Vanilla StarMade Murdered My Inner Child

[Mango888]

I finally tried gaming on public server instead of my own last weekend and bad things happened. I worked on blue print from my own server for about 8 hours across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday then set out to fight some pirates. What I didn't know was that the server had some pretty mighty default pirate ships that I had never faced before. I had a corvette class ship which could easily take out Isanth Zero ships which had been the only enemies I had known on my very default setting server. After 8 hours of work I met the pirates in open space and died in 10 seconds before I could fire a shot.

As if the learning curve wasn't enough of a barrier imagine losing everything you had in no time flat. Who would want to keep playing after that? I think I'm done with normal mode. What are the best mods?

 

[Crusade]

I normally play on RP servers. Earning/creating your own resources and whatnot. Yeah, servers have tough pirates, but don't forget you have advanced build at your disposal! Symmetry planes, shift+v to mass link things, and copy/paste template saving/loading. Use them to your advantage! Good luck on future projects!

If you just want to build - like I do offline; Start a singleplayer world with a customised server.cfg to your liking.

 

[Nauvran]

yeah servers usually thinks the Isanths (which are severely outdated) are too weak and therefore build their own or use some from the community content. This is why it's usually a good idea to check if the server got custom pirates.

Which server where you playing on?

To add to what Crusade said: you can get infinite amount of blocks by being near a shop, marking it and writing /shop_infinite
This makes the shop infinite so you can grab what you need and just build away.

 

[Mango888]

Nice, that really goes back to that shipyard idea I've heard people talk about.

 

[Mango888]

gcinema.net:4242 is the server where I proved I suck. I think my ship is pretty for a crater. I really thought I build it well but I guess it's too weak to battle. Well back to moping on my own server while trying the new weapons and watching Outlaw Star.
[DOUBLEPOST=1435013091,1435012632][/DOUBLEPOST]Wow 800+ missile tubes on each of the six pirate ships. I might as well make ships out of missiles if I go that high, what a joy kill pirate ship.

 

[Keptick]

Honestlty, you should set up good factories and invest in a decent miner before going pirate hunting :p.

But yea, I can understand the frustration... Pro-tip: add some anti-missile turrets to the ship.

 

[Shadar]

I've been there before, having to start over with next to nothing after encountering jacked-up pirates. It encouraged me to build underground bunkers on planets and designing lethal ships to counter the pirate threat. Enjoy the learning experience, it will mold you into a great ship designer.

 

[Crusade]

Also, Missile+beam turrets ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND.

Seriously, a relatively small turret will go a long way. They pack a punch.

 

[KiloZulu]

This is something I've pointed out in the "Gigantism" thread - the fact that so many public servers use extremely deadly custom pirates just fuels the requirement to have a massive ship. My experience is very much like your own - in all of the time I'd been playing Starmade I played on a friend's private server with local friends. We dabbled with some custom pirates, but they usually maintained a power level on par with the Isanth. When his server died we decided to move to a public server and found that all but our most powerful ships were completely useless - and even our "big ships" were heavily challenged by the AI.

I'm still not happy about it. It's not simply that I have to build from scratch, but that I'm forced to go in a direction that I don't really enjoy. I like to actually use my ships rather than spending all my time building a single vessel. Also, I like to find a balance with my ships that provides enough firepower and defense to handle the AI but also leaves me with some level of maneuverability (and challenge.) Instead, these types of servers shoehorn players into titans that inhibit exploration or travel. I've been looking around for a server that strikes some sort of balance in this regard. That can be tricky when servers also adjust settings that affect ship performance. In particular are those that use the powerful pirates in conjunction with improving the maneuverability of big ships. They just feed into the titan mentality even further.

 

[Mango888]

When you mine enough it's like pulling teeth, you need variety. Salvaging ships after battle is a lot more fun. A completely see how super pirates make you have to build giant ships. I never wanted to build a larger than a heavy fighter but basic Isanth pirate ships taught me to throw away what I wanted and make something big. I'd like to go to that public server with light computer faction ships, if I could find it. Speaking of fun killing giant ships I'd never ever want to use build or fight, is there a way to spread the boring mining grind onto AI ships? Could I use a targeter and remote activation to maneuver ships to mine for me? They need a mode where I lose my ship but I can remake it in a bit, I've mined enough.

