| Author |
future of game |
BLADERUNNER2019
Chief Marshal
Ravenous Wolfpack Clan
Joined: December 18, 2010
Posts: 140
|  Posted: 2015-04-01 17:02
I think DS is lots of fun now...at first I was not a big fan of 1.7 and even took over a year off after 1.7 came out...just started playing again a few weeks ago, and have had alot of fun...the game without dicos is fast paced and full of combat...and everyone is getting kills, not just a few. There is zero planet hugging and very little boredom...anyway stop reading this and get in game and grab a combat ship.....I'll see you on the otherside 
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Botoru
Grand Admiral
Joined: January 25, 2011
Posts: 84
From: England
| Posted: 2015-04-02 05:25
So what do dicos do now?
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Formerly Admiral Sideswipe {Elite Firebolt}
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Cold Death
Admiral
Joined: July 24, 2011
Posts: 106
From: Right behind you...
| Posted: 2015-04-07 11:09
Anyone can see that there are many issues with the game. The primary one being the lack of time the developers have to pay attention to DarkSpace. Many changes will probably be made in future versions, but right now this seems like a hobby project rather than something designed to compete on the games market. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, many hobby projects are superior in quality to store-bought things because of the amount of love put into them. As long as there are developers who actually care about the game, then improvement will always be around the corner. It will just take a long time to get there.
I believe that right now the community needs to grow. I don't think that the game needs too much more content to make it appeal to a wide audience. Maybe a bit of spit shine here and there on the graphics front, and people from the internets would love to play it, I'm sure. The only issue is that advertising requires money.
Here's another thing, I remember I read somewhere that a healthy player retention rate for a free-to-play game is roughly 20% after it's 30th day. Now, DarkSpace has gotten past that mark many years ago, but even today I would say that a good retention rate for the game would be between 2 and 3%. That's a very grim statistic, I know. But if you expose 1000 new people, then you have between 20 and 30 new members to your community. How about 10,000 or 100,000? That's kind of stretching it, I know, but you can see how it adds up.
I also believe there are ways to improve this percentage. Possibly by updating the site to a new look ( the first impression is the most important. Many new players will firstly see the website before even looking for the download link.) This is where the game is having issues, in my opinion. The first impressions. Get someone hooked for long enough to download the client and go in the game and play, and as long as you can keep him or her entertained for an hour or so then you've got yourself a new member of your community.
[ This Message was edited by: Cold Death on 2015-04-07 11:23 ]
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Cold Death
Admiral
Joined: July 24, 2011
Posts: 106
From: Right behind you...
| Posted: 2015-04-07 11:45
Also, as for game mechanics. These days, players enjoy having the maximum amount of customization available to them. Be it guns, armor or engines. If they can add a personal touch to their ship, they will. This is why games like TF2 are popular. They are free, skill-based and have an infinite potential for customizing your character through hats and loadouts.
Quote:
On 2014-08-29 23:34, Chewy Squirrel wrote:
[ This Message was edited by: Cold Death on 2015-04-07 13:33 ]
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I do agree with this post. Rather, I agree with what it's trying to get across. Attempting to offer new players with a limited selection of ships just won't do. People these days don't like to be limited in their selection. They want nothing more than the ability to strap 40 gauss guns to their combat cruiser. If you wish to compete with similar games in the F2P space, then you will have to do the following changes in my opinion:
1. Allow players to exchange ship parts for other ship parts of the same sort ( weapon, shield, armor, etc. ) This already exists, so I won't give too much explanation.
2. Allow players to add or remove as many slots of whatever class as much as they want.
Hey, maybe there's some guy out there who wants a single gauss gun and 10 engines. He's doomed to be shot down by missiles ( or by others who think like him ), but he should have the choice to do that. It's what players love in their games these days. Infinite customization potential.
You could have a ship-builder screen. You pick a hull/class of ship. It will come with predetermined locations for slots. What goes into those slots is up to the player. Maybe they want weapons instead of engines, or engines instead of weapons. If they have the choice to create ridiculous loadouts, they will love the game.
Progression doesn't have to be impacted too hard by this. You could still have the different tiers of ships. Just have T1/T2/T3 ship hulls instead. T1 hulls would naturally have the least amount of slots available, while T3 the most. Maybe with progression you can also offer the player more things with which to fill those slots.
With these changes, you can still monetize on the game. If something like this is implemented, then you could offer the option to color your guns, or have different particle effects. You've already done it with engines. I can't imagine it's much harder to do with particles and projectiles.
3. Drop pre-built ships, or make them optional at least. Something like "Recommended Loadouts".
4. Add more and more options for those slots in the form of new weapons, engines, shields, armor, etc.
Naturally, this represents an issue. How do you balance all of this? Well, it's clear that the developers don't have the required time to do any of this. However, there is a solution. You can outsource it to the community.
