What happened to the mech building scene?

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    In the title. It has been a while since I saw even a small mech build on the forums, or the CC. Not to mention that rail contraptions are very rare. What happened? Why has the mech-building scene disappeared? Any explanation would be nice.
     

    Ithirahad

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    Rails tend to be unstable, and mechs use a TON of rails. The only fix to many of the bugs is undocking and redocking, and that is ridiculously hard with mechs. Also they're useless.
     
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    there is/was(?) a mech tournament set to go down on MF but i dont know if that's still happening or not. the big stumbling block right now for me is that my death robot is more interested in rubbing it tummy or phasing its arm into its backside than shooting things

    So yeah, rails bugs.
     

    Zyrr

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    As stated above. The reason for their uselessness is the lack of friction, which means they have no way of moving forward except with thrusters, which is just awkward all around. They're a novelty if anything; most people that were interested built one when rails first dropped, and haven't done anything else regarding them since, because nothing has been added that makes building them more attractive.
     

    Mariux

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    As stated above. The reason for their uselessness is the lack of friction, which means they have no way of moving forward except with thrusters, which is just awkward all around. They're a novelty if anything; most people that were interested built one when rails first dropped, and haven't done anything else regarding them since, because nothing has been added that makes building them more attractive.
     

    CyberTao

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    Is it just me, or are the people who say it's useless/pointless the ones that never made a mech to start with? Of course they're useless, they're over 50% logic. They'll never have a "use" outside of for fun.

    Anywho, my reasons that I dropped my mech include;
    • Lack of interest in the game's current state.
    • Real life stresses and problems (whoooooo mental health).
    • Lack of finer rotor controls (you've no idea how much you miss out on because of 45 degrees only).
    • Sometimes complicated and prone to breaking/colliding in annoying ways.
    • They just aren't fun to play with (it honest feels like playing with spess barbies or dinkies). Friction wont help here.
    • Logic is too primitive to allow much automation or aiming.
    I mean, yeah, you can try and make something, but it wont convey the sense of satisfaction that you're looking for. No one is going to drive their awkward land walkers, and you can't show off with a oversized figurine in space. There just isnt any fun aside from the building of them, and making them still feels limited as fuck.

    But what do I know.
     

    Ithirahad

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    Is it just me, or are the people who say it's useless/pointless the ones that never made a mech to start with? Of course they're useless, they're over 50% logic. They'll never have a "use" outside of for fun.
    The first thing I did on the first day that the first (functioning) rail dev build hit was make a tiny test walker turtle thing. I found out about the friction problem and never tried again.

    Building curvy ships as I do is 'pointless' too, and gimps my ships' combat capabilities somewhat, but the ships still work pretty well (sorta) AND they look good, so I make them... Mechs are another question entirely.
     
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    there's not really any difference. they're effectively just ships with legs if you do go the route of making them combat viable
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    Sadly, there is no practical reason to have a walking mech in StarMade. They are too unstable and the logic and rail components are too vulnerable to attack. Even a spider mech would become immobilized if hit with a missile with the shields down. The most practical equivalent to a mech that I can think of is a ship, that looks like a mech with a body or arms that function like turrets. Anything else is just for show.
    the squad1.jpg
     

    Zyrr

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    I've built two of the above, and in ground battles they're actually pretty solid if movement is controlled by a player while the shooting is controlled by AI.

    But, since no one does ground battles... why bother?
     
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    Dr. Whammy

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    I've built two of the above, and in ground battles they're actually pretty solid if movement is controlled by a player while the shooting is controlled by AI.

    But, since no one does ground battles... why bother?
    I built these little power suits specifically for ground assault, station boarding, and for the upcoming fauna update. Unfortunately, on all the servers I've visited/joined so far, nearly everyone is obsessed with capital ships. It's really upsetting when you find out you spent all your time building fun, cool stuff that can't be used anywhere because everyone else is flying around in planets with guns and engines strapped on them.

    What's a creative builder to do?
     

    Zyrr

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    I ask myself the same question every day. The game could really flourish and there could be some really cool servers if everyone wasn't so hostile to the idea of not having 400m capital ships with enormous guns that do everything well.
     
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    I like the idea of mechs in the game but yea way too limited right now. Micro-ships are generally hard to make viable for anything besides being a shuttle. Hopefully we'll get buffed blocks for smaller ships.
     
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    I built these little power suits specifically for ground assault, station boarding, and for the upcoming fauna update. Unfortunately, on all the servers I've visited/joined so far, nearly everyone is obsessed with capital ships. It's really upsetting when you find out you spent all your time building fun, cool stuff that can't be used anywhere because everyone else is flying around in planets with guns and engines strapped on them.

    What's a creative builder to do?
    I was actually considering making a "boarding fire support drone" small ship (piloted, not AI, the drone part is just fluff) because I ran across your "power armor" designs. Battle bricks may do combat and planet cracking well but they're not fun to build. I'm working on a more RP oriented cargo ship right now, but the boarding support craft keeps pecking at the back of my head.

    This GIF is weirdly entrancing.
     

