If you want more than the actual ~2000 players

[smack]

The game is really good and have lot of potential, but it's focused for geek players (mostly ) no offence

1- ISAN GPS should be something in-game, a new player casueal player ( not googling for isan ) will never understand where is he going. 20 lines of code just to know x,y,z has no sense
-A map would be nice too, googling you find lot of maps with ore and zones info, just add a full map in-game for all players
-An speedmeter, scanner need a yolol to show on text panel, the text panel could have "x" amount of rows ( a bigger text pannel )
2- Turrets aim with keyboard ..... really ? thats a '98 games. You could add an option to the button to turn on-off turrets an mouse on-off option, even the chair+turret is keyboar aim
3- If you want a ship with all movements you need 7 levers .... why ? just put 1 control table with all levers stats on it
4- Ship Design is a headache ( probable only 3D designers like it lol), since beams have different lenght and angles, then should be drawable : click start creating beam, click stop it, "x" button change angle +-15°, right click beam created. Pretty much same with plates, glass, decorative plates more like a 3D designer program, instead of 200 different beams, plates models. (also apply it to ducts )
-Thrusters : 5 parts needed for it .... why ? tier 1 + 2 +3 means 15 parts, instead of having more thrusters models. You can add circular thruster, elliptical or another weir form in different sizes ( small, medium, big ) if that 5 parts are needed to backpack the thruster as a module, just make it use 1 backpack
- ulbolting should be faster and an option to use ship designer to dismantle the ship ( if I have a 200 cargo crate ship reuse all of them for a new ship will be painful)

NOTE THAT ALL OF THE ABOVE DOESN'T BENEFIT PVP PLAYERS OVER PVE OR PVE OVER PVP, IT BENEFITS ALL

For a better pvp you could add a sonar system ( prtty much as a submarine ) 1 navigation reciever has an angle of 90° and takes 1 second to scan it, with 4 you have a 360° sonar that refresh every 4 seconds, so the detected ships is not 100% acurracy if its moving. Of course, sonar has a max range and detection depends on thrusters on, ship size. ship plates angles ( maybe ) a sonar disruptor .... etc

PS : I don't have much hopes for thing to change, but I was bored so posted it. Anyway I am out, peace ( bad english is my signature xD )

 

[Tomasz]

There is already a milion games simplified to adress lowest comon denominator, there is 0 need for another one trying to catch as wide audience as possible(or so called casuals), there is still a niche for game that don;t do that, and its those "geeks" that happen to be here by big part.
Frankly many MMO games i had high hopes were completely ruined for me exactly becouse devs decided to make them easier and simpler to rise retention among new casual players and to make everything too easy and fool-proof.

Im not a 3D designer, and i don't need it to be simplified, you don;t need to build stuff, you can buy it from other players or as it is now from ship-shops, which by the way is perfect thing for economy to work in future.
Some of the specific things you mentioned, like speedometer, yea i belive many of those matters were already raised.

 

[Womble]

1- ISAN GPS should be something in-game, a new player casueal player ( not googling for isan ) will never understand where is he going. 20 lines of code just to know x,y,z has no sense

While I think that the folks doing the work on ISAN are amazing, and the utility itself is as cool as absolute zero, I do agree. It makes no in-world sense for location routines to uses such a kludge that produces such inaccurate and hard-to-use result. I completely understand the need for YOLOL to be limited the way it is, but we shouldn't have to use it for such functions.

...( a bigger text pannel )

Oh, yes please!

2- Turrets aim with keyboard...

Turrets are a work-in-progress at the moment. They will hopefully become actually usable before "1.0"

3- If you want a ship with all movements you need 7 levers .... why ? just put 1 control table with all levers stats on it

I don't see the problem here. The levers don't have to be anywhere visible, or even reachable, so long as they're within a couple of metre of your chair. I usually nail them to the back of the chair.

4- Ship Design is a headache...

This is a feature, not a flaw... to some degree. Fixed-length beams aren't a problem, but the Question of Plates is something that will really challenge people.

-Thrusters : 5 parts needed for it .... more thrusters models [instead]...

