PSA: Player-Created Stations coming AFTER (EA) Launch.

[Atreties]

It's been stated in the wiki, on these forums, and multiple times on the discord, but the implementation of players creating their own stations for their factions is PLANNED, but will not be out for the initial early access launch. It's one of their top features to implement after launch, tho.

I mention this because I'm constantly seeing people plan to set up their stations, and to build near X group, or planning to raid Y group's station. That will all be possible, but not immediately upon launch.

Similarly, on-ship respawning is an often discussed feature, and will likely get implemented in some fashion (probably by bringing extra robot bodies, or a component that requires certain resources to respawn a body), but at launch the only way to respawn will be at the nearest station. Boarding will be extremely high-risk, high-reward, there will probably be major headache with friends dying and having to travel far to pick them up, etc.

Keep this in mind for your EA launch plans.

 

[Commissar Awesome]

Respawning on a ship doesn't seem all that important, looks like the ships die before the players in all the combat videos.

 

[Atreties]

Respawning on a ship doesn't seem all that important, looks like the ships die before the players in all the combat videos.

The combat videos have only showed the perspective of small, solo-craft, havent shown any boarding gameplay, havent shown any gameplay of invading an enemy station, and obviously havent shown any deaths to random bugs, which are likely.

 

[Spartan Shipyards]

If player stations won't be a thing at launch this means a few likely things will happen.

One of which that particularly worries me is that renting in stations near the edge of safezones will be highly contested/sought after by large groups. I know mega stations have no size limit but I can see groups trying to take as much real estate as they can while trying to dissuade or more likely grief other players from renting in said spots.

This also means that large factions will most likely have their locations known at all times, meaning there's zero chance of hiding the location of your resources from other potential hostile factions. Sure they can't steal/destroy them in safezones, but a large enough group can just keep watch 24/7 until you take a step outside the safezone since they'll always know your home address. Likewise they can intercept you as you're going home with a haul.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

 

[Atreties]

If player stations won't be a thing at launch this means a few likely things will happen.

One of which that particularly worries me is that renting in stations near the edge of safezones will be highly contested/sought after by large groups. I know mega stations have no size limit but I can see groups trying to take as much real estate as they can while trying to dissuade or more likely grief other players from renting in said spots.

This also means that large factions will most likely have their locations known at all times, meaning there's zero chance of hiding the location of your resources from other potential hostile factions. Sure they can't steal/destroy them in safezones, but a large enough group can just keep watch 24/7 until you take a step outside the safezone since they'll always know your home address. Likewise they can intercept you as you're going home with a haul.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

You are wrong in that space is very big. And 3 dimensional instead of 2. The further out you go, the more area that needs to be covered. This goes up crazy fast thr further out you go. At 1000 km, the radius of the safezone, the total area that needs to be covered to effectively "keep watch" at the edges is a bit over 12,500,000 square kilometers. Since render distance is 5km, that would mean you'd need about a quarter million ships to effectively cover it all.

Even if you cut off a big chunk of the top, bottom, and planet-ward sides of the sphere. Thats still around 50,000 to 100,000 ships needed to actually cover exits to the outside.

In short, space is very, very big. The starter zone is enormous. Spawn camping it will be nearly impossible.

 

[LauriFB]

The space indeed is very big, and it's close to impossible that even good real estate space would run out (ie. near safe zone, near asteroid field).

Regarding space station building, we have that side technically and editor-wise pretty well working, but we still lack the actual area claiming mechanics, which is mainly designing a good ruleset. Technically the area claiming is not that time-consuming to create, it's the actual design which needs to be well thought. So, if I'd just come with one final one we might make progress ...

The mechanicas may also include options to rent your own area inside safe zone, and this would also increase the safe zone size slowly. However that will bind your station to the safe zone limits, which granted, is large, but again is nothing compared to the rest of the universe.

Respawning on a ship doesn't seem all that important, looks like the ships die before the players in all the combat videos.

