StarMade News

Greetings,

We've released a dev build that introduces two things:

• Implemented QuickFire balancing project configs as default.
  

AND:

• This build has been (mostly) unobfuscated, to reduce the barrier for our community to mod StarMade.
  

See image below for how to install the dev build.



In the next dev build, we will be fixing issues with beams and possibly changing shield mechanics to a customizable shield system (using rectangular dimensions instead of spheres. A bit like the ancient docking zones). This will enable ships to customize their shields a lot better.

Also, the build GUI will be cleaned up and simplified to reflect the config (a lot lighter since distance/bonus etc can be removed). Overall this will make building , in‌ ‌general, lot simpler.


Modding

In an effort to make modding more accessible, we've decided to take a few steps that don't take us a lot of time to implement, but have a massive impact.

What we've done so far:

• As of dev build v0.202.0, StarMade is unobfuscated. (Apart from the new planets scheduled for release in the universe update.)
  
• From the 8th of August till today, we were distributing unobfuscated builds to modders that requested it (this is no longer needed).
  
• Opened a discord channel for modders to communicate what they need to make their projects easier/possible. We want to make sure there's a strong relationship between Schine and the modding community.
  
• Invited members from our own modding community, as well as those from outside it to give their input on how we should go about supporting modding in StarMade.
  
• Released our game's launcher under the MIT license on GitHub. We saw some of our community were trying to modify it to add mod support, so we thought why not release it. (Schine/StarMade-Launcher)
  
• Granted git repo read access to the current lead ([USER]NZSmartie[/USER]) of a modding toolchain and API for StarMade, DistortSM. Also granted the same permissions to gabizou, a lead developer for Sponge (Sponge - Minecraft: Java Edition Modding API) who has expressed interest in helping StarMade modders.
  

A modding proposal based on the input we received from modders has been created by Zidane and Gabizou from the Minecraft Sponge Team. You can check that out here.

We plan to follow this document when implementing further modding support over the coming months.

Modpack considerations/proposals have been made by progwml6 and Benevolent27 here: modpack format

The input we've received has been keeping in mind the following:

• We want to eliminate as many barriers as reasonably possible before our next major update (universe).
  
• We want to focus most of our efforts on the universe update. However, suggestions that don't take a lot of time for us, but make modders lives a lot easier are fantastic.
  
• Ideally, we can continue to add/modify things that would aid in mod development during/after the universe update.
  

If you're a modder and would like to give your input on modding in StarMade, we'd love to hear it over on our Discord #modders-dev channel here: Join the StarMade Discord Server!

Alternatively, you can email DukeofRealms here: [email protected]


Thanks to all the modders who helped us

We received a lot of useful feedback and input from modders, we'd like to thank those that helped us so far here:

The Fabric team (asie, sfPlayer1, Prospector, Grondag and modmuss50) who have given us very useful advice for modding, specifically with regards to mod-loaders. Also for accommodating changes to fabric-loader to help DistortSM, a StarMade fork of some of Fabric's projects. Also, thanks to asie for pointing us in the right direction and giving us solid advice to base our ideas for modding support off.

The Sponge team (Zidane, gabizou, progwml6, jamierocks/jmansfield, Katrix and Snowie). Zidane and gabizou for creating the StarMade modding proposal google doc, putting a lot of their own effort/input and collecting others' input from our Discord channel into the document. progwml6 for putting a lot of thought into the security and specifics for mod syncing and modpacks. Katrix and Snowie for sharing their expertise about mod repos, from their development of the Sponge mod repo (Ore).

Thanks to kashike, DemonWav, madmaxoft, darkhax and Clienthax for joining our Discord modding channel and giving their input on StarMade modding.

Thanks to Benevolent27, Alendon and TheDerpGamerX, members from our own modding community, who have provided invaluable feedback and are working on some awesome projects.

Special thanks to all the people below for enduring the endless number of questions and conversations about modding:

• asie - tons of feedback about modding and considerations we should take about our policies.
  
• jamierocks/jmansfield - above and beyond answering our questions and giving feedback, even in an hours long voice call! Went through an unobfuscated build, giving feedback and input.
  
• gabizou - Gave a ton of input in Discord DMs and our Discord channel. Went through an unobfuscated build, giving feedback and input.
  
