Dev Blog : February 17th 2016

[kiraen]

so..when is update day?

At a guess, I'd say next weekend (feb 26,'16).
That is based on them sticking to thier 2 week cycle even tho they 'missed' an update.

 

[Master_Artificer]

How well do they utilize 3d space?
Do they constrict themselves to a plane, or is that sorted with orders?

Will there be a "command mode"? Would it be like flying around in a almost buildmode fashion, setting waypoints and targets, or could that be used in a galaxy map mode, very zoomed in to see just a handful of sectors on the screen (with colored icons representing ships you can click+drag to select and then give commands).

Will we be receiving better zoom out controls? I know we can already zoom out by holding the left shift and pan the camera around the center of focus (ship core) by holding the right shift, and you can still use WSAD to pilot, but it requires you to have 3 arms to use the mouse, the ship controls, and to hold down the right shift because when you depress it you snap back into "normal" view.

After playing WoWS for a few minutes before determining it was incompatible with my laptop, I loved the camera and to be able to look out of your ship from the side as it banked and the turrets ripple-fired at some far off target.Currently it seems 90% of ships (just a ballpark estimate) use spinal mounted (aka forward facing) weapons as their primary damage dealer, that might be a result of the limited camera options we have.

This is looking amazing keep it up!

 

[Ithirahad]

I know we can already zoom out by holding the left shift and pan the camera around the center of focus (ship core) by holding the right shift, and you can still use WSAD to pilot, but it requires you to have 3 arms to use the mouse, the ship controls, and to hold down the right shift because when you depress it you snap back into "normal" view.

You can double-tap right shift to lock and unlock from free camera mode. Remember, though, that when you do this your weapon aim is locked straight forward and doesn't line up with your camera.

 

[scream323]

You realize Starmade already has point defense, right? PD doesn't make something like this not overpowered.

Sorry I just don't really care at this point. People always turn these into arguments all I was trying to was make a suggestion on a feature. The main point was morale. A persons will to do something for their loyalty towards their lead is base on that persons morale. Morale is something that can be boosted in the most literal sense in real life. Believe it or not something like a very charismatic leader can motivate people to do a lot in battle. Anyways if you disagree that this could be something you as player could have. Wouldn't it be cool. For you as a player to become a better leader to your npcs through some charisma system.

 

[whooplaah]

Ships trying to keep a straight line formation around the center rotating flagship:
This is far from usable/finished but I thought it looked amazing :D

I've only played a handful of games that have formations as a feature, but one of the things that they all emphasized was that formation pattern was more important than individual abilities.

If a flag ship has a max speed of 200km/s but other ships in the formation have a max speed of only 100km/s, the flag ship would be forced to fly slower than maximum to preserve the formation - otherwise the slow ships would be left behind. Likewise when a capital ship is rotating, it's rotational speed is capped at whatever is needed by the ships at the furthest extent of the formation (since they will have to move tens of km for every degree of rotation).

This would make the player have to carefully consider ship placement and formation shape. A 1-row formation of 20 ships means that all ships have clear line-of-sight, but because of the extreme width it will turn super-slow along a couple axode. A 2-row deep line formation (twice as deep, half as long) has better turning, but some ships have obstructed view. Likewise, a line with slow ships on the outside would turn slower than a line of equal length but with fast ships on the outside.

This would need a mode where you can allow flexible formations, though. Meaning that under some conditions, like in a fight, the rotation of any ship can change as that ship tries to aim weapons but the XYZ of the ship should still be in the formation (or within X-meters of the correct position). This really depends on whether formation combat is to emphasize main cannons (turning and aiming) or turrets (mostly just sitting there).

 

[Cheapskate]

It's like Mount and Blade in space with minecraft on steroids.... I LOVE IT. I don't think I've ever been this excited for anything... ever.

 

[WitherFireGaming]

the flag ship would be forced to fly slower than maximum to preserve the formation - otherwise the slow ships would be left behind.

That might be the point. It gives fleets a huge amount of power, but solo ships have more flexibility.

 

[Lecic]

I've only played a handful of games that have formations as a feature, but one of the things that they all emphasized was that formation pattern was more important than individual abilities.

