VoidFlaregaming.com -Empire based PvP-US hosted

[StoneCyfer]

Greetings all, I am StoneCyfer and I would like to tell yall about a new server that myself and a few others are
currently working on.We are using Fragnet as our Host and have a current player cap of 64. The following is some things that we have finished and some we are still working on:

Completed our totally hand built Spawn station
We have a few custom pirates floating around, none of those silly Isanths
We are working on a "Empire Wars" concept that is shaping up really well
Going along with the "Empire Wars", each faction has its own custom home station and players in each faction
will be able to spawn in emergency AI ship support that is unique to each faction.
We are also working on optimizing the weapons, we feel they are a little un-balanced so we are making them better.
Voting rewards as well.

We no longer have a ship/station block count limit (please just dont get too crazy)
There is a docked entity limit to ships though, we require that ya have no more than 25 entites (drones, turrets ect [base and barrel counts as one turret])

Those are just a few of the things that we have been working on. We are considering giving new players a "Noob" ship BP, but for now we have increased the blocks that are given to new players at start and added some that we think are necessary (power caps lol). We will be posting updates as often as something interesting happens. I also am thinking about posting some pics, so yall can see what we have going on.

If yall dont mind, we would really like to hear what yall would like to see in a server. We are aware that there is some stiff compition from some of the other servers out in the universe, we just want to make the best server we can. So, if you have any ideas please feel free to let us know.

Server address: 198.12.70.162:57921


Fly Dangerously
StoneCyfer-Effane

 

[Equilibrium21]

Empire Wars concept sounds nice, always wanted a server like that, good luck with it.

 

[Snk]

So wait, is it like a RP server, or...?

 

[karkinosz]

So wait, is it like a RP server, or...?

Sounds more like structured pvp, so there are two sides which fight for control of the universe. It's not a bad idea but it isn't something starmade players have really done before.

 

[StoneCyfer]

To answer your question Snk, this is a mostly PvP server with RP elements. There are 4 main empires fighting for majority control of the galaxy. These empires are represented as AI factions that players can ally with, be warned, if you ally with one of the four factions, the other three will auto war-dec you and your faction. There are perks to being allies with one of the four factions, you can use their stations and factories instead of having to build your own right off the bat. Also (and I think the is the best part) you will be able to spend faction points to summon/spawn AI ship support from whatever Empire you ally with. Right now you can only summon fighter support but we will be adding more ship types later on.

 

[Equilibrium21]

To answer your question Snk, this is a mostly PvP server with RP elements. There are 4 main empires fighting for majority control of the galaxy. These empires are represented as AI factions that players can ally with, be warned, if you ally with one of the four factions, the other three will auto war-dec you and your faction. There are perks to being allies with one of the four factions, you can use their stations and factories instead of having to build your own right off the bat. Also (and I think the is the best part) you will be able to spend faction points to summon/spawn AI ship support from whatever Empire you ally with. Right now you can only summon fighter support but we will be adding more ship types later on.

Calling AI for support? That sounds good, looking forward to seeing how it works.

 

[StoneCyfer]

Karkinosz, you are correct, Starmade players havent really done this before. Right now the overall goal of StarMade if to have the biggest, baddest, most dakka ship around. And thats great, to an extent. Say you build your Mega Battle cruiser, its awesome, nigh unkillable, but now what? Not many players are going to want to fight it after the word gets out, and you dont take it out very often cuz what if you warp into a star or some other BS and it just stays docked all the time.
What we are trying to do here is give players a reason to play beyond just having the biggest stick in the valley. We have turned shop spawning rate WAY down, so players/factions have to mine or trade if they want big ships and stations ect. There is a Warp Gate system being built that leads from important parts of the galaxy to neutral trade hubs, I recommend having an escort if you are bringing lots of stuff to trade, the Gates attract friend and foe alike.
[DOUBLEPOST=1431021238,1431019469][/DOUBLEPOST] Here is a little taste of one of the stations we are working on. Hope yall enjoy

 

[Effane]

Effane here from VoidFlare Gaming. I don't get out much but I took a short break and figured you guys might like pictures of some of the in server work.

