- Joined
- Jul 15, 2014
- Messages
- 506
- Reaction score
- 110
I think as far as building mechanics go Starmade is already pretty solid, there's still some way to go but honestly, for the most part it's in a pretty good place. Something the game lacks however, is a fun, lasting PvE element. so this thread exists to catalogue ways to improve upon this.
My first suggestion is to allow the admin to have greater control over the organisation of the AI factions. Firstly, the spawned ship waves need an overhaul. What I propose is that every AI faction gets a folder in the config called "Fleet organisation". In this folder you can put in sub-folders containing a list of what exactly you want that specific wave to involve, for example it may be 3 Isanth Bbs, an Isanth Mc and a frigate. The game will then tally up the total block count of the wave and determine the difficulty.
The advantage here is you can set up more realistic, and balanced from a gameplay perspective, waves of ships. Instead of a random hodgepodge of what the game chooses you could have say, a medium frigate with a few fighters for support, or for a particularly difficult wave a capital ship, with several frigates and a large swarm of fighters.
On a related note I propose that stations be split into 3 tiers for each faction, one being the stations we have now, second is what I will call from now on "System HQs" which are larger and more heavily armed, and the final kind shall be referred to as "Home bases" which are the largest and most well defended.
The station idea leads me onto my next suggestion: AI faction territory. My proposal is to lower the base amount of Pirate/hostile stations spawned in neutral systems considerably, and instead give them systems of their own.
When travelling the player can accidentally find themselves in a pirate (or as the case may be another hostile faction) system, where hostile waves spawn frequently and most stations are pirate. To take the system the player must locate the System HQ, which will summon much stronger waves to defend itself. The idea here is I wish for taking on a regular pirate base to be fairly achievable for a solo player in a well designed enough small ship, and taking on a pirate system to require either cooperation or a much more powerful ship to achieve.
Much rarer than these, would be Pirate System Clusters, which would consist of a block of systems, each with their own system HQ. During these areas players would be frequently harassed by fleets of similar strength the System HQ defense fleets, as well as the regular system defenders you would encounter. This would continue on until you track down the system with the Home Base and neutralise it. Difficulty wise I feel this involve using a fleet of powerful ships. I also feel that when taking over a cluster the player should be encouraged to take pirate systems and set up temporary bases, to feel as though you're properly at war with the homebase.
Next of all I just want to make a few suggestions for the upcoming quest system, and how it may be utilised to ease new players into the game and properly teach them the mechanics.
I propose setting the quests into categories to emphasise different aspects of the game; Crafting, resource gathering, R&D, delivery, exploration and combat.
-Crafting quests would be used as a tutorial on how the crafting system actually works, for example the player would be asked to make certain items, whilst given a few hints on how factories work etc.
-Resource gathering may involve gathering so much ore/crystal from an asteroid belt, or landing on a planet to gather so much of a certain item.
-For an R&D quest the player be tasked with making a ship that fits a certain specification, ie has so much DPS, shields, fits within certain box dimensions or has a certain turning speed. This is to teach them the various ways they can build different kinds of ships.
-Delivery is self explanatory: Take something from point a to point b. I do however, feel that things other than items should be used, such as take an NPC researcher to a planet, which could be used to teach the player how to control NPCs.
-Exploration quests would simply be find out what is in a certain location, or to find where a certain object is within a station. I again feel this is a good opportunity to teach the players how to guide NPCs, for example if they where placed in charge of a team to scout a planet.
-Combat would obviously be to teach the players how the games combat works. For example you may be tasked with taking out a pirate fleet or station.
I do feel that you could do some interesting things with combat quests though, such as escorting cargo ships, saving a station from attack or rescue the prisoners from a pirate base (which would involve the player being able to neutralise the station whilst limiting the damage caused). And of course, if something similar to my suggestion for AI territories were to be implemented you could have some fun tasks to be given for combat and exploration missions forcing you to go behind enemy lines.
