StaticAstraeus

Perhaps it would make more sense if schematics were uncoupled from quanta and gained either by traveling somewhere  to get them , researching them or through quests. There could even be a research technology industry unit.

Hi NQ,
I think your have a great game already. I enjoyed it and it gives lots of opportunities to create and build stuff. This part of the game is working very well.
 
You miss player interaction? As long as ores are plenty, there is no need to interact, schematics or not. If there is a limit of resources, struggle and powerplay starts.
 
Some more thoughts:
if you want to commit yourself to a game like this and its mechanics, you want to have an idea what you can expect, because it can and should be a long lasting experience.
When it comes to the "civilization" aspect, I'm wondering what you guys think a civilization actually is... just things? Buildings, Ships and industries? That's a very limited and sad vision.
A civilization is its culture, what comes for it's environment, it's stories, it's inventors and it's visionaries. And it's not on a developer to decide what the peoples vision has to be. Deal with the fact that you gna have very different  intentions and visions and that the players will strive and fight for them, if they can do it on a "fair" and leveled playing field.
If you want to give the player the opportunity to build a new civilization, you have to decide what is a civilization made of? What technological level are you dealing with?
 
If we are talking about a futuristic realm, at the very first you have to define the energy on which the whole thing is running on. Everything else has to be related, limited and defined by energy, its disitribution and allocation. This will bring a cost to every produced item, the more energy is needed the higher the cost will be, beyond the ores. People could make income by just producing energy, selling it to a nearby factory or city for example. Just by a certain limit of energy generation you give the people a reason to deal with each other.
 
If the state of technology provides you with nanotech, every singe item shall be recycled to its basic elements and reconfigured.
Does the nanosuit provides you with food and water? It could give the game a very immersive gameplay, if you have to deal with other basic needs that just having fuel or a new engine. You have vast but empty planets and their surfaces are just there to place static cores and move some dirt?  How does there different environment effect your gameplay beyond gravity? Do I have to deal with temperature, pressure, radiation or meteroids? What a wasted gift. If just the plants have a reason to be there, it would be amazing. Not talking about computing wildlife. I don't have to hunt deer of breed sheep in a space game. But different Biomes could have a purpose, providing different kind or amount of resources and energy. Equitorial tiles could have strong solar and high biomass, arctic tiles provide freshwater or special ores. Lunar regolith could provide isotopes enriched by cosmic radiation. Different environments force you to distribute, trade and simply move stuff for a reason. Every place should have it's special purpose and reason to go there :)
 
cheers and keep the good stuff coming :)
 

I thought this game was about building a spaceship. Now... I can't even use the equipment I already made, and have to suffer at the mercy of what is amongst popular opinion? I have to do everything that major organizations want me to do? I want to... escape from real life, where I can't afford much of anything and live out my fantasy of building a ship... 100% solo with only scavenged materials. That flies both in space and in the atmosphere. So I can fly away from all of those who dominate and control others through money market manipulation. So I can prove that a single man can build a ship by himself... with his own two hands, just like an X-wing from Star Wars. I was actually able to live out that dream in this game... and somehow you took that away from me.
 
I can't solo craft a ship. I am forced into money market manipulation as a means to "build things" I can't use the equipment I already bought. There are hundreds of thousands of hours someone will spend just playing with your voxel editor, and you somehow think... that it won't last? The gameplay was already going to last years with just your building engine guys...

Silly suggestion: Add "Prototype" Industries to the mix. They come pre-loaded with all schematics, but you can only have a maximum of say 2 of each per account.
If you want a giga-factory, then you'll have to shell out for the good stuff. If all you are into is R&D style gameplay (raises hand) then you are still covered.
Those who want to design can still do it, those who want to dominate the market need to shell out the set-up fee.

How's that? 

I have to agree with several of the posters here - this game is not turning out to be in the bill of goods we were sold.  The sandbox elements are being replaced with a much more hard core economic model which definitely appeals to some (look to Eve which I also played for many years) but, honestly, I already have a job which pays better and is more fun than this is to play so *why would I keep paying a subscription* for a less fun job?