• Zidane - Gave a ton of input in Discord DMs and our Discord channel. Started the mod proposal google doc, which is very comprehensive.
  
• progwml6 - Gave a ton of input in Discord DMs and our Discord channel. Created the modpack google doc with Benevolent27, which goes into details that we never would've thought of.
  
• jaredlll08 - Gave a ton of input in Discord DMs and our Discord channel.
  

Finally, NZSmartie for starting the DistortSM project, which aims to provide a working mod loader (which they've achieved) and a community created API. He's worked with us to help bring modding into StarMade, getting involved in many conversations. He's been a massive help to kickstarting a StarMade modding community.

I’ve tried to include everyone if I missed you, I’m very sorry, we’ll rectify it ASAP :)



QuickFire project

QuickFire is a community-run project to balance a wide range of systems/features in StarMade. This is done through our extensive configuration files.

For more details about the project, check out our news post about QuickFire from last week here: https://starmadedock.net/threads/cs-quickfire-initiative-rebalancing-starmade.31361/

Important details:

• "Quickfire's configs will not work with vanilla ships. Power costs and proportions of systems and weapons are very different from vanilla, and desirable armor configurations in vanilla (i.e. very little, if any) are potentially very different from what may work well in Quickfire. Some chamber setups will need changes as well. Using this config means a full refit of systems on any existing ships & stations." - QF Team
  
• The config is not completed. "Beware that with the current dev build config, small-ship combat is broken. Armor is simply too powerful at those scales against both beams and cannons. We have revamped the values, but until beams switch to the proper formula, we are not releasing the new config version." - QF Team
  
• Community-run and always seeking feedback, suggestions, testers etc.
  
• We've put their changes in a dev build because we want to bring exposure to the project, so they are able to get feedback and improve their config. So please give them your feedback in either their Discord server (Join the Starmade Quickfire Initiative Discord Server!) or forum thread (https://starmadedock.net/threads/the-quickfire-initiative-rebalancing-starmade.31326/).
  
• QuickFire configs are always changing, as further testing and feedback are done. Values in this dev build will likely be different in a few days after this news post, a month from now it might be very different. To test the latest QF configs, join their server here: QuickfireSM.com:4242
  
• The goal is to eventually implement well-received config changes the community has made, provided they reach a state where both our community and we are happy with them. This does not necessarily have to be the QF config changes; however, this is the most popular (and only) config pack so far. The QF team have put a lot of effort into their config, reaching out to many different members of our community. They've been testing and taking feedback to create balanced gameplay. Ultimately, we understand that not everyone will be able to come to a consensus on what the "best" settings will be. Whether this is adopted into our release branch depends on your feedback, so again, please give some :)
  

Check out our news post about QuickFire from last week here: https://starmadedock.net/threads/cs-quickfire-initiative-rebalancing-starmade.31361/

Important links:

• Latest config files (GitHub) - https://github.com/alterintel/Quickfire
• Overview of QF changes - Quickfire Initiative - Config v0.1 Changelog/Overview
• A more detailed document of changes and their reasons - Quickfire Initiative - Config v0.1 Full Change Overview + reasons.
• QF forum thread - https://starmadedock.net/threads/the-quickfire-initiative-rebalancing-starmade.31326/
• QF discord - Join the Starmade Quickfire Initiative Discord Server!

Thanks to the QuickFire team and all those who have/will contribute to the project.

Ithirahad Ivrar'kiim : Lead Tester and Config. Forum thread manager, document writer, and generally unofficial chief keyboard jockey.
Scypio : Lead Tester and Config. Created several tools and utilities to make rapid config changes and publish information to the Discord, and does a lot of testing too.
SchnellBier : Lead promoter, he keeps this discord active and encourages constructive conversation.
Morphix : Founding member. Setup the QuickFire Discord Server.
Benevolent27 : Server and Bot admin and Consultant
Zoolimar : Primary Armor Mechanic and consultant.
ManhattenProject: Primary PVP consultant
IKindaCrashAlot : PVP consultant
Lord_Latterous : PVP consultant
alterintel : QuickFire Sponsor. He pays the bills and provides some technical know-how on the server-side.


