StarMade Development Direction

[Ithirahad]

I'm pretty sure Schine's plan will allow for expansion, otherwise the entire suggestions section would be negated.

Expansion/more stuff would happen sooner or later. The question is whether or not the thrust changes can be thrown in this development cycle.

 

[SchnellBier]

oh damn... I really hope this works out... ships with cargo and quarters.... can´t fucking wait!

 

[MrFURB]

You have earned many kudos today! Good job keeping the hype train running.

 

[Ithirahad]

Bench, I have one last question. How far will the automation of factions systems go? You will be able to recruit NPCs, and systems will have security levels reminiscent of EvE online, but how will that security be enforced? Will it be possible to assign blueprints as "defense ships" and automatically spend faction points to have them warp in when an enemy enters your faction's highsec space, or will you have to actually have NPC-crewed ships standing ready at nearby bases for them to be sent against enemies? Or will you be required to send the ships yourself? Because with large enough empires, I'd imagine that, realistically, players (typically serving as government, albeit RPing as other things) would not have to micromanage every single thing - that is what admirals and captains and quartermasters and harbormasters and the like are for.

 

[Criss]

Indeed. Three cheers for an evident plan in general. Although I am hoping that the thrust updates that were talked about a while ago get put in somewhere in the middle of this.

Those are planned. Already looked at that google doc . Idk when they will come into play but there is a desire to change thrust mechanics. Additionally, it should be noted, that this is still not our full feature list. There was plenty left out of that. This is just a summary of the next big push.
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Bench, I have one last question. How far will the automation of factions systems go? You will be able to recruit NPCs, and systems will have security levels reminiscent of EvE online, but how will that security be enforced? Will it be possible to assign blueprints as "defense ships" and automatically spend faction points to have them warp in when an enemy enters your faction's highsec space, or will you have to actually have NPC-crewed ships standing ready at nearby bases for them to be sent against enemies? Or will you be required to send the ships yourself? Because with large enough empires, I'd imagine that, realistically, players (typically serving as government, albeit RPing as other things) would not have to micromanage every single thing - that is what admirals and captains and quartermasters and harbormasters and the like are for.

Basically everything you mentioned is a possibility. To start there will be some level of automation. You still need to dictate what ships are used for what systems. They may be automatically filled with NPC's of your own faction's population or you may also dictate that yourself. This means having passive resource gen is a must and you will want to take systems to generate those resources and spend them to defend your systems.

 

[Ithirahad]

Awesome. I really can't want to get my hands on some of this tech and start laying out NPC pathing and room layouts, but I know it will be a while, so in the meantime... Back to finishing up my fleet's smaller craft.

 

[Kij421]

Man, this was a great read! I've only played the game for like a week, but have already started wondering about some of these things from reading posts on these forums. The NPC management and future passive resource harvesting is especially exciting.

I do have a question though: will the "startup costs" to getting to this NPC management be better explained or lowered in the future? I'm a new player, so I'm not too familiar with the requirements of different blocks for more advanced construction. Maybe I'm not playing the game smart enough, but I feel like there's a requirement to invest hours and days into really specific mining before you can produce blocks needed for something other than a mining vessel. I want more cannon barrels, but I don't have nearly enough hylat, so instead I can purchase them from a shop, but then I'd have to sell other capsules I've refined already, and I don't know if I'll need those later for something I don't even have an inkling of yet. It feels like a catch-22, but I know it's just newb-ness.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Indeed. Three cheers for an evident plan in general. Although I am hoping that the thrust updates that were talked about a while ago get put in somewhere in the middle of this.

Thrusters are heavily dependent on the mass of a ship, with additions like cargo adding mass to ships it will have to be considered before the thrusters update.

 

[Ithirahad]

Man, this was a great read! I've only played the game for like a week, but have already started wondering about some of these things from reading posts on these forums. The NPC management and future passive resource harvesting is especially exciting.

I do have a question though: will the "startup costs" to getting to this NPC management be better explained or lowered in the future? I'm a new player, so I'm not too familiar with the requirements of different blocks for more advanced construction. Maybe I'm not playing the game smart enough, but I feel like there's a requirement to invest hours and days into really specific mining before you can produce blocks needed for something other than a mining vessel. I want more cannon barrels, but I don't have nearly enough hylat, so instead I can purchase them from a shop, but then I'd have to sell other capsules I've refined already, and I don't know if I'll need those later for something I don't even have an inkling of yet. It feels like a catch-22, but I know it's just newb-ness.

If the amount of cannon barrels you want is low enough to buy them from a shop, you can always just sell scrap alloy and whatnot from abandoned stations... It will get you cannons eventually, then you can hunt pirates, grab loot, sell it, get more credits, etc. But yes, specific mining is currently the only efficient way to get into the game... I dunno how that will change going into the future, but it will probably be possible to join a faction and start hunting scavengers and pirates right from the start eventually.

