Stone Age Battle?

[MAXD]

You could have a radio transmitter that says what side you are on and a receiver that points forward so that when you point at a friendly it will say on a display in your ship that they are friendly.

The screen cannot show pictures I thought, you mean I should read the letters or numbers feed back of more than 10 ships? At the same time I should check which ship is on which number or something? Even when every ship reply only one word, I still have to check the position.
Without image notice, the radio transmitter IFF will be meaningless. At least not convenient at all.

 

[XenoCow]

The screen cannot show pictures I thought, you mean I should read the letters or numbers feed back of more than 10 ships? At the same time I should check which ship is on which number or something? Even when every ship reply only one word, I still have to check the position. Without image notice, the radio transmitter IFF will be meaningless. At least not convenient at all.

It may not be as convenient as a HUD that shows everyone around, but it is something, You could potentially create a system that scans the area and creates a map of all the ships that are transmitting. It would be an ASCII map, but it might be good for large ships. For fighters, I think the point at a ship, check if it's friendly, then shoot if not method wouldn't be too bad.

 

[FranklinZ]

We can have a robocraft style radar that only shows friendly units and enemy units currently being spotted. However the enemies radar did not spot can still be seen on the map and manually aimed at as oppose to the wot/wows style spotting where they go invisible. If we have to use transmitters and yolol to identity friendly units, there could be seconds of lag if encrypted ids are used.

 

[XenoCow]

If we have to use transmitters and yolol to identity friendly units, there could be seconds of lag if encrypted ids are used.

Maybe clearly colored ships would then make identifying friend or foe easier. Think sports team jerseys, or WWI fighter planes.

 

[FranklinZ]

Maybe clearly colored ships would then make identifying friend or foe easier. Think sports team jerseys, or WWI fighter planes.

In actual war the commander would know friend from foe, and in sports it's not a problem. However in Starbase, everyone has to decide for themselves. There are only so many colors and they can be hard to see at a distance, with the color of the thruster exaust being the only thing clear obvious. With people dog fighting its impossible to tell.

 

[XenoCow]

With people dog fighting its impossible to tell.

In the developer battle, it seemed clear enough for me. The weapon ranges and ship speeds aren't really great enough to have combat take place at the distances that make visibility that much of an issue from what we've seen so far.

 

[FranklinZ]

In the developer battle, it seemed clear enough for me. The weapon ranges and ship speeds aren't really great enough to have combat take place at the distances that make visibility that much of an issue from what we've seen so far.

The devs used autocannons. Laser/Rail will have much larger range. For railcannons my guess is you have to aim at a dot in space that is the enemy ship.
Also the kingdom/empire ships are very distinct looking. If in a player battle both sides used popular deigns or even the same ships, you won't be able to tell.

 

[Venombrew]

til we get in game we are not going to have any idea what the possibilities are. like the creators of sea of thieves which is not anything like starbase, but said, a lot of their driving force ideas began to come from their players using the game in a manner they never even considered. So a way more in dept game like starbase is going to have an even higher stance towards what players are able to come up with that the devs never even fathomed.

Who knows what players are going to come up with once they get to play the game. We found all kinds of solutions in worlds adrift for problems we had that the devs never considered. Same with SB, ping style radar could be come a thing, to say no there is no way when the game isn't even been played by anyone outside their office is foolish. Hell they showed endos in one video using a torpedo as a self activating rocket board and flew it into another ship, jumping off safely before it hit. Im more than confident with that kind of freedom people are gonna find all kinds of uses for the rockets just like everything else. And as players find new and interesting ways of using the game, it will only fuel the devs even more, giving them ideas and playing off what the gamers come up with.

 

[Cannon Machine Ballista]

You wont be able to identify your enemy with the tail when there are 10 or more ships right?
And only two color for thrusters, your friend ship may look just like your enemy's.

Long distance identification of enemy and me should be distinguished by formation,

while short distance identification of enemy and me should be accomplished by distinguishing ship type,

and there will be no situation of chasing friendly forces.

 

[Venombrew]

plus people are going to be building their own ships and frankensteining prebuilt ones. at times its going to be cheaper to build a ship than buy one, hell the vasama is the smallest and cheapest prebuilt ship in game so far and its material cost is 45,000 credits but its prebuilt is 200,000 credits. outside of possibly mining ships a lot of people are gonna want their individuality, why those players gravitate to games like this.

EDIT: Plus the large player companies who have their own military and policing force will most likely adapt some look or even ship style to set themselves apart from other factions.