What you do is you hand-pick several members who are very good at the game. Then you hand them a relatively simple to use software designed to tweak every single aspect of every single weapon, gadget, engine or shield. And even create new ones, which would then have to undergo some sort of approval by the people who are assigned to balance the game.
This entire post has been an outsider's look at DarkSpace as it currently is. I use to play the game, and this is what would bring me back to it today. In the time I have been gone, I have witnessed many online communities ( mostly based around mods or other games ) rise and fall. During these times, I have always found the objective perspective the most valuable.
And to note, this is what I think will turn DarkSpace into a true competitor on the market right now. What the developers want to do with the game is their choice only, I am merely trying to do the best by giving as objective of an opinion as I can.
PS. On a not-game-mechanics note, please enable some sort of key rebinding. It's a very useful thing to have, and one less thing with which to scare new people away. The current layout is a bit clunky anyway.
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2015-04-08 07:55
We won't allow unrestricted modding. It made the game far too difficult to balance, and made it so people always went for the same cookie cutter build.
We tried it in the past and it resulted in the lowest subscriber and player rates DarkSpace has ever seen, even to this day. People refused to play due to overpowered ships, we'd nerf those, and others would pop up. It was a never-ending circle.
TL;DR: Absolutely not.
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Walrus of Apathy
Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: August 07, 2005
Posts: 466
From: Dorans Basement
| Posted: 2015-04-08 15:23
Quote:
On 2015-04-08 07:55, Pantheon wrote:
We won't allow unrestricted modding. It made the game far too difficult to balance, and made it so people always went for the same cookie cutter build.
We tried it in the past and it resulted in the lowest subscriber and player rates DarkSpace has ever seen, even to this day. People refused to play due to overpowered ships, we'd nerf those, and others would pop up. It was a never-ending circle.
TL;DR: Absolutely not.
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Should make it policy that people with accounts younger than 2008 get autoslapped by LobbyGhost in the lobby if they request that.
YOU GUYS WEREN'T HERE MAN
YOU DON'T KNOW
[ This Message was edited by: Walrus of Apathy on 2015-04-08 15:24 ]
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Enterprise
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 19, 2002
Posts: 2576
From: Hawthorne, Nevada
| Posted: 2015-04-09 06:00
Quote:
On 2015-04-08 15:23, Walrus of Apathy wrote:
Quote:
On 2015-04-08 07:55, Pantheon wrote:
We won't allow unrestricted modding. It made the game far too difficult to balance, and made it so people always went for the same cookie cutter build.
We tried it in the past and it resulted in the lowest subscriber and player rates DarkSpace has ever seen, even to this day. People refused to play due to overpowered ships, we'd nerf those, and others would pop up. It was a never-ending circle.
TL;DR: Absolutely not.
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Should make it policy that people with accounts younger than 2008 get autoslapped by LobbyGhost in the lobby if they request that.
YOU GUYS WEREN'T HERE MAN
YOU DON'T KNOW
[ This Message was edited by: Walrus of Apathy on 2015-04-08 15:24 ]
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Are you telling me that permacloaked CL2k claws that could fire while permanently untargetable might have been broken? Nooo those took.. skill or something. I can't remember the excuses this far along.
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YIIMM
Grand Admiral
Joined: June 16, 2005
Posts: 851
From: Barcino, Hispania Tarraconensis
| Posted: 2015-04-09 06:57
"Rock is OP, paper is fine." ~ scissors
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Stealth7
Chief Marshal
Ravenous Wolfpack Clan
Joined: August 13, 2003
Posts: 24
| Posted: 2015-04-09 17:04
Quote:
On 2014-07-28 19:09, xTx wrote:
I know a lot of the older players will agree with me when i say Darkspace use to be fun to play, thats no longer the case. I took about a year away from the game because it was boring to play, since coming back I see that nothing has improved, game is still boring.
I am going to make a few suggestions that would make me a paying and playing fan of Darkspace.
1.... Let the players create their own ships lay-outs, allow the freedom to place what they want on their ships subject to the restrictions of class and faction,stop trying to balance ships and let the players do it.
2... Get rid of that stupid planet capturing system, boooorrrrring. the need to bomb and drop inf to cap a planet needs to be brought back.
3... Bring the idea of having skill to play Darkspace back, skill to bomb planets, skill to fly ships, skill to build planets. Stop trying to build a game where everyone is equal, stop punishing the skilled players to benefit noobs and dumbies, let people learn to be good players.
This game has become like a Football game where nobody keeps score, play for 60 mins, shake hands and go home nobody wins and nobody loses
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Amen
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-DBS
Marshal
Joined: January 04, 2011
Posts: 204
From: St. Petersburg, FL
| Posted: 2015-04-10 00:05
Quote:
On 2015-04-01 00:46, Rae wrote:
and again.. (bangs head on brick wall REALLY REALLY hard trying to make you understand) it had nothing to do with an imbalance of the game and everything to do with the YEARS it took to fix it with little to no effort being made in between times.