If a flag ship has a max speed of 200km/s but other ships in the formation have a max speed of only 100km/s, the flag ship would be forced to fly slower than maximum to preserve the formation - otherwise the slow ships would be left behind. Likewise when a capital ship is rotating, it's rotational speed is capped at whatever is needed by the ships at the furthest extent of the formation (since they will have to move tens of km for every degree of rotation).

This would make the player have to carefully consider ship placement and formation shape. A 1-row formation of 20 ships means that all ships have clear line-of-sight, but because of the extreme width it will turn super-slow along a couple axode. A 2-row deep line formation (twice as deep, half as long) has better turning, but some ships have obstructed view. Likewise, a line with slow ships on the outside would turn slower than a line of equal length but with fast ships on the outside.

This would need a mode where you can allow flexible formations, though. Meaning that under some conditions, like in a fight, the rotation of any ship can change as that ship tries to aim weapons but the XYZ of the ship should still be in the formation (or within X-meters of the correct position). This really depends on whether formation combat is to emphasize main cannons (turning and aiming) or turrets (mostly just sitting there).

I would say don't force those rules on the flagship. This would make keeping your fleet intact a skill for people to learn, rather than something automatic.

 

[Gonzalo]

I would say force the rules of the flagship. This would make keeping your fleet intact easier and easier for people to learn, rather than an autism fest.

 

[Kilim]

I would say force the rules of the flagship. This would make keeping your fleet intact easy for people to learn, rather than an autism fest.

True, it would be easier. I also think they should add diversity in how to set up a fleet, e.g. two flagships etc.
[DOUBLEPOST=1456082188,1456082050][/DOUBLEPOST]

Ships trying to keep a straight line formation around the center rotating flagship:
This is far from usable/finished but I thought it looked amazing :D

OMG, how did I miss that? XD

 

[Megacrafter127]

I would say don't force those rules on the flagship. This would make keeping your fleet intact a skill for people to learn, rather than something automatic.

I would say force the rules of the flagship. This would make keeping your fleet intact easier and easier for people to learn, rather than an autism fest.

Why not both, and allow people to switch between both on a per-fleet basis?

 

[Kilim]

Why not both, and allow people to switch between both on a per-fleet basis?

Yea that would be nice - one could have a more rogue style fleet or structured oragnised fleet, i like

 

[Megacrafter127]

Yea that would be nice - one could have a more rogue style fleet or structured oragnised fleet, i like

It would also allow one to have ship orientation and formation orientation be different, which could become an advantage.

 

[Trekkerjoe]

I think that if you are going to group large groups of ships together, then you should clamp the max speed of the entire fleet to the slowest undocked ship. This really only applies when fleets are not rendered, or the ships are not in combat.

Why not both, and allow people to switch between both on a per-fleet basis?

It makes sense for this to be a toggle, for those who wish to micromanage their fleets, or have their fighters scout ahead of the mothership.

 

[WitherFireGaming]

If ships all went their standard speed, then the main disadvantage of a fleet would be waiting for your slowest ship, not being stuck going slow instead.

 

[Trekkerjoe]

The neat thing about that is that if your slow ships are docked to a speedy mothership, then they wouldn't effect the speed of the fleet. Hopefully you can set it up so that your fighters undock during combat, and redock afterwards.

 

[JC1223]

I think when a player-made vs. npc or player-made vs. player-made fleet battle happens, the sectors it is in should be loaded, but have a maximum size to battles that do not have a player in navigation-menu range to prevent huge lag, and as ships are destroyed ships that couldn't spawn due to battle size limit can spawn in, and you can set arrival order. However, npc vs. npc should just be simulated.

 

[banks456]

Well I love Fleet battles so I'm very happy about this update!!!

 

[DJ-Col7]

Finally my titan carriers will be far more useful and i wont just have to leave my fighters behind once i commence the dump functions. Keep corvettes in formation with the my ship to keep safe during mining excursions or when heading into known combat.
...sigh i can dream.

 

[Employee763]

Finally my titan carriers will be far more useful and i wont just have to leave my fighters behind once i commence the dump functions. Keep corvettes in formation with the my ship to keep safe during mining excursions or when heading into known combat.
...sigh i can dream.

That looks like a bad movie