Thanks for playing StarMade,

~ The Schine Team

This post is a Community Spotlight (CS), where we're bringing attention to cool community-driven projects for StarMade. We'll be posting some more of these in the near future.

Check out the "Discuss with the Devs" that happened in our official Discord last month here: https://starmadedock.net/threads/discuss-with-the-devs-july-18-2019-sis-shortform.31343/

---

Quickfire Team:

Quickfire is a community-run project to modify the game’s configuration files for a more balanced, fun, and interesting game experience. The QF team consists of members from every part of the StarMade community, including several veteran PvP specialists, creative builders with technical knowledge, and a long-time administrator of one of the most historically popular StarMade servers, as well as several other veteran StarMade players.


While the mechanical changes that can be made within configs are somewhat limited, we have done our best to correct the issues the community has been having with the current game and enhance combat gameplay. The Quickfire Initiative has also worked with Schine on refining certain game mechanics (e.g. armor stacking). We have, at the same time, made an effort to avoid undermining key design elements of the power and weapons updates (e.g. the chamber system and arrangement) when not absolutely necessary.

We have also played a key role in testing, tracking down, and confirming several critical bugs with weapons and systems, which were fixed in the most recent patches.


Quickfire has created a config package that includes everything from fine-tuned missile guidance to rebalanced chamber costs. Every system in the game has been looked over and re-tuned to address various balance issues brought up by the community and/or our team members.

We have also adjusted or modified all of the weapon combos, with the goal of creating greater diversity, viability, and utility for each where possible. Weapon changes include eliminating the troublesome cursor recoil mechanic from cannons, significantly improving acid damage application from beams (reducing the need for output spam), adjusting missile guidance, flight speed, and turn rate, and eliminating the extremely exploitable Death Beam.


Currently, we have addressed most of the issues and features that we intend to (aside from some minor tweaks), and have a configuration set available for testing. We are now in the phase of refinement and testing, and for this, we need the community! Feedback, suggestions, and thoughts on our settings for weapons, systems, and chambers are welcome, and will help us improve and refine the Quickfire Initiative’s configs and make StarMade a better experience for everyone. Our in-progress configuration set is available on a public Github (updated often), and we also have a public creative/test server running our configs, at QuickfireSM.com:4242.


You can find an overview of Quickfire’s changes in this document. A longer, more complete list of changes and the explanations behind them is available here.


If you have feedback, suggestions, questions, issues, or other comments about our config set, please post them in the project thread. You can also join the Quickfire Initiative Discord server.


---

Schine:

We'll be adding the Quickfire config changes in a dev build in the next week or so. Please make sure to try these changes out and give your feedback. This will help us (and the Quickfire team) to decide what changes we should or shouldn't adopt into the default configs. The purpose of the dev build and news post is to draw attention to the QF project to help us receive feedback. We will not officially adopt any changes into release until we feel a good solution for our community has been reached.

At the same time, we'll also begin to start making efforts to lower the barrier for modding. We've been working with modders from our own community as well as others to come up with a plan to make modding StarMade much easier, without taking a big chunk of dev time from the universe update. If you're interested in modding StarMade, head over to our official Discord (Join the StarMade Discord Server!) in the #modders-dev channel.

If you don't get a chance to test QF configs out before then, we'll be taking feedback with the Quickfire project when we officially adopt their changes and continue to address balance concerns.

Thanks for playing StarMade,

- The Schine Team

Hello players,

sorry for the long time without an update. There was a lot of smaller technical stuff, as well as some research and other projects which made it hard to talk about specific things. What I can do, however, is give you a summary about the upcoming items we’ll be working on for the Universe update in the following months:

