Howdy folks. Now that the discussion has cooled down somewhat, I'd like to provide some information, and put my two cents in.
Before we can even do this, we need to research AUX blocks. As some of the devs said, they'd like the playerbase to really give them a good try first, and we agree with that notion
It took the Syndicus's R&D department an hour to figure these new blocks out, so let's take a look at the numbers.
We've started using the code name "AUX" for these blocks, as it's far easier then the other option
First, Let's look at the scaling of AUX blocks.
Notice anything? The more astute among you would have noticed that this curve is precisely the same as reactor modules, the only difference being that more blocks are in use. Once you reach the 2 million point, the bonus starts to curve off, and the blocks assume a liner curve.
Next let's look at the power cap scaling.
As we can see, the scaling is completely liner, and requires no further investigation. We however, wanted a more detailed look at this curve, just to make sure.
For some of you, these are just not enough, you'd like to do your own research, and we understand. So we're going to provide the steps we took and the raw numbers.
First, the raw numbers:
Now the steps
First we started off with a scale. In the first spreadsheet, you can see that we went up by fives until we hit 20K, then we went up by tens. This is rather standard for us to do when we're investigating scaling, because it helps us narrow down the range. Once we did that, we went up by 2,4,6,8 and so on, we really got a clean image with that test.
How we obtained these numbers is rather simple, ingame singleplayer buildstats. We then simply placed the desired amount down, and we then recorded it.
So, after all that detail, what was the point? Some of you were arguing the merits of the AUX blocks, and others where damming it, (admittedly myself included) These stats give a clear and precise look into how AUX works, and it is now cleaned up the way for the final verdict.
We, The Syndicus, feel that AUX blocks where the lesser of two evils, either new players get rekt, or we add something that is so simple a five year old could figure it out.
We tried to help this issue by releasing our generators to the public, and, for the most part, alot of the newer players have been seen using these designs of ours, but removing docked reactors and replacing them with these aux blocks angered alot of the players in my group, mostly because of how long the game has had them, and how much love and attention to detail we've put into them.
For Example:
An entire video dedicated to the breakdown of our PSU Series.
Its not that the AUX Blocks are a bad feature, schine, its that you've destroyed an entire community of dedicated players whom spent all their time tuning and revising generators.
This community isn't very well known, and it's because this closed group keeps its secrets to itself that it's often almost completely forgotten, but it's one of the most passionate groups I've ever been in. People like myself,
Blobfscrazy Maxajax Lionspirit03 alternateCGU and
Vehcklox have spent years designing, refining, and researching into new ways to use axis trees, generators, and even general ship shapes.
I can't possibly name all these players, and I know that there are more out there so I think I speak for everyone in this group when I say generators, axis trees, and all the surrounding features were not as simple as you might think.
It wasn't as simple as bricks with power supply beams, it was far more complex. First you had to decide if you wanted an overclocked generator, where in you used the cap to go over the limit, or an under clocked generator, which provided less but was more stable. Then you had to make the most efficient power chassis possible.
Then, you had to decide the format. 9x9 is indeed nice for long ships, but doesn't provide the space something like a square would provide 9x9 is also alot more vulnerable, since they where much longer and thus had a higher chance of being crippled.
They had benefits though, their trees were often more block efficient, and they were easier to dock, maintain, and replace.
We even had generators with invisible rails (the carrier stuff) so they wouldn't be blown off. Some of our designs even included a jump drive hooked into the clock which would insta jump out of colliding with the mothership.
It was all about pros and cons, and each player had his own unique flare. You knew when you where looking at a generator I created, and you knew when you where looking at a maxajax generator.
This is just a small example of the complexity involved in this, and as I've seen from maxajax, he's gone into much more detail then I will here.
This complexity has been wiped away with AUX blocks, players are always going to find ways to make it slightly better, but you're never going to see the complexity of generators used on aux blocks.
We've already been hit hard by the stealth nerf to axis trees, and the rise of checkerboard has seen some roughed feathers but we assumed schine would undoubtedly add some very creative way of making it balanced again, and this is the core problem..
Things like hollow core and swivel trees were undoubtedly the biggest breakthroughs we've ever had in this department and for them to be completely wiped out is devastating.
What is even more devastating, and this is what you really need to consider, is that we were given not extra content, no extra challenge when aux blocks where added. They are so simple to figure out, and placement so easy. Simply place down a 21x21x21 cube, and cover it in one layer of armor, place in the least likely position to be hit(Hell, just place them in generator bays, most people put these in the safest location possible), and you're done. (also, on a sidenote,
TheGeek007 wishs to make the point that the explosions are really silly, and that they are. Since they never stop, small craft shouldn't use AUX blocks, only titans are "safe" from complete destruction from this slow decay.)
What needs to take place is this, AUX Blocks must assume the role of providing ample power for those who cannot design reactors, and we must have something to sink our teeth into.
Give the end game content players something to really chew on.
Make it worth our time to spend years R&D the game.
Meta players will go after ANY advantage they can get, and to some extent, so will we. It doesn't have to be a million times better, even if its just a less efficient version of AUX blocks that don't explode and use axis trees instead, it would be better.
I don't have all the answers, but I know one thing, You've made this game far more simple and it doesn't need to be that way for both parties to be happy.
I hope that this community can at least allow this humble, and well thought out opinion to stay standing, without dragging it down into something its not. This wasn't a rant, this was a heartfelt post, filled with as much detail for one objective only, To show you how much we love starmade, and we want to continue loving it, putting attention to detail in our ships, making them the best they can possibly be.
Thank you.
