AccuNut

How about separate dates?
For each discovered planet there will be a local time meassurement but while travelling in space, a universal time meassurement would be adapted instead?
This is to ensure that day/night cycles on days are not completely thrown off by dates on the various planets.

(for instance, if the dates change from the 5th to the 6th, then on earth, 24 hours would have passed since the previous date-change. The rotation differs from planet to planet, obviously, and finding ones with exact timeframes as earth (or other points of references) would be exceptionally rare at best.)
Of course, for players who traverse the space 24/7, this wouldn't really matter much, but if society is placed on a world, then it would be logical for that society to use a local timezone.

The idea about using seconds is nice too, but human biology is fixed on a "sleep at night, awake at day"-clock, and it would also complicate the daily lives of inhabitants on planets.
If we were to talk about work, then saying "I work on the 5th" is a lot easier than "I work between the 3082000500th second and the 3082032900th second" (Though naturally they would slim it down to something easier, but even so..)

By the way, how about months and years? Would we need those? And Weeks? Maybe add the 8th day, Blunday? xD
Or are these things we should leave for the various planetary governments to invent on their own?
And about the "universal time standard", how about using the starter planet's dates? (I don't see how we can throw out years and eras) Or maybe Earth's dates to make things simpler? - After all, they came from earth so it makes sense for the Arkships' time settings to be adjusted to it.

- Sorry if I mentioned anything that anyone has mentioned before, the first few posts got me riled up and I felt more compelled to give my thoughts than to read all the pages before mentioning things, though I guess I should've done that (although I don't really have the time on me to do so at the moment).

Add to that a popup stat sheet, maybe even a to-scale side-by-side comparison option. Sounds like a winner to me!

Even better would be a holo table where it would rotate slowly. You ship store could have a bunch of tables with all you ship designs. Super sweet.

I personally think that following someone via a tag they don't even know they have is unfair to say the least. It should take real skill to avoid being detected, not just the push of a button and then: "Oh, so THAT'S where his secret Top Security base is: 70,000 lightyears due East!"
 
You can see the problem right?
 
I just see it being abused too easily and detracting from gameplay as opposed to adding to it.

Here's another idea, what if you could "refurbish" them and in so doing, gain advanced technology? I don't mean to suggest that this could be done easily, it would take lots of resources, but organizations might have the ability. Also, if an organization successfully restores one, they gain access to the data it collected in its travels, like a map containing info about planets it passed on the way to where it was found. Info like inhabitability, ore content / type, planet size, etc.
 
Or you could just have that info be "harvestable" like a hard drive. No refurbishing required.
 
Just a thought.

I guess one big question is how will constructs interact with each other?
 
Hopefully there will be some way for smaller constructs to overlap and attach to or dock with larger construct.  So a moving door made out of voxels could be programmed to open and close.  But maybe more importantly that would also allow for smaller ships to dock inside of larger ships which i'm pretty sure we all want.
 
I think it'll be a lot easier for most doors to be elements.  But i definitely hope that we can build our own doors and elevators and whatever out of voxels too.
 
I really want a underground base with a huge hidden door that opens just below the surface of the water in the middle of a lake or something awesome like that. 

Thing is, that for the people that are not so much there for the space sim game, but for the cool space building game, will be using their IP as a primary source of income. It is a build game as much as it is a PVP game. If IP in not protected (in the game) then being a builder is less viable.

Great to talk about that. I thought a little bit more of an icon (fixed) in the inventory, which 3D shapes in it would rotate while hovering it with the cursor (in one way and on the Y axis only). Like a preview but rotating.

Plus, at 20% - 40% operational efficiency, a much smaller ship could even take you out. Part of the decrease in effectiveness (most of it, actually,) would come from less accurate targeting. So a small ship with a full crew (even if that is just the pilot,) should be able to dodge most of the "autoship" shots, especially if they fly really close to it, like the X-wing pilots in Star Wars did in order to destroy the Death Star.

