Need help bring StarMade Attention to my Community. Lots of Questions.

[Kane]

So I want to sell my Community to StarMade. I own Stone Legion, Godcraft, and also run Terraria Online but would not exactly advertise it on the front page there.

We have not really touched the game for over a year. Since then we got busy with Space Engineers, More Minecraft, etc. BTW Space Engineers is amazing but not even 10% close to StarMade. Totally different type of game and people need to embrace that.

So here is the post I hope this is not considered advertising since I mean who the hell wants to play on a newbies server right?
http://stonelegion.com/threads/would-you-guys-be-interested-in-a-permanent-starmade-server.2129/


Lots of questions time from playing the game, to cheating the game, to running a server:

1. Can you protect large areas of space to prevent PvP so people who don't enjoy it can play within a certain area but also make the PvE border to PvP quite large so people don't camp say a sector of space and cause a living hell to anyone who enters?
2. Econ Exploitation. How bad is it? I see Scraps now from stations so woot. What about people placing Building Block on Planets and harvesting everything in seconds or even worse using certain nasty thing to increase it from 10x10x10 to 100x100x100.. Someone did this on my test server a year ago not nice.
3. Server Stability. How is it these days besides a big here and there? Is there examples of what the biggest servers are player count and performance wise? Specs: Intel Xeon Haswell E3 1240 V3, 32GB DDR3 ECC 1600MHz, 6 x 240GB Intel 520 SATA3 SSD, LSI 9271-8i Raid Card /w Cachevault (BBU), 1Gbps Uplink.
4. I assume there is a whitelist system. Now I was a bit confused before it seem to go by more of a player ID then their user name. It sounds like they could keep making multiple characters and cause some harm. Am I wrong or right or a setting?
5. Any special admins tools or suggestions when running a server to help protect it and keep it clean from cheaters, exploiters, or just running and maintaining a healthy server?
6. When it comes to building in a none creative server. How is it done for building large scale ships etc? Is that done with special tools the players have access too or is that mostly creative? Can they do things like mirror building etc in a survival universe?
7. Blueprints. These were a bit nasty because players could buy them at stations with or without the parts in stock etc. This seem so easy to just farm sell buy, farm sell buy. Has this changed and is this considered normal or cheap? I always found this too powerful of a feature.
8. Can players walk around ships while moving into new sectors etc without falling, warping, etc. I swore there was a nasty bug onetime that made this really unfun to move around a ship.
9. My players asked can more then 1 player control or help run a large ship at the same time. I told them I know others could take control of things like guns and such. What else can they do or what do you guys do? Seems fun flying around space while doing things on the ship.
10. Factions can place down their special block. Is there a special one for ships and planets or the same one? Do they cause it so no one can break or damage their property? I recall ages ago maybe I'm wrong but faction placed block on a station or ship or planet would make the entire thing protected from PvP but now I'm confused if that is or was the case.
11. A lot of us are going be new. So far what we understand the best way to start out is build a ship that salvages. Find planet and asteroids and such and mine and sell the resources. Later on use the resources to build a factory etc and then go from there. Is this right wrong maybe we better get a good word in here hehe.
    
    
    

I'm sure I have more questions but it is late and I'm too hyped up that I better shut up and let you guys answer

Thanks so much!

 

[Comr4de]

Econ Exploitation. How bad is it? I see Scraps now from stations so woot. What about people placing Building Block on Planets and harvesting everything in seconds or even worse using certain nasty thing to increase it from 10x10x10 to 100x100x100.. Someone did this on my test server a year ago not nice.

They CAN do that on planets but it won't yield them a single ore/crystal. They're only dropped by mining beams.

I assume there is a whitelist system. Now I was a bit confused before it seem to go by more of a player ID then their user name. It sounds like they could keep making multiple characters and cause some harm. Am I wrong or right or a setting?

You can:

1. Require StarMade registry authentication to log in
2. Limit the number of names they can protect with the auth.

That limits them to having name protection for only one name at a time.

Any special admins tools or suggestions when running a server to help protect it and keep it clean from cheaters, exploiters, or just running and maintaining a healthy server?

Its been a while but there used to be a dedicated admin access program built into the game called "StarMote". I also remember it being EXTREMELY broken so I'm not sure if its still ingame.

Can players walk around ships while moving into new sectors etc without falling, warping, etc. I swore there was a nasty bug onetime that made this really unfun to move around a ship.

This has been fixed. If you run into a particularly nasty lagspike you can still fall out but normally you're pretty good to hang out in a ship in grav. I had a friend in my ships bridge for an hour while I did regular things involving everything form combat to FTL use to mining.

