Dev Blog : October 20th 2015

[lupoCani]

Teleporters? That's neat and all, but what will happen to parking near a planet, walking down to your miniature on-board hangar and taking a shuttle to the surface? Or ship-to-ship docking? Or really any kind of short-range transportation that actually involves doing things with ships?

 

[forlorn]

Teleporters? That's neat and all, but what will happen to parking near a planet, walking down to your miniature on-board hangar and taking a shuttle to the surface? Or ship-to-ship docking? Or really any kind of short-range transportation that actually involves doing thin

Way too many star trek fans in the world..plus boarding like this seems easier than working out a system of boarding the old fashioned way. I prefer the old fashioned realistic way myself.

 

[Criss]

I will refit all of the default stations for you if you give me the ability to remove the "Prate station" from the the universe generation.

I am not even sure which one that is.

 

[Lecic]

I am not even sure which one that is.

This one.

 

[Criss]

This one.

That explains why I didn't recognize it.

Those will be entirely replaced with a legitimately built station along with all the stick shops.

 

[Xskyth]

is there a Bobbie Bookie block with the race track? :D

 

[RabidBat]

Oddly enough was just talking to friends about teleporters the other day. Let us hope they're done right.
Racing.... yeah not sure about that one, but as something that is optional not a biggie, can we attack people who are racing?

Honestly would like to see more focus on actual 'space sim' gameplay being added, e.g working AI, or at least an end to every second patch breaking the current AI factions and AI crew getting a proper look, maybe see some missions getting added. Something that goes along with making big ass ships and an open universe than 'race tracks'.

New launcher looks good and I am keen for that, but have to say once more, I'd like to see more 'space game' game play added, becoming a little jaded with just building and mining and making my own fun. (e.g PvP because there's not much else to do and that just ends up with people crying more often than not.)

Also looking forward to the "Game Direction" information to see what is in store there. I'd hope that with as long as the game has been in development the devs would already have an idea by now of what they want the game to be and it would be nice to see Schine finally focused more on this part of development honestly.
While RP is fine for some, some of us aren't into making our own adventures that much. And I feel RP is something players should add on their own on top of existing gameplay. Which let's be honest StarMade is currently lacking in a massive way.

Also some better dev build testing is urged, think that would be the greatest thing ever, a few less obvious bugs making it through to patches. I find it hard to believe that those playing dev builds can miss such obvious and major things as broken AI and weapons that make it through to patches currently that give the game that 2 steps forward one step back feeling. Or at the least more regularhot fixes when such problems occur.

It is good that in game stations are finally getting an update, I must admit I am surprised this has not happened sooner. Will it require Universe resets though? It's these kinds of tasks that I am sure the player community would be happy to help with if help is asked for, or we're made aware the help is needed. Swapping out rails and turrets seems like an easy enough task.
Just wondering if this will be carried over to playermade blueprints. I know it'll be a massive task to remake all of those, so how a bout a "This BP is out of date" on all BP's made before the rail update and BP score cards that are hostedon the site to help people avoid downloading those with out of date or conflicting blocks like the old dockers.

All in all it is good to see some news on the game, specificially more gameplay focused additions. Here's hoping the new launcher is taken advantage of and news is more regular via it. Fingers crossed Schine actually does get more focused on areas that should maybe take priority in such a game as StarMade.

 

[Xskyth]

wait, racing.... collision damage without massive lag? THAT would make the racing fun!

 

[plusnine]

That explains why I didn't recognize it.

Those will be entirely replaced with a legitimately built station along with all the stick shops.

the issue isn't that it's unattractive, or "not legitamitely built" -- it's that if one wanted to generate a universe with only specifically custom stations, this one cannot be removed and replaced, as the other packaged stations can.

so i suppose my question becomes: will it's replacement live in the stations folder alongside the others, or will universe designers still be left with an unwanted station (any station) that gets called into generation alongside the ones that have been selected for inclusion?

 

[Criss]

the issue isn't that it's unattractive, or "not legitamitely built" -- it's that if one wanted to generate a universe generation with only specifically custom stations, this one cannot be removed and replaced, as the other packaged stations can.

so i suppose my question becomes: will it's replacement live in the stations folder alongside the others, or will universe designers still be left with an unwanted station (any station) that gets called into generation alongside the ones that have been selected for inclusion?

I would not expect them to somehow be tucked away and untouchable in the games files. Those stations are generated which is why you cannot remove them. There is no physical file.

 

[RabidBat]

I would not expect them to somehow be tucked away and untouchable in the games files. Those stations are generated which is why you cannot remove them. There is no physical file.

Might be time to change that and remove such stations from the code if possible, or at least generate a better station. Although I don't mind them myself as they're good for start up noobs to go after. Thing I noticed that bugs most people about them is the name "Prate", but I've told them I'd be sad to see the name go and honestly think the typo (if it is indeed a typo?!?!? ) should be made canon or become a running joke in the game or something. :p

 

[Employee763]

Teleporters? That's neat and all, but what will happen to parking near a planet, walking down to your miniature on-board hangar and taking a shuttle to the surface? Or ship-to-ship docking? Or really any kind of short-range transportation that actually involves doing things with ships?

