CalenLoki

RDMS. No they can't. Unless they set off timer for protective bubble, wait 24-48h to let defenders wake up, then attack the gate.

I don't think RDMS will be lifted during war. It would be way too easy to destroy any base using construction tools. If anything, being under siege should block defenders rights to edit construction, to prevent using it as unfair advantage in combat. Or allow everyone to build/deconstruct, but at much slowed pace. So classic medieval siege. With enough energy stored, it could take months. IMO single battle shouldn't last more than 6h - it's a game, not work. Explosives that blow through 500m of stone? No, thanks. That would totally remove whole point of building. Same principle as with infantry assault - make narrow corridor, just enough to let your ship pass. At the end make an kill-room, with tons of well-fortified guns. No ship would last there more than seconds. And after it's crippled, wreck would block the entrance for other ships. It's already confirmed, via videos, that you can make auto-pilot. No mining device, but you can use player character for that. Possible solution -> make mining require energy, which only source is self-regen. You can store up to 9h of mining, it regenerate 1h worth of energy in 8h. So you can only mine 3h per day on average. Or even better - make it slowly heat up. The more heated up, the slower it operates. Mining speed is divided by amount of hours worth of mining stored as heat. So after 2h it drops in half. Heat radiates 4 times slower than it builds up. It's better than the fist option, because it's soft cap, rather than hard-cap. So it won't suddenlyrun out right in the middle of super-rare vein after you've mined stone for hours searching for it. Both would hit those no-life miners, by forcing them do do something other than clicking RMB for hours. But every limitation hit those innocent in some way. If one way to play is the single best competitive option, then it's bad game design. Especially if it's so blatantly obvious way. The point of this discussion (other than just brain exercise) is to find solutions, to increase gameplay diversity. And makers stated that they don't want auto-mining. More of a intention than rule, as we already have confirmed all the tools necessary to make auto-miner. Both bunkers and aut-mining is just too simple to be the best.

Owner just need to switch off the power. And you can try to convince them to turn it back on.... using physical confrontation.

I just posted way to mine automatically, using just simple undetectable macro and smart in game vehicle construction/Lua scripting. Build hovercar, program it to follow specific pattern (i.e. go straight for 100m, turn 90 degree right, move 3m, turn 90 degree right, go straight for 100m, turn 90 degree left, move 3m, turn 90 degree left, repeat) Jump on, stand in front with digging tool selected. Aim at 45 degree forward-down. Put something heavy on keyboard button that make it dig. Leave for night. In the morning collect all the resources. I'm talking about exploits, not built-in features.

