To Devs - Stuff I Like

[22SAS_Wimp]

In my experience, if people are keeping quiet about aspects of something, it generally means that they're happy about those aspects - the rule of thumb is that people take the time to speak out and complain about something they disagree with/don't like, but very rarely to compliment.

However, I thought I'd go against that paradigm and let you (the Devs) know some of the stuff I like in StarMade. Especially considering I've posted a couple of times about changes I'd like to see or problems I'm having.



So, about a week ago I saw a video on YouTube under the Recommended For You section about a game I hadn't heard of before called Space Engineer. Since the premise of both Space Engineer and StarMade is so similar - building spaceships with blocks - it's safe to say that there's a direct competition between the two.
Watching the video, I was stunned. The graphics are superior, and I really liked that collisions cause 3D block damage. BUT, after seeing the awesome graphics and ship crashes in Space Engineer, here I am still playing StarMade.
Why? Graphics isn't everything. Christ, my first online game was Ghost Recon... the cars had SQUARE WHEELS and the doors of the buildings on the Red Square map were 2 stories tall! But it was the gameplay of that game that kept myself and my clan mates playing it for years. As is the case with StarMade.
In the videos of Space Engineer I've seen, I don't like how the building of ships is performed - it seemed clumsy, labourous and not as easy as it should be. In SM, I feel that the building mode is far superior - it's intuitive (after a short learning curve), simple and rewarding. I also didn't like the backdrop in SE - it seemed like the player was in low orbit than outer space. In SM, the backdrop of black space sprinkled with stars and the beautiful Milkyway banding across it makes it feel like it is actually set in deep space.
I also prefer the game mechanics of engineering in SM over what I witnessed of SE - ie. thusters, power, sheilds and weapons.

So anyway, I'll leave SE behind now and mention some of the other things I enjoy with SM.
I mostly like the controls. I have a few niggles, that I've posted about under the Suggestions forum, but the majority is good. I like that you can bind one key to different function and the game doesn't complain like other games do (although I understand there is an option to dis-allow duplicate key binds). Moving of the avatar and ship feels intuitive and fluid.
The use of and functions of blocks (like the Bobby AI, the Factories and the Weapons Computer, for example), again feels simple and intuitive.
I like that the universe is populated with asteroids, space stations and pirates that we can mine, take over and fight - it feels alive but at the same time not over populated to the point where you lose any sense of scale and distance.
I like that there are shops to buy resources from, if you have the credits, or places where you can collect the resources for yourself, if you don't.
I love the Blueprints system too - the ability to save a ship you like then buy it again when Pirates or other players have their way with it.
-EDIT- I also like the Faction system. It felt easy to use - I didn't need a manual or tutorial on how it works, within a couple of minutes I intuitively know how to do what I needed to do with it. /edit
-EDIT- Another thing I like is how the planetary systems function. The fact that they orbit their parent star is awesome and something I've never seen before in a game (although we turn off the system rotation on our server to help reduce lag, sad face) and that the planets have a day/night cycle (kinda) related to the star they're orbiting rather than a "universal" cycle that's the same whereever you are - although I would say I think it needs to get darker when the star is on the other side of the planet. /edit
-EDIT- Gravity! I love that each individual entity can have it's own gravity and that you are oriented to the ship you're in even when that ship is at a different to another one with it's own gravity. I wonder how easy or hard that was to code. /edit



I'm sure there's other things too, but this is all I could think of right now.

 

[Captain Fortius]

that most people realized it\'s a waste of time to complain or offer solutions.

There\'s an ongoing tendency of only the wrong advices being heard, and precious time and effort is wasted to \"balance\" a game that\'s still in alpha, only ending up making it worse and putting limits on a game that\'s only attractivity was creative construction. (missile aoe nerf, shield recharge nerf, docking area nerf, turning speed nerf, amc reload, amc multi-line penalty nerf)

All the while core features are left unfinished or faulty.