• Graphics Engine Update
  • Switch to deferred rendering for dynamic lighting: Deferred rendering will greatly increase the quality of rendering as it allows for a lot more light sources than forward rendering. The nice thing about this is that it will be possible to use the prebaked information as part of the deferred rendering to simulate ambient occlusion. And since even deferred rendering has limits in terms of light amount (around 50-100 light sources), we can use the prebaked system in a LoD system being able to still show unlimited amount of lights without slowdown.
  • Optimizations:
    • An all new backwards LoD system that will decrease the number of polygons very significantly.
    • Fast treebased occlusion culling, so areas that wouldn’t be visible can be discarded before drawing.
• Block container revamp
  • This is basically refactoring how block types, rotations, etc are handled. This will make it much easier to deal with bugs and to introduce new blocks.
• Block Engine Update
  • The load system for sectors will be revamped. The goal is to preload data more efficiently, so that sector changes would be virtually unnoticable.
  • Saving and the block save structure will be revamped to be more efficient and safer (more guards against data loss/corruption, as well as features to prevent newer players from losing work due to a ship getting blown up (automatic versioned save feature on ships))
  • Moving all block data to direct memory, as well as possibly moving more expensive functions to native c++ code (lighting calculation, saving/loading)
• Audio System
  • Research completed on best designs. System will make it possible to live edit sound effects ingame
• Particle System
• AI
  • AI Collision System
  • AI LoD (Collision sphere sweeping)
  • Crowd AI (AI positioning without fighting over space)
  • AI behavior layering (macro actions like getting to a position in the universe and micro like fighting against another ship)
  • AI mission system
  • AI behavior
• Universe recreation
  • New structure
    • Hirachial Region System
    • Region ownership system
  • New NPC structure
    • overall NPC behavior
  • Place of Interest creation
  • Key area creation
  • Area specification
  • New stellar objects
  • New planet injection
  • Difficulty flow (for single player)
  • Event System
  • Void System

• Population system
  • Low level NPC population
  • Population resources

I’ll be talking more about each item during and after it is implemented (some of which are already partly done)

Thanks you for playing StarMade,

- The Schine Team

Hello players,

here is a small feature and fix update. There will be several of those along the universe update roadmap (roadmap blogpost on www.star-made.org). Durking the update, we'll be working ~1 week per month on fixes and small features (especially for the rule system), while spending the rest of the time on the universe update.

Universe update Roadmap News: On the universe update, we are currently in the middle of GUI scaling, and close to starting to implement the sound system.

This update features a lot of new conditions and actions. The system now supports rules of different types, depending on the target (players, factions, sectors, etc). Actions are transferable to other entities: e.g. if condition on a ship is true, you can execute a player action for all players on that ship.

Here is the full changelog:



added minimize button to advanced build mode panels on the right

• Player Mod Faction Points
  
• Player Set Faction Points
  
• Entity Mod Faction Points
  
• Entity Set Faction Points
  
• DateTime fixes
  
• Entity Weekly duration
  
• FactionRules
  
• FactionIsInRange
  
• FactionAddFP
  
• FactionSetFP
  
• FactionHasMemberCount
  
• FactionHasFpCount
  
• Action Bridges
  
• Entity -> Sector / Player / Faction
  
• Sector -> Entities / Players / Factions
  
• Player -> Sector / entered Entity / Faction
  
• Faction -> Players
  
• 'Entity system claimed by' condition
  
• player warp to sector action
  
• player set credits action
  
• player mod credits action
  
• player kick action
  
• player ban action
  
• player in sector cond
  
• player say cond (regexp)
  
• player send message action
  
• player last joined condition
  
• player kick out of ship action
  
• player kill action
  
• segment controller in sector range condition
  
• all faction condition parameters now range
  
• sector chmod condition
  
• sector range condition
  
• sector contains entity count condition
  
• sector chmod action
  
• sector admin command action
  
• Added inverse conditions (condition group feature)
  
• recurring actions
  
• player: add credits over time
  
• player: add blocks
  
• player: add blocks over time
  
• 
  

• fixed missing integrity triggers
  
• fixed beams not active on server when using logic to toggle them (logic salvage beam not working)
  
• fixed linear reactor level calcs
  
• fixed activatable modules not synching correctly (cloak drive)
  
• fixed torch damaging stick shops
  
• fixed error that would respawn Asteroids over and over if they were moved
  
• 
  

• blockBehaviorConfig now has global defense of blocks based on type (shield, armor, block) additionally to the previous individual block effect defense (which would be a mess to adjust)
  
• Note: it's now possible to set defense value for all block types depending on if it's armor, normal or shield that is hit. The defense value is put against the offense value of the weapon. This now enables a balance where some weapons can be better/worse against shield/armor/normal
  
• beams now use calculated armor values for damage reduction
  
• Note: Beams now do damage calculations in a similat way as cannons in that the armor depth is calculated upon hitting a surface. The damage of the beam is reduced depending on armor thickness. Values have been added to config.
  