So, this my concrete feedback is for the devs:
* If you are eliminating the sandbox-ness - that is, the ability for people to be able to *largely* produce at least some level of ships and bases entirely on their own or within a small group for fun - then explicitly come out and say so, and make it clear in your marketing literature.  It was not clear to me when I signed up, and obviously it was not clear to many other players, thus the brouhaha.
* Publish a concrete plan for your economy.  This change feels *haphazard* at best, it's so massively disruptive.
* Remove this game from *public* beta.  It isn't ready for that yet.  This is either late alpha or early, private-beta level given the kinds of qualitative changes you are making.  I feel you are unnecessarily risking your consumer base by confusing and disappointing them.
 
As a fellow game developer, I truly wish you the best of luck, and I'll keep watching but from the sidelines for now.

You don't have to have LvL 5 but if you want the freedom to craft what you want when you want without having to rely on others then yes you do. With the introduction of uncommon, advanced and rare versions of most elements, people aren't going to spend millions on lower tier schematics just to craft something that no-one will buy so you will need to go for the top end schematics to stand a chance at making the ridiculous amount of currency needed to buy schematics.
Working back up to crafting everything myself will take time yes but it was already taking a huge amount of time mining ores, waiting for production to finish, working out designs around the limited voxel system.  In the last 3-4 months of Beta, playing the way I have( the way I wanted to)I amassed a grand total of 6 million. This will buy nothing and the only alternative now is to buy everything from the markets.  I started playing the game as a Space sandbox, building ships exploring and alike, now  the driving goal is just to make currency in the game. This is just boring as hell and will dictate anyones playstyle. If you can't afford an item you can't have it, so you grind, eventually make something and try to sell it, if it doesn't sell your screwed. Analzye the market you say? What fun!
As for being 'supposed' to do something, where does it say that? Where does it say that Omni factories don't belong in the game if someone wants them? This just makes it a more linear experience, step 1. Do this, Step 2. Do this etc  and a boring grindfest playing the markets which are going to be completely controlled by larger Orgs either scalping high prices or undercutting smaller crafters because they have a surplus of elements.  So much for the Sandbox idea and 'Dream it, Build it'. 
 

Most of us paid money for a subscription under different impressions. And for the last few months (the entire time I've been playing) crafting anything and everything you want has been part of the game. For most of us that's part of the appeal. Now if the devs want to change that it's perfectly fine, but they, and you, need to understand that they will become subject to the same market forces that they claim they want in their games. Specifically that people will pay for a product that they enjoy, and they wont pay for a product they don't enjoy.

Now it doesn't matter what the original intentions for the game were. The bottom line is that if your customers are demanding something and you ignore them, your customers will leave and give their money to somebody else. If this update is popular then the revenue stream for the game will remain intact, and even grow. If it's unpopular then it will shrink. If it shrinks long enough then the company goes out of business and the game goes away. Shouting at the people paying for a product that they don't understand that they were never intended to enjoy the product the way they were is only going to help push paying customers away.
 
You also don't seem to understand that the devs are trying to force us to participate in the market without first establishing a good revenue stream. We're a few days into this update and I'm still trying to find ways to interact with the market in a meaningful way. I haven't seen much. If the intent was to be able to manufacture something basic for a little while to generate revenue until we can afford to set ourselves up for more complicated manufacturing then the system is already broken. Basic Pipes are selling for half the cost of the materials to make them. Now I'm not a super savvy market type guy and I haven't put a ton of time into this (I can't, I have real things in the real world I have to do) so it's possible (probable) that I've missed some opportunities. That doesn't change the fundamental problem: lack of a revenue stream.

People don't participate in markets unless they have disposable income. Right now there doesn't seem to be much disposable income, so there isn't going to be much participation in the markets. Right now what I am seeing for myself and hearing from others is that the only people who can really *do* anything in the game are those of us who already had a bunch of "stuff" sitting around and some capital built up. I can afford the schematics I need to make my fuels and honeycombs, which means I can still build a few ships and start flying around. Allowing me to actually buy the schematics I need to make fuels. People who haven't been playing as long are just stuck with nothing to do.

