Starmade overhaul

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    just a few suggestions for starmade that I would think would make the game more realistic

    this electricity overhaul would be designed to ingolf the player in the game and allow them to feel like they need to survive
    Generators would be a core element in generating electricity they would require fuel.
    Fuel would be acquired by mining from planet's cave systems or trading with npcs.
    Panels would replace logic gates and switches. they would mount on the floor, wall or ceiling and would come in various types

    these types would include..
    -Interactive panels
    -Passive panels

    interactive panels would be things like switches, buttons, and keypads. while passive panels would be things like logic
    Computers would be a tool for ship management they basically be a command prompt where you can write things in lua.

    computers would come with various built in functions to make coding easier
    Wires would be required to transfer electricity throughout your ship they would be able to connect to doors, panels, computers, engines, weapons, and shields.
    They would mount on the floor, wall or ceiling.

    water systems would be a physics based system that uses fluid that can be transferred through your ship or base

    Pumps would be a placeable object that would pump water through pipes using electricity
    they would have a input and output for placing pipes

    you would be able to turn them on by supplying power to them

    not much to say about this other then somethings should not be blocks I see that most things in game are blocks and have no characteristic to them

    I suggest making only floors, walls, and cleanings blocks and having a unique feel to the game

    I think there should be a character editor that allows people to choose their character's looks and clothes

    I think there should be a armor a weapons system for players(not ships)
    this would liven up gameplay a little and allow role play and battles.

    There could be some creativity with this too with the possibility of jet packs, capes, arm blasters, energy blades, and power armors.
    these things would be either bought or crafted with random stats

    now I know that planets have gotten a overhaul but I have an idea to make them better

    what if planets were alternate maps that the player or ship were warped to when entering a planet's orbit.
    They could be completely flat dimensions that had various depths and cave systems.
    They would be randomly generated like in minecraft and would add a massive amount or more gameplay value to the game
     
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    I thought about having to have pipes and wires between systems for them to work but i think it would make it too complicated. Unless your talking about having conduits and then like a power relay hub which has a radial effective range to make things work. Could be cool.

    I'm more for the seperate world planets. Kind of like they did in Galacticraft in the Minecraft mod. I thought it was pretty awesome. Or maybe have it so only some planets functioned that way while you could mine other planets from space. Just so you could build like a homeworld. Would be an amazing addition to the game. But make it so only small ships could enter the atmosphere to go down there. Maybe ships up to like 150m or something. I would love to be able to fly around in space in a capital dock to your orbiting station then fly down to the planet surface in a cargo where you have built like a 3,000x3,000 city. Even if they fucked up the power systems and drastically changed it all i could be happy with something like that. I used to love sitting in minecraft building cities, space stations and colonies on other planets using the mod but it didnt have the space flight thing i like so much about Starmade.

    If only they would consider it. The likelihood is they wont though unfortunately.
     
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    On the issue of a character editor, if you only want a cosmetic change, the game has templates for skinning the Dave (the player character) with any textures you see fit, and the Community Content here on the site has a bunch of ready-made skins other players have created. So far this is cosmetic only, but it offers players to customize their looks in-game at a very basic level.
     
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    I thought about having to have pipes and wires between systems for them to work but i think it
    Same here. Also wires and pipies dont fit in small ships and ships with separated parts. Unless you have some wireless transmitters, which can make those wires useless.

    And while I really like the idea of the consumable fuel, it will bring lots of boring fuel management into the game. Imagine supplying entire fleet with fuel. Even if it will be automatised, it will take some time.
     

    NeonSturm

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    1. Electricity
      1. Fuel Generators
        • I think there should be alternatives of free electricity/thrust - even if it's just low-efficiency (Solar Panels, Fission reactors).
      2. Logic Panels
        • It would be nice if all logic and displayblocks were available as slabs with 1/4 or less size.
        • But the cubes are easiest thing to play with (this is the biggest contrary point to your suggestion)
      3. Computers (dedicated scripting)
        • It would be nice, especially performance-wise, but we already have logic and regex.
          • We can make it with regex-display blocks, but it would be huge and unreliable (at least 16x16x16 I guess).
          • However, it's a huge effort if we make this Community-Content CPU-core (too big for one alone).
        • I think more reliable logic is more important right now.
      4. Wires
        • Aesthetically yes, but functionally it's a difficult topic (enough for a separate thread).
    2. Water Systems
      • I have the same opinion here as with wires (#1.4)
    3. Model Overhaul
      • Do you know SpaceEngineers? If not look at steam / youtube. This game has tons of lags.
      • Full blocks are the easiest thing to use, but I think SE not being open2play/4linux is the biggest issue for some. I think :schema: will not make SM a copy of it unless for a good reason.
      • A room with slab-walls can be just 0.5m smaller in every direction than it's footprint.
      • A room with full blocks is 2m smaller in every direction.
    4. Char Editor
      • There is: It's called GIMP or PhotoShop (but not for babies I know - some effort is required)
    5. Char Armour-Suits
      • Suggested, wanted, but not the top priority for :schema: I guess
    6. Planets like MineCraft:
      • :schema:wants no load-screens and a fully-seamless universe
      • I want bigger planets so that I can have a scene similar to the DeathStar and LukeSkywalker.
        • You fly through a canyon to your underground base - that adds 2 a feeling of "home".
        • For me, planets beeing non-editable except sections occupied by a player would be fine too (as alternative, server setting).
     
