The Starmade's main problem

[Cboehme]

The Base Speaks the truth!

 

[Visitor]

Shh, don\'t mention it\'s beta. It\'s already used very haphazardly (if not downright wrong) by some indie game makers and if you\'ll make people actually check what beta development stage of software entails, you\'ll get even more complaining about lack of features.

Spoiler: beta normally means nearly complete - or, if you\'d like, \'feature complete\' - game undergoing testing, bug eradication and fine tuning before official release as 1.0 full product , though afterwards there may be some, non-core-gameplay-altering additions. Nowadays it\'s just arbitrary title indie devs slap onto games that reach certain important stage of development, but it\'s just a title and may be misleading.

That being said, I don\'t have problem with suggestions either way, as long as they keep certain level, are being tracked and don\'t mess up with development. Obviously the core gameplay needs to be finished first, but suggestion (or, in many cases, wishlists) can still hang around for future reference. In current version (soon to be improved from what I heard, but don\'t quote me on that) of our forum, there is a risk of good ideas disappearing over time (some sort of tracker would be nice) but other than that - why not. Especially since some basic structure for plot can be implemented alongside basic gameplay stuff. so, currently, it shouldn\'t be a priority, yet definitely kept in mind.

 

[Syzygy]

It doesn\'t matter if its a one time difficulty, it completely changes the game. You don\'t have to make the starting curve harder to make the game have more to do. Sure it might be nice in yours and others opinions to start off on a planet and have to work toward making a ship. I wouldn\'t mind doing it; I think its cool. But if the game became that I would play it much less often, and think the game was worth less, because it is a different game.

@Visitor, minecraft wasn\'t an adventure game. It was a sandbox game. They changed what minecraft was, and I consider it a less valuable game than it could have been if they kept it a sandbox game. Just because people like closure, I do in many games, doesn\'t mean a game has to have it. Sandbox games especially don\'t need it. Starmade is a sandbox game, and should be. If that got changed, I would probably only play and recommend space engineers or something.

 

[Visitor]

The thing is, Minecraft offered closure, didn\'t enforce it. Exactly so those who don\'t need it or don\'t want it don\'t have to have it. That\'s why I do like how Mojang pulled it off - while I may not have particular need to fight Ender dragon if I don\'t have to, I see no reason to complain that someone else can - especially since it doesn\'t affect my gameplay, unbalanced the game or generally limits me in any way (with exception of wanting to have the egg or whatever for whatever reason, though there are ways around that as well).

Anyway, I cannot share your view that Minecraft was somehow made cheaper by such changes - you can play totally fine like if they would be never there. Unless you are willing to say that your experience with the game was somehow seriously impacted by the fact that some other players who wanted to have such closure went and achieved it - and I remind everyone that it\'s hardly a real closure, just some text-cutscene after which - upon leaving The End - you\'re kicked back to your spawn. Hardly a game-breaker.

Same with the suggestions here, as I\'ve written up there - there\'s a way to change gameplay somewhat, implement those few suggestions without forcing anyone to do anything. Don\'t want to hang around the planet? Set starting cash/equipment on your server to whatever fits you and enjoy building starship from the very beginning.

 

[Trollerbobman]

Sandbox IS Creative!

Admin commands people, Why u no learn?

 

[Syzygy]

\"especially since it doesn\'t affect my gameplay\"

This is only true in a singleplayer element. On every single server I have ever tried (and that\'s a lot of them), the ender-dragon has a huge impact on gameplay. I typically play minecraft for the multiplayer aspect, as single player can get boring easily after a while. So yes, it has hindered my gameplay. If things are implemented as mods, its easier to find servers that don\'t include something like they do if its standard. Its more difficult than you think to have something not influence the gameplay.

 

[Visitor]

The thing is, Ender Dragon is NOT closure.

It is a boss-kind of monster and necessary opponent for said closure but on it\'s own it\'s a mob that was actually in it\'s first iteration meant for regular gameplay as a regular dragon that can be found here or there. It also didn\'t drop anything specific (of practical value) that cannot be found elsewhere (basically, there\'s rather useless egg that is a trinket more than anything, a portal to get back and exp after defeating the dragon - only the last has value and exp in this game is easy to acquire otherwise anyway).

Thus, I cannot really agree that said mob has \'a huge impact on gameplay\'. And that\'s beside that point that even if it somehow would become such, in itself it has little to do with the closure itself, as it\'s just a mob that was refurbished to make it a bit of a struggle/achievement.

But alright, you see things differently and I can live with that. I still however don\'t see why some plot or closure for Starmade would be a problem if it wouldn\'t be offering player any special boons over players free-roaming the world, beside having some additional fluff the latter group, if coming with your approach wouldn\'t care for anyway.

 

[ne3zy]

I can\'t understand why are you talking about minecraft, this is about starmade.

By the way Syzygy, you can make my suggestion the vanilla mode and the actual starmade with some modifications the sandbox mode, both are not incompatible, and I never mentioned a closure.

As I said my suggestion is not engraved in the rock, you still can try improve it if you don\'t agree with some points, this is just the main idea and if you really want to be exploring space from the beginning keep in mind you can change the server\'s parameters or just make the \"get out of the planet\" phase faster.