My players asked can more then 1 player control or help run a large ship at the same time. I told them I know others could take control of things like guns and such. What else can they do or what do you guys do? Seems fun flying around space while doing things on the ship.

Ehhhh that's really it atm.

Factions can place down their special block. Is there a special one for ships and planets or the same one? Do they cause it so no one can break or damage their property? I recall ages ago maybe I'm wrong but faction placed block on a station or ship or planet would make the entire thing protected from PvP but now I'm confused if that is or was the case.

Same block, it only adds ownership, it can still be destroyed. Stations/Planets can use said faction block to grant homebase protection (invulnerability) but it's limited to one entity at a time.

A lot of us are going be new. So far what we understand the best way to start out is build a ship that salvages. Find planet and asteroids and such and mine and sell the resources. Later on use the resources to build a factory etc and then go from there. Is this right wrong maybe we better get a good word in here hehe.

Yeah that sounds about right.

 

[BiGEdge]

you might chose the right time to start Starmade again.
Today there should be released the new Universe Update. Read this http://starmadedock.net/threads/stars-collide-the-new-universe-arrives.3975
And the new Faction Update. Read this http://star-made.org/news/starmade-dev-update-introducing-faction-points

I made a server in the old days where the planets still were flat.
And im playin on a Server today and after the incoming Universe Update. Read my Server Review here http://starmade-servers.com/server/347/comments/

to your questions:

You should take a look at the Server-Config, this might answer the most of your questions.
You should also take a look at the actual Servercommands for Version 0.18 that comes soon.
You should always keep in mind that its still an alpha state game so there might be enough bugs and things to eploit.
Or things that simply could crash the server.
For Example: Building over the Edges of a Sector will cause Server issiues.
But if you know about all the Bugs (check out the Bugtracker) and most important, write Server-Rules and keep your
players informed than all could have a fun time playing Starmade.
Keep in mind that all you build on a Server has to be removed from time to time. Because there might be Issues like.
If there is a Feature it could be a Bug in further Gameversions. Like something you build in version 0.17 could be buggy in 0.18
The goal for the devs in this Game might be that bigger Ships have less positive aspects, and you should better build Small Ships you build for one purpose like. If you got a small Mining Ship with less weapons and a fighter for hunting Pirates fully armed, a Scanner Ship for only that purpose, to scan. So many small ships for different purposes and not one big Ship that could do all together.
But if you got a big ship you could have a Player controlled crew, and they could run over the hallways and do some RP.

You should also check all the Update News since the last version you played. This would also answer some of your questions.
For further questions you should visit the starmade-wiki (still in developement and could be wrong)
and play the game and keep yourselve informed about it.

Have fun and wb again to Starmade

Greez BiGEdge

 

[FunnyBunny14]

May I suggest checking the wiki. All the blocks have their official description (keep in mind that some don't have a description), there is some information on general stuff, and the crafting system is fully explained.

 

[ToyotaSupra]

I'm going to suggest something different, and possibly unpopular.

Starmade...is far too small for a large community. Do not sell it yet, wait until new features are added. If people come now, they will be disappointed. Yes, the game is playable and indeed fun, but many people will just ignore that it's an alpha game and just complain.

What we don't want is a big community right now. What we want is a community when we have plenty of things for them to do, or else we will see a sharp spike and then...gradual decline. Not decimating, but just the train wearing off.

Thing I'm wrong? Look at what happened with the yogstrain. After about 3 months of the hype? We got posts on the forum about 'Is this game dead' and 'this game sucks and is destined to die!' which of course was wrong, but still sullied new visitors to the forums.

What I'm saying might seem like a bad idea or at least very far-fetched and convulted. But I think we should wait a while, especially with the competition we currently have. Give it time.

At the same time however I'd like to commend you for bringing the name to others, despite what I think.

 

[Mered4]

The Mushroomfleet has a fairly large server with some rather specific rulesets to prevent douchebags. It isn't perfect, but it does the trick. In addition, there are some new rules planned for the new universe:

Docking rule: any undocked ships are fair game. Prevents newbs from causing sector lag with big ships to a certain extent, and keeps the server fairly uncluttered.
Planetary laws: don't bring big ships near planets, use a shuttle. Don't explode planets without prior authorization. Don't mine planets (RP purposes).