I think that they will allow automated turrets in the end as everyone wants it. It just needs to be well balanced so it's always better to control it manually. And that can be done by penalizing the turret performance when used by AI. Making turrets operate at 20-40% of performance compared to player-driven would be quite ok.
 
Some of you can oppose that players could create solo-crew ships with many automated turrets, the quantity would beat quality. Well, yes and no. You could mount many turrets, but those have weight and energy. You can only mount limited amount of those depending on your ship size and power capacity. And if you really want to do that and encounter ship of similar size, you are going to be fish food. Not even slight chance to beat similar-size ship, it's simple math: 20-40% vs 100% firepower.
 
In other words, simply penalizing automated turrets performance would be perfect balance between those who want to have full combat capability with full crew and those who still want to build and enjoy bigger ships but have incomplete crew.

It would be kind of nice if NQ could find someone who speaks both English and French fluently to help them make videos. Even when they are speaking English it can be hard to understand them.
 
Especially once they get into making video tutorials, it would make things a little easier for those of us in primarily English-speaking countries (U.S., Great Britain, Australia...).
 
I am not trying to bash the NQ team by any means! I just really want the game to do well and have communication run smoothly.

This might be an effective vessel as a home base for a pirate organization. They could move from system to system, scavenging and stealing as they pass through.
 
You might not strut in gold shoes into an alley, but what if the alley struts its way to you?
 
I am not, nor will be a pirate, but I can see this working for them.

Here's another idea, what if you could "refurbish" them and in so doing, gain advanced technology? I don't mean to suggest that this could be done easily, it would take lots of resources, but organizations might have the ability. Also, if an organization successfully restores one, they gain access to the data it collected in its travels, like a map containing info about planets it passed on the way to where it was found. Info like inhabitability, ore content / type, planet size, etc.
 
Or you could just have that info be "harvestable" like a hard drive. No refurbishing required.
 
Just a thought.

Here's another idea, what if you could "refurbish" them and in so doing, gain advanced technology? I don't mean to suggest that this could be done easily, it would take lots of resources, but organizations might have the ability. Also, if an organization successfully restores one, they gain access to the data it collected in its travels, like a map containing info about planets it passed on the way to where it was found. Info like inhabitability, ore content / type, planet size, etc.
 
Or you could just have that info be "harvestable" like a hard drive. No refurbishing required.
 
Just a thought.

I personally think that following someone via a tag they don't even know they have is unfair to say the least. It should take real skill to avoid being detected, not just the push of a button and then: "Oh, so THAT'S where his secret Top Security base is: 70,000 lightyears due East!"
 
You can see the problem right?
 
I just see it being abused too easily and detracting from gameplay as opposed to adding to it.

Yeah, PTT would be great!
I actually wasn't referring to text channels in my post. I am assuming that if they implement a direct-line voice comm system, you will get an on-screen text notification that someone is "calling" you. (Maybe as some kind of holographic display inside the helmet?) My post was based on this assumption, and was referring to what that notification would look like based on who was trying to contact you. I suppose it would be a good idea to do the same in text-chat too though!

Option 1: Ensure your ship has multiple guns. This is probably going a little too far from the ideals of making the game hard and easily approaches frustration territory.
 
Option 2: Players disappear at log out. What happens if your single player ship (that you've programmed a clever autopilot AI that can travel to a planet without needing input) gets hijacked by pirates? Do you just pop up in the middle of the ship that they've had locked up in their warehouse for ten hours now? If you want to do that stuff, stow yourself in some hidden area on the ship before logging off.
 
Option 3: Push the gunner out of the seat. Just allow an option so that if a player has logged out and they're sitting in something (surely chairs will be either an element or a part of a gun or something), people from the same organisation (or who have the permission through the RDMS) can push you out and take your place.

