What happened to Starmade?

[Tsnonak]

What we have here is a failure to communicate...
What happened to StarMade is exactly what is to be expected with such a small Dev-Team: it is still in Alpha.
Other games with more Devs even fit this bill.
(insert longlist here)...

The biggest problems "game-wise" are, and have always been: bugs and outdated/incomplete content and features.
Then there's the balance issue, but in all honesty: what will balancing really fix when the rest is so messed up?
Then the "Reworking" (insert x³-variables here)...

Nothing new or strange going on here...

The one thing it does however still have, also mentioned elsewhere in this forum: it is still the best space-block-buildware around, without a doubt!

 

[Agame3]

The game breaking change for me was long before power 2. I had already found a way around the broken roid spawn and it was an easy one: Isanth hunting. (I always used to make things on live servers and use them there, not just spawn things in in single player, because this is not a Harry Potter game. And if one doesn't have all the blue prints for any ship he might ever need on a new server, then his ships evolve and become better server after server.)

So, on a new server I would build an ugly wafe salvager ship, a sort of rectangular plate when seen from the front. No shields, no armor, low trust, no FTL, no weapons. It would start small, limited by starting funds, growing up till about 30x30 with 8 long weapon groups. So when finished it would have about 900/2 groups, total 3600 salvage modules. I would craft nothing from the roids that I would erase from existence since I can't afford a station yet. I would just sell what I mine to any shop that buys it (1$ per block) then use the money to buy modules to grow my ugly miner. I would pray to not meet pirates or trolls while I move from system to system away from spawn, erasing every roid I see.

Once my miner is big enough to clear normal roids in a few seconds, I would just keep the money until I can build my first station. Then claim the system and make that station invulnerable. On the station I would place the 5 factory blocks, eventually, and use them to build my W0 Warship. A fighter agile enough to dodge most missiles and shielded enough to withstand 4 stupid pirate Isanths, armed with a few guided long range missile groups, 5 in each group or so and a 200x3 CCpunch-trough coring gun. It would have a JD for quick escaping if needed and a single layer of AA to give it a color instead of showing systems. 400-500 mass, armor included. A chest system in it to sort out any block the game has.

Typical usage: Jump 2 sectors away from an unknown station, close in until you see if it's a pirate station, select one turret, shoot missiles once. Station is fine, one turret less, but it spawns 4 Isanths or so 2 km from it. Go melee range with one Isanth, core it and collect about 20 to 100 stacks of random numbers of completely random blocks that the Isanth spawns when it dies. Chase the next Isanth, repeat. When all Pirate Isanths are dead, return to the Pirate station, take out another turret. If during the hunt I got too close to some Pirate station and didn't notice it in time, bad luck happens. But it was a lot more fun than the roid mass harvesting the game forced me to do at the beginning. Loot was random, giving me blocks for finishing the station, for selling to any shops what I knew I wouldn't use until I got all the shop's money and for starting to build the W1, a brick (read warship) a few times bigger than W0, which wouldn't die if it passed by a pirate station by mistake.

After W1 there would be a W2 (a Pirate station killer), then yachts (unarmed but well shielded RP ships with push pulse engines made for traveling AFK) then whatever else I fancied. W3 if someone was really nasty on that server and PvP was imminent, otherwise not. And I never had to ever mine again.

All was well for about a year, then an update hit me totally unexpectedly and undeserved: My chest system that sorted any block in the game and took me about 10 hours just to set what items every chest can pull, minding what stacks and what doesn't, was nerfed savagely. 1000 items per chest. To hold the loot from one single Isanth I would have needed about 10 inventory expansions when most of the loot was 1$ thrash. To finish one station with 8 turrets instead of running home and back, home and back after every Isanth my 400 mass W0 would have needed 300-400 inventory expansions, on a really minimal agile light fighter. Of course, once filled, inventory expansions would add mass, need extra thrust, more JD modules, on a minimal ship.

Well, I declined. I was on a server whose owner was tired of versions changing every other week and said he will not upgrade again in the foreseeable future. And he didn't. In less than a month he pulled the plug and his server went offline for ever. The other servers updated already.