PvP rules (old):
PvP sectors are trip negatives only. (Nullsec).
All others are no PvP (highsec).
New rules for new universe:
Non-faction space is completely open PvP(Wild space). Factions make their own rules in faction space. The mushroomfleet faction owns the area around spawn, and has declared that system protected from PvPers.
_-----------------

Tbh, it might be a good idea to come on the MFleet team speak and speak to some of the admins about running a server. They've got a lot of experience and I'm sure they would love to help out. Just drop a message on the MFleet G+ mushroomfleet.co UK

 

[der_scheme]

or even worse using certain nasty thing to increase it from 10x10x10 to 100x100x100..

The maximum size of the build area is a server setting.

When it comes to building in a none creative server. How is it done for building large scale ships etc? Is that done with special tools the players have access too or is that mostly creative? Can they do things like mirror building etc in a survival universe?

Currently, all players have access to advanced build mode whenever they choose. This thing provides mass-placing of blocks, templates, "build helpers" (markers that tell you where to place blocks) and a filter/replace mode.

Blueprints. These were a bit nasty because players could buy them at stations with or without the parts in stock etc. This seem so easy to just farm sell buy, farm sell buy. Has this changed and is this considered normal or cheap? I always found this too powerful of a feature.

I believe you're confusing this with the old recipes which have been replaced by a new crafting system. I don't think I know of any significant blueprint exploits.

(Everything else has either been answered or I am no reliable source.)

 

[Megacrafter127]

I believe you're confusing this with the old recipes which have been replaced by a new crafting system. I don't think I know of any significant blueprint exploits.

I think he was referring to the ability to exchange credits for a ship, even if the shop lacks the blocks in it's stock.
However, in the settings you can enable buying blueprints with blocks, so credits are no longer used, but blocks from the player's inventory.

 

[Mered4]

I think he was referring to the ability to exchange credits for a ship, even if the shop lacks the blocks in it's stock.
However, in the settings you can enable buying blueprints with blocks, so credits are no longer used, but blocks from the player's inventory.

I wish there was some sort of middle ground between the free and block options- its just so hard to gather all the blocks necessary for the ship, especially some of the more detailed designs.

 

[Saxopi]

Just scream "Holy crap! Check this game out! It's awesome!"

Pretty sure that's how I got into Starmade. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[jayman38]

To sell this game, I'd simply say that anyone who enjoys Oolite, or the original Elite should enjoy this game equally. This game is not quite as "finished" as Elite, but brings more stuff including the best option of all: being able to build your own flyable ship from blocks. (Leave out all the details about wedges and other shapes; leave that as a surprise bonus.)

 

[Kane]

Thanks everyone for being such amazing people and helping answer my questions.

PvP sectors are trip negatives only. (Nullsec).
All others are no PvP (highsec).
New rules for new universe:
Non-faction space is completely open PvP(Wild space). Factions make their own rules in faction space. The mushroomfleet faction owns the area around spawn, and has declared that system protected from PvPers.

For you I have a direct question. Highsec and Nullspace is this a roleplay feature or actually a core mechanic that can be done to prevent PvP. I noticed new rules will stop doing this and using factions instead. Will trying to add rules to protect certain part space not exist in the new universe? That would suck losing that as a feature.

I think he was referring to the ability to exchange credits for a ship, even if the shop lacks the blocks in it's stock.
However, in the settings you can enable buying blueprints with blocks, so credits are no longer used, but blocks from the player's inventory.

Ahh sounds good. Yeah be nice if there was a middle ground for example like being able to buy in stock blocks but bring the rest. I assume you need a station and there is no blueprint creator that you can setup at a base?

Today there should be released the new Universe Update. Read this http://starmadedock.net/threads/stars-collide-the-new-universe-arrives.3975

Thanks, I assume when you say release I assume you mean Dev version. At first I got confused thought sweet new faction point system is in and such. But then found out that is a dev version. Though I don't think that would be best on the actual production server besides testing around for now.

Would anyone be willing to give me a rundown on how you start in the game. What you do etc. So with the new Universe maybe give me a 10 step plan or whatever you plan on doing for your first week so we know the direction most people take starting out. If it's hunting, farming, mining, etc. Building something you know we are the newbies hehe.

 

[Megacrafter127]

For you I have a direct question. Highsec and Nullspace is this a roleplay feature or actually a core mechanic that can be done to prevent PvP. I noticed new rules will stop doing this and using factions instead. Will trying to add rules to protect certain part space not exist in the new universe? That would suck losing that as a feature.

AFAIK on Mushroomfleet this is regulated by a wrapper.

Ahh sounds good. Yeah be nice if there was a middle ground for example like being able to buy in stock blocks but bring the rest. I assume you need a station and there is no blueprint creator that you can setup at a base?

