Read by Council Universal Incentive for Gameplay.

[Promethesus]

Greetings fellow explorers, cosmonauts, Admirals, and pilots.
While reading a few threads throughout the forum, I thought. What could be used to rebuild player base, attract new players, build community relations, and make the game slightly more interesting?

Well, one possible solution would be a Universal Incentive program.
What it does is, it may require slight modifications to sectors and planets. With those modifications, it takes existing high end block, and makes unique minerals required to produce those blocks. In order to obtain those minerals, which are extremely rare/unique, it would require the player to adventure throughout the universe, exploring planets. The catch is, usually players use large planet eaters, but the mineral is so fragile, it has a chance of being destroyed if mined from a planet eater, but if mined with a hand tool (precision) it has a 100% mine success chance, and aswell regenerates. Thus possibly having the player claim the planet or sector.

This way many players/factions travel through out the universe to gain a foothold, and help build a economy.
via establishing trade routes with other players/factions. Which, as another plus... Adds the possibility of war!
If a faction wants a planet which has a rare mineral, they can wage war on the claimed faction, to attempt to gain a foothold.

Other than rare minerals, with the possible implementation of AI crew members, Planets with civilization, if found. You could either remain neutral, and establish a trade with them (offers unique blocks which trading guild does not offer) Or if a basic negotiation system is successful, you could either: end up at war with the civilization, or become allies: Which allows you to claim the planet/sector.
There are pros and cons to this, if you end up at war, and win. You can obtain an AI crew, whom may mutiny you(shooting you and killing you) or if you win obtain an AI crew, whom are 100% loyal, and offer higher stats (increased block repair time, tweaks ships systems for optimal performance, etc)

So to summarize:
High end Block = Unique resources found on rare planets = forged factions = economy/pvp =more players
AI Crew = planets with civilization = negotiation system = better ship performance or death (maybe losing your ship too)

I hope that this suggestion is read inside and out. Hopefully if not taken, maybe ideas may be used.
As a side note: Official servers can be closely monitored so that developers/ Schema could make necessary adjustments/ tweaks to forge a MMO type server allowing 100+ players with smooth gameplay.

 

[StarHustler]

If I'm understanding correctly you are suggesting taking existing block types in the more expensive range (such as computers) and making them require a special new resource that is rare and has to be hand mined in order for factories to build them.

Right now I can fly around a system, mine 10-15 asteroids, and use the resources I've gained to manufacture any type of block. That's already quite a lot of time invested just to be able to print out some blocks and start building a decently sized ship. Your suggestion requires investing more time (potentially a lot more) to achieve the exact same results.

Can't say I'm terribly interested in that as it sounds very much like the reason I don't play MMORPGs. Too much time invested grinding for too little reward.

 

[HolyCookie]

If I'm understanding correctly you are suggesting taking existing block types in the more expensive range (such as computers) and making them require a special new resource that is rare and has to be hand mined in order for factories to build them.

Right now I can fly around a system, mine 10-15 asteroids, and use the resources I've gained to manufacture any type of block. That's already quite a lot of time invested just to be able to print out some blocks and start building a decently sized ship. Your suggestion requires investing more time (potentially a lot more) to achieve the exact same results.

Can't say I'm terribly interested in that as it sounds very much like the reason I don't play MMORPGs. Too much time invested grinding for too little reward.

I think it would more likely be a buff to something existing if made with this ore.

 

[Madman198237]

Buffs are a problem, as they become the norm rather than a buff. Rarity for certain systems is better. Scarcity breeds trade and interaction, which breed war.
Perhaps instead make certain weapons systems (Not the basics we have now, but instead really, truly extremely expensive weapons) that need extremely rare blocks found only in certain areas. A faction finds this, and suddenly everyone's looking to take it from them.
Perhaps advanced FTL travel methods based on rare blocks.
Perhaps stealth tech can require these blocks.....making the person who finds a stealth-material-holding planet very, very.... and suddenly very sought-after. Trade appears.....and so does someone who wants to take those materials.

 

[jayman38]

I am concerned that Starmade's open-sandbox, pseudo-infinite space would cause scarcity to breed sprawl instead of trade.

