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In light of the upcoming changes mentioned in the most recent update post, I’ve decided to compile a list of changes/additions that would IMO add a great deal of realism and greater exploration potential to the game.
These are all changes that would apply to the non-living, natural parts of the Starmade universe.
Star Types, Black Holes/Quasars, and Nebulae
Barren/Lifeless planets, moons, and gas giants
Right now there are 5 types of planets in Starmade, and every one of them has some form of life on it. It would add a deal of realism to have a bunch of planets like Mercury, Mars, and Pluto where there’s no life at all. In fact, I think finding a planet with life on it should be a rare occurrence (similar to what finding a pyramid planet used to be like)
Moons would be a great addition, even if they are as simple as having a scaled down planet in a nearby sector that orbits the main planet
Gas giants have been mentioned a lot in dev interviews so I won’t cover them much here, but I will say that it is important that they be HUGE compared to a normal planet
Asteroids
Aesthetic changes
That’s all I’ve got for now.
I hope the devs consider some of these changes. I think Starmade has a lot to gain by expanding and improving the universe a little.
These are all changes that would apply to the non-living, natural parts of the Starmade universe.
Star Types, Black Holes/Quasars, and Nebulae
There is currently only one type of star, which is a white main sequence star. It would be great to see different star types spawning throughout the universe. Although there are a ton of star types, I think these particular ones would be really awesome to see in Starmade.
Common Types:
-red main sequence (red dwarf) – a small star that would give off red-orange light
-yellow main sequence (like our Sun) – medium star that gives off bright yellow-white light
-blue main sequence – a large star that gives off super bright white-blue light
Rare Types:
-red giant – a HUGE star (i.e. 10 times the radius of a normal one) that gives off redish orange light
In addition to stars, it would be great to have a system where there would be a small chance of having a black hole/quasar (giant black hole) at the center of a star system instead of a star
A typical black hole would look something like this (with light bending around the edges, if possible)
A quasar might look something like this, and would be much larger than any other natural object in the game (the star system of a quasar may be devoid of planets as well)
As for the effect of these two objects, idk what the game could potentially handle but having your ship torn apart from getting too near would be neat.
Nebulae are the last star system-spanning thing I want to suggest.
There could be a “nebula star system” where there’s no star, and instead there’s a thick nebula fog in every sector of that star system. The nebula could do fun things like messing with ship’s power or targeting sensors, or maybe even rendering shields useless (heheheh)
It would also be great to be able to see a nebula system from all the neighboring star systems, sort of like how you can see planets in that way now
Common Types:
-red main sequence (red dwarf) – a small star that would give off red-orange light
-yellow main sequence (like our Sun) – medium star that gives off bright yellow-white light
-blue main sequence – a large star that gives off super bright white-blue light
Rare Types:
-red giant – a HUGE star (i.e. 10 times the radius of a normal one) that gives off redish orange light
In addition to stars, it would be great to have a system where there would be a small chance of having a black hole/quasar (giant black hole) at the center of a star system instead of a star
A typical black hole would look something like this (with light bending around the edges, if possible)
A quasar might look something like this, and would be much larger than any other natural object in the game (the star system of a quasar may be devoid of planets as well)
As for the effect of these two objects, idk what the game could potentially handle but having your ship torn apart from getting too near would be neat.
Nebulae are the last star system-spanning thing I want to suggest.
There could be a “nebula star system” where there’s no star, and instead there’s a thick nebula fog in every sector of that star system. The nebula could do fun things like messing with ship’s power or targeting sensors, or maybe even rendering shields useless (heheheh)
It would also be great to be able to see a nebula system from all the neighboring star systems, sort of like how you can see planets in that way now
Barren/Lifeless planets, moons, and gas giants
Right now there are 5 types of planets in Starmade, and every one of them has some form of life on it. It would add a deal of realism to have a bunch of planets like Mercury, Mars, and Pluto where there’s no life at all. In fact, I think finding a planet with life on it should be a rare occurrence (similar to what finding a pyramid planet used to be like)
Moons would be a great addition, even if they are as simple as having a scaled down planet in a nearby sector that orbits the main planet
Gas giants have been mentioned a lot in dev interviews so I won’t cover them much here, but I will say that it is important that they be HUGE compared to a normal planet
Asteroids
As most of you know, asteroids were recently changed, and are now composed of new materials and ores. I think this in itself is fine, but asteroids still maintain that boring chunky shape and size that they’ve always had. It would be cool to see some giant asteroids or some that are shaped like this for example:
Asteroid belts would also be a neat thing (or maybe just asteroid sectors with 100+ of them)
Asteroid belts would also be a neat thing (or maybe just asteroid sectors with 100+ of them)
Aesthetic changes
A few of the aesthetic features in Starmade need updating (many were present in the game when I first played it more than a year ago!)
Here’s a short list of simple changes that would greatly improve the look of the game
-get rid of the 4 point pattern on stars, the points are only a phenomenon resulting from telescope optics, a real star viewed from up close would not have the points
-the atmosphere on planets needs to be updated. they look pretty horrible especially against procedural backgrounds, which usually look nice
-the sky of planets have been broken since they were changed, it would be nice to have this fixed
-there should be an option for a “hi-res” static background to replace the old Milky Way one. the procedural backgrounds are cool but many of them are extremely bright and horrid on the eyes. I’m probably not the only person that would prefer the old static background if it were high res like the procedural ones
-the “draw additional stars” tool has always had a problem of being barren of stars in the 6 cardinal directions, and is quite noticeable at times
Here’s a short list of simple changes that would greatly improve the look of the game
-get rid of the 4 point pattern on stars, the points are only a phenomenon resulting from telescope optics, a real star viewed from up close would not have the points
-the atmosphere on planets needs to be updated. they look pretty horrible especially against procedural backgrounds, which usually look nice
-the sky of planets have been broken since they were changed, it would be nice to have this fixed
-there should be an option for a “hi-res” static background to replace the old Milky Way one. the procedural backgrounds are cool but many of them are extremely bright and horrid on the eyes. I’m probably not the only person that would prefer the old static background if it were high res like the procedural ones
-the “draw additional stars” tool has always had a problem of being barren of stars in the 6 cardinal directions, and is quite noticeable at times
That’s all I’ve got for now.
I hope the devs consider some of these changes. I think Starmade has a lot to gain by expanding and improving the universe a little.
