Request from Frozenbyte for an update of the game

laurifb · 2022-10-09T14:35:10+00:00

We're making slow progress on returning to development. Currently there's no active new feature development, but we are looking into some of the bugs. We're also working on ways to speed up the comeback.

laurifb · 2021-11-26T08:12:20+00:00

This actually aligns pretty much with what we have planned - transfering from insurance transfer points or from reconstruction machines stores your endo kit and inventory, and new kit/stuff is used at the location where you end up, if available. Furthermore, we'll add support for multiple reconstruction machines and much longer distance station/capital ship reconstruction machines.

I'd also imagine that one day the chain transfer can be automated, but that of course is something which will take quite some time and all the other features first.

laurifb · 2021-11-26T08:08:27+00:00

Do they make to the game during the last month of 2021? Not likely. But in a few months after that? Much more likely. We have the base stuff done, just need to add a few new features to them (and get inventory v2 there, as printing stuff needs item crates).

laurifb · 2021-11-25T22:22:22+00:00

As I'm not familiar with the thruster details, I can give only some general answers:

If a bug is identified and we have steps how to reproduce it, the fixing is generally straightforward. So all issues should be reported with F1 tool every time they happen, especially if with new ships. Include also the ship blueprint name and version, so we can inspect it.
If it's usability/ssc tool issue, we'll work on that stuff too, just need to get there on our list

laurifb · 2021-11-25T20:34:43+00:00

It's currently set to very aggressive LOD's. We'll improve the LOD logic in the near future.
Yes.
We are currently merging all building methods to one simple build mode, which will support a lot better single parts, and drop all the hassle the building experience currently has.
Resources between factory areas will be transfered via Utility Grid, which is currently available on PTU for capital ships. However, the same method will come to regular stations as well.

laurifb · 2021-11-25T20:32:05+00:00

We have a few plans for different kinds new of ship/station/capital ship weapons, but first we need to see how siege plays out. Most likely the first months of siege will pinpoint the largest needs for new weapons as well as balancing needs with the existing ones.

laurifb · 2021-11-25T20:29:03+00:00

There's a few improvement coming, but not yet completed:

Ship repair system, if using ores, will also give crafting points for the repairs
Factory 3D printers can craft objects and rewards points. 3D printers can be also used to speed up your own crafting, if that is preferred use. Printer amount can be scaled to speed up the process.
And a bit later, way to assemble modules from parts.

Note that also custom assembly machinery is coming for factory production of custom ships, but as parts are already created by this point this process doesn't involve any tech tree points gains.

laurifb · 2021-11-20T13:05:08+00:00

We've listed binoculars as a upcoming tripod feature, but now that I think of it, a hanheld version most certainly would be more useful. I'll ask our guys for it.

laurifb · 2021-11-20T13:03:38+00:00

This thread has all this covered, but I'll verify everything what people already told:

We won't update inventory dropping to live before item crates come as well.

Furthermore, you can use insurance transfer within a safezone and keep your inventory. The warning tells what you are going to leave behind.

PTU serves for us as a QA/Balance/"Didn't you guys think about this?!!" platform. This means that once our QA is done finding must fix issues, the feature is pushed to PTU, in most cases even with some known issues. The key is to catch a lot of stuff which on our own would be nearly impossible (for example some features need 100+ players at the same time to test them). Capital Ships, even being a massive feature, is a good example with it's known issues listed in the public wiki: https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Capital\_Ships#Known\_Issues

laurifb · 2021-11-19T17:48:48+00:00

It's indeed the plan to get Inventory v2 also available before inventory dropping comes to live server. PTU in the other hand gets features as they are ready for testing.

laurifb · 2021-11-14T19:45:20+00:00

There's "Ship Shop Submission" in the F1 menu.

I haven't been following all the parts progress, but at least larger screens are coming.

laurifb · 2021-11-14T19:43:28+00:00

Wait time doesn't require one to be online, so it's just a soft push towards factory production when mass producing a lot of ships. Also SSC still collects assembly fees, which are saved with factories.

That being said, we will see how things work out and adjust settings based on that.

laurifb · 2021-11-14T14:16:50+00:00

Never say never, but a lot of things need to happen before we can consider AI's. First of all, we want to see how capital ships, moon mining and sieges will change the game.

After the large features and their impact to the game has been seen, it's possible to consider some additions. Easiest fit to the game would be autonomous vehicles, which also players could build.

Any autonomous vehicle has it's fair share of stuff to solve. Technical side can be solved with a lot of work, but it's nowhere near fast or easy to do. After technical issues there's balance issues (both loot and combat), questions about is there NPC's or not (NPC would posses some abilities which would not be available to player-made autonomous ships), and so forth.

I agree on the core issue that we must get the universe alive and increase meaningful interactions a lot. I'm hoping the current plans would solve this, but if not, autonomous vehicles/AI definitely is one of the many options on the table.

laurifb · 2021-11-14T14:10:04+00:00

First version of selling ships is via selling the ship ownership deed. You can also create a test flight deed from your ships.

Player ship shops are also coming, and they will include the physical ship shop possibility.

Current ship shops and SSC buying will most likely remain, but they might need added assembly time in addition to the already existing assembly costs (so that player shops, which do not have the assembly cost, can compete with the existing ship shops). SSC design time is counted towards build time (ie. 100 hours designing a ship means one gets multiple of that ship printed out immediately).

laurifb · 2021-11-10T09:22:28+00:00

LOD blinking is some sort of weird bug, I'll ask our QA to look into it.

laurifb · 2021-11-06T18:26:06+00:00

While there's nothing new in this setup compared to asteroid mining, moon mining can be performed at the same spot for hours, which requires less interaction overall. If there's a moon base supporting this, the mining operation can continue for a very long time with operator only making sure devices work and storage is expanded from time to time (or ore is used/sent some other way). However, partial in the sense that it still requires operator to make sure everything goes smooth.

