Forums » Suggestions
reduce sector size by 50% and system size by 33%
let us increase player interaction... reduce all sector size by half and systems by 33%. Instead of 16x16... 8x8 and eliminate a third of the systems. This would significantly make vo more exciting and vastly increase player interaction. As the player base grows... more space can become discoverable.
btw.. this makes scientific economic sense... there would be no need for space explorers to seek recourses farther out than needed. A small population would venture out less than a larger one. And.. this kind of dynamic makes space more exciting for everyone!
Okay Kenny.
+1 to scaling relative to population to force interaction.
No. This would be extremely time consuming to implement, and would have a lot of negative effects.
We should target other ways to bring players together.
We should target other ways to bring players together.
I thank you for considering it. In hindsight, I guess it would be hard to implement. i'd have to think through the negative effects, but don't waste your time explaining them to me.
Basically, tracking down all the places that "assume" the current configuration would be really involved. Mission system, nav system, Kourier, AI mechanics, and so on. 20+ years of development assuming 16x16 systems.
"Anything" can technically be done, it's just whether the cost/benefit justifies the value.
(Also, if we were going to do all that work, I would rather dump out the old nav-system entirely and do something completely new, and not be limited to "grids").
I understand the desire behind the idea: having inherently increased player-density with a smaller concurrent population. But, I don't think retroactively doing that is a good idea anyway. Especially when, honestly, my biggest concern of the last couple of years has been in the opposite direction (withstanding rapid playerbase increases).
I also think that most of what you're looking for (drawing people together) could be better achieved through "random encounter" type spawned-gameplay. Like.. a freighter making a distress call that (sometimes) turns out to be a pirate trap, or colonists in distress losing life-support, or an oddball rare NPC who hands out treasure-hunt hints in /msg chat.
Much of that could also be done in a way that's "draws in people from the surroundings" (announced on system-chat? 100? auto-subbed NPC-only specialty-channel?) and pulls people together in particular locations, without necessarily mandating that everyone be jammed into a smaller universe and have "forced interaction" as greenwall put it.
(A somewhat-vague / delayed galactic "heatmap" could also go a long way to give people some idea of whether there has recently been more player activity).
I like some "choke points" of increased density/risk, plus other gameplay that more-voluntarily pulls people together; but I don't like a universe so small that all interaction feels mandatory. As a player, I enjoy going off and doing my own thing, sometimes.
I hope that helps.
"Anything" can technically be done, it's just whether the cost/benefit justifies the value.
(Also, if we were going to do all that work, I would rather dump out the old nav-system entirely and do something completely new, and not be limited to "grids").
I understand the desire behind the idea: having inherently increased player-density with a smaller concurrent population. But, I don't think retroactively doing that is a good idea anyway. Especially when, honestly, my biggest concern of the last couple of years has been in the opposite direction (withstanding rapid playerbase increases).
I also think that most of what you're looking for (drawing people together) could be better achieved through "random encounter" type spawned-gameplay. Like.. a freighter making a distress call that (sometimes) turns out to be a pirate trap, or colonists in distress losing life-support, or an oddball rare NPC who hands out treasure-hunt hints in /msg chat.
Much of that could also be done in a way that's "draws in people from the surroundings" (announced on system-chat? 100? auto-subbed NPC-only specialty-channel?) and pulls people together in particular locations, without necessarily mandating that everyone be jammed into a smaller universe and have "forced interaction" as greenwall put it.
(A somewhat-vague / delayed galactic "heatmap" could also go a long way to give people some idea of whether there has recently been more player activity).
I like some "choke points" of increased density/risk, plus other gameplay that more-voluntarily pulls people together; but I don't like a universe so small that all interaction feels mandatory. As a player, I enjoy going off and doing my own thing, sometimes.
I hope that helps.