Tiered thrusters and generators is a mistake that will hurt the game long-term.

Kap

Active endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
26
#1
Hello, this is gonna be a hot take on tiered thrusters & generators. Enjoy.

You are basically:

1. Re-using existing models (boring)
2. Repainting them (lazy)
3. Changing some variables and resource costs around. (also lazy)
4. Calling it done. (a mistake)

Starbase deserves better than that.
As it currently looks like its going to be, thrusters might as well just be one single part now, a solid chunk of blue, green or red.

I'm just going to come out and say it; I think you're lazy and are being careless with your game, in order to pump out some quick 'content' before EA.
The vast majority of people I've spoken to about the subject seems to agree (bar 1 person).

So let's take a closer look at what your approach will give us.

1. More 'content' before EA.
Let's not lie here, this is what you're gunning for.

2. Upgradeable ships in-world, should you come across some salvage or want to upgrade.
(Who does this anyway? Ships are designed to have an appropriate power plant, and swapping out your thrusters on anything other than the lighest of fighter or laborer style ships sounds like an overall bad time)

3. Dulling down ship-designing. Just use highest tiers when resources allow.
"Oh, your ship design is bad and the thruster pack you built can only do 90m/s? Slap on some T3s instead"

4. Takes no time to figure out that Blue = Bad and Red = Best, or whatever colors you're going with.

5. And this one is important, so sharpen up. Whatever we get now, will stay.
Why? Because it is an MMO and removing/changing these parts in a major way, when people are already using them on their ships is a big no no. (Less so during EA, but you get my point)


What you could do differently

1. Realize that you're going into EA, not 1.0 Release.
You do not need tiered progression NOW.
It will not fix your game lacking gameplay loops, or come anywhere near to it, as ship building is definitely not the area your game is lacking in.
No one cares if an upgrade to generators/thrusters comes at EA launch date, or a month later.

And I'm sure I speak for the majority when I say:
Plasma thruster is good content, more of that. Do not start cutting corners by reskinning parts and changing their values.. again: Starbase deserves better than that.

2. Throw out everything tier based apart from different fuels, start over and work on new and interesting modules instead. These should be easy enough to learn to use, but very hard to master.

3. Realize you have a modular system already for generators. Yet, for some reason you don't use it to its full extent?
The enhancers (as they exist/existed) is an example, but not one well thought out. It's just an up-front/space cost for an increase in fuel efficiency. (Rings a bell?)
Here is a couple of ideas that I just throw out, no care put into them, yet somehow it seems more interesting than the tier-based solution you're working on..

a. A module that could allow touching chambers to run on higher tier fuels (Tiered, if we should call them that, fuels (and propellant) is perfectly fine)
b. A module that could allow touching generator units to run hotter, i.e. produce more power, at the cost of a non-linear fuel consumption.
(Perhaps you could add liquid coolant we store in tanks, as an alternative to radiators and cells)
(Generators that run 'hotter' in this manner, without being cooled sufficiently *could* fracture after some amount of time)
c. Change the power output of generator units to be based on the average fuel-type being run in your chambers. (Perhaps they run @ 500 eps with bad fuel, 1500 with the best fuel, if you mix/match, some value in between?)


4. Realize that your thrusters are also modular, get working on those parts.
A couple of ideas:
a. different combustion chambers, perhaps one is more propellant efficient, another has better acceleration,
b. Perhaps the high-end combustion chambers allow you to *SUPERCHARGE* your thrusters for a while, before they need to cool down. Who knows what supercharging your thrusters do, but it sounds cool and interesting right? Perhaps they allow you to go 180m/s during this time.
(It solves another problem you have: Just go 150m/s and you're safe from anything. With this, pirates can intercept you if they have the equipment for it.)
c. What about your nozzles?
d. What about your converters?
e. What about your main thruster body? (Probably best to leave that one alone)

So, to recap: We don't need an entire set of Generator (Blue), Generator (Yellow) and Generator (Red) parts. We need modules that enhance our gameplay decisions rather than "I have money, I buy red generator".

TL: DR: We don't need progression based stuff before EA, especially not if it's rushed out in this manner. I think you can do better. Much better..
Please don't dumb down your game like this, it doesn't deserve that.
 