The Spawn station everyone starts at and the Neutral Warp gates that the Trade faction are completely finished and fully functional. Just how functional? The spawn station has a medic bay, drone hanger, command space, factory and 40 docks for small ships as well as 4 gardens! I will see if we are ready to post that screenshot yet.

The warp gates though I do have a screenshot immediately available for. The Warp gate in the screenshots is deceiving in size. That looks like a tiny ring but its well over 3Million blocks and those turrets are near 50K blocks each and lethal. The trade faction doesn't care for pirates of both NPC and player types so shooting the ring can be very lethal very quickly! The ring has over a billion power and can allow passage for ships up to 700 LWH easily even if the pilot is mildly drunk (Internal diameter of the ring is 820m). Smaller rings might be introduced later if needed to augment, but for now this giant ring will be the core backbone to the Trade Factions trade routes.

Hope you enjoy this and if I can sneak away from working on the server I will try to smuggle out more pictures.

Ring full view from 1.6Km away.


Up closer with the turrets

 

[StoneCyfer]

Hey all, sorry for the delay in updates, we have been hard on the grind stone for the last week. We have fully finished the station known as "The Crystal Palace" (all the crystal in the pics above). As Effane said, we have finished the warp gates, and we are working on the warp network. We also have the custom Pirates set up, and fighters for players to summon are ready to go. We are nearing completion on the third of the 5 pre-fab stations. We are having an issue with a wrapper so we can make some of the changes we really need to have implimented before we release the server to the public, but, they will be fixed in due time. The main issue that is slowing us down is that we are only working with 3 1/2 people and we all have these things called "lives" (they are damed annoying, i dont recommend getting one if you can help it) We have been talking about reaching out for some help, so Im just gonna come out with it and ask.

If any of yall feel like getting in on a great server before its released to the general public, post a message here or send me a pm. Be advised, you will be required to help us set things up, not just play around. The more help we have, the faster we can all have fun.

Either I or one the others helping should be posting some more screen shots today.

 

[Ithirahad]

So, EvE in Starmade? With Star Trek Online-style Fleet Support skills?

 

[Effane]

Stopping back in for some screen shot love. Been super busy with my little free time (I have a job and I am a full time student, good thing Starmade is a labor of love). We are almost totally finished with our third major station. Had to rework the others since the rail system came in so that cost us a few days.

I never played Star Trek Online, so I can't talk about that (I am more a Star Wars and Babylon 5 type myself). Here is the VERY basic way the system will work. Some of this might change as we feel out the system, so it isn't set in stone but the core idea is solid enough to survive.

As Starmade players we are used to the two factions (Pirate and Traders). We beefed up the traders buildings a bit. Those warp rings are the example of that. I think we might need to upgrade the pirates last, but they have a moderate amount of ships right now. The Traders own the spawn station as well. Its the home base for the traders. I actually have a picture of that to post.

In addition we are bringing in 4 other empire factions. They will not be player controlled (and we aren't sure if they will be public to players). They also have home bases which are large 3+ Million block stations. Players will be HEAVILY encouraged by game mechanics to ally with an empire, but that isn't necessarily a requirement yet. Players can create factions and those factions can ally with the NPC Empires. Allying with one automatically puts you at war with the other 3 (And hopefully with every faction attached to that Alliance).

Then you can spend faction points (Territory claims GENERATE FPs, instead of cost them) to call for reinforcements to your sector. The reinforcements come from the empire you are allied with... see where not having an alliance makes it tough?

So the intent is to make territory worth something (FPs) and encourage players to pick a side (Forcing conflict) while having some fun. We are working on finding a method to protecting PVEs on the server, but we haven't found it yet. We don't want invincibility such as some servers have for entire sectors/systems since the mechanic isn't immersive, but every faction will always have a Homebase that can be invulnerable (Another thing we are working on).