How can system get exploited? How can it be improved to prevent exploits? That's my usual way of thinking. Especially when I encounter interesting and complex system, like DU. So I have some possible exploits in mind, that probably were discussed, or there is game mechanic I'm not aware of that takes care of them already. I marked possible solutions with colours, based on my subjective opinions: Green means it would help to fix the problem Yellow means it wouldn't hurt, but doesn't really change much regarding that exploit. Or is really complicated to implement. Red breaks more than it fix. 1. Building base deep underground with extremely hard to breach defences. Can't use battleships, because it's too deep. Infantry assault is like Soviet unarmed infantry charging German MG lines at Stalingrad. Digging is prohibited by TU. Possible solutions: A. Forcing some of valuable devices to be placed close to the surface. Obviously all farming, but that doesn't help much. TU seems like the best candidate. Forcing TU shallow enough that battleship cannons can dig seems like best solution for now. B. Require special gear and resources to survive at large depths. Just like D. it would only fix the problem if those resources can't be stored for longer than length of typical battle. And would hurt hidden bases without TU, that aren't really problematic. C. Harder to dig deep? It's only initial cost. And also increase durability of underground base, so it can be closer to surface. D. Solar panels/wind wanes as only renewable energy? That would work only if energy storage were inefficient (energy vaporising over time). Also sieges would be long boring waiting. E. Some assault system, where TU protection goes down after attackers with there enough time? Same problem as D. and B. - waiting. If digging protection shuts down during assault (as suggested by @gladiator5501) then all surface bases defences become too easy to avoid by tunnelling. F. Exponentially increased maintenance cost? Damage over time to anything that is deep underground? Would work, but may be taxing on server. And hurts hidden bases. G. Provided by @ShioriStein: Gas weapons. But that would require liquid physics, which we probably won't get anytime soon. Same apply to flooding such base with water. H. By @Hades: Make TU protect only close to the surface, leaving depths impossible to protect from digging. Would allow night-mining of enemy resources, without any viable counter. I. Make TU buble shape, rather than column. A bit far from currently implemented system - but that's probably how it gonna work in space. Would limit the amount of stone you need to blow up to get to nearest TCU. Would lead to nice staged battles, as you'd fight for small parts of enemy base (i.e. only for storage section) It would also make it independent from hex-grid, thus more natural. J. By @ShioriStein@Kurock@Felonu: Make digging with explosives/weapons quick and cheap. That makes surface bases completely obsolete (just like E.), but at least fix the underground bases problem. K. By @Felonu@ostris:Limit dispenser-storage (item link) range. Would at least force underground bases to have entrance for cargo vehicles. L. Drill. Primitive tool that can't be blocked by TCU (but can be by FFU or safe zone). Dig slowly (1/8 m3/s), Is loud (sensors can pin-point it form hundreds of meters), and you need to carry rocks in uncompressed form out of the tunnel. 2. Automated AFK mining. What if I build and program my hovercraft to go in pattern, jump on, block/macro dig button and leave it for night to dig whole ore vein? Possible solutions: A. Provided by @Atmosph3rik: Resources should be in non-solid, odd-shaped veins, so strip mining is extremely inefficient. Sounds like efficient solution without side effects. B. Limit players inventory capacity. But it's easy to set macro to once per 10 minutes turn around, use dispenser to clear inv, then go back to mining. And it would hurt long mining trips on foot (I don't mind, as IMO you should use some kind of vehicle with you most of the time). C. Limiting how much character can mine per day. I.e. make mining generate heat, which cools several times slower when not mining. The longer you mine, the slower it goes. I.e. after 2h you mine 2x slower, after 10h you mine 10x slower. That would hurt legit no-life miners, which I wouldn't mind, but some players probably would. 3. Provided by @Omfgreenhair: New player's bases boxed with basic materials in safe-zone by troll (who may demand payment for removing the structure) Possible solutions: A. TU makes it impossible due to size of protected area. But it's not really within reach of new player B. Static constructs have weaker version of TU (few meters around the construct) built in, making griefer work more time consuming. Especially considered that you need to dig under base as well, to fully block someone. C. Limit players to single static constructs within ASA per account. That shouldn't harm anyone sane, and would help against ASA clutter. This way troll could troll just one player. D. Limit usage of very basic resources in constructs (rock, dirt, snow). But that would hinder creativity too much. E. Provided by @Kurock: Allow players to re-park ships that someone parked too close to your construct, even if it means some clipping. Should fix the problem with dynamic constructs used for boxing. Know the solution? Share. Think of some other exploit? Share too.

1. Build a ship with resources to build the gate. 2. Get on together with friend, direct it towards your destination and set it to constantly accelerate in straight line 3. All of you switch characters to those who stayed in the known world, rest remain inactive while the ship fly using it's momentum 4. In the middle of flight one of you wakes up and change from acceleration to deceleration 5. After few days/weeks/months ship arrive, you wake up all those characters, build gate and open connection. At least that's how I imagine those "probes". Expensive and hard to make, but NOT time wasting.

I'll jump on some of earlier subjects, if you don't mind: #2 Skill, as I see them, serve only two meaningful purposes: a. Because they are earned over time, they tie players to their characters. Thus preventing creating new one after loosing reputation (by griefing, scamming, ect.) b. They force you to specialise They are indisputably some form P2W. Because you can pay for multiple accounts, thus ignore both a. and b.. But I can't see any better system. Personally I'd allow players to change their skills at will. Without loosing total amount of accumulated xp. Not too often and with few days of delay, to prevent emergency switching. Regarding your IRL-Money <-> DAC <-> Quanta <-> Resources <-> Time exchange: It's fluent system, with some things hard-connected, and some to decide for players. IRL-Money is hard-linked with DAC (NQ set price) Time is linked with Resources (mining speed, decided by NQ) Resources are linked with Quanta (market bots, scripted by NQ) DAC will cost as much as players are willing to pay to skip elements of game that they don't enjoy. If someone can earn IRL money 10 times faster than by dull mining raw materials, then for sure they gonna pay someone to do that for them. Those will increase $ value of in-game time. Someone who live in country with very low wages and living cost may find it more profitable to mine in game than to earn $ IRL. Some of them will do that and sell resources for real money, using third party websites. Those will reduce value of in-game time. Finally someone will set Lua script for vehicle to go in pattern to strip-mine while he's AFK. Those will reduce value of mining even more. Good example of how such relation works can be observed in Crossout: It has separate market for PC and cosoles. Gold to $ exchange ratio is the same for both. There is no other source of gold than micro-transactions. On console market every item cost several times more gold. Probably because console owners are on average wealthier, more willing to spend their money or just more used to being milked.

I've just read all topics that could be found with "bounty" or "contract" in title. Took a while, but totally worth it. But still, even if we have good bounty/quest/contract system, something to keep track of personal opinion would be nice as well.