How could .483 be worse than the game is now? It couldn't. If anything, were an email sent to all players old and new alike stating a throwback there would be a temporary surge just for nostalgia's sake alone if nothing else. that would attract new players. i'd pay for that.
Make no mistake. The game now is light years ahead of what I used to play. The momentum of the game now compared to what i used to play is gone. Bring me back my Darkmatter, my freakin unobtanium cause there's 5 kluth stations and a bunch of dreads campin the freakin planet.
There are so many cool features of the old game that made it one of the best that have been lost along the way. Everyone has focused so much on balance that they've lost what was fun in the game. Just my poor opinion, albiet my paying opinion.
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Balance always kills the game...
[ This Message was edited by: Mersenne Twister on 2015-04-30 09:26 ]
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Crim
Fleet Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 16, 2003
Posts: 1336
| Posted: 2015-04-10 03:00
Quote:
On 2015-04-08 15:23, Walrus of Apathy wrote:
Quote:
On 2015-04-08 07:55, Pantheon wrote:
We won't allow unrestricted modding. It made the game far too difficult to balance, and made it so people always went for the same cookie cutter build.
We tried it in the past and it resulted in the lowest subscriber and player rates DarkSpace has ever seen, even to this day. People refused to play due to overpowered ships, we'd nerf those, and others would pop up. It was a never-ending circle.
TL;DR: Absolutely not.
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Should make it policy that people with accounts younger than 2008 get autoslapped by LobbyGhost in the lobby if they request that.
YOU GUYS WEREN'T HERE MAN
YOU DON'T KNOW
[ This Message was edited by: Walrus of Apathy on 2015-04-08 15:24 ]
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2003 son.
Two thousand and three.
That's how long I've been here folks.
And you're idea of "balancing out the game" won't work.
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DiepLuc
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 23, 2010
Posts: 1187
| Posted: 2015-04-11 04:55
Unrestrited customization may cause a mess with ship visual design because the gadget and its performance on screen might not synced. If a player can modify the ship at his will, there will no be reason to buy credit and pay for subscription for extra 4 slots. Players will eventually lose their temper to fight overpower battle. I totally agree with Pantheon on this.
However customization is the key point of RPG and it's the reason why players addicted to the game. So I think it'd be better to have more option to alter gadget.
Say, cannon and torpedo are in the same section bullet. Fighter and mines are in the same section project. Missle and bomb are in the same section rocket. Therefore, more options to mix. It might require some adjust with the cooldown and power to make gadgets are relatively equivalent. Oh, and remove Metal prerequisite.
That would be easy I think. Once implemented, players ought to be busy with setting his ship and eventually stop complaining in the forum.
By the way, remove the planetary shield or make it just 7% defense unique structure will encourage player to bomb ICC planet.
[ This Message was edited by: DiepLuc on 2015-04-11 05:01 ]
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2015-04-13 21:27
What They said^
Unlimited customization = bad
Classifying gadget types together *could* work.
Being able to replace all your beams with flux waves is BAD.
Being able to replace all your torpedo launchers with missiles, is also bad!
Cannons, Torpedoes, Lasers - These are primary weapons, they have similar enough DPS and rock paper scissors relations that they should be interchangeable.
Missiles are fixed arc weapons and would be a class of their own.
Fighters as well, they don't compare to anything and require docking bays and such.
Mines, Bombs - These both work in similar ways with similar weaknesses and number of gadgets, so should be interchangeable, it really wouldn't hurt to have a mine layer with bombs.
This would mean fewer but more flexible ships. The way ships are classified could be overhauled entirely, from hulls with even distribution, to ones with heavy forward firepower, to ones that mix classifications, but the gadget numbers are fixed.
Current ships wouldn't need to be deleted, just re-purposed.
I'm still around if you need help with things, just a bit busy, and btw fattie sorry I never got that planet rework sent back, just a lot going on atm.
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Banshee
Grand Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: August 28, 2001
Posts: 2181
From: Philadelphia, PA
| Posted: 2015-04-21 17:48
Quote:
On 2015-04-09 06:00, Enterprise wrote:
Are you telling me that permacloaked CL2k claws that could fire while permanently untargetable might have been broken? Nooo those took.. skill or something. I can't remember the excuses this far along.
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Of course they weren't OP. Something can't be OP when everyone is using it, that is just being stupid sir! /sarcasm
[ This Message was edited by: Mersenne Twister on 2015-04-30 09:25 ]
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UnknownWarrior
Grand Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: July 18, 2002
Posts: 724
From: North Carolina, USA
| Posted: 2015-04-29 05:43
Quote:
On 2015-04-21 17:48, Banshee wrote:
Of course they weren't OP. Something can't be OP when everyone is using it, that is just being stupid sir! /sarcasm
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Of course they weren't OP.....It took real skill to pop a Dread in like 2 seconds >_>.........
[ This Message was edited by: Mersenne Twister on 2015-04-30 09:25 ]
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