So while risking the wrath of the StoneCyfer I will give a small list of things we are working on. BTW, I am a software engineer, I LOVE NUMBERS. So ask me about numbers at your own risk.
-Weapon Rebalance via a Numbers based system. Doing the rebalance in phases. (StarMissiles was fun, but not sustainable. The damage/power ratio of current missiles is insane.)
-Working on ship durability and tweaking utility. Once again crazy giant formula that makes the power equation look simple...
-Adding in fun player initiated actions
-Working on Many types of PVE/NPC ships, which is where we need the most HELP (See StoneCyfer for that).
-Empires are balanced by formulas as well (See a theme here) and each empire has a theme to its design and lore.
-And much more to come but people always take these list to be promises so I am holding a lot back...

My next teaser will hopefully be a very cool looking Empire station that has a very edgy and dark Tron look to it and down right creepy inside. (Notice the screenshots don't give away much detail? we still want you to eventually visit the server).

This is the trader spawn station. Lots of Neo-Gothic architecture in it (Kind of a space version of late century's France architecture). Still needs a turret refit, but that's not a huge issue and it will help with the docking a lot.

 

[zigyzigy]

This is shaping up to look exciting. some questions...

-Are you planning on allowing player catalogs?

-Any idea on time frame for a release date?

- If help is needed on making ships for this server are you just wanting shells or ships with systems too? ... because we have no idea how you are changing the systems and what configuration is going to work.

 

[FullMetalFox]

BTW, I am a software engineer, I LOVE NUMBERS. So ask me about numbers at your own risk.
-Weapon Rebalance via a Numbers based system. Doing the rebalance in phases. (StarMissiles was fun, but not sustainable. The damage/power ratio of current missiles is insane.)
-Working on ship durability and tweaking utility. Once again crazy giant formula that makes the power equation look simple...

Numbers please.
(Im not joking, first thing i do after joining a server is taking apart its configs file)

 

[StoneCyfer]

This is shaping up to look exciting. some questions...

-Are you planning on allowing player catalogs?

-Any idea on time frame for a release date?

- If help is needed on making ships for this server are you just wanting shells or ships with systems too? ... because we have no idea how you are changing the systems and what configuration is going to work.

Yes we are alowing player catalogs (25 BPs max at a time)
As far as release date, I hate this answer but, soon?
*Acually we are working as fast as we can. The ammount of work that my two collegues have completed over the last 2 weeks is nothing short of God-like, unfortunatly, there is still much work to be done. This is why in my last post I had asked if any of yall would like to come on the server and help us out.

And for the last question, we would like to have you come on to the server and we can all go from there.


FMF, I have contated Effane about getting you the numbers n such, dunno when that will happen but he is aware that you wish to see his work.

Thank you guys for your intrest in our server, we will contiune to bust our respective tails to get it our as soon as possible.

 

[Ithirahad]

I'm liking the concept here, particularly the reinforcements... I was considering suggesting a similar feature as a way to automatically defend space stations and make up for their disadvantages in combat against ships. Basically, for a certain amount of FPs per mass (Maybe 1 FP per 100 mass) a station could, upon being hit, summon AI reinforcements of a given blueprint... These reinforcements would explode when defeated so as to be non-salvageable and not create a resource-generator exploit.

...Anyway, can't wait to see how this works out.

 

[FullMetalFox]

FMF, I have contated Effane about getting you the numbers n such, dunno when that will happen but he is aware that you wish to see his work.

Thank you very much
One more question though: Where is the root located?
Im asking because my faction is spread across the US and Europe.

 

[StoneCyfer]

Thank you Ithirahad! And that is a very interesting idea, ill have to run it by the team.

You are more than welcome FMF, and right now the server is hosted out of Dallas, Texas. This may change in the next few weeks due to us not really liking the server host we have now. When it does change, we will post it here.

 

[FullMetalFox]

StoneCyfer Thanks, if you are going to switch hosts, i would advice trying to get a host located at the east cost, near the atlantic datalines. That would still provide even west coast based players with a good ping, but would also allow players from europe, scandinavia, canada and south america to play with a good ping.

