The biggest problem with Star made, (Or any voxel based game for that matter) is that once you've finished building a ship big enough to cover the goddamn sun, gave it a fancy-smancy interior, killed all the little isanths, ate a couple planets, is that there's absolutely nothing in hell to do.
I'm sure you all know how I feel. In Minecraft, once you've built a massive house and gotten all your armor and stuff is that there's nothing to do. You build a house, get bored, build another house, etc. It's a redundant circle of screw you.
What this game, and any other voxel game, is missing, is some face-melting hardship. Minecraft would be exponentially more enjoyable if your house was attacked by goddamn dragons and you had to fight tooth and nail to protect your hard earned cash. (On a side note, the Avalon server in Minecraft has some pretty decent mobs).
Star made needs the same. It should be that once you're done building your little ship in spawn, you are smothered into the nearest planet like a blind orphan in a professional football field. Challenge is what makes things interesting, my friends. Building your titan on top of a pile of gold and Isanth skeletons while your massive AI turrets tear anybody you don't like a new butt (For lack of a better word) may sound fun for a while. But it gets boring. What's fun is zooming through a nebulae so thick you can't see 300 meters in front of you, while Amc fire zips around you, barely missing while you and a couple AI crewman are running around your ship, (Please see Guns of Icarus), furiously typing at computers, zapping damaged shield generators with repair pistols, sealing plasma leaks, screaming as your best AI friend suffocates in the void while his blood boils. And then crashing into a goddamn blackhole so powerful you are turned inside out and hurled at the wrong end of the galaxy.
Adrenaline is what makes the game fun. It's what makes any game fun. So! Here are some suggestions:
1.) Food and suit energy. By now, I'm sure we've all figured out ways to keep your puny body running without food, but that still must require some sort of something to keep you alive. (Pink goo?) What I suggest is a hunger system. It would be replenished a certain amount by regular suit rations or whatever, and that's only if you have enough batteries to keep it running. If you have actual food (NPCs farming on planets FTW) it moves the hunger bar up a little more, making it so you can move faster and have more HP and stuff.
2.) Better AI/default ships. Pretty self explanatory.
3.) Navigational hazards. Right now I can travel 500km blindfolded with a thumb in my eye, all I need is a logic circuit, some push modules, a little something something to do on the way (Please see: http://starmadedock.net/threads/the-figurehead-captains-log.1363/). What we need is some black holes, nebulae, exploding asteroids, collision damage, space lightning (For that little extra feeling of screw you) pulsars, supernovas, etc. Just some stuff to dodge with your expert piloting skills, and honestly, who doesn't want to be hit by an explosive asteroid so you're flying through space at warp speed, you have no way to steer your ship, and you are running out of life support energy. Seriously, that would be fun.
4.) Separate ship systems. Make it so that when you connect blocks of the same type together (Say, two shield generators) they act as a single system. And when 25% of that system is destroyed (One of those generators is destroyed) the entire thing explodes. Just, BOOM. 25% of that system may seem harsh, but honestly, who here has the time to sit and take out a 10x10x10 block of shield generators? Not me, I know. By the time you're finished destroying whatever system you're aiming at, your prey will most likely kill you. You could also create separate computers to monitor the health of each system.
5.) Plasma leaks. When a block is damaged, it has a minor chance of venting plasma. It's basically just a stream of gas that damages anything else it touches.
6.) Crewing:
Remember those computers I talked about earlier? the ones that let you monitor the health of systems? Well, I had an idea. You could plop down in one of those, and tell your ship where to place the energy of whatever system you're monitoring. Say for example, you have a ship with a 10x10x10 block of shields. The computer displays a diagram of it, with all the power flowing in it. It's being destroyed. You have to move the power from the damage blocks about to die to the healthy blocks by rerouting power circuits. Kinda like a mini-game. Fun for both humans and AI crew.
Also, a setting so that exposed components take a little random damage in exchange for increased performance. Your crew would have to run around and zap it with repair pistols so you could have increased speed, shields, or weapons fire. A computer could be there to monitor what bonuses you get and how much you get it. The bonus is dependent on A.) How much damage your system takes and B.) How much of it is exposed.
Honestly, this is just one idea of how crewing would work. What crewing needs to be is something to keep you busy on long voyages, something fun and challenging, and something for masses of AI deckhands and some Human/AI bridge officers to do. Fun for the whole family.
7.) Decrease the amount of shops, replace them with a few big ones (Could be on stations and planets) with interiors where you can look at farms and hire crew.
