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Team: Eminence Front
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
Before I returned to my subbed account, I spent some time on a new f2p account, just for fun. I played the account with no outside help (no advanced alts dropping a billion creds and a bunch of augs and gear on the noobie).

What I found was that beginner gear is all messed up. It's nearly impossible for a new player to put together a setup out of AI gear that can dps anything worth levelling on outside of the Nexus (space blues, golden ships, etc.). Energy was absolutely the biggest problem. Compounding this, the super items in some of the ships are so OP that they make regular weapons a waste of time. Rather than go with a swarm of slaves, I went with the wingship series and more of an SD type of strategy. The inbuilt mag cannon devices produce so much dps that regular weapons are like a rounding error - maybe a way to get that last shot in on a mostly dead AI, but not even really useful for that. I also used a second super item that was easily available from one of the Sol missions (it was similar to a mag cannon device, but I can't remember what it was called offhand). Basically, the strategy morphed to increasing piloting and equipment skills to get the next wingship, and slapping on whatever speed augs I could find. It was very possible for me to level up that way, but it made a big chunk of the content and gear in the game feel pointless, and if I was really a new player I would not have been learning anything about how the game is actually supposed to work.

I don't think AI base weapons can be beefed too much without breaking them, but maybe the shields on some AI should be reduced - along with a nerf of those built in mag cannon devices. Energies probably can't be beefed too much either, but perhaps the elec cost of the lowest-level weapons could be reduced by about half. High DPE at low levels wouldn't really break the game since the dps is too low for higher level players to exploit them anyway.

This next content idea may be too complicated, but I'll toss it out there to see if something like it is possible: A way to try a class on a "trial basis" with a generic setup would be awesome. It would require a custom galaxy for each class along with a hub galaxy between them. In the hub galaxy are missions allowing a player to try each class. Now, the complicated part: When a player starts the mission to try a class, a complete, generic setup, complete with augs, slaves, drones, etc. is spawned for the player in the AI base, AND the player gets a temporary boost to about level 5 in the appropriate class and focus skills (as well as whatever skills are needed to operate the setup). Then the player warps into the custom galaxy for his temporary class and goes through a tutorial where using the class appropriately (for a new player) is explained. Of course, the setup isn't capable of warping out of the area into normal space, and skills are set back to normal upon leaving. The reward for completing each tutorial is a neurobound token that can be used to obtain the first few levels of focus and class skill via a mission in Lyceum at a cost of zero skill points (the player did the content in the tutorial galaxy rather than grinding for skill points). I would also make that token give a free reset of any existing class and focus based skills (but not all of the other skills that are normally affected by the neuro doc). One nice side effect of this idea is that it may require some new gear and content to be added to make certain classes useable at low levels.

To make the game more appealing to new players, all of the ships in the game need a speed boost. Pick something like 25% - 50% across the board for all AI, fighters, missiles, ships, projectiles, etc. to keep it from altering balance. (the only effect on balance would be on high end SDs who would end up 3 or 4 times faster than any other endgame setup instead of 6 or 7 times faster). The "filler galaxies" between the points of interest for newer players add a sense of scope and scale to the game. Increasing ship speeds lets us keep that scale while reducing the amount of boredom involved with long travel times.

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Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:22 am
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
The biggest issue with low level AI base gear is that many AI use the gear as well. I know why it was done, but it makes it really difficult to balance AI difficulty. You have to add modifiers /debuffs / buffs to specific AI instead of balancing AI only gear through the use of an algorithm. Yes, it makes for some interesting gameplay because you aren't sure if a particular AI is going to completely demolish you or not, but a pass needs to be made on all low-level AI to address their difficulty.

Where is the main source of a new player's gear? He's going to 9/10 go for some AI base gear after he specs some points into a new skill. My suggestion for a quick fix without addressing the underlying issues is to nerf the effectiveness of all AI base gear that's equipped on AI (not including slaves) by 25%. So AI that have all AI base gear would be 75% of the difficulty that they are now roughly.

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Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:42 am
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
Okay. This may not be the biggest (in fact it's no where near close) thing but it should be fairly easy, if I understand the coding right. Just make the info box a damned user-controlled toggle on the right click menu ONLY. The bloody thing pops up the minute you put the mouse over an item whether you rest it or not. It makes transferring items (as I've been doing half the day) from point to point in inventory very frustrating since it's not "click through". I think I've actually LOST items because of the coding of just moving things; they're not showing up in their destination ship, nor is there any info line stating it's been tossed or what, it just disappears.

Yes, that was actually two things:
1- Make the item info STRICTLY a user-controlled toggle, "right click to view info", no more of this pop-up stuff. I need a pop-up blocker in my browser, I shouldn't need one in my game.
2- Fix the coding of transferring items so that they actually show up when dropped.
3- (Yes, while I typed up #2 I came up with #3...) There is a glitch that sometimes shows in inventory. You move the item from Ship A to Ship B, it shows up in Ship B, in Ship A's inventory the item is listed, quantity 0, and won't clear.


