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[Gothars]

@ New forum members:
Welcome to the Suggestions sub-forum! Before you make a suggestion please check if anyone made a similar one before. Answers to the most common suggestions are listed below. You should also use the search function (upper right corner) before posting. A good idea has a real chance of becoming part of the game, so have fun coming up with unique concepts

@ Forum veterans:
I noticed that the new trend in the forum seems to be to urgently warn every new user to not ever mention multiplayer. While that might prevent a possible harsher experience should that person really suggest it, it's hardly an ideal welcome.
I see that it's apparently not an option to be welcoming to every new user who's asking tiring questions. But how about just copypasting a pre-written standard answer? Surely that's not asked too much even for the more easily annoyed members of the community.

Some answers to standard questions are listed below.
Please contribute to the answers, find official statements and correct mistakes, everybody! I will add to this post what you write or find. This whole thing only makes sense as a community project


Suggestions and Answers:

I have an idea about multiplayer

Spoiler

Hello! :)
A multiplayer mode in Starsector is a great idea and we all would love to see it, including the developers of the game! Unfortunately it is not something that is going to happen. Fractal Softworks is a small developer team with limited capacities. They decided to focus all their energy on the single-player aspect of the game to make it as good as possible. By now there are many technical and game design barriers, too. If you want to know more you can read the FAQ on the Starsector homepage.

So, there's no chance, sorry. Don't let that demotivate you though, come up with other new ideas :)

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

I have an idea about a boarding minigame

Spoiler

Hello!  :)

Involved boarding like that would be great and has a lot of potential. To make it interesting would require a lot of effort and time from the developers, though. It is basically a second game inside a game! Therefore it will most likely not happen. Here's statement from the lead developer regarding that topic:

"In brief, it's all behind the scenes. Having it be tactical could be nice - but it could also be something of a chore for the player, depending on their preferences. Doing it "right", like you said, is a big task - and it'd probably need to be skippable for someone that's just not interested in it. To be honest, I'd rather focus on adding features/making improvements to the combat and the sandbox, rather than spreading the effort too thin over an extra game type."

 But that should not discourage you to post new ideas and suggestions :)

One more thing, a similar suggestion was made several times before. It's a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) before posting ;)

[close]

I have an idea about ship boarding during combat

Spoiler

Hi there! :)
Boarding during a battle sounds fun at first glance. But that suggestion was actually made before, and everyone more or less agreed that it would not work well. There's a lot going on during battle, and boarding would add another layer of complexity to it. That would just be too much! If you want to read some of the arguments, you can start for example here: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1734.0

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

Why not publish the game on Steam Greenlight?

Spoiler

Hi there! :)

Steam Greenlight is a great platform for indie games and its likely that Starsector will eventually use it (or other means to get on Steam). That time, however, has not yet come. Starsector still needs a bit to mature, I'm sure when it's ready the developers will make their move on steam. Here's what the lead developer said about the idea:

"Guys - I appreciate the thought, but I really don't feel like Starsector is ready for this kind of exposure. Please don't do anything on my behalf to make that happen - I think it could end up causing serious problems, both for the development of the game, the community, and, indeed, my mental health :) "

See also this post by David, the art designer.

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

The combat needs more graphical effects like escape pods, damage effects and better explosions!

Spoiler

Hello! : )

Right you are! There's always room for improvement and more details, especially on the graphical side of things. In it's current state the game still lacks many of it's main gameplay features, though. The development will probably focus on those and wait with considering any major additions that are purely (or mostly) optical until the core game nears completion. Here's what the lead developer said about the idea:

Re: cosmetic stuff (crew members flying out, escape pods, ships splitting in half, etc)
We'll be making various cosmetic improvements here and there as time goes on. However, just now I think it's more important to focus on features.

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

There should be of differing armor strength on the different parts of a ships hull.

Spoiler

Hello! : )

Varying armor strength sounds like an obvious design choice, after all its only realistic. There are some compelling reasons why it is not in the game, though.
Here's the argumentation of the developer:

This idea does come up a fair bit. The reason it's not in the game, well... let's take a look at what ships would be prime candidates for it, conceptually.

Anything with lots of front-facing firepower is a decent match at first glance. So, the Dominator, the Onslaught, maybe the Hammerhead/Eagle/Falcon. Perhaps a few other ships. Note that most of these (all the ones listed, at any rate) already have front shields. Combined with frontal-focused firepower and engines being in the back, it's already a great idea to flank them.