And like has been mentioned ad nauseum there are blockbuster games and expansions coming out right now. Elite Dangerous Odyssey is available for pre order, and already does everything this game claims to be a goal minus the designing your own constructs stuff. Which you claim is not actually supposed to be a thing. Cyberpunk is out. Pissing off your customers is one thing, but pissing them off when there are a bunch of new shiny things on the market to distract them is a *really* bad idea.

The *only* thing that makes this game stand out at all is being able to design and build our own constructs. If that was never supposed to be available for any but the elite few, then why would anyone not just keep playing what was already out there? AGAIN, it does NOT matter what the original intentions were. Not all unintended consequences are bad. If your paying customers really like one of the accidents in the game development, consider it a happy accident and move on. Time will tell, and subscribers will vote with their dollars.

I’d like to start by saying that I’m a fan of this game, I really am. But I cannot support it in this state, so I’m voting with my wallet.
I’ll be back when/if things are a bit more fun to play; it feels like a work simulator now, and I have enough of that as it is.
 
However, I would like to add/echo a suggestion: all issues you may encounter during development should be seen as possibilities for improvement, not monsters to be bludgeoned to death with the nerf bat. If the problem is that people can develop their own production lines and be self sufficient with minimal effort, then add something else to the mix in the form of an in-game mechanic that adds to the complexity and experience, such as powerplants, power grids and power distribution.
It honestly feels a little odd that all machinery is “self-powered”. So either add a power requirements, or (assuming the cores are the power sources) limit how much power a Core can generate, or both (you get some power capabilities with a Core, but you need to supplement it if you want more). Power generators should also need fuel.
 
Also, you shouldn’t advertise that this is a game in which you can do “anything” if your core principle is that players should “specialise”. I was reeled in by the freedom; I don’t want a job simulator.
 
Here’s hoping to make a comeback in the near future.
Keep having fun!

I’d like to start by saying that I’m a fan of this game, I really am. But I cannot support it in this state, so I’m voting with my wallet.
I’ll be back when/if things are a bit more fun to play; it feels like a work simulator now, and I have enough of that as it is.
 
However, I would like to add/echo a suggestion: all issues you may encounter during development should be seen as possibilities for improvement, not monsters to be bludgeoned to death with the nerf bat. If the problem is that people can develop their own production lines and be self sufficient with minimal effort, then add something else to the mix in the form of an in-game mechanic that adds to the complexity and experience, such as powerplants, power grids and power distribution.
It honestly feels a little odd that all machinery is “self-powered”. So either add a power requirements, or (assuming the cores are the power sources) limit how much power a Core can generate, or both (you get some power capabilities with a Core, but you need to supplement it if you want more). Power generators should also need fuel.
 
Also, you shouldn’t advertise that this is a game in which you can do “anything” if your core principle is that players should “specialise”. I was reeled in by the freedom; I don’t want a job simulator.
 
Here’s hoping to make a comeback in the near future.
Keep having fun!

I’d like to start by saying that I’m a fan of this game, I really am. But I cannot support it in this state, so I’m voting with my wallet.
I’ll be back when/if things are a bit more fun to play; it feels like a work simulator now, and I have enough of that as it is.
 
However, I would like to add/echo a suggestion: all issues you may encounter during development should be seen as possibilities for improvement, not monsters to be bludgeoned to death with the nerf bat. If the problem is that people can develop their own production lines and be self sufficient with minimal effort, then add something else to the mix in the form of an in-game mechanic that adds to the complexity and experience, such as powerplants, power grids and power distribution.
It honestly feels a little odd that all machinery is “self-powered”. So either add a power requirements, or (assuming the cores are the power sources) limit how much power a Core can generate, or both (you get some power capabilities with a Core, but you need to supplement it if you want more). Power generators should also need fuel.
 
Also, you shouldn’t advertise that this is a game in which you can do “anything” if your core principle is that players should “specialise”. I was reeled in by the freedom; I don’t want a job simulator.
 
Here’s hoping to make a comeback in the near future.
Keep having fun!