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Voxels are meant to provide creative freedom, but on some level they're working against it instead. In this thread I want to try to explore why, and search for ways to increase creative freedom. For the sake of discussion, I'll be using the old power system that everyone is more familiar with...

Terminology changes: Chambers -> Advanced Modules or Auxiliary Modules Chamber Capacity -> CPU Mechanics Changes CPU% is ship-wide. Individual adv. modules can be activated and deactivated from a control panel provided there is enough CPU. Modules have a "loading time" while the CPU brings...

The connection between reactor and stabilizers has done a passable job of dealing with islands. While they're still possible, they're harder to defend. The trouble is the mechanics still end up tying everything to a single axis, and in one direction at that. Additive stabilizer distance...

You want space in ships? Then make that the optimal design choice. Take out stabilizers completely Give all systems a performance bonus for being a few blocks away from other systems. Maybe it lets them stay cooler and run harder? You could explain that a lot of ways. Reactors provide power...

This is similar to the idea of making bigger ships easier to spot, except it uses power instead of mass. This makes sense for a few reasons, including: Power reactors presumably put out EM radiation (infrared or otherwise) which makes ships visible on passive sensors Penalizes ships less for...

Decoration blocks weigh the same as hull, but provide no benefit other than being a block that may or may not be in the way of weapons fire. This is a clear imbalance. It's even worse because the power update did away with ship HP. Decoration blocks should be as light as the engine allows...

Preface I really like the direction the new power update has taken. The consumption, capacity, power priority, and the chamber system have advanced the game's potential by leaps and bounds already. All that remains is to address the flaws of the system and tweak it to be the best it can be...

This inspired me to come up with an entirely new and rather interesting mechanic for reactors. I put this in bullet point format to make it quick and easy to read. It would be a heavy read in paragraph form. Replacement for stabilizer mechanic: Reactors generate heat depending on how much...

By small, I'm talking no blocks for fighters, one block for small ships and a gradual increase up to a few blocks for gargantuan ships. This also assumes that stabilizers in their current incarnation no longer exist. This is another measure to reduce system stuffing, which doesn't encourage...

Systems should be much heavier than hull and armor. As in, system blocks should be at least as heavy as advanced armor. Why? This stems from the reason system stuffing happened to begin with. Exterior blocks other than hull are fairly heavy, and hull has no defensive value except for providing...

Of all the stabilizer ideas thus far, this gives the most freedom of design as there are several ways to deal with it, and it favors no specific shape of ship. Currently, you want one dimension as long as possible, and are forced to place the reactor at one end for maximum power. What we want is...

With the weapon update coming up and manual turret aim already in, I thought it would be a good time to revisit some old ideas about weapon arcs and soforth. Part I: Remove firing arcs. Now that we have manually controllable turrets, let's go ahead and take off the default wide firing arc. If...

Currently, the most effective way of maximizing power in a long ship is to put the reactor in one end and stabilizers in the other. I'd like to at least see the reactor placed in the center of the ship, or closer to it. In order to do that, I think there should be multiple stabilizers, up to...

Starmade doesn't seem to make any use of the $300 GPU in my gaming rig. If it did, the number of blocks I could render at good frame rate would be greatly increased. CPU-only rendering works for Minecraft, but unless you're going to emulate the quality of Minecraft's rendering and per-block...

While it makes sense enough for something tiny like a shuttle or a fighter, having the jump drive built into the core is really strange for anything with significant size. Something that provides a very important function has no physical representation. There's no way that little box can send a...

So what happened? Too many kids have red-X related PTSD from grade school? (Plausible.) People can't stand to be disagreed with. (Likely) Humans are freaking stupid and a disgrace to their own creation, the internet?! (Definitely.) Anyway put it back. Make it freaking GREEN if you have to but...

I'm sick of seeing players and NPCs floating in space with no helmet. It looks absolutely infantile. Either add a rudimentary atmosphere system or make helmets non-removable.

I haven't seen this one in a long while, so I thought I'd give the idea a poke. I'd like to be able to create custom player models for alien avatars. For example, one of these critters: (credits to the Vega Strike team for the image) Why do we all have to be humanoids? :(

So apparently there are quite a few rogue planets IRL... Supposedly more than there are planets orbiting stars. Well, that's interesting. This phenomenon could have a really good place in Starmade's exploration content. Think about it: Planets orbiting stars are relatively easy to find because...

The muzzle velocity of the default pistol is far too slow. Gunfights have less to do with reflexes and accuracy and more to do with being able to lead aim on your target. For FPS-style combat, this is not desirable. It feels like a snowball fight. Recommend increasing muzzle velocity of the...