StarMade Active Development Timeline

[StarWars1981]

Does "Can you fill in all the blank spaces for us?" count? Or is that just a little too pushy for information?
I mean, if that's not too pushy, I'll go and find a way to bother everyone about getting everything in the game already, but you know, one step (leap) at a time.
Thanks, it's really nice to know where you're planning on heading.
Just wait for the squirrel - I mean ideas for new directions for gameplay, factions, end-game, etc. Etc. Etc. There's a lot of Etc. here because of all the ground you've covered up there.
Etc.

 

[EMC007]

My god, this list goes on forever.

And here I was, being sad, because I thought that there couldn't possibly be that much more awesome stuff to add to this already awesome game, and then I read this thread and, I'm truly happy, very happy that this game will continue to be added to and updated for a VERY long time.

Reading this also makes me think about all of the refits I'll likely have to do, oh well, more time spent getting better at details I guess.

I am kind of interested in this capital ship implementation you mentioned however, any way someone could elaborate on it for me?

 

[reptillianstew]

Can you fill us in on what a citizen is? I initially figured it simply referred to the player but it seems to be referenced as different from an astronaut. Is it an npc?

 

[Bench]

Can you fill us in on what a citizen is? I initially figured it simply referred to the player but it seems to be referenced as different from an astronaut. Is it an npc?

Citizens are either player controlled characters or NPC characters. Astronaut refers specifically to what applies to citizens in the astronaut mode rather than a separate entity entirely. So in the context of above:

• Citizens – NPC or Player-controlled humanoid characters
• Fauna – Creatures found throughout the universe
• Astronaut – Refers specifically to the astronaut experience for citizens, so walking around, interacting etc.
• Player – Refers specifically to actual players or their specific characters

 

[nightrune]

So far we've seen the current fleet commands, but the team hasn't really talked about what else they'll do. I'm particularly interested in how ftl is going to work, especially since there has been a buzz about chain drives and how inconvenient the current ftl is for actual player v player fights and encountering each other. So any additional information you can give us on the Development teams stance on ftl and how it applies to fleet dynamics would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bench]

Are you talking Jump Drives, Warp Gates, or FTL? They're all different things.

 

[nightrune]

Are you talking Jump Drives, Warp Gates, or FTL? They're all different things.

I bulk them all together. really. The current ships can move around with thrusters, but can't take advantage of warp gates, or jump drives. It is quite a broad question. I suppose I'm particularly interested in the future of jump drives, warp gates, and how the AI will use them, since that's what we have now, and can only conjecture on other possible mechanics.

EDIT: Clarified.

 

[Calhoun]

See, not THAT much to go :D

 

[OdraNoel]

Wow thats quite a list, really excited to see what all those redacted items are :D

 

[serge1944]

Is evolution and war on planets sill planed.

 

[Dannage]

Well, the only thing I can think of that might make people quit, would be because once you've built your space ship and uber-dock, there is not much more to do except Mine, process and build more.

That is obviously where servers come in and the owners having to do a lot of work to make servers fun for users. Giving those server admins some tools to allow them to make the game better for the players is key. If, as a server admin, I can create NPCs and bots to stand there and give missions to players, without an admin needing to be on line, then that will start making things very interesting.

I can't believe how much we've got to go before BETA!

 

[LoSboccacc]

so, uhm, no addressing pve till a year or so?

 

[Valck]

Are there concrete plans for a modding API, and if so when and to what extent?

 

[nightrune]

so, uhm, no addressing pve till a year or so?

Technically they are addressing it now. You must build a foundation to build a building on. Bench even mentioned thats why this is laid out in this fashion. They've outlined the big overall goals for development and worked backwards finding the dependencies. So it might take awhile to get to certain items.

 

[Auriga_Nexus]

I still keep forgetting that this is an alpha game. Seeing the long list of blanks between status quo and beta reminded me how far we've come and how far we can go. Here's to the devs to making Starmade a kickass game that is second on my list of all time favorite space games (and I play a LOT of space games so second is still very prestigious. If you are wondering, first is Kerbal Space Program, though with all the issues they're having with Unity right now I've been getting more playtime out of Starmade instead)

 

[Dannage]

Yeah I have to say, my explore queue I Steam keeps sending me sandbox games that have some much better graphics, an proper shapes and terrains and stuff, but all full of negative reviews and unhappy punters who wished they had their £1.99 back... I have long been frustrated that all we've had were boxes and wedges (Slabs were a welcome addition) and I've always thought that the game was falling behind many competitors in terms of looks, but I think the devs have struck the right balance with aesthetics versus functionality, with the emphasis on functionality and game play. I think this gives a far superior basis from which to expand the playability and looks of the game and will mean Starmade isn't a rubbish piece of abandonware or just another Minecraft clone. I think this has got what it takes to be the king slayer.

 

[Bench]

I bulk them all together. really. The current ships can move around with thrusters, but can't take advantage of warp gates, or jump drives. It is quite a broad question. I suppose I'm particularly interested in the future of jump drives, warp gates, and how the AI will use them, since that's what we have now, and can only conjecture on other possible mechanics.

EDIT: Clarified.

We'll be looking at better balancing between gameplay features, of which an aspect will be to do with jump drives. Warp gates also will be revisited later on down the track once more gameplay elements are in, to better make them suit their niche. I expect that they might become quite useful for factions, as they're more often than not the ones constructing multiple stations or bases etc. FTL has always been planned as a capital ship system, and represents a longer term goal factions can work towards to acquire, as FTL opens up so much more of the universe.

Is evolution and war on planets sill planed.

Probably not until Beta if we do add them in, as they both have quite a few dependencies on mechanics that aren't currently in the game.

so, uhm, no addressing pve till a year or so?

PVE is later in the schedule yes, as there's features and new mechanics we want in before implementing fauna. The schedule is designed not only around dependencies but distributions of workloads between the teams. for example, if Saber has been working on a bunch of models for a release, such as the new gun models, we wouldn't go straight into expecting fauna as he would have had no time to work on fauna models. The schedule cycles between new textures/UI/assets, audio, mechanics, etc so that no team is put under too much stress.

Are there concrete plans for a modding API, and if so when and to what extent?

An extensive modding API is planned, however it won't be going in until Beta as right up to the end of Alpha we're putting in features that all work together with the rest of the game, and we want to ensure that when a modding API is released, modders have free reign over being able to intertwine their mods across a variety of different features.

 

[Lecic]

Crew is REALLY far down that list. I thought it would be relatively soon.

 

[Bench]

Crew is REALLY far down that list. I thought it would be relatively soon.

We had planned it to be sooner, but after looking at all we needed to implement first to actually have it the way we wanted it to be, it just ended up being pushed back to accommodate the preceding dependencies and features.

Trust me, it's worth it being pushed back considering all the much more that will be able to be included and supported.

 

[chirmac]

Will there be any changes to the scanner block and system? It is somewhat useless right now.