To share your opinion about someone. To quickly access opinion of people you trust. To know at glance what should you do when you meat someone. To allow creating in-game mechanics for player-set law enforcement. To save players from using external sites and forums for doing exactly same thing, just in a lot more clunky way. Compared to forum, it corresponds to followers. You have 7 of them, and they are interested in your opinion, so they follow you. And bounty system has major flaw - you see opinions (bounties) of everyone. So it's easy to manipulate. Especially by rich people. Also it's a one-time thing (when he dies, the bounty is paid and over), while should be permanent. In most cases it's also too limited by the system - you get reward for kill, rather than i.e. information about location of outlaw base or ships. Also you can't see your total rep, unless you use separate character and follow everyone in game, then check your main char profile. You also can't see if someone that you met rated you in any way, so no instant revenge. EDIT: Another idea: make reputation fade away. Like -10% of current value every month. This way your recent actions will affect rep much more than what you've done two years ago. Players can of course re-new rep manually, but I doubt anyone will bother with that (except for their closest friends and worst enemies). And for sure those who stopped playing won't log in just to update rep.

Warsaw pact was established to reinforce Russian occupation (using puppet governments) over countries they invaded and conquered during WW2. It's about as legitimate as Vichy government in France during WW2. How could there be no negative connotations? Treaties like NATO or EU, while also highly debatable, at least were not signed under gunpoint, in a country that had its legitimate government in exile. So the difference is like false advertisement and robbery. And the flag.... Even if we decide to ignore use of the star in the identical configuration and colours as in original Warsaw Pact, it still consist hammer and sickle. And that's equal to placing small swastika somewhere. And I mean exact swastika shape, colours and orientation used by German National Socialist party, not some debatable symbol of the sun. Overall the rule stated by Nyzaltar is clear - no direct references to real life politics. Because it always bring negative connotations. Personally I don't mind references to ideologies (commie orgs), but not real organisations. PS. You have typo in first post So I thought you try to hide the reference by minor misspelling.

If you're looking for the combat construction and engineering aspect, there are several games to try: From the Depths - single player (or de-sync multi) in-depth vehicle building and combat. Crossout, Robocraft - much less engineering (still some), much more fast multiplayer shooter. Planet Nomads, Planet Explorers, Astroneer, Eden Star - single player/coop, but you have both voxel terrain and vehicle building.

If they only could think a bit louder, that would save a lot of forum space. Until then, I'll keep my "I'd do this that way" spam

I'd go for mixed system. When you log out in the wild, your body turn to cocoon (as mentioned - simplified ragdoll, as system-heavy as stray container). After certain time cocoon get moved to closest of your beds, cockpits or arkship (inventory intact). Time based on distance: time[s] = 60+10*sqrt(distance[m]) So i.e. 1km->376s(6m16s) 10km->1060s 20km->1474s. (numbers jare subject to discussion) If you logged-out more than 20km from any mentioned spots, your cocoon is permanent. When body is in bed, can be killed/looted same as cocoon. Cocoon can be moved manually (i.e. to free cockpit or control seat). 1. Prevents enemy from suddenly spawning behind your back (cocoon is visible and destructible until it travels to bed). 2. Prevents using mechanics for instant teleport home (takes time before it moves). 3. Make sure that well-populated areas are not clogged with bodies (all cocoons will vanish within a day) 4. Prevents combat-logout (cocoon stays for some time to be destroyed and looted) 5. Prevents using logged-out players as safe containers for most valuable items (especially on cargo ships). 6. Doesn't penalise too much for emergency logout (because of kids/work/carpet bombing/connection problems). Any alternative ideas that cover all those points? PS. Would be great if beds worked as single-use respawn after death too, so there is something to fill interior of large constructs with. Even better if you can fill them with items (i.e. rifle+ammo+grenades) so players can spawn into battle with pre-set loadout. Such beds (or cryo chambers, or whatever) could be re-filled only using organic mater that is cheap to produce (farming), but close to impossible to transport due to volume. But that's something for separate topic.

So if I decide to make Naztzi party that use three-legged swastika as a symbol, it will be alright? I have nothing against totalitarian war criminals in game, but at least invent something original. Misspelling the name and slightly modifying symbol don't do the job.

Sounds like P2W. But if it's not that excessive (if player skill is way more than character skill), then I'd say let em earn monies.

I'd be totally happy with my main char knowing nothing about mining, while my alt focusing on it. Especially if they introduce some mechanics to encourage specialisation (i.e. each char total skill level is proportional to sqrt of the time it's active). So char A would have 100 points in fighting (which takes 10000 units of time) while my alt has 50 in mining (2500 units of time). Instead of single char having 80 in fighting and 31 in mining (also 12500 in total). But even without that I'd still use multiple characters for specialised tasks. Being in multiple places at once sounds like extreme advantage. Mass effect wiki states that it just have target assist for those who cant aim accurately. Something like increasing target hit-box. If that's the system they gonna use for DU, then I'm more than happy. But by "lock&fire" I'd rather imagine something like typical MMO (i.e. WoW) where you select target, then select skill/weapon to use against it. Now imagine playing WoW when you can't move (you're only gun operator, not a pilot), and have just one skill to use. Soooooo interesting. Or tower-defence game where you have just one turret, and can select which goblins to attack.