The only problem I see is the one Omni talked about (the first player joining the server), but I\'m pretty sure we can fix it pretty easily. By the way it\'s not really a problem because it may be true at the beginning but once some people join the server they can create a faction to kick his ass. We also could add a newbie protection so server\'s veterans can\'t attack new joiners, etc...

 

[Winterhome]

I\'m glad I\'m not the only one who instantly thought of Spore.

 

[ne3zy]

bump, this is still an actual problem

 

[h0yer]

It\'s an alpha version of a SANDBOX game. Many before me mentioned that, even in other threads.

Did the sandboxes of your childhood have any storyline quest? I\'m quite sure not. There were just other players, sand, mums\'n\'dads (admins) and not even pirates :D

Use your imagination, take some buddies and go camping planetside, build some racers and weee around, go for a solar coronal expedition, build a spacepet to care for. Or a spacemonster to fight against.

Guys on the webz making tons of funny and/or informative videos about starmade, they don\'t seem to have this problem.

Just be patient, there is stuff to come and if I didn\'t get the QnA wrong, it\'s beeing planned

 

[TheBlueThunder]

Starting on a random planet, and research technology to build a ship. It would be pretty funny if someone said how will you build a ship with materials on a planet, us humans did just that, how did we get a Shuttle to space

We never started in space in real life but on a planet, researched materials, dig from the planet, used it to build what we come up with. And created technology built a spaceship, seeing the planet die to find another planet to live on, destroy, research new types of materials and to be come the ultimate being in the universe.

Nice idea you have there, the game will get better and better I believe with ideas like this.

 

[Dajaklo]

We should be able to command ai controlled starships; make it like a strategy game. We could have a way to view a larger area like in Homeworld. You could build a ship with a command module as a capital ship and when you use the command module it becomes like an RTS. Your new goal is to conquer the universe.

But I do like the idea of starting out on a planet. It wouldn\'t be similar to Minecraft because Minecraft is mostly medieval/fantasy and your main goal is to slay the dragon. Not so in Starmade. What would be especially awesome would be if you had to build specific machines to process certain resources and you had to set up certain machines to manufacture things. You could build power stations and make starting out more confusing and complicated (like FTB!!!!)

stage 1: survival

stage 2: industrialization

stage 3: space exploration

stage 4: conquer!!!!!!

 

[NeonSturm]

We should be able to command ai controlled starships; make it like a strategy game. We could have a way to view a larger area like in Homeworld. You could build a ship with a command module as a capital ship and when you use the command module it becomes like an RTS. Your new goal is to conquer the universe.


In a RTS, you have equal (or almost equal) opportunities for both sides initially, except player skills.



Would not be fun in a game where the first one to go into the open void will never be beaten completely, because the universe is infinite.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

As h0yer said, the game is in it\'s Alpha stage.

\"So before talking about balances and stuff why don\'t you fix this problem first?\"
More content is not a first fix problem for a game in Alpha Testing. It might be something important to address near to launch, yes, and especially post launch, but not at the alpha stage.

Do you really think the developers are so stupid that they don\'t know there\'s nothing else to do in the game other than build ships and fight pirates/each other that they need to be told on a forum to implement more features? They do have ideas for other content, but we need to wait for them to create it. The game is still in early development and the only reason they\'re letting us play it in early development is to help test the game and find bugs/errors (and, of course, hiring testers would be very expensive). At this point, they\'re not really letting us play the game for our entertainment.

The only way you could have more stuff to do right now is if they could create the new content instantaneously, which is impossible, or if they could travel back in time and begin developement ealier, which is also impossible.

 

[LordChicken]

On The Subject of Civilizations



I am of the belief the Civilizations should be made by the factions in game. By adding a real economy to the game you could create whole automated trade empires run by and owned by players who use said income to build fleets of ships in order to grow outward infinitely, until they come in constant with rival players doing the same, resulting in alliances and wars.

Honestly being as Starmade is a server based sand box game, I think a great deal of the entertainment should come from dealing with other players, and fleshing out the faction system would be a great way to start it(that and putting in a real economy, I\'m a billionaire who killed a few pirates and flies around in a dingy because he bought all the blocks the shops own, something is wrong.)

I find by allowing people to be a villain they will do it anyway, if you introduce both value and scarcity to a naturally generating group of blocks in a working economy then people will go to lengths to get said blocks, control said blocks, and fight for them as well.

For example: Lets say to refine the material needed to make advanced thrusters required a large amount of various common materials, + 1 ore that came only from 1 kind of planet, or Astrid belts. What would happen if players couldn\'t afford to buy the ores? They would mine them, what would happen if more then one person wants the most convenient resources? Conflict. Mining becomes a whole lot more of a respectable business when you can run across ore\'s that people are willing to go to war to get a cache of them.

Imagine logging onto a server to meet a recruiter trying to get people to help his faction win a war for a cluster of asteroids filled with uncommon ores? Imagine needing to dock at a friendly space station that was put in place to control a trade rout, rather then to be pretty and make the home world look like a bad mother trucker. Imagine having a reason to join a faction other then wanting free stuff or hanging out with your friends.



Factions + Economy can equal Civilization, if given the right tools and motivation.

Just something I wanted to add. No need to program a whole race of people to be jerks/helpfull when you have people to do it for you.