 

[Effane]

Numbers please.
(Im not joking, first thing i do after joining a server is taking apart its configs file)

Okay you asked for it. I apologize to everyone else for this since its about to get interesting like a math class. I will try to Spoiler tag it and lets see if that works.

Spoiler: Lots of blah blah blah

So in the current build I have only the weapons changed on the base level. We haven't tested it much besides watching a couple dozen AIs kill each other and our two PVP experts smashing things with them. They seem quite effective now and much more balanced. The missiles aren't wrecking the world and the beams and cannons actually seem 'heavier' feeling. Sadly we haven't had a chance to blow up as much as we have been building. 4 stations of the size in the pictures over 2.5 weeks.

My personal notes I wrote for myself starting this bit of work.

"The point of this balance was to increase the effectiveness of the 3 other weapons without invalidating the missiles. This avoids ruining a Blueprint by nerfing the missiles. While one could argue buffs to everything else are nerfs, in this case the numbers show the power of the missile. Missiles are dead even to the other weapons when range and AOE is not accounted for, then another 60% range is given to the weapon set plus the AOE effective against unshielded targets. Combined with its lethal seeking accuracy this can cause an imbalance. Solving for the DPS and PPS is easy. Once those are solved for then the data needs to be normalized. Since the next variable factor is the range that is compared against the total as a raw multiplier. The power needs to be reduced to a ratio since not all devices use the same power amount per shot. The constant was 50 for this since it was the missile baseline. Then the balancing was performed. Some tweaks to the weapons and groups need to be made."

First thing I did was break up the weapon into metric categories as follows (I ran this through excel).


I then categorized them by proportionality and supplementary. That then becomes Indirectly and Directly.
So Directly Proportional are Multipliers, Inversely Proportional are Divisors, Directly Supplementary are Additions and Inversely Supplementary are Subtractions. I then slapped all that into a formula which was then fed all the data for the weapons.

Formula(AOE): =(POWER(Radius, 2)/20*DPS*Range)*(50/PPS)
DPS is Damage Per Second = Damage * Pulses / Reload
PPS is Power Per Second = Power / Reload

Formula (Direct) =(DPS*Range)*(50/PPS)

This is where the formula needs weighting. The DPS is essentially as valuable as the range, which is kind of true, but not to the current extent. But even with the weighting you can see the issue. AOE damage is huge against unshielded targets. (Yes the formula for Volume of a circle is (V=4/3 π r^3) but I traded it to a nerf area of a circle because Using half or 1/8 sphere was off the scale, I think half sphere was something like a weight of 8k, AKA unmanageable to balance).

I will tweak later as we go along with testing but the end result is it gives me a Balancing formula that can be used to gauge the 'on paper' lethal nature of a weapon. The first numbers coming back were scary, much having to do with the issue of missiles and the lack of range on the Damage Pulse. Damage pulse was in this formula essentially useless, which is somewhat true from experience. On the other hand missiles are the prime PVP weapon, with cannons providing that backup between salvos. And beams are essentially MEH. So the formula holds true for what we are seeing.

Next I started balancing the weapons. Keep in mind their are playstyles and overall block destruction that required some things to be tweaked away from my baseline of 8 points I was aiming for. Beams are very good at killing a half dozen blocks with the pulse effect. While the cannons were great against shields but the block damage was terrible even with piercing and punch through (Can we say nerf gone too far?). So play style kicked in and the the cannons got a slight bump up (to compensate for the lack of single block damage). I tried my best to not nerf the missiles and think I did a solid job. They feel explosive and yet aren't the king of the server.

Once I feel those are solid and leveled I will work on the Slave weapons. I already have another formula for that and have the basic numbers up. Just it takes a lot of testing for me to be satisfied with balance.

Here are my notes of what the pro/con/tradeoffs were.

