lets talk about the state of the game.

[RoyalWolfe]

lets talk about the state of the game.

OK, I know immediately I'm going to get told something silly like "I'm too serious", or "maybe I need to play another game", or" why am I being negative." first off I am not intending upon being negatiuve, in absolutely any way, you are simply perceiving it as such, and need to go to a psychologist right now, seriously stop reading and go now, and get that checked. you need to ask yourself the same questions, maybe if your bothered to read this far you are, and if so good for you. So lets just start off by saying if you are still here lets save the sociological bullshit where it belongs and leave personal feelings at home, and lets all agree to discuss this like civilized individuals and get past all that right now.

this is just the initial warning please read it as the intent it is meant for. "I am not intedning to offend or berate anyone" so if you are going to comment as such dont bother. stop reading any furteher.be the bigger person and go away now.

That having been said, up front if your still here, I move on and will get to the point topic.

lets talk about the state of the game shall we? as of right now the game is semi playable, and that is a positive thing, its also lots of fun. there are good points of the game as it is right now, and that is not the purpose of this discussion.

the purpose is to asses the games general current state, and maybe understand what the game really needs in order to to improve. there are trouble areas and some of these are even personally acknowledged by the games creators so keep that in mind as well. I do also understand this game is only in a beta state, and that’s all the more importance of why we need to do this discussion right now. the good and the bad both need to be displayed on the table. we need to take the game apart and look at what needs fixing and what doesn’t right now. so actions can be taken.

right now the state of the game is as I said playable. it is functional but, It needs a few things before it is where it needs to be.

One thing I find is helpful for the games overall state is to break it up according to its basic parts. Right now this is best done, just like Mojang did with minecraft. If your wondering what I mean I am talking about what Notch said in his minecraft development blog. when notch created minecraft he said in his blog just how he visualized the game, in a planing phase. he basically explains that the game was based upon three basic concepts, Survive, Build, and Create. these three concepts are the basic design frame which all the other parts of the game are built upon.

that is probably exactly what the creators of this game did as well, while I do know this game is not trying to become MINECRAFT IN SPACE, the game is still perceived as just that to the people like me that play it.lets be ralistic this game is built almost functionally just like a space born Minecraft. there is nothing wrong with that however, this game does have some fundamental differences from its model counterpart.

lets look at the games design the same way Notch did with minecraft and see what is working and what is not.

Survival

Right now there isn’t really a survival part to the game. you as an astronaut don’t have needs so why wouldn’t you survive indefinitely. now I'm not suggesting the game make us start eating like in minecraft, as with starmade, you are in space, so that means your needs multiply. how are you breathing in space? how would you then eat without taking off your helmet? when in minecraft you only have to worry about one need,.your stomach. In starmade, I think this is simply a matter of debatable game play mechanics which needs the developers input to resolve, so little more discussion can be useful here until we see what they are trying to do.

ok with that being the first concept lets move onto

Build

building in this game is fundamentally perfected already in this game, you can build spaceships pretty easily and rather well, with little investments in the game already. there is nothing really wrong here either, and that is OK, but there is some other things which in this system probably needs some work as well. there has been some rather controversial developments in the building of the game already and much of that is specific and may need its own topics respectively. but overall this part of the game is the best and working part of the game.

OK, finally lets get to the last part of the notch analysis.

Create

this part in notches development plan was not something based upon one specific part of the game, so it actually was more like what happened when all the other parts came together. and this also is perfectly done in starmade as well. i think for the most part in minecraft this was centered on the crafting specifically. in starmade the crafting isn’t really well defined you cant just put a bunch of ores into a furnace then smelt up hulls from it. I understand that minecraft is deceptively simple for a reason, but maybe that is what starmade needs to learn from minecraft. right now the crafting system is to be blunt, a mess. i find it impossible besides from simply buying or just acquiring my materials made for me already from shops. i don’t really WANT TO manufacture because it gets complicated as hell really fast. this is off putting and frankly I think an anchor upon the rest of the game.

 

[thedemoninside]

You basically said a bunch of things that will obviously change later on. Your spelling also needs work.

I\'m an asshole, and I love you.

 

[Moph]

I can see you\'ve gone to great efforts with writing up this post. You are on the right track thinking of gameplay first. However, you should try to make specific suggestions about how things should work, rather than comment that things don\'t work well; provide an alternative. It will inspire people to think about your ideas and encourage them to post. You\'ve compared this to Minecraft several times, but you have to keep in mind that the only part of this game which is intended to be the same, is the creative/sandbox feel to it. I.e. the only part the same, is that you have the freedom to place any block you want in any position you want.
I am not saying that there are things in Minecraft which wouldn\'t suit this game, just that they are different games, and you need to respect the developer\'s vision of what he wants the game to be. Yes.. I\'m sure you understand that, but it\'s easy to wave that comment away without having done any design or development yourself. Did you know that even at a large games company, even employees make suggestions which never get a second thought?

