I Want This But I Have Questions

[Tyr4el]

Hello everyone. I discovered this on Steam today and it looks REALLY interesting and fun. But let me ask some questions.

1. What is there to do beyond building ships?
2. Is this game Multiplayer always or do you have to join a server? Kinda like Minecraft I guess
3. How is the community?
4. Is the game difficult to learn?

That's it . Thanks!

 

[hakkarin]

Hello everyone. I discovered this on Steam today and it looks REALLY interesting and fun. But let me ask some questions.

1. What is there to do beyond building ships?
2. Is this game Multiplayer always or do you have to join a server? Kinda like Minecraft I guess
3. How is the community?
4. Is the game difficult to learn?

That's it . Thanks!

1. Currently not really anything. Creative mode is the only thing worth playing right now. Unless you are into the multiplayer.
2. There is both single and multiplayer.
3. It's very helpful.
4. Somewhat but not too much. Just watch youtube tutorials and go to the forum for advice.

 

[therimmer96]

1. Factions are a big part of the community. They're not very fleshed out mechanics wise, but they exist and are the only real alternative to creative gameplay
2. Singleplayer exists, but it is a locally hosted multiplayer.
3. Depends, lots of people behave differently based on lots of things.
4. Depends. The games simplest elements are quite simple, but there is a bit of depth such as logic and power reactors.

 

[Tyr4el]

So it's really just build a ship and that's it? Do you have to work for the advanced blocks like Minecraft? Is there a mining element or anything to it? I loved Minecraft with the digging and building and whatnot. Is this more of the same thing?

 

[papachabre]

You should get it for sure. I just got it a few weeks ago and I have logged 40 hours already. And that's saying a lot because I really don't get much time for fun.

1. What is there to do beyond building ships?
You can build structures and fight pirates/other players. You can mine and craft. Exploration isn't great right now because there's not much interesting stuff to find out there, but they're working on that I believe.
2. Is this game Multiplayer always or do you have to join a server? Kinda like Minecraft I guess
It's also single-player. I've spent almost all of my time in single-player. I've also played on a private server with a friend.
3. How is the community?
I haven't spent a bunch of time on the forums, but from what I've read they've been very helpful and generally good.
4. Is the game difficult to learn?
Yes. Some things are complicated or not intuitive - like power reactors. Some components are obsolete and no longer work correctly - for example I spent a few hours trying to make a dock for my ship, got frustrated, asked about it on the forums and found out that the docking module is obsolete. It was left in the game so that older ship designs wouldn't break, but it certainly confused the heck out of me (c'mon guys - a little note that says "DO NOT USE IN NEW DESIGNS!" would've been nice!). If you want to make a decent ship, or use logic, or make turrets, then you're gonna have to read up or find someone willing to teach you the ropes.

If you're not sure about it then just download the demo and try it out. But make sure you read up and check out some tutorials.

 

[Edymnion]

1. What is there to do beyond building ships?
2. Is this game Multiplayer always or do you have to join a server? Kinda like Minecraft I guess
3. How is the community?
4. Is the game difficult to learn?

1. Not much, currently. You build ships and stations, fight pirates, fight each other, and mine for materials to make bigger ships and stations. Its a lot like the early days of Minecraft.
2. It has both single player and multiplayer. Each server (single or any given multiplayer) is separate and unique, and you cannot transfer things between them. You can design a ship and move the design to another server, but you'd still need to get the parts on the new server to rebuild it with.
3. Pretty good and helpful. Its early days yet, as this is still an alpha. The people here want to be here because they want to play the game... mostly. The toxic PK'er trolls haven't moved in yet.
4. Its about as difficult to learn as Minecraft, as in its not a game you just pick up and play and expect to not get blown up by a creeper right away. You have to do some research on how things work before you can really get into it. But like anything else complex, the reward is crazy amounts of flexibility and creativity.

 

[Tyr4el]

I notice it's been out for a year now. Why such slow development? What are some planned updates?

 

[therimmer96]

A year? Try 3.

 

[Tyr4el]

Yeah that's what I meant haha. Why so slow?

Is the game not that popular? I just saw it pop up on games recommended for me on Steam today. Prior to that I've never heard of it.

 

[therimmer96]

Yeah that's what I meant haha. Why so slow?

Is the game not that popular? I just saw it pop up on games recommended for me on Steam today. Prior to that I've never heard of it.

it's been popular, but it sort of died off because its not changed that much. Sure, lots of features got added, but its mostly fluff. There still isn't much gameplay in the vanilla game.

 

[Winterhome]

The toxic PK'er trolls haven't moved in yet.

Correction: They moved in a long time ago, but got kicked out.

 

[jayman38]

I notice it's been out for a year now. Why such slow development? What are some planned updates?

The engine has been in development by the core developer for about a decade now. It's his dearly personal project. He only just recently brought two more developers into the team with him. It's a big project for such a small team, and since money is tight, the team has to focus on their "day jobs" and can only bring so many hours of the day to this project. Below is a link to the official project roadmap, showing some of the things they want to introduce to the game or improve existing stuff.

https://trello.com/b/9Kg5Jn6g/starmade-roadmap

 

[Tyr4el]

Ah that's a shame. Maybe I'll just try the demo before I go and buy it. It's a shame they can't get more to work on this and that popularity died. I wonder if popularity will come back once the game gets better updates.

 

[kiraen]

I the interest of full disclosure, checkout the bugtracker and the official wiki.
That way you can see what not working right and get some examples of what you should be able to do.
(note: the wiki is not fully up to date)

Finally, it free right now. Download and play the 'demo'. It's not going to cost you anything.

 

[Tyr4el]

Yep I plan on playing the demo tomorrow with a friend (because playing alone sucks :P). We will see how it goes and if we like it or not
[DOUBLEPOST=1441056860,1441055565][/DOUBLEPOST]Question on the options when you start up the demo. Can I play the demo and save progress between two computers? Also, how optimized is the game in terms of increasing resolutions?

What about the texture packs? Is it advised to change it from the default?

 

[Tyr4el]

How do I host a game for my friend to join over the Internet? Do I need to click the start dedicated server button?

 

[lupoCani]

Indeed. However, this will close the launcher and only start the server. Thus, you need a separate instance of the game for actually playing, and as we all know, steam only allows you to run one instance of a game at a time.

Fortunately, starmade comes with no DRM, meaning you can just open up the game's folder in steam and start it, circumventing steam entirely. Just in case you don't know where steam stores it's files, right-click starmade in your steam library, click "properties", select the "local files" tab and click "browse local files."

I'd suggesting launching the server manually and the game itself from steam, as you won't be able to play with the shift+tab many otherwise.