Dev Blog : February 17th 2016

[Lone_Puppy]

We desperately need this for jump drives as well to avoid those pesky suns.

Do suns effect jump drives? I've not had an issue.going through suns, but I guess stopping in one could be an issue.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Do suns effect jump drives? I've not had an issue.going through suns, but I guess stopping in one could be an issue.

No they don't affect jump drives but if you jump near one your ship will melt.

 

[ZektorSK]

IT would be nice if Sun would totally screw raddars and other things because of radiation,it would feel more realistic

 

[lupoCani]

I'm slightly concerned about the way you describe these re-dockong rails. The concept itself is quite reasonable- remove the need for pathfinding by letting players pre-define paths. However, you describe these rails as not just navigational paths, but as actual rails the ships will move along. This seems like a blatant blurring of the line between control systems (massless, invisible, exist only to define the behavior of other blocks) and physical systems (present in the world, can interact with the world). This doesn't just open up for exploitation, say, using the massless rails internally, which in turn requires specific restrictions to prevent, but goes against the idea of a modular, mechanical sandbox.

Since you did express the concern that these rails can be exploited, let me suggest this- don't make them rails. Make them navigational paths. Ai ships would try to move along them, exactly as if they were rails, while still actually moving freely through space under their own engine power. If the mothership turns before all ships are docked properly, and the fighter isn't agile enough to follow the movement of the rail, too bad.

If, for some reason, this is isn't plausible, make them into proper physical blocks. Call them forcefield rails, make them shimmer slightly while in use. Give them a relevant upside, say, burning power directly instead of needing mass enhancers. Add a few significant downsides, such as much lower power efficiency, burning power for every ship individually (unlike regular rails which share mass enhancers, and their power use by extension) and my favorite- no ability to carry ships through hyperjumps.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Call them forcefield rails

This is a more practical idea. This would also allow for eventual external forcefield use in tractor beam scenario.
[DOUBLEPOST=1456694216,1456692686][/DOUBLEPOST]By the way, the fleets controls make a great autopilot.
I can give my ship orders to move to a sector, then disconnect from the server and later reconnect to find my ship waiting for me at the destination. Such fun!

A couple things occurred to me was;
Why don't we just have an autopilot anyway, now that this functionality is there?
What stops the faction leaders ordering a ship you're using to somewhere else while you are using it or off ship like a planet, asteroid, station, other ship or just space walking? This would be most inconvenient.

 

[Mr. Grimm]

You could load the sector and just have the AI duke it out.

Of course, points could be used for certain things. It'd be pretty unnecessary to load the sector in the event of a tiny pirate wandering into your massive border patrol fleet. But for actual combat between two large, PLAYERMADE forces? That shouldn't be sim combat.

Loaded and recorded sim combat for player made forces. Come back and be able to play back the recording of my fleet getting decimated by my nemesis on a server. All while the tears flow. Now that would be awesome.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Lol!
That would be a cool function. I remember Tribes 2 had a record feature that did something similar for in game battles.

But then again, it could be storage intensive and server admins might not want that. Would have to be an option that admins could turn on/off.

 

[Zekester81]

Dear Devs, this is going to be epic. Please take your time and get it the way you want it before you implement. I'll be waiting impatiently! I can't wait to play around with this though I fully support you not putting it in until you're satisfied. My brain is imploding under the weight of possibilities this will bring.

 

[Vexcord]

HyPe!

Sooo giant fleet v fleet fights will be awesome. The black + two infinities vs the black and two infinities, anyone?

(Expects to see hussie Crash the train)

The Hype is real, im more excited for this update than i was for fallout 4.

 

[Ithirahad]

Oh, gods...
more home2tuck...
help
ii... cant re2ii2t...
BLUHHH!

Anyway, I'm surprised to see the carrier features already in the dev build... Was expecting mining commands and whatnot instead.

 

[MacThule]

BENCH!

I love you...

Thank you so much for blogging us a general outline ahead of the upcoming patch. I've been desperately trying to build up a set of very basic designs that can be used to fill out fleets (ie simple fighters, frigates and destroyers that can be spammed into a fleet to support 1-2 large capital ships). This spoiler info helps greatly in terms of deciding some of the fine details.

Still so many questions...

• Is there a way we will be able to learn what is / has been going on with distant fleets we have an interest in (personal/faction)?

• Will we be able to assign fleets or individual ships in fleets behaviors such as "retreat at x% armor HP" or "engage at point blank / stand off"?

• How are fleets going to employ Overdrive, Jump & Warp? How will they match speeds between ships?

• How will fleet virtual combat (and how are devs referring to this process, so we can all speak the same language) resolve weapon ranges in an engagement? Will long-range standoff weapons get to execute first?

