Is slow travel a contributing factor to the decline of PvP?

[Lecic]

I feel like one of the contributing factors to less frequent PvP is how SLOW it is to move around with JDs. I don't know about most people, but when I enter the coords for a friendly HB that's under attack and see "4000km" on a server where JDs carry me around 80km, it doesn't really make me want to go when the attacker will probably get bored and leave or get chased off by the friendly before I even get halfway there.

Spoiler: Some Quick Travel Time Math

4000km/80km = 50 jumps.
50 jumps * 25s charge time = 1250s or 20.8 minutes.

Does anyone else want to spend over 40 minutes just going to a friendly base and back?

This game has a serious need for a hyperdrive or a way to hide warpgate routes.

 

[Mariux]

On one hand I kind of agree, but on the other I don't think that people should be able to practically teleport around the galaxy instantaneausly. I think that, as you said, the best way around this is a way to hide your warp gates so that you are able to have a way to defend your installations and strategic points quickly while keeping exploration slower paced.

 

[Keptick]

The decline with PvP has more to do with ship production than travel imo.

People have always liked to get set up unecessarily far away. Remember back when jump drives didn't exist? It would take 20-30 minutes of flying in a straight line to get to enemy/friendly bases. When jump drives were added people just went waaaay further away so now it takes 20-30 minutes of charging and jumping... I'm pretty sure that the exact same thing would happen if hyperdrives were added, people would just fly for 20-30 minutes in hyperspace....

With that said, yes to undiscovered warp gate routes not showing up on the map. It's long overdue!

 

[Mariux]

The decline with PvP has more to do with ship production than travel imo.

People have always liked to get set up unecessarily far away. Remember back when jump drives didn't exist? It would take 20-30 minutes of flying in a straight line to get to enemy/friendly bases. When jump drives were added people just went waaaay further away so now it takes 20-30 minutes of charging and jumping... I'm pretty sure that the exact same thing would happen if hyperdrives were added, people would just fly for 20-30 minutes in hyperspace....

With that said, yes to undiscovered warp gate routes not showing up on the map. It's long overdue!

I guess it's because the only practical way to protect your territory (territory itself, not your bases/stationary ships) is to distance it as far away as possible. And that's not a good thing.

 

[Lecic]

I'm pretty sure that the exact same thing would happen if hyperdrives were added, people would just fly for 20-30 minutes in hyperspace....

Not unless there was a reason to stay in the spawn galaxy... like, say, outer galaxies having lower and lower resource concentrations, and stronger and stronger pirates and hostile aliens.

 

[StormWing0]

Well in my case I only fight someone if I have to so I'm usually too busy mining to care much. That said I'd love a way to wide my warpgate paths from enemies unless they find them. This way I can setup a warpgate network and not feel like I'm advertising where to go to find out what I'm up to. >_>

 

[Kilim]

The decline with PvP has more to do with ship production than travel imo.

People have always liked to get set up unecessarily far away. Remember back when jump drives didn't exist? It would take 20-30 minutes of flying in a straight line to get to enemy/friendly bases. When jump drives were added people just went waaaay further away so now it takes 20-30 minutes of charging and jumping... I'm pretty sure that the exact same thing would happen if hyperdrives were added, people would just fly for 20-30 minutes in hyperspace....

With that said, yes to undiscovered warp gate routes not showing up on the map. It's long overdue!

This.
On the GenX nova server, most people are relatively close to eachother in spawn galaxy. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes usually with an optimal block count jump drive to get to eachother. Now people are also utilizing overdrive ships to zip around at 1350 m/s, which is another way to travel at high speeds to eachother.

Whenever I get rekt, it really kills my motivation to fight back again, because I just lost something that in most cases would have taken a long time to get, or if not a long time, very tediously complicated to get.

 

[nightrune]

This is largely an opinion post. To be honest. I'm not as interested PVP for the same reason I stop playing RTS and other survival games where you pretty much lose everything when you die, The gap between beginner and people that want to pvp is too big. Its not fun to start on a server with nothing and get pummeled. It would be one thing to start at the same time as other people with no blueprints, but in this game the more time someone spends the better off they are since they get more materials. Also as far I understand PVP in SM is just an escalation game right now. Make sure you have the largest ship. It'll be awhile before I join a PVP server because there is too much that can go wrong and no reward for it if it does go right.

 

[Mariux]

This is largely an opinion post. To be honest. I'm not as interested PVP for the same reason I stop playing RTS and other survival games where you pretty much lose everything when you die, The gap between beginner and people that want to pvp is too big. Its not fun to start on a server with nothing and get pummeled. It would be one thing to start at the same time as other people with no blueprints, but in this game the more time someone spends the better off they are since they get more materials. Also as far I understand PVP in SM is just an escalation game right now. Make sure you have the It'll be awhile before I do because there is too much that can go wrong and no reward for it if it does.

Yeah, currently the first faction on the server will remain most powerful forever assuming they keep expanding and maintaining the same player activity.

Also, this thread is gold. I think we've uncovered some of the most important progression and gameplay issues of the game rarely mentioned earlier. If we keep this up I'll attempt a satanic dev summoning ritual as I seem to be good at those.