Now, this is all really complex, but definitely would make the game much, much, better.
So, what do you guys think?
I'm sure you all know how I feel. In Minecraft, once you've built a massive house and gotten all your armor and stuff is that there's nothing to do. You build a house, get bored, build another house, etc. It's a redundant circle of screw you.
What this game, and any other voxel game, is missing, is some face-melting hardship. Minecraft would be exponentially more enjoyable if your house was attacked by goddamn dragons and you had to fight tooth and nail to protect your hard earned cash. (On a side note, the Avalon server in Minecraft has some pretty decent mobs).
Star made needs the same. It should be that once you're done building your little ship in spawn, you are smothered into the nearest planet like a blind orphan in a professional football field. Challenge is what makes things interesting, my friends. Building your titan on top of a pile of gold and Isanth skeletons while your massive AI turrets tear anybody you don't like a new butt (For lack of a better word) may sound fun for a while. But it gets boring. What's fun is zooming through a nebulae so thick you can't see 300 meters in front of you, while Amc fire zips around you, barely missing while you and a couple AI crewman are running around your ship, (Please see Guns of Icarus), furiously typing at computers, zapping damaged shield generators with repair pistols, sealing plasma leaks, screaming as your best AI friend suffocates in the void while his blood boils. And then crashing into a goddamn blackhole so powerful you are turned inside out and hurled at the wrong end of the galaxy.
Adrenaline is what makes the game fun. It's what makes any game fun. So! Here are some suggestions:
1.) Food and suit energy. By now, I'm sure we've all figured out ways to keep your puny body running without food, but that still must require some sort of something to keep you alive. (Pink goo?) What I suggest is a hunger system. It would be replenished a certain amount by regular suit rations or whatever, and that's only if you have enough batteries to keep it running. If you have actual food (NPCs farming on planets FTW) it moves the hunger bar up a little more, making it so you can move faster and have more HP and stuff.
2.) Better AI/default ships. Pretty self explanatory.
3.) Navigational hazards. Right now I can travel 500km blindfolded with a thumb in my eye, all I need is a logic circuit, some push modules, a little something something to do on the way (Please see: http://starmadedock.net/threads/the-figurehead-captains-log.1363/). What we need is some black holes, nebulae, exploding asteroids, collision damage, space lightning (For that little extra feeling of screw you) pulsars, supernovas, etc. Just some stuff to dodge with your expert piloting skills, and honestly, who doesn't want to be hit by an explosive asteroid so you're flying through space at warp speed, you have no way to steer your ship, and you are running out of life support energy. Seriously, that would be fun.
4.) Separate ship systems. Make it so that when you connect blocks of the same type together (Say, two shield generators) they act as a single system. And when 25% of that system is destroyed (One of those generators is destroyed) the entire thing explodes. Just, BOOM. 25% of that system may seem harsh, but honestly, who here has the time to sit and take out a 10x10x10 block of shield generators? Not me, I know. By the time you're finished destroying whatever system you're aiming at, your prey will most likely kill you. You could also create separate computers to monitor the health of each system.
5.) Plasma leaks. When a block is damaged, it has a minor chance of venting plasma. It's basically just a stream of gas that damages anything else it touches.
6.) Crewing:
Remember those computers I talked about earlier? the ones that let you monitor the health of systems? Well, I had an idea. You could plop down in one of those, and tell your ship where to place the energy of whatever system you're monitoring. Say for example, you have a ship with a 10x10x10 block of shields. The computer displays a diagram of it, with all the power flowing in it. It's being destroyed. You have to move the power from the damage blocks about to die to the healthy blocks by rerouting power circuits. Kinda like a mini-game. Fun for both humans and AI crew.
Also, a setting so that exposed components take a little random damage in exchange for increased performance. Your crew would have to run around and zap it with repair pistols so you could have increased speed, shields, or weapons fire. A computer could be there to monitor what bonuses you get and how much you get it. The bonus is dependent on A.) How much damage your system takes and B.) How much of it is exposed.
Honestly, this is just one idea of how crewing would work. What crewing needs to be is something to keep you busy on long voyages, something fun and challenging, and something for masses of AI deckhands and some Human/AI bridge officers to do. Fun for the whole family.
7.) Decrease the amount of shops, replace them with a few big ones (Could be on stations and planets) with interiors where you can look at farms and hire crew.
Now, this is all really complex, but definitely would make the game much, much, better.
So, what do you guys think?