• General Balance Note: The current config values for the new balance additions are currently experimental and in no way final

Thank you for playing StarMade,

- The schine team

Hotfix#4 (0.201.341):

• Fix for servers with custom config coming up (not being able to move astronaut, crashes and other various issues this bug caused)
• Fix for torch beam (didn't do enough damage to compensate for the fullhp encoding (has to do at least one byte of damage)

 
Hotfix#3 (0.201.340): 

• Fixed possible crash when applying rules when entities apply changes at the same time
• Fixed rail logic so only adjacent activation and basic button activate (still any logic block can be connected with c+v) (fix of hotfix#1 didn't apply yet)
• Fixed crash in rule dialog (checkbox cleanup when the field wasn't initialized yet)

Hotfix#2 (0.201.339): 

• Fixed error when spawning ships from blueprint items.

 
Hotfix#1 (0.201.338): 

• Fixed missing icons for new blocks
• Fixed rail logic so only adjacent activation and basic button activate (still any logic block can be connected with c+v)
• Fixed manual turret aim to be off by default to fix AI mobs not firing their turrets

 



Hello players,

A new update is out. This will be the last major update before going into the heavy codebase changes of the Universe update. This will include updating lwjgl, java, and a lot of other things to their latest stable major releases, so a lot of refactoring has to be done. During this period until the universe update there will still be updates for the current versions along the way, but they will be mostly minor features, fixes and balance changes, as we will fully focus on the universe update from here.


 

As said in the latest dev build, chasing a balance that would satisfy all types of players is nearly impossible, so the vanilla game is going to focus on the game as I envision it, while at the same time creating features so players can play the game like they want it to. Not only does this save a lot of time in development in the long run it also removes a lot of issues with balance since in the end it is subjective to the type of player.

 

The rule system is essentially the beginning of an in-game modding system. It is built very general from the ground up and will be able to support any type of condition/action imaginable in the game. It comes with a full GUI in the main menu and in-game, which is capable of uploading and applying changes automatically while in-game.

 

You can also import and export any amount of rules. This enables server admins to quickly setup a certain type of server without having to do all the configuration themselves. They can download and import anything they need.

 

This update focused on getting the rule system to run. It also focused on making rules as performant as possible, which means that a rule is only checked if any parameter of a condition for the targeted object changes. It has a fair number of conditions and actions already present but there will be a LOT more to add along the way.

 

Eventually the rules system will possibly also be used to create quests and other gameplay elements, so it can already be considered a very small part of the universe update in a way.




With rules there is now also a way for admins to track ships. Conditions can be used to place a tracker on ships. Admins can also now mark ships. This is mainly for admins to manually check ships that trigger their conditions.

 

New Admin commands:

• player_get_block_amount (fixed target inventory)
• entity_set_check_flag
• entity_is_check_flag
• entity_track

(all commands also work with *_UID)

 

 



 

Saber and Kupu finished some beautiful new 3D assets. There have been slight tweaks to existing model unwraps and their textures, and many new additions. New models include (from left to right):

• Grate Wedge (previous Grate Wedge has been renamed to Grate Slope)
• Metal Corner and Metal Bar
• Beacon and Colored Light Corners and Light Bars
• Light Rods
• Paint Cans and Resource Capsules
• Small Button and Small Activator
• Red, Orange, Green Consoles and Console Inner and Outer Corners

 

We also improved the block editor to make it a lot easier to import and create new 3D assets.

 

Additionally, some 3D assets now have different states when they are activated. We will expand that eventually to full animations on blocks for actions or just them being in idle state. This means you will be able to place animated modules on your ship.

 

*Paint Cans and Resource Capsules have had their default orientation rotated 90 degrees so they place vertically like the Pipe model. These will need to be replaced in old builds.*




3D assets now have full detail collision detection for astronauts as well as small enough projectiles/beams. This means you can now even shoot between the bars of grates.


 

Two major changes to balance are:

• Stabilization beam between reactor and stabilizers is removed
• Integrity is removed

However, with the rules system both of these functions can be restored.

 

We’re currently working with community members on the Quickfire discord (a community driven initiative to help balance StarMade) to bring the games balance into a good state. The first step of doing that was to fix some essential bugs as well as provide more config capabilities and mechanics.

