The Quickfire Initiative: Rebalancing StarMade.

    Dr. Whammy

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    Yep, seems like it was also affecting turrets with a single weapon computer. By the way volley fire on turrets does not work properly, so I strongly advise that you don't use it until it gets fixed.
    Cool.

    I figured volley was hard-coded but with the change you made, CC weapons now fire continuously. While it's not as baddass sounding as a quad barrel Gatling firing 2400 rounds/min sequentially, it is functionally identical in taking down missiles. For that, I am thankful.

    One thing to note about PD turrets though; they seem to have an "optimal range" like Eve online. Anything closer than 4km will not be detected/intercepted due to the AI's delayed reaction time. As its stands now, PD is best used at a distance; the farther, the better. I can't tell whether or not this is also hard coded.
     
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    Keptick

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    Cool.

    I figured volley was hard-coded but with the change you made, CC weapons now fire continuously. While it's not as baddass sounding as a quad barrel Gatling firing 2400 rounds/min sequentially, it is functionally identical in taking down missiles. For that, I am thankful.

    One thing to note about PD turrets though; they seem to have an "optimal range" like Eve online. Anything closer than 4km will not be detected/intercepted due to the AI's delayed reaction time. As its stands now, PD is best used at a distance; the farther, the better. I can't tell whether or not this is also hard coded.
    The problem with volley is that you need to hold down the trigger to use it properly. The AI doesn't do this, instead it "clicks" periodically (as far as I can tell), which is why volley doesn't work
     
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    Welcome back,

    Here is my recommendation as per what I've learned from the team:

    1) Create a separate clean install. ...or simply back up your existing install(s) to another location or under a different name.
    2) Download and install the latest dev. build. The newest one is ver. 202.16.
    3) Go to their repository, download the lasted config files, then copy them into your StarMade folder.
    4) Join their discord channel and lurk for a bit to see what the QuickFire team and devs are up to.
    5) Check for new dev. builds and configs periodically. I'd say one or twice a week will do.

    Also, here is a basic list of things to know about QuickFire in a nutshell. I hope it helps.
    Let me get back into the swing of things. Those guys complaining about the power update were unfortunately VERY correct. The game became incredibly counter intuitive.

    The pre power update i used to download empty shells, and make them work. It was a lot of fun. So this time around i downloaded the star whale, opened up a creative game, and tried to make the whale work. I placed some engines, shields and the two types of reactor blocks. I now have these reactor chambers that i have no idea what to do with.

    I already have some feedback that they probably don't want to hear: I am not getting the new power system. I like the shield bubble that is cool, but what am i supposed to do with reactor chambers? where do they go? do those go into the big chunk of reactor blocks? or do i just stick those anywhere? For a game that is heavily reliant on ship building a confusing system that inhibits ship building is kinda a detriment. I have mixed feelings about it. It does seem like it has the potential to be very cool, but it does not seem to be easy to pick up.

    Is there an updated tutorial? I am at that stage where i am seeking out the tutorial. I really need one because this reactor chamber stuff is not very intuitive at all. It's frustrating and i may end up losing interest. i tried looking for youtube content the other night on how to use those but nothing was showing up, probably thanks to the new search algorithms there. Either that or the content creators moved on to other things....
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    Let me get back into the swing of things. Those guys complaining about the power update were unfortunately VERY correct. The game became incredibly counter intuitive.

    The pre power update i used to download empty shells, and make them work. It was a lot of fun. So this time around i downloaded the star whale, opened up a creative game, and tried to make the whale work. I placed some engines, shields and the two types of reactor blocks. I now have these reactor chambers that i have no idea what to do with.

    I already have some feedback that they probably don't want to hear: I am not getting the new power system. I like the shield bubble that is cool, but what am i supposed to do with reactor chambers? where do they go? do those go into the big chunk of reactor blocks? or do i just stick those anywhere? For a game that is heavily reliant on ship building a confusing system that inhibits ship building is kinda a detriment. I have mixed feelings about it. It does seem like it has the potential to be very cool, but it does not seem to be easy to pick up.

    Is there an updated tutorial? I am at that stage where i am seeking out the tutorial. I really need one because this reactor chamber stuff is not very intuitive at all. It's frustrating and i may end up losing interest. i tried looking for youtube content the other night on how to use those but nothing was showing up, probably thanks to the new search algorithms there. Either that or the content creators moved on to other things....
    Some of the power 2.0 stuff is out dated but I'll give you the basic rundown on power 2.0 under Quickfire.