E.g. Can't find a planet with the rare materials you need? You haven't gone far enough yet. Maybe in the next galaxy over. Spool up the chain drive and go to bed for the night, go to school for the day, or watch a movie marathon and see where you are when you come back....

Source for my concern: scarcity of the blue asteroids in the outer orbits of star systems. When this scarcity was introduced to the game, it should have inspired massive trade, but really from what I've read about it, it just caused people to reach out and keep exploring far out into the universe to find their own blue asteroids. Introducing hard pirates to void space will not adequately discourage deep space exploration, unless it becomes a constant, grinding irritation, force-feeding one game mechanic (scarcity and trade) by introducing a just-plain-bad game mechanic (constant, laggy pirate attacks).

 

[sayerulz]

I am concerned that Starmade's open-sandbox, pseudo-infinite space would cause scarcity to breed sprawl instead of trade.

E.g. Can't find a planet with the rare materials you need? You haven't gone far enough yet. Maybe in the next galaxy over. Spool up the chain drive and go to bed for the night, go to school for the day, or watch a movie marathon and see where you are when you come back....

Source for my concern: scarcity of the blue asteroids in the outer orbits of star systems. When this scarcity was introduced to the game, it should have inspired massive trade, but really from what I've read about it, it just caused people to reach out and keep exploring far out into the universe to find their own blue asteroids. Introducing hard pirates to void space will not adequately discourage deep space exploration, unless it becomes a constant, grinding irritation, force-feeding one game mechanic (scarcity and trade) by introducing a just-plain-bad game mechanic (constant, laggy pirate attacks).

Fuel would fix this, with perhaps rare but large nebulae being the best place to mine it. So conflict breeds around these areas and minerals that are near them. Going a million miles away would take fuel, so it would not be a workable way to gain it. It can be obtained in other areas, but to sustain a massive ship in combat or travel a very long distance, you would need a nebula to get enough.

 

[Madman198237]

I think that fuel should be used for long-distance travel (Anything faster than sublight drives).....but a basic form (Hydrogen for some sort of reactor to power a small, jumpdrive-like FTL system.) must be available somewhere within a reasonable distance of spawn, which requires a low degree of rarity compared to the fuels I envision being used for the most advanced FTL tech. In other words, rare fuel is used for long-distance travel while more common fuels are used for jumpdrives.
This would allow for travel, yet not extreme travel unless you've already found a store of the rare fuel.

 

[sayerulz]

I think that fuel should be used for long-distance travel (Anything faster than sublight drives).....but a basic form (Hydrogen for some sort of reactor to power a small, jumpdrive-like FTL system.) must be available somewhere within a reasonable distance of spawn, which requires a low degree of rarity compared to the fuels I envision being used for the most advanced FTL tech. In other words, rare fuel is used for long-distance travel while more common fuels are used for jumpdrives.
This would allow for travel, yet not extreme travel unless you've already found a store of the rare fuel.

that was more or less my idea, but you did a better job expressing it.

 

[Madman198237]

We'll still need some way of basic ship propulsion that doesn't require fuel, because fuel's going to be an unnecessary pain for beginners. Our reactors are probably some sort of fission- or fusion-powered machines that do not need much fuel to keep going anyway. Well, fusion can collect material from space as you fly along, but fission needs very little fuel to continue producing energy.

 

[sayerulz]

We'll still need some way of basic ship propulsion that doesn't require fuel, because fuel's going to be an unnecessary pain for beginners. Our reactors are probably some sort of fission- or fusion-powered machines that do not need much fuel to keep going anyway. Well, fusion can collect material from space as you fly along, but fission needs very little fuel to continue producing energy.

Yes, perhaps using advanced FTL or making very large or powerful ships requires special fuel because (insert made-up science here)

 

[StarHustler]

Perhaps instead make certain weapons systems (Not the basics we have now, but instead really, truly extremely expensive weapons) that need extremely rare blocks found only in certain areas. A faction finds this, and suddenly everyone's looking to take it from them.

Which is why they build their indestructible home base around it, and now it's theirs, only theirs, and no one else can have it. Then that faction has the significant advantage of being able to produce uberweapons that no one else has and, depending on the rarity of that resource, no one else will have for a long time.

I play this game with 2 friends in one faction. Alternatively we could just have 3 separate factions that are allied with one another, and therefore wrap indestructible home bases around 3 different scarce resource spawns.

