A request that probably everyone would agree on

[mypel16000]

Hi Schema,
First of all, it's a pleasure to be one of the first people to pick this game up from the beggining. I am just writting this article to propose you some new features that would really make this game amazing.
I understand that you are allready working hard on space stations and planets, but what I'm about to propose you should also be under way.

Well, you already have implemented some AI into your code by making mobs in either team. This is a great feature, but is not enough. This whole article is about that, AI. I understand the difficulty of coding it, but you should be able to acomplish a pleasing result.
AI should be used more widely across the game. Specially in the form of defences.
I've seen how in your latest video you've shown that you can chose to fire the turrets in your space station.(P.S: You should allow the turret to pivot around so you can look around to a certain degree). But this isn't fun enough when there are only some players. You need to arm the space station with AI turrets. This would be a great idea, but it could be furtherly improved if you made it costumizable. You should make a new kind of block that could be named AI processor or something like that. Even better, you could even give it some options such as chosing to aim at the core or the hull or the controllers...... you could also allow the user to chose which sort of ships to attack by allowing the input of a number of blocks.
This 'AI Processor' block should be a block that you can attach to any kind of weapon. This way, we could create something like missile launchers attached all over a deathstar for protection. Obviously this should be quite an expensive block as a lot of automatic weapons would make it extreamly hard to attack somewhere armed. This is why you could introduce another block such a ''CPU Block''. This could be limited to one per structure (spacestation or planet or ship) and each CPU would only be able to hold something like 8 AI blocks. This would be a really great way to limit firepower.
Also I just wanted to tell you again (as other players have) that its quite annoying how short the viewing distance is. You should fix this before anything.
Please don't take any of this as criticism. I am just trying to improve a game I love to play. This is a great idea that you've come up with and you have to carry on with it. It will go really far if you do well. I mean, this could be like a ''Minecraft 2 - The adventure continues in space!'' Don't let it go even if you get frustrated. It's a great opportunity
mypel16000

 

[pringles_x]

Hi,
i just wanted to tell that i love this Idea, and Schema should totally implement it in Star-made.
Another point that i would like to discuss is the ship docking. Personnally I recently played another game called Dyvox Pytheas ( which is quite similar) but where you could add real turrets to your ship that really work well, and you should try it to see what i mean. They are automatic, seamless, and auto aim on targets, and fire automatically.

I am not saying that you should copy that and make a "Turret Block", but that instead of a docking module you should have
pivot blocks, that make the turrets more realistic, and that prevents the blocks from going through each other. You should make pivot blocks for each 3 axises, and that you should be able to turn while inside a turret that is attached to pivot blocks, without needing thrusters.

I am sorry, but Docking module isn't quite realistic. and if you happen to make the cpu block aswell as the processor block, then you could just create turrets with the pivots and set that it's controlled by AI, which would really be awesome

Thanks ,

Pringles

 

[schema]

Hi, thanks for the suggestions!
@Prongles: The difference between my approach and other approaches is, that docking is actually generic. Any two Structures can be docked together, whereas pure turrets are explicitly implemented to do just what they do. I'm trying to avoid that kind of special treatment, since I leads to limits in what players can do with it (for example design the weapon structure itself. A set weapon would probably just differ in weapon presets. In StarMade however I like to keep everything within the same style of how to create stuff).
However I'm currently trying to implement an advanced version of the docking system, which restricts the angles to a certain range, and is avoiding any overlap of blocks. I also plan to change something in a graphical way (like a joint, that connects the two docked together structures)

@mypel: The AI block sounds like a good Idea. Maybe I'll add that to the space stations update (As soon as I'm done with the docking system)

 

[pringles_x]

Sorry if i wasn't clear,
I did not mention prefabs, but just pivots, which would still permit to create personnalized turrets, but with restricted angles, which you just said you would do, so i'm OK

 

[schema]

Yeah, sorry, my English isn't good enough to explain it properly. I was talking about the advantages of just having pivots over presets, and I'm currently implementing that (restricted pivots, that is)

 

[schema]

Let me know what you think: http://star-made.org/content/space-stations-preview-part-7-new-docking-ai-module

 

[mypel16000]

Thanks schema. You hit the nail in the head! This is a perfect feature for the game. You got the AI just how it'd amaze anyone. And you added what everyone loves: Personalisation. The fact that you can set options on AI is a great idea. Although I was quite dissapointed that you didnt add a system to limit the amount of AI that can be used. I talked about the CPU block. Which would be very good. Otherwise the defensive power of space stations will be too good!

 

[schema]

The CPU block (don't know about the name yet) is planned. It will serve as a remote for a limited number of AI blocks. You can then change the options also from one block instead of having to go around and do it to each block individually.

To be honest I don't like the idea of limiting the amount of AI blocks forcefully very much. I would prefer to implement the limit in a natural way:
The weapon power of a space station will be limited naturally by it's power supply. I implemented, that docked ships will now share the power with its 'parent', meaning that if a weapon fires, unless the turret has its own power supply, the power of the space station will be drained. It also has the advantage that turrets can be much smaller (as no power blocks are required).
So a space station with a lot of defense will require an incredible amount of power. Taking out the power supply on such a station would be the perfect way to attack, as the power supply this big is very hard to secure.