When was your personal "golden age" for StarMade?

[PriZm]

Every once in a while i come back to this forum and/or I watch old StarMade Videos on YouTube. I mainly do this because I like the nostalgic feelings and it takes me back to a time when I really enjoyed the game and there was a lot of stuff to learn thanks to things like logic, power/shield supply beams etc. Lately I started asking myself: Which version of the game was the one I had the most fun with and which felt the most complete?

Of course there was this overwhelming feeling when I first entered the game right after the Yogscast Videos. But putting aside the bias of playing a brand new game - and a type of game that just hasn't been there before - I came to the conclusion that for me the "golden age" of StarMade was around 2015/2016. There were lots of players online, the new docking system, shipyards, ship HP system, cargo etc was introduced to the game and I really couldn't wait for the next update and was very excited where the game would go.

2nd place for is the months just before jump drives became a thing. There was a certain charm to actually flying everywhere and I usually used the 100% passive overdrive effect on all of my ships, since I really liked travelling from player base to player base. There was a lot of immersion to it, since you physically passed by some solar systems/planets that became kind of familiar with time. Also, space was a lot more dangerous back then and entering the area just around the protected spawn shop was really a risky move.

All this being sayd, it also had much to do with the servers I played on. I can remember having a hard time to choose between Redshift, FeedUpYourBeast, GenXNova, Sunworld and all those legendary servers with tons of people online.

So, when did you enjoy the game the most?

 

[Dr. Whammy]

My favorite time span was between Late 2015 to early 2017.

I had just begun to dabble in multiplayer while experimenting with rails, logic, cargo jump, gates and shipyards. I ended up developing several pieces of technology and aesthetics that I still use today.
- modular transport ships/dockable cargo pods
- planetary terraforming systems.
- smoke, clouds and atmospheric effects
- police flashers
- multiple-launch rail-systems for cargo pods, weapons and fighters
- planetary oceans

I set up a planetary base and a jump gate network on the old Light vs Dark server which attracted a lot of tourism.

I met a lot of cool people there and went on some crazy adventures.

Things obviously aren't as they once were but it's fun to reminisce from time to time...

 

[PriZm]

Some really nice creations you got there

 

[Gasboy]

My favourite time was back near the beginning, up to about 2016 or so.

It feels like it's all been slowly disintegrating since then.

 

[Minsc]

I'll have to say somewhere between 2015-2017. Fall of 2015 was when I built my current computer, partially due to StarMade. Where has the time gone?

 

[virtue1987]

From when i joined, around 2014 untill Power 2.0, when the playercount started to decline. Im glad the the chocolate factory server got a bit life in it, so people can enjoy it a litte again.
BTW, hey Prizm, long time no see.

 

[PriZm]

From when i joined, around 2014 untill Power 2.0, when the playercount started to decline. Im glad the the chocolate factory server got a bit life in it, so people can enjoy it a litte again.
BTW, hey Prizm, long time no see.

Hey virtue ( Baikal )True, it's really been a long time So you are actually still actively playing StarMade? On what version of the game does the Chocolate Factory server run? Last time i logged into the game, it only showed the Cake Build Server on my list.

 

[AtraUnam]

For me it was just post rails and weapons 2.0, nothing was very well balanced but we had so much player made tech from x/z-drives to ion layering, spectre armor, enemy detectors, shield re-charge delay bi-passers. And some servers were still alive too even if a lot of the actual warfrare was more 'lively debate' on the forums at that point, but still a lively and enjoyable time.

 

[Rechkalov]

For me it was when Eternia was running. The world was flat, the textures looked a bit silly, and I was a little kid playing with my kid brother - all that is to say, it was dear to me for entirely subjective reasons, but boy! What times. I think the plot kinda fizzled out, and nobody was too keen on blowing each other's stuff up, but that was part of the charm - just the lightly immersive RP of people putting in orders with each others' companies and so on, making traffic around our clumsily built space stations... good times.

Big shoutout to the Redcoats Faction fellas, if you are still out there - it was a blast!

