Spaz's list of suggestions (Long Post)

[Spaz]

So this is pretty much just a big copy-paste of my suggestions that I posted on discord.

1. Suggestion for PVP. Power armor. Makes you much more difficult to destroy, but it is also very slow moving, expensive to make, and can't fit in small spaces. Would be cool having something like that leading a "ground" assault on a base. Would also need a big 'ol chain-gun for it. Heck, there could also be a version that could be used for offloading large cargo from ships.

2. Not sure if already in the game or if mentioned before, but the ability to password-lock YOLOL chips/networks or otherwise restrict to members of the same faction or something. It would only take one person coming by while nobody was online or no one was paying attention to mess up an entire network. I could see something like that becoming a definite issue rather quickly.

3. Since the Devs have stated that blueprints for ships are in the game, why not add a functionality for larger ships that would allow you to upload the blueprint of that ship into a small projector/ holo-table where a small 3d render of the ship would appear, and any time the ship took damage, the pieces affected would be highlighted red on the hologram. It wouldn't show the specific damage done (for example if a hole was cut out of a piece or one was cut in half, bullet holes, etc.) it would just show that the piece itself was damaged or missing. This could act as both an aesthetic and as a functional feature as it would allow those with larger ships to quickly see exactly what parts were damaged instead of having to run around for twenty minutes trying to find which power cables are still broken. There could also be an option to switch what the blueprint shows between the ship frame, the armor plating, wires, propellant tubes, or just the whole thing. Perhaps even being able to choose what colors the non-damaged and damaged pieces where shown in.

4. Since there are blueprints for ships. Why not add a feature to have special "Patented" blueprints that can't be copied? By this I mean, if someone were to purchase a ship made with one of these special Patent blueprints, they would not be able to just ctrl+c on the ship (or however else copying a ship blueprint would be done) and copy it's blueprint to make more. This way, certain factions that focus on ship-building would be able to have their own unique designs that you could only get from them (unless you want to put in the time and effort to try and make your own copy from scratch). Otherwise, all someone would need to do is buy one, copy and upload it's blueprint, and then everyone would be able to build that type of ship on their own, essentially making that faction rather useless. These special blueprints would be set and owned by the original creator, and they could then have the option to make the blueprint available to only certain people (people on their friends list, clan members of certain ranks or just clan members in general, other factions, etc.). I just think this would be a nice addition to the game that could add in a bit more complexity to the experience and allow certain factions to thrive.

5. So with this one, I know a few people said this was already possible (basically by just putting a small turret aimed at your reactor), but I think that form of an auto self destruct is kinda lame.
Something to go along with one of my previous suggestions about password lockable YOLOL networks. Why not the addition of a self destruct feature for ships? In the event that you don't want an enemy to capture your ship, and it seems like you're about to lose anyways, just hit a big ol' red button, and suddenly, your reactor decides its time to die. And hey, you might even take a few of them with you in a massive fireball of amazing destruction. This seems like something that would definitely fit with this game, and if they allow for secure YOLOL networks on ships, that could help prevent random other players from detonating your reactor to grief you.

6. Why not give the community the ability to make new endo-skeleton frame and/or armor designs? The Devs could then add the new designs to a poll for the community to vote on, and at the end of the vote, the design(s) with the highest votes (top 1, top 3 or however many) would be added to the game. Eligible designs would of course have to follow certain guidelines set by the Devs (fit the game aesthetic, not be overly ridiculous, not be just ripped from other games/movies) and the Devs would obviously have final say in what was and wasn't added to the polls before they went up. The Devs could have these votes every other month or however often they wanted.

7. Not sure how doors work, if they're modular or if they are pre-made blocks (if you can just build them however you want then this one is kinda useless). But big blast doors for stations and large ships would be pretty cool. They could be used to block off important areas in the event of an attack.

 

[Spaz]

8. Robo-dog. Because why not.

 

[Zijkhal]

1) I don't quite like the idea of a power armor, but I don't know why

2) you could codelock your doors to your yolol chips and make the doors and walls out if some very hard material. And even include traps like they enter, get locked into a room, and if they don't enter a correct code within a timeframe, they get blasted to pieces by a laser gun.

