I generally think that it's important to keep as close to a design as possible when remaking a ship, station, tradelane or any other art-related part of the game. However I also think that, in 2020, we can expect to at least have people smooth properly without edge-splitting that results in Off-the-Chart Vertex counts, LOD's and other things that are important for the performance of a game and in that regard I do think that heightening the standards was a good thing.
There's also the issue that some of the "old toys" are outright broken and need an overhaul if you want to ensure smooth game performance. Nephilim is an extreme example of this, I think it's one of the more iconic ships of the mod but it is so outright flawed and broken that any modeller looking at its mesh and textures for more than 2 seconds would just shake their head, not to mention the FPS stuttering and tanking it causes when it enters rendering distance on other peoples devices no matter how strong they are.
Last words are for fools who have not yet said enough.
(07-22-2020, 12:17 PM)Lucas Wrote: I generally think that it's important to keep as close to a design as possible when remaking a ship, station, tradelane or any other art-related part of the game. However I also think that, in 2020, we can expect to at least have people smooth properly without edge-splitting that results in Off-the-Chart Vertex counts, LOD's and other things that are important for the performance of a game and in that regard I do think that heightening the standards was a good thing.
There's also the issue that some of the "old toys" are outright broken and need an overhaul if you want to ensure smooth game performance. Nephilim is an extreme example of this, I think it's one of the more iconic ships of the mod but it is so outright flawed and broken that any modeller looking at its mesh and textures for more than 2 seconds would just shake their head, not to mention the FPS stuttering and tanking it causes when it enters rendering distance on other peoples devices no matter how strong they are.
While I do agree, that some aspects of the game desperately need at least cosmetic overhaul, there were indeed some great mistakes which resulted in significant average players' count dropp.
For example, O11 swap to O2... Yes, there were story plans and so on.... But, It was a system, which generated much of activity in Omega region with Hessians/Sairs/RMs players pewing each other and so on.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Omega's 2 popularity is nowhere near O11 had. Another example Omicron Alpha-Eta-Theta-Gamma connection.
Someone thought those things were broken. Fixes arrived, players departed.
I am angry, outraged even. How could we let this happen? This is literally worse than that other time things were pretty bad! No more I say! DOWN WITH PILO AND CHUBA, DOWN WITH THIS NEW DISCOVERY GOVERNMENT!
(07-22-2020, 02:39 PM)Lonely_Ghost Wrote: For example, O11 swap to O2... Yes, there were story plans and so on.... But, It was a system, which generated much of activity in Omega region with Hessians/Sairs/RMs players pewing each other and so on.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Omega's 2 popularity is nowhere near O11 had. Another example Omicron Alpha-Eta-Theta-Gamma connection.
Exactly this!
Those changes where a huge mistake but "they" will never admit it.
Aerelm, I share your concerns but unlike you I was never a admin,GM (whatever) or dev,
Artificially propelling the story has been the main pitfall of this place. I'm always less concerned with graphics or cosmetics, than I am with abilities, options, and new activities. In that area, its only ever been shrinking up, and appears as pandering to the 'yes' men of the server, who fight to keep everything the same to avoid a lot of things, but its personal and not actually rooted in what helps the server or not.
There are so many situations I've seen passed over that would have kept players involved more and given chances to play things out more in game, that are kept locked down to keep a tiny amount of those involved happy. The 'system' used to determine what should happen event wise all happens behind the scenes, and barely invovles the playing population.
Many ideas go nowhere because the purpose is removed and undercut right from the start by never fully allowing the use of the game itself to be the driving force for inrp changes. Why? Because people fight harder to keep other's ideas out of lore or cannon to avoid losing glory or credit, than they do in the game.
So just a suggestion but there is a game here that could be used, the system for determining changes could be one everyone can log on to. If you have a war, it should never just be written in advance. That is total insanity to me. At the start of things maybe, but after so many years, the evolution this place has needed was kept away, and I can't think of any good reasons as to why. You either care about the thing you chose to care about, or none of it matters because its all fixed.
I'd be happy flying wire frame blocks that fire tiny wire frame spheres in pvp as long as there was a degree of real risk, skill usage and opportunity to apply myself. So since we are way past that, this place needs stuff to do with our toys. Or its the same old meaningless grind, and everytime someone wants to do more, and more to do, its not there. All to have a free world, but control the things you don't like. Why do devs care where the story goes, as long as the players had fun in a real try for both sides?
Zoners were ready to fight over O-49. Gallia is ready to fight for its space. I'd rather see Devs facilitating the wars and battles between sides, than simply pre writing it for us and moving it along regardless whats going on. That limits so many possiblities for gameplay and removes any point going in. All these random changes in story, and no ways for players to really do anything kill off a great deal of actions and activity. All of those who are so focused on getting kills and points seem to still do nothing. Whats the point of being so good again? And of course people won't stay and fight to the end, unless there's more at risk than losing/denying a kill. If your faction may lose a battleship, and lose control of a whole area, staying and dying might buy time for your side, and that could always result in help coming. You never know when a group will fizz out, and defending that ship might not be pointless.
Want to work on something? Help getting repair ships working on mortal solars and bases! Then even if a base or battleship base was hanging by a thread, fighting as long as possible may buy time for help to come and try saving it.
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unironically roll back the story and systems to 4.86 and/or whenever gallic borderworlds were first added
also the fact that discovery has always had an absolutely dumpster fire new player experience that honestly rivals EVE in its sheer incompetence really says a lot, and I think that if anything the devs should care a lot more about people with join dates after mine than before it
Is the OP and people in this thread volunteering to do work?
We have working groups which I am quite reliant on to get work done these days due to lack of internal resources, or internal resources not being available to do work. A lot of the work done in the past few updates has been community sourced, because contrary to the OP stating we are blessed with resources, the truth is not so clear cut. I could spend a while listing all the kind individuals who have submitted work that has gone into the mod while not being part of the team. It has not always been the best quality (including my sloppy, frankly under-qualified work in systems), and has spawned a lot of bugs, we are at least smashing those bugs and old bugs too.
I am technically head of infocards though I neglect infocards because I need to get systems changes into the game as a priority.
If anyone wants to join the working group as a contributor then they can PM me on discord and we can chat.