I played a while in single player, perfected my ships, made my own range of turrets, built more yachts, built my first warpgates network, all in survival, then solitude got to me. I took a break and returned after a while determined to eat the pill and use the freaking inventory expansions.

But instead of this inconvenience, I got Power 2. Nobody played legacy servers, but everyone raged about the current version that they all wanted and played. Only one weapon was META, reactor old intricate lines turned into mindless bulk blobs placed half sector away from each other, turrets were unrecognizable, shields had shapes and due to stabilizer distance, one reactor could never fit entirely under a shield it could maintain, more shields per ship were needed, people all said you must use armor and fix your ship's armor after every fight, armor is better than the shields...

WTF, how do I hunt Isanths now? Replacing armor every time I kill one? And what if I don't loot AA of my ship's color, next 3 Isanths? I add it anyway, any color, just to fix my ship fast between battles?

Well, I would like to come back, pow 2 weapons 4 or whatever, anytime, as long as there is a way to get all the blocks I may ever need without mining all my virtual life, and that probably means as long as looting anything is rewarding (I get more blocks of each type more than I loose in battle, on a reliable average.)

That might happen in 2020, or it could happen in 2021... Who knows. Preferably before my retirement, but not mandatory.

 

[Alphajim]

WTF, how do I hunt Isanths now? Replacing armor every time I kill one? And what if I don't loot AA of my ship's color, next 3 Isanths? I add it anyway, any color, just to fix my ship fast between battles?

Well, I would like to come back, pow 2 weapons 4 or whatever, anytime, as long as there is a way to get all the blocks I may ever need without mining all my virtual life, and that probably means as long as looting anything is rewarding (I get more blocks of each type more than I loose in battle, on a reliable average.)

That might happen in 2020, or it could happen in 2021... Who knows. Preferably before my retirement, but not mandatory.

Well, I think that fighting isanths for ressources isn't a good way to go if you don't find a way to "core" it right to the faction module and then scrap all what's left. I don't remember if loot clouds are still a thing for AI.
Regarding the storage changes, I find it better now. You need space to transport goods !

 

[Agame3]

Not just space. Mass. Your cargo (when filled up) adds mass that is not systems, not role-playing satisfaction, it is just mass. It's a downgrade from the space compression infinite storage that adds inconvenience in order to reduce utility. I mean, even if I add a lot of storage space (for example 100 storage extensions to every chest), it will still be not infinite, so it will be inferior to the unextended single chest of the past.

Ok, could you please share with a noob in nowadays StarMade what you know it works for keeping your ship intact through the battles you win? I am looking for solutions or ideas that would work for small ships, under 1k mass. Big ships I heard that can be specialized in shield tanking if one chooses to have dramatically low trust and no weapons that worth mentioning. Does that also work for Isanth Hunter fighters? I mean, if I harvest less armor from dead Isanths than I loose in battle against them, then it's a scam.

I know I am not finding the right attitude in writing here, but all I actually need is to find the guts to swallow all the bad pills and return to the game, playing MP, always the latest version, like all the sane people do. Please tell me there still are ways to thrive and gain profit from fighting, not just loosing more or less blocks in every fight. Or tell me some other exploit to evade the "you didn't find a Strontium Roid? Then no shield blocks for you, looser!" kind of undeserved punishment.

 

[Alphajim]

Not just space. Mass. Your cargo (when filled up) adds mass that is not systems, not role-playing satisfaction, it is just mass. It's a downgrade from the space compression infinite storage that adds inconvenience in order to reduce utility. I mean, even if I add a lot of storage space (for example 100 storage extensions to every chest), it will still be not infinite, so it will be inferior to the unextended single chest of the past.

Again this is logical. While I understand it can be frustrating when the update comes out, it's actually a good thing to put some logical gameplay limits. You shouldn't be able to ship millions of blocks without any major drawback. If this game kept its "one ship to do everything" direction, it wouldn't be interesting. It would turn into a motherships only battle arena. Trade / cargo shipments would not be a thing, nor piracy. Infinite cargo in one block belongs to the past. It was stated multiple times since you left that ships are meant to be specialized if you want to do domething efficiently. No more uninteresting jack-of-all-trades ships.

