Recognized by Council Schine/Council-run Server

[MacThule]

I really disagree with memberships, so I disagree with you all on the yearly subscription/cost for access to a single server. I'd be OK, however, with a server run by Schine only for members.

That is the suggestion. Never was it suggested that there should only be a single server. Not by anyone at any time

Regarding free trial for new players - I don't think that works. Many new players will only play 5-10 hours then never log in again. If they don't want to pay, they can join a community MP server or play SP or private MP with friends. They would have several options; ALL the same options currently available in fact, plus one paid option not currently available.

I think that for reasons of funding and protecting the server from account abuse though, only paid accounts should log into an official server.
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Only solution's probably going to be constant admin policing.

At this moment, troll badmins are the very problem.

 

[Madman198237]

Sorry, members as in people who've bought the game.

Also, these admins would be only, say, the Council members. They're elected by the community, and only their forum username would have admin powers, while Schine keeps watch over the logs, and can easily track down any potential violations and fix the damage, not to mention also being able to then remove said users from the Council, or something similar.

 

[wanzer]

id be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee to play on a shine server

 

[Erth Paradine]

My name for abusive admins is "griefmins"; it's indicative of an anonymity problem, which lacks a means for accountability. I don't see how centralized control of a server helps address the underlying causes, it seems (IMHO) just a band-aid.

On the other hand, something as simple as publishing server age + a karma system would likely go far in diminishing a griefmin's effectiveness. Perhaps a blueprint auto-save feature as well; enabling pilots to move onto other servers, with fewer losses, more readily.

A server's age would help illustrate its maturity; griefing admins are not going to retain pilots over the long-term. Although anyone can setup an unused server, so age alone is not a good indicator.

Integrating the information tracked at www.starmade-servers.com would go far in regards to a karma system. What's missing, is integration of that third-party information into the game's built-in Server List function. Obviously, any voting rights should be limited to paid accounts as well.

 

[xxpowerofsoundxx]

I would love a centralized server. I never play the game Multiplayer cause im just like "whats the point." most servers feel pretty empty, and i think that sucks. With an actual Shine server It seems like it's have A LOT more players on it even with a fee. I'd be happy to pay 10 dollars a month for something like that. I enjoy starmade far more than I do Elite or even Star Citizen at the moment but I'd really love a more populated gaming experience :P

 

[MDJinRoh]

I would pay for an Optional DLC on Steam for a Shine Server to play on it. And belive a lot of others would do the same , as long as the server has a good ping and runs smooth.

Edit: BTW People who trolls for their joy or for youtube, should be denounced, to my mind. So you should think about it, to post at least the name of the server , so people may avoid that server.

 

[Edymnion]

Edit: BTW People who trolls for their joy or for youtube, should be denounced, to my mind. So you should think about it, to post at least the name of the server , so people may avoid that server.

Well, the problem there is that the people who do this by definition want to cause problems.

If there was an open thread listing the badmin servers, then said trolls would start listing the good ones as well in order to water it down and make it useless. And even if they didn't, you get people who just have a personal beef listing servers as being bad for banning them for being little pricks. Trust me, I've seen people play the "You're a bunch of racists!" card after they were banned for spamming "You all c*cksucking n*ggers!" over and over until they were booted.

You give a griefer or troll a tool, and they will abuse it. It is in their nature.

 

[Ithirahad]

I would love a centralized server. I never play the game Multiplayer cause im just like "whats the point." most servers feel pretty empty, and i think that sucks. With an actual Shine server It seems like it's have A LOT more players on it even with a fee. I'd be happy to pay 10 dollars a month for something like that. I enjoy starmade far more than I do Elite or even Star Citizen at the moment but I'd really love a more populated gaming experience :p

The problem is that there are currently code limitations to how large a server can be, though. Even on a NASA supercomputer reconfigured to run a StarMade server, after you hit somewhere between 25 and 40 players the server will probably slow to a crawl. The game doesn't seem to make good use of CPU process threading and whatnot.

 

[jayman38]

...I don't see how centralized control of a server helps address the underlying causes, it seems (IMHO) just a band-aid....

It is a matter of self-interest. The admins on a server that is considered central to the game will be interested in promoting the game in the very best light. Griefmins, on the other hand, do not really have the game's best interest at heart. If the game's population drops off because of their sadistic fun, then that serves their ego, being able to influence things in such a real way. And when the game dies off, they just go find something new. If the griefmins actually love the game, they are stupidly playing against their own long-term interests, in favor of enjoying the short term fun of trolling. Back to the admins on a central server. It is in their best interest to root out and boot griefmins, to keep their game in good shape. Self-interest is what makes this more than just a band-aid solution.

