First let me start by introducing myself. My name is Corey, I'm a Content Director for a management and consulting firm and I absolutely love this game. I play nearly everyday, and when I'm not I can't help but think about the ship I'm currently building. I love the customization of it, the way the game rewards both form and function, and that almost every time I get on there is a new update. You've done some great work schema, please don't let this fall by the wayside, there's just too much potential! You may have some competition, but no other game out or being developed has the feel, or customization of Starmade.
With that said, I have a couple of ideas for this game way down the road (some way out of the ballpark) for later on down the road. Some are in the form of questions to stimulate the thought process. Feel free to shoot them down, speculate on them, or use them. I'll try to keep this post updated!
I encourage everyone to comment and give me your feedback, positive or negative. Am I expecting too much? Do you think this is possible?
With that said, I have a couple of ideas for this game way down the road (some way out of the ballpark) for later on down the road. Some are in the form of questions to stimulate the thought process. Feel free to shoot them down, speculate on them, or use them. I'll try to keep this post updated!
Scale: How big do you plan on making the arena in Starmade? Will it feature maps with different scenarios/planets/space station? Or will it be one big map? I love the idea of flying from one planet to another, or perhaps one day one star system to another.I want to be able to fly to another planet, destroy a huge piece of it, and fly back knowing that anyone who came by will see the destruction I caused.
Atmospheres/Planetary Gravity: If/when planets are implemented, I would love to see some type of atmosphere effect when approaching the surface to give the feeling of being on the planet. If it's possible, the physics of the space ship should change due to gravity and friction. This physics system isn't at all necessary as I understand the amount of work this feature would undertake.
Free-For-All/Teams: Now in the current version I understand the need for teams, but I propose instead of choosing "green" or "blue," players are dumped into the world with no affiliation. This will lead to individuals grouping up on their own merits and lead to clans, factions, and further organization as individuals lay claim to different area of space. This game has so much potential for individual expression and freedom. If this were the case, groups could work together on building huge space stations, capital ships, and bases. These factions could declare war on each other leading to organized large scale battles. I feel the current system limits creativity and organization as players are rewarded for building the smallest, quickest ship leaving capital ships and frigates out of place.
Servers: I feel like a semi-persistent world will also help alleviate the problem mentioned above. I want to see groups of people working on a capital ship, logging off, and coming back on to continue. Building larger ships and the future space stations takes hours and days to complete. The current system of saving the blueprint to your unfinished ship and logging off, only to then logging back in, wait till you have enough credits to afford your half-built ship, and buy it, is inefficient. To rectify this I feel like either the server must maintain all the creations built in it a la minecraft, spawn you in the server with your ships already in your inventory, or spawn your ships with you when you enter the server. I think allowing the player to continue their work while maintaining continuity between servers/single player is essential to the longevity of this game. I may not be speaking for everyone, but I find it frustrating that I'm discouraged from building larger ships in the current system.
Storing Ships: Another solution to this problem is to develop a system for storing your creations. Lets say for instance I'm finished working on a Fighter 1 and I am about to start building Frigate 1. As I finish Fighter 1, I can go into the inventory and push "store ship." This takes my ship out of the game world and stores it in my inventory. As I'm working on Frigate 1 I realize I have to Log Off, so I store Frigate 1. Later that day I log onto the server with my buddy. He wants to do some exploring, but doesn't feel like making a ship so I then go into my inventory, select Fighter 1 and spawn it at no cost since it's in my inventory. Now I spawn Frigate 1 and continue to work on it. A few minutes later I see a ton of enemies approaching our base. I now go into my inventory, select Fighter 1 and spawn it at the cost for the ship. I feel like this is a fair compromise to the current system as I see the need for the cost for the ships to keep people from spawning infinite numbers of ships. However I think the players are entitled to keep their ships for free, atleast 1 copy.
Airlocks: Entering your ship can be a pain, so I suggest implementing "airlock" blocks. These blocks can be placed on the exterior of the ship and when activated allow you to enter your ship. Just like the cockpit blocks serve a very important need as you want to have the core of your ship protected.
Planets: This is my most out-of-the-box, yet most exciting idea. It is dependent on 1 huge map, multiple planets being distributed throughout them, AND schema allowing traveling from space through the atmosphere to the surface of the planet. Basically I propose that individuals and group be allowed to land on these empty planets and set up cities/bases that could function as trading outposts, repair stations, etc. These bases would be built of blocks and both them and the surface of the planet would be completely destructible. Now imagine a scout ship for the enemy flys through the atmosphere of your planet by chance and finds your base and reports it's location back to his team. Capital ships could battle it out in orbit and bombers could attempt to bomb the surface of the planet while fighters fight other fighters in the atmosphere. I'm sure it's even possible to preform orbital bombardments, or create a super "death star" weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. Obviously these planets wouldn't need to be huge, but they should be large enough to build a couple cities on its surface. I'm not sure if this is entirely possible, but to the best of my knowledge this is something that could be implemented. If the voxels/blocks can be scaled so that instead of only being drawn at a certain distance, they were always visible but were much smaller from a distance, than this is entirely feasible. With this feature it will give the player a "home" in the game and greatly increase immersion. I think people want to feel like they are a part of this game, that they have a place, and when they leave the world keeps spinning without them. Factions will lay claim to different planets and systems leading to eternal conflicts on multiple fronts.
I encourage everyone to comment and give me your feedback, positive or negative. Am I expecting too much? Do you think this is possible?
) and many many players playing this game on main server. I think you'll find a good solution to this problem)