Top 5 things I Think starmade needs to change before the game is released as paid

[CrownedShadow]

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions. If you do not agree, thats your opinion.

Starmade is a great "Free" game as far as i am concerned but as far as i feel its certainly not worth money. Here is a few changes i personally think Schine should make to be ready for the games innevitable paid release.

1: Java
Java has run its course. Java just isnt gonna cut it for starmade. Java has low performance and runs into many compatibility issues. Yes i know it would be a lot of work and it would take time to switch engines but it would be worth it.

2: The Gravity System
The Gravity system could use a bit of an overhaul. I dont want to say Auto-Adapting gravity cause i can see how that would be an issue. Just make it a tad more realistic.

3: Make the player character more useful
as of right now the player character is next to useless. All it is really worth is placing and breaking blocks. Even then that is irreverent due to build blocks. What i am suggesting is implement some kind of usefulness of the character. For example combat. (and dont make the excuse that we have guns in the game... Does anyone ever even use them? And why dont they? Exactly...)

4: More factions and fleet features
At this point the factions and fleet systems are great. They allow you to team with friends. They allow you to strike against your enemies and even just mine out a sector. They could still offer so much more though. Allowing fleets to warp. Adding faction benefits. Faction tax options. There are so many possibilities.

5: More weapon/tool options and combat overhaul
At this point in starmade the combat can be a bit dull. As well as sometimes it may seem like no matter how many salvage cannons you stack onto that cruiser it is never enough. What i am proposing is tiered weapons and tools as well as upgrades. I would also like to see more lively combat options.

Schine has done a great job with starmade so far but i just feel these changes could really push the game even further in the right direction. Starmade is a good game but i would really like to see it set itself apart from EVE and Space Engineers.

 

[GRHayes]

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions. If you do not agree, thats your opinion.

Starmade is a great "Free" game as far as i am concerned but as far as i feel its certainly not worth money. Here is a few changes i personally think Schine should make to be ready for the games innevitable paid release.

1: Java
Java has run its course. Java just isnt gonna cut it for starmade. Java has low performance and runs into many compatibility issues. Yes i know it would be a lot of work and it would take time to switch engines but it would be worth it.

2: The Gravity System
The Gravity system could use a bit of an overhaul. I dont want to say Auto-Adapting gravity cause i can see how that would be an issue. Just make it a tad more realistic.

3: Make the player character more useful
as of right now the player character is next to useless. All it is really worth is placing and breaking blocks. Even then that is irreverent due to build blocks. What i am suggesting is implement some kind of usefulness of the character. For example combat. (and dont make the excuse that we have guns in the game... Does anyone ever even use them? And why dont they? Exactly...)

4: More factions and fleet features
At this point the factions and fleet systems are great. They allow you to team with friends. They allow you to strike against your enemies and even just mine out a sector. They could still offer so much more though. Allowing fleets to warp. Adding faction benefits. Faction tax options. There are so many possibilities.

5: More weapon/tool options and combat overhaul
At this point in starmade the combat can be a bit dull. As well as sometimes it may seem like no matter how many salvage cannons you stack onto that cruiser it is never enough. What i am proposing is tiered weapons and tools as well as upgrades. I would also like to see more lively combat options.

Schine has done a great job with starmade so far but i just feel these changes could really push the game even further in the right direction. Starmade is a good game but i would really like to see it set itself apart from EVE and Space Engineers.

Mos the feature stuff you mentioned they already have plans in the works on. Frequent Suggestions Megathread and other threads cover them.

On to the issue of Java. I'm a C, C++ fan. I started programming in ASM and now program in pretty much anything and everything.
As for java running its course. Not even close. If anything you can expect it to grow by 50% in the next 2 to 3 years primarily do to mobile device market. It is available on pretty much every single platform that exists.
As for java running speed. Java is quite well optimized. Depending on the task it can perform at or near the same level as C++ even beating it in some cases. It really comes down to the programmers skill in most cases. C,C++ have a the ability to be used for several things java never will such as writing an OS. As for low level programming, it is entirely possible to right modules and such in c or c++ that will work with java to get access to functions it doesn't currently have.

 

[CrownedShadow]

Keep in mind though. I know they were already requested and some features are in the works. These are just things I THINK should be somewhat of a priority.

 

[KaRe]

This is another thread I just have to at.

