1st and most important, low active player count, it is a vast empty space, something must be done to lure more players that play, one way is to allow free players more options, like the small supplies and engineer ship, also not gaining ranks just discourages them, just keep heavy ships and superweapons for paying players

2nd why need of game money, no one needs it really because everyone is filthy rich, it just there to excuse the buy and upgrade of equipment, could be replaced by ship value a player can own and just recall a ship design for that value, that leads to next annoyance

3rd why there is no ship save, do we have to rebuild each time? either way if there is no technology they will not get the equipment when they spawn so they will have to build buildings to access stuff

4th why do the whole server population must see what is going on to the whole universe, this causes alot of lag

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4th why do the whole server population must see what is going on to the whole universe, this causes alot of lag

The concept we were going for with versions 1.481-1.483 was a seamless universe (the Uni-server). The problem is that although the back-end code is solid, and works very well, we cannot afford the necessary hardware on which to run it. It requires some pretty sophisticated multi-core/multi-processor servers to handle the data throughput, and it is only recently that the kind of systems necessary to actually run the back-end have been approaching anywhere near affordable limits. This in itself is an issue, because DarkSpace doesn't really make enough money to buy them.

What we have decided to do is revert DarkSpace back to an older-style server model, with all the good parts of the Uni-server. This means that we will be going back to a model where solar systems are linked by jump gates which in turn are transition points between servers. This will mean a return of the loading screen, although it will only take about 20-30 seconds to load a zone. We are not clear right now as to how big each zone will be, but it is possible that each may encompass a cluster of 2-3solar systems, with internal gates, which are then linked to other clusters by the trans-server gates.

The drawback of this is that we have to sacrifice the seamless universe, but it also does remove the inter-zone synchronization issues that occur in 1.483. we will also be 'nerfing' the wormhole drives so that you cannot use them to jump between systems. this will be relegated to playing a more tactical role.

The overall effect? We will have a much more tactical game, a very much simplified upgrade/modding system, and a return to the front line warfare that made DarkSpace so much fun in the past.

On 2007-05-27 16:00, Drafell wrote:
It already works like that.

DS uses a three stage system. Your local/immediate update zone (/focus) which is up to 5kgu by default, although you can reduce this in-game to as low as 1kgu by using the /focus command.
Then you have the extended update area which is about a 25kgu radius, this includes most planetary updates and ship locations, but at much reduced priority.
The third stage is the global update zone, which includes very basic information about everything else in the map.

On 2007-05-29 17:33, {S.W}Coeus wrote:
SA... not only is that unwarrented, unwelcome, unhelpful, and unkind, it is also untrue.

For once in your DS "career" please stop being an "un", k? thnx.

On 2007-05-29 11:44, SANITY ASSASSIN wrote:
Well, you can always count on Drafell to actually help you with a question in a understanding manner without a "snooty-know-it-all because I work for Darkspace" attitude. He always seems to give you a clear and to the point explaination without pointless details that only garble a message without insulting the fact you asked it in the first place.

Thanks Draf, a few questions of my own were spelled out here for me also.