[Rodo]

All these ships are awesome, but really!
I'm starting to wonder if they are ever gonna consider how to tackle the 'too many big ships, too few ppl to man them' problem.

It would suck for this game to turn into a 1 vs 1 + tons of stupid npcs.

[JGZinv]

Well you have clans in that case, or corps... but yes you can hire NPCs, or even have a successor, or alt character pick up for you.

[Rodo]

Not worried about that, I meant what will they do to drag all those backers from their shiny retaliator's captain chair to a lousy turret station on another guy's ship?

[Mikes]

It would suck for this game to turn into a 1 vs 1 + tons of stupid npcs.

Do you like playing Freespace, War in Heaven, etc? Just wondering... because the if answer is yes... then why are you even worrying about it?

Frankly...   just Freespace as it is, with the option of having a coop buddy join on any mission and maybe even encountering the occasional Ace that is played by another human player would be awesome, if you ask me.
I frankly don't get that MMO born fetishism that everything and anything "has" to be run by players and don't you dare ever use an NPC for anything ... I've seen what THAT usually turns into and it's pretty much the opposite of what I would call "immersive".

By and large ... way too many people behave like childish d***s, due to the anonymity of the Internet. Unless you want to simulate a galaxy where every other person is a childish d***, that's not a good basis to build an immersive game on.

The way SC intends to handle that issue is actually one of the biggest selling points in my eyes: I.e. an actual simulation focusing on the personal experience within a multi planet society with billions of people (taken into account when simulating the economy even) ... some of them just happen to be players.

[Dragon]

Yeah. Consider that the population of a future interstellar society would be much higher than Earth's today. Even if you somehow got all the Chinamen to play SC, you'd still be unable to avoid NPC AI completely. SC, with it's complex simulation, would be unable to force one carrier to be crewed by thousands of actual people, doing small, but boring jobs involved in running it. Personally, I'd be OK with a singleplayer game with such complexity, as long as the AI doesn't suck (a big request, granted, but I hope they can pullt if off).

[Killer Whale]

"Hi, I'm Jeremy Young, Chief Engineer in charge of maintaining the coolant lines and heat sinks aboard the HMS Valiant."
"So what does that mean in-game?"
"Repeatedly connecting two valves with pipes before time runs out for 14 hours a day."

[The E]

Not worried about that, I meant what will they do to drag all those backers from their shiny retaliator's captain chair to a lousy turret station on another guy's ship?

Nothing? I mean, that's what hireable NPCs are for.

[Rodo]

Nothing against NPC's, they will be needed to populate the universe alright.
What I'm saying is that there's no real value for a player as it stands now to do some kind of colaborative gamplay, everyone will just aim to get their Bengal carrier right from the start cause 'that's what a good player should do'.
So every other role in the game for which SC is creating content is automatically turned into a waste of time (from the player's pov).

[NGTM-1R]

So every other role in the game for which SC is creating content is automatically turned into a waste of time (from the player's pov).

I take it you've never worked to get a Titan in EVE or for that matter realized that actually getting a Titan is one of the most reliable indicators in the world that a player will quit the game within six months.

If you approach it from this perspective as the endgame, then chances are you will, perforce, very quickly end the game once you get there. The problem is self-correcting; in the meantime we can fleece them for money.

[MatthTheGeek]

Also there's like half a dozen Bengal carriers existing in the PU. Just sayin'

Also, carriers are lame. Can't dogfight for ****. And not even a big fat beam to compensate.

[Rodo]

Nah, never even played EVE as a mater of fact.

[Phantom Hoover]

Putting in a whole system for player controlled turrets with modelled seats etc seems entirely consistent with RSI's 'detail first, gameplay later' design philosophy.

[Aesaar]

Kinda hard to design gameplay without ships to fly.

Dogfight module is happening in a few months anyway.  That's when we'll see meaningful gameplay development.

[Phantom Hoover]

They could just have used dummy models to develop the dogfighting; or just have designed the ships in a way that doesn't seem completely blind to the systems of the game they're planning on making.

[Mikes]

Nothing against NPC's, they will be needed to populate the universe alright.
What I'm saying is that there's no real value for a player as it stands now to do some kind of colaborative gamplay, everyone will just aim to get their Bengal carrier right from the start cause 'that's what a good player should do'.
So every other role in the game for which SC is creating content is automatically turned into a waste of time (from the player's pov).

A big reason why MMOs are structured the way they are structured is that gameplay takes a backseat to monetization.


The hope with a fully crowdfunded game we may finally see a developer that puts gameplay first... and, with no publishers or investors to breath down their necks, maintain integrity over the years.

One might argue that we already had such a developer with ArenaNet ... but that's about it, had, past tense. Thanks NCSoft.

Moral of the story... the usual MMO tropes will (hopefully) not even be applicable.
Flying around in a Capital Ship or even Bomber...  in a skillbased *dogfighting game* is certainly not gonna be "endgame" ... rather I would argue that *endgame* itself is one of those tropes one should forget about.
ArenaNet already has shown one option of how to do that for a fantasy RPG in their first game. Too bad the 2nd is turning out so differently.

Let's hope Chris Roberts can get it right for a Space Sim game... i certainly do wish him the best of luck.

[Unknown Target]

Does anyone else want to do this contest? PM or email me. invertedvantage at gmail.

Looking for modelers or (especially) game integration people.

[Mikes]

I've been toying with the thought of getting into modeling for years with work always getting in the way ... and now I wish I had given it a serious shot and wasn't a completely clueless

[Killer Whale]

Clueless in a 14yr old game's community is having an advantage in a -2yr old one. This is a fantastic time to start learning.

[MatthTheGeek]

Welp. I just gave up and tripled my pledge to get me a shiny Supar. When I saw it had milspec max powerplant and that the second seat could be used to carry prisoners, I was sold.

[esarai]

I've been toying with the thought of getting into modeling for years with work always getting in the way ... and now I wish I had given it a serious shot and wasn't a completely clueless

If you want to learn, you're in the right place.  There are plenty of people here who can and will help you.