*Sigh* Again? (#34)
I'm just popping in here to say 'Keep it cool, folks!' before any more people lose their cool over how to tie shoelaces or what color shirt is best or whatever the topic of the week is.
In the future, please do show constructive criticism and try to keep an open mind when listening to solutions to the problems pointed out. For those of you who have participated in this kerfluffle, here is a useful link that may interest you and help you make your points clear for future socializing:
Gee, I sure learned a lot from that video. Thanks, internet!
In addition, I think I'll respond to the OP. In a mature manner. Maturely. Ma- Sorry, think I got something stuck in my throat.
FIX THE ROADMAP:
The current roadmap essentially view the player as a single cog in an NPC powered universe, that is a terrible idea, the players are the ones giving you money, not the NPCs you need to give the players priority not the NPCs, this means things like better player interaction for example, not buggy NPC mining fleets that do not even work 95% of the time.
From what I've seen of teasers and general development direction, the single player experience of Starmade aims to encapsulate a number of possibilities as far as player importance goes. Missions and exploration are mechanics that are centralized around the player being in one spot at a time with their attention on only their immediate circumstances in which case they ARE a small cog in an NPC powered universe. However, faction and diplomacy mechanics are also being developed in tandem which points towards the player (or players if on multiplayer) being a major power in the galactic climate. I for one am going to be looking forward to that balancing act, and will probably make a few threads about it myself in the future.
FIX SERVERS:
As most of you know EI shut down recently, so did Elwyn Eternity (soon to come back as EE2.0) Redshift, Nasszone, all the good servers from back then at the games peak popularity, gone, why because servers are shit, admins have very little control over the server and they crash all the damn time.
Start by adding a text command line for StarMade Servers, dont force admins to log into a laggy server to fix lag that is preventing players from logging in.
And seriously, add an API for modding, put that shit at the front of the que, you do not need to stop working on your other stuff, just please, for the love of god give players the ability to fix your game and make more content, you could even update your EULA giving you the right to ownership of a mod, so you can add a mods feature in the main game, so no need to worry about someone making a mod for something you had planned, It's already been made for you!
For servers: I uh... Don't have the knowledge of a server host. I do have the knowledge of a server player, however, and I am acutely aware of how immensely, completely, and totally volatile the game is when there is even a small hang or bug in it, what with the amount of data being worked with and number of potential interactions happening between all of it. I kinda-sorta agree with you that there should be some major overhauls to how servers are run to make it easier for the hosts, as evidenced by all the complaining in the past. I don't think that's the root of the issue though, just that it is the patchwork we're currently capable of putting over it. What I'd like to see kill most of the issues plaguing players on servers is a comprehensive bugsplat/optimization pass that stays optimized, unlike all the past ones that get messed up by new features and changes. There's my two cents.
FIX THE GAME:
Schema and Schine, your gaming is dying, is it losing players because they feel like they have been screwed over for investing their time into what they think is a terrible game with terrible devs, I do not necessarily agree with this, however you need to get your shit together, look at some time ago back when StarMade was at its peak!
Oh, I remember the good 'ole days, of D1000's and PLEXlanders. Back when the Hangman first reared it's planet-sized geometric head and wowed us with it's astonishing multi-million power regeneration. Sitting down with a few of the communities core members and going through multiple points in an effort to balance power, thrust, weaponry, and in general everything. Heck, I think that was what got me to finally make a forum account. My, my, how the game has fallen.
...
Okay, yeah, in all seriousness, we go through lulls often. We went through one pre-yogswarm when Schema switched from a near-daily update schedule to larger but less frequent updates. It happened after the yogswarm and before the big weapons update, and it happens every time we go through an optimization cycle.
Thing is though, we're not going through a lull right now. Not really. With the current environment we are at about what is normal, with plenty of people coming and going through chat and forums daily. The game is about as playable as it was a few months after the weapons update and the only times it's been MORE playable than that was pre-yogswarm. Of course this is all from memory which may be horribly skewed so it doesn't count for much.
Game = Dead or Game = Not Dead is something that's been going on for every game for as long as I've been a part of internet communities, and I have learned to take it as evidence not that the game is dying, but that subsets of the game's population are disgruntled.
...Okay, there it is. Helpful, concise, polite. And if there is a single reply underneath mine that is not paying heed to the rules (Specifically 'Don't be a dick') then they might find their stay here to be short.