expanding upon the in-game universe map (opened through "p")

[Guardian]

hello! i was wondering (after watching the record of the Q&A) that because you guys are making it so that players in factions can claim sectors if that would allow the larger mini map (opened through "p") to become even more useful. what i'm essentially asking is are their plans to develop that feature further than what it currently is (i personally find it incredibly fun to use and would love to see that develop). this being said if you do have plans to develop it do you think that the up and coming faction changes would allow sectors (when viewed from the larger mini map) to be "color coded or labeled" based on the owning faction and their total faction points (like you guys said lower faction points would result in the possibility to be raided). if this is possible it would give players a 3D view of the faction territory and neutral (or war) zones which would be so much fun :D.

any way thank you for taking the time to read this, I don't know if this has been brought up or already answered or even posible, so thank you
sincerely -Guardian

 

[Ghent96]

When it actually renders, rather than just freezing the viewscreen F6-style. For months, I just figured that "P" was bugged and didn't work. When it actually did, for once, I was amazed. It will be extremely useful.

...That said, I DON'T agree with faction points, and anything but a guarantee that a faction gets 1 station/planet (the homebase) that is totally, 100% off-limits and can't be damaged or destroyed. It opens the game to massive griefing otherwise, and ensures that 1-player will never be able to get a start or found a new faction and slowly work at growing it - they will be insta-farmed by larger factions and either have to begrudingly join an existing faction, or quit the game in frustration.

The map should have fog-of-war, and require exploration of a sector, or at least nearby sectors, before displaying on the map. You shouldn't be able to just hit "P" and see a newb base or a war-faction base 50 sectors away, and assemble to troops to go smash it. There must be some mystery and ability to hide in the universe.

 

[Guardian]

When it actually renders, rather than just freezing the viewscreen F6-style. For months, I just figured that "P" was bugged and didn't work. When it actually did, for once, I was amazed. It will be extremely useful.

...That said, I DON'T agree with faction points, and anything but a guarantee that a faction gets 1 station/planet (the homebase) that is totally, 100% off-limits and can't be damaged or destroyed. It opens the game to massive griefing otherwise, and ensures that 1-player will never be able to get a start or found a new faction and slowly work at growing it - they will be insta-farmed by larger factions and either have to begrudingly join an existing faction, or quit the game in frustration.

The map should have fog-of-war, and require exploration of a sector, or at least nearby sectors, before displaying on the map. You shouldn't be able to just hit "P" and see a newb base or a war-faction base 50 sectors away, and assemble to troops to go smash it. There must be some mystery and ability to hide in the universe.

agreed (mostly),

i totally agree with what you said about fog of war and having to know at least some knowledge of the surrounding area (maybe shared through factions) however, from what i was able to obtain from watching the Q&A it seams that they are planing to move away from the impenetrable base concept. (this doesn't mean its gone for good) what they were saying is that locations like home bases and claimed sectors will cost faction point and once those reach a certain threshold the areas (or maybe just the outermost area) will be come vulnerable to raiding. this is merely speculation that is based of the Q&A but they did confirm that faction points when low would cause "something" (they indirectly hinted to raids all throughout this part of the Q&A).

this being said i do agree that it may open up the ability to grief and knowing Schema he has mostly thought through that type of scenario. so with this in mind their must be a way to earn faction points if theirs a way to loose them. the part of your idea i didn't agree with was that creating and maintaining a new faction wouldn't be possible. in the mushroom fleet server (the server i'm on) their are countless number of 1 player factions. this does make sure someone wont just grab your ship and make a run for it but it also takes away from the experience a bit.

with this new concept of factions i see larger factions having to constantly earn faction points (due to their player count and claimed area) so that their territory stays safe and their players can build.

[NOTE: when i say earn i'm assuming their will be another way to gain faction points aside from killing other factions].

this give smaller factions who wont have to earn as many faction points as frequently the breathing room to grow. granted their are still case were a large faction could absorb smaller faction but that's the same in the real world, and really would cases like that be bad? if the community's a good community then mergers like that could strengthen both sides.

and finally theirs the problem of all the single person factions. with the threat of attack it would force players to use factions as they were originally intended a place for like minded gamers to band together and assist one another against other gamers. so yes i do see the potential for abuse but really the current system is already being abused and if a player really wanted to farm newbies all they would have to do is wait for them to leave the starting sectors and blast them away with their Superior ship.

