Collection of thoughts on faction happenings

[FlyingDebris]

Another question!


What is your opinion on the state of the community? Where do you see it at the end of the next patch?

 

[Cirdanoth]

Currently, declining. But those that stick around are getting much closer to each other.
After the patch we might see an influx of a great number of new players, or old players that decided not to stick around until the new update...
As such, we may come to face a second 'wave' of sorts. New factions sprouting, and actual competition ensuing between 'old' and 'young' factions.

The other possibility is... The update will create a sudden, short burst in popularity, and people's high expectations might not be met...
Leading to further decline, following that burst. What the game needs, 's a somewhat loyal playerbase, sticking around and creating fun experiences for others, much like what happens on the Mushroom Fleet's server.
It's we, the players, that can make this difference. ^-^'

 

[MrFURB]

What is your opinion on the state of the community? Where do you see it at the end of the next patch?

I'm pretty sure that somewhere I've said that the community is as much an alpha as the game is... And the more I think about that, the truer it seems.

Starmade is indie development in it's truest sense; Just one college guy with an idea and way too much free time directly translating passion into program. Years down the line, he now has an entire team of like-minded individuals helping him realize their shared vision and a family of testers (You are all alpha testers, whether you have the Tester badge or not) providing reason for them to continue doing so.
All of this came from nothing, and as such we've got a different set of growing pains than development studios. There's no hardcore fans gained from previous games we can rely on to always be there. There's no massive PR campaigns flooding the internet with Starmade goodness. The infrastructure in place, including support, bug hunting, and the website team is not up to par with that of a triple-A studio.
Right now everything is built around the community being smaller than most and more tight-knit than most. Will that change? Eventually; it will almost certainly be after the game has reached a point where Schema can comfortably sell it as a complete experience... So not too soon, as I'm sure we can all attest that there is still lots of work for everyone to do still, but we'll get there.
Well, I think that covers my opinion on the future... As of right now?
Things are surprisingly quiet, what with the update peeking around the corner. I do think that a few vocal people (Primarily the ones who were also disappointed with the last 400 patches coming out and are liable to recount the 'golden days' of daily updates back when Starmade was coming out with storms of new features which Schema's currently attempting to fix up to higher standards) will be disappointed in this update, but that happens regardless. We'll just direct them to post relevant feedback and use that to help us make it even better.

 

[Incap]

I think we need less factions. Like seriously. Most of the new factions that pop up are literately 3 lines of text saying that they have a faction.

But as for the community? Needs less drama and more growing up. *COUGH COUGH*

 

[marcus87]

I love this game and I will stay here

 

[Jaaskinal]

I think that the community is largely stagnant, and I don't think any update can really change that. We really need to change it, the game at the moment is hindering dynamics between and within factions, but should not have stopped them entirely.

 

[Nauvran]

I think we need less factions. Like seriously. Most of the new factions that pop up are literately 3 lines of text saying that they have a faction.

But as for the community? Needs less drama and more growing up. *COUGH COUGH*

I can agree on this
There are way too many small factions with one to or two people who havent even got the faction set up properly with rules, ranks, and so on.
The community will in a way be able to become stronger if the big and well done factions keep getting members, a thing that might help the community at times is a bit of roleplay, an example of this is the old borg collective/the collective who had a small and good amount of roleplay into it which meant that they would disturb people and attack them.
Way too many wars are being fought on the forums and not in game.
Yes I know the game isnt stable enough for big wars but it can still hold small scale wars between factions.
So more war, fights, and a bit of roleplay would help this lovely community get better ( at least more would happen in game).
Otherwise the community is a very nice one, nice and friendly people that you easily can talk to and have fun with.

oh and one more thing
when the faction update comes, the faction wars will matter more than they do now, since at that point we will be able to lose our homebase and it will be possible to put a faction down without cheating and destroying the protected homebases with buildblocks or by unfactioning them

I think that was all I had to say.

 

[CyberTao]

I will never understand why people say we need more "larger factions" :u The Game thas limited hings to do; the Bulk of faction play is setting up factories and Building a base ._. and with 1 person who knows factories, you no longer need to salvage or patrol cause everything is done for you :u get bored and then leave. I would have to say "Medium sized" is what we need for factions at this point - 3-

The Community? On a bit of a slide, probably due to the chat system and the waiting (Last update didnt add anything new to play with really :x lots of ground work, but not much to entertain the masses). Add to it the masses of Drama and People trying too be far too serious o -o and its quite tempting to just close the tab some days. But I think we are getting better :p

After the next patch, I hope to see more diversity in Faction New weapons means new ways to design ships and new ways to fight (on the small scale that we can). I expect chat to go a little quiet for a few days, while people randomly exclaim new discoveries and ratios of weapons xD followed by a small surge of battle-events to test said new weapons and designs * ^* And wether or not we flop again depends on how well that surge of events goes methinks :p

 

[rece ktore leczo]

the Bulk of faction play is setting up factories and Building a base ._. and with 1 person who knows factories, you no longer need to salvage or patrol cause everything is done for you :u get bored and then leave. I would have to say "Medium sized" is what we need for factions at this point - 3-

That's why i've stopped playing Starmade for some time Well this and the fact i have some form of finals in a week, so i need to study, not build ships.
I've made factory which had recipes for every block, so there were closed cycles of blocks, with each cycle making huge surplus of resources. I just had to open the storage and take as many blocks as i wish. So after some time i got bored.

