wizardoftrash

That process would NOT work so well if there were collision-damage physics in the game lol

HEY WAIT Why aren't they exploding? why aren't the characters falling through the platform? Why are the ships moving continuously and not jittering forwards and backwards? WHERE IS THE DESYNCH This is actually a great sign!!! I'm thrilled!

Very briefly messed with Landmark... Is this pretty much just a building game? I did a little snooping and heard about the Everquest Next catastrophe, but it still seems like a pretty neat set of tools for building.

I meant players that were willing to clean the place up now and then lol.

I would be interested in assisting in this kind of endeavor. Also, I'd be interested in forming some contracts and "missions" to serve as a tutorial for new players, where experienced players can effectively mentor them through some of the game's processes. (this kind of thing was super helpful in Space Engineers, which was very intimidating for a new player).

Dirt-fill is actually a pretty darn good solution, but I've gotta say that a mined-out area could look REALLY cool, and I wouldn't want to risk people's underground base tunnel-entrances to cave-in (that would be kinda neat too though). We might find that the size of the start planet will be big enough to make this a non-issue, plus I'm one of those players that helps clean up unsightly areas in games like Minecraft. If the start planet ends up becoming a metropolis, there will likely be landscaping characters helping fix up the place.

Rust has this problem, as they track projectiles. When some "large" raids occur, the server gets some pretty serious lack from tracking projectiles alone!

The fact that you mention not being into coding kind of undermines your argument, which really boils down to "how hard could it be?" Without much coding experience, you and I have NO CLUE how hard it could/would be. So it might seeem like a small feat with no experience, however I've seen games that tried this, and that succeeded in their own ways, but are NOT stable with 8 players in one game.

fairly certain that this is not the plan. TU's are slated to be a very difficult thing to construct, meaning most players will need to build a home or base without the protection of a TU.

This isn't even something that is a Maybe on the devs radar, it simply isn't going to happen :/

They had some concept art for one of the pets, it is a robot. In nearly every MMO, pets just follow you around. In an intervire the devs stated that they would be "purely cosmetic".

Ramming will not be a thing, crash damage of any kind will not be a thing, collision damage will not be a thing. It takes up too much computing resources for a big multiplayer game like this and it encourages destruction, so the devs have already stated that it's not going to happen. We don't know if veins will replenish on planets, or if they are finite, but planets are big enough that running out of resources shouldn't be a problem. If it does become a problem, there might be some fixes (like re-setting certain zones just on the start planet, resource charities, option to start on a fresher palnet, etc). Your machine won't need to download the world in the same way you do in Space Engineers for example, the server tracks the changes in the voxels and your machine will only load your local area, which will scale in size based on player density near you. They actually have some neat tech for this!

Ok I've got a good compelling reason not to have collision damage. Have you played Space Engineers? Almost every performance issue, every major crash bug, every time a player mysteriously loses a ship, every time something sponatneously explodes, and every time wheels/pistons/rotors/landing gears causes the WHOLE WORLD TO EXPLODE in that game costing you hours or DAYS of play time, it is because that game has collision damage. The devs are gamers. They played that game and they noped right outta there. It JUST isn't going to happen for a whole lotta reasons. Its lossy, its intensive, its hard to code, it requires the server to CONSTANTLY check the speed, mass, and shape of objects, there are big balance problems with ramming ships, ramming WILL be a tactic, and ramming and crashes create serious lag. It doesn't jive with the kind of gameplay that they want, and to be frank it'll be better for it.

Also since there is a common theory that it will take the collective populace a while to get the tech to leave orbit, there is a good chance that hover vehicles will get a "speeder" style open-top cockpit. planetside, you may be able to just pop someone out of their ship.

@johan26 We don't have to explain to you why the Sub model will work out fine, there are 4 or more threads with plenty of content on this subject. Its their game, not our game and not your game. Their call, and most of us support their decision.

Thanks! I kept noticing all these serious titles for story posts, and wanted to start a story series about that the game might actually be like to live in, with a very not-serious title. More to come!

I like the way you operate. you get a thumbs up

I wouldn't mind having some sleepers infiltrate my orgs, that would at least get my player count up

That's what I did, plus for some level the digital version is just cheaper as well.

I would be a little surprised if PVC combat was not a thing at launch, as that would allow players to effectively hide in a construct (assuming it wasn't an open-topped speeder). This is deff one of those "we'll have to wait and see" kind of things

Have you played rust by chance? There was a point where players could build and place both a Quarry and a Pumpjack. They could pump crude oil, refine it, use it to fuel a quarry, and get all of the materials they need without leaving their walled base, assuming their base strattled the line between desert (where you could find oil), and any other biome (where you could get metal and stone). In the beginning it seemed like a great idea. Then the big clans would build their walls, place their jacks and quarries, and never leave their base except to get blueprints and raid. It led to FAR fewer player interactions. Sure in theory someone could raid them, but automation allowed the largest clans to have many many layers of heavy stone walls and keep them reinforced. Automation removed a primary play element from the game, mainly players going out to collect resources, interaction, and generally killing each other. Solo players without much free time wince a bit when they hear mining can't be automated. I feel you there, when I discovered the minecraft Quarry mods I was delighted to srtip-mine automatically. This might be necessary for the game's health though, because if large orgs can automate each process of ship production on a wide scale, combined org strength will make solo play completely irrelevant. A big org could lose a dozen capital ships in a raid and not care because their production line might produce 6 per day between 17 planets without a player spending a minute mining a thing. That's not an MMO, that's an Realtime Strategy Game.

But they won't know their IRL identities though! take that!

We ought to be careful what we assume as fact moving forward though, hyping up aspects of the game that are firmly in the "maybe later" space in the game is how people get real butt-hurt. For example, we've already got one person in this thread who assumes Sandbox implies survival. Sandbox =/= survival. Most sandbox games ARE survival games, but the two categories are not mutually inclusive. You can search their site, their dev blog, and the kick-starter for the word "survival" and you get 0 hits. In the AMA video someone might have asked about food/livestock, and the Dev's response might have been that he would reach out to the community for feedback on that (i recall that kind of response for animals at least). If the game launches without a food or hunger mechanic and without any PVE, it just isn't a survival game. Get where I'm coming from with this?

Hey, I'm not just assuming that mecha space furries are going to be a playable race, I KNOW they are! Plus you'll be able to DATE ALIENS. The Devs said it... somewhere....

I'd be willing to bet there will be military applciations for scanning as well. Other sandbox games don't have vanilla ways of figuring out if players are settling in an asteroid field (talking about Space engineers, where you can hide from anyone effortlessly). If scanning would also let people reveal settlements, TU ownership, and on an advanced level weapon and defensive details that would be very useful for Law Enforcement to root out pirates, or for pirates to find easy prey.