Advantages:

• Alternate weapons are opened up.
• pulses are now semi capable of combat, but slower.
• Cannons and Pulses are now not as effective against missiles.
• Less projectiles will be launched in a fight with slower cannons, but increasing hit rate. (Lag skipping of bullets)
• Beams have much greater range and a heavier feel

Disadvantages:

• Missiles will need projectile speed increase to offset loss of superiority, loss of pulse counter and AA cannons helps though.
• Cannons and Pulses are now not as effective against missiles.
• Beams will be VERY power hungry for their new strength

Neutral points:

• Power usage will be much spikier in combat, alpha** strike less likely.
• Beams need group penalty added (DEVs please?), will reduce lag as well through with less beams
• Combat will have harder hits, but slower firing rates.
• Combat ranges have been increased significantly with these changes
• Might encourage diversity of weapon builds

**Alpha strike does not mean First Strike, it means everything is fired at once. Which IMO should mean 'Power Failure' flashing on your screen afterwards.


XML code for those that like it, and for those that will wander off with this and not say thank you.

<Cannon>
<Damage>16</Damage>
<Distance>1</Distance>
<Speed>10</Speed>
<ReloadMs>2000</ReloadMs>
<PowerConsumption>50</PowerConsumption><AdditionalPowerConsumptionPerUnitMult>0.1</AdditionalPowerConsumptionPerUnitMult>

<DumbMissile>
<Damage>75</Damage>
<Distance>1.8</Distance>
<Radius>8</Radius>
<Speed>1.50</Speed>
<ReloadMs>15000</ReloadMs>
<PowerConsumption>1200</PowerConsumption>
<AdditionalPowerConsumptionPerUnitMult>0.1</AdditionalPowerConsumptionPerUnitMult>

<DamageBeam>
<DamagePerHit>10</DamagePerHit>
<PowerConsumptionPerSec>875</PowerConsumptionPerSec>
<Distance>1.4</Distance>
<TickRate>0.2</TickRate>
<CoolDown>10.0</CoolDown>
<BurstTime>2</BurstTime>
<InitialTicks>0</InitialTicks>

<DamagePulse>
<Damage>25</Damage>
<ReloadMs>30000</ReloadMs>
<Radius>100</Radius>
<PowerConsumption>2500</PowerConsumption>

More will come in the future for rebalancing. its a slow process which is likely why the Devs haven't done it much yet. They do rapid tweaks to keep us going but nothing major can be done on their part without the time investment.
[DOUBLEPOST=1432092178,1432091152][/DOUBLEPOST]

I'm liking the concept here, particularly the reinforcements... I was considering suggesting a similar feature as a way to automatically defend space stations and make up for their disadvantages in combat against ships. Basically, for a certain amount of FPs per mass (Maybe 1 FP per 100 mass) a station could, upon being hit, summon AI reinforcements of a given blueprint... These reinforcements would explode when defeated so as to be non-salvageable and not create a resource-generator exploit.

...Anyway, can't wait to see how this works out.

Currently it is tough to effectively capture a station being damaged, and then if you can do that couldn't the enemy just drain them of FPs by killing reinforcements? This would make home bases very vulnerable. If we pass that hurdle (Which I can already think of a couple methods) then the Next part would be implementing a way to turn it on and off and all the control measures. I like the idea, but the technology and design hurdles are a bit advanced at this stage. It isn't impossible, just tough. Definitely putting that in my mental design idea box for the future.

As far as moving the server the current prospect does have a Florida choice for hosting. That would be a help for both South America and Europe. We will heavily weight that in our consideration. Keep in mind that moving it further EAST ruins it for Aussies and the Asian Pacific region. Interest from the community plays a huge role in that as well. Any good venture panders to its customer base in some form or another.

 

[Ithirahad]

I live in Florida, so hosting in Florida would be amazing :p

Also, I can't wait to see how your method of balancing works out... It looks good enough on paper. And as for the reinforcements, the idea is that you would 'charge' the station with FPs. You would lose them and they would remain in the base until someone decides to shoot it.