Ok, could you please share with a noob in nowadays StarMade what you know it works for keeping your ship intact through the battles you win? I am looking for solutions or ideas that would work for small ships, under 1k mass. Big ships I heard that can be specialized in shield tanking if one chooses to have dramatically low trust and no weapons that worth mentioning. Does that also work for Isanth Hunter fighters? I mean, if I harvest less armor from dead Isanths than I loose in battle against them, then it's a scam.

Well I'm a noob into PvP myself !
However I can say you that thinking the game is just a succession of battles won / lost is outdated. You can repair a ship easily now with shipyards, and the ships you're facing are never the same if you PvP. Even in PvE you can't be sure, as many servers have custom pirate ships (often way more powerful than vanilla pirates).
You may want to choose what you can and can't fight by comparing mass. With QF config systems are the heaviest components, so it's a small hint about how powerful a ship can be. Don't be afraid to jump out if you're losing.

I know I am not finding the right attitude in writing here, but all I actually need is to find the guts to swallow all the bad pills and return to the game, playing MP, always the latest version, like all the sane people do. Please tell me there still are ways to thrive and gain profit from fighting, not just loosing more or less blocks in every fight. Or tell me some other exploit to evade the "you didn't find a Strontium Roid? Then no shield blocks for you, looser!" kind of undeserved punishment.

As ship HPs are now based on reactor HP, you have to a) destroy the reactor, b) play stealth and board it to capture it manually, c) destroy the faction module (often placed near the core or in the bridge afaik) or d) use a stealth bomber to make chirurgical missile / missile bomb strikes that bypass shields.
For blocks you can find them at shops (often in small quantities), scrap them from a ship or craft them. Or even steal them from a captured cargo

 

[Agame3]

I was asking if hunting lower mass AI or starter ships in something bigger than them but not extremely big means I must return to shipyard after every battle. I mean when I know I will win. Is it usual to win fights untouched or is it usual me and the enemy to drill as fast as possible one into another and the winner is the one who still has some blocks left when the other goes boom? Winner takes all, like in the good old days, or we both loose, one more, one less, but we both loose anyway? That was one of my questions ;-)

If I am stupid enough to enter a fight I can not win, I am expecting to loose my entire ship in any game version. No problem here.

In old game versions it was also impossible to have a jack of all trades too. Good warships had at most one layer of armor and a compact shape to minimize the armor per useful systems ratio and no salvage rays. All mass systems, no RP spaces. Beautiful ships, most of all personal ships, never had a chance in battle against a similar mass warship. Even if some people, (called RPers like it's an ugly word) insisted to call personal ships Warships. Planet harvesters usually had some electronics for automatic slow side sliding, but rarely had at least turrets for self defense, even with infinite storage, and so on...

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. It means a lot to me to know some people are still trying to help, so when I will get online maybe someone in the whole server will also have the patience to answer my noob questions then.

 

[DrTarDIS]

Just a couple things here...

Again this is logical. While I understand it can be frustrating when the update comes out, it's actually a good thing to put some logical gameplay limits. You shouldn't be able to ship millions of blocks without any major drawback. If this game kept its "one ship to do everything" direction, it wouldn't be interesting. It would turn into a motherships only battle arena. Trade / cargo shipments would not be a thing, nor piracy. Infinite cargo in one block belongs to the past. It was stated multiple times since you left that ships are meant to be specialized if you want to do domething efficiently. No more uninteresting jack-of-all-trades ships.

If this game kept its "one ship to do everything" direction, it wouldn't be interesting
You're telling me the came is currently INTERESTING to you?

Trade / cargo shipments would not be a thing, nor piracy.
(non AI)Trade happens now? (non AI)Piracy happens now?