 

Here are a few major and some minor changes to the balance already:

• Removed integrity (can be re-added by rules)
• Remove reactor stabilization beam (can be re-added by rules)
• increased cannon speed from 25x to 40x server max speed
• Increased armor bonus from 0.1 to 0.5 (bonus added on armor thickness)
• Halved vertical cursor recoil
• Beam damage reduction based on armor value of the block hit. 20% of armor value of block reduced per tick. (config option)
• 2.5% flat cannon damage reduced if armor if penetrated (config option)
• Config Option to add additional damage reduction based on armor thickness (currently unused)

 

There will likely be a lot more once the balance proposal is worked through. I have to disclaim though that I can’t promise that everything proposed will make it in.

 

• Rule System 
  • Full rule system with condition and actions to affect entities
  • Cascading Condition groups
  • Global rule assignment
  • Individual rule assignment
  • Full config export/import
  • Export/import of individual rulesets
  • Full GUI in ‘tools’ main menu
  • Full GUI ingame with live synch feature
  • New ingame file browser
  • Added basic conditions (more to come)
  • Added basic actions (more to come)
  • Tracking feature
• fixed advanced build mode raytrace bug where an imprecise physics test would sometimes select the wrong blocks
• fixed physics bug where cannon shots would sometimes skip a chunk and do damage inside a structure
• 3D assets can now use any existing shape to be represented
• 3D assets can now use any arbitrary meshes as physics mesh to be represented
• 3D assets can now have activated state meshes
• Improved pipeline for mesh import with the block editor
• turrets will no longer be able to shoot through other docked entities (they won’t do damage to their docks)
• improved fleet formation by refreshing ship sizes more frequently and taking ship size more into account for spacing between ships
• Fixed Fleet not slowing down after move order (edited)
• Added delay between weapon switches of AI. delay only applies to within type (from a cannon computer to another cannon computer etc.)
• Added ai_weapon_switch_delay server config and admin command. 
• added effect SHIELD_HOTSPOT_RECHARGE_MODE  to set to rely on recharge instead of capacity
• added and exposed formula switching for power reactor
• player_get_block_amount fixed target inventory
• entity_set_check_flag
• entity_is_check_flag
• entity_track
• all commands with
• _UID
• docked pull/push permission now saved in blueprint (edited)
• server.cfg option to allow factories on ships (ALLOW_FACTORY_ON_SHIPS)
• beacon light now is a flag in the block config
• logic block is now a flag in the block config
• updated loading screen tips to reflect game changes
• Refactoring work
• Increase missile tickrate to be more precise
• Added and adapted server config missile target prediction value to prevent missiles from going after a target’s previous position. Added admin command /missile_target_prediction . Make sure no missiles are spawned when using or those missiles might get confused.
• Fixed race gates power usage
• Fixed ‘draw beams’ game option
• Self cleaning “waiting for for entities to dock” message for the case that the object isn’t in the db anymore. Reduced frequency of message for all other cases
• Can now load blueprints directly onto docks
• Server.cfg option to remove need to build shipyard structure (SHIPYARD_IGNORE_STRUCTURE)
• Reduced roll speed to balance between rotational axis (more turn speed balance will come)
• Orange and Blue Light Block color adjusted to differentiate from Yellow and Teal
• AI ships now auto charge stealth drive (should fix fleet cloak/uncloak/jam)

Balance (all points are non final and might still change)

• Removed integrity (can be re-added by rules)
• Remove reactor stabilization beam (can be re-added by rules)
• Balance: increased cannon speed from 25x to 40x server max speed
• Balance: Increased armor bonus from 0.1 to 0.5 (bonus added on armor thickness)
• Balance: Halved vertical cursor recoil
• Balance: Beam damage reduction based on armor value of the block hit. 20% of armor value of block reduced per tick. (config option)
• Balance: 2.5% flat cannon damage reduced if armor if penetrated (config option)
• Balance: Config Option to add additional damage reduction based on armor thickness (currently unused)

If you find any issue please let us know in our discord and we will get get right into hotfixing.


 

We wish you an awesome holidays and a very happy new year,

Thank you for playing StarMade,

​- The Schine Team