3) I like the idea of ship-holos, but I am not at all sure about the self-diagnostic functionality of it posted here. With a well designed electric network, you could have diagnostic lamps, if it is on, the cable is intact, if off, it is not, find the place where one is on, next is off, break is between the two

No idea how to solve the fuel leak one tho. Maybe using the corrosive nature of the leaked fuel to eat away at electric cables closely following the fuel lines, and power diagnostic lamps off if those cables?

4) I agree in principle, but such a system could become very complicated pretty quickly. A ship building faction could focus on two things: price and features. Features could be stolen, but it could be real hard to match the prices. The devs said single use blueprint purchasing of stuff iirc, but I have no idea how that would relate to patenting and stuff. I hope ppl won't be able to just copy designs they bought. Captured ships would and should have to be reverse engineered manually instead of using a lazy magic blueprinting tool IMO.

One cool solution I could see is doing away with blueprints entirely, and instead blueprints would be yolol-based, and factories would have to bolt stuff together based on that, but I doubt that will be the case because the devs said industrial 3D printing and blueprints would be a thing.

5) yolol trigger able explosives will be coming (not necessarily by EA launch) which would make self destruct features trivial

6) It would still be a ton of work from the devs I'd imagine. Both implementing community designs and actually creating an environment in the game that supports it could be a huge task as well

7) I think doors are build them how you want, you can see so many different designs in the trailers. I think most of those designs use hinges to open/close them

8) definitely.

 

[MegaLinkX117]

1. good suggestion, and i would like to expand that the "power armor" is actually just a frame making it as a way to "armor" yourself with the same parts that you can put on a ship. so you can create your very own beefy armor boi.

2. i have little to no knowledge with the YOLOL side of SB so i don't feel that i can give a good opinion about it other than its a good idea.

3. probably be best if it were to just have the ability to show the exterior or purely the interior of a room in all blue, and highlight sections in red for damage. but over all a good idea.

4. from how you worded it, i am assuming that it would allow you to share your design, but not allow other people to copy the ship without you, or a person you shared the BP to's permission. That would be great since it would allow you to share your BP to people you trust and those who want to copy your ship without paying would have to do alot of work just to remake it.

5. i would think it would be like this : have a gun shoot the reactor to do damage in the immediate area. but, have a self destruct feature where it overcharges/overheats the reactor and makes a giant explosion instead of damaging the immediate area.

6. All for it and i have well discussed my opinion with this kinda of possible feature.

7. Doors are modular in the sense that you just need to get a plate of armor and slap it onto a hing and use YOLOL with it to use it. However, i would like to see some manual doors that are not automatic and don't need buttons to function.

8. lol that would be interesting

 

[CalenLoki]

0. Making suggestion packs like this prevents any meaningful discussion. Next time make thread for each.

1. Why not. Seems to be easy to balance with all possible cons and pros.

2. No. Protect your ship physically, build self-destruction system to prevent code theft, manage your faction members and station permission to prevent sabotage. DIY

3. I'd rather have universal hologram device that shows whatever you code it to show:https://forum.starbasegame.com/threads/3d-holographic-display-for-maps-radar.384/
DIY - create set of sensors and displays that show which module stopped working, create logical cable/pipe network for easy damage mitigation.
Also projecting whole ship would be probably quite taxing on FPS

4. https://forum.starbasegame.com/threads/blueprints-and-ship-designer.306/
IMO it'd be easier to have BP chips with several access levels (i.e. preview only, single use, read only, full rights) but whoever get their hands on the chip should be able to use all available options. So you need to physically protect the master copy from theft.

Preferably BP over certain amount of parts shouldn't be allowed in starting safe zone (BP gets erased if you enter it). Just so you can't use magic of non-contestable safe zone to protect them.

5. They already promised explosives. No need to suggest that.

6. Implementing player creations require more effort than it seems. Optimizing, polishing, making sure it fits other parts aesthetically... That's pretty much visual suggestion, not direct help.