Well I'm a noob into PvP myself !
However I can say you that thinking the game is just a succession of battles won / lost is outdated. You can repair a ship easily now with shipyards, and the ships you're facing are never the same if you PvP. Even in PvE you can't be sure, as many servers have custom pirate ships (often way more powerful than vanilla pirates).
You may want to choose what you can and can't fight by comparing mass. With QF config systems are the heaviest components, so it's a small hint about how powerful a ship can be. Don't be afraid to jump out if you're losing.

You can repair a ship easily now with shipyards
Shipyards don't break and actually repair to blueprint properly now? Really? They're actually working and don't randomly destroy cargo information and turret settings?
Last time I touched the nasty things their only use was to consume the ship you docked to them into a station inventory and then spawn a new one the old-fashioned way by filling a BP from the scavenged blocks.

Don't be afraid to jump out if you're losing.
People like you are why I loved the interdiction blocks... :D

As ship HPs are now based on reactor HP, you have to a) destroy the reactor, b) play stealth and board it to capture it manually, c) destroy the faction module (often placed near the core or in the bridge afaik) or d) use a stealth bomber to make chirurgical missile / missile bomb strikes that bypass shields.
For blocks you can find them at shops (often in small quantities), scrap them from a ship or craft them. Or even steal them from a captured cargo

I don't think this addresses the guy's concerns...but you are right.

 

[Alphajim]

If this game kept its "one ship to do everything" direction, it wouldn't be interesting
You're telling me the came is currently INTERESTING to you?

Not what I said. And yes, it may be more interesting in the future to play this game if you have to get complementary ships instead of a bunch of one-man-one-ship factions. Interaction incentives and all that stuff that seem to disappear of the arguments when not needed.

Trade / cargo shipments would not be a thing, nor piracy.
(non AI)Trade happens now? (non AI)Piracy happens now?

Well if you're not a 'tard and need ressources you can't afford to mine and refine for any reason, what do you do ?

You can repair a ship easily now with shipyards
Shipyards don't break and actually repair to blueprint properly now? Really? They're actually working and don't randomly destroy cargo information and turret settings?
Last time I touched the nasty things their only use was to consume the ship you docked to them into a station inventory and then spawn a new one the old-fashioned way by filling a BP from the scavenged blocks.

You may be right, anyway it's the best he'll get, or using the repair beam.

Don't be afraid to jump out if you're losing.
People like you are why I loved the interdiction blocks... :D

I like these too. Anyway that's not as if I cared about what other think of a well-timed retreat. I haven't said "flee asap". Just a valid strategy when you see you can't stand a chance. It would be dumb to fight a titan with a tiny ship isn't it ? And don't tell me "for the honor". Not trying to avoid such a suicidal fight is dumb.

PS : excuse me if some answers seem harsh, but your post seemed more like a way to say I'm wrong than prove it (eg your trade answer, it happens if needed regardless of the last major updates).

 

[Borr]

I started playing this game again recently (you know, coronapocalypse...). Oh boy, so many changes...
Tried to update my stuff. Had to literally gut them hollow from old systems. It was pain in the ass. This game should have some tools for that. Like removing, replacing all within a click of a button, not with that outdated square (thank god I can change its max size to something like 100x100), with block filter and all that hassle to make sure there is none of the old blocks. Not to mention, moving that DAMN CORE would be nice...

New power system isn't so bad, definitely benefit from its cleanliness and simplicity. Much better than previous spaghetti. But I really had bad times understanding it at the beginning, It's so much misinformation and confusion around it. Had to play with it before I get it.
Chambers are confusing the most, because I had to reboot my ship every time I've change something, to see effects of my changes. Also Quickfire version is much better and their collaboration with Schine is very promising.

Power in Starmade always been broken and boring to me because reactors generate power from nothing. I always wonder why they don't use some more interesting mechanic. There are stars and planets, why don't they develop some mechanics like recharging from stars or from planet core? At least they would have some purpose besides being laggy or fry you alive.
Even latest power have no sense to me. Why we even need those stabilizers, they ad some week point in your ship or something, they explode if damaged or reactor explode if stabilizers are destroyed? This new power system feels like it's unfinished...