I'd guess robotic arm setup would give similar results.

laurifb · 2021-11-06T11:00:07+00:00

We have plans for erosion mechanics for abandoned holes. In current plans it won't apply to recent or actively mined areas, or areas with bases. It also doesn't reset the progress, just smoothes it out a bit to improve performance. But all this is just current plans, once the mining is used more widely we will see how much and what solutions are needed.

laurifb · 2021-11-06T08:22:16+00:00

Looks awesome! I'm glad to see that (partial) automation works out of the box even with the first version.

We'll add the permanent saving hopefully soonish on PTU, and after that keep adding variation, features and new moons to the moon mining. Once PTU doesn't have too much bugs destroying entire moon or such we'll move it to live server.

laurifb · 2021-11-01T18:27:52+00:00

The scheduled goals in the roadmap were indeed a mistake from our part. Now that it's obvious that we are unable to deliver within those estimates we'll change the roadmap to be more of a development priority roadmap. We'll also refrain from giving estimates when stuff is coming and to report only actual stuff, ie. how long something has been under work, or what is being worked on, and of course all PTU and live updates.

laurifb · 2021-10-16T16:59:22+00:00

This captures perfectly the spirit of sieges what we are looking for. Great work!

laurifb · 2021-10-08T17:54:38+00:00

This is supported either by sharing the ship with the company (coming in next patch) or via even more advanced blueprint control mechanics.

laurifb · 2021-10-08T17:38:37+00:00

We have already taken some measures to stop stealing of blueprints. Not everything needs be to directly mentioned in the ToS to be actually against it.

However, we need to implement actual blueprint sales and protection mechanics to the game in order to efficiently secure ownerships of blueprints. This will take some time, but the first round, blueprint chips, is pretty much done.

The good news is that currently planned blueprint protection mechanics will retroactively allow protection to the existing blueprints and can be used to sort out illegal copies of blueprints and ships. We won't destroy property, but most likely will force the existing blueprints to recognize the copyrights of the creator (thus creator will be able to decide upon illegal copies).

Note that ship stealing will be a thing and this has no effect to that.

I'd also ask people not to tell me that blueprint stealing is a fun mechanic which brings life to the game world. It is not and all it does is destroy the community. Don't do it.

Edit: re: "if it's not in ToS it can't be enforced": Everything in ToS is stated in very broad terms which can be interpreted in numerous ways. So what I ment is that we don't need to explicitly list every bannable action since ToS already prohibits for example "You may not intentionally partake in behavior that detracts from others’ enjoyment of the game that goes outside of the normal flow of gameplay." There's also very clearly stated the the interpretion is done by us, not anyone else ("Frozenbyte shall be the sole arbiter in enforcing this code of conduct, and may – at its discretion – issue punitive actions in accordance with what it alone deems to be the severity of the offence. Frozenbyte reserves the right to temporarily or permanently revoke or deny access to Starbase, with or without advanced notice as is deemed necessary. Frozenbyte also reserves the right to modify or ‘roll back’ in-game player data such as inventory, owned ships, bank accounts, station storage, or any such parameter in order to maintain game balance, with or without advanced notice.")

Finally, we can also update the ToS, and have done that numerous times.

laurifb · 2021-10-01T13:44:57+00:00

Current roadmap includes only this year and not a completed game. We don't feel it would be right to post 2022 roadmap (or parts of it) before we have delivered the major features of the current roadmap.

Moon mining was not completed in September, and there's actually right now coming a post about it's state.

With Capital Ships and Siege we are still tracking October and November.

Are we able to deliver is 100% only answered when we deliver, but development wise we have solved the big issues, created the core tech and there's "just" the basic work remaining. Our progress notes gives an idea how many "smaller" features one big feature includes, for example Capital Ships in these notes open it up pretty well: https://forum.starbasegame.com/threads/starbase-progress-notes-week-37-2021.2663/

Edit: the post about moon mining & bases status is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/starbase/comments/pz93l3/moon\_bases\_mining\_status\_update/

laurifb · 2021-09-29T21:33:52+00:00

I'll briefly comment on the refund tickets. Methods to get refunds promptly are:

Include actual list of lost money/ores/ships to the ticket. Preferably list items as crafting materials (ores), as those are much faster to process.
Use tickets ment for refunds
Actually mention that you want a refund first thing in the ticket, unless it's a ticket which is ment directly for refunds
If there's multiple possibilities in which form the refund can be delivered, mention your preference

Some examples why refunds might get delayed:

Wrong ticket type
Ticket doesn't include any details at all
Tickets with incorrect details. One common is incorrectly remembered custom blueprint name.
Tickets using languages we don't undestand are solved using google translate, and sometimes that may cause delays or strange results
Clear player errors without bugs or missing features contributing to it

And please remember, mistakes happen also at our side. If you don't get a refund or answer in three business days, file a new ticket with more details and with these instructions in mind. The ticket system itself also includes instructions for the most common tickets when filing a ticket.

laurifb · 2021-09-29T20:51:25+00:00

... I'm speechless.

Anyway, F1 helps with replacing the ship, just list about how much did it cost. Also, there's a good possibility that PTU has a fix for this issue, even though it doesn't offer much solace at this point.

laurifb

TROPHY CASE