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    I think there should be alternatives of free electricity/thrust - even if it's just low-efficiency (Solar Panels, Fission reactors).
    I agree that there should be some sort of free energy source but I think it should be very inefficient

    It would be nice if all logic and displayblocks were available as slabs with 1/4 or less size.
    I disagree having small wall panels like ones that would be in real life would immerse people into gameplay more
    blocks are easier to play with but they look terribly ugly and and besides they are very hard to tell apart form other things in your inventory

    It would be nice, especially performance-wise, but we already have logic and regex.
    yes but they take up a ton of space like you said and computers would be able to store commands and then execute them in a single block space

    Aesthetically yes, but functionally it's a difficult topic (enough for a separate thread).
    I can see why people would think that ships could not fit wires in them.
    I can simply put that there could be wire strips that could go in between blocks

    Do you know SpaceEngineers? If not look at steam / youtube. This game has tons of lags.
    It only lags because the game requires high end computers to play
    minecraft has models that were not blocks and it ran fine
    besides collisions with those models could still be rectangular
    also making the game use something other then blocks is not going to make it like SE
    besides SE has some good ideas that cool ideas be learned from

    There is: It's called GIMP or PhotoShop (but not for babies I know - some effort is required)
    I'm not a baby just because I don't know how to sprite high resolution textures
    also the last time I checked there were not very many skins in the starmade database
    besides having a template editor would increase skin production especially if it was linked to a skin database

    :schema:wants no load-screens and a fully-seamless universe
    well my suggestion never mentioned a loading screen
    planets would just be very large orbs that when you get closer to you are (Passively) loaded into it
    besides minecraft like fog could be used to make the transition more seamless
     
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    NeonSturm

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    ShadowBlitz16 these were the parts I didn't wrote because it would have made my post too long.
    I would very much like a display block where letters are buttons or which interacts with the keyboard on every keypress.

    But we shouldn't require display blocks for everything
    - not just because display blocks require separate memory (less efficient coding-wise)
    - but also because full blocks show you if they are on/off, display blocks don't.​
     

    Lone_Puppy

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    I like your fluid mechanic references and especially the pumps. Such a simple yet important item to have in space.
    Your ideas for the avatar suit and accessaries are great to. I especially would like the jet pack.

    With power transfer, I think the existing methods can be explained away using some Sci-Fi fluff.
    We could explain it as a type of osmosis within the way the blocks are created. Each block could have an embedded transfer system for power that is commonly and regularly ignored by the populous of the universe. This would be a part of the fabricators primary construction protocols... yada yada... blah blah blah.... ;)
     

    Lecic

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    Generators would be a core element in generating electricity they would require fuel.
    No. Forcing fuel for all ships is a bad idea. I am not opposed to replacing auxiliaries with a fuel based system, but smaller ships should not need fuel to generate usable amounts of power.

    Panels would replace logic gates and switches. they would mount on the floor, wall or ceiling and would come in various types
    This is effectively a suggestion for 1/4 slabs for logic. I see no reason that slab variants of logic blocks couldn't be added on top of the existing full blocks.

    Wires would be required to transfer electricity throughout your ship they would be able to connect to doors, panels, computers, engines, weapons, and shields.
    They would mount on the floor, wall or ceiling.
    Wires are terrible. No thanks.

    water systems would be a physics based system that uses fluid that can be transferred through your ship or base
    I'm not even sure if the game can support fluids, but it would definitely be a nice addition.

    not much to say about this other then somethings should not be blocks I see that most things in game are blocks and have no characteristic to them

    I suggest making only floors, walls, and cleanings blocks and having a unique feel to the game
    Blocks do not need special models each. Textures are fine. I like my game to not run at 10 FPS.

    I think there should be a character editor that allows people to choose their character's looks and clothes
    The game already has a skin editor.

    I think there should be a armor a weapons system for players(not ships)
    this would liven up gameplay a little and allow role play and battles.

