Multiplayer vs Singleplayer

[KiloZulu]

My Starmade thought of the day: how is the game balanced between solo play and multiplayer mechanics?

The creation of a productive crafting system will be a monumental task for an individual. Since the solo player only has to contend with Isanths, they may not have the same need of capital ships as is found on a multiplayer server. Still, they aren't going to have an option of bigger ships even if they want them. Is the game intended to be used only on large public servers?

As the game's development continues, I wonder how much attention is being paid to the different needs of the audience, and if due consideration is given to how decisions effect each.

 

[Lidren]

Um, its not that monumental at all. A few hours of setup and a few hours of mining and you could build a nice light-medium ship. A titan takes days or weeks (or months or years) longer to build than it does to get the blocks via factories and mining in the first place.

Also, single player blueprint saves can be set as pirates (or are by default, can't remember)

 

[SchnellBier]

I really can´t see your point in this. You have to do the exact same things in singleplayer as others have to do in multiplayer. Everyone who wants to have a big ship have to work for it. Or you just use admin commands.

 

[Viridis00]

I think the direction at the moment is get multiplayer sorted out first since the game has a lot of features that benefit heavily from multiplayer. Singleplayer will feel better once we get some quests and interaction with AI, which will also enrich multiplayer to a degree. On gathering resources, I'd argue that in singleplayer, with no competition, you will pretty much have the whole universe at your beck and whim, rife for harvest. The only limitation to ship size is time.

Singleplayer won't be ignored I feel, but I have noticed multiplayer has had focus lately. It could be any reason, from multiplayer features needing to have bugs squashed early, or singleplayer features being time intensive compared to some of the multiplayer features.

 

[jayman38]

I imagine multiplayer will be the dev team's focus until Steam interest cools. Then the singleplayer issues will take center stage to balance.

 

[Ciggofwar]

To note that if you give the pirate Ai, a well designed ship, it will grief the crap out of you!!! and the Ai will spawn them in like candy. My son got banned from a server as he gave a guy his CR-170 ship blueprint that the Ai got a hold of and total griefed all players on the server, wrecked all there stuff and killed them constantly. He never played on there server, but thought he did it on purpose? lol In the earlier days we played on single player and use to spawn in other peoples builds, testing designs and weapons, surprising how fast the Ai will shoot at a flaw in your design something that you never even thought of like the alignment of glass across the ship that peeks at your core only from one angle and one shot it. Single player does have a good purpose for building and testing your designs good way to get a feel for the game before entering a multiplayer server, I still use my single player too.

 

[jorgekorke]

I don't know... Sandboxes for me are only fun in multiplayer... I only do use SP for big-ship-building, so nobody will bother me when I'm patiently placing wedges, tetras, decoration, that kind of stuff.

 

[Snk]

Schema said that Star made was supposed to be multiplier based, no?

 

[KiloZulu]

Um, its not that monumental at all. A few hours of setup and a few hours of mining and you could build a nice light-medium ship. A titan takes days or weeks (or months or years) longer to build than it does to get the blocks via factories and mining in the first place.

Also, single player blueprint saves can be set as pirates (or are by default, can't remember)

I'm not "technically" playing single-player, as I'm playing on a friend's server that he makes available to a small group of people. Very few have been playing as they are waiting for key features that they are interested in. The rest of us have been the guinea pigs who have worked through the numerous changes to game mechanics. As I started thinking about what new or returning players will face, it got me wondering on my question above. While I used the phrasing of "single-player," small servers such as mine, and even the loners on a public server, can likely be included.

In Minecraft I start by punching a tree, of which there are many. My concern would be that the start-up curve might be set too high and scare away new players rather than offer a fun challenge. I think most of us have been spoiled by the ease of acquiring resources up until this point, and we also benefit from the knowledge and experience we have acquired throughout the development. I'm seeking perspective on how the new player will experience the game.

I guess I'd want to know what you define as a "few" hours. In my opinion, a player starting from scratch with 25k credits and some various ship blocks has a lot of work ahead of them. Getting the materials together to build a nice ship, even a small one, will take a lot of time. Finding the resources for building the various blocks needed, mining them, creating factory blocks, creating more factory blocks, etc. The first ship will likely want to be a better salvaging ship. At least in a multiplayer environment players can team up to reduce the time needed for start up.

I don't understand your point about blueprints used as pirates?

 

[Snk]

Learning curves, specially brutal ones, are a good thing. Teach the kiddos to suffer and die, I say. Fun ideas: If we get teleporters, make it so pirate ships will kidnap you.

And yeah, new players have a tough time starting up the game, that's true. (please see Keptick's thread on mining, that would be a good idea) They also have to content with less, though. Just a regular joe starting game on a singleplayer wouldn't have to fight anything but Isanths. I had an easy time when I started a year and six months ago. The crafting system wasn't up yet, so I was a nomad, traveling from shop to shop to finish my ship. It was pretty great. Nowadays newbies will start out on planets and build their way up, which is also pretty fun. Mining by hand gets a little boring after a while, though.

Star Made's main issue with newbdom is linear gameplay, honestly. If you aren't out to build a big titan there's nothing else to do. Unless you're in multiplayer.

 

[MossyStone48]

At every stage StarMade is a sandbox. From the client side to the server side. Even the blocks themselves can be edited. Not just how they appear but how they behave.

The game is still in an alpha state. If you run the game in a pure vanilla environment then you are helping test the functions that schine has prioritized in the config. This is typically set by schema himself. The feedback from vanilla users is often the most useful. However that doesn't mean you can't or should run the game as you like. You may find issues that would have gone unnoticed until later. In identifying them earlier on they are often easy to fix.

In the past (and likely in the future) there were shared configs that folks could apply to their vanilla SP mode (or even MP server) to make it more survivable/creative. Or more of a challenge. In the final version these will likely have their own universe setting. Start the game, select from Survival, Creative and Challenge. And off you go. With a preset of player tested and community approved options that let you play the game your way.

I hope to add an "Instant Action" mode that drops you in a fighter going against waves of pirates with some sort of reward at certain intervals. Perhaps when I have more free time. :3

 

[Keptick]

years

 

[PizzaPress]

KiloZulu There's a server.cfg option that determines whether uploaded blueprints will be used as pirates. If that's on, you can upload a titan(or 5 copies of it to make it more likely to be chosen) and laugh.

Star Made's main issue with newbdom is linear gameplay, honestly. If you aren't out to build a big titan there's nothing else to do. Unless you're in multiplayer.

At which point you build a titanic drone-carrier. :D