Put maximum sector size at 10,000, not 5,000.

[Lecic]

I think it'd make the most sense for ship-based FTL to be a single burst of energy used, so ships with large power reserves could jump, and perhaps a slow charging FTL power block that can hold a lot of power but only usable for FTL that would be expensive to obtain so that small ships could jump but it would take ages to charge. I'd also like to see station-based FTL with warp gates that constantly drain large amounts of power from the station.

 

[mrsinister]

I'd also like to see station-based FTL with warp gates that constantly drain large amounts of power from the station.

now thats just silly...a station is a station for a reason....but hey...all the more power <--ya like that...to ya

 

[Ithirahad]

now thats just silly...a station is a station for a reason....but hey...all the more power <--ya like that...to ya

He means based ON a station, that ships can use. Not a station flying faster than light... but then again, that would be cool too. :P

 

[mrsinister]

He means based ON a station, that ships can use. Not a station flying faster than light... but then again, that would be cool too. :p

Lol, yeah, well, I was trying to sound a bit snarky and facetious

 

[RedDragonflyxx]

I thought he meant that a station would need tons of power, but there would be no other drain that way. Any ship should be ABLE to FTL with refit, but that would become a TL;DR (just read all my posts on the subject)

 

[timethatswasted]

Two things.

It looks like sensor range scales with sector size. I set the sectors on the server I help manage to 3.5k and sensor range jumped to 7k.

Also some players have reported that it has allowed them to increase their draw distance and their overall FPS is better. It also does not seem to be putting any extra load on the server.

Awesome surprise feature =D

 

[Lecic]

To Clarify- I was referring to stationary warp gates housed on stations that ships could use. They would constantly drain power from the station they were located on while active.

 

[RedDragonflyxx]

To Clarify- I was referring to stationary warp gates housed on stations that ships could use. They would constantly drain power from the station they were located on while active.

Power is too sensitive for that, any drain would either insta-deplete or be lower than consumption.

 

[Lecic]

Power is too sensitive for that, any drain would either insta-deplete or be lower than consumption.

I know, it'd require a lot of power blocks on the station to keep it running, is what I'm saying.

 

[montecristo]

I think it'd make the most sense for ship-based FTL to be a single burst of energy used, so ships with large power reserves could jump, and perhaps a slow charging FTL power block that can hold a lot of power but only usable for FTL that would be expensive to obtain so that small ships could jump but it would take ages to charge. I'd also like to see station-based FTL with warp gates that constantly drain large amounts of power from the station.

Ah, speaking of FTL -- In case anyone else is interested, I've been playing around with my own "honor system/roleplay" FTL to help bridge the distances with 10km sectors (great suggestion Ithirahad, btw.. I was quite chagrined to read that 5k was the apparent limit and elated when I read that you'd successfully made 10k work).

Basically, I've been setting up stations in sectors, which I label "System X-System Y Jump Beacon" using the faction block. I write the coordinates to this location down. Then, I conduct an "unfocused FTL jump" into an unknown sector (i.e. /change_sector_for montecristo 245, -365, 417). The coolest part of this is that the change_sector_for command conserves your momentum, so if you are drifting forward (I play with 0.001 motion-damping), you "jump" into a brand new system still drifting forward. If I like the system/new sector, I'll set up a new station/jump beacon and record the coordinates of the new sector. I then use these sectors as a "bridge" of sorts between the two systems.

Doing this I have so far set up a 5-star-system network with routes connecting two systems at a time. Unfortunately, I play singleplayer, so it's not like NPCs or other players are using the system-to-system trade routes I've set up. And, the only thing restricting me to only jumping from each pre-defined terminus its exclusive destination is my own discipline... we will see how much longer that lasts... :p

I gotta say though - especially if I find two systems with radically different nebuli/backgrounds - doing the jump can be pretty awesome!

But, there is the issue of charge-up and power, right?

What I have been doing is fitting "jump modules" to my craft (dedicated defensive EMP computer) with an allowed mass vs. EMP effect array size (ref. table below). I keep a stopwatch near me, which I use to count to 15 full seconds before initiating the admin command. This effect module drains power a la "charging" and is my self-imposed balance on using the command.

e

For mass <= 500, I would need an EMP array of 50 to conduct an FTL jump.
For mass >500, the max allowable mass for an FTL jump = 2^((EMP array size/100)-1)*100.
---> This function makes FTL less of a relative expense for larger ships

 

[Jonj57]

Can someone direct me where this config file is and while line it is?

 

[mrsinister]

Can someone direct me where this config file is and while line it is?

for the sector size? It's in the server.cfg ,line 5 in your main starmade directory.

ie: C:/starmade/starmade

 

[Ithirahad]

...or, you could just use the /sector_size command, which is a hundred times easier...

 

[mrsinister]

...or, you could just use the /sector_size command, which is a hundred times easier...

that is fine as well, but he asked where it was located.

 

[darkstar64]

I was messing around with the latest patch, where there's no limit on sector sizes... And I found that 10,000 is actually a great size. It spreads shops around, for one thing, so there aren't millions of shops squished together. It also makes planets a decent distance from each other, and makes distances between systems meaningful. Also, you can't see every planet in the system from your planet, which helps immersion a lot.

After all, shouldn't space look like this:

...rather than six planets, ten asteroids, and a trade shop or seven?



The only thing that needs to be fixed is the sun: Currently, it has a really high melt radius with sectors at that scale, and it stops rendering long before you leave the solar system.

Nice set up in showing the length then just showing numbers. :D

 

[Jonj57]

that is fine as well, but he asked where it was located.

Many thanks.

 

[Ithirahad]

Nice set up in showing the length then just showing numbers. :D

Yes; I find that a simple picture is worth a thousand ratios and equations. I could back up my statement with ratios like sector length to average ship length (Which was ridiculous at the old default, I swear it was something like 3:1, which is stupid considering the fact that people normally fly at speeds of around 200, and end up crossing sectors every ~5 seconds... Resulting in aim resets every 8-25 seconds or so, allowing for the curved patterns flown during a typical combat situation) and navigation range vs. real life (in space, that should be damn near unlimited, not, like, twice a football field's length on either side of you. That's like having eyes that can only see things in a 5 yard radius around you.) Never even mind what happens to render distances at small scales (Things that are actually quite close by get cut out of rendering because space is so relatively compressed... Whereas with large sectors you usually first see something like a space station as a pixel, the apparent size of a small star, which is more realistic. Ever seen the ISS in the night sky?), plus the fact you can have stations 'orbiting' within planet sectors at decent distances, and you don't have ten planets sitting in positions where they should've all smashed into both each other and the sun by now...


...Or, I could just post a picture.

 

[ResonKinetic]

I think 10k is way too big. I tried things out on 5k, and things were spread out really nicely. Took me about ten minutes to find a solar system. It just seems like 10k would be unnecessarily large.

 

[Lecic]

I think 10k is way too big. I tried things out on 5k, and things were spread out really nicely. Took me about ten minutes to find a solar system. It just seems like 10k would be unnecessarily large.

With some sort of warp system coming, 10k will be more reasonable for things.

 

[ResonKinetic]

With some sort of warp system coming, 10k will be more reasonable for things.

Depends on how accessible warp will be.