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Scotch & Tea: Operation Stay Afloat™


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I have to ask… Is this a game or a tech demo? There's a very important distinction to make here: a game has to be challenging. Right now we're in creative mode in Minecraft. For the game to exist long term, we have to switch to survival.

 

We're a PvP-oriented group. We *really* want this game to be successful but we're very concerned about the current state of the game, and hope [or lack thereof] for the future. This game needs a challenge. Without it, you have a community that will login, build their favorite childhood spaceship(s), and then go play something else. I'd be very curious what the daily active user count looks like since Beta launch. My guess is that it's not going up.  Longevity requires Challenging content, and in this game you have to have PvP in some form. PvP is unlimited/timeless content. Mining and ship building with no purpose will burn everyone out eventually. Most people that we know who are PvP-focused are not giving this game a chance right now, there is no content for them.

 

For this game to be great, players need to be confronted with interesting decisions, constantly. Currently, there are no interesting choices to make in this game.  Not in ship building, not in industry, not in gameplay. Ship building? Just add more. More engines, more brakes, more of everything. Industry? Just add more machines. Gameplay? Everything is perfectly safe. Pilots never need to make a decision of "do I risk this ship in order to achieve this goal?". The answer is always just warp there and be perfectly safe. This game might have made for some great YouTube videos so far, but that is not enough.

 

So here's my thoughts. But let me preface by saying that when PvP works in this game, it is some of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of any game I've played. Taking constructs you have built into a fight adds an extra level of intensity during, as well as pride and accomplishment afterwards. Even when we don't win, we still acknowledge our ships performed admirably.

 

PRIORITY 0

  • Mining and industry: everything is done in complete safety. You can build anything and (almost) everything from inside the safe zone. There's no incentive to risk anything?
    • The safe zone around Alioth, Madis and Thades needs to go ASAP. I know JC said it's not permanent, but the damage is already done.
    • End game stuff should be risky. You can build basics from the safe zone, that's fine. But if you want high end / end game items, there needs to be risk in order for there to be value. Look at warp drives, they are already dirt cheap.
    • Industry recipes needs to be redesigned and include higher tiered ores and things outside the safe zone.
    • T4/T5 Ore is completely useless? We made a bonsai… now what? They aren’t better honeycombs either. Sure, they have more EHP/weight, but in terms of raw EHP, the obvious choice is Steel. It's objectively better, and it's made from readily-available T1 ore.
  • Warp Drives:
    • Everybody has a warp drive. There's no "safe zone" around planets anymore because (almost) nobody flies through the PvP zone.
    • It shouldn't be possible to warp to a planet, load up on Ore, and warp back. But everyone is doing it.
    • Can we make warp core usage exponential, as opposed to linear?
  • Over-safety exploits that need to stop:
    • Alt-F4 that has been sanctioned by NQ as being fine to do is ridiculous. It's not "emergency braking" as is described… it's just braking, for haulers, all the time.
    • GM teleporting: this needs to stop. There's traders that just rely on GM's teleporting them and their ships full of cargo from market to market. The GMs are not overloaded anymore, in sharp contrast to beta launch. There's NO reason for this to continue.
    • GM repairs: you crashed your ship and don't feel like repairing? Just get a GM to do it! What?!?
  • Item destruction:
    • Right now anything built in game never goes away (unless under very specific conditions). There needs to be a sink here.
    • There needs to be some full destruction with RNG. This will greatly help the economy as PvP'ers getting blown up will keep demand high for Industrialists.
    • Where is my loot fairy GDI?

 

PRIORITY 1

  • The Meta issue:
    • The meta in this game sucks: XS core cube with everything L/XL
      • There has to be limitation on what you can put on a core. Whether that's a power grid system, or a hard limit on up-scaling (for example only being able to go up one Size, like an XS core can use XS or S, but nothing bigger). Having a ship with everything L/XL on XS core should not work.
      • The lock range system has got to go. I want to take giant battleships into battle, but I can't because a couple XS cores will just wreck us.
    • NQ needs to make us have to make interesting and/or difficult choices in the game.
      • Right now the choice is "how many L Brakes can I fit on this thing?". It’s just about moar… moar… MOAR!!
        • I've hit 17G braking in one of my ships (and I know folks have done moar). But 17G on a human body is dumb. Give us a pass out and/or die mechanic here. Or stress on components? You can't tell me an Aluminum ship can withstand that much pressure.
      • There needs to be sacrifices or compromises when designing a ship.
        • Do I go full speed? Full tank? Full guns? Bit of everything?
        • Right now the answer is yes, to everything.
  • Speed Tanking or Sig Tanking:
    • We need to introduce a mechanic where L weapons don't do full damage to XS cores.
    • It's crazy that I can put L weapons on an XS cores and do full damage to other XS.
  • The desync often makes PvP impossible:
    • If you get close to someone, they just teleport around all over the place.
    • Half the time we can't shoot back because we don't know which way to point the ship.
      • I've had my gunner have to tell me which direction to point my ship before because they were in sync… like Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 looking out the window.
      • It's extremely frustrating to lose a ship, or even get damage because you can't fight back.

 

PRIORITY 2

  • Immersive PvP experience:
    • Lot of room for improvements here… getting hit should go BOOM
    • Right now I can barely tell if I'm getting hit (I feel like I have to actively look for voxel damage)
  • Voxel Options: for ship building, we need better Voxel options. Right now we basically do:

   If PvP then steel

   Else aluminum

  • Cockpits:
    • They are objectively worse than hovercraft seats. Please give us a reason to make cockpit ships.
  • Windows:
    • I'd love to make beautiful spaceships with lots of windows, but they are death traps.
  • The economy is not picking up, it's just tanking due to cash injection.
    • There's no item destruction in the game. Nothing of value ever disappears since you can repair everything (yes voxels do blow up, but that is very minor).
    • That means overtime, demand does not keep up with supply, and the value of items plummet.
    • We need to either stop the cash injection, or make things disappear from the game a lot more

 

Ultimately, NQ is going to upset *some* people with the decisions they will be making in this game. I just hope they don't upset the people that will make this game successful in the long term. The loudest voices are rarely the voices of reason.

 

Vheox

Scotch & Tea™ - Purveyors of the finest goods this side of Alioth.

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I like your thinking but I am not sure that what will happen is what you think.  We are thinking too linearly, as pirates versus merchants.  There are other ways to make the game more fun and challenging other than making it more dangerous for heavy haulers. If you tilt the equation against miners and bulk haulers too much, you may lose a good percentage of them as players. Real-life time is just too valuable for most people to absorb repeat losses.

 

There is a common underlying assumption that if we beat up the miner-haulers enough, they too will become worthy adversaries and then we will all have a good time. Maybe for some, but most just want to be left alone to do their thing.

 


It is possible to have challenging battle without causing pain and grief in someone else. It's a hybrid of realm PvP and group PvE.  People work together against AI and other people trying to control the best hunting grounds.

  

Also, if you really want to go against some haulers the game should have protected AI convoys that are tough to beat. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

If they take repeat losses they should be adapting this is gameplay, this is why AI is never challenging it is predictable and limited.

 

Want to operate unescorted build a smaller faster ship, insist on hauling bulk bring an escort, want to be left alone staying in the now extremely generous safety bubble. 

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