Starmade Q&A

[Sgtwisky]

Will Different planet types only have minerals that are "natural" to them? for example each planet type only having 1 - 3 mineral types that can appear on it?

Will we get an Undo button? because that would be amazing !

Could we get an option to have faction symbols for factions? Something like a faction avatar that can be displayed next to a factions name in the faction list? and possibly in Nav for faction ships/stations/players? Also what about placing a "painted" logo on ships? I say painted because not all ships would be large enough to place the logo using blocks so I'm thinking something like a vector graphic that can be placed on a ship. Sort of like how decals work in many racing games.

Will it be possible (without scripting by the server) to have your AI crew man ships and follow your ship around? It would be fun to fly a battle ship with 4 or 5 fighters as an escort. Also will it be possible to command those Crew members to "Dock" or "Undock" from the ship your in, Assuming you have enough free docking spaces? Maybe they would race to try and claim the free spots if there isn't enough?

Will it ever be possible to reduce the size of docking areas? Especially the height? I find it can be somewhat restrictive especially if your trying to build "suicide" ships with the explosive blocks. They tend to be small and not require the whole docking area but I still have to keep a large distance in between docks or the docks don't work right.

Edit:
Will we ever get the ability to rename ships?

 

[MineCatFTW]

I really do hope they streamline the docking system, either make it so the dimensions are fully customizable (through a GUI), or another similar method.

 

[Aridhol]

My biggest question:

Are there plans to move 'starting out' to a planet, where you have to either visit a shop to get supplies for your first ship or build them yourself (this would require some basic default crafting, instead of the totally random system we have now).

I think it would be a nice, dynamic way to start the game.. At least, server owners could choose between starting their players in a space station or on a planet, potentially.

 

[flpsantoss]

What can be said about the future of the game on Steam?

Will there be any promotion campaign of the game as Kickstarter? Why? When? How?

The answers could be made by text instead of audio / video? or both, but please text, When english is not your native language is kind of hard to understand some technical terms in audio

Is true that Dave is a clone made by the Guild Trading dark scientists?

 

[Elit3]

My biggest question:

Are there plans to move 'starting out' to a planet, where you have to either visit a shop to get supplies for your first ship or build them yourself (this would require some basic default crafting, instead of the totally random system we have now).

I think it would be a nice, dynamic way to start the game.. At least, server owners could choose between starting their players in a space station or on a planet, potentially.

Maybe planet-side based shops, as a starting shop (But on a planet).

 

[MineCatFTW]

The game has been Greenlit, happened a while back, and it will have a full release on Steam. Right now, more promotion largely just causes stress for schema, proved by the Yogscast incident about a year ago. For the last one, how do you know about that? I thought it was a well-kept secret... Someone's losing their head for this.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

Could You change docking/turrets modules to be based on mass rather than size? And why not Zoidberg?

 

[techzone707]

When will you deobfuscate the server code? and will there be a Mod API?

 

[MrNature72]

We all know the answer to that already.

With eggs.

 

[MineCatFTW]

When will we get new generated stations? The current ones are nice, but they get old pretty fast.

 

[aceface]

When will we get new generated stations? The current ones are nice, but they get old pretty fast.

OR...when will it be possible to edit randomly generated structures - maybe through some kind of blueprint system?

 

[AsherMaximum]

What are the current plans for the cubatom & factory system? I'm hoping they will be merged somehow, but what will that look like? Will we ever go back to non-random crafting (please?)?

 

[Plazmatic]

1. With logic gates, are there only going to be the OR, AND, and NOT gates and not NAND, NOR, XOR, and XNOR gates (I do realize you can create any of the other gates with the three base gates, but having dedicated blocks might be more efficient for everything and simply more desirable).

2. Also, will we be able to create clocks by linking NOT gates to themselves? (similar to how it's done in minecraft)

3. Will half second delayers be the smallest delay interval, or will future delay blocks have toggle-able delays (for example you could set the delay in intervals of .1 seconds, or .01)?

4. I saw in the build shown in the Mushroomfleet charity videos that one input source can only link to one output (or it appeared so because when they were testing it they couldn't). Will this be the case in the public build, and are logic gates going to be able to take in multiple inputs? Please tell me it's not, that cripples the entire system and makes it impossible for complex structures to be made.

5. If you will be able to link inputs to multiple outputs and vice versa, will there be a limit (ie, one input source can only link to 10,000 outputs or something). And will there be a interface (like weapon computers) that shows what it is connected to? (or what inputs are connected to it)

6. Could we consolidate logic gates to one block, and change what type of block in build mode (like what was said in the previous Q&A by Calbiri with hull blocks, corner and wedges being consolidated to one block type)

7. Will there be visual confirmation to what a input is connected to (like if you select a weapon computer and you see the purple squares around the cannons connected to it) and visual confirmation of what the inputs are connected to any given gate (presumably in a different color).