I don't even bother with games in which some aspect of them can be placed behind some impassable wall of elitism. Particularly if that aspect provides the kind of advantage that sadists love to use to abuse the noobs. That kind of mechanic kills more peoples fun than it enhances.

 

[Nickizzy]

indestructible home base around it

Hmm... No homebases within a 3 sector radius of each RRZ(rare reasource zone)? That could be a really big issue.

certain weapons systems

Like the Flack Wave Plasma Railgun Cloud weapons? Yes please. That would be great for introducing more complicate weapons and systems later in the game that aren't forced on players from the start.

These rare resources could be sold at a shop for insane prices(100k+), but are never at the shop at first. People must go and find/fight for these resources instead of just buying them with farming money. Another feature could be all hypertech items get inflation if you sell them to a shop. One computer sold for 500k can be bought for 1 million.

For detection these RRZs, you would scan a system with a scanner. Any RRZs in the system would apear as waypoints that would show up in your waypoint catalog.

RRZs would be rare. Like, 1-2 per 5 sectors rare. They wouldn't be something any person could just settle near 2-3 at once.

What would RRZs look like? Would they be on planets? Asteriods? Abandoned stations? All three? Asteriods could be easier to do, just make a new type of asteroid that has 2-3 ores in the very middle. Planets would work well, except for the resource regeneration, but they are laggy and stuff. Stations are like planets but smaller, which is good and bad. You could have ships spawning in an area that had to be boarded and hyperores stolen from a storage.

 

[Madman198237]

I think that your rarity is, well, not rare enough, Nickizzy. Try 1 per system, MAXIMUM. That's not even the rarity of things like interstellar clouds of gas, which must be huge (Dozens of systems) and limited to one or two per entire galaxy.

You need different grades of scanner to detect different things. In other words, a basic scanner array with limited power can find the most basic things in a system (Planets, stations close to origin of the scan, the star, etc.), but only extremely powerful scanners will be able to detect *Insert extremely rare and powerful material here* and its locations in the system. And I mean 500-block antennas (When we get realistic scanning) or better.

Basically, you really gotta LOOK to find rare materials. Sure, you found the derelict alien killing machine (In the form of a station).....but now how do you get past the turrets, interior defense, creepy-crawlies, and, most importantly, what's the goody that's inside? Well, you'll have to look, I'm afraid.

 

[StarHustler]

Hmm... No homebases within a 3 sector radius of each RRZ(rare reasource zone)? That could be a really big issue.

Not just home bases. It would have to be no space stations in general for X radius around the resource. A massive space station can tremendously exceed the power soft cap (the only thing marginally difficult about getting 50 million power is obtaining the reactor blocks needed to do it). That means powering shields that can tank for hours on end.

At the moment there is something resembling resource scarcity which seems to depend somewhat on the position of the asteroid field in relation to its parent star (I may be wrong, it's just my factions current experience with resource abundance/distribution). For instance in the sector we currently occupy Bastyn is quite scarce and is nearly half as abundant as the next scarcest resource, and so my other faction members have claimed neighboring territory that has different orbital positions from the home base territory in hopes of shoring up that disparity in resources.

The number of players in a faction and constant respawning of asteroids over time is what currently seems to have the most impact on whether or not a faction is actually running out of the less abundant resources in a given system. I'm thinking that might be the best place to look for an effective solution:

Adjusting the length of time the asteroids take to respawn
The quantity of them that spawn per asteroid field
Their richness in ores
Their maximum block counts,
and,
the maximum number of asteroid fields that can occur in a system during the random seeding stage of universe creation.

Finding a balance between those options that makes it so that factions with more than one player cannot consistently fund their building without venturing outwards and mining from surrounding systems. The greater the number of players in a faction the more they will have to mine neighboring systems or trade with other factions to fund their operations.

The territories that would be most disputed are the ones that are already the best to settle in: those containing the most orbital rings. In particular (if I'm correct about distance from the parent star playing a role in type and abundance of ore) those systems with many asteroid fields that sit at various distances from the parent star and therefore increase the likelyhood that most/all resource types will be available will be hunted down and jealously guarded.

After a quick search through my current universe seed for examples:

A resource poor system with very little value:

A much richer and more valuable system: