Recognized Exploration/System Bonuses and Actual Empire Building

[Reilly Reese]

Sven_The_Slayer

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Sven_The_Slayer

Now that's a wall of text. I'll read it when I get a chance.

 

[MacThule]

These are great ideas and I would love to see a lot of them in game, but all of this is probably overambitious considering they haven't even made the super-simple player shops functional... buy and sell prices can't even be different, the shops permissions don't even stay as set (all, faction, etc).

 

[Ithirahad]

These are great ideas and I would love to see a lot of them in game, but all of this is probably overambitious considering they haven't even made the super-simple player shops functional... buy and sell prices can't even be different, the shops permissions don't even stay as set (all, faction, etc).

There's no reason why, when they fix those, they have to stop at fixing those. Those two things are probably easy fixes, just overlooked or postponed for when much larger issues to fix (Server performance, backend stuff, weapon hit detection and performance...) are dealt with. Believe me, we will almost certainly see an update to shop functionality at some point in the future. Heck, we will see an update to EVERYTHING at some point in the future...

 

[psteiner]

I would like to note that my "wall of text" is a very basic idea of the original idea noted in this comment and is meant to provide insight on to how those mechanics may work...


Allow me to flag Dalmont, keptick, and Crusade

 

[Reilly Reese]

To many @s!

 

[MacThule]

There's no reason why, when they fix those, they have to stop at fixing those. Those two things are probably easy fixes, just overlooked or postponed for when much larger issues to fix (Server performance, backend stuff, weapon hit detection and performance...) are dealt with. Believe me, we will almost certainly see an update to shop functionality at some point in the future. Heck, we will see an update to EVERYTHING at some point in the future...

They are easy. That's *my* point. They're easy and they've been brought up repeatedly here for a year. There has been no plan to fix even simple economy-related issues; the idea of implementing a grand-strategy layer to the game just seems like a pipe dream.
[DOUBLEPOST=1444954260,1444953936][/DOUBLEPOST]having said all that - if/when the super-simple basics get fixed, i'd love to see many of these.

 

[Ithirahad]

There is a plan for nearly everything (and if there isn't there will be), it just isn't executed right now because development-wise, the team has better things to do. Have you paid attention to the last few updates? They added much-needed building-related systems, completely revamped very lackluster combat mechanics, added a major and often-requested feature (shipyards) and made the game a lot more stable. Now we're moving into a stage of development that is apparently going to be more about the player experience and the universe than ships themselves (Beginning with more fauna framework... why? No idea, but apparently fauna has been at least a year in the making already); while I don't know how much is going to actually get done it sounds promising, and they may start working on exactly the sorts of things like shop options.

 

[MacThule]

oh the updates are great - but they've actually published a roadmap detailing upcoming projects, current work, etc, and shops aren't even on the "considered" list.

 

[Ithirahad]

oh the updates are great - but they've actually published a roadmap detailing upcoming projects, current work, etc, and shops aren't even on the "considered" list.

That thing barely gets updated, and isn't complete by any means. I don't think they would normally put small features like that on the Trello anyway.

 

[Edymnion]

the idea of implementing a grand-strategy layer to the game just seems like a pipe dream.

Today's pipe dream is tomorrow's reality.

Just gotta put the right bug in the right ear to get the ball rolling.

 

[MacThule]

well then lets see these! i voted agree and like on like 6 of these first time i read it through. the core concept is great - it'd add life to the universe.
[DOUBLEPOST=1444955293,1444955224][/DOUBLEPOST]now i think i'm going to go dig up some shop complaint threads to bump...

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I'm really looking forward to the day Starmade universes have some actual life in them and not just random lifeless AI driven mobs. Adding some 4x mechanics into the game would prove interesting. I love the idea of having my planets and stations being populated.

 

[Bench]

Lol summoning ritual.

Some great ideas in here, cool to see what we have planned is similar to what the community thinks would be cool, so that's a good sign.

I know we haven't really communicated much about the direction of the game recently, especially with us moving into new things beyond just ship building etc.

Stick with us just a little bit more and hopefully will be able to tell quite a lot more about all the plans, next week.

We have a number of planned mechanics that if you're a fan of the premise of the OP then you'll like these planned mechanics too.

 

[Edymnion]

Woo!

 

[StormWing0]

And the summoning worked. :P


In any event what kinds of new blocks would we need if any to make this work?

We'd need a way to either manually or automatically map areas as rooms, houses, buildings in general. Say a control block is spawned and we could tell it to map out the area itself or we could manually specify areas or even edit areas generated.

We already have water all we need is something to act as food. What kinds of food blocks do we have? Are they plants, other creatures, just inventory items, etc.