Just a thought on the damage dealt from a self-destruct via core overload: the damage radius will be smaller in space than in an atmosphere.
The reason is that in space there will be a minimal shockwave because there are very few particles in space for the force to be imparted to. A big part of the damage done from an explosion is caused by the concussive shockwave it produces, so, less shockwave, smaller damage bubble.
In space, the damage will be primarily based on the heat and energy released by the explosion, with perhaps some shock damage if you are close to the ship, since the ships explosion is adding some particles to the immediate area that could support a comcussive wave.
 
In the atmosphere, the oxygen and other gasses that compose it allow for a greater reach in terms of concussive shock, since they are a form of particulate matter, making for a larger/more powerful shockwave.
 
Anyway, that is how I see it, but I am by no means a particle physicist, so take it for what it's worth.

Its really not that crazy.
Non Disclosure Agreements are pretty standard in game testing. There are still a few games where I'm technically still under NDA despite these games having released already.
 
I understand the need for testing expansions but I'm not a big fan of letting the community do it. All too often I have seen content being released where testers intentionally left in exploits to have an advantage.

I'm thinking the inertial dampers would consist of some kind of quantum technology that generates a field inside the hull of a ship that bleeds kinetic energy from the objects inside the field at a molecular level by absorbing Higgs bosons or some other subatomic plot device.  A liquid filled interior would certainly dampen the effects of inertia but the added mass would make every ship wallow like a barge filled with lead.  

actually I'm coming back to the cargo container idea...
 
Transporting ships in all their glory doesn't seem like a thing that will happen very often... if at all...
 
Why?  Because no one buys a ship fully constructed from the market.  You buy the schematic and enough materials to construct it.  All of which easily ships in cargo containers.
 
And if you do buy a ship off of someone... it would be a face to face trade type thing so the new owner is there to take possession and doesn't need any transport...

Good idea! In addition, what do you think of some kind of sound sensors? Different from microphones, since they pick up sound waves, which don't exist in the vacuum of space as you pointed out. Something that senses motion that would normally become sound, then recreates that into sound for the pilot.
 
Also, some of what you are looking for was discussed in this forum: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/user/2041-kytheum/
 
Try typing "voice", "chat" etc. into the forum search, a few threads came up when I did this, although I haven't read all of them yet.
I realize you weren't necessarily looking for anything related to voices, but it does fall within the realm of sounds that would have a range limit.

I feel like something that can launch a ship into space should be very very big, expensive, delicate, and is made with late game tech. Otherwise it would become gamebreaking for planet entry-departure mechanic. If the planet entry-departure mechanic isn't that difficult in the first place, then I don't see the need for having something to bypass it.
 
I like your idea for an autopilot, AccuNut. You shouldn't give away such good ideas. Not for free at least.

Hello everyone,
I have been posting for a bit now, and never realized there was an "introduction" forum!
So, this is just me officially introducing myself.
 
I am AccuNut, brother of Starkontrast, and future partner in A.S.T.R.O.; AccuNut-Starkontrast Transportation and Resale Operations.
 
Our goal is to build a neutral market and transportation service that does not engage in politics or conflicts unless they threaten our business. Time will tell if this is an effective strategy, but it is our goal for now.
 
I am eager to meet you all, some of you in Beta, and some on full release!

You could have some sort of system checks going on for an area depending on elements detected. 
 
Examples:
 
If a lot of trees are in an area, an ambient sound of a forest could be played. 
 
If there's a lot of grass but not much else, perhaps things like crickets or some similar (alien?) ambience. 
 
When the game detects a lot of structures, make it play a windy, more spartan ambience. 
 
These are just examples, but you could probably tweak it so the game detects what to play fairly reasonably.
 
 
As far as people go - you could have ambience based on how many people are in a particular area, or several factors.  If a lot of buildings are nearby and the area goes over a certain threshold of people, play an ambient crowd or marketplace sound.  Beats people just standing around silently.  But on the flipside, if a player found themselves in that same space by themselves, like late at night, they'd only hear the wind.  Other factors, such as whether or not combat is taking place nearby could determine which, if any, sounds would be played.
 
Just some ideas.