Small-Scale Base Building

Lukas04

Active endo
Joined
Feb 8, 2020
Messages
42
#1
I think the game is currently in a big need of Base-Building that can occur on a smaller scale than current Stations, but also a higher one than just Lots.
Coming from games like Space Engineers, people will expect to be able to own their own base of operation, it will be where they will spend a majority of their time grinding resources for.
They also want to be able to decide where to lay down, so i do not think Lots really offer that experience.
The station building we have at the moment really is more focused on the Faction part of Starbase, you will only really enjoy and need them if you have a whole faction supporting the work on them, which is fine, its good that larger playergroups have something to work towards, but it really feels like smaller groups are ignored in this gameplay loop.

The possibility to build a lot, or slightly bigger sized Base at a decent cost, but not a faction level cost is in my opinion very important.
A lot of people leave closed alpha because they do not have anything to do, they get their first big mining ship and then loose grip on what to do.
A lot is probably to boring and hasnt much of a use (for now to be fair) but a Station is to far out of their Reach.

I do know there are some balance concerns with this, or also performance ones, as people would be able to spam Bases all over the universe.
But i think there is one simple way to counter balance this:
Do not give small Bases a Safe zone.
If small scale bases don't have a Safezone, there is still a reason for Lots and Stations to exist, as those are safe-places which locations you can make public.
It will prevent people from Spamming their Station everywhere, as pirates would just loot every station in their path.
Which i think is a positive, it gives pirates another thing to look for other than just some nooby players. Pirates likely wont ever be able to take down Station Safezones, so this is a good opportunity for them.

A small base should still be functional in a bit of industry, so that you can process Ores, Fuel and Propellant there, why else would someone build a Base, right?
You should also be able to create ships through a small SSC there, but i think for balance reasons (and to make normal stations more popular for Factions) there should be a size limit on Base-SSCs.
 

XenoCow

Master endo
Joined
Dec 10, 2019
Messages
562
#3
This might also be good for FOBs during large conflicts. The materials to build the station might be limited enough that a few large cargo ships could bring all the necessary materials. I could see this being helpful on campaigns to set up areas for quickly sharing resources and restocking while also being mildly defensible.
 

mrchip

Well-known endo
Joined
Feb 25, 2020
Messages
50
#4
Maybe I don't want to build a city. Maybe I just need a small workshop. Maybe just a temporary storage cache to leave some cargo that I'll pick up later. Maybe I just want to build a nomad tent.
We need player built stationary objects with enough flexibility to fit any need on any scale.
 

CalenLoki

Master endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
741
#5
IMO small station without some form of offline protection would be pretty much useless. It wouldn't offer anything more than cluster of factory ships left in space.
And despite being small, they still need several hours of work. So not many people will want to gamble with something they can't protect in any way or even move away.

I'd make those stations in a very straightforward way: module for ship that turns it permanently stationary, and gives safezone status to itself and all docked (with resource bridges). But doesn't create safezone for players or ships floating around.

They would be siegeable of course

BTW you can already built small stations. Builds foundation module and free-form from there. Needs just around 300 stacks (haulable with a single big ship)
 

five

Master endo
Joined
Jun 15, 2020
Messages
293
#6
IMO small station without some form of offline protection would be pretty much useless. It wouldn't offer anything more than cluster of factory ships left in space.
And despite being small, they still need several hours of work. So not many people will want to gamble with something they can't protect in any way or even move away.

I'd make those stations in a very straightforward way: module for ship that turns it permanently stationary, and gives safezone status to itself and all docked (with resource bridges). But doesn't create safezone for players or ships floating around.

They would be siegeable of course

BTW you can already built small stations. Builds foundation module and free-form from there. Needs just around 300 stacks (haulable with a single big ship)
Space waste, a real world problem
 

Lukas04

Active endo
Joined
Feb 8, 2020
Messages
42
#9
And despite being small, they still need several hours of work. So not many people will want to gamble with something they can't protect in any way or even move away.
I feel like people usually appreciate Risk/Reward Situations. Multiple Hours of time is still something i would accept to loose if i didnt hide my base good enough.
Even stations are technicly temporary, asuming the Station Sieging ever becomes a thing, just with more steps to it.
And if you loose those, that will be weeks or months of work wasted.

I'd make those stations in a very straightforward way: module for ship that turns it permanently stationary, and gives safezone status to itself and all docked (with resource bridges). But doesn't create safezone for players or ships floating around.
BTW you can already built small stations. Builds foundation module and free-form from there. Needs just around 300 stacks (haulable with a single big ship)
Thats not the point of the Suggestion i made. In both of those quotes you recommend a solution wich still only gives access to ship related features, while the Suggestion itself is more to make Station specific features more easily accesible, while yet weaker to their Station counterpart.
 

TGess

Well-known endo
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
52
#10
It must have some sort of raid protection. I dont want to be online 24/7 to defend my small base but I do want a small base in space
 

Lukas04

Active endo
Joined
Feb 8, 2020
Messages
42
#11
It must have some sort of raid protection. I dont want to be online 24/7 to defend my small base but I do want a small base in space
Then hide it.
It will be really hard to find bases far, far away from origin, especialy in fog clouds. And since there is no safezone, it will also be harder to know if a base is even in your current Zone, as you wont get that notification.

I just think that any type of normal safezone would be to strong for this kind of thing, as larger factions could just abuse it to build swarms of bases around an enemy.
 

CalenLoki

Master endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
741
#13
I feel like people usually appreciate Risk/Reward Situations. Multiple Hours of time is still something i would accept to loose if i didnt hide my base good enough.
Even stations are technicly temporary, asuming the Station Sieging ever becomes a thing, just with more steps to it.
Hiding the base will get significantly harder once radiation detection comes into play. Any bigger activity and you'll shine like a beacon.
With large stations you can at least attempt to defend, rather than them vanishing overnight.
Thats not the point of the Suggestion i made. In both of those quotes you recommend a solution wich still only gives access to ship related features, while the Suggestion itself is more to make Station specific features more easily accesible, while yet weaker to their Station counterpart.
Station only features can be divided into 3 categories for me:
1. Magic storage and magic ship storage. I want them both gone at some point.
2. SSC, refining, factories, despawn hangars, storage crates, solar panels, ect which should be available to ships too (even if only when they park, and limited by size).
3. Offline protection, auction house and lot renting - the only station exclusive features, out of which only offline protection is useful for hermits.
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Messages
576
#14
Small depots should definitely be a thing. The stations are definitely a lot of work and material investment, but there is no reason for a gas station to be as large as those.
 
Top