I was saying earlier the they could possibly having different drive systems that would force a carrier configuration and the player to use the sat ships in combat when using quasispace to travel far distances.  I realized that I was assuming something in that that I didn't mention.  For that to work, you would need a "network of bases" like the earth base in Star Control II.  "Your base" for doing all the things you did at the earth base in SCII.  For example, any races you meet would "adopt" you for purposes of supply, so their Starbase would also act like Earths now. You might even provide some type of home base that exists on its own as well, just because you need one in that location.  So the player, over the course of the game, would establish new home bases to operate out of creating a "supply network" so you don't always have to go back to earth.

Then, this network of bases can be spaced as you wish, and you can design the map so that certain areas can only be reached in a reasonable amount of time through quasispace... and then you can effectively tune how often and where the player must rely on satellite ships and when you will allow the player to have the "boss killing" battleship.  It is a good way of making the player use the satellite ships at least some of the time, and not just ignore them and always use the uber powerful mothership.  In addition to all the other things it does like making which configuration a major decision every time you leave base.

Will we be able to edit the campaign to strip out many of the filler worlds? I would play a "just-the-good-stuff" mod.

One of the ways system defenses could be used would be to kind of, mostly, do that for you IB.  If they wanted too, they could highlight all (or most) of the solar systems that have something significant in them.  If all solar systems with anything other than randomly generated planets had at least 1 location with any type of system defenses, and then any type of system defenses anywhere in a solar system where indicated on the galactic navigational map, then you would always know which systems had something in them and which were random generation just for resource gathering just by the presence or absence of any type of defenses in that solar system.

Some might dislike this as it takes away some from the exploration aspect of the game by highlighting all the systems with anything of interest in them, so it really depends on how they want their game to work.

But it's all good stuff. 

Don't worry Vaelzad!  The founders know that.

IBNobody, come on! Now you're just doing that on purpose. Don't be a party pooper. 

What game in history has ever allowed their players to cut out the "fluff" that takes up the bulk of people's time? It reminds me of a request I heard for WoW raid dungeons to get rid of all the trash mobs... What would that even look like? 3 boss fights in 3 adjoining rooms, alone in a castle? 

WoW actually tried that with the Ardent Tournament raid back during the Wrath of the Lich King. It ended up not being as fun as when there were interesting trash mob pulls. 

Quoting Vaelzad, reply 54

But it's all good stuff. 

Good stuff != randomly generated 

You're planning on hand-tweaking each world? I can only stand to see a world design only so many times, and I've played too many ghost town games.

Many of the FFXIV:ARR raid dungeons (when I played) were like that and it was nifty. Though you still had trash in your dailies...

Quoting IBNobody, reply 58

Quoting Vaelzad,

reply 54

But it's all good stuff. 

Good stuff != randomly generated 

 

You're planning on hand-tweaking each world? I can only stand to see a world design only so many times, and I've played too many ghost town games.

 

Quoting cuorebrave,

reply 56

What game in history has ever allowed their players to cut out the "fluff" that takes up the bulk of people's time? It reminds me of a request I heard for WoW raid dungeons to get rid of all the trash mobs... What would that even look like? 3 boss fights in 3 adjoining rooms, alone in a castle? 

Many of the FFXIV:ARR raid dungeons (when I played) were like that and it was nifty. Though you still had trash in your dailies...

That sounds like not wanting to eat your vegetables.

On the contrary, I want to eat hand-picked, vine-ripened vegetables.

Please, remove all the trees and leave those 5 I like. I can only stand so much of the same tree looks in this forest simulator. BabyRage 

(sigh)
It's OK, kids.  You can stop arguing and go play outside, instead. 

No, seriously! How funny would that be? There's like 43 planets to land on, and every single planet you land on advances the story in a big way?!? Lol! 

That would indeed be ridiculous. That isn't what I was asking for. Kindly reread these points.

> How many planetary visits does it take to max out your resources? Use that as a baseline for the galaxy size and scale it up from there.

> Don't make the galaxy so big that the ratio of boring planets/stars to interesting planets/stars is too large.

> I would rather have a smaller, well-curated universe in the main game and [visit other player realms] rather than have a huge vacant/carbon-copy universe to explore.

> Will we be able to edit the campaign to strip out many of the filler worlds? I would play a "just-the-good-stuff" mod.

Basically, I'm in the small-galaxy crowd. I only want the galaxy to contain as much filler as needed to max out my gear (with a little padding just in case). Since I'm probably not going to get this, I asked for the ability to mod the main campaign instead. How is that wrong?