Larger ships, like gunship (ideal crew of 6-8, but in civilian use could easily house 12+), actually last a ton of damage. If you create a bigger ship and focus on escaping the baddies, you should be pretty safe from instant explosions. Gunship mainly in civilian use might be large enough to house a portable respawning machine. That said, we are still middle of designing the whole portable respawn mechanics. One option is also to include a friend resurrect mechanics to everyone, meaning that your friends can patch you up with very simple, handheld tools (given that they have the needed spares, which would also be lightweight enough to carry with you). The respawning machine would be automated version not requiring any friends. And spares/robot parts could be looted from robot corpses.

 

[Atreties]

The space indeed is very big, and it's close to impossible that even good real estate space would run out (ie. near safe zone, near asteroid field).

Regarding space station building, we have that side technically and editor-wise pretty well working, but we still lack the actual area claiming mechanics, which is mainly designing a good ruleset. Technically the area claiming is not that time-consuming to create, it's the actual design which needs to be well thought. So, if I'd just come with one final one we might make progress ...

The mechanicas may also include options to rent your own area inside safe zone, and this would also increase the safe zone size slowly. However that will bind your station to the safe zone limits, which granted, is large, but again is nothing compared to the rest of the universe.



Larger ships, like gunship (ideal crew of 6-8, but in civilian use could easily house 12+), actually last a ton of damage. If you create a bigger ship and focus on escaping the baddies, you should be pretty safe from instant explosions. Gunship mainly in civilian use might be large enough to house a portable respawning machine. That said, we are still middle of designing the whole portable respawn mechanics. One option is also to include a friend resurrect mechanics to everyone, meaning that your friends can patch you up with very simple, handheld tools (given that they have the needed spares, which would also be lightweight enough to carry with you). The respawning machine would be automated version not requiring any friends. And spares/robot parts could be looted from robot corpses.

I really recommend having some kind, any kind of respawn mechanic at launch aside from spawning at stations. Even something janky and placeholder. If you get into a fight 2 hours from a station and 1 out of 10 of your people died in the fight to a stray railgun shot randomly hitting him as it pierced the ship... what do you do? You either have 9 people spend 2 hours to go pick him up, or you abandon your friend to figure out how to get back to you with some sort of default ship. Everyone has a bad time. The situation only gets worse if he dies to an accidental misclick, or especially some sort of bug.

 

[Pulz]

I really recommend having some kind, any kind of respawn mechanic at launch aside from spawning at stations.

He literally just told you that they are working on respawn mechanics and designing portable respawn systems.
Or did you confuse the term launch with early access?

@LauriFB I think it would be pretty cool if a respawn machine could be installed on a ship to '3D print' respawning teammates, using supplies from your ship. You could also have a mechanic that you somewhat touched on, where you could additionally scavenge some corpses and jerry-rig a rudimentary body for a friend and have them download into it.

 

[Atreties]

He literally just told you that they are working on respawn mechanics and designing portable respawn systems.
Or did you confuse the term launch with early access?

Launch and Early Access Launch are fairly synonymous at the moment, unless otherwise stated, yes.

I was recommending having even a placeholder version of the mechanic in before customers have the ability to buy the game.

 

[NoName]

Launch and Early Access Launch are fairly synonymous at the moment, unless otherwise stated, yes.

I was recommending having even a placeholder version of the mechanic in before customers have the ability to buy the game.

I would think having a placeholder version in before it even goes to alpha testers might be a good idea.

 

[LauriFB]

I really recommend having some kind, any kind of respawn mechanic at launch aside from spawning at stations. Even something janky and placeholder.

Yes, we definitely will have for early access launch. For first alphas it's not that bad, as (very first) alphas most likely take place at very close area. Of course these would be introduced during the alpha. The features itself are not that difficult to create, just takes time.

To elaborate: designing especially takes some thought, as this system is not independent but rather needs to be tied to for example to looting, crafting etc: how you can use parts looted from dead robots, what parts and how you can create on your own, is it even possible to have the part creation to fly with you in your ship, etc.