Shipyards are confirmed and are going to be a thing soon™

Would anyone be willing to give me a rundown on how you start in the game. What you do etc. So with the new Universe maybe give me a 10 step plan or whatever you plan on doing for your first week so we know the direction most people take starting out. If it's hunting, farming, mining, etc. Building something you know we are the newbies hehe.

The first thing I did was mine and build a salvage ship.

 

[BiGEdge]

try to get resources to build a bigger ship/faction. That should be one of the main goals.

for that you could build a mining ship.
Than find some asteroids or planets to mine and put all your resources in a Factory.
Take a look at the Factory system.

Or be a traider and buy things at shops that have much items for a low price and sell
it to shops that have less items.
Like that you get money and could buy ships from blueprints youll find at the CommunityContent
section on this site.

When you got a well armed ship you could go on Pirate hunting.
when you destroy the NPCs you could enter the cores and salvage the ship in build mode.
with those resources you could build bigger ships or sell the stuff to get money.

Its all about getting mor resources, building better ships and gettin more people to your faction.
In the new update it seems to be the bigger the faction is, the more possibillitys they have.

The Release date for the official new Universe update (not dev build) is today.

Allways keep in mind its an alpha game and be kind of bugs and issues

 

[Kane]

Thanks guys and don't worry about me on the Alpha game. I pretty much only play Alpha games and we have pretty serve rules on forcing that knowledge that its a Alpha game. I also stream and youtube not a lot of subs like 4k but I always explain true alpha/beta games not marketing scams to sell it.

I forgot to ask a question before and now I guess I can ask now
So this faction block it sounds like its invulnerable. How does that work? How does the enemy blow it up or they don't? Maybe I'm confused but it seems amazing to know you can claim a planet or a very large station and not worry about others griefing it if possible.

Also woot update today? I mean things can delay it but still I'm excited.

I will see if I can find any info on this wrapper though I assume after todays update it will break anyways.

 

[Mered4]

Thanks everyone for being such amazing people and helping answer my questions.


For you I have a direct question. Highsec and Nullspace is this a roleplay feature or actually a core mechanic that can be done to prevent PvP. I noticed new rules will stop doing this and using factions instead. Will trying to add rules to protect certain part space not exist in the new universe? That would suck losing that as a feature.

It's a roleplay feature. A ban is a rather potent penalty for it

The Protected Sector feature might work for ya, but I wouldn't suggest it, mostly because MFleet does allow things like bounties and faction wars in highsec.

 

[BiGEdge]

Faction Block:
you could put it on an entity and mark the entity as part of your faction.
so Only your Faction Members could fly a ship for example.
in the Faction block when you entered a Faction Signature there appear more options like.
make Faction home, that means its invulnerable but you can only have one of them for the Faction.
In the new update there appear an option to give the starsystem ownership to your faction and
both options (Set Faction Home & Set Starsystem Faction Ownership) cost Faction points.
How much it costs is depending on how far its away from the center of the Galaxy.
If you got not enough faction points the options will reset and everyone is able to attack your homebase.

 

[Kane]

So I might as well keep using this thread overtime to some the setting and such I plan including rules later on when I learn more.

Settings I plan to change:

• WORLD = stonelegion
  
• PROTECT_STARTING_SECTOR = true
  
• USE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION = true
  
• REQUIRE_STARMADE_AUTHENTICATION = true
  
• PROTECTED_NAMES_BY_ACCOUNT = 1
  
• STARTING_CREDITS = 10000
  
• PLAYER_HISTORY_BACKLOG = 1000
• ALLOW_UPLOAD_FROM_LOCAL_BLUEPRINTS = false
  
• BLUEPRINT_BUY_WITH_BLOCKS = true
  
• SERVER_LIST_NAME = Stone Legion
  
• SERVER_LIST_DESCRIPTION = StoneLegion.com 24/7 Dedicated Server

Ones I changed due to not knowing what it means:

• DEFAULT_BLUEPRINT_ENEMY_USE = false //(Would this not mean anything anyone makes is used as a enemy blueprint?
• • AUTO_KICK_MODIFIED_BLUEPRINT_USE = true //I hope this stops them from using outside blueprints.
  • REMOVE_MODIFIED_BLUEPRINTS = true //I hope this stops them from using outside blueprints.

Clearly some of these might change a bit with the update coming "SoonTM".

 

[FunnyBunny14]

Making players buy ships with blocks generally is a bad idea. Because if your inventory can't hold all the blocks the ship is made of, the ship can't be bought.

 

[BiGEdge]

It means the default blueprints (Isanth) could be used by NPC. if off there spawn no enemys

keep the startmoney option at 25000 its less enough
so you could buy 5-6 shield and 3-4 recharger blocks