And if two rival factions embark on the same behind enemy lines type quests, I think interesting things may happen :p
I'm aware this post has ended up a little long, but I feel this game has a lot of unused potential on the PvE side and would like to see a more fleshed out game world for all the amazing ships some people have made. Thanks for reading.
My first suggestion is to allow the admin to have greater control over the organisation of the AI factions. Firstly, the spawned ship waves need an overhaul. What I propose is that every AI faction gets a folder in the config called "Fleet organisation". In this folder you can put in sub-folders containing a list of what exactly you want that specific wave to involve, for example it may be 3 Isanth Bbs, an Isanth Mc and a frigate. The game will then tally up the total block count of the wave and determine the difficulty.
The advantage here is you can set up more realistic, and balanced from a gameplay perspective, waves of ships. Instead of a random hodgepodge of what the game chooses you could have say, a medium frigate with a few fighters for support, or for a particularly difficult wave a capital ship, with several frigates and a large swarm of fighters.
On a related note I propose that stations be split into 3 tiers for each faction, one being the stations we have now, second is what I will call from now on "System HQs" which are larger and more heavily armed, and the final kind shall be referred to as "Home bases" which are the largest and most well defended.
The station idea leads me onto my next suggestion: AI faction territory. My proposal is to lower the base amount of Pirate/hostile stations spawned in neutral systems considerably, and instead give them systems of their own.
When travelling the player can accidentally find themselves in a pirate (or as the case may be another hostile faction) system, where hostile waves spawn frequently and most stations are pirate. To take the system the player must locate the System HQ, which will summon much stronger waves to defend itself. The idea here is I wish for taking on a regular pirate base to be fairly achievable for a solo player in a well designed enough small ship, and taking on a pirate system to require either cooperation or a much more powerful ship to achieve.
Much rarer than these, would be Pirate System Clusters, which would consist of a block of systems, each with their own system HQ. During these areas players would be frequently harassed by fleets of similar strength the System HQ defense fleets, as well as the regular system defenders you would encounter. This would continue on until you track down the system with the Home Base and neutralise it. Difficulty wise I feel this involve using a fleet of powerful ships. I also feel that when taking over a cluster the player should be encouraged to take pirate systems and set up temporary bases, to feel as though you're properly at war with the homebase.
Next of all I just want to make a few suggestions for the upcoming quest system, and how it may be utilised to ease new players into the game and properly teach them the mechanics.
I propose setting the quests into categories to emphasise different aspects of the game; Crafting, resource gathering, R&D, delivery, exploration and combat.
-Crafting quests would be used as a tutorial on how the crafting system actually works, for example the player would be asked to make certain items, whilst given a few hints on how factories work etc.
-Resource gathering may involve gathering so much ore/crystal from an asteroid belt, or landing on a planet to gather so much of a certain item.
-For an R&D quest the player be tasked with making a ship that fits a certain specification, ie has so much DPS, shields, fits within certain box dimensions or has a certain turning speed. This is to teach them the various ways they can build different kinds of ships.
-Delivery is self explanatory: Take something from point a to point b. I do however, feel that things other than items should be used, such as take an NPC researcher to a planet, which could be used to teach the player how to control NPCs.
-Exploration quests would simply be find out what is in a certain location, or to find where a certain object is within a station. I again feel this is a good opportunity to teach the players how to guide NPCs, for example if they where placed in charge of a team to scout a planet.
-Combat would obviously be to teach the players how the games combat works. For example you may be tasked with taking out a pirate fleet or station.
I do feel that you could do some interesting things with combat quests though, such as escorting cargo ships, saving a station from attack or rescue the prisoners from a pirate base (which would involve the player being able to neutralise the station whilst limiting the damage caused). And of course, if something similar to my suggestion for AI territories were to be implemented you could have some fun tasks to be given for combat and exploration missions forcing you to go behind enemy lines.
And if two rival factions embark on the same behind enemy lines type quests, I think interesting things may happen :p
I'm aware this post has ended up a little long, but I feel this game has a lot of unused potential on the PvE side and would like to see a more fleshed out game world for all the amazing ships some people have made. Thanks for reading.