I think the idea of just having box thrusters and triangle thrusters and plasma thrusters the way they are was so that they don't have to handle more thruster shapes than that, and so that "better" thrusters can be retrofitted into ships easily. I could wish they had taken more opportunities for customisation of those engines with more than one "kind" of box, nozzle and combustion chamber per Tier, and the ability to mix-and-match the fuel/electricity modules (with the possibility of developing more of those, and even of putting different Tier modules together for halfway upgrades.

...option to use ship designer to dismantle the ship ( if I have a 200 cargo crate ship reuse all of them for a new ship will be painful)

The option to use the components of an existing ship to build a ship you're about to spawn is being worked on, but, rather than trying to stick it into the designer (which doesn't really have any existence in the "real [game] world", I'd prefer a "disassembly hall" that (for a feee) returns all the components to your station inventory.

For a better pvp you could add a sonar system...

Passive detection systems (which subs use much more than active search) are on the way. But an active search that also makes you visible would be a good complement for aggressors who don't mind who sees them.

 

[FLMNAG]

why there are not 3000 players:
- the working time needed to get out a ship and the incredible speed to destroy it
- the map is too big and the moves are boring
I think the gameplay is not the problem but the map size and pvp/risk/reward .

-Ship parts should cost 2 times less ore,
-maximum speed should be 150 ms for T1 and T2 Thruster, 180 for T3 Thruster and 200 ms for Plasma Thruster ( Why take plasma now or t3? The price/benefit ratio is very bad )
-The propulsion force of all thrusters should be doubled (Stop Walls of Thruster please !)
-The search should go twice as fast and T1 should be automatically unlocked (the game is too long to start),
-The overall map of the game must be divided by 10 (total rework, too big for 2k players and 150 m/s),
-1 origin Station/200 player is more than enough (currently 10 station it will be fine),
-Out of safe zone there should be ONLY asteroid larger than T6 and auto regen at 100 km and more.
-For the first ship that new players buy, assembly costs should be free (welcome voucher)

 

[Womble]

why there are not 3000 players:
- the working time needed to get out a ship and the incredible speed to destroy it
- the map is too big and the moves are boring
I think the gameplay is not the problem but the map size and pvp/risk/reward .

That reasoning could have been written as: "because the game isn't finished yet," which is very probably true. Fortunately, Frozenbyte have rather more in mind than just nerfing the whole thing into oblivion, as you go on to suggest.

It's
An
Alpha.

It's not done yet. Base your suggestions for fixing perceived metagame problems, not on the current state alone, but on what you see combined with what Frozenbyte have shared about their own vision. And if you don't like it now, and want instant fixes, applied with an axe and steam shovel like you suggest, be prepared for disappointment, and maybe come back when it's a bit nearer completion so you can help polish it.

 

[FLMNAG]

the game went from 10,000 player to 1,800
"This is an alpha."
There’s a bigger problem than just ""an alpha""
Read the steam reviews

 

[alioth]

I would not want there to be a map of all players - would paint a target on folks just trying to mine out of the safe zone, and I think mess with the radiation mechanics for finding other players that I thought I heard mention of.

A bigger text panel would be grand.

I really like your suggestion for a drawable beam tool - that would be a pretty nice QOL. Same with plate, if there could be a drawable plate tool it would really speed things up on the design end.

 

[Venombrew]

seems to be much better positive reviews than negative, and you only been able to post a review since the very end of july, maybe people are just waiting for more content to be added? seeing how average person gets what an Early access is?

before you buy the game they should put a Early Access warning huh?

 

[Womble]

the game went from 10,000 player to 1,800
"This is an alpha."
There’s a bigger problem than just ""an alpha""
Read the steam reviews

The problem is that people don't do their research. They review EA games that have clearly announced they are not feature-complete as if they were AAA titles with 2 years past release patch histories and a couple of DLCs under their belt. The problem is "EA games on Steam", frankly. Or at least a chunk of the demographic that grabs them with their grubby, uninformed, entitled paws and wonders why it doesn't sparkle like their mama told them it should, then throws a tantrum at their keyboard.

