On 2013-11-04 12:54, AdmiralChaos *FL* wrote:
Whats the plan after this? I and I'm sure everyone else could come up with a million ideas but what we want isn't what you always have in mind. (I've written up a hugehugehuge 15 page letter of suggestions for construction, but its too precious for me to post lol)

Are planets going to become desirable again? (You know, do something, contribute to something or add a real reward? IMO spending 5 minutes bombing inf or 30 minutes leveling it and spending 10 minutes waiting for capture is pretty lackluster with little reward.. sure you can add more people and make it quicker, time vs reward still remains pitiful)

Are fleets going to get more levels? (Real perks would be nice..)

I think one of the biggest problems is theres not enough you can do on your own. Yes, this is a team game, but what are people to do while they wait for teammates? I think AI helped a little with this before, now they are just inconvient to find or bother with and you can only build so many planets in scenario before you want to bite the bullet. (Unless your me.. /crazy)

I just find myself running into the same wall as I did before the patch.

On 2013-11-04 13:37, Jim Starluck wrote:

Quote: On 2013-11-04 12:54, AdmiralChaos *FL* wrote: Whats the plan after this? I and I'm sure everyone else could come up with a million ideas but what we want isn't what you always have in mind. (I've written up a hugehugehuge 15 page letter of suggestions for construction, but its too precious for me to post lol) Are planets going to become desirable again? (You know, do something, contribute to something or add a real reward? IMO spending 5 minutes bombing inf or 30 minutes leveling it and spending 10 minutes waiting for capture is pretty lackluster with little reward.. sure you can add more people and make it quicker, time vs reward still remains pitiful)

If 1.7 was all about ships, 1.8 is going to be all about planets.

We're already throwing around ideas for how to make them more interesting, and to help drive player activity.

Quote: Are fleets going to get more levels? (Real perks would be nice..)

This one isn't really my department, but I would bet good money on fleet levels being a focus of dev attention in the future.

Quote: I think one of the biggest problems is theres not enough you can do on your own. Yes, this is a team game, but what are people to do while they wait for teammates? I think AI helped a little with this before, now they are just inconvient to find or bother with and you can only build so many planets in scenario before you want to bite the bullet. (Unless your me.. /crazy) I just find myself running into the same wall as I did before the patch.

This will be one of the things I want 1.8 to help address. Planets should act as objectives for players, but also as sources of activity. If/when we ever get a mission system working, my personal view is that planets should be a source of missions for players looking for something to do.

On 2013-11-04 12:54, AdmiralChaos *FL* wrote:
I understand and acknowledge that the staff is most likely focusing on putting the finishing touches on the current patch and I'm sure thats all your working on right now. Which is great, this has been a great patch so far and added some really nice things.

I really hope after emails go out we get of ton of old faces and they bring in some new ones too.

Whats the plan after this? I and I'm sure everyone else could come up with a million ideas but what we want isn't what you always have in mind. (I've written up a hugehugehuge 15 page letter of suggestions for construction, but its too precious for me to post lol)

Are planets going to become desirable again? (You know, do something, contribute to something or add a real reward? IMO spending 5 minutes bombing inf or 30 minutes leveling it and spending 10 minutes waiting for capture is pretty lackluster with little reward.. sure you can add more people and make it quicker, time vs reward still remains pitiful)

Are fleets going to get more levels? (Real perks would be nice..)

I think one of the biggest problems is theres not enough you can do on your own. Yes, this is a team game, but what are people to do while they wait for teammates? I think AI helped a little with this before, now they are just inconvient to find or bother with and you can only build so many planets in scenario before you want to bite the bullet. (Unless your me.. /crazy)

I just find myself running into the same wall as I did before the patch.

On 2013-11-04 15:52, Pantheon wrote:

This may be a hard pill to swallow, but this goes industry-wide. If you have access to any other people working in the industry as designers or programmers, ask them about this, they will give you the same response.

What players want and suggest, is very rarely what you really want, or is even best for the game. You guys have a very close and direct relationship with us developers (some even on first-name basis), and as such it creates a very emotional rift when we outright deny your suggestions. However, do try and remember that if this was any other game, your suggestions would likely go ignored or just instantly denied with no answers given.

Planets will become desirable again.
Fleets will get more levels.
Stuff you can do on your own will improve/increase.


However, all of the above require obscene amounts of work and time put into them to make them like that. Players often suggest 'simple' changes that in reality, would require teams of people working normal 9-5 shifts to get them out within a month. Only me and Faustus really work on the programming side of DarkSpace, and when we do it, it's sparingly, as we have other jobs, commitments, family, etc. Jim, Walris, Kenny, and co, all require (most of the time), me and Faustus to do things for them to be able to add what they want.

In short, the reality is we could tell you what the plan is, but it will likely take years to get there unless some seriously tallented programmers come onboard and want to donate their time for free. It's important to remember that we've had offers in the past, and then they realise the enormity of the task and disappear once we give them access. This is a fully fledged MMO. It may well be a hobby project, but the size of the codebase is still just as large as your regular MMO, and just as complex.

You can complain, rant, suggest, ask for details all you want, but the answer will always be "We know, and we'll work on it when we can."

On 2013-11-04 16:21, Faustus wrote:
I will say, we are going to focus a lot of giving you a reason to fight over the planets and keeping them under your control..

I suspect that "Resources" will become much like credits, except you will earn resources entirely in-game from the planets that your faction/team/fleet controls.

On 2013-11-04 18:59, Chewy Squirrel wrote:

Quote: On 2013-11-04 16:21, Faustus wrote: I will say, we are going to focus a lot of giving you a reason to fight over the planets and keeping them under your control.. I suspect that "Resources" will become much like credits, except you will earn resources entirely in-game from the planets that your faction/team/fleet controls.

Sploosh

On 2013-11-04 16:21, Faustus wrote:

I suspect that "Resources" will become much like credits, except you will earn resources entirely in-game from the planets that your faction/team/fleet controls.