    1) Reactors no longer have to be a certain shape or size. However, they must be one big contiguous group to function correctly. The denser that group is (cube for example) the better. Dense groups avoid issues with integrity (increased damage), although I'm not sure if that applies to reactors anymore. Smaller groups result in all but one being shutdown and unusable.

    2) Stabilizers: You need these to ensure your reactor generates their full power. Use one stabilizer block for every reactor block. Under the QF configs, they can be placed in any shape or location. They do not have to be in one group. All reactors get 10 units of stabilization to start with. This is good for ultra-small builds.


    3) Chambers: To use a chamber it must meet the following criteria.

    - All chambers must be at least 10% of the size of your reactor. Example: 100 reactor blocks requires 10 chamber blocks. Use any less or have blocks destroyed in combat, and your chamber and all additional chambers connected to it will go offline.

    - Your base chamber must be physically connected to your reactor with conduit blocks. There is no "C"/"V" connection required. Just build the conduit between the reactor and chamber and it will connect automatically. You can use as many conduits to connect chambers as you like.

    - Additional chambers can be connected to your first chamber to upgrade it with abilities like additional strength, usage duration, efficiency, jamming, cloaking, jump drives, etc. You can see what combinations are available in "tree" tab in the reactor menu (F2 key). Use the tree system chart in this menu as an example of how your chambers should be set up to acchieve the desired effect. This part of the system takes some getting used to but allows for a lot of flexibility once you get the hang of it.

    - You cannot use different chamber classes in the same tree. Meaning; no "jump drive/scanner" combos or "Factory/cloakers".

    - Beware of "short circuits". Meaning; don't build in such a way that conduit connections touch multiple chambers at once or in a way where chambers that are supposed to be separate touch each other.

    - Some chambers are passive (top speed, gravity, defense, etc.) Others can be added to the hotbar like a weapon (jammer, scanner, jump drive, etc.)

    If you have any questions or need further clarification, let me know and I'll help you.
     
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    1) Reactors no longer have to be a certain shape or size. However, they must be one big contiguous group to function correctly. The denser that group is (cube for example) the better. Dense groups avoid issues with integrity (increased damage), although I'm not sure if that applies to reactors anymore. Smaller groups result in all but one being shutdown and unusable.
    Integrity is no more under our configs. Because it was just punishing the ones that were using systems as decoration and casual players. As proved by veilith, you could still build spaghetti ships with integrity on. The natural counter to spaghetti ships is acid and the use of armor, not integrity. If a shot comes into the juicy stuff, you prefer it to not be disconnected, so you will build blobs of systems rather than connecting strings of systems everywhere in your ship.
    Anyway, to be more precise, your ship cannot have several different reactors on at the same time. A reactor is a group of reactor blocks. Meaning you usually build one big blob of reactor but you could for example use several blobs connected with conduits of reactor blocks. Meaning that they are still one group. However if it gets disconnected by some shots, it'll mean your blobs won't be connected and count as several reactors. And you cannot have more than one reactor active at once.
    - All chambers must be at least 10% of the size of your reactor. Example: 100 reactor blocks requires 10 chamber blocks. Use any less or have blocks destroyed in combat, and your chamber and all additional chambers connected to it will go offline.
    Your chamber can be damaged in combat and will still function. The important thing is that is was functional before the combat. Unless some recent tests prove me wrong but it used to work that way.
     
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    Some of the power 2.0 stuff is out dated but I'll give you the basic rundown on power 2.0 under Quickfire.

    1) Reactors no longer have to be a certain shape or size. However, they must be one big contiguous group to function correctly. The denser that group is (cube for example) the better. Dense groups avoid issues with integrity (increased damage), although I'm not sure if that applies to reactors anymore. Smaller groups result in all but one being shutdown and unusable.

    2) Stabilizers: You need these to ensure your reactor generates their full power. Use one stabilizer block for every reactor block. Under the QF configs, they can be placed in any shape or location. They do not have to be in one group. All reactors get 10 units of stabilization to start with. This is good for ultra-small builds.


    3) Chambers: To use a chamber it must meet the following criteria.

    - All chambers must be at least 10% of the size of your reactor. Example: 100 reactor blocks requires 10 chamber blocks. Use any less or have blocks destroyed in combat, and your chamber and all additional chambers connected to it will go offline.

    - Your base chamber must be physically connected to your reactor with conduit blocks. There is no "C"/"V" connection required. Just build the conduit between the reactor and chamber and it will connect automatically. You can use as many conduits to connect chambers as you like.

    - Additional chambers can be connected to your first chamber to upgrade it with abilities like additional strength, usage duration, efficiency, jamming, cloaking, jump drives, etc. You can see what combinations are available in "tree" tab in the reactor menu (F2 key). Use the tree system chart in this menu as an example of how your chambers should be set up to acchieve the desired effect. This part of the system takes some getting used to but allows for a lot of flexibility once you get the hang of it.

