StarMade News - November 9th 2015

On the subject of Steam and Launchers: I got the new launcher working under Steam but it took a bit of doing.
My launcher was at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
My content folder was at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade\StarMade
The launcher was downloaded from http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html?prefix=jobs/Launcher/58/

1. I moved C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade\StarMade to C:\Users\Green\AppData\Roaming\StarMade
2. I deleted the remaining contents of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
3. I copied the contents of starmade-launcher-win32-x64 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade
4. In C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade I renamed StarMade-Launcher.exe to StarMade-Starter.exe

Raging Capuchin said:

You can already do that by naming the storage, then use the drop down to find it from any other storage box. I doubt that would change if they are still going to use the same storage blocks.

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That's only in build mode.

Valiant70 said:

That's only in build mode.

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Um....No its not.
Source: I just did it while walking around my station.

Raging Capuchin said:

Um....No its not.
Source: I just did it while walking around my station.

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... why did I not know about this?

I'm rather looking forward to this--having the cargo as a physical entity (in addition to the possibility of shuffling it directly from ship to station/docked ship) alone is enough to make me consider starting survival rather than creative.

Currently inventory shuffling is unpleasant and slow for me to the point where I simply switched to Creative as soon as it was added and never looked back. Those additions, and then the NPC/area designation as well, will probably end up throwing me back in Starmade while making me ignore my responsibilities for a couple weeks (again).

Edymnion said:

No you don't understand. Right now I can likely surpass 500 million blocks total storage requirements.

Has nothing to do with building smaller from now on, or making bigger freighters. It has everything to do with planetary sized cargo stations. And I know I'm not alone in that, several other people on my server have comparable stores as well.

Anyone thats been on the same server for more than a month or two likely counts their total stocks in the hundreds of millions. Do you have any idea how big a cargo area we're going to need just to hold what we've got, much less for future expansion?

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Maths:

500,000,000 blocks @ 5000 in a stack = 100,000 stacks.
100,000 stacks @ 16 per crate = 6250 crates
10x10x70 = 7000

Space of 10x10x70 will hopefully fit 500 Million blocks.

AssIn9 said:

Maths:

500,000,000 blocks @ 5000 in a stack = 100,000 stacks.
100,000 stacks @ 16 per crate = 6250 crates
10x10x70 = 7000

Space of 10x10x70 will hopefully fit 500 Million blocks.

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Of course this is pure speculation. I expect stack sizes, etc. will be exposed in server configs so you or your server owner can set yours to fit your taste.

Bench said:

There will be server config values for stack limiting but we're aware we still need to allow players to build so there will be ways to build without being too limited, without having to adjust the server config.

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Why speculate?

This is going to make crafting such a pain. Most servers will probably crank the stack limits up as high as it'll let them. Imagine trying to make 15,000 jumpdrive modules, let alone weapons in the quantities people use.

If this is an attempt to get people to build smaller, it's not going to work. People like to build big ships and stations - if you start trying to make that go away you'll just wind up with an unpopular base game and a bunch of servers running custom rules.

I'm concerned about how the storage will behave for the first stack you place int it. Will you need a cargo area even for the first stack (in this case the storage block would act more like a computer which nanages the cargo area) or will the storage stay a storage and also act like the first crate?
What will be the max area needed for the cargo of one full storage? 1 stack = 1 crate = 1 block cargo area ? So it would be 34 or 35 cargo area for 1 storage according to the answer of the first question.

We are currently developping a big logic nanaged factory whith a friend and i would like to know how this ubdate will impact it. Knowing that we use storages at the beginning of production lines to check if some ressources are missing (and stop the line if necessary). We also use them to correctly pull the products on complex line like armor ones (On a line that can produce hulls, standard and advanced armor we can't pull standard armor or hulls all the time because they are required for advanced)
All these storages never stock more than one stack

Ithirahad said:

Nobody ever said the stack sizes would be small :P

Imagine a rather conservative estimate of 1000 jump drive modules per crate... You'd only need 15 blocks to hold the entire stack...

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Sure, but you'd need 1500 stacks to hold the crystal composite and 750 stacks to hold the macet. That's a lot of running back and fourth.

Or you know, we could not implement fixed stack limits because those are dumb compared to other options.

I have a 10 x 10 x 10 cube of cargo crates. If direct stack limits are implemented, that's 35,000 slots I have to look through to find something. Nope.
And even having the stack limit multiplied by the number of crates active is unsatisfactory, because that limits having a few of a bunch of different items.

Also Schine can we get recycling and terrain breakdown with this update as well?

Campleroy said:

"I am so impressed with the direction this game seems to be taking. I don't post often, but I've been playing and following the development since Corneroids died. Way to go Schine!

I was thinking, could the cargo system, quarters system, and the teleport pads be used together to beam small amounts of cargo ship to ship? It's something Star Trek does all the time and it could be very useful in more spontaneous player trading..."

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If it's only a small amount, (like maybe only one crate worth or less, or maybe only one stack?), then I would like this. I am always worried the player I just met might be a griefer who is just gonna kill me, but I really need that little bit of resources from the trade he offered to finish my project, since the server I play on has no NPC shops. It would make it safer than meeting them face to face and dropping the items in space (they could easily pull a gun, kill you, and take the resources (if the server has drop all stuff on death on, like the one I play on), or take them and run) .

Perhaps, if this becomes a feature, there should be an option to not send the resources until the other player has theirs set to send you your stuff, and then they transfer simultaneously, so they don't receive your stuff and then decide to run with it. Of course, someone is going to say this is too OP, so there should be some kind of penalty or other way to prevent people from just doing this over and over to transfer lots of stuff.

If this gets added, I'd really like it. Also, if it doesn't get added, I'm fine with that as well.