    There could be some creativity with this too with the possibility of jet packs, capes, arm blasters, energy blades, and power armors.
    I believe the devs have stated previously that they were looking into a modular (not block based) personal astronaut weapons system in the future.

    crafted with random stats
    Random stats would just be annoying.

    now I know that planets have gotten a overhaul but I have an idea to make them better

    what if planets were alternate maps that the player or ship were warped to when entering a planet's orbit.
    They could be completely flat dimensions that had various depths and cave systems.
    They would be randomly generated like in minecraft and would add a massive amount or more gameplay value to the game
    The devs have repeatedly stated that they want the universe to be seamless. Instanced planets are never happening.
     

    NeonSturm

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    1. Electricity

      1. Logic Panels
        • It would be nice if all logic and displayblocks were available as slabs with 1/4 or less size.
    I disagree having small wall panels like ones that would be in real life would immerse people into gameplay more
    blocks are easier to play with but they look terribly ugly and and besides they are very hard to tell apart form other things in your inventory
    This is effectively a suggestion for 1/4 slabs for logic. I see no reason that slab variants of logic blocks couldn't be added on top of the existing full blocks.
    I think he means panels like this:
    1 2 3
    4 5 6
    7 8 9
    D 0 C
    (more buttons per block).
    And it would be nice if we had logic for 4 bits per block (2x2 field) or 8 bits where each bit swaps foreground with background colour for a certain area on a block depending on wether it's set.
     
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    Lecic

    - small ships should have some sort of small power generator like what we have now but instead larger fuel systems should be more effective and be used only for larger ships.

    - Wires don't even need to be blocks but node that are connected to blocks, they could even pass through blocks

    - non cuboid models would not affect performance that much. there are plenty of games that use polygons that run better them starmade.
    its all about the engine.

    - planets would be passively loaded while flying towards them.
    for example your in space your start flying towards a planet right?
    your thinking that the equivalent of a minecraft map generation screen pops up?
    I am thinking that the planets are so big and take so long for fly to that you basically load the planets before ever reaching them.

    so planets are basically spheres when you get past the atmosphere your basically teleported into a empty world(nothing is loaded yet) and then keep flying forwards until you reach the surface of the planet (in this case it basically would be like minecraft but would wrap around to itself kinda like what starbound does)
     

    OfficialCoding

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    - small ships should have some sort of small power generator like what we have now but instead larger fuel systems should be more effective and be used only for larger ships.

    - Wires don't even need to be blocks but node that are connected to blocks, they could even pass through blocks

    - non cuboid models would not affect performance that much. there are plenty of games that use polygons that run better them starmade.
    its all about the engine.

    - planets would be passively loaded while flying towards them.
    for example your in space your start flying towards a planet right?
    your thinking that the equivalent of a minecraft map generation screen pops up?
    I am thinking that the planets are so big and take so long for fly to that you basically load the planets before ever reaching them.

    so planets are basically spheres when you get past the atmosphere your basically teleported into a empty world(nothing is loaded yet) and then keep flying forwards until you reach the surface of the planet (in this case it basically would be like minecraft but would wrap around to itself kinda like what starbound does)
    I think this is necro
     
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    Wires: I don't like the idea of requiring them at all, but a decorative block of wiring would be kinda nice I guess, kinda like the pipe decorative block. And wedges for both of them would be extra good.

    Solar panels that generate power output based on the lighting level they receive from the local star would be handy, if noting else as decoration but giving them some functionality would be good. They could be cheap but fragile, and a way to create power without needing stabilizers - though if you want chambers you still need at least one reactor block to connect them to. And since the lighting level from the local star is calculated already when the blocks are exposed to that light (and is 0 when they're not), it wouldn't take any extra calculations because the work is already being done.

    Water systems: Now here's a thought, use water cooling as an alternative stabilization system to using stabilizers - surround your reactor with water blocks as coolant, and the stabilization you get out of it is dependent on some combination of: the number of water blocks touching reactor blocks, the total number of water blocks in the coolant group, and/or how much power generation you divert into increasing the coolant effectiveness (abstracted-out pumps and heatsinks and radiators and such). Perhaps a multiplication of (surface area of the reactor that water touches) * (total size of water compared to size of reactor) might be a place to start, but the relationship can be tweaked as necessary to make sense in practice - this mechanic would at least provide a choice between making your reactor efficient to cool versus making it well-armored. Additionally, if you want solid heatsinks, you can have ice blocks in the coolant group as well that convert to water under heavy load and back into ice when the system cools down or something like that - but I'm not sure how exactly this would work, it'd just be neat.
     