This is how it works, my friend. You gain some, you loose some.

I do like the idea of transporters, but I have no idea how they'll affect the game. This excites me.

 

[forlorn]

On a side note to stations. I personally believe that a pre seeded galaxy full of stations is ridiculous. Stations of any type excluding starter stations and random alien stations, should appear in sectors a good while after they are discovered and at great cost to whomever they belong. This would centeralise the server population and create a better economy.

 

[Admiralkio]

Starmade dock does not like imgur.


Relevant.

 

[Bench]

Not sure I like the idea of dropping shields. Especially since it's unfair- MY shields need to drop, but (presumably) not the enemies?

Race gates are great, hopefully we see a revival of skidracers.

We're trying it out for now, it probably won't remain like that in the future but we have to start somewhere. Also if you're transporting from one transporter in your ship to another then your shields shouldn't drop as you aren't going outside of the ship.
[DOUBLEPOST=1445391981,1445391863][/DOUBLEPOST]

Teleporters? That's neat and all, but what will happen to parking near a planet, walking down to your miniature on-board hangar and taking a shuttle to the surface? Or ship-to-ship docking? Or really any kind of short-range transportation that actually involves doing things with ships?

Transporters are between other transporters. If the surface has no transporter down there then better grab the keys to the shuttle. Similarly sometimes it might be more practical to dock then to transport, like if the other ship doesn't have one etc.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Saweeeet!

 

[Ithirahad]

I'd vote for losing 25-30%, rather than completely dropping your shields, which seems silly. What's the point of being able to board someone else's ship if it means that in the meantime your ship will just get destroyed really easily? In my experience it would probably take longer to get from the enemy's teleporter to their core than it will for the enemy to get your own ship down to 50% HP...

 

[Bench]

Oddly enough was just talking to friends about teleporters the other day. Let us hope they're done right.
Racing.... yeah not sure about that one, but as something that is optional not a biggie, can we attack people who are racing?

Honestly would like to see more focus on actual 'space sim' gameplay being added, e.g working AI, or at least an end to every second patch breaking the current AI factions and AI crew getting a proper look, maybe see some missions getting added. Something that goes along with making big ass ships and an open universe than 'race tracks'.

New launcher looks good and I am keen for that, but have to say once more, I'd like to see more 'space game' game play added, becoming a little jaded with just building and mining and making my own fun. (e.g PvP because there's not much else to do and that just ends up with people crying more often than not.)

Also looking forward to the "Game Direction" information to see what is in store there. I'd hope that with as long as the game has been in development the devs would already have an idea by now of what they want the game to be and it would be nice to see Schine finally focused more on this part of development honestly.
While RP is fine for some, some of us aren't into making our own adventures that much. And I feel RP is something players should add on their own on top of existing gameplay. Which let's be honest StarMade is currently lacking in a massive way.

/snip

Fingers crossed Schine actually does get more focused on areas that should maybe take priority in such a game as StarMade.

You could if you wanted, attack people who are racing. You could if you wanted have your race ships with player-controlled turrets on top for example to add to the difficulty.

Don't worry, behind the scenes our focus is on actual 'space sim' gameplay. We have incredibly extensive plans to expand that whole aspect of the game and have just been meeting with the different departments over the past week to talk through the mechanics etc of it all. With looking at what's planned it's not going to be an overnight thing. None of the code exists for any of it so we're literally building ground up, but that should get you excited as it means it's all something we haven't seen in StarMade before.

Regarding game direction we have thorough plans and documentation on where we're taking the game as a whole, we've had that for a while now. One of the big things has been making sure the different aspects of the game blend together well and ensuring it's simple enough for players to grasp but complex enough to allow a lot of advancement and originality. We're aware of players' different play styles and are conscious that we have to have a full game for both single and multi player. I think a lot of people get concerned that their particular play style gets forgotten, but it just takes time for us to add massive new gameplay features into the game, so I think as I've said to a number of people, just be patient, we have a plan, don't assume the because we release (A) means that we're not working on (B).

 

[Lecic]

I'd vote for losing 25-30%, rather than completely dropping your shields, which seems silly. What's the point of being able to board someone else's ship if it means that in the meantime your ship will just get destroyed really easily?

Any shield drop encourages people to just use tiny teleporter equipped ships. I think it'd be better to just have a larger power cost that prevents crew teleporters from being equipped on smaller ships.

 

[Bench]

Any shield drop encourages people to just use tiny teleporter equipped ships. I think it'd be better to just have a larger power cost that prevents crew teleporters from being equipped on smaller ships.

There's a constant power cost while they're active from what i remember.