StarMade -- A F2P Space Exploration Voxel Game

[Mr.TK]

What is Starmade?


StarMade is a space exploration game, where you build your own ships and mine resources, or destroy other players ships and rob them of their parts.
The game is currently F2P.. For now, but i hear when it goes onto steam it will cost money.
Since the game is a voxel, the map is endless in size. but it is split up into Sectors which can be located by coordinates, the game is currently in a Early Alpha Stage

Pictures of Ships you can make in Starmade

Download for StarMade

[Shadow]

Since the game is a voxel, the map is endless in size.

Eh, not really. Voxel stands for Volumetric Pixel, which has nothing to do with the size of a map. When it boils down to it, the map is (THEORETICALLY) endless in size because it is most likely procedurally generated. This means that the map is being made as you expand it. Going by TK's summary, since the map is loaded in "Sectors" I assume that it's the same as "chunks" in minecraft, where as opposed to the entire map being loaded in (like Source's levels) little bits are loaded in as you get to them, and the far away parts are destroyed in memory to make room for more. Now, because it's doing this we can only assume that it's loading in from a map-file, which gives the chance that it will have the same unfortunate downfall as Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. If the map gets above a certain size (in RC3's case: 12mb) the fileIO will not be able to handle it, and the game will crash. Keep in mind that RC3 had a core written in Assembler with another level of C running some of the GUI stuff, and the time 12mb was a lot of space. I wonder how large of a file size and how far out you will have to go before the map starts getting funky, or even crashes?
But getting back on topic - voxel != procedural generation, although there could be a misunderstanding as to why. The data of each "voxel" is stored not as a flat out location of the data, but based on it's nearest neighbour.

I really don't like that more and more developers are going the way of "release in alpha, then finish the game". It just doesn't sit right. You're paying (or in some cases like this, not paying but playing) an unfinished product that is completely subject to change. I don't know, call me old fashioned, but I believe that the consumer is still the end-user, not the bug-tester. We're here to play and enjoy your finished product, not sort out the bugs for you. That's what bug testers are for - the whole process of searching for bugs and breaking a game.

The game looks interesting, but it's probably not something I will be picking up.

[Zarthalan]

Eh, not really. Voxel stands for Volumetric Pixel, which has nothing to do with the size of a map. When it boils down to it, the map is (THEORETICALLY) endless in size because it is most likely procedurally generated. This means that the map is being made as you expand it. Going by TK's summary, since the map is loaded in "Sectors" I assume that it's the same as "chunks" in minecraft, where as opposed to the entire map being loaded in (like Source's levels) little bits are loaded in as you get to them, and the far away parts are destroyed in memory to make room for more. Now, because it's doing this we can only assume that it's loading in from a map-file, which gives the chance that it will have the same unfortunate downfall as Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. If the map gets above a certain size (in RC3's case: 12mb) the fileIO will not be able to handle it, and the game will crash. Keep in mind that RC3 had a core written in Assembler with another level of C running some of the GUI stuff, and the time 12mb was a lot of space. I wonder how large of a file size and how far out you will have to go before the map starts getting funky, or even crashes?
But getting back on topic - voxel != procedural generation, although there could be a misunderstanding as to why. The data of each "voxel" is stored not as a flat out location of the data, but based on it's nearest neighbour.

I really don't like that more and more developers are going the way of "release in alpha, then finish the game". It just doesn't sit right. You're paying (or in some cases like this, not paying but playing) an unfinished product that is completely subject to change. I don't know, call me old fashioned, but I believe that the consumer is still the end-user, not the bug-tester. We're here to play and enjoy your finished product, not sort out the bugs for you. That's what bug testers are for - the whole process of searching for bugs and breaking a game.

The game looks interesting, but it's probably not something I will be picking up.

Second part, fuck yes.





















who the fuck even played roller coaster 3

[Atlas]

Sounds like a new freelancer to me.




I like that.

[Marvell]

who the fuck even played roller coaster 3

My question in this thread is why the fuck did someone post a Yogscast video?

[Shadow]

who the fuck even played roller coaster 3

Who the fuck didn't? I remember that game was the shit when I was growing up; hell, I still play that thing.

[langile]

Who the fuck didn't? I remember that game was the shit when I was growing up; hell, I still play that thing.

Roller coaster tycoon 2 was better. Too fancy on the third one, they should have kept it simple.

[ian322]

This wont be the first time steam took a good free game and destroyed it, Ace Of Spades

[Mr.TK]

This wont be the first time steam took a good free game and destroyed it, Ace Of Spades

Steam didn't destroy Ace of Spades, ace of spades was bought out by Jagex then they completely changed the game.

[1deadblawer]

Looks like fun ..Will see when playing it.

[Mr.TK]

Here is the Red-City Starmade Fleet, it may not look like it, but it in total there are about 8 - 10 ships in total in the picture. (including turrets, because you can detach them and fly away with them) The bigass ship closest to me (person taking picture) is my ship, the USS Dominus. The ship to the right of the Red-City.org Sign is the Nigapolis by Nigga_with_a_Torpedo,
and the ship to the left of the sign is the Butt Pounder by progresso.


Docked on the mini hangar bays on the wings, is StreetJesus and 1deadblawers Isanth Fighter Class ships.

[StreetJesus]

Aw my mining vessel didn't make it into the shot.

But yeah, StarMade is surprisingly fun.

[Papa Jesus]

Would love to join you guys soon if you dont mind the game is basically the same textures as minecraft? So it shouldnt be so demanding so i can run in :D

[1deadblawer]

This game for what it is is a great lot of fun. i would recommend this game to anyone who likes games like terraria, or minecraft. Like terraria this game does focus heavily on combat cause in the end your ship ant ready till you can take other players ships or bases with your ship and the others following you. Also like minecraft it has the endlessness, and the ability to build what you want ( as long as you got the cash to spend). Otherwise you just need a friend or two to play this with and you got hours of good fun.   

[Glitchvid]

This game gets one:

[TweedleDeeDum]

This game gets one:

This seal approves your seal of approval.