Reminds me one of my frustrations with the Mass Effect series. There's a galaxy full of staaars! Welcome to a galactic epic! (But all you get are these three places, teeehee!) Wish they had designed the story to be dispersed among many worlds. Instead they (mostly) just went for major hubs, and instead of expanding on exploration in part 2 and 3, reduced it to a joke. If your setting is the vastness of a galaxy, that scale should be at least somewhat relevant.

I know I am probably in the minority on this, but I like the idea of marking the solar systems that have anything of interest in them with system defenses.  You might still have minor side quests or other things other than just resources in "unmarked" systems, but nothing necessary.  Anything you might find in an unmarked system (marked by the fact that any level of system defense anywhere in a system marks a solar system as defended on the hyperspace transit map) is not necessary to complete the game.

This leaves exploration a factor in the game, while at the same time sorting through the huge amount of the "white noise" associated with a very large galactic map.  Possibly very, very large if using the different map levels like magnifying glasses of the map levels below them.  This creates a massively huge "galaxy" (or "Octant" of the galaxy, as us SFU players would say) for purposes of later expansion, and to give the player the sensation of being in a massive galaxy, but at the same time makes that "galaxy" small and easy to understand because places of importance, or another way of saying it is populated systems, are indicated on the galactic map by the presence of defenses.

This combination of things, dividing the full map into 4 levels of magnification and marking the populated solar systems, essentially lets you have both things at once.  The map is huge, but the player does not get lost in it.  They can easily move around it with the different methods of travel (hyperspace & quasispace), can easily understand it, and knows where anything "major" and important is just by looking at the map.  Where the "populated and relevant" areas are, and where the "un-populated and uncharted" areas are that are unlikely to contain anything relevant to the story taking place in the populated area of the galaxy... unless a quest has led you there.

This all works very well and also feels like Star Control too me.  As always, like any idea, this might not work with the game they are actually making.  But, if it does, the more I think of all this the more I like it.

You're right... When you said you wanted to strip out the "filler worlds" and play through "just the good stuff", I must have misunderstood. 

I, too, stopped landing on planets and gathering resources much when I'd gotten all Hellbores and the tracking modules and and crew pods and lander upgrades I needed. That's honestly when I stopped having 100% fun. Surely the races provided fun after that, but MEANINGFUL upgrades did run out at some point. And that's when I didn't care howany stars are in the game. 

So, when explained slightly different, I think we can be on the same page! Stardock - include enough worlds (and filler worlds in between) to get us through the upgrades (or maxed out resources, as you put it). That'd be where it should stop. 

And for the 10th time - by upgrades, I don't mean Laser mkVII or mkVIII. I mean replacing your laser with a gravity whip that takes a different skillset, and your combustion engine with a solar sail that uses half the fuel and let's you get a small recharge by flying near the sun.

Meaningful upgrades. 

When those run out, so does my interest in exploring and mining planets! 

43 stars it is then... 

Nice galaxy there, chief.

I don't think there is a too big for a map unless it effects game play. Just make what has not been either explored, shared, or purchased obscured. This makes expansions and DLC easier to create as the systems will be already there. While I like 2d maps for the sake of simplicity, I like 3D maps for a bit of believability. This will give Paul and Fred room to play when they get passed their contract obligations (Soon I Hope). 

Agreed 100%! And if there was a lot of filler... A meaningful end of the line upgrade would be to have a long ranged scanner that would highlight all worlds with artifacts and anomalies. (This would be an optional upgrade, of course.) By the time I save up enough resources to buy it, I'll have grown tired of exploring anyway.

50 characters... Your short, thoughtful quip shows how saying less can convey more meaning.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/malganis/Vawlnyxia/advanced   Just getting that out of the way.

I feel like even minor enemies or minor civs in space make just as much of an impact on the game as a whole. Don't just TELL me there are scores of terrifying space orcs besieging countless stars, SHOW ME the millions of orcs burning thousands upon thousands of stars.

^ How many years did it take to get that character equipped like that? 

OH my God - WAAAAAAAAAGH!!! 

Quoting Hunam_, reply 72

^ How many years did it take to get that character equipped like that? 

Actually only took me 9 months, and 3 of those were wishy-washy, on and off hiatus. Granted, that's including the fact that I raided with her since the first week the raids were open this expansion Long story short, this isn't my first account

Does this question still stand for new founders?