And that's not even 200 of the 8.2k departed players. The other 8000 just set it aside having had a look and got their purchase in at a discount price, maybe reported a couple of bugs. Either they intend to keep an eye on developments, or they somehow decided it'll never be for them, from a very scant evidence base and won't be back. I'll give the gaming population the benefit of the doubt: there are probably more of the former than the latter. Whether the final game turns out to be what they're looking for, it's real hard to say, since no one knows what will be found to work or not.

 

[Inc0gnit0]

seems to be much better positive reviews than negative, and you only been able to post a review since the very end of july, maybe people are just waiting for more content to be added? seeing how average person gets what an Early access is?

before you buy the game they should put a Early Access warning huh?

Read the reviews - many of them are positive, but describe the game as "unplayable".

The fall of the online shows that something is wrong with the game and "This is Alpha" is not an excuse, with this approach it was not worth releasing the game in EA and taking money from people, but it was necessary to stay in CA and work on the working version without looking back at online and reviews.

 

[Tomasz]

The moment sutio takes 100 dollars / game it is released.
I'd be ok with "Early acess" excuse if someone wanted to have extra testers and allowed them in for LOWERED price or no price, "early access " meaning there wil be rest of price added on later.
But full price- full game.
So people always excusing devs in such unfinished game is ..meh.
That said : in Starbase noone was lied to about what already IS in the game,what is its state, and making dramma post that playerbase is shrining is rather silly.
Ofc it is shrinking, just like in pretty much every MMO 2 months after release, let alone when there is almost no combat in game where combat is essential.

 

[Venombrew]

@Inc0gnit0 @Tomasz

"unplayable".

The moment sutio takes 100 dollars / game it is released.

"This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further."
and if you keep reading you get to my favorite part of the Warning before buy,
" If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development "

if your still complaining it is literally 100% on you!

and if your still complaining that they got no direction and nothing is being done, they even stated in the EA warning the difference between a 1.0 and EA,
"
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The full version is planned to have "all" the features: more of everything, ships, guns, tools, planets, gameplay loops and a more optimized experience. "

either don't buy it til it is done or be patient and give them time to add content since its is still in its infant stages of development. is this really hard for people to understand? YOU did not buy a completed game, it says so many times over it is in EARLY EARLY STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT, what you bought was the chance to play a game while it is still in DEVELOPMENT!

 

[Cavilier210]

Read the reviews - many of them are positive, but describe the game as "unplayable".

The fall of the online shows that something is wrong with the game and "This is Alpha" is not an excuse, with this approach it was not worth releasing the game in EA and taking money from people, but it was necessary to stay in CA and work on the working version without looking back at online and reviews.

It being alpha is the reason, not an excuse. They also threw in a bunch of features and mechanics that no one had any clue about, and changed one feature almost completely. They made a few questionable decisions. However, sandbox games are not for everyone. I've played some that have been around for many years that have less to do than SB. This game is designed around a need for community participation.

Reading the forums here, you'd get the feeling that there is nothing right in the game. But when you get down to it, most of them think this is a solo game with multi-player option, rather than the MMO it is.

 

[Venombrew]

@Cavilier210 dude i feel like we need to put the EA information in our forum signatures cause people seem to not grasp what an EA game is. do people even read anything before they buy it?

 

[Cavilier210]

@Cavilier210 dude i feel like we need to put the EA information in our forum signatures cause people seem to not grasp what an EA game is. do people even read anything before they buy it?

Hehe, splosions. Hurr durr *forks over money*

 

[YellowDucky]

This is just simplifyinh what makes this game fun and complicated. Maps would ruin the exploration feel. Making our own GPS systems. This is a player made game, just spend a small amount of time, like really small like 30 hours small, and you will start to get the feel for it. 30 hours can be tough when your busy, but a few weekends can get you there ya know? I do think games need to be good from the get go, and it is, it just has a high learning curve. Its about building and creating mouse aimed turrets, not adding them. Coding out own navigation, not maps. Its a player crafted universe, and thats the selling point, a single universe, player crafted creativity MMO. I think this game is fine where it is, its what separates it from Space Engineers, its better to compare this game to Worlds Adrift In my opinion. Also, if you want to be able to have pre assembled thrusters, just build an assembly line that assembles them? You’re litterally suggesting removing an entire feature of gameplay and turning this into another lego simulator with no differences.