Bench said:

Here at Schine there’s always so many different developments happening at once. From new features to performance improvements, new content to experience both in and out of the game, it’s almost hard to keep up. With the last release just a few days ago, we’ve returned to our two-week release cycle, giving a lot more reassurance about what’s going on and when to expect updates.

But through it all we want to keep you, the community informed, so here’s some stuff you should know about.


Cargo Update

You may have heard around the watercooler that our next major feature we’re working towards is the cargo update. Coming with it are a number of changes that we’d like to share with you so that you can best prepare. While we have it quite thoroughly planned out, we still have to say that Alpha is Alpha and in the middle of the build we may find that it would actually work a better way or there’s a programming issue preventing a particular aspect. So take this with a grain of salt, but know this is what we’re working towards.

The cargo system will be built as an extension of the current storage blocks. It will utilize the placing of build-only-visible area blocks (think Trigger Areas) to define a 3D area-block-filled region as a cargo area. The cargo area is then connected to a storage block, rather than us having to introduce another block in the process. This also saves us from reinventing the wheel as all the filters, pull mechanics etc already exist in the storage blocks. You will only be able to define one storage area per storage block, so if you have two cargo areas on your ship, you’ll need a storage block for each. When you then store items through the storage block into the cargo area, cargo crates will appear in the cargo area.

As part of this same cargo update we’ll be introducing stack limits. We’re refining exactly the process we’ll be stack limiting but regardless of our mechanics, the main thing we want to address now is the process of rolling this change out, so don’t immediately jump to the bottom to leave a reply demanding that it should be implemented this way or that.

When we first release cargo and stack limits, any stacks in storage blocks or your inventory that are over the stack limit will appear in red text. You will also get an alert if you enter any friendly (probably factioned) entity that there are overstacked blocks in storage on the entity. These overstacked blocks are easy to break apart through the current storage options, and once dropped under their limit the numbers will become white again. You won’t be able to stack more on your already overstacked blocks.

After a couple weeks we will be adding in a server setting that allows server owners to switch on stack decaying. Stack decaying will cause any overstacked blocks (the ones with red numbers) to slowly lose blocks from their stack, decaying until the stack comes under the stack threshold. This setting helps servers transition over to the new system while also giving active players enough time to move to the new system as well.

If you need a quick fix, shop modules will still have their own block storage for now, and will hold more than the stack limits. However this is only a temporary solution, as we’ll be transitioning shop modules as well though it will be staggered with the cargo update.


Launcher

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We have been working on a new launcher for StarMade, and we are finally ready to start testing it with the general public. There are still several outstanding bugs that are preventing us from releasing it fully, but we are hoping with your help we can get those stomped out ASAP.

Windows users can find the new launcher available via the Steam menu by simply selecting "Start with Beta Launcher" when starting StarMade within Steam.

For everyone else, we are still working on the Steam integration, so you'll need to download the new launcher from this website: http://sm-launcher-test.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html. Simply select the largest number (they will increase as development continues). These development versions include built-in debuging software, so any bugs should be automatically reported back. If you would like to join in the discussion on the forums, the official thread is http://starmadedock.net/threads/launcher-public-beta-thread.21799/.


Live Dev Q&A on Twitch

We’ll be hosting a LIVE Dev Q&A session on Twitch on Sunday 15th November at 1:00pm PST (or 9:00pm GMT) where you the community will be able to ask questions directly to the developers of StarMade. It will be hosted on a special Q&A Schine server where those lucky enough to jump on before the server cap will be able to check out the recently announced spawn station for yourself. This will be one event you won’t want to miss. But, if you do miss it, we’ll also be uploading it to the StarMade YouTube channel afterwards.


Price increase - Don't get left behind!

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We will be increasing the new price of StarMade to be $14.99 USD on November 17th. Steam will adjust automatically to the appropriate pricing structure for all other countries when this happens, and we will occasionally be reviewing them to address any really weirdly generated prices.

So don’t be like Dave above and get left behind, now is the perfect time to get in and save yourself a couple dollars.

You may be thinking, but the game is completely free to download at the moment; that is correct. However it won’t always be completely free to play, so get in now and help support development and get a saving in the process.

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[DOUBLEPOST=1447728340,1447728209][/DOUBLEPOST]you should all know i love this game BUT can you guys please focus on upgrading the ai and like give more options for the ship ai like follow or scout you know stuff like that ok thx

Ithirahad said:

Nobody ever said the stack sizes would be small

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If the stack limits are so big that you can fit a battleship in a broom closet then what is the point of having limits at all?

However I do think that small stack limits could become really annoying without a good way to transfer cargo from one entity to another. I would be OK with reasonably small limits as long as I can transfer large sums of cargo from a mining ship cargo hold to a factory station cargo hold via transporters or something.

therimmer96 said:

Yey!

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A relation?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Arothron_meleagris_by_NPS_1.jpg

Bench Sorry for wall of text, this has been bugging me for a while now.

Capsule Refineries can already get overfilled and waste the materials they are working on.
This can be avoided by having all the minerals refined separately, and that leaves 1 single space open when just refining all the ore/shards.

Side note: 4 refinery ticks occur per one storage pull tick.
If a capsule refinery has limited storage, its max number of enhancers will be based entirely on how much it can process and hold by the time the storage tick comes around.

Should a cargo hold become full, and the player not have the logic to track that, will the capsule refinery keep burning a miners hard work away?

(Capsule Refineries are already limited by stack count going over that leads to waste)
(Future stack limits on refineries may lead to excessive waste or slowdown)
(Capsule Refineries with fixed storage will have a fixed max enhancer count)

Without the Capsule Refinery being well addressed in the Cargo update I see a lot of issues popping up in bottle-necks, overflow waste, and beginners dilemma.
PS: I bet newer players are still losing items from over filling a refinery.