7. Hinges/rails + armour plates of any shape you want. So already in game.

8. Not. Because why?

 

[Spaz]

0. Making suggestion packs like this prevents any meaningful discussion. Next time make thread for each.

I will make singular posts for new suggestions. This thread is mostly so the ones I put on discord will be easy to find.

 

[Spaz]

Of course that's if I come up with any other ideas at all. Most of the other stuff I have thought of has already been discussed by other people on both discord and the forum.

 

[MixCTATNCT]

4 I think a special module with a password that blocks learning and copying is quite sufficient.

 

[PopeUrban]

Sorry but I just don't like most of this. I hope we can still be friends

1: No thank you. I'd rather have these roles filled by ground/magnetic vehicles.

2: No. A major feature of the game is the ability to sabotage complex systems. If you don't want someone messing up your network, secure your data center.

3: Too much free intel. Again no. Every 'easy mode" system like this added in the game destroys hours and hours of engineering gameplay, sabotage gameplay, competitive design. Its a game that is largely about engineering. Asking for systems to replace the necessity to engineer is bad.

4: No. We have a whole other thread where I outlined in meticulous detail why attempting to implement copyright law in a building game is a ridiculous waste of time. The short version is that your ship design is not that special, copying anything in a building game like this one is easy, people that don't want to design their own ship are highly unlikely to buy a blueprint when they can buy a whole spaceship, and that the entire point of blueprints is to duplicate designs, not prevent the duplication of designs. If you don't want people copying your ship design, don't sell the blueprints. If you don't want enemies getting their hands on your new warship design, prevent them from stealing the blueprints.

5: Think through the implications of this device, and realize that anyone that boards your ship can install one on it. Also, people sabotaging your ship is not griefing. Its playing the game.

6: This I like. I think Warframe's tennogen model is pretty great. They have strict aesthetic guidelines, use community voting to determine what designs have enough interest to be worth implementing, and then the developers have final say whether or not to implement the model. The items are then sold in the shop with a special icon, state on their description which community member made them, and the person that designed the item gets a portion of the revenue(I think its 20%) every time one is sold.

7: Already doable.

8: You have yolol and all kinds of robotic arms and plates. Build your own robo-dog.

 

[CalenLoki]

I recently thought about Yolol rack protection. A way to make cracking it possible, interactive but not perfect or too easy.

So you write the code, set password.
Now whoever access the chip, sees each letter replaced with blank square.
He can click on the square and type a letter.
If the letter is the correct one, it get revealed.
If the letter is the wrong one, it still get revealed. But 4 random letters are permanently destroyed.
If he has more copies of the same chip, he can just brutally crack the code by typing whatever. If only 1 or 2 copies, he can use his codding skill to predict what symbol was used, and guess all the missing (destroyed) letters.

Chips may differ in encryption level. Weaker ones could destroy less letters after each mistake. Or allow few free mistakes.

 

[PopeUrban]

I recently thought about Yolol rack protection. A way to make cracking it possible, interactive but not perfect or too easy.

So you write the code, set password.
Now whoever access the chip, sees each letter replaced with blank square.
He can click on the square and type a letter.
If the letter is the correct one, it get revealed.
If the letter is the wrong one, it still get revealed. But 4 random letters are permanently destroyed.
If he has more copies of the same chip, he can just brutally crack the code by typing whatever. If only 1 or 2 copies, he can use his codding skill to predict what symbol was used, and guess all the missing (destroyed) letters.

Chips may differ in encryption level. Weaker ones could destroy less letters after each mistake. Or allow few free mistakes.

Or we can do none of that and you can put in a door like a normal person.

 

[CalenLoki]

Doors mean nothing outside safe zone. I'll just keep yolol racks next to reactor.

 

[PopeUrban]

Doors mean nothing outside safe zone. I'll just keep yolol racks next to reactor.

Imagine thinking encrypting a chip I can just straight up replace with my bare hands is more secure than a door I have to spend ten minutes breaking down.

When the entire programming language is no more complicated than elementary school BASIC and all variables are public to anyone using a multitool on the network encryption is a total waste of time. Anybody with half a brain can write replacement "sabotage" code from scratch on the spot in a matter of minutes.