Probably the factory update would fix this closed cycles, making the need to salvage the universe to create blocks.


BTW i don't know why everyone is so "community is stagnant" "players are going away" "updates won't help".
I was checking number of members registered on this site. Few days ago it was 200-300 less than it is today. Players are obviously coming to play this game (probably there would be much, much more of them once released on steam).

 

[Cirdanoth]

They join the forums, but they rarely 'join the community'. They might be playing solo, or waiting for updates, while not actually mingling with other players an aweful lot. As such, we don't see 'em on the public servers, in the major factions, or anywhere we can actually see whether they're active or not. The 'visible' community is somewhat stagnant. Admittedly, we've seen about 3-6 new players join NASS in the last couple of days, which's nice. :3

 

[Reilly Reese]

Mind if I ask a question here?

What if you met someone well known and respected here and they were not what you expected? Say your an Adult and they are a kid? Would you treat them as an equal?

 

[CyberTao]

Mind if I ask a question here?

What if you met someone well known and respected here and they were not what you expected? Say your an Adult and they are a kid? Would you treat them as an equal?

I personally decide for myself if anyone is all that great :p And Age doesnt matter.

And I'm not just saying that, many times have I seen and respected kids more the adults :/ because kids try to have fun in whatever they are doing. Adults do sometimes, but more often then not work too hard and seriously, and sometimes they start to feel "entitled". The only issues I've had with kids with respect and such like that, is that they sometimes do not realize the influence the words they speak have :/

So all in all, it doesnt matter age wise :p but the rest depends on how I see the person in question :u if he is a dick, I will treat him like a dick, regardless of what everyone else claims.

 

[ShawnR2000]

Deleted.

 

[Ultraviolet Dugong]

They join the forums, but they rarely 'join the community'. They might be playing solo, or waiting for updates, while not actually mingling with other players an aweful lot. As such, we don't see 'em on the public servers, in the major factions, or anywhere we can actually see whether they're active or not.

Speaking as one of these players, it's kind of a mix of a few factors. I started playing a while ago, just because it looked like a cool game with a lot of potential, but I kind of got distracted by other things and changes in my life, but came back recently to see the game, and the community, don't seem much different.

What I kind of struggle with is finding a place within the community. I'm not really super interested in pvp, or anything competitive really (just the way I am), and while I occasionally see ship building organizations crop up, I have my doubts about being able to keep up - most of my ships have been downright tiny compared to what passes for "small" around here, and if I try building anything larger it just ends up looking like an ugly cube...

I really enjoy discovering new things in games, and wouldn't mind joining a more exploration/experimentation-oriented group if I could find the time (which, if the group is interesting enough, I can make the time). The only trouble is, something like that doesn't really seem to exist right now, probably because there's not much to do in that department. Maybe in an update or two...

 

[Planr]

About lasers:
I think putting lasers on turrets, or other AI controlled crafts, will be one of the most OP weapons. The instant straight line combined with the aiming "skill" of the AI just creates weapons, that will never miss. So I think, lasers need a nerf right away, just because of that. Either their power consumption must be very high, or they do not deal much damage, OR shields absorb their damage(10% shields absorb only 10% damage, 100% shields absorb all damage). Automatically fired lasers could also allow for building traps(laser cage e.g.).

They are nerfed in that their range is fairly shorter than that of AMC's

 

[PseudoGold]

Another question!


What is your opinion on the state of the community? Where do you see it at the end of the next patch?

Currently, this patch seems to be the only form of saving the community. It is slowly shrinking like a balloon with a small hole in it: no noise, but its going. We should see more members and whatnot, perhaps more and more factions as well as creations. After all, more activity=more lively=more fun. Well, generally at least.

 

[MrNature72]

Honestly, mediocre.

What this game needs is some advertising and more word-of-mouth going around.

 

[Deleted member 301635]

Honestly, mediocre.

What this game needs is some advertising and more word-of-mouth going around.

I've tried bringing RL friends in before, but it doesn't usually work.
Oddly enough, that's how I found out about this game.

 

[ShawnR2000]

Deleted.