Ship Core Sizes / Class of ship

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    Now I am not sure about your experiences so far in the game, but what I have seen in excess recently is "big ships win". I know you can argue that point, but essentially it happens 9/10 that the largest ships are victorious, and those that build in a clever manner still end up losing against an ugly monstrosity.
    But then there is something to be said about there being no limits of a ship and its size, I have seen some ships that go from one side of a sector to the other near enough, some that are just boring giant cubes that engulf most things in their path that shouldnt be called ships (Damn borg!).

    So why not introduce a limit on the sizing of ships?
    Why not stop players from excessive dull building and instead Challenge them into building the best ship of its class?

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    An example could be the first core you receive, it would have a limit on block count of say 100? This would essentially be the lowest class of ship core? These would be "cheap as space-chips".
    Past that we would just go into levels higher and higher, I cannot simply propose these levels as I can't comprehend block count all that well, it would be something along the lines of 100, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, 50000, 100000 etc etc. Something hopefully that makes sense more logically than that.

    As for the names of classes who knows?
    [A-Class -> Z-Class?] [Fighter, Frigate, Destroyer, CapitalShip, MotherShip?]
    Again this is another little question mark of possibilities.

    Perhaps look at this system? This player seems to have a fab way of classing ships:
    http://star-made.org/content/infinia-ship-classification-system

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    So if the classes were not based on Block Count, what else could there be?

    - If it were similar to the green boxes we see for docking and turrets then I am sure poeple will just fill those boxes like a cube to "win" their little crappy game.
    - Block count on individual blocks? One that maybe limits the amount of sheilds/power/amc etc etc?
    - Green Box docking squares mixed with block count? This would stop the "damned" square cube builds and make players think a bit more, but this would mess with our beloved artists who build struts and circles off their ship, and also prevent a true 100% freeodm of building, e.g. a sword-ship desing, long and thin ;)
    - Complex Block Limit (Read conclusion)

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    Conclusion and General Suggestion

    I prefer the idea of a complex block limit based on the core used, of course each core a level higher would cost more, so bulding the highest ship class will be quite the feat! ~ the idea of the complex block limit essentially limits the amount of "special/vital" blocks used, these would include;
    Sheilds
    PowerGen's
    PowerStorage
    Thrusters
    AMC/Missle Blocks

    So we do not limit the amount of each of these, instead we group them together in this special/vital category so that people cannot exceed, lets say, 1000 block of these. What this inturn adds to the game is players making a choice, "Do I sacrifice my speed for more power?" "Do I sacrifice the use of missles inturn for more AMC?" "Do I make a fast maneuverable ships compared to others ships of this class?".

    And vuallah! You have a simple little way of adding some limits to the game, and at the same time it becomes interesting!



    ________________

    ~ Oh and please do give your opinions of this, Only I contributed to this suggestion with a little discussion I had with 3 other people!
     

    Zyrr

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    I\'ve already seen a thread like this before and my answer remains the same: I don\'t like limits being put on me in a sandbox game. If I want to build a 6 block ship, I will. If I want to build a 6 million block ship, I will. If I want the entire ship made out of regen, I\'m going to do that.

    Besides, I can guarantee you everyone will not agree on the same ship classification system.



    I can\'t put into words how much I disagree with this thread, sorry.
     
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    While I do think there should be something to help fight gigantism it is most definitely not limiting building based on what core you select. A lot of people don\'t know how big their ship is going to be when they start building. Also forcing people to build in a box limits the shape possibilities of your ship. Ships that are extreme in one direction will become impossible. In the end its a sandbox game and there really shouldn\'t be a hard cap like this.
     
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    I think of the game exactly as you do, but to go into the extreme you presented \"6 million block ship of regen\" sort of stresses my point, there is no challenge in ship building competition other than size and numbers. Piloting skill comes in of course with out-manevuring opponents, buts thats about it really.

    So perhaps a server setting/gametype would be an idea.
     
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    \"Also forcing people to build in a box limits the shape possibilities of your ship.\"
    In my post I stated this to be bad.

    \"Ships that are extreme in one direction will become impossible.\"
    Also stated.

    ~ However ~

    \"Definitely not limiting building based on what core you select\"
    Interesting again, so perhaps as you build you actually improve a ship class?
     

    Zyrr

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    It\'s like, if you had a gun with two bullets and were in a room with Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and creativity, you\'d shoot creativity twice.



    I don\'t usually know how big I want my ships to be when I start. Forcing people to use a certain amount of everything ruins thinking outside the box because you\'re constantly wondering if you have enough of everything to build this section.



    It would literally handicap most builders. Just... no.
     
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    I have several issues of contention with this idea.

    First - who decides what a class of ship consists of? GROOV3ST3R has already created a post which demonstrates the sometimes wild fluctuations in what sizes players thought a ship class should consist of. I have spent some time myself, looking at dozens of ship designs in an effort to determine what should be called what, and it is darn near impossible.

    Second - what you are essentially fighting against is the gigantism that is prevalent in this game. Why do players build giant ships? Because they are the answer to big ships. Because the current gameplay physics encourage larger ships rather than smaller ones. Because AMC\'s are OP\'d relative to every other weapon system, and bigger ships can have more of them. There are several factors involved. Simply introducing a hard cap to the game for ship sizes does not address the core issues that are determining the current behaviour.

    Third - this suggestion doesn\'t add any game play value to Starmade. It only adds limits on current gameplay value. Used creatively, limitations with exceptions can add value, but that isn\'t what this suggestion is. I don\'t agree with adding limitations to address a problem that is not caused by the lack of limitations.
     

    MossyStone48

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    this is something perfect as a mod to the game. but mods are not supported (but will be) and any attempt at modding right now is very discouraged. wait for it to show up in late beta; we\'re still i nthe middle of alpha.

    i have always seen traveling away from the inner systems being incentivied by offering better and bigger cores the farther from spawn you get. so for nice big ships you\'d have to go beyond the hundreds for those cores and it\'d be very lucrative to bring those cores back for sale to the inner systems.
     

    NeonSturm

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    What, if you can set your turrets to ignore friendly ships smaller than certain size or have certain properties?

    -> You could rule your sectors!
     
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    I agree that ships should be limitless, but you could instead of building a ship build a blueprint of the general hull and details + interior of your ship and leave some open spaces for power sheilds etc.. the blueprint would cost no credits at the first buy. The then ship would be classified as either a fighter, corvette, frigate, destroyer, battlecruiser, dreadnought and finally flagship. This would limit the ships by allowing different sheild- power- thrust- blocks and weapons meaning that all ships would have different stats and everything should be configurable