• How will fleet virtual combat calculate Point Defense (anti-missile weapons)???

Don't know if you can answer any of these, but man it'd help to have some hint...

Thanks again!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Oh, gods...
more home2tuck...
help
ii... cant re2ii2t...
BLUHHH!

Anyway, I'm surprised to see the carrier features already in the dev build... Was expecting mining commands and whatnot instead.

But it's so awesome right? They don't battle yet, but the potential is awesome! I played with 3 fleets last night, and it was cool just directing my ships. Jumped on for a ride. Sent a fleet to near a distant wormhole to see what would happen. The ships got sucked and went on this crazy wormhole to wormhole rollercoaster ride. I ordered them to return to sector 2 2 2 and they actually faught the wormholes, but lost due to thrust issues. At one point they maintained their position and I could wander around the ship doing stuff. So much fun even with the limited functionality.

 

[dwwojcik]

What stops the faction leaders ordering a ship you're using to somewhere else while you are using it or off ship like a planet, asteroid, station, other ship or just space walking? This would be most inconvenient.

Each fleet should have a designated Admiral (or whatever your faction calls it, it should definitely be customizable) who is the only person that can issue orders to that fleet. Someone who is not the Admiral can still fly a ship in the fleet, but they still get the same orders AI/NPC-flown ships do, and the Admiral can override with the ships autopilot if the pilot doesn't obey orders.

A position as an Admiral could be granted by someone of sufficiently high rank in the faction. The faction leader of course, and maybe lower ranking officers if the leader gives them that power.

Although, if the Admiral isn't online, another Admiral should be able to give their fleet orders. If you're in the middle of a war and one of your Admirals logs off for lunch, you're going to want their ships to be able to respond to a sneak attack on your faction homebase or something.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. But it would be cool.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Each fleet should have a designated Admiral (or whatever your faction calls it, it should definitely be customizable) who is the only person that can issue orders to that fleet. Someone who is not the Admiral can still fly a ship in the fleet, but they still get the same orders AI/NPC-flown ships do, and the Admiral can override with the ships autopilot if the pilot doesn't obey orders.

A position as an Admiral could be granted by someone of sufficiently high rank in the faction. The faction leader of course, and maybe lower ranking officers if the leader gives them that power.

Although, if the Admiral isn't online, another Admiral should be able to give their fleet orders. If you're in the middle of a war and one of your Admirals logs off for lunch, you're going to want their ships to be able to respond to a sneak attack on your faction homebase or something.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. But it would be cool.

I like your thinking!
I think they will likely use the existing Faction controls in this instance. And leave the admiralty to internal politics of the faction members.

The problem could be mitigated with an additional signal to the last pilot of the ship of the orders with a popup box to click Accept/Reject, so they have a chance to reboard the ship and then enact the orders. Perhaps a timer on it, so if the pilot does not respond in x number of seconds/minutes the AI will accept and then enact the orders. Perhaps this time limit could be controlled by the Admirals you mention.

With regards to the different fleets, this really bugs me. They should be Formations. There is only one fleet for an entity as in a Faction or individual. However, you should be able to also integrate another fleet (like and ally) as a formation within the Faction or perhaps a coalition fleet or something. That's the way I feel. Others may have a different opinion. Perhaps anyone who has a Navy background could clear this one up.

Like the Federation in Star Trek having allied themselves with Romulans and Klingons to fight the Jem'Hadar. All the different allied fleets were combined into a single Attack Fleet.

Just a thought. Does anyone on the Council, Schine, Dev team think this is worth looking at?

 

[dwwojcik]

When I say 'Admiral' I mean it more as in the sense that it's an assignment, not a rank. A faction could make a rank called 'Admiral', but members of that rank wouldn't necessarily be in command of a fleet. Likewise there's no reason a faction member who is not an 'Admiral' couldn't be given command of a fleet.

I definitely think factions should be able to have more than one fleet. For example, the US navy currently has 6 fleets. It depends though, are the StarMade fleets more like actual fleets in today's sense, of which a small navy might only have one, or are they more like battlegroups?

 

[Lone_Puppy]

When I say 'Admiral' I mean it more as in the sense that it's an assignment, not a rank. A faction could make a rank called 'Admiral', but members of that rank wouldn't necessarily be in command of a fleet. Likewise there's no reason a faction member who is not an 'Admiral' couldn't be given command of a fleet.

I definitely think factions should be able to have more than one fleet. For example, the US navy currently has 6 fleets. It depends though, are the StarMade fleets more like actual fleets in today's sense, of which a small navy might only have one, or are they more like battlegroups?

Ah!
As for fleets, I can see what you mean RE: US navy with 6 fleets. I can live with that!
The update is out now. Have you started downloading?