Parts of ships disappear and ruin your work.

Movement is awkward.

Navigation is by eye and memory.

Horrid UI

Flat planets deemed good enough to keep, on account of the creator being unable to figure out gravity doesn\'t necessarily have to point in a fixed direction. ( \"can\'t do sphere planets because you\'d fall off of them\" -official excuse. )

Crafting is over-complicated and requires a station, which, chances are, you\'ll travel too far from to be worth ever returning to.

Laggy physics kills the game whenever moderately large objects meet.

Lack of satisfying, effective weaponry.

The code is already so garbled, the creator can only hope for the best and poke at it randomly to fix problems. (I\'m not making this up, it\'s strongly hinted at in several patch notes)

It\'s funny you should compare starmade to space engineers though. The two are leagues apart; one of them reeks of incompetence and an utter lack of creativity, while the other, much younger project already bears the hallmark of quality. Graphics might not be everything, but it attracts people - and that directly translates to money, which, in turn means they can make the game better still. But then, it\'s not just graphics. It\'s already more fun to fly around. It\'s crash engine is amazing. It has so many smart little things starmade doesn\'t.

So we stay quiet, and wait to see if, by some miracle, starmade can still become something of value.

Please refrain from such bold statements in the future. I\'m probably not the only one who doesn\'t appreciate if someone decides for them if they\'re happy or not.

 

[Mason]

Quit being an asshole. Compare Starmade to, say, Minecraft, and you\'ll find that SM is miles better. More fun to fly around? What does that mean? Please remember that Starmade is an alpha, so don\'t treat it like its had years to be bugfixed and playtested. Funny you should say Starmade lacks creativity though, I find that more creative people find it to be creative. The weaponry is satisfying if you have enough of it, but is still fun in small amounts. Anybody who complains about lag needs a better computer, and \"crafting\" is unnecesary with shops being everywhere. I don\'t know what you mean by \"core features,\" and I find the GUI very satisfactory.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

The quote about being quiet when happy comes from my clan leader and real life friend, who has just re-designed the clan\'s website from a BF3 theme to a BF4 theme. Someone asked him how many people have said how good the new website is, and he responded with that - when people are quiet, they\'re happy, it\'s when they have something to complain about that they make noise. (Not an exact quote, but the rough jist.)

This thread was directed at the Devs of StarMade and it\'s content are the things in it that I like.
I\'m not all that bothered about whether someone else agrees with the stuff I like or wants to list the stuff they don\'t like - it has no affect on my life. I just wanted to post some compliments because I\'m sure the flood of complaints with no-one mentioning the stuff they\'ve got right can make for a depressing read.

As for my bold statements, I apologise if you thought I was refering to you personally, but nothing in my statement suggests that I have decided whether anyone else is happy or not - it doesn\'t say I\'ve decided anything, just that in general that\'s what it points to. I even used the words \"generally\" and \"rule of thumb\" in the bold statement you refer to, which opens that statement to opinion and context.
Funny though that you made an opposing \"bold\" statement of your own. \"Quiet means that most people realized it\'s a waste of time to complain or offer solutions.\" That sounds no more or less bold than my statement. And I\'m sure people will be equally unhappy that you\'ve just decided why they were being quiet. There\'s two sides to that coin, isn\'t there?

If that statement really bothers you that much (although I find it funny why a stranger making a general statement bothers you, least of all a comment about how it\'s more common for any organisation to recieve complaints than compliments (since that\'s what the statement amounts to)) then I shall remove the offending statement.
But, since we\'re on the subject of \"refraining from\" doing things, maybe in the future if you see someone telling (by any method) an organisation about the things they like, you should refrain from hijacking that interacting by interjecting the things you don\'t like (which you have the right to do, of course, but start your own topic rather than hijacking another one) and making out that the other person has done something wrong.

Have a nice day.

 

[Captain Fortius]

Shall I resort to name calling too?