    Dr. Whammy

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    Buffed blocks aren't going to do much. The key is finding players who actually know how to build creatively and don't feel the need to resort to the old "bigger is better" mantra. I had tanks, mechs, power armor, fighters, and passenger dropships that fit in my 7000 mass, 95 meter long "Challenger".

    In my world, this is a starship.
    I dock at my starbase, load up to 3 of any of the small units I mentioned above and go on a mission to take a station or a planet. I had the option to solo kill an Isanth with one of my fighters, or wipe out a group of them with the Challenger. I could post the Challenger near the station to draw fire, weaken its shields and kill the turrets with my fighter. It was fun and it was a challenge.

    Now all I see is a bunch of glorified "death bricks" filled completely with shields and weapons with no interior whatsoever eating planets and alpha killing stations. Seriously; WTF?

    [DOUBLEPOST=1448843930,1448843644][/DOUBLEPOST]
    I was actually considering making a "boarding fire support drone" small ship (piloted, not AI, the drone part is just fluff) because I ran across your "power armor" designs. Battle bricks may do combat and planet cracking well but they're not fun to build. I'm working on a more RP oriented cargo ship right now, but the boarding support craft keeps pecking at the back of my head.
    You and I need to get together then. My new transport ship has quite a few features that might interest you.
     
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    Schine has said they are going to be doing some small vs large ship balancing, so ostensibly smaller stuff will be a bit more useful in the future. No idea what it'll look like, though.
     
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    Schine has said they are going to be doing some small vs large ship balancing, so ostensibly smaller stuff will be a bit more useful in the future. No idea what it'll look like, though.
    A lot of the titan pilots feel pretty threatened about the concept of torpedo bombers and similar small craft--in reality unless the hull is literally dotted with point defense and anti-fighter arrays, small fighters will have the mobility advantage (if the pilot is skilled enough) and can do some serious damage to weak points (such as the thrusters). Their balance isn't a weapon thing, their balance comes from the fact that even a glancing blow from a battleship scale weapon is going to swat them out of the sky. This... seems to elude the "generation award-for-attending" types, who want their Big Brick Of Doom to just win. Period. Full stop.

    So there's some need for balancing. And possibly some rocks to throw at the folks that don't understand that their wall of battle ships are only able to wall of battle because they generally require screening ships so that wolfpacks of smaller ships don't shred them. >.>

    As the drone thread proves, when they're picked apart by the flies, they really lose their shit. But I digress...

    You and I need to get together then. My new transport ship has quite a few features that might interest you.
    Possibly... I actually do my tinkering and design in creative mode offline when my net is running slowly so I have yet to join any large population servers (I don't count anything small hosted within my social circle).

    Should be able to share notes--I've got a drone rack/fighter retracting mount that would likely convert quite well to a recessed drone/power armor storage unit... I need to go hammer out a storage pod.
     
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    Dr. Whammy

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    A lot of the titan pilots feel pretty threatened about the concept of torpedo bombers and similar small craft--in reality unless the hull is literally dotted with point defense and anti-fighter arrays, small fighters will have the mobility advantage (if the pilot is skilled enough) and can do some serious damage to weak points (such as the thrusters). Their balance isn't a weapon thing, their balance comes from the fact that even a glancing blow from a battleship scale weapon is going to swat them out of the sky. This... seems to elude the "generation award-for-attending" types, who want their Big Brick Of Doom to just win. Period. Full stop.

    So there's some need for balancing. And possibly some rocks to throw at the folks that don't understand that their wall of battle ships are only able to wall of battle because they generally require screening ships so that wolfpacks of smaller ships don't shred them. >.>

    As the drone thread proves, when they're picked apart by the flies, they really lose their shit. But I digress...
    The answer for balancing is warheads. They need to tweak the damage to something respectable like 250,000-500,000. Obviously, you'd have a limited supply of these but they can be quite effective if used properly.
    Creativity and skill would be rewarded and make death bricks obsolete. You'd see a drastic decrease in the amount of wannabe capital ship pilots lagging up the system. War would have to be fought with brains, otherwise, it will be very expensive to upset your neighbors.
     
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    The answer for balancing is warheads. They need to tweak the damage to something respectable like 250,000-500,000. Obviously, you'd have a limited supply of these but they can be quite effective if used properly.
    Creativity and skill would be rewarded and make death bricks obsolete. You'd see a drastic decrease in the amount of wannabe capital ship pilots lagging up the system. War would have to be fought with brains, otherwise, it will be very expensive to upset your neighbors.
    That's actually a thread I'd read through, and am referencing, with that post...

    A LOT of titan pilots on the forums seem to complain when the thought of a fighter group (or worse in their eyes, a drone task force) can take their giant shiny toy down. What they don't seem to understand is that's why small craft exist--they dart around the slower cumbersome guns to deliver knockout punches. The "balance" is that they're tiny--one direct hit will utterly caulk them. But that's just how it works. Skill and ingenuity with weapon system design should be rewarded.

    That's not to say I don't like my gigantic David Weber inspired ships now and then... but they're not my focus. I've been trying to come up with a lot more smaller craft like drone and fighter carriers, RP craft, and now a cargo hauler that carries a mining parasite for when the cargo update hits.
     
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