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

This game should have some tools for that. Like removing, replacing all within a click of a button

Yes indeed, the game definitely should have such a tool, and I believe it already could, easily. The foundation is there, there's already that "Highlight blocks in dropdown" option, with which we can select a block type from a list on the right-side build panel, and the game will locate and mark each unit of that block type within the structure we're in. There should be an additional button, something like "Auto-remove all blocks of selected type".

Not to mention, moving that DAMN CORE would be nice

A building possibility that should've been implemented ages ago... But for now there's the option of copying, deleting, then pasting back the entire ship, except for the core and a "fundation block", placed just below the right-bottom-rear corner of the ship's bounding box. Then, starting from that foundation block, build a new one, offset by the amount you want the core to be offset compared to its original position within the ship. Then paste the ship onto that block. Obviously, this is a non-pain only with non-huge ships, and messes with docked entities, display texts and sometimes logic connections.

Power in Starmade always been broken and boring to me because reactors generate power from nothing

To be fair, we can always just make sense of the system with a simple "suspension of disbelief" sort of story, such as "StarMade reactors use nuclear fuels that are so long-lasting that no ship has reached the age yet where they would need refueling". Propulsion, however, is inexplicably weird without consumables.

There are stars and planets, why don't they develop some mechanics like recharging from stars or from planet core? At least they would have some purpose besides being laggy or fry you alive.

There are actually plans to make celestial bodies viable sources of resources. Such changes should arrive with the Universe Update, soon(TM).

Why we even need those stabilizers

Their original purpose was partly to place constraints on the overall structure of ships... Poorly thought out constraints, something about a desire to see extensive interior spaces becoming an emphasized part of StarMade ship design, with more compact, localized systems. The original intentions weren't met, which lead to I don't even recall how many reimagined iterations of the same fundamentally flawed stabilizer-based system.

Until QuickFire finally distilled it down to its current super-simple form, which is probably the least bad form of it we can achieve only through config changes. Basically, power systems require two at least equally sized sets of two types of blocks, of which one set (the reactor) needs to be centralized and provides the "reactor HP" pool (the measure of how "alive" a ship or station is), while the other set (the stabs) doesn't provide RHP, but can be strategically spread out, out of the way of fire, in up to 20 groups, with the possibility of having buffer (losing stab blocks before starting to lose power output). Not all that interesting a system, but neither is it absurd and annoying like it used to be.


I kinda hate how the coronapocalypse gets me bored enough to go so long-winded about this little obsession of mine, that is StarMade

 

[Borr]

To be fair, we can always just make sense of the system with a simple "suspension of disbelief" sort of story, such as "StarMade reactors use nuclear fuels that are so long-lasting that no ship has reach the age yet where they would need refueling". Propulsion, however, is inexplicably weird without consumables.

Good point, this solve mystery of where that power come from. But still, propulsion would need some fuel to work. Maybe not entirely rely on some sort of consumables, some people may rise argument that being stuck in the middle of nowhere is not fun. They should add some secondary type of thrusters, more powerful, that use fuel (like in Space Engineers) or make current thrusters work significantly better with fuel.

There are actually plans to make celestial bodies viable sources of resources. Such changes should arrive with the Universe Update, soon(TM).

I hope they add something like that. Just imagine setting up extraction base near a star. This could be a challenge to achieve with great rewards.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Just imagine setting up extraction base near a star. This could be a challenge to achieve with great rewards.

Right! Or around a gas giant, which is almost a star, minus a lot more mass in hydrogen.

Gas giants too are a semi-promised upcoming feature... Can't wait!

 

[Alphajim]

Good point, this solve mystery of where that power come from. But still, propulsion would need some fuel to work. Maybe not entirely rely on some sort of consumables, some people may rise argument that being stuck in the middle of nowhere is not fun. They should add some secondary type of thrusters, more powerful, that use fuel (like in Space Engineers) or make current thrusters work significantly better with fuel.

THAT is a relevant fuel idea ! You're not stuck into a repetitive process (like eating in Unturned, which is... too often) but there's still a relevant incentive to do so (to have mobile ships).

