My thoughts on the current direction of the game.

[MrWiggles]

That is the way too big world.

There's no need to downscale the current game.

Once moon mining and gate travel to other worlds opens up, players who don't want to travel the vast distances required to get certain places simply won't have to. The distances involved and the travel time required to get places creates the sense of place, and the decision making on the players part as to whether the time to get there is worth the time investment in their current situation. I'm mining at Markka currently, and yeah, there's no one there because of the limited player-base and the time involved in getting there. It's a distinct place because of the time and energy required to get there. Decreasing the scope of the game world will create the sense of sameness across the universe - 5 minutes to get here, 5 minutes to get there - at that point no location is distinct. Just another location in a fast-travel linked universe.

There definitely needs to be a network of easy to get to locations for new players to feel like they're part of a living universe populated with other players. But having player and developer locations that exist on frontiers creates an entirely different gameplay experience for me. I love traveling in these games, it creates a sense of an actual world and scope - something that's missing from most games these days. I understand that many players don't like this type of gameplay, but that travel is gameplay to me, you just may not enjoy it. I think this game can satisfy both groups.

I think capital ships will be a huge boon for this game. Currently, there's not too much to do when traveling in a normal ship - something cap ships should alleviate.

 

[mikan]

If a solo player establishes a company, can he have that big station?
I wonder if the restrictions on possession of the rear station are different for companies and individuals.

 

[CalenLoki]

If a solo player establishes a company, can he have that big station?
I wonder if the restrictions on possession of the rear station are different for companies and individuals.

You don't even need a company to have huge station - they are all privately owned now.
You can even have 3 of them, all huge.

It's just the question of how you'll get the resources to build them, and how you'll defend them once built.

 

[mikan]

You don't even need a company to have huge station - they are all privately owned now.
You can even have 3 of them, all huge.

It's just the question of how you'll get the resources to build them, and how you'll defend them once built.

Companies can establish station hubs, which can have very large safe zones.

Since I mention a company, I expected that it could be expanded to a size different from that of an individual, but what about?

 

[Kruzer]

The opening of a test server may have been a mistake as it has sucked a lot of the player base away from the main server. Not a great thing to happen to an MMO. I thought we were in a Beta? Isn't the Beta itself for testing? Seems an odd decision to me.

 

[Venombrew]

I thought we were in a Beta? Isn't the Beta itself for testing?

we havent even made it into beta, this is open alpha, goes closed alpha, open alpha, open beta, to 1.0.

 

[Kruzer]

we havent even made it into beta, this is open alpha, goes closed alpha, open alpha, open beta, to 1.0.[/QUOTE

Fair enough, open alpha then. Isn't it still odd/redundant to have a test server active?

 

[Venombrew]

@Kruzer it could seem odd but in this situation it is a smarter approach with the complexity of starbase. the test server is being used to create new features and get them working on a considered live realm that isn't the main realm. so if it works there then it should work with little issues on the live realm. At the same time it gives the developers abilities to keep working on and fixing what is currently in live and get it ready for the new features on its way. If you tried to do all this on the same server you would have to go back to closed alpha, because you would constantly be adding untested features into somewhat of the core game and not know the extent of issues it would cause. By doing so would be creating a world of new issues while struggling to get the older issues fixed but can't cause of the flow of new features constantly causing new issues which is gonna delay the time to fix issues that were already there but being masked by the new problems that keep flooding in.

You also have to understand majority of people supporting starbase don't care about population right now because were not playing the game as it is a finished version, we understand fully were here to help test it. We also know that we won't see a full release of the game for at least 2-3 years, getting a working game is priority, and this game is in its very early stages of design and development.

 

[x-kent]

I see people talk piracy and stuff. Do you know that game is ~300 players at PEAK ? Winning a loto is a higher possibility than finding someone.

 

[Askannon]

Winning a loto is a higher possibility than finding someone.

That's why, as far as I know, most of those pirates wait around the moon gate for people flying to the moon to get some action. [edit: and some features are expected to make finding others easier, which would increase the danger in the belt and reduce it slightly around the gates]

And "pirate" here is in most cases not meant as someone trying to get rich (can't carry all that ore/parts on a fighter though can try to get money for not shooting), but someone with a gun looking to use it.

 

[Lunati]

The core need is interaction. For interaction we need reasons and places. Size of the world is a common method to achieve this, but it's not the only option.

We need to encourage trade, cooperation and wars, with everything being reachable for everyone in both time distance and progression. And that is what all we are now working on aims to achieve.

While we have things sorted out at our end, we are still working with the explanations to the players. This will include a roadmap with new elements as well as some mechanics opened up even more.

You brushed right past his AI paragraph. So does this mean you are still set on NO PVE? If so, may I ask why this is? You do understand that PvE creates PvP right? PvE brings in players, and it creates INTERACTIONS!! You do see all the posts and comments asking about this right?

Just to be clear, I mean PvE in the same way EvE, or Elite Dangerous has PvE, let's not get it twisted. I do not mean shooting asteroids (static objects) with a laser or pickaxe.

You also have to understand majority of people supporting starbase don't care about population right now because were not playing the game as it is a finished version, we understand fully were here to help test it. We also know that we won't see a full release of the game for at least 2-3 years, getting a working game is priority, and this game is in its very early stages of design and development.

No sir, a majority of the people DO care about the player base which is why you see so many posts and negative reviews about it. But you go ahead and be ignorant to it. Maybe the posts will just go away. I assure you they will, with the players.

 

[Venombrew]

No sir, a majority of the people DO care about the player base which is why you see so many posts and negative reviews about it. But you go ahead and be ignorant to it.

Oh you mean the majority of negative reviews that talk about how good the game can be and may be but warn players its far from being a playable game and that they should wait? cause that is a good portion of the negative reviews, positive comments with a warning its not a game yet, or be IGNORANT and ignore the the fact this is in alpha testing and EA and not a finished version of the game. and with that comes drastically game changes since its alpha and a huge rise and drop in players waiting for the next batch of content to test out, i mean one would be INSANE to give the developers time to develope, well a game.