So, gameplay wise, what would this actually change? It'd either make the ships tougher from the front (which you could easily do within the existing framework by adjusting the shield stats) or make them even more vulnerable from the back (which isn't a good thing - they're already very vulnerable.

To top it off, ships aren't exactly like tanks. They're more like, well, ships. The nature of the combat means that hits to the back are at least as likely as hits to the front in anything other than a 1-1. A ship designer would probably go through great pains to make the engine section of a front-shielded ship as durable as possible - that's the Achilles heel of a large ship, after all.

The current system serves its role - rewarding surgical fire my making repeated hits to the same area more effective. Varying armor by location... well, I'm not going to say it would flat out be a bad thing. But at the same time, I don't see what compelling gameplay it brings to the table, and it does bring complexity. All this information would have to be conveyed to the player somehow.

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

There should be a way to lock OMNI-shields in place!

Spoiler

Hello! : )

Shield locking sounds good, right? But this way actually tried earlier during the development and, well, here's how it turned out:

Thing is, shield locking - especially on small, nimble ships - is even trickier. I've tried it, and it felt like a complete mess.

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before ;)

[close]

Let me zoom out further!

Spoiler

Hi there!

It's very understandable to want a better overview during battle, but there are actually several caveats with a far-out zoom level. Those are gameplay-balance, graphical design and performance issues. Here's what the developer had to say:

As far as increasing the zoom level specifically, that's not likely - we're building the game around playing at those zoom levels, as far as both the graphics (the "Supreme Commander" problems show up faster than one might expect) and the actual combat mechanics. But other improvements to help with general tactical awareness - such as improving the usefulness of the radar ribbon, for example - are certainly on the table.

If you want to try out maximum zoom, you can edit yourself, though! Go into your installation directory, for example "C:\Program Files (x86)\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\starsector-core\data\config". Then open settings.json with a text editor, and look for "maxCombatZoom". Change the number from 1.75 to something of your liking, e.g. 3, and safe the change.

[close]

Allied Fleets should be able assist each other/join battles Implemented since 0.7a! ;D

Spoiler

Hi there!

This kind of idea has been discussed a few times before. The overall response from Alex is:

Just very briefly (in the interest of going back to hammering down the rivets in 0.6a!): this is something I've given some thought to. I'm going to take another look at it once the campaign is much farther along, basically, the campaign mechanics need to drive how this is going to work, not the other way around.

I can pretty much promise that free-for-alls won't be in the picture, but, multiple-factions-per-side battles (with two sides total) are a possibility.

You can find that discussion here (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6532.0), and another similar discussion here (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=4354.0).

Hopefully it'll pop up! We'll just have to wait and see.

[close]

_{I dedicate this thread to Hardlyjoking67 :)}

[Thule]

Gothar for Moderator +1

[ThePinkPanzer]

Bugger it, time to make a quotes list.

[ArkAngel]

+2 nuff said. 

[Faiter119]

Very nice! I have already had a use for it

[BillyRueben]

I would have made them a little more harsh. Perhaps this substitute is a healthy alternative.

[Alex]

This is a great idea - thank you for putting this together. I have high hopes that this thread will head off some of the common suggestions, and help foster a more welcoming environment.

I'd suggest naming the thread "Common Suggestions" or something similar, though - so that it's also useful to new members.

Stickied.

[Gothars]

Splendid! I updated the OP to address both old and new members. Also changed the formatting to be easily copypaste-able.

[hadesian]

Ye beet me too it gothars... did you use our .txt file? I'll find it fer you if you haven't.

I think.

[Gothars]

Ye beet me too it gothars... did you use our .txt file? I'll find it fer you if you haven't.

I think.

I only vaguely remember some textfile, what was that all about?

[hadesian]

Ye beet me too it gothars... did you use our .txt file? I'll find it fer you if you haven't.

I think.

I only vaguely remember some textfile, what was that all about?

It was a fair collection of links and explanations about frequent suggestions.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=4578.0

[MidnightSun]

Gothars, you've done a great job at keeping it friendly and welcoming, while also answering many of the more-frequently-suggested but more steadfast aspects of Starfarer. Props!

[Verrius]

Those smilies are really awkward. Just sayin :p

[Gothars]

Ha, yeah, they are deactivated to survive the copy & paste process.

[Hyph_K31]

Ah-haw! I think I've found a typo Gothars!

In the first sentence of the last FMS reply, it says site, instead do side

Edit : very nice work btw, I don't want to seem like I'm looking for mistakes... Which, I kinda was