 

[MrFURB]

Maybe I'm not playing the game smart enough, but I feel like there's a requirement to invest hours and days into really specific mining before you can produce blocks needed for something other than a mining vessel. I want more cannon barrels, but I don't have nearly enough hylat, so instead I can purchase them from a shop, but then I'd have to sell other capsules I've refined already, and I don't know if I'll need those later for something I don't even have an inkling of yet. It feels like a catch-22, but I know it's just newb-ness.

That's just the way the game is laid out right now. The blocks required for utility and mining are cheap, and the blocks required for combat are expensive as heck in comparison. A few thick layers of hull and a good thrust/mass ratio is the most newbloods can afford.

Here's some tips to help with that:
Upscale your salvagers until you can't any more. The best salvagers can chew up an entire rock in a few seconds, and there's even some meant for mining out entire planets in respectable time. Since salvagers are cheap compared to combat craft, it's better to make a large salvager to afford a large combat craft instead of trying to get out of salvagers ASAP and only having a small combat craft.

Don't be afraid to temporarily claim a system just for the mining bonus. Each ore/crystal you mine in a faction owned system gives multiple times what you would get in a neutral system.

 

[Kij421]

Here's some tips to help with that:
Upscale your salvagers until you can't any more. The best salvagers can chew up an entire rock in a few seconds, and there's even some meant for mining out entire planets in respectable time. Since salvagers are cheap compared to combat craft, it's better to make a large salvager to afford a large combat craft instead of trying to get out of salvagers ASAP and only having a small combat craft.

Don't be afraid to temporarily claim a system just for the mining bonus. Each ore/crystal you mine in a faction owned system gives multiple times what you would get in a neutral system.

Thanks, MrFURB and Ithirahad! I'll keep building my miners bigger and bigger then. Also, didn't know claiming a system gave a mining bonus! Like I said, I probably wasn't playing the smartest.

 

[Keptick]

Before anyone freaks out about the learning cliff or "muh ships" keep in mind that ships will still function normally without crew. Crew will just provide useful, but not mandatory, bonuses.

At least that's how I understood it. Please confirm Bench

 

[nightrune]

I'm so excited! I know I was hoping for some performance updates, but usually you want to do that later on after you build out your features so you know what you need to get done. Still so excited. Quarters are the most interesting version of this. Hopefullly it'll lead to docking and undocking drones/NPC ships as well. Maybes its an unfair question, but any chances of that Bench ? Maybe that will come around to fleet setups.

 

[nightwalker_007]

Defining of Internal Areas (Working Title: Quarters)

Defining a living quarter for example, gives you the ability to assign a NPC to live in that quarter, making them available to work in another quarter, whether it be in the recreational quarter as a barman or as the pilot of a ship.

This has been a long standing issue: Can we also see faction permissions expanded so that players can protect their ships from being entered. activated. raided, or otherwise used by any other player, faction or non-faction players? Can we see station permissions expanded to prevent faction members accessing rooms and storage/factories (eg, expand the permission block roles) to make people less squeamish about allowing new members to join a faction, or to make their faction open?

Can we expand this to include defined spaces for faction and non-faction members inside of a station so they have their own little protected space in which they can build and work without fear of having their stuff stolen?

How about we expand NPC roles to allow NPCs to randomly visit stations and roam around. For instance, if a station has a quarter area defined as a recreational area, NPCs might want to visit there when they aren't interacting with a store. This will encourage functional base designs, and make the block-stations less attractive. It'll also allow for another avenue for NPC recruitment besides buying them from a shopkeeper.

 

[Keptick]

HOLY CRAP, this sounds great and amazing and awesome.

...But I am curious about one thing. Player movement setups, like doors, lifts, and so on, get really complex. How exactly will NPCs be able to navigate these?

For instance, my elevator works in a way where you stand in front of the elevator tube to call the floating platform, then walk onto the platform and hit a button on the wall of the tube to send it to the desired deck. Except on the bridge, where there are no buttons and users just have to wait for the platform to return to the nearest main deck. I can't see how an NPC could know how to do this, and I would not want to have to change it up completely for the new system. I predict that I'll have to have inter-deck transporters for crew reasons, but that'd be a bit disappointing.

Add stairs besides the elevator? :p

Also, NPCs will have basic pathfinding, and I assume that will include not walking off ledges. So they's just wait for that platform (just my guess).

 

[rariisan]

Does fauna include hostile mobs? Like for example hostile units in astronaut mode attacking the base from time to time.

 

[Top 4ce]

CHAIRS!

*cries in joy*

THANK YOU!

 

[Lecic]

 

[godmars]

So what does this mean for BOBBY?

You're not exactly going to be able to fit living quarters in something like a carrier based fighter, or drone/ what have you, so i'm assuming he'll still be used for things like that?

 

[Edymnion]

Before anyone freaks out about the learning cliff or "muh ships" keep in mind that ships will still function normally without crew. Crew will just provide useful, but not mandatory, bonuses.

At least that's how I understood it. Please confirm Bench

Well, yeah, except for your miners.

You're going to have to completely redesign your mining ships to give room for that ore to go into as cargo.