    - You cannot use different chamber classes in the same tree. Meaning; no "jump drive/scanner" combos or "Factory/cloakers".

    - Beware of "short circuits". Meaning; don't build in such a way that conduit connections touch multiple chambers at once or in a way where chambers that are supposed to be separate touch each other.

    - Some chambers are passive (top speed, gravity, defense, etc.) Others can be added to the hotbar like a weapon (jammer, scanner, jump drive, etc.)

    If you have any questions or need further clarification, let me know and I'll help you.
    This is all good to know. That also sounds fun as hell. I will have to get this setup asap. Judging from what i have been reading, a LOT of balancing work needs to be done. I have been musing with making a "Richard Mobious" whale ship that is stealth + ftl with lazers and heavy missiles. I think this will be a great project to test this config out with. Considering i have to relearn everything from scratch this will be a good beta test, and Man do i love beta testing games.
     
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    Building chambers slightly oversized has an advantage there in that they don't go offline from just a little stray damage. I also like to protect them with a little armor layer around them.

    I'd love.to have location specific shielding but making multiple small bubbles leaves your shields overall too weak. Would be sweet if the radius scaling was controlled by a third block or something so we could engineer stronger localized shielding if we so wanted. Would probably be another pain to balance but it would indeed be fun.
     
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    Building chambers slightly oversized has an advantage there in that they don't go offline from just a little stray damage. I also like to protect them with a little armor layer around them.

    I'd love.to have location specific shielding but making multiple small bubbles leaves your shields overall too weak. Would be sweet if the radius scaling was controlled by a third block or something so we could engineer stronger localized shielding if we so wanted. Would probably be another pain to balance but it would indeed be fun.
    Your chamber can be damaged in combat and will still function. The important thing is that is was functional before the combat. Unless some recent tests prove me wrong but it used to work that way.
     
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    I could have sworn my chambers would fail when they took enough damage. Oops?
     
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    I just did the test as of now on the latest dev build. The chamber was still active with roughly half of its blocks destroyed.
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    Integrity is no more under our configs. Because it was just punishing the ones that were using systems as decoration and casual players. As proved by veilith, you could still build spaghetti ships with integrity on. The natural counter to spaghetti ships is acid and the use of armor, not integrity. If a shot comes into the juicy stuff, you prefer it to not be disconnected, so you will build blobs of systems rather than connecting strings of systems everywhere in your ship.
    Good to know. Personally, I found that whole mechanic overly restrictive; especially for certain aesthetic builds. I won't miss it.


    Your chamber can be damaged in combat and will still function. The important thing is that is was functional before the combat. Unless some recent tests prove me wrong but it used to work that way.
    That's pretty reassuring. However, I can see that being a problem in certain circumstances; jump inhibitors for example.

    Reason: Unlike most chambers; which only affect your own ship, the inhibitor affects other ships. I can see the star systems of newer, less advanced players being locked down indefinitely; with no way to restor FTL travel other than to destroy the inhibitor-equipped ship. ...which can be easier said than done when your mining efforts (and by extension, your industry and ship production) are slowed by not being able to jump.

    Do you have any plans to balance something like that?
     
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    Do you have any plans to balance something like that?
    That's literally impossible. As it needs Schema to rewrite how certain effects works and how they are built on the ships/stations. Unless he does a new rewrite for systems you are stuck with needing to destroy the inhibitor ship reactor. So hunt the inhibitor and kill it.
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    That's literally impossible. As it needs Schema to rewrite how certain effects works and how they are built on the ships/stations. Unless he does a new rewrite for systems you are stuck with needing to destroy the inhibitor ship reactor. So hunt the inhibitor and kill it.
    Noted. Resuming transphasic missile production...
     
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    Keptick

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    Noted. Resuming transphasic missile production...
    If the inhibitor ship is immobile then it would be easy to obliterate with missile-missile, which ignores shields and does relatively high damage with only a few weapon blocks.
     
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    Hey guys, I recently found the time and mood to try to build a nice QuickFire frigate.

    I've been working on a ~150 long hull for the past two days, and would like to ask, what armor setup would you guys recommend for it?
    • What if I'd leave the outermost, wedged-and-gorgeous layer as Basic Hull, and would add two layers of Advanced Armor lining on the entire inner surface?
    • Better to have all three layers advanced?
    • Three layers all around might be overkill?
    • Have most of the protection in the front?

    Might as well ask now, is there a way to download config files from your GitHub, instead of copy-pasting text content?

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