 

[drunken waffel]

Are you going to implement life support on ships like oxygen and CO2 levels and if so will there be depressurization like you can get pulled out into space if a hole is blown in your hull? a possible way of getting oxygen could be to collect water and separate the hydrogen and oxygen giving you fuel and air.

also i know last Q&A you said that you could cause blackouts and brown outs if you damage the other ships what if you had to run power to the system through conduits and if you damage them they cause reduced efficiency if broken you loose functionality of the system.

that would be amazing

keep up the good work starmade has been my favorite game the moment i saw it you guys are awesome.

 

[Ortsac]

Hey Calbiri!

1. What does Schine mean?
2. How do you guys plan to make building easier, while keeping it from becoming too overpowered for resource gathering?
3. What's the biggest ship you've ever seen in starmade? What do you think would be the biggest possible ship?

 

[Loadout]

I have a few questions for the devs... but they sound more like suggestions to me..

1. would it possible to use an activation block next to, but not directly adjacent(cause of collisions) to an enemy plex door? You could use this to "tractor" to an enemy ship and initiate boarding actions by throwing down a block and popping open a door in the hull. Obviously it'd be easier to use this on an already existing plex door.

2. Speaking of tractor beams have you considered using a vector that causes inverse motion along the path of the beam with the applied Newtonian force of the beam? example;

1. Player fires TractorBeemz at Enemy Isanth.
2. Beam determines Player location and Isanth Location.
3. Beam calculates difference between these two as a function of angle/direction....X is greater = Player is to the left, Y is lower = Player is beneath, Z is lower, Player is behind him.)
4. Beam initiates a call to thrusters/motion with inverted values to pull enemies together, with a force = weapon's Newton value.

The end result would be a simple weapon, well, simple by my standards , that causes two ships to pull each other together. Obviously if ships have motion affected by mass, larger mass ships would require much greater force to actually be pulled. As an after thought I can foresee this causing a bit of lag so the beam would have to have it's affect attenuated over a duration with the beam itself having a cool-down similar to missiles.

3. would it be possible to have one light block that can be clicked to change it's color in inventory? It'd be a nice quality of life enhancement as opposed to having to lug around 7 different kinds of lights.

4. when are you going to fix the missile display vs shields? I've tested this extensively and missiles do absurd amounts of damage to shields but only ever display 1 point of damage. Seriously disheartening till you figure it out for yourself. Oh and the Critical Existence failure of shields is a bit odd with missiles.

To be clear, missiles do damage apparently based on the number of block faces they can hit within their radius. The damage value is applied to every block face reached in that area so after shields are gone a huge number of blocks is whacked from every angle causing ridiculous amounts of damage. Possibly because of recalculating the hits after the shield is gone??

This isn't really a question so much as a note I've yet to post(I have several threads running concurrently in my head as well as on paper).:p

5. last question in this wall of text i swear, could you rename the Isanth to the Isanath? it sounds a little better when you say it aloud. I'd also accept the SM Whackamole or the SKS Alottabllz. On that note the rest of my potential questions have already been asked. I look forward to sneaking in a few thousand more questions during the Q&A.

Cheers~

 

[Moraligus]

after some debate i have picked the one subject i have decided to inquire on.

calbiri, schema, what are your plans for making the game have constant goals and tension? minecraft has survival, terraria has its rpg element, and both have progression through resource procurement. will there be a survival mode or other systems to make sure that the player never has to sit still but rather be compelled to explore? if so what are these systems and gameplay mechanics? will you have imagined some brand new system, or are you going to improve on what has been done before?

 

[Ithirahad]

• Will we finally see the colored crystals that we were given a picture of months ago... ever?
• Will we get other colors of hull? (Orange, dark red, dark blue, dark green, etc.)
• Will hull get a buff, or possibly the damage-spreading system someone suggested (Or a mechanic change in general)?
• When will StarMade finally get more progression-related features? Right now, "Endgame" is terribly easy to reach. I understand that this is Alpha, but if there isn't much of a game to speak of, the community will slowly disappear and people will completely forget that StarMade ever existed, once things like Space Engineer and Star Citizen mature more (Which seems to be happening fairly quickly.)
• How will station blueprints work?
• Will the Isanth model get a modern revamp, with wedges, less unnecessary power gen blocks, and so on?
• When will the Fleet tab be finished, and how will it work? I can't wait to fly around in my Eser-Kalan-class Frigate with two Kalen-Miris-class Corvettes on either side; I'm hoping that it'll be possible soon.
• As people have said, how much is planned as far as non-ship gameplay is concerned? Will ground-based gameplay become just as interesting, or will it remain lackluster and be made up for by awesome ship-gameplay features (as it is now)?
  
  EDIT: Oh, and as SAS_Wimp said,

1. I was wondering if there are any new colours or shades of existing colours planned for hull and lights, and whether more block types such as deck plating, bulkhead, carpeted floor or ceiling panels (EDIT- Pre-lit! Ceiling with strip lighting in them!) might be a possibility (these would have no additional functionality but just be different textured blocks we can build with beyond building with hull and various types of terrain)? I would personally like to see more decorative computer panels too.

This all the way. If there's any easy suggestion I'd like to see implemented right now, it's this.

 

[the_racr]

Will the launcher be like the current mine craft one, where you can have multiple profiles and be able to play on different versions?

 

[Agenerick]

Will You guys make an official bug-tracker?