A suggestion for more Dev interaction.

[Magrim]

I was thinking. In light of the impressive dev blog delivered by the Benchmeister, I have a suggestion. We all have our own ideas about how Starmade should be. We post here with the hope that our ideas gain community support; the ultimate goal being recognition by the devs and possible implementation in game.

With that being said, many of the planned features came from this extreamly creative community: crew stations, exploration, empire building, cargo, transporters....chairs anyone? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, lol!

These suggestions, and many others, may have been used in whole or in part by our talented dev team. They improve upon our ideas to best fit with gameplay as a whole, because they are the ones who see the whole picture. We are the theorycrafters and they are master smiths, taking our unrefined yet promising ideas and polishing it into something better.

The problem, if you can even call it a problem, is that it can be hit or miss. The latest dev blog gave us a great amount of information about the direction the game is going, along with plenty of nuggets for creating new threads here but, I believe we can squeeze a bit more efficiency out of our relationship with the devs. Which is why I suggest having the devs themselves post a "focusing" thread here weekly.

The timeframe is arbitrary; it should really be whatever is convenient for them. They could post something as vague as: "New enemy faction, GO!" So as to not give anything away, or as concise as: "Guys, we are looking at changing X mechanic in order for it to better mesh with Y feature because Z is getting in the way. Lets see what you come up with." At that point their thread will be stickied, allowing us to put our collective noodles together, until the next focusing thread is posted. At which time we will still be able to comment on it but, will be allowed to fall off the front page.

Hell, if they're to busy, they could get one of their minions to post something

 

[MrFURB]

Definitely agree. This is one of the things I was expecting (and delighted to see at least for a bit) the council to be organizing since public communication, representation, and archival are all part of their duty. Either way, good idea. I often find myself having ideas here and there and all too often let my motivation to share slip past me until much later.

 

[Bench]

This would more be a council thing than a dev thing. Obviously we'll have things like Q&As like the recently announced one but on the whole, most of the suggestions we've recently integrated into the game have come through the council monitoring the suggestions forum rather than the devs doing that, so it makes sense for them to be the ones posing those sorts of questions. You can hear more off-hand what we're working on through dev blogs, but something to the extent of the Development Direction is something we may only put out every 6-months if that, mattering how quickly we get through everything mentioned. And even then won't be to the extent that this first one was.

 

[Magrim]

This would more be a council thing than a dev thing.

I do tend to agree, it really should be a council thing if they are up for it. I mentioned you guys for the added gravitas to the idea. Can't blame me for trying. :p

 

[TartarusMkII]

I agree with Bench; in my opinion this process should already be occurring (or something like it that would prevent this thread of being relevant), and its absence is a failing of the current iteration of the Council.

 

[lilheartless]

I agree with Bench; in my opinion this process should already be occurring (or something like it that would prevent this thread of being relevant), and its absence is a failing of the current iteration of the Council.

not exactly.... the council lives on a one way street information goes from us to them to the devs but it doesn't come back down at least from my understanding they aren't privy to anything we are and if they are they if i remember correctly had to sign an nda which means they aren't allowed to tell us anything they aren't allowed to tell us.

So we can't actually have upcoming feature related discussions one way or another without direct involvement from the devs.

 

[TartarusMkII]

not exactly.... the council lives on a one way street information goes from us to them to the devs but it doesn't come back down at least from my understanding they aren't privy to anything we are and if they are they if i remember correctly had to sign an nda which means they aren't allowed to tell us anything they aren't allowed to tell us.

So we can't actually have upcoming feature related discussions one way or another without direct involvement from the devs.

Well, right, but what I am saying is that it should work how we want it to; both ways.

 

[lilheartless]

Well, right, but what I am saying is that it should work how we want it to; both ways.

yes my point was just that the blame doesn't lie with the council

 

[TartarusMkII]

yes my point was just that the blame doesn't lie with the council

Oh I see what you're saying. No, I disagree. From my experience with the council, they are privy to more than the average user, and are certainly "in the loop". Revealing what they know is obviously not their call, but I don't see that as a reason to not mingle with the player base at large more than they currently do.

 

[Magrim]

So we can't actually have upcoming feature related discussions one way or another without direct involvement from the devs.

That was my part of my thought process when i began the thread but, decided at the end that we should probably go with the council. At least at first to see if this idea is worth it. I don't know what the council members are privy to but, I do think they know a bit more than us.