 

[wizardoftrash]

I agree that fleet combat & NPC factions is what will absolutely make this game (though I disagree that the player character needs more fuctionality, our ships are the focus not our character).

This game has the potential to become more of a strategy game. You can automate mining, you can use Shipyards to build fleets of ships, and you can wage war remotely using fleets. This game could be played as the RTS of my dreams. If you had a better way to either scan for enemy fleets/bases, or if Scout Fleets had a way to report locations and enemy ships/bases while on patrol then it would be absolutely made.

I see two reasons that it isn't already being played that way...
1: most gamers don't know that this game has robust fleet and npc mechanics. they see the game, and they think "hey another minecraft ripoff, looks just like a low res space engineers, etc". If people knew what you could do with ship AI they would lose their minds (That was the big tipping point for me).

2: there currently isn't any incentive to that kind of war... apart from reputation. We are only seeing large scale engagements in servers where people have planned a big skirmish in an organized way, or between small factions where players have grudges (and these fights are usually short-ish and mismatched). However, if there was a push in the competitive PVP community to have longer-form AI fleet wars, we would see some crazy fleet engagements on servers. The ideal setting for this would be to have limited up-time server built for a specific region group that was on for the same times each day (to limit afk raids), have pre-established factions of experienced players start off with a good chunk of resources and blocks in different sectors, and set up each faction's "Home Base" in a uniform way like a game of capture the flag. After a week, pvp war starts and it gets wild.

 

[Criss]

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions. If you do not agree, thats your opinion.

Starmade is a great "Free" game as far as i am concerned but as far as i feel its certainly not worth money. Here is a few changes i personally think Schine should make to be ready for the games innevitable paid release.

1: Java
Java has run its course. Java just isnt gonna cut it for starmade. Java has low performance and runs into many compatibility issues. Yes i know it would be a lot of work and it would take time to switch engines but it would be worth it.

2: The Gravity System
The Gravity system could use a bit of an overhaul. I dont want to say Auto-Adapting gravity cause i can see how that would be an issue. Just make it a tad more realistic.

3: Make the player character more useful
as of right now the player character is next to useless. All it is really worth is placing and breaking blocks. Even then that is irreverent due to build blocks. What i am suggesting is implement some kind of usefulness of the character. For example combat. (and dont make the excuse that we have guns in the game... Does anyone ever even use them? And why dont they? Exactly...)

4: More factions and fleet features
At this point the factions and fleet systems are great. They allow you to team with friends. They allow you to strike against your enemies and even just mine out a sector. They could still offer so much more though. Allowing fleets to warp. Adding faction benefits. Faction tax options. There are so many possibilities.

5: More weapon/tool options and combat overhaul
At this point in starmade the combat can be a bit dull. As well as sometimes it may seem like no matter how many salvage cannons you stack onto that cruiser it is never enough. What i am proposing is tiered weapons and tools as well as upgrades. I would also like to see more lively combat options.

Schine has done a great job with starmade so far but i just feel these changes could really push the game even further in the right direction. Starmade is a good game but i would really like to see it set itself apart from EVE and Space Engineers.

I agree with everything except point one. It is not worth it. We are a company trying to make a video game and make a profit off our work. We enjoy what we do, and we love StarMade, but switching to a different language and rebuilding from the ground up will basically kill any chance StarMade has at being a finished product. We don't have unlimited resources.

 

[CrownedShadow]

True. Just making a bit of a point. This development takes money and time so i know that that wasn't really likely.
Also to the other guy i was just thinking maybe boarding parties or something would be kinda cool.

 

[jayman38]

No mention of sound (to sound pretty) or particles (to look pretty)? Add those two things, and you have an instant indie best-seller right now.

 

[StormWing0]

For some of your points I kinda agree but here's a few things.

1) Java isn't an engine it's a programming language
2) Yes we all know gravity could use a rework but it's one thing to say it needs a rework and another to give ideas on how.

Here's a few ideas.

• Auto Gravity Plating: A super thin block type that automatically turns gravity on when players are inside a set number of block radius. You don't need a ship full of the blocks just enough to where they radius's overlap.
• Spherical Gravity Generator: can act as a ship based gravity-well for inside the ship but pulls towards the point it is at. It can be used as a weapon if provided enough power creating a blackhole-like pull if enemies are close enough.

Not sure what else to put but you get the idea.