 

[Krazykat]

server config needs to include HardCore/Softcore mode. For instance softcore will grant an invincible home base plus faction point system while Hardcore anything can be raided if enough points lost etc. Config also needs to include generation values and possibility for addons if servers want them.

 

[Guardian]

server config needs to include HardCore/Softcore mode. For instance softcore will grant an invincible home base plus faction point system while Hardcore anything can be raided if enough points lost etc. Config also needs to include generation values and possibility for addons if servers want them.

I could see this working.... maybe even expanding upon your idea even further. if (in this softcore) a faction hits the threshold for raiding then every sector (outward -> in) would slowly become raid-able (the next section in would only become raid-able after "neutralizing" the outer sector).

once the home base is reached it would still be invulnerable but the sector would fall under neutral territory.


what do you think?

 

[Krazykat]

I like it

 

[Yetimania]

I love the map idea!

However, I think faction homes require absolute, 100% invulnerability. Anything else means that, say you go for a week without playing because Starmade isn't your full-time job, when you come back, everything you've ever done will be destroyed by random griefers. I've played Shores of Hazeron. I've felt the pain as cities I've built over months were turned into giant middle fingers after I left for a week.

 

[Guardian]

I love the map idea!

However, I think faction homes require absolute, 100% invulnerability. Anything else means that, say you go for a week without playing because Starmade isn't your full-time job, when you come back, everything you've ever done will be destroyed by random griefers. I've played Shores of Hazeron. I've felt the pain as cities I've built over months were turned into giant middle fingers after I left for a week.

i do see your point....

but as stated above the point of factions were never to create a means for "Single Rouges" to protect their ships and stations. what it was designed for was to promote community and the creation of groups (which is the definition of factions). and if as you say you would need to be away for any period of time (i say this because i do the same exact thing. StarMade is by no means my "job") all that would be needed to properly protect your possessions would be to inform the other members of your faction, or even the staff of the server of your absence.

the fact is that if you do start a faction with others under the "predicted" update all members involved would have a great desire and necessity to assist in protecting one another's possessions.

in conclusion all that would be necessary to alleviate your grief would be to join up with a group of people that desire similar things you do, or to request a backup of the sectors in question from the server staff to protect your ships and bases are safe.

and really if your feel that your cant trust people on your server enough to help you and you help them or even trust your own servers admins come over to mushroom fleet's server. out of all the servers iv been on i would say without a doubt they are one of the most helpful and considerate communities i have ever seen

Thank you for you comment! had a great time processing this and thinking it over! -Guardian

 

[Ithirahad]

...Single people need the ability to protect their inactive ships and stations as well. Otherwise massive ragequits will occur. Not everyone has decided what faction to join, not everyone is ready to join a faction, and not everyone wants to even join a faction.

 

[psteiner]

Well, just thinking, but perhaps we can use this kind of graph (below) for the chart. I can't understand the chart that we have right now as well as these...

 

[Guardian]

...Single people need the ability to protect their inactive ships and stations as well. Otherwise massive ragequits will occur. Not everyone has decided what faction to join, not everyone is ready to join a faction, and not everyone wants to even join a faction.

i do see that point very well but i'm wondering if factions would be the sole means for protection.....

i'm shooting in the dark here but i wonder if theirs a way to get the best of both worlds?

 

[BillGHero]

There's always a way. Right now "Faction" in StarMade doesn't mean what the name implies. A Faction, by definition, would typically require multiple players. But I don't know if it actually should require that. Why not allow for one-player factions too?

The main thing is that the various mechanisms in SM appear to be built around the idea that all things should be as open-ended as practical. Hopefully the social mechanisms will follow this concept too. So that I could found a faction OR be a loner with no faction and still have the basic shelter needed to enjoy the game that way.

I really enjoyed reading this post, BTW, it's good to hear other points of view.

 

[jayman38]

I only used the "P" map for a while. Now I mostly use waypoints and memorized coordinates. I'll occasionally use the "P" map, just to take a look around long-range. Once I start going beyond where it is easy to remember important coordinates, I'll use display blocks to manage coordinate information. Here's hoping we get some sort of in-game Captain's Log. (Although, for fun and future nostalgia, I should make a real log book.)

 

[Ghent96]

re: the chart - currently it seems to be a top-down 2D chart, and you can use arrows, +/- to move around and up/down on the Z.