Edit: I guess I feel like lamenting -here, where somebody might hear- that the Starmade community fell into decline when it did. The fleet mechanics would have made it super easy for just a handful of players to create the impression of a vast and lived-in universe... ah well

 

[virtue1987]

Hey virtue ( Baikal )True, it's really been a long time So you are actually still actively playing StarMade? On what version of the game does the Chocolate Factory server run? Last time i logged into the game, it only showed the Cake Build Server on my list.

Chololate factory hasnt been updated to the new version yet. Otherwise you can usually find me there, or Cakebuild, but rarley.
You know, i had way too much of a good time in this game, to just let it go.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

i had way too much of a good time in this game, to just let it go.

This is basically my stance on the game.

Quitting this game is like coming off of a drug. Last time I took a break from Starmade I had literal withdrawal symptoms.

 

[xhabit]

My Time was also, 2015 - 2016 ...

 

[Alphajim]

Never played it as much as you guys (I always had 2-3 games that I switched often), but for me it was before the "new" textures, when planets were still oreos. There was a healthy community and the game was easy for the kid I was.
I'm not saying the game's worse now, in fact it's way better, but it lacks the active community it once had

 

[Unnamed25]

illusive server at 0.09, god knows when that even was, i'm too lazy to check
that and the genxnova era before the poopoo reactor update that killed my motivation for several years, which is still going

 

[tonefiend]

Ah Redshift... I was known as Graveborn and was in the blackknights back then....I miss this game... I play every so often...somewhere around 7k hours lol was admin on servers and basically lived on here.... wish this game would get picked up and make a come back...

 

[wraitheart]

all was well till that damn power update. when they announced it we lost over half of our players on starmade australia. and then it came out. no one on server no server.

 

[DrTarDIS]

illusive server at 0.09, god knows when that even was, i'm too lazy to check
that and the genxnova era before the poopoo reactor update that killed my motivation for several years, which is still going

Bobbybighoof ran an awesome server in an awesome era. Even if some of his various "Spawn sector stations" were a bit too big for the engine and netcode.

 

[DrTarDIS]

To contribute to this a bit more deeply while waxing philisophical about the genXnova server, I spent some time thinking on it and pulling up some artifacts and significant tangents that I'll link to. Click the links, they explain things. I was most active in the Power1 era, still fairly strong in Power2 era, but enjoyed it more in...well..read on.

The timeframe of GenXNova Unnamed25 is talking about there was actually quite vast:

Spoiler: memories!

-they were there for "floppy squid Dave" player avatar, and it's replacement.
-They were around back when beams diodn't exist, missile blocks were split up into SD-KB and SD-BB(swarmers and lockons), and all weapons were "tuned" from a resource pool based on block-group-count from a nifty little menu. This was a good time.
-CubeATOM was a funky but never really used system to convert blocks into "particles" and those "particles" back into blocks of a different type (profitable if you knew the wizardry) .This was a good time.
-they were around before and after the worst part of the game was "fixed." That being the single "shipcore" block being the ultimate weakpoint of all ships. The WIKI still talks about the decent but never quite balanced-for-players system that replaced it. SHP+AHP. The passives of this era combined with the removal of "keystone" mechanics for the shipcore made it arguably my favorite era. EG:

Spoiler

• Armor HP (AHP):A non-regenerating HP pool which absorbs 50% (without defensive effects) of all damage dealt to any block which contributes to the AHP pool (in short, all tiers of hull and doors). Applied after armor reduction, and stacks multiplicatively with it.
  • Defensive Piercing Effect: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by AHP to a maximum of 75% (from 50%)
  • Defensive Punch-Through Effect: Reduces damage taken by AHP by up to 25%. Does not change amount of damage absorbed, but rather acts as an Armor value for the AHP pool itself.

-they spanned well into the era of the now defunct Power2 (current is Power3 or 3.1 by my reckoning)

It's a tough call for me to make, but I'll say the SHP&AHP era was my favorite. There were some Issues with numerical balance, but I had the most fun and made the most cool shit. USED that cool shit too, which is saying something compared to the last memories I have of actually PLAYING the game outside of build-mode.
I really think the complete baby-with-bathwater redesign instead of a community rebalance (like quickfire and resources re-sourced) of power&systems2 was a poor decision that removed a lot of the sand from the box. There's a rant related to this from 2018, talking about the changed from 2015 onwards and touching on what I wished I'd seen. The entire thread there is worth a read for historical value. Other people had similar rants in places. De-obfuscation actually makes a chunk of that rant possible...other than it being a few years too late to make a variable "signed" in a system that AFAIK is completely removed.

