining rooms it gets every interior floor space, no matter what block it is. The player can then co through and determine which areas of floor are rooms or not. Then to determine height, each floor block simply checks how many blocks of space there are above it.