Suggestion More specification in community content!

[JammyTurtle]

One of the features i use the most on the site is the 'community content' section. It's the place where we share our creations and see what everyone else has done, a big part of a sandbox game such as starmade.

But when you go onto the page you're met with a huge long list of ships, stations and mods that, although they are rather appetising, are really jumbled up. Fair enough, there are at least sub-categories for ships and stations and all of that. But the problem is that it is very hard to find something if you want something specific.

An example: let's say you want to go and quickly search for a large battleship to clear some pirate bases in singleplayer. Currently the majority of content on the page is stations for the competition. That's great and all and you can filter it to just ships by choosing a sub-category. But what then?

There is a huge array of ships to choose from in the directory, the number of ships on the site is almost four times the number of mods, skin packs, textures and stations combined! And that's only as of when i am typing this.

This many ships has to be sorted out. Adding further sub-categories such as 'salvager', 'transport', 'fighter' and 'battleship' will make finding the right ship so much easier and faster. Currently the only ships people look at are the most recent ones, because no one wants to trawl through hundreds of ships in the hope of finding what they want. This not only stops very good ships from having the spotlight, but also means players are often missing out on something which they would want in their game. During the uploading process a player should select which sub-category their ship fits in, this could be verified during the moderation process to ensure the ship meets the specification. Because finding out what a ship is like is difficult with just a tag-line, especially if the page for the resource doesn't even have any pictures (which is currently many of recent uploads).

I know this is a big ask for the site, reshuffling an entire database could mean bringing the site down temporarily. So that's why i'm shoving my opinion here. If anyone agrees with this then say so, i don't want to feel like the only one who thinks this way.

And if you think i'm a madman whose looking for trouble where none resides, then (as much as it would most likely pain me), you should say so too. If the people running the site read this, it's only fair for them to see both sides of the argument.

 

[TheMightyFid]

The easiest solution is probably just tagging. - The problem is then, you end up with a hundred different tags for the same thing.
The problem with sub categories is that the website would have to be able to differentiate between them to get any sort of true representation out of them, and you have to settle on a standard of what is a "transport", it could be really simple, or really complex

Edit - on the topic of tagging - you could just tag with one of the shipyard classifications, such as Damascus, which would let you easily find what you were looking for, assuming you new its code.

 

[Johnathan Dahmnation]

Not sure that a standard would be needed so much as just limiting to predefined tags. Damascus isn't necessarily supposed to be official, so basing classification on it may be inappropriate. even then the only things concrete are size, cost and turret count. Purpose is still subjective.

I think a predefined list of tags and user discretion would likely work best. Maybe size differentiation as well, but not full on Damascus.

 

[DukeofRealms]

Most content is named as a frigate, fighter or whatever. By using the search function while in CC, you can easily find the type of content you want. The search can be specified to just search titles, or even descriptions. It will also search by default in the category you are in.

So far this has been sufficient to locate material, if not, tags could be added.

 

[jayman38]

I think it's a non-issue. Most older ships use older block types, so as the game is refined, older ships are simply no longer viable vessels. Primarily, I'm thinking about the shield recharge block. Ships built without those basically have no shields. Therefore, while older ships may have value and be beautiful, I'm simply not interested in finding older ships, because the onboard equipment is "obsolescent". I have been able to find some ships that I wanted to see, and had to perform some basic upgrades to make the ship viable.

Idea: We should have a regular review of old ships, to celebrate older designs that still look good and that used to perform to an excellent degree.

Another idea: franchise tags would be a good compromise. Some people might want to find a Stargate ship, or a Star Wars ship.

A third idea: I think the Community Content system should be updated with a flag that the original poster can set, to allow third parties to modify and update their designs, without having to ask permission. Then, a quick report can be run of those designs that allow changes, and those ships can be nominated for upgrading to new technology. It would give new ship-builders a good starting point for learning the ropes, and we'd get a fresh look at good ole' ships. In the meantime, I need to make sure I put a little blurb in my content write-ups, encouraging other players to take my designs and make new versions with them all they like.

 

[ltmauve]

Perhaps the system can analyize the blueprint of the ship to determine the stats of the ship, and then a ship or station can be sorted by which stats you want (energy regen, mass, shields, greatest weapon DPS, total weapon DPS)

 

[DukeofRealms]

I think it's a non-issue. Most older ships use older block types, so as the game is refined, older ships are simply no longer viable vessels. Primarily, I'm thinking about the shield recharge block. Ships built without those basically have no shields. Therefore, while older ships may have value and be beautiful, I'm simply not interested in finding older ships, because the onboard equipment is "obsolescent". I have been able to find some ships that I wanted to see, and had to perform some basic upgrades to make the ship viable.

Idea: We should have a regular review of old ships, to celebrate older designs that still look good and that used to perform to an excellent degree.

Another idea: franchise tags would be a good compromise. Some people might want to find a Stargate ship, or a Star Wars ship.

A third idea: I think the Community Content system should be updated with a flag that the original poster can set, to allow third parties to modify and update their designs, without having to ask permission. Then, a quick report can be run of those designs that allow changes, and those ships can be nominated for upgrading to new technology. It would give new ship-builders a good starting point for learning the ropes, and we'd get a fresh look at good ole' ships. In the meantime, I need to make sure I put a little blurb in my content write-ups, encouraging other players to take my designs and make new versions with them all they like.

For your third idea, that will mostly be addressed with content licenses in the CC update.

Tags could be implemented for a variety of things in CC, but searching it through the search bar will do it as well, if it has been mentioned in the title or description.

Perhaps the system can analyize the blueprint of the ship to determine the stats of the ship, and then a ship or station can be sorted by which stats you want (energy regen, mass, shields, greatest weapon DPS, total weapon DPS)

This is something that has/is being looked into for the next CC update.