 

[DrTarDIS]

PS : excuse me if some answers seem harsh, but your post seemed more like a way to say I'm wrong than prove it (eg your trade answer, it happens if needed regardless of the last major updates).

C'est la vie. I take words without inflection because it's hard to add any with text. ASSuMEing the worst never goes anywhere

Not what I said. And yes, it may be more interesting in the future to play this game if you have to get complementary ships instead of a bunch of one-man-one-ship factions. Interaction incentives and all that stuff that seem to disappear of the arguments when not needed.

Well it IS a direct quote so it IS what you typed. If this game kept its "one ship to do everything" direction, it wouldn't be interesting

Let's put it this way:
-Before, the tradeoff to add functions to your ship was size/mass/power
-Now, the tradeoff to add functions to your ship is size/mass/power/abritrary-points

You could never make a "does everything" ship in the past, the abilities simply added too much mass if you tried to stack them all. However you had the option to choose which ones you wanted that has been rather hampered in the new "skill tree" system.

From my perspective, building ships to fit roles was far more satisfying circa yog-swarm era. Everything that has constrained the freedoms of that taakes away from the sandbox. **IF** supporting functions like fleets were functional, **IF** ships could be programmed to do their job/role reliably, that might be different. Alas, those mechanics are not implemented in anything but the most frustrating of ways IMHO.

Well if you're not a 'tard and need ressources you can't afford to mine and refine for any reason, what do you do ?

Certainly you don't open a trade window. Unless one person has invested in a station and set up their shop (and it hasn't mysteriously reset itself for no real reason when the server restarted) both parties are limited to using a stick-shop as a 3rd-party-bridge to be able to trade, or to doing a semi-complex drop and scoop dance, or play faction/permission games with modules.

"trade" doesn't really "work"

You may be right, anyway it's the best he'll get, or using the repair beam.

If it worked as intended instead of being 1/3 completed then abandoned it WOULD be great....

I like these too. Anyway that's not as if I cared about what other think of a well-timed retreat. I haven't said "flee asap". Just a valid strategy when you see you can't stand a chance. It would be dumb to fight a titan with a tiny ship isn't it ? And don't tell me "for the honor". Not trying to avoid such a suicidal fight is dumb.

If you can avoid it there's a problem IMHO. this goes right back to my "(non AI)Piracy happens now? " bit. Scanning and map awareness is kinda FUBAR and that doesn't really allow "(PvP)piracy" to be a thing.

 

[Agame3]

Hey, you can repair without a shipyard, but you'll run into a different dimension of trouble if you had cargo and you'd like to keep it. Make a private BP after you make a ship and before you use it for anything. If you modify the ship in any way, like replacing a reactor chamber with another, BP it again and once you are sure it's an improvement, delete the old BP.

Simple almost instant repair, without cargo : Get the BP of your ship in inventory. Use the 100x100x100 cube (and also symmetry planes if needed) to delete the entire ship. Use a large personal cargo if the ship doesn't fit completely in personal inventory. Open the BP, tell it to add all. New, undamaged, ship. The major disadvantage is if a few blocks are actually missing and you happen to not have that type readily available, you are shipless.

A bit more complex repair, when cargo is large, comparable with ship mass: Use the same cube and the filter to only remove hulls. Visually check if anything under the hulls need repairs too and replace only blocks that look damaged. Re-place hulls on ship. Easy fix if your ship is as simple shape as a brick or even sphere. Unusable if your ship is a replica of God Knows what, filled with details and in-hull sculptures that took you weeks to perfect.

 

[Tsnonak]

In light of the recent news...

The current plan is to open source StarMade, and schema to continue its development with whoever wants to contribute.

I decided to make this post, which to the delight of many, may very well be one of my last posts here.
It is highly unlikely someone else will say/post it, so I will, I'm just crazy like that.

Forword:

For all the Blockheads who have attempted to label me as an angry, whiney RPer, that builds "jack of all trade" ships and can't PvP...
The only ones you are BS-ing is yourselves...

