Player controlling and feeling

[David_yeah]

Hey, It's my first thread here on this site and I hope I don't break any rules. If I do so, sorry !
It'll be hard for me to explain what exactly I mean, but I'll try it anyways.
The point that holds me, and many of my friends back, of playing starmade is, that it does not feel comfy.

Let's take Minecraft as reference: When you join in a world, you spawn in a forest or something similliar. It looks like a forest, it feels simple and intuitive to walk to a tree and chop it down. Or that feeling when you come home after a long mining session. It feels good to be home.

Thats a big point and really makes a big difference. To be more clear:

• Smoother movement in gravity and without
• Better movement synchronisation between players
• Fixing of gravity and jumping. Sorry, but it's really sh*t at the moment
• And last but not least: Better, more comfy sounds

I hope it's clear what I said. If not, feel free to ask!

 

[NeonSturm]

Well, space is empty – what did you expect? :D​

What do you mean with "Fixing of gravity and jumping"? StarMade was designed with high jumps (5 blocks) in mind.
(Perhaps due to the lack of ladders and elevators very early?)

With a 1-block jump, you could get stuck in player-structures (non-editable ones) with no way out or have to make stairs everywhere on planets.
But as soon as there is need to jump higher than 5 blocks, you can also make a core and fly.
5 blocks high and 3 blocks wide is big enough for that.
​

I think mine-craft sounds, vegetation and 1/2m high blocks are an advantage,
but Starmade may get wedges and slabs in planet generation sometimes, vegetation will get better and sound improvements are planed (I think) but perhaps at a lower priority.

Movement will hopefully improve, there are quite a few suggestions to remove the pivot point or allow planet-like gravity in ships.

 

[David_yeah]

What do you mean with "Fixing of gravity and jumping"? StarMade was designed with high jumps (5 blocks) in mind.

Yea, I know. That is okay if you think about a backpack or something. But thats not the point. The point is that the jumping "animation" is very "laggy". It's not that smooth. I think one of the reasons is that when you move in any direction (W; A; S; D) it instantly reaches full velocity and stops instantly after you release the button.

I don't know why, but such things are very very important to me. :p

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I never had much of a problem with gravity movement. The high jump in this game was kind of jarring at first but then i got used to it. The only real thing that I want is the ability to both sprint and crawl, things that i believe are planned as for a time there was seemingly WIP animations for them.

 

[NeonSturm]

I want crawl and crouch and the camera position fixed where your head actually is.

It feels like you are a child when looking at a 1x1x1 block which should be about 5/8 or 5/9 of your size, not 5/6.
Since I requested and liked suggestions about this, we got slabs which add a little bit more immersion (raised floor level).

And who doesn't like to have a few maintenance crawl-paths which aren't corridors?

​

About jumping: I have never had issues with it and only notice the lag when watching replays or someone else moving the character.
But I hope character animation becomes script-able so we can fix that by ourselves.

Shine makes a great job in some parts but sometimes I want to make it myself.
I get especially impatient when I know I can do something while I cannot use the underlying work for it.​

 

[Lukwan]

New sounds are a late-in-development kind of priority, but I do want to chime in on the 'feel' of jumping etc.

Many games have a boring and unnatural feel to movement and changing postures or dodging. It is easily overlooked because it is not a necessity for the game to work, just another aesthetic consideration. Movement-feel can have a major impact on immersion and feelings of ...Bad-assery. I'm talking about what the player sees as they dive for cover, jump etc not the animation of their avatar that others see when these moves take place. Tweaking the POV during these action-moves can make the parkour come alive!

I'll cite examples of this done well:

1) Call of Duty. Prior to this franchise changing posture was a matter of lowering the POV 3 feet. The change was linear and often felt like toggling a light-switch. COD implemented dynamic and realistic changes to the POV during transitions. The POV had staged shifts in perspective more like an ADSR envelope with a non-linear curve to the motion. There might have been a little camera shake thrown in there to simulate the avatar landing belly-first in the dirt. There was a tiny delay before giving you back you cross-hairs to simulate 'settling in'. All of this came as a series of brief phases in an otherwise seamless transition and the effect was awesome for immersion.

2) Borderlands. The low gravity of Pandora made for some of the best parkour in the gaming world. Just moving around and jumping in Borderlands is fun and has a great, natural feel to it.

3) Minecraft. Best example of; the animation of the avatar being irrelevant to the feel of the player 's perspective. Over the course of development MC constantly tweaked it's combat dynamic. In spite of a seemingly simple combat system the fighting has evolved into a refined dance of rhythm and timing blows. Giving bonus damage when the avatar is descending is a skill-based mechanic that causes the player to use terrain. Bonus damage for 'charging' gives another reason to sprint. Shields have introduced a bit of tactical tanking. If the combat was not fun MC would have failed because it is a huge element in a survival game.