I've been talking about manning gun in CvC. Obviously in AvA (boarding) you can at least move, take cover, switch weapons, use some other tools/abilities. Mass effect is an lock & fire game? I haven't played it, but from videos looks a lot like TPS with manual aiming.

There is already an solution (confirmed by NQ) for "how to get someone to mann the guns of your cargo ship without forcing them to sit for hour doing nothing when not needed". It's called multiple characters per account. You simply leave your friends mining with their mining characters, while their fighting chars sleep on the ship while you pilot. When someone attacks, they simply switch chars and start manning the guns. No AI needed. That being said, IMO it should be possible to manually give commands to more than one gun per person. The game has planned only lock&fire combat mechanics, thus sitting at your single AA gun and from time to time selecting single opponent seems nothing like interesting combat. It's like being commander with only one subordinate (AI gunner) with only one possible order to give (fire at him). Being able to control multiple guns at least let you choose which one to use, which one shoots where, how to distribute power between modules, even driving your ship at the same time, ect. Only limit should be players ability to manage all of this, and engineering skill to make it easier.

@DarkHorizon I don't think automated system would work at all in game with so much freedom. Someone is digging out your base, you shoot and kill them (only thing you can do to stop them). You get -5 because he was unarmed. His friend is just waiting for that around the corner with a big gun. He kills you and get +5. Then raze and loot you base. Way too many variables for automated system. That's what my suggestion is for - ability for people to direct or warn their friends about other players/organisations. Just not through messages, but more accessible system. @Felonu Thanks for understanding EDIT - The same system could be also used by orgs. As they are "legal persons". So you can bad-rep scammer org. But you can also up-rep police force, thus receive their opinion about people who broke their law. And if the system support short messages, it can be also used to set bounties "he broke the law by devastating area around the town. Any information about his current location will be rewarded accordingly".

I've read somewhere that to use any warping, you need and anchor point at both ends. So no ship-based warp drives. Edit: found it: In one of Q&A with devs "Tsunami: How exactly do you imagine FTL Engines (Faster than Light) and Stargates? How does it works?NQ-Sophon: It’s a long topic, we will probably shoot a DevBlog on this. But the key idea is that for both, you’ll need anchor points at destination, that you need to setup first. Then you can travel faster between points of your network."

Oh. I didn't know. But you mean infantry combat? I though more about far future construct vs construct. Can you provide source? I'd like to learn more about their combat ideas. EDIT. I found it something kickstarter: "We will provide a “lock & fire” mechanism to combat, to facilitate very large battles" But it only indicates that you won't have to aim, not that all weapons are hitscan. I'll search some more.

Only if you + rep someone, you see his opinion on other players. Thus unless you consider half of that org trustworthy, you won't even see what they say about their fellows. If you +rep someone just because you meet him once, then I'd say you're a bit to naive. If you get scammed, then you can bad-rep all the players that vouched for him,cuz their opinion was false. And if you want even his whole org for not throwing him out. You rate players wherever you feel you trust them. May be after one interaction, may be after month of working together. It's up to you. Maybe there should be more fluent system that let you +0.1 someone "he seem quite honest, but need more data" and you wait with full rep opinion. Maybe there should be requirement to write at least 10 letters of description? It's more of a open notebook, so you don't need to remember all the names, and you have access to your friends notes as well.

After reading quite a bit of the forum, it seems that a lot of players in game may be not exactly honest and honourable (scamming, trolling, stealing, ect.). While it's more interesting that way (emergent gameplay and stuff) it should be possible to punish such nasty players in some way. Bounties are planned, but that's one time thing AFAIK. So I suggest reputation network system. I'm well aware of similar ideas, mine is a bit different. To the point: 1. You can give + or - rep to any player. Once (but can change it at any time). That's quite the same as in any rep system. You can also write something (i.e. "scammer" or "great builder") 2. When you watch other player's profile, you can see how he's rated by players that received + from you. Because you trust only opinion of people that you marked as "trustworthy". 3. You can't see how many + or - you got. As it serves no purpose. You can even mark someone + when he marked you -. System is simple, and quite abuse-proof. After all you ignore all those fake accounts and his crime buddies that gave scammer +. Unless you give them + too, but that's your fault.

Offensive means "by using weapons to destroy stuff, rather than building tools or modules interface". Unclaimed safe-zone let you do anything, as long as you don't fire a weapon.

How would you represent insanely strong winds there? Tossing ships all over the place?