Air.

[Qweesdy]

Hi,

Our friendly little astronauts wear space suits. These suits supply air to the astronauts and stop that air escaping; which means that you can live outside your ship and also means the huge wide-open hanger door isn\'t a problem (unless it\'s a door in the suit itself).

I like the idea of having an air-supply meter on your suit, and needing to recharge it in some way. The simplest way would be entering a ship\'s core (so that running out of air isn\'t a huge nuisance in the middle of battles). I\'d also like the idea of having air tanks and \"air generators\" (on both ships and stations) to supply air to the core; where air tanks are relatively small (maybe 1 block of air tank stores enough for 20 minutes of breathing) and air generators take up a lot more space (e.g. one block for the air generator, plus the space used by power generators to provide each air generator with about 25000 e/second). That way small ships (with minimal air tanks) would need to dock to fill up with air, and larger ships (with larger air tanks and air generator/s and enough power) can supply air to a fleet.

Of course if you\'re adding air tanks and \"air refilling\" to the game; it might be a good idea to also add fuel tanks and \"fuel refilling\" (similar code for a slighty different purpose).

 

[MrFURB]

My opinion on air systems is that, unless it spawns an entire tree (hehe) of new features and systems and integrates well within the current game and it\'s atmosphere (hehe, again with the puns) then all it would do is create a larger learning curve and more things for your mind to keep track of. Doing either of those without regards to why you\'re doing them is a big no-no in Starmade\'s design.

An example of air done right would be one where there are multiple ways to generate air, and air is managed with a simple on/off (air or no air) per entity. You could have a generator use energy/blocks to create air, or you could have some plants, or whatnot. Not having air won\'t kill or harm you, but it will limit activities within the entity in various ways. Not having an atmosphere means you can\'t remove your helmet and show off your awesome skin, and it means that NPCs won\'t function and carry out your commands. Maybe a lack of air could even slow down factories.

Not having an air supply isn\'t going to be bothersome or even rage-worthy of people just getting into the game. You won\'t have your small frigates or stealth craft rendered useless because they can\'t afford to have interior space and extra mass for air storage or generation. You can still use a core as a cheap way of getting from point A to point B in case of emergency... And more importantly, when you DO want to pay attention to your air supply there are definite rewards for doing so instead of the feeling that the entire system is an unstopable threat hiding behind your squishy hull.

I\'m sorry to those who will say otherwise, but I don\'t think that having a complex and deadly air system is healthy for Starmade in particular. For other space sims where survival means paying attention to a creature\'s base needs, air is practiccally required. For Starmade where the focus is more on the environment and it\'s manipulations, where you are creating and creating larger rather than surviving and surviving more, having a life or death air system as a form of difficulty adds absolutely nothing to the game BUT difficulty. Difficulty alone doesn\'t create fun, there\'s gotta be extras to the air system that add fun and counteract the difficulty with extraneous rewards.