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    StormWing0

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    With water cooling you could turn a whole ship into a huge radiator to radiate heat from the ship's reactor, same thing with stations. Get hot enough and you start irradiating your ship/station and crew if any and the surrounding area. :)
     

    Ciggofwar

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    We can look to blame ~ but why waste time
    I've been contemplating a thing about planet-side 2 going to planet-side 3 ~ it really does not need an overhaul, like a completely new game type of thing, but just some new interfacing and fixing stuff - that never got fixed! ~ Someone really examined the game play than came out with some very unique innovate solutions of simplifying
    Complexity - can get out of hand where a simple KISS is always king!

    Like in Minecraft when red and blue power came out ~ great time for builders! It was a time where things just seem to fit into place so nicely ~ after a build ~ To poise and watch as everything flowed and flowered.
    The why is you could have great looking ships and functionality - without adding decor scribble blocks etc.. having a functioning interior ~ rather than pretending with other blocks.

    Yes people are quite creative in making some things fashionable!! I would like to see paint-able's like if we want to put pipes or wiring that is decorative but non functioning, because of constraints, size etc...
    Or you have the floor space and put in functional pipes and wires.

    WHY

    I simply enjoyed building ~ that was the core of the game-play and figuring out what was working - that was fun! It's nice when you have a selection of building materials for instance 7 days to die has a painting mechanic and you can change the texture surface to any building tile, We also want details ~ when the new shapes appeared that was super! Making a ship in resemblance and functional is the cats meow as well ~ relation ship to size comes into play as well ~ I use to have mini-turrets in the build as well or stations where I could grab a drone and patrol my build around as a military simulation, as that was an objective for the build, the flow of security. denial of access ect..

    starmade-screenshot-0065.png

    I'm going to say I loved the slider for turrets that was the cat's meow! Rather than I make a complex logic circuit that in the end is a slider for the turrets that takes up the entire interior of the ship or portions of it?

    A logic panel is much more suited for game play, esp in a PVP environment ~ might be that I don't recall how I built the logic circuit and now it's all busted up, as I built it 6 months prior.

    I think in terms of modding like ARK where modders actually made better blocks than the Dev's did, they made the builds better and cleaner. Which ARK realized and used then generated that into there game.

    Like minecraft was crap looking, get the texture pack and your builds popped ~ getting rid of the red wire paint for wires and cut slab blocks was some fine building adding to build length getting to end game etc...

    Linking sucks up FPS as well! Be nicer if once it was linked it would than turn into a solid entity same could be for power and there grids or making reactors ~ I think the term is grouping and if it adds to smoother FPS over a build that is ideal!

    starmade-screenshot-0039_1.png Here I made a spinning reactor, you could have things like this, like making it longer or wider for more power or smaller spin it faster or pulse power through the winding and armature for a higher output ~ which we had with power banks, people want to visit ships and be impressed or watch a review on a ship all punched out. Having stuff that moves or having sounds is just the meow! In mine craft I think it was a engine that spun and had light sound!!! ~ at that time very epic.

    starmade-screenshot-0094.png Here I added a photo picture of welds to the edge of the blocks there actual big ass welds in real life that I shrunk and pasted onto the blocks to see what it would look like since I have no idea how to do that to textures lol, things like that would go a long way to ascetics or gribble, as your changing the dynamics of the reflecting surfaces, would benefit various ship sizes piping and running fuel from tanks to engines than if equipped on the wings will change the ratio of turning longer wings will aid into the turn also with fuel type used also could use reversing thrust for wings and along with that is drift turning and at this speed the turn ratio is ideal for the size of the ship. Another way you could take a bank of thruster's into a solid entity and put it all onto the end engine as well using all the blocks shapes turning into a thruster and placing where the boost surface is applied with a certain power ratio to size, or certain framed sizes turns into this solid entity unit, like mine craft did with fuel tanks, I was thinking as well having slots or slotted computers which than could house the ability slightly cutting down linking like also adding a light of color could also be used say in a dimmer switch and or pulse and have the solid unit light or glow and flash if one desired besides the firing color.

    Some of the problems with builds is the server there built on than going to another server and there trash!
    Mostly you need to use less blocks but with the ability to produce the energy requirements for size and room as to why private severs change there block ratios and that changes the game-play. You basically do the Ai battle and see what ship wins?

    The turret docking is another issue ~ yes very complex as there are many options again here you could make another solid entity typically a solid base will suit the size of the turret and the ability to transfer power shields etc... and options in the computer of setting the pins of movement, speed, accuracy, etc... same a slider or points allocation, than we can set the home position as well.
    starmade-screenshot-0086 (1).png
    The more information is efficient across the build it maintains being effective and error free! Having a error checker for you ship would be ideal when building, At the same time you still have complex movements for those that want to articulate in a niche of building and measure energy efficiency, of power and fuel for example, thrust values ect.. We want to be able to satisfy most people across a broad spectrum in there desired game-play.

    For myself a builder server or single player or with few others is a fun time.
     
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