A game that combines all the best elements of Space trader sandbox games and RPGs. Design your own ship, put together your own crew and make your own adventure in a persistent sandbox universe full of exploration and loot.
Alpha version 3 demonstration playthrough
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Description
In this video I play the new game mode and cover all of the basics of gameplay.
This is a very interesting game and definitely something I'm looking forward to play, but whats the point in the end game? Just see how far you can travel before getting blown up and then having to start all over again from scratch?
Aside from that, I hope the mechanics you talked in the video will also be explained in the game to the same level of detail and depth as you did in this video, to make sure people don't get frustrated when they have no idea how a certain mechanic works, leaving their gameplay to purely to wild guesswork.
Btw, will it possible to mod the game and add new content to it?
The gameplay that currently exists is VERY FAR from what I want to do long-term. The goal is to create an open-world multiplayer sandbox, this is more like a gameplay teaser that will evolve over time towards the real game.
The in game explanations of these mechanics are lacking but in-progress, feedback helps because as a dev it's hard to know what is confusing about the things I design.
I've been working on server software that isn't ready to be played yet.
Open-world multiplayer sandbox... is it cooperational or competitive multiplayer you're aiming for?
Whats the ultimate gameplay supposed to be like? Is there some sort of progression involved, if so, then what does happen when one reaches the so called "top" of this system?
I am aiming for both cooperative and competitive. I intend to have player run factions who fight between each other for resources etc, but they all fight cooperatively against environmental forces like mega space monsters and alien armies.
There is definitely progression, the idea is to have your ship be a kind of character, but instead of a slot for boots and a slot for gloves you have a big open canvas to design. Obviously finding new technology is going to be like finding new boots to an extent, but hopefully more interesting.
As for reaching the "top" of the progression, I have some crazy ideas on how to solve the glass loot ceiling, but I kinda want to keep them under wraps until I am sure I can make them work.
The best way I see to make a game not getting killed by progression, is have the game focus and encourage on moment-to-moment gameplay.
This can be made by having the interactions in the game feel satisfying in themselves, like piloting a ship, shooting stuff, being creative with ship designs, watching stuff blow up, etc.
An infinite war against huge space monsters and alien armies could provide the overarching theme that gives meaning to the players, meanwhile individual invasions by these forces could be considered as a campaign, with a beginning and an end. These campaigns could be randomly generated using the pool of enemy designs you can keep adding to the database infinitely.
I would urge against scarcity of resources and competitive gameplay, but encourage more collaborative behaviour between players, to incentivize in getting them to work together to fight the huge alien monster threat and strive towards sustainability in their homes by constructing infrastructure and production to generate resources for ship construction and expansion.
The aliens would have a clear goal to attack, being the player made space stations and other facilities.
Meanwhile, a system like this hints towards an abundance of resources and this is intended and eliminates the need for people to fight each other. The real difficulty in the game comes from complexity and fleet management against the overwhelming alien monsters. The larger the ship, the more tricky it is to construct, maintain and fly it.
Meanwhile more players participating in a battle means more risk for friendly fire, making the game stay interesting infinitely without needing to resort to artificial solutions for trying to prevent the game from becoming meaningless once a player reaches a level of abundance in resources, aka the top of a progression.