Also, cookie-planets. I miss cookie-planets dammit. Soul-tearing NEED.

The thinks I'm mainly hoping to see in the future that would make a new golden era came up in my thoughts too. Mainly I'd like to see the "city-state" and "empire" stages of gameplay fleshed out.

Spoiler: the stuff

-Making the RTS like commands work as one would expect them to. It's been a while. Really, a WHILE. Fleets should patrol where you tell them to patrol, loaded or not. They should mine and return to base/carrier to unload when you tell them to mine.
- The empire should Grow without too much micro-management. eg. Shipyards should produce ships on a scedule assuming resources are available. NPCs need the same scripting.
-factions and their relationships need to actually have effects. If I've pissed off the trade union enough, pirates should get friendly, or something similar.
-shops need to stop randomly losing their saved states. I put that outpost down so the noobs and casuals would funnel me fertikeen and credits dammit!
-trade in general mixed into fleet commands. I should be able to fleet-command a "trade drone" with a shop block linked to inventory over to the newb asking where to buy cannon blocks near spawn. Also have a fleet linked to my shop that delivers the trade-network ordered goods.
-Give Me Back Cookie Planets.
-Shipyards "repairing" shouldn't break things the way they do now, just fill in missing blocks. Really, a LOT of issues with shipyards. Just "auto-centering" a loaded ship instead of aligning to it's core would be a VAST improvement.
-Planets, cookies, make it happen.
-A simple "avoid being within 0.6x-the-largest-radius-of-a-static-entity" clause to AI piloting, only overridden by a fleet-docking-command.
-Actually implement logic or scripts for reactors when? (fleet combat makes this semi-important at scale)

Also, things that are from before the "empire" stage:

Spoiler: the stuff

-Ship-factories. Want. Ez to give. (also cookie-planets)
-decoupling maneuver physics from dimensions. Mass seems better to me. There have been rants. many rants. over a long time. repeatedly.
-error/warning popups needs to include a "go to" funtion, or this happens.
-ALL permissions need to save with blueprints. Or this happens. Even a p-block in the right place should just do it.

...And the three build-mode things everyone eventually wants when they get to putting on 12+ turrets, or making fancy doors, or a drone complement:

Spoiler

-Spawn (select blueprint) to a rail, rotate between dockers with scroll wheel.
-Set(docked) entity's registered pickup point with some version of c->v
-REMEMBER fleet groupings and pickup points when saving a "mothership." I feel sympathertic pain for most people spawning a carrier-with-it's-drones into a survival server.

Oh, and how long before garbage sweeping is a thing?

 

[wiesshund]

GenXnova
When it was still the old school weapons and power, and we had an active online community
Servers were alive.

I had my little fleet of mining rigs
They were ugly, but they got the job done

Then load up the spoils in the titanic and take it to my space station

Unfortunately, i have not even played, in a good while now.
Game has kind of just sat in stagnant development, and most of the online community has moved on due to lack of progress.

I am not sure if i even have the game installed on anything presently, though i did buy it and it still shows in my steam library

 

[SkylordLuke]

def 2015-2016 for mee. Every day was exciting, so much so I could not even decide what the next project is gonna be before I even finish ten previous ones.
But all is not over yet,atleast for me. All i need in this game is fauna you can collect/protect/attack/gather/use for something.
And actual alien/competing factions.. and a way to expand AND control space effectively you ''colonized/visited/are making effort to build up''..
all those things i now mentioned,would finally gives us REASON to use our roleplay ships,hangars,transports,rails,cool tech we make.etc.

and I can tell you right now,I would play THAT game till my death bed

it was a MASSIVE mistake not having at least a minimal effort gameplay and goals in the game. which would enable emergent gameplay.