 

[Shadar]

I recall someone making a planetary miner and placing it in the community content section. It was automated , though it required to be set at a precise distance from the planet's surface.
[DOUBLEPOST=1435330678,1435329719][/DOUBLEPOST]I found the ship. Look for CRARS - Gyro Miner in the community content section. I would post a link, but it's difficult to do since I'm on a smartphone now.

 

[CyberTao]

This is something I've pointed out in the "Gigantism" thread - the fact that so many public servers use extremely deadly custom pirates just fuels the requirement to have a massive ship. My experience is very much like your own - in all of the time I'd been playing Starmade I played on a friend's private server with local friends. We dabbled with some custom pirates, but they usually maintained a power level on par with the Isanth. When his server died we decided to move to a public server and found that all but our most powerful ships were completely useless - and even our "big ships" were heavily challenged by the AI.

That is mostly due to lack of AI scaling. The basic Isanth are laughable for most players, since a good chunk of people who play on servers are locked in an eternal arms race. Pirates that are too easy just get grinded and exploited for easy blocks, and it lacks any challenge leading to bored advanced players.

 

[KiloZulu]

That is mostly due to lack of AI scaling. The basic Isanth are laughable for most players, since a good chunk of people who play on servers are locked in an eternal arms race. Pirates that are too easy just get grinded and exploited for easy blocks, and it lacks any challenge leading to bored advanced players.

And yet no one ever bothers to upgrade asteroids to make them more challenging.

 

[CyberTao]

And yet no one ever bothers to upgrade asteroids to make them more challenging.

Asteroids also need an upgrade, if you didn't already know. In more ways than one.

 

[KiloZulu]

Asteroids also need an upgrade, if you didn't already know. In more ways than one.

I think that they should act like the ones in the arcade game "Asteroids!" They break apart into smaller pieces each time they're shot, and they all do massive collision damage. Better still - they can call in support in the shape of a saucer-shaped UFO to defend them, much like pirate bases calling for reinforcements.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

 

[Ithirahad]

I've been there before, having to start over with next to nothing after encountering jacked-up pirates. It encouraged me to build underground bunkers on planets and designing lethal ships to counter the pirate threat. Enjoy the learning experience, it will mold you into a great ship designer.

I suppose, but when servers try to make pirates OP because apparently pirates should be challenging enemies for established players (Not the way I feel it should go at all) it can be a bit hard to go from "blood and ashes, I just lost my blasted ship to pirates in three shots; what the hell!" to an enjoyable learning experience. I say, leave the uber powerful ships to the other players; leave the pirates as more of an early-game challenge. Custom pirates are alright, but only when they're like the ones that used to be on HomeSector a year or so ago when I played on there - a bit more interesting than an Isanth, but still at least as weak as an Isanth.

In particular are those that use the powerful pirates in conjunction with improving the maneuverability of big ships. They just feed into the titan mentality even further.

You have to admit that at the moment, ships just turn too slowly. There's room to buff turning while still striking a balance where smaller ships can dodge larger ships' main guns, especially if certain changes are put in place regarding weapon targeting. (Weapon convergence should absolutely stay, but the ability to move your aiming point all around the screen is just a bad idea for so many reasons. For docking beams and the like the system can stay, but weapons should only be able to fire and converge straight ahead of the camera.)

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

If there were a way to configure pirate spawns based on the mass of the attacking ship, then this wouldn't be an issue. Hell, then even experienced players could test small ships for efficiency against something other than other players

 

[EricBlank]

I noticed playing on Elwynn eternity that the pirates ramp up to bigger craft if the first few waves of the smallest 2-3 available don't work. There must be a mechanic somewhere that determines how much they're prepared to throw at you based on how long you've survived/your success against them, if not your mass. Usually the linebacker and that other ugly ass corvette-thing show up in the third or fourth wave. On EE they just kind of function as a bogieman at the moment; until you're making enormous craft, or you abuse cloaking, you can only run away.

I think one thing that might help too is having more enemies/npc factions than just "pirates" and "trading guild" in the game. Having scaling dependent on the wealth/resources of the factions whose territory youre in and how much of a threat they consider you, where weaker factions like pirate gangs create spaces newbies can flourish in until other players/npc factions start looking at them.

How about, at least for now, a flat scaling mechanic determined by how many pirate stations are in a system and the ones adjacent to it? So an area that hasn't seen much player activity will present a threat, but more populated areas could be safer. From bigger pirates, at least. Might want to include a system that just makes some regions less pirate-infested, maybe at the cost of not having many shops or other stations. No prey, no predators.