Recognized Sharable Star Charts

    Benevolent27

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    Yeah I see your point. I am just afraid of it getting lost in complexity I guess.
    I can see your point too. :)

    Perhaps your concern is more how I have it organized. I agree that that part could use some work. I am imagining convoluted setup screens.

    So, after thinking about it a bit.. Perhaps they could work more like disks, where each disk contains one galaxy map. You have a machine that copies them, another machine that merges them, and yet another machine that formats the StarChart to delete it. This would be in place of the more complicated machine I originally suggested. This would ensure that each layout is very simple. Also, for simplicity, the player would only have 1 StarChart plugged into their suit at a time. So if they want to carry bunch around for different purposes, they just keep them in their inventory and change them out as needed. To stop recording, they just take it off their suit. Would you agree that this sort of system would be easy enough to use from the start?
     
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    I would keep it even simpler than that. Every time you explore it expands your map populates more etc. If you get a map from someone have a menu option for importing that map. If you want to give someone a map have some sort of ui for selecting systems / galaxies and then that creates a item in your inventory with a list of the included systems/galaxies. Thoughts?
     
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    [...] I do not know if it would be so good to have in the main game, because it could discourage exploration via jump drive. Perhaps in a 'hardcore' server, they would have this kind of hostile universe though.
    Guess I am just hardcore then ;)

    In my view, that would be a Good Thing, as it enables (but doesn't enforce) an explorer profession, and emphasizes establishing known jump routes as an intermediate step before, or besides, a full warp gate network. Those routes would likely be different for each faction, depending on where and what they explored, and what data has been shared.
    But yes, should be configurable.
     

    Benevolent27

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    I would keep it even simpler than that. Every time you explore it expands your map populates more etc. If you get a map from someone have a menu option for importing that map. If you want to give someone a map have some sort of ui for selecting systems / galaxies and then that creates a item in your inventory with a list of the included systems/galaxies. Thoughts?
    That could also work, especially when first implemented. However, it would be lacking some pretty important components. Having different sets of comments and maps gives more freedom to players to take on different roles more easily and gives different roles to a different StarCharts. I'll list a few examples:

    The Faction Mining StarChart:
    This would be shared among faction members to coordinate mining systems, with comments added related to mining. Maybe all players don't want to share their entire personal map with other members and they also don't want to have to take the time to export individual sectors every time they go out mining. If they could simply switch the StarChart they are using, it'd be a lot simpler.

    The Tracker:
    These sorts of folks would build up a StarChart that lists player bases, has comments on strength of fleets, etc. They then sell this map (or parts of it) to other players who want that intel. This might be a rather large map, and the comments would need to be relevant. It would be hard to export this kind of map with appropriate comments if trackers can only export StarCharts from their single map. Other comments like mining comments and personal comments would either need to be included or no comments at all. This would either discourage players from wanting to be a tracker, since they may not want to share their personal comments, or it would devalue the intel available on the StarCharts since there would be no comments at all.

    The Prospector:
    This player visits empty systems and details them out. They have a different StarChart for each sector. They list planets, asteroid belts (including comments for what types of asteroids are available), useful stations, and comment the strength of the star in the system, giving warnings about how close players would want to travel to it. They then either share these StarCharts to faction members or sell them to people who are looking to acquire more valuable territory. The simpler system would still allow this, but it would suffer from the same devaluations that the Tracker would have.
     
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    Benevolent27

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    So, do you guys think a person should lose their Starchart data when they die (and the server is set for players to drop their items), or should it be more like a memory that cannot be lost by dying?
     

    Ithirahad

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    With a system like this, homebases could get some serious nerfs... They could go from completely invincible, to just getting large armor and shield buffs...
     
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    i think this would work well with my suggestion (here) about showing ships on the star map
     

    Benevolent27

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    Taking this to the council for review, still love the general idea of having to explore.
    Yay! :)
    [DOUBLEPOST=1454494412,1454493860][/DOUBLEPOST]
    i think this would work well with my suggestion (here) about showing ships on the star map
    I like that idea, but I would suggest it have an overlay option, so it can be turned on and off. Also, the ships should disappear off the map after a bit of time, so that you don't get a lot of phantom ships showing up everywhere, cluttering things up.
    [DOUBLEPOST=1454494582][/DOUBLEPOST]
    With a system like this, homebases could get some serious nerfs... They could go from completely invincible, to just getting large armor and shield buffs...
    Yes! I think that is a great idea on how to transition away from invincible home bases! How about all bases get the buff though (and balance the buff so that it isn't OP)? I suggest this because it would remove the advantage of being in a one man faction. Part of why I am hesitant to join up with others is because we have to all share one home-base for the protection, and this makes things get rather crowded at times.
     
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    With a system like this, homebases could get some serious nerfs... They could go from completely invincible, to just getting large armor and shield buffs...
    IIRC, there was going to be a limit/cost of faction points for homebase size.
     

    Criss

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    This is something that may inevitably become a reality! In the future we want exploration to be a viable gameplay style. All the new races and flora and fauna shouldn't just be out there already charted on your map. That takes away the fun of discovery. As such I imagine at the very least the "fog of war" element will come into play here and we as individual players may not see the entire map at once. It makes sense as well on some level to allow players to share their discoveries and so some form of charting would be required here. Exact details on this are not really being discussed as this ties into a lot of universe generation stuff which we are not currently working on.
     
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    Benevolent27

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    This is something that may inevitably become a reality! In the future we want exploration to be a viable gameplay style. All the new races and flora and fauna shouldn't just be out there already charted on your map. That takes away the fun of discovery. As such I imagine at the very least the "fog of war" element will come into play here and we as individual players may not see the entire map at once. It makes sense as well on some level to allow players to share their discoveries and so some form of charting would be required here. Exact details on this are not really being discussed as this ties into a lot of universe generation stuff which we are not currently working on.
    Thank you for your response. I am glad to hear that the general direction is heading in this sort of direction. :) I hope for a time when explorers are rewarded for their travels! I do enjoy exploring, and StarMade has a great framework laid out for this so far.