Other questions could be:

Do these NPCs have inventories of their own?
Are they able to build totally new designs or pull from the catalog only?
Does Stealing their ships for resources make them mad and want to take it back?
How do more resources get mined or generated?



Here's a few ideas of resource generation and mining in the NPC's case but also if players wanted to setup shop somewhere but not strip-mine a planet or asteroid belt dry.

Area Miner Array: This is a special effect module and computer meant to be used with the salvagers. While both are part of the same entity they slowly mine all Minerals, Ores, and Shards from a planet or asteroid. They can also mine ships and stations of their blocks as well. In the case of planets (and Asteroids with a Resource Generator Array) if all minerals, ores, and shards have been totally dried up by this it will still pull very small amounts of the resources that were present on the plate of the planet or the asteroid. This means even if the planet is totally stripped of any ores, shards, or minerals it will still produce them as long as the planet remains intact (AKA not blown up). Also planets are natural resource generators meaning they'll regenerate lost blocks and raws over time if you leave them alone. Asteroids on the other hand need a Resource Generator to replace what they've lost since this takes out the blocks like normal salvaging does but it is only grabbing blocks with minerals, ores, and shards in them also asteroids don't regenerate resources on their own.


Resource Generator Array: Another effect specifically for the salvagers but both the salvagers and the effect have to be on a rotating entity to function. This rotating entity cannot have anything else docked to it and has to be docked directly to a resource barring entity like a planet plate or asteroid. The faster the rotation of it the more resources per hour ( can be changed in the config ) it causes to be generated. On planets it just makes the resources and lost blocks due to mining come back faster, if the blocks are removed any other way than with a salvager they are not regenerated by this effect. In the case of asteroids it is a tricky balance because if all blocks of the asteroid are mined other than the docking point before the Resource Generator effect can kick in they will not be regenerated.


In both cases they have passives effects just like any other effect, mainly it is just a super super slow version of the existing effect. Also in both cases they do better if on a rotating entity that is docked to what is being mined or restored. This cuts down the issue of blocks appearing out of nowhere quite a bit while they are still being made out of nothing at least it is at a slower rate.


Also why not make it so the NPCs can use things like shipyards, factories, warpgates, etc; those kinds of useful things. This means they could drop off or pick up things from other storage areas as well. Also this brings up an issue of needing to set permissions for what they can use and what they can't so they don't take and use what you happen to need.

So many ideas that could go along with this.

 

[TomW1605]

mere words can not describe how much i agree with this and want it to happen +1000000

 

[psteiner]

And the summoning worked. :p


In any event what kinds of new blocks would we need if any to make this work?

We'd need a way to either manually or automatically map areas as rooms, houses, buildings in general. Say a control block is spawned and we could tell it to map out the area itself or we could manually specify areas or even edit areas generated.

We already have water all we need is something to act as food. What kinds of food blocks do we have? Are they plants, other creatures, just inventory items, etc.

Other questions could be:

Do these NPCs have inventories of their own?
Are they able to build totally new designs or pull from the catalog only?
Does Stealing their ships for resources make them mad and want to take it back?
How do more resources get mined or generated?

1. There are a # of blocks that are required to make most of this work
   1. Floor Block "Computer" (Think of a better name dammit): Links to all blocks that are tread-able by NPC's (blocks can not be covered by another block on top & must have 2+ empty space above). Allows for roads, floor maps, ect... keeps NPC's where you want them. we would need an additional algorithm to control where NPC's wander/ interact.
   2. City Block Core: Defines the center of the city, allowing for spread from center point rather than sprawl of houses. Also allows for a place to access portions of a civilization (trading, warfare, relations, ect) in a simple access point.
   3. NPC Interaction Block (a suggestion): An access point for NPC's that connect with logic. Would have several settings like "door", "release", "investigate" to control how NPC's interact with environment (Quite a bad idea now that I think about it...)
2. We could use a floor block to map those spaces (see above)
3. Food, a controversial issue. What a liberal thinker...

 

[TomW1605]

you could have blocks like farm blocks that produce a food meta-item and ether need to be harvested manually (player or NPC) or place it in a storage where NPCs can access it. each NPC would need say 3 food/day or something like that
[DOUBLEPOST=1445061682,1445060670][/DOUBLEPOST]this could also tie into a crew system (http://starmadedock.net/threads/cre...s-experience-expense.20376/page-5#post-231375)

 

[Sgtwisky]

Love most of the ideas the OP posted. REALLY interested in finding out what Bench has to say next week ! I have my own thoughts on how it might be implemented, but if we actually get a form of empire building (which would make fleet control even more important) I would be ecstatic. Then I can give all my clan mates medieval governance titles.... Like "Duke" or "Lord of *insert planet name*". Then we can have "Royal Jousts" with our warhead lance ships, and feast on the glorious spoils our peasants provided !