This is like the ship blueprint thing. You think the things people are engineering in a game deliberately built to make engineering simple and easy to understand and do are somehow unique or special enough to invent DRM for them.

They're not. That's the point of the game. Engineering and programming are easy to understand and do.

 

[riley]

Imagine thinking encrypting a chip I can just straight up replace with my bare hands is more secure than a door I have to spend ten minutes breaking down.

When the entire programming language is no more complicated than elementary school BASIC and all variables are public to anyone using a multitool on the network encryption is a total waste of time. Anybody with half a brain can write replacement "sabotage" code from scratch on the spot in a matter of minutes.

This is like the ship blueprint thing. You think the things people are engineering in a game deliberately built to make engineering simple and easy to understand and do are somehow unique or special enough to invent DRM for them.

They're not. That's the point of the game. Engineering and programming are easy to understand and do.

But doors aren't public with a multitool? What if you put the chip that opens the door behind the door so people can't do what you are suggesting. Not entirely sure how permissions work with yolol but if opening permission can be assigned to a single chip it fixes all these issues and encryption could work well.

Keep in mind encryption is designed so that someone with access to data can't make sense of it. So even though variables may be public, without the context of what they do I would rather break down the door.

 

[PopeUrban]

But doors aren't public with a multitool? What if you put the chip that opens the door behind the door so people can't do what you are suggesting. Not entirely sure how permissions work with yolol but if opening permission can be assigned to a single chip it fixes all these issues and encryption could work well.


Keep in mind encryption is designed so that someone with access to data can't make sense of it. So even though variables may be public, without the context of what they do I would rather break down the door.

No, doors can't be accessed with a multitool because they're plates bolted on to an opening mechanism and yolol chip behind the door. That's the entire point of a security door. That the only YOLOL connected device you have access to from your side is purely output based sensor device with no code to edit. At best you can disable the sensor which would also just make the door not open. Your options for dealing with said door are either have whatever token the sensor reads to open it, or cut through the door or wall.

If you have access to edit YOLOL chips in a rack based system complex enough for you to care you first have to remove the chip, which means whatever it was running stops running. On top of that have you taken a look at YOLOL? The cases in which it would make practical sense to 'sabotage' a YOLOL device compared to the effort required to just... remove the chip or blow it up are almost nonexistent.

The juice isn't worth the squeeze. There is no secret technology here worth encrypting. YOLOL is an extremely simple language capable of doing only extremely simple things very slowly, and furthermore adding such a system de-incentivizes practical engineering and active social play in favor of a lazy and passive magic shield. When you have yolol encryption you don't have to worry about who you trust to access your data center, you don't have to build secure spaces for your critical chips, and you actively de-incentivze the already very rarely useful act of sabotaging YOLOL by making it virtually impossible to do.

This "encryption" has the same problem as cameras. Its a convenience focused system that actively hurts the central theme of the game, which is engineering, by creating a bypass for a problem players would otherwise need to mechanically or socially engineer around.

 

[Burnside]

Power armor on a robot is... odd, maybe just have it be a much larger endoskeleton you can spawn into with equip points to mount ship-based weapons on the shoulders and a pair of hand-held hardpoints (including melee) on the arms? The con is that it just doesn't interface with command chairs and control surfaces at all, has no inventory or way to access inventories (so you only want large weapons on your arms or those with large magazines), stomps around fairly slow (can't run), and has an anemic jetpack making it unsuited to ship-to-ship fights. The fact that it can't reload its own equipment means a "superheavy endo" would need its own infantry support to maintain combat effectiveness during an assault, especially across a station, but could still be effectively deployed alone for a single firefight. Being so much larger, it also might end up needing its own special respawn device, which is further investment in infrastructure to support the combat advantage it provides.

Not going to comment on the various yolol and blueprint stuff, I think having one-use copies of "patent" blueprints would make the market simpler than understanding the way designs can be sold as complete ships or as cheaper printables supplied by material costs to the station.

On blast doors, yeah, you just make a bigger, thicker, better armored door and have it ride a rail or something.