 

[Erth Paradine]

The problem is that there are currently code limitations to how large a server can be, though. Even on a NASA supercomputer reconfigured to run a StarMade server, after you hit somewhere between 25 and 40 players the server will probably slow to a crawl. The game doesn't seem to make good use of CPU process threading and whatnot.

One of the biggest reasons for leveraging multiple threads, is that too much code is often tethered to blocking IO, which limits concurrency by increasing deadlock probability. With Java (and Schine's) use of NIO, the game's single thread server instance has not been observed as being a profound performance-hindering issue.

For instance, I've seen pilot counts peak at almost 30 on our public server, with no linear correlations to system load or server (process) latency.

The obvious exception is if someone decides to fool around with large collision or logic bugs, but then those are essentially unresolved deadlock issues...all bets are off.
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It is a matter of self-interest. The admins on a server that is considered central to the game will be interested in promoting the game in the very best light. Griefmins, on the other hand, do not really have the game's best interest at heart....

What I hear you saying, is that you fear pilots would essentially rage-quit because of bad experiences on an independently run server. I have no doubt this has occurred, although I fail to see how one (or a cluster) of centralized servers is going to resolve the underlying issue.

After-all, when I get food poisoning at a sketchy restaurant, or a store sells me a junk product, I don't boycott all restaurants nor do I stop shopping at other stores. Instead, I'll pay closer attention to reviews of a new restaurant/store/product, adjust my standards, perhaps post a cranky review myself, leverage consumer protection laws if needed, and I ultimately don't return to where I had the bad experience. My proposal was in support along those lines: help educate and enable pilots to make more informed decisions.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I'm not sure if this is what happened to me yesterday, but pirates were able to completely obliterate my home base, which is a planet on a PVP server I have enjoyed playing on until now.

I was busy clearing a plate for construction and noticed I was being attacked, but ignored it thinking my home base is invulnerable.
Curiosity got me and I soon found this was not the case. My home base was being decimated from space and all I could do was watch several months of work be obliterated.

Is there a known bug in the recent patch release or could this be badmin behavior? If it is the latter, then I'm not going to waste my time with PVP, because that's what it is. I'm seriously rethinking bothering to play at all if this kind of thing is rampant. Hopefully not.

 

[Master_Artificer]

did you accidentally remove the faction block?

 

[Ithirahad]

I'm not sure if this is what happened to me yesterday, but pirates were able to completely obliterate my home base, which is a planet on a PVP server I have enjoyed playing on until now.

I was busy clearing a plate for construction and noticed I was being attacked, but ignored it thinking my home base is invulnerable.
Curiosity got me and I soon found this was not the case. My home base was being decimated from space and all I could do was watch several months of work be obliterated.

Is there a known bug in the recent patch release or could this be badmin behavior? If it is the latter, then I'm not going to waste my time with PVP, because that's what it is. I'm seriously rethinking bothering to play at all if this kind of thing is rampant. Hopefully not.

Did you accidentally have a faction block on more than one planet plate? Because if so that's your problem; I did something similar by accident and it invalidates faction homebase protection. That's how my EE base got wiped out.

 

[Lidren]

Something that has been said can not be unsaid. This is a good idea on the face of it, it would certainly make for a better face/first impression of the community than a privately run server either owned or operated by "badmins". I fear myself that much of the player hemmoraging (besides people just sticking their toes in or flighty by nature) is likely caused by bad experiences just like has been discussed here. Having seen first hand reports, but not the actions myself, I do not know how often it happens. I'd bet we hear about it far less than the act takes place.

All that said, think of the other side of this. With the big servers already drawing the most attention from new players, official servers would draw even more away from new burgeoning servers with component staff and legitimate methods. Not only new servers, but well established ones that just happen to have a lower player count would as well be hurt. Many games that run on the privately owned server paradigm have not had official servers at all, or only for events and the like. That is purposeful, to allow the creation of a diverse and diversity encouraging environment.

That said too, I would support the idea because I believe it would help this particular community, and help schine present the best face possible as they (hopefully) ramp up into actual advertisement and public engagement. I would not play, only because I have my own server to look after, even if it might turn into a bit of a ghost town.

 

[Madman198237]

This is where we get a better-maintained server list of servers that are (By community consent) good, and then direct people towards those servers from this hypothetical official server.

Because then we could, instead of complaining about the unreliable and old tutorials, teach new players ourselves on this official server, with good, reliable, and, most importantly, identifiable admins, before sending them to servers that deserve more players.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

did you accidentally remove the faction block?

Nope.

Did you accidentally have a faction block on more than one planet plate?

Nope.

The base was invulnerable before this, and I had not made any changes to faction control.
I also checked whether I had lost my system due to faction point loss and nope. I have loads of faction points.
I guess it will remain a mystery.