Last edited:

Walord

Active endo
Joined
Jan 31, 2020
Messages
33
#2
i agree with everything in that post except one thing and i cant not point it out

5. And this one is important, so sharpen up. Whatever we get now, will stay.
Why? Because it is an MMO and removing/changing these parts in a major way, when people are already using them on their ships is a big no no. (Less so during EA, but you get my point)
its closed alpha, things will change and if you are not ready for it well its your fault, and i do agree that in a normal EA, things relatively stay the same but in starbase's case its more of an extended alpha than an early access lets be honest, so i go back to my first point.

and again, really good ideas for the thrusters
 

Kap

Active endo
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
26
#3
its closed alpha, things will change and if you are not ready for it well its your fault, and i do agree that in a normal EA, things relatively stay the same but in starbase's case its more of an extended alpha than an early access lets be honest, so i go back to my first point.
What I am saying is this:

If they go with tiered thrusters, or generators, or whatever.. They can not just remove them or majorly overhaul them so easily once it has been in EA for some months and people rely on them. That might kill an entire factions fighter designs and someone can swoop in and eliminate their stations because they were not affected..

You can do that in Closed Alpha, sure. Look at Attachment plates for examples. It's going to be EA, but also a persistent MMO, which is a weird mix.
Let's say Factorio was in EA, and they overhauled their belts or whatever, you can just start a new save, no problemo. But in an MMO? Hmm.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
5
#5
I agree that tiered thrusters seem kind of cheap -- and they will quickly lose their meaning in the long-term, in my eyes. As players develop better methods of obtaining materials in the future (better mining ships, transports, etc.) I don't think the different tier cost will be meaningful, so everyone will just use the tier 3 stuff.
Dividing thrusters into blatantly "good and expensive" and "bad and cheap" versions isn't super interesting to me from a design standpoint.
 
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
15
#6
I also agree with almost everything in the post. Adding new content is allways better from a publicity/bring back/bring ion new players than changing content without any real benefit.

It s better to not have any tiers now and then ad them later when they are meaningful. Tiers only matter when there are meaningful choises. Otherwise, as people have allready pointed out. They only matter as a stepping stone and noone will use the low tier as soon as they can afford something better.

ALSO. For those wanting to build stuff there is allready tons of content. I know that FB want to ad a form of progression with people beeing able to build starter ships with materials spwaning close to origin and then upgrade when they can reach more exotic materials. But what they game lack most is not that.

There are 2 things I think should be major focus (some of it is It think) Turorials and stuff/reasons for player to do other things than mine and build.
Right now how mining work is good. How building work is complex but also good. What FB need to do is focus on reasons to do toher stuff. Reason to transport stuff from A to B. Reason to fight over points of interested etc etc
 

Kodey

Veteran endo
Joined
Jun 13, 2020
Messages
193
#7
I love this post. Tiered thrusters seem cheaper and unfulfilling the more I think of them. The Plasma thruster is fun to design around, I want more things that both enable us to design around things, and give us more freedom instead of the same thruster wall.
 
Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
16
#8
I like the idea of cooling being a factor. Instead of just slamming generators together, a design consideration of cooling will be needed, adding a whole new layer of consideration to ship design. Instead of "tiers", waste heat to thrust would be something they could play around with and just balance later on in addition to fuel consumption and weight. (Not in CA so I'm not sure if this is actually already implemented but I think that would be cool.)
 
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
15
#9
I like the idea of cooling being a factor. Instead of just slamming generators together, a design consideration of cooling will be needed, adding a whole new layer of consideration to ship design. Instead of "tiers", waste heat to thrust would be something they could play around with and just balance later on in addition to fuel consumption and weight. (Not in CA so I'm not sure if this is actually already implemented but I think that would be cool.)
It is. adjacency is a factor. If you slam several generators packed together they output more heat.
 

Shulace

Well-known endo
Joined
Apr 26, 2021
Messages
53
#10
Look at Attachment plates for examples. It's going to be EA, but also a persistent MMO, which is a weird mix.
I heard these can be exploited in PVP, which is BIG YIKES.

I imagine this is a major reason why they pushed back the EA, I expect this to be fixed but if it doesn't, it will absolutely be a shit storm.
 
Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
16
#12
It is. adjacency is a factor. If you slam several generators packed together they output more heat.
I like that! Are there different types of generators that have different ratios of waste heat, fuel consumption, and thrust? (What is the correct terminology for these things?) Where can I find information on these stuff as someone with no access to CA.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2021
Messages
5
#13
Tiered thrusters and generators didn't cause a storm of enthusiasm for me either. When it comes to competition, perhaps a logical consequence - but not a particularly creative solution. Because, as it was already mentioned, special enhancer modules and additional fuels would make upgrading ships much more interesting than simply replacing components with differently skinned components.
 
Joined
May 22, 2020
Messages
15
#14
I like that! Are there different types of generators that have different ratios of waste heat, fuel consumption, and thrust? (What is the correct terminology for these things?) Where can I find information on these stuff as someone with no access to CA.
Unfortunatly the wiki is kind of not rly updated, so I don t think that information is anywhere really. The heat mecanic right now is pretty simple. A generator output 100 heat, If adjecent to another generator +25 heat, if adjecent to 2 generators +55 heat ..(I don't remember the remaining values. but it goes on like that..)
 
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