 

[StormWing0]

It'd be nice if people started off in a premade starting faction like say the Trading Guild. Spawn could be their Home Base and since they started out in an AI faction rankings could be determined by other things than the people holding the promotion powers. This way people could go solo if they wanted to but would always have a fallback plan and faction.

 

[BDLS]

Really need hidden warp gate routes and non-shared map data across all players.

 

[godmars]

The decline with PvP has more to do with ship production than travel imo.

What do you mean? Is there not enough automation or are you talking about resources.. or something else?

 

[TheFloorMatt]

I would definitely be a fan of either

A: Punishing Isolationists who spend 30 minutes of their life going from starting galaxy to another galaxy to be "safe". Punishing meaning have some sort of downside outside of no human interaction... which isn't even a downside to them.

B: Better resource gathering. I'm also of the opinion that a lot of PvP is declining due to the lack of people willing to gather up the resources needed to make the ships they actually want to use, as their ships will inevitably be destroyed in combat.

C: None of the above. Promote combat as a win-lose activity instead of a lose-lose activity. When two groups fight, neither group gets anything out of it. Both groups lose time and resources. All those blocks destroyed by weapons are just resources thrown into the vacuum of space, never to be seen again. I have no idea how to make combat into something productive, but I know it certainly isn't worth anyone's time right now.

 

[Harbinger_OF_Cthulhu]

Player interaction most certainly is effected by inability to make contact with other people in a timely fashion. Though that's a very obvious conclusion. What isn't so obvious is how to fix that without breaking the game (by that I don't just mean mechanics within game)...

While I like the idea of increasing jump ranges while also locking people into the start galaxy I know many people do not like that. However at that point it comes down to personal preference. I'll just reiterate what my opinion is when in regards to personal preference changes to the base game of Starmade. It is as follows: Allow server's to customize the game. Period. (seems kinda obvious, I know)

This would allow people to find the server that they enjoy the most. And each server will feel unique. Believe it or not, some people specifically enjoy the feel of being alone in a huge galaxy where people are literally hours away from them. So let them have that, which would be had from server side code changes.

I am only uncertain when it comes to sweeping changes based upon personal opinion. Even when it comes from many people who feel the same way. So great, they should find a server that does what they enjoy best. Not have every server the same. You catch my drift?


(But I am a proponent of incentivising PvP in a more rewarding way, somehow)

 

[Reilly Reese]

Radar Scrambler replace current jammer. Jammer repurposed to utterly hide ships and requires support modules.

 

[Andir]

As long as it doesn't screw with my zero PVP playstyle, I don't care what you guys do.

 

[NeonSturm]

Perhaps make PvP not a lose-lose, neither a lose-win but a win-win.

Let players clone their assets into a virtual-reality compatible with a TG-communication-network.
The TG searches for good ships and players participating by donating blueprint-data can win credits, maybe about the same as with trading.

No lost blocks as you only invest blueprints. Something to win.


These competitions could also be cast by a faction to invite customers for their shops (sell factory products) and trade centres (a few % share to the faction).

 

[Groovrider]

Server admins control how far jump drives go so talk to them. I have 20 or so jump drives that are always charging when in dock so when I get the call and it's 5000 km away I say "be there in 5 minutes".

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

Perhaps make PvP not a lose-lose, neither a lose-win but a win-win.

Let players clone their assets into a virtual-reality compatible with a TG-communication-network.
The TG searches for good ships and players participating by donating blueprint-data can win credits, maybe about the same as with trading.

No lost blocks as you only invest blueprints. Something to win.


These competitions could also be cast by a faction to invite customers for their shops (sell factory products) and trade centres (a few % share to the faction).

This is fine as a game MODE, but should not be in survival mode.

Survival mode already lacks a huge portion, mainly the SURVIVAL part, at least in the current version, as nothing attempts to challenge your survival. You wont starve, and nothing will attack you save for a random pirate if you're close to a station.

PvP is the only thing that even REMOTELY challenges a player to build defenses, think about positioning, fly tactically, and run missions from cloaked scout runs to all-out warfare.

I say hide player meta-data on any non-allied faction. If you try to claim a claimed system because you didnt know, you just get a "this system is already claimed" message. Scans add the data of the scan (if the system is claimed, nearby stations with names, etc) to the map, but wont update until you scan that area again (so if someone builds a new station you wont know until you visit and scan again).

Hide jump gate data BUT leave it to the player to use a faction module on the warp gate computer. If set to public, show on all maps. If faction only, then faction only. Add an option to the faction menu to "Share warpgate destinations" and have a drop-down like for shops with "Faction only, Allies, Everyone".

 

[StormWing0]

Server admins control how far jump drives go so talk to them. I have 20 or so jump drives that are always charging when in dock so when I get the call and it's 5000 km away I say "be there in 5 minutes".

lol so much this. I've been slowly build a 20 computer/module logic jumper system into my bigger ships that can use it. I'm mainly using that to place gates down though so the odds of me using more often than I have to are rare once I have gates setup. :P