You seem to be too simple to understand reason, and I\'m not gonig to explain it for you.

Figure it out for yourself, or stay in the comfortable darkness of your own ignorance.



Sas;

Your topic implies what it implies, and there\'s no going around it. I\'m not hijacking it, I\'m telling you you\'re wrong. The quiet you refer to, is mostly due to apathy. I\'m not taking it personally either; I\'m bringing it to your attention that there\'s a lot of disappointed people in the community (myself included), and one would have to be really easy to please not to be one of them.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

Says the guy who confused his own negative critique as the correct one.

 

[Gameguru]

I get what Fortius is saying, There are certain things that need to be fixed, I for one, would love more diverse weapons . BUT THE GAME IS IN GOD DAMNED PRE ALPHA. Most Developers don\'t even RELEASE the game in this stage. The game does not reek of incomptetence and un-creativity, It is a one-man-band develpment team and is FAR from finished. He even said while the code is messy, he is working on adding order and eventual modding support.

Prehaps, you, dont get the reasoning behind no sphere planets. It is to hard to allign the planet to the rest of the universe. Not that you would fall off, its that there are problems with the game not knowing what to do with gravity and the rest of the universe.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

\"Your topic implies what it implies...\"
My topic implies that, in general, it\'s more common for people to complain about the few things they don\'t like than compliment the stuff they do (for example, when I was working in a petrol station, we recieved loads of compliments when we stopped a particular service, but didn\'t once get a compliment about the same service when it started or during it\'s run). It also implies the stuff in the game I like.

\"I\'m not hijacking it...\"
Posting the stuff you don\'t like in a thread where someone else has directed the stuff they do like towards the Devs isn\'t hijacking the topic?

\"...I\'m telling you you\'re wrong.\"
You\'re telling me I\'m wrong about the things I like? Hurr durr!? I\'m sure you mean; in your opinion, I\'m wrong to like the stuff I like.

\"The quiet you refer to, is mostly due to apathy.\"
It is? That\'s a very broad, all-encompassing statement. Maybe on your behalf it is, but maybe not for everyone.

\"I\'m not taking it personally either...\"
And yet you were very quick to tell me what I should refrain from doing.

\"I\'m bringing it to your attention that there\'s a lot of disappointed people in the community...\"
Irrelevant. This topic wasn\'t about whether alot of people in the community were disappointed or not. It was about what I like in the game. Why did that need bringing to my attention?

\"...and one would have to be really easy to please not to be one of them.\"
In your opinion. It\'s irrelevant also. So, if one is easily please (I\'m not, but let\'s pretend I am), one is not allowed to express what they like about a subject?



Seriously dude, just stop.

 

[Captain Fortius]

Fellow in blind denial ignored.

Gameguru;

You actually seem worth talking to.

You see, it\'s not the game\'s god damned pre-alpha state that causes the problems, but the choices the guy makes, and the direction where he\'s taking his game.

About the planet thing, I\'ll only say it\'s not as hard as he makes it look like.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

Blind denial? Really?! What am I denying, exactly?



In a nut shell, here\'s what just happened:

Guy A makes a post directed at the Devs of a game, making an opening statement about how complaints are more common than compliments, then makes a list of things they like about the game.

Guy B takes offense to the opening statement that it\'s more common to receive complaints than compliments and doesn\'t agree with the things guy A says they like, so decides to argue against the statement and post in reply they\'re own negative comments about the game (despite the topic being addressed directly to the Devs and being titled \"Stuff I Like\"), all the while confusing they\'re own opnions with fact.

Guy A tries to explain (badly, purhaps) what the opening statement meant and why they made it, apologising to guy B if they thought it was directed at them and offering to remove the offending statement (albeit with a quip about how guy B shouldn\'t have been affected by a stranger\'s comment that wasn\'t anything to do with them), then reitereated that the first post was a list of things they liked.

Guy B then confuses more opinions with facts.