I am not angry, nor am I trying to be aggressive, admittingly I do care a little, but StarMade's failure or success will not have an impact on my life. If I had to describe my "Role" it would be a content creator, because that is what I have done mostly in my two (2+) years of server administration (5+yrs total). While I do enjoy a little PvE/PvP, I am not a "Gamer" or a "player" in the normal sense, nor will I ever be.
I look upon StarMade from a business perspective, see its potential and have watched how it came to this point.

What I have to say:
I'm not a smart man, but it doesn't take a genius to see "what happened to StarMade".
In my opinion it's a classic.

1. Too many planned features for a one-man-dev-team.
2. Too much exploit-META-whining influencing game developement.

If Schine does not start doing things differently, I suspect StarMade will likely never be finished or succeed.
Oh yes... that means deviate from the roadmap, abandon planned features and stop the endless exploit/META battle, and most of all: keep it (minecraft) simple... Big sorry for those who wanted everything + toilets.

also...
The StarMade discord and this forum is dominated by a group of exploity, META-PvP, whiney-haters.
One of the worst I have encountered, with their endless stream of BS it reminds me of goonswarm tactics.
This is the cancer within StarMade, and one of the biggest mistakes Schine has made is to tolerate this behavior for so long (others don't).

The second biggest mistake is allowing this group to influence developement (i'm not the first to say it)...

Allowing this group to dictate what is possible to build and set limits for the entire community in a game like StarMade, from a business perspective, is a mistake.
If players want to build "jack of all trade" ships in singleplayer or multiplayer: who cares, they will never stand up to specialized ships.
Give players what they want, give them freedom, give them "minecraft in space", give them a reason to love StarMade! (jstplsfixbugsmkay)!
The Qf-Custom-Config should be custom-server settings or MODs, period.

This group is not capable of helping StarMade succeed, all they do is complain, and it will likely never end.
They have either bought the game and gotten thier money's worth (or not), moving forward should be the only option at this point.
EDIT: exploity-META-PvP-whiners ruin games for everyone (also classic).

... and just for clarity, as I do not wish to offend innocent members here... I distinguish very clearly between PvPers:

1. PvPer that understand, accept and respect that this is a game and that games require rules, constraints, boundries to function properly.

2. PvPer that brags endlessly about "owning the server" with their exploity/META PvP-ship.

Apologies to Schine for stepping on toes, but QF forced me to do it, hardly anybody will remember me this time next year anyway.
I hope this post is not discouraging for Schine or Schema... it happens, it's not the first or last time something like this happens.
The vision is clear: a universe rooted in minecraft, and its great, StarMade has the potential to come out on top, go for the rebound!
In an attempt to appease any fears of loosing said group, I believe others will come and help make StarMade the best it could be.

 

[MykieDoesStuff]

I'm actually quite happy that the game is going to be open-source now. I feel that it will help the game grow if there are players with modding interests. I've been following this game for years so I think this is a step in the right direction, since the development team is very small.

 

[TheDerpGamerX]

For all the Blockheads who have attempted to label me as an angry, whiney RPer, that builds "jack of all trade" ships and can't PvP...
The only ones you are BS-ing is yourselves...

If you're trying to prove that youre not an angry whiney RPer then why is the rest of your post a toxic rant on why grr pvp meta exploiters bad?
You try to claim that the pvp community is toxic, yet on a consistent basis you are always the first one to start shit by calling people toxic. If you truly find so many people to be toxic, then maybe you need to look at yourself. What have you done to make them dislike you? How did you upset so many people that would cause them to say such things?

Yes, there are people in the pvp crowd who are legitimately terrible people. But labeling the Quickfire team as such is the same kind of toxic bs you claim to stand against. The majority of the quickfire team weren't even that much of pvpers-pretty much everyone who worked on the configs had little pvp experience compared to others. They did not make the configs to "ruin and kill the game", they made them in an attempt to address what a majority of players saw as major balance issues in the game. I don't think quickfire fully succeeded, as they were limited by configuration and by a lack of people actually volunteering to test. By the time people started playing the configs and providing feedback, a lot of changes had already been practically set in stone.

