Dev Blog : December 6th

[DukeofRealms]

With the anticipation of the update and the scale of it, has it been looked at to release it in parts?

We all realize this game is still in Alpha and not everything is going to be perfect but if, say, Update Part #1 was just the integration of the NPC factions into the galaxy and they just sit there and defend their systems and give players something to shoot at/look at. After that there can be other updates that incorporate all the freaking amazing features of the factions. Doing this in my opinion would get all of us past this nail biting, not optional, server reset that everyone is now playing SP in anticipation of.

We are releasing it in parts, the parts are very big :P As for server reset, we don't plan to have any required resets until the universe update.

 

[Criss]

What Duke said. This entire update is required to go in one package, or we would be facing many multi-month periods where there were no updates. It is best to provide the core of this system in one go instead.

 

[Ashes152]

As for server reset, we don't plan to have any required resets until the universe update.

Well ok then, that is great news. *searches forum for fabled Universe Update*

 

[kiddan]

Well ok then, that is great news. *searches forum for fabled Universe Update*

Best place to look for stuff like that would be in this thread.

 

[nightrune]

Well ok then, that is great news. *searches forum for fabled Universe Update*

I'd point you toward this mainly
StarMade Active Development Timeline

No specifics but it should give you a pretty good idea of what they'll be touching from now until beta.

 

[Ithirahad]

With the anticipation of the update and the scale of it, has it been looked at to release it in parts?

They're doing effectively that. This upcoming release is just the first of several updates geared towards creating a meaningful PxE side of ingame interactions.

 

[Mariux]

Crusade finally fixed "kek" in the chat and now this...

 

[Bench]

They're doing effectively that. This upcoming release is just the first of several updates geared towards creating a meaningful PxE side of ingame interactions.

Pretty much. There's very large plans for the game and in the end you'll be able to play it a number of ways. But we never wanted the universe to sit idle while you played. For us one of the things we like about StarMade is that it isn't your typical approach to a game that features you as a character. Typically in games, you're the main protagonist, the hero, that one individual that all hope depends on. In StarMade you just start out like any other citizen. Your significance and your impact on the universe is entirely up to you forging that for yourself. In StarMade, glory and reputation aren't given, you have to earn them for yourselves. As we progress in development, ways you can do that will become more apparent, but at this stage establishing this important foundation is just the first step to all we wish to do in the game.

A lot of players have said what about AI, what about fleets. Here's the plan for after this update drops.

After the faction update comes out, Schema and the team will be focusing on finishing AI, Fleets, and all those Balance issues. Obviously included in that will be a number of bug fixes. But our plan is to work on having the whole aspect of Factions, Fleets, and AI all being more stable and functional before moving onto the next big project.

 

[alterintel]

Schema and the team will be focusing at finishing AI, Fleets, and all those Balance issues. Obviously included in that will be a number of bug fixes. But our plan is to work on having the whole aspect of Factions, Fleets, and AI all to being more stable and functional before moving onto the next big project.

I love you guys <3

 

[Az14el]

Might be a bit of downtime at the moment but this is all pretty damn hype to me
Best of luck guys can't wait to see how it all turns out

 

[DragonSoul9000]

Bench do you happen to know if the ability to spawn in a cargo loaded entity has been implemented yet? I have the .328 of the Dev Build and the ability to spawn in a cargo container full of supplies would speed up testing tremendously. I would like to get some clarification on that as well. would that just be a perk of the NPC's or will the player be able to as well?

 

[Levarith]

Could we get a little more explanation on the different classifications. Since it seems there are some redundant ones under the station saves. Like Shopping and Trade, to me that's the same thing, also Factory and Mining stations seem like they'd be the same as well since most players would have them both together unless they have a storage silo somewhere for excess.

Players would yes, however with mining stations shipping to factories and factories shipping to shops you have a "real" economy to the game and depending where you raid a freighter it will have different cargo

Ex: freighter is on the way to a factory from a mining base it will be loaded with raw resources. But if it is on the way from a factory to a shop it may be loaded with finished goods

 

[DragonSoul9000]

so the player would be able to spawn in say a cargo container full of resources to jump start their construction as an admin in local play?

 

[immex5]

We are releasing it in parts, the parts are very big :P As for server reset, we don't plan to have any required resets until the universe update.

Universe update??? what is this? please enlighten me!

 

[Zarth]

will these factions spread to other galaxies around the starting galaxy? or will there other factions in those galaxies? or will they just be empty?

 

[Criss]

will these factions spread to other galaxies around the starting galaxy? or will there other factions in those galaxies? or will they just be empty?

They will not spread outside their galaxy. Factions will spawn in other galaxies I believe.

 

[Reilly Reese]

So what about creating custom factions? Just how unique can we make them?

 

[Zarth]

one of my worries is that no matter how "powerful" a faction become, they will always be too weak to defend their territory for a human player, and their 1 million- 4 million block ships. sure, the admin owner could change their blue prints to build these ships. but what if they're too slow in building their owner larger, admin customized ships? players will carve an unstoppable war path trough their systems.

 

[StormWing0]

This is where having a mix of easy to build stations and ships as well as hard to build ones comes in handy. That said from what I've seen a single coordinated attack can cause them to bait from an area because they run a territory out of resources throwing ships at someone long before they run out of stations.

 

[godmars]

one of my worries is that no matter how "powerful" a faction become, they will always be too weak to defend their territory for a human player, and their 1 million- 4 million block ships. sure, the admin owner could change their blue prints to build these ships. but what if they're too slow in building their owner larger, admin customized ships? players will carve an unstoppable war path trough their systems.

I would say that unloaded combat being implemented would help this as they could just attack the PC territory while they are off one man armying but that doesn't stop the fact that ships that big are effectively invincible against vanilla ships unless it's an extremely dense concentration of them and can operate indefinately

IMO game needs some kind of logistics system or maintenance cost for ships past a certain size, that way even if out-massed NPCS can win via attrition while eliminating the performance issues that come along with just making everything else bigger to compensate