- Joined
- Aug 21, 2015
- Messages
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Simply put
Hello! This idea is to add a brief time-period to your development cycle. Following a release, create an official sticky thread asking the modders in the community what sort of features they might want to have in order to develop content for StarMade. Have this be a normal, usual thread, created by the Devs. The devs would then consider these ideas and plan to release some further functionality for modders quickly. There should always be a mandate to implement AT LEAST one new modding capability shortly following the initial release. It doesn't have to be a suggestion from the community, but it has to be something. This is to build excitement for modders and to make them feel more included.
For Example
The NPC Faction update is going to be pretty awesome. I really, really like it. I've checked it out on the latest dev build and I was so excited, I even made a video about it on youtube (I have virtually no experience making youtube videos, but I was really excited). There's all sorts of configuration available for it! The universe comes alive! Right now is when I'm really thinking about what I can and cannot do for it. I am also thinking what I would like to do as a modder. This is when I want to have the conversation with the developers on expanding on these ideas I'm thinking about. Right after release is the perfect time to do this kind of thing, because everybody will be looking at the update. As a scripter, I also know the challenge of coming back to some scripting a year later to try an add some features to it. You gotta kind of relearn how you did it (if your memory is about as good as mine is).
So, with the latest update coming, as a modding inclined player, I can appreciate this update quite a bit, but I also think there's a good opportunity here to expand moddability even further. For example, one thing I noticed is that ships move around quite a bit. Their movements are tracked in the nav, being visible to the player. So I know there is the capability to make a ship visible in the StarMap. Why not follow up with a mini-update to include a command that turns on or turns off StarMap visibility for a specific UID? Maybe "/starmap_visible [UID] true/false". Another thing I noticed is that you can see where these entities are going with different colored lines! Very cool! "/starmap_movement_visible [UID] true/fase". Then I see these NPC faction ships moving around all over the place WITHIN a sector.. wow! "/entity_uid_move_to_pos [sectorX] [sectorY] [sectorZ]". Then I got to thinking about how scripts might be used in the future generate and manage NPC factions. Right now this seems to be possible by adding new folders and new configs, ect. But.. What if this could be done WHILE the server was running? "/create_NPC_Faction [Name] [Resource File] [Starting X] [Starting Y] [Starting Z]" (The "Resource File" here would be a zip file in a directory that contains all the blueprints and configs). So then while testing things out, I went to war with one of the NPC factions attacking them, and I thought.. hey how cool would it be if there were commands to modify relationships? "/add_permanent_relationship_points [player] [NPC Faction #]" and "/add_temporary_relationship_points [player] [NPC Faction #]".
Point is, the wheels are spinning. Why not use that to gain traction?
In conclusion,
I'm not saying all the ideas I, or other players, come up with will be great, but it's fresh in my mind right now. I'm thinking about it. The first impressions of players are also valuable insights into what future players might see of this functionality. Right now is also the time when the devs are still deep in their code and could more easily implement these ideas. And not only that, the excitement for the update can persist longer, the more functionality modders have to make variants of it.. As new mods come out that expand on and modify the original concept, it would keep the excitement fresh. This would really accentuate each update to add lasting appeal to the game. And if modders KNOW there will be new features released after each release, just for them, that's going to help retain these valuable players longer.
Hello! This idea is to add a brief time-period to your development cycle. Following a release, create an official sticky thread asking the modders in the community what sort of features they might want to have in order to develop content for StarMade. Have this be a normal, usual thread, created by the Devs. The devs would then consider these ideas and plan to release some further functionality for modders quickly. There should always be a mandate to implement AT LEAST one new modding capability shortly following the initial release. It doesn't have to be a suggestion from the community, but it has to be something. This is to build excitement for modders and to make them feel more included.
For Example
The NPC Faction update is going to be pretty awesome. I really, really like it. I've checked it out on the latest dev build and I was so excited, I even made a video about it on youtube (I have virtually no experience making youtube videos, but I was really excited). There's all sorts of configuration available for it! The universe comes alive! Right now is when I'm really thinking about what I can and cannot do for it. I am also thinking what I would like to do as a modder. This is when I want to have the conversation with the developers on expanding on these ideas I'm thinking about. Right after release is the perfect time to do this kind of thing, because everybody will be looking at the update. As a scripter, I also know the challenge of coming back to some scripting a year later to try an add some features to it. You gotta kind of relearn how you did it (if your memory is about as good as mine is).
So, with the latest update coming, as a modding inclined player, I can appreciate this update quite a bit, but I also think there's a good opportunity here to expand moddability even further. For example, one thing I noticed is that ships move around quite a bit. Their movements are tracked in the nav, being visible to the player. So I know there is the capability to make a ship visible in the StarMap. Why not follow up with a mini-update to include a command that turns on or turns off StarMap visibility for a specific UID? Maybe "/starmap_visible [UID] true/false". Another thing I noticed is that you can see where these entities are going with different colored lines! Very cool! "/starmap_movement_visible [UID] true/fase". Then I see these NPC faction ships moving around all over the place WITHIN a sector.. wow! "/entity_uid_move_to_pos [sectorX] [sectorY] [sectorZ]". Then I got to thinking about how scripts might be used in the future generate and manage NPC factions. Right now this seems to be possible by adding new folders and new configs, ect. But.. What if this could be done WHILE the server was running? "/create_NPC_Faction [Name] [Resource File] [Starting X] [Starting Y] [Starting Z]" (The "Resource File" here would be a zip file in a directory that contains all the blueprints and configs). So then while testing things out, I went to war with one of the NPC factions attacking them, and I thought.. hey how cool would it be if there were commands to modify relationships? "/add_permanent_relationship_points [player] [NPC Faction #]" and "/add_temporary_relationship_points [player] [NPC Faction #]".
Point is, the wheels are spinning. Why not use that to gain traction?
In conclusion,
I'm not saying all the ideas I, or other players, come up with will be great, but it's fresh in my mind right now. I'm thinking about it. The first impressions of players are also valuable insights into what future players might see of this functionality. Right now is also the time when the devs are still deep in their code and could more easily implement these ideas. And not only that, the excitement for the update can persist longer, the more functionality modders have to make variants of it.. As new mods come out that expand on and modify the original concept, it would keep the excitement fresh. This would really accentuate each update to add lasting appeal to the game. And if modders KNOW there will be new features released after each release, just for them, that's going to help retain these valuable players longer.