Blaming the pvp crowd and quickfire team for the game's lack of playerbase is complete toxic garbage that only serves to show what a hypocrite you are. Have you perhaps considered the reason why people dislike you so much is due to how toxic and outwardly hostile you act to them? You claim to distinguish between the two types of pvpers, but then you label everyone you don't like as the toxic kind. Again, there are some people who are awful in the pvp crowd, but the same also holds true for the rp crowd as well...

The true reason why starmade has a lack of players isnt due to a specific group of player, or quickfire, or even the power update. StarMade has never sustained a huge playerbase for very long due to a lack of engaging content. The only things to do in the game is build ships and mine. Factions and pvp added another option to that list. However, a game with only 3 things to do is just going to bleed players over time, as evidenced by StarMade's steam charts. Compare the game with Minecraft, which has LOADS of stuff to do and is consistently getting updates that not only improve the game but also add more content to the game in general. If Minecraft didn't have regular updates it would have stagnated and would be in the same positon as StarMade. Part of the whole goal of the StarLoader modding tools is to allow players to create their own content in order to supplement the lack of updates from Schine. Even if the power update was balanced (or if it didnt exist at all) the game would still be in the same state it is in now. Just by looking at the steam charts its plain to see there was no sudden massive dip caused by anyone at all. StarMade's decline started just after 2014, when its peak playercount was just under 1000. Since then it has not even gotten near 900, and now sits in the 20s-30s. Starmades tiny dev team and lack of a consistent update cycle that brings new and engaging content is the reason why the game's playerbase declined. Additionally, a lack of willing to advertise the game or even inform people about it on Schine's part helped add to the endless cycle of sparse, lackluster, (and typically buggy) content releases with little or no overall increase in player count. Blaming it on a specific group of people is not only toxic, its not even remotely supported by the data.

Also let me just reiterate for the 40th time because you still seem to lump the two together:
META means Most Efficient Tactic Available
META does not necessarily mean exploits
Think of it as the difference between a rectangle and a square. A square(exploit) is a form of rectangle(META), but not all rectangles(META) are squares(exploits). Just because someone uses a clever or smart design doesn't automatically make them a cheaty exploiter.

 

[Tsnonak]

If you're trying to prove that youre not an angry whiney RPer then why is the rest of your post a toxic rant on why grr pvp meta exploiters bad?
You try to claim that the pvp community is toxic, yet on a consistent basis you are always the first one to start shit by calling people toxic. If you truly find so many people to be toxic, then maybe you need to look at yourself. What have you done to make them dislike you? How did you upset so many people that would cause them to say such things?
~ snip~

Your entire post is a toxic rant...
I am not trying to prove anything, you seem to misunderstand something, (I have nothing to prove here).
On a consistant basis: I have been labeled as a whiney RPer from the start (you included).
What I did is simple: Hate is the Norm here, if you do not conform.
Your post is distractive and argumentative, I will not indulge it any further.

To my knowledge: no GameDev has been able to completely eliminate exploits, META, and bugs... ever.
Expecting it from StarMade is unrealistic and a waste of time (which would have been better spent developing the game).

As far as exploity/META/PvPers go...
anyone is free to battle exploity/META versus exploity/META on any of the "no Rules" anarchy-servers available, but forcing this custom-PvP-config on the entire community as default, is from a business perspective: a mistake for the game and its success in general.
... but hey, thats just my opinion, and I'm entitled to it, XO.

I am very glad to see MODs, but sadly they can not save StarMade either, a stable (finished or close to it)base game with minimal bugs is needed.

It also does not take a genius to see that there is truth in my words.
Please try to stay "on topic"

 

[Tsnonak]

I'm actually quite happy that the game is going to be open-source now. I feel that it will help the game grow if there are players with modding interests. I've been following this game for years so I think this is a step in the right direction, since the development team is very small.

I will have to admit having very mixed feelings about this, opensourcing usually translates to the end of developement.
I sincerely hope it does not happen to StarMade too.
StarMade is already awesome, just needs some bugfixes and optimizations... Players / MODs can handle the rest.
Go StarMade!