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Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:06 am
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
on the ingame browser thing (like the ? button). its already implemented when using steam, all ingame browser calls using the steam browser. We are not going to implement our own browser in the game itself. Too much complication involved to keep it compatible with websites changes not to mention the extreme resource usage from browsers in general (steam work around that by sharing it between all its sessions).

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Thu Aug 27, 2015 8:37 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
Jey123456 wrote:
on the ingame browser thing (like the ? button). its already implemented when using steam, all ingame browser calls using the steam browser. We are not going to implement our own browser in the game itself. Too much complication involved to keep it compatible with websites changes not to mention the extreme resource usage from browsers in general (steam work around that by sharing it between all its sessions).

When this has been implemented, I'll change the post. Or you could, w/e.

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Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:05 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
it already is. It just require the steam overlay to be enabled (which it is if you have the game on steam on the current beta).

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Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:28 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
Galaxies feel empty and meaningless - all they serve, aside from newbie base-building fodder, is to chronically pad out the distance between you and the special POI system you want to explore. - Jeff said that October 10th's Universe will have little to no filler galaxies. We await visual evidence.

WHO THE FUCK SUGGESTED THIS. What part of EF is already to small do you people not understand! You are not going to keep people in a game where only players over level 3000 are able to do anything. Holy crap, the reason we need more space is exactly the reason you are dismissing, more room for bases.

If we want new players, they need space to build! What part of this confuses you!

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Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:55 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
lrellok wrote:
Galaxies feel empty and meaningless - all they serve, aside from newbie base-building fodder, is to chronically pad out the distance between you and the special POI system you want to explore. - Jeff said that October 10th's Universe will have little to no filler galaxies. We await visual evidence.

WHO THE FUCK SUGGESTED THIS. What part of EF is already to small do you people not understand! You are not going to keep people in a game where only players over level 3000 are able to do anything. Holy crap, the reason we need more space is exactly the reason you are dismissing, more room for bases.

If we want new players, they need space to build! What part of this confuses you!

The goal of that suggestion was to remove filler galaxies, not reduce the number of galaxies overall. There has been plenty of space to build in the two recent universes, but certain high-end teams have been wiping out smaller teams with smaller players simply because "lulz".

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Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:28 am
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
thecrazygamemaster wrote:
The goal of that suggestion was to remove filler galaxies, not reduce the number of galaxies overall. There has been plenty of space to build in the two recent universes, but certain high-end teams have been wiping out smaller teams with smaller players simply because "lulz".


There has been plenty of room because the population is dropping like a brick. If this where to reverse the room would go away in a big hurry. This is something we need to plan for. Uni releases are at 4 month intervals, what are we going to do if we get an influx of 1000 players off the steam release and all of them quit in a month cause there is no where for that many people to build? We have to have the space before they show up, there will be no way to add it afterwords. Not fast enough to keep the players.

When i encounter a new game, i generally give it 2 days to a week to decide if i want to keep playing. What is your plan if a month into the steam release we are loosing players as fast as they join and its still 2 months till Uni reset?

Tell me a decent plan and i will relent, but all i have heard is people saying "The status Que is fine, The Status Que is fine!" The Status Que is the game shutting down. How are we going to deal with a large influx of players?

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Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:21 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
New players don't give a shit about building in Wild Space. It would take a solid uni for them to start clamoring for more space there.

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Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.

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Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:27 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
If a new player even finds wild space I consider their arrival in the game a success. During the reddit invasion the greatest distribution of dead quitters was in the second Galaxy in!


Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:06 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
anilv wrote:
New players don't give a shit about building in Wild Space. It would take a solid uni for them to start clamoring for more space there.


Um, at what point did i mention wild space? I mean EF, we need a bigger EF. Alot bigger, and all of it build able. Anilv, haven't we had this discussion a couple of times now?

sabre198 wrote:
If a new player even finds wild space I consider their arrival in the game a success. During the reddit invasion the greatest distribution of dead quitters was in the second Galaxy in!




YYYEEEESSSSSS!!!!! THAT IS MY POINT! /me beats head on table. They are not moving past the second galaxy because they run out of room one galaxy in!

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Last edited by lrellok on Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:59 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
The post you quoted was definitely referring the Wild Space layer. Most of us endgamers spend little time in the EF layer and don't really care about it. I've already said I have no problem with opening up the EF layer for building a bit more as long as resources are kept to a minimum.

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Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.

http://www.starsonata.com/features


Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:03 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
anilv wrote:
The post you quoted was definitely referring the Wild Space layer. Most of us endgamers spend little time in the EF layer and don't really care about it. I've already said I have no problem with opening up the EF layer for building a bit more as long as resources are kept to a minimum.

There should still be a curve where warp 3 EF layer has more than warp 1, but the highest resources in warp 3 EF layer should be no more than the lowest resources in low DF Wild Space.

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Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:05 pm
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Post Re: Player List of Pre-Greenlight Necessities
To be honest I dunno why p2p accounts are allowed to build in f2p space? Just doesn't make sense to me.

+ those galaxy's that need a base to extract a skill commod from should be moved to wild space or not require a player user base.

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Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:06 pm
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