 

[Kenetor]

The game is really good and have lot of potential, but it's focused for geek players (mostly ) no offence

1- ISAN GPS should be something in-game, a new player casueal player ( not googling for isan ) will never understand where is he going. 20 lines of code just to know x,y,z has no sense
-A map would be nice too, googling you find lot of maps with ore and zones info, just add a full map in-game for all players
-An speedmeter, scanner need a yolol to show on text panel, the text panel could have "x" amount of rows ( a bigger text pannel )

agreed on all points but ISAN will do for now since the devs have bigger things to finished first, remember its an unfinished game.

2- Turrets aim with keyboard ..... really ? thats a '98 games. You could add an option to the button to turn on-off turrets an mouse on-off option, even the chair+turret is keyboard aim

agreed again but both mouse, gamepad and hotas support have not been done yet, it IS planned to come/being worked on, remember its an unfinished game.

3- If you want a ship with all movements you need 7 levers .... why ? just put 1 control table with all levers stats on it

its actually 9 levers for all controls, but this is modular nature of the game, you get to choose where these controls go, and levers can be used for anything else too, it makes sense to just reuse them for direct ship controls too rather than have only a single setup for people.

4- Ship Design is a headache ( probable only 3D designers like it lol), since beams have different length and angles, then should be drawable : click start creating beam, click stop it, "x" button change angle +-15°, right click beam created. Pretty much same with plates, glass, decorative plates more like a 3D designer program, instead of 200 different beams, plates models. (also apply it to ducts )

as a 3d designer/artist, I can confirm I like it a lot, but it still gives me a headache sometimes too, but when it comes down to "stretchy" beams or plates, its more down to engine support and how the voxel system actually works than the devs trying to make the perfect ship building system.
It may still be possible in the future, but this sort of feature is anything but easy to implement at the best of times, let alone when you have stress and physics calcs tied into it.

-Thrusters : 5 parts needed for it .... why ? tier 1 + 2 +3 means 15 parts, instead of having more thrusters models. You can add circular thruster, elliptical or another weir form in different sizes ( small, medium, big ) if that 5 parts are needed to backpack the thruster as a module, just make it use 1 backpack

each part of the thruster does something specific, you can mix and match parts for higher thrust or efficiency, later on they could make more custom varients of these parts allowing for more depth of ship design.
one of the main things that drew me to SB was deeper and more complicated ship design than basic box systems that SE offers for example.
I know its not perfect right now but hey, its an unfinished game.

- unbolting should be faster and an option to use ship designer to dismantle the ship ( if I have a 200 cargo crate ship reuse all of them for a new ship will be painful)

i don't think this will matter much when ship hauling is made easier again, get a ship breaking crew on it and it will be ripped apart in no time, doing it solo should not be as fast more people, I really think this is a non issue in a game designed to be played in groups

 

[Cavilier210]

There are many avenues to attack what ISAN does. TDS did one method of calculating all variables at the same time. (Then the ISAN guys threw a tizzy sucking the desire from the TDS creator). The point here is that ISAN is not the only way. Make your own way.

Think of SB as a step up from KSP and SE. It has aspects centered on those of us who like designing ships. It has aspects for those who like FPS. Aspects for those who like logistics. There are many niches in SB. The problem is thinking that you can do them all at the same time.

 

[Greebo]

I agree 100% on point 1.

Navigating is an absolute chore, props to the ISAN team but my god make it a module or upgrade or something.

It would be a great opportunity as some kind of ship upgrade or endo visual-module

 

[Tomasz]

I agree 100% on point 1.

Navigating is an absolute chore, props to the ISAN team but my god make it a module or upgrade or something.

It would be a great opportunity as some kind of ship upgrade or endo visual-module

I disagree, Navigation can be big advantage over enemy corporations for those who can solve that task more efficiently.
Making navigation simple feature privided by game for everyone at same afficiency would take away form gameplay in future.