Now, I do have my own complaints about the game, about things I don\'t like, of course I do (if that\'s what my \"blind denial\" is in referance to - my not having any). But I wanted to make a post about the things I do like because I thought it would be nice for the Devs to receive some positive feedback for a change. If you don\'t agree with the stuff I like, tough... fine, you have every right to, but tough.



Edit - I also find it funny that the only guy you find worthy of talking to is also the only guy who said he gets what you\'re saying. The only person who said they see your point of view is the only person you find worthy of your time. Those that don\'t share you view aren\'t worth talking to. Funny that.

 

[fire219]

Conversation about this is OK, but please keep it civil, people.

 

[jamie starmade]

i just think the physics in space engineer is better ... namely the vector thrust feature ... the most basic concept ... yet star made lacks. it should be the 1st thing that the devs work on, not weapon balancing, plantes, refining, mining etc. all in all i think space engineer is going in a \"better\" direction. if its true that the only thing holding the devs back from implementing vector thrust is the technical difficulties i guess i can only blame the community for asking randome shit to keep them off tangent from their tasks.

 

[MrFURB]

Wow, I think I get that everyone likes this game and I\'m happy that they\'re willing to put forth effort to make sure it evolves in their favor... But it\'d be really awkward for Schema if a buff/nerf/feature caused Forum War III.

To be more on topic, I think that what I\'m most appreciative of in Starmade\'s developement so far is that Schema is creating a game for you to play WITH people. Built in faction support with various hints of territory systems and multi-crewed ships in the future keep me glued to Schema\'s progress. I can\'t wait for faction/pvp mechanics to get a big once-over so I can re-invite all my friends.

 

[MarshalPicturesProductions]

I like being able to do stuff like we are doing right now on the site : Create forums for shit and the devs read ones that are good. I also like that the people are able to build whatever in the hell they want the only restrictions being their computer/server not being able to handle its awesomeness. I also like being able to have a faction and being able to buy it early. The best thing about that is you can get the game for $6 and when it comes out you don\'t need to pay for it. so instead of waiting and paying Approx. $30 for it, you can get it now and fund the development so they can add and fix things. Like anything, there are things i don\'t like (we are all humans here. I think.....) and so i will wait for at least Beta for complaints. anyway, this is not the forum for that so DONT POST STUFF or rage at me for capping.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

As a possible solution to the problem, I have edited the thread title along with the first sentence.

It was not my intention to cause offense.

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

Yes, factions, I forgot about factions.
Thank you MrFURB & Marshal for reminding me.

I also like the faction system.

 

[XxDanclarke96xX]

One big difference, Starmade costs.... NOTHING to play in its current state (altho i reccomend buying the full game now while its at its cheapest) where as Space engineers cost $15 dollars (correct me if im wrong) and the only good thing about it is reletively good graphics, as someone said in another post \' its basically a space ship crashing simulator\'

 

[omelet]

The second post of this thread was some of the most scathing commentary on this game in one place that I have seen on this forum. I am interested to know why Captain Fortius continues to visit these forums if his opinion of the game and the developer is so low. He must like something about it or he wouldn\'t be playing or on this forum (unless he is just a troll): why not make a post stating those things?

I agree with the OP and have said previously that I hope Schema has a thick skin and will not become bitter at all the negative feedback. We must accept that we are not in control of this game, and trust him! I find that the decisions he has made are good and the general concepts of the game are fantastic, though not completely realized. Perhaps your priorities would be different if you were making Starmade, but you are not privy to his considerations or logic. He has not shared his long term vision for the game completely with us. The reason I like this game so much is that how it is now, and the direction it is going, matches so closely what I was hoping for in a game. If it doesn\'t for you, perhaps you need to go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to play a game you don\'t like (for free)!

 

[22SAS_Wimp]

OP edited.

 

[EpicFailLord123]

See, the game is so good your forgetting the good things about it!