So, I would recommend that you try getting into some technical game creation tools yourself. Programming, scripting, mapping, modelling, graphics, animation, sound etc. Anyone who posts suggestions is obviously passionate about the game they\'re playing, but if you can\'t wait for new updates or you have better or different ideas about how you want something in game to work, then the best way to do it is to get into development yourself. That way you will have the absolute freedom to make the mechanics work in just the way you want them to, with the added bonus of improving your skills and knowledge.

 

[AxNinjaX]

First of all, as previously mentioned, your spelling definitely needs work. This does indeed have an effect on how others view you, in regards to your intellect. But I\'ll be as objective as possible, and attempt to judge solely on the content of your post



Goals

I noticed that you drew lots of comparisons and parallels with Minecraft, another excellent game that I do, in fact, play. However, I feel that this isn\'t always a very apt comparison; just because both games involve cubes and building doesn\'t mean that they should aim towards the same goals. Speaking of goals, you do bring up a good point; it might benefit the developer to focus on some core aspects of the game.



Survival

In my opinion, StarMade is really less about the astronaut/player, and more heavily focused on space exploration and combat. Thus, I believe that survival need not take as large a role as in Minecraft, and/or appear in the same form.

Some may disagree with me but... come on, it\'s the future. Everyone\'s flying spaceships around and shooting lasers. Nobody has time to take a lunch break while warping from sector to sector!

All joking aside, I feel that certain aspects of survival might cut into the playability of the game, rather than contributing to it. Yet, there\'s always room for healing, which is very much lacking as of now, and more astronaut-based equipment (armor, weapons, etc). After cleaning out a pirate station with the laser pistol, because I had nothing better to do, I\'ve realized the potential of personal weaponry, and I look forwards to expansion in this regard as the game progresses.



Building

It\'s pretty much flawless, as you said. Perfect for larger-scale projects and ships.



Crafting

I find the factory system to be extremely efficient, and infinitely more so that the crafting system of Minecraft; with factories, I can simultaneously break down ores, assemble them into parts, and shuttle them off to another factory to be turned into something else. I\'ve easily created factories that produce hundreds of thousands of hull blocks, etc.

Of course, there is a bit of a learning curve, but the same occurs in Minecraft. Crafting in Minecraft is not perfectly defined, and inexperienced users will likely rely on online resources or, in most multiplayer servers, purchase the items they desire in a shop. It may seem deceptively simple to experienced players, but Minecraft\'s crafting is no less complicated of StarMade\'s, and perhaps a bit more.

In StarMade, the factory system relies on recipes, factory blocks, and input enhancers; the same process is followed for each recipe, albeit with different materials. In this respect, it may even be simpler than Minecraft\'s crafting, as the same procedure is followed for ALL recipes. Also, unlike in Minecraft, I find that most players can get along fine without manufacturing, and thrive off of whatever plunder they acquire.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to read through my response. I, too, encourage any further civilized discussion.

Sincerely,

AxNinjaX

 

[thedemoninside]

I really like the responses so far. I want you to know that I have read every word in these posts, and have enjoyed the content. I wish I was more capable of creating well thought out posts to contribute to this discussion, but the 2 previous posters pretty much nailed this on the head.

I enjoy this game alot, but there really isn\'t enough actual content to call it a game. This makes creating a topic about the \"state of the game\" seem a bit premature.

Love,

Jason

 

[RoyalWolfe]

lots of positive thinkers out there, the first post was basically me throwing the whole ideas at the wall and seeing if it worked at all. and from what I have seen a lot has. basically put my OP was originally vague for a reason.

the main reason was stated above, there has been some rather controversial developments in the building of the game already and much of that is specific and may need its own topics respectively. this topic is of the overall development so these other parts are better off in their own threads so as not to bog down this one, so I think if either I or anyone else want to, maybe we can take initiative and post links to some of these controversial issues, within this thread so that they all can be discussed in as civil a manner as it is being done here. As such, the way these issues are as of right now I think is the one way the game deviates from Minecraft as I was comparing it to.

So these issues should be just as broken down as the core game concepts were in the initial posts analysis plan. The way you can construct a ship is just as modular as the game itself, so this means the build portion of the game should also be directly referred to in a similar manner. This means breaking ships into categories just like the game design. These categories should be the function of the blocks used to construct them. Right now the two biggest problem issues in the process is, SHIELDING, and ENGINES. (the problems seem to be specific to their use so its hard to address them here) These need their own specific discussions so I think ill let someone start those for me. feel free to do so if and as needed but this is suposed to be just a general overall topic that will link these things for discussion on thier eventual solutions.