Entry 85 — Important game changes

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Pilots!
The world of Star Conflict is constantly evolving, and lately there have been a lot of updates in the game. Today we would like to tell you about the work done. Throughout the year, we carefully studied all your feedback left on Steam, as well as on social networks and on the official forums. Many changes were made precisely because of the review analysis. 

 

Let’s look at the latest changes in the game and compare them with what the players wrote to us. For a reference point, let’s focus on the review on Steam from the player ChaiZ. More than 300 users found her comments important. The review was last modified in February 2018. Let’s see what has happened in the game since then.

 

Let’s start with what’s most important for the players. Containers for Galactic Standards were removed from the in-game store. Now all the resources for the construction of ships and the production of modules, modifiers and weapons are obtained only by playing the game. Galactic Standards themselves can be earned by completing quests, participating in [Golden Tournaments](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/37850-golden-tournaments/), which take place on weekends, or simply playing PvP modes during [Happy Hours](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/37913-happy-hours/).

 

If you want to speed up the process of obtaining the desired item or you have accumulated extra resources for production, use the updated trade bulletin board. 

 

Just in case, we remind you what the bulletin board is: 

• On the bulletin board you can place item trade offers.
• An ad stays on the board for at least 48 hours.
• When placing an ad, the item is withdrawn from the seller.
• The ad has a certain period of validity.
• You do not have to be in the game to sell goods from the board.
• If the goods are not purchased, they are returned to the seller.

Trade has been improved and is still being continuously improved. Now to sell an item, you can simply place it on the bulletin board and assign your price. Purchase of the desired item is carried out directly from the bulletin board. The number of clicks to complete the transaction is minimal!

The list of items available for trading has also been significantly expanded, and we do not plan to stop this expansion.

With the large New Year’s update, [“Star Conflict 1.5.0 Journey”](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/35449-star-conflict-150-journey/), we started the global fleet revamp. The ships designed at the dawn of the game received the latest unique equipment and capabilities. Because of this, all ships available at the moment have their own unique mechanics, which makes each of them in demand in battles both in PvP and in PvE modes.

 

The update [“Star Conflict 1.5.1 Journey”](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/36118-star-conflict-151-journey/) expanded the range of ship ranks available to all pilots: ships of ranks 16 and 17 appeared in the game. 

 

 

Each high-rank ship has tech that is inaccessible to others, so they work great in any of the game modes.

 

 

We added new locations for fans of PvP modes (Base Huron, Terminal D), and for those who love Open Space (zone Excavation Site # 6, Zone PB42).

 

Players who prefer PvE scenarios were not ignored either: the new missions “Ariadne’s thread” and “Attack on the Monolith” can be completed in multiple ways and bring a good profit to the pilots. 

 

 

All pilots — both beginners and experienced aces, who know the details of the game thoroughly — have the ability to increase their access level. Progress through the levels occurs during the story campaign, covering a variety of game modes. Reaching a new level gives the pilot additional opportunities: it opens up new game modes, more powerful ships, weapons, modules.

In the latest updates we initiated global changes in the economy. We have removed the abundance of various currencies and resources, and the value of credits has increased. Now you can comfortably earn credits on premium ships that generate 50% more revenue. Players can obtain the premium ships themselves during special events by simply completing missions. Before purchasing a ship, you can test it in the “Test Drive” mode.

 

Many players liked the PvP mode “Beacon Capture”, but it was too complicated for rookies in Skirmish. Therefore, the game now has a separate gameplay — “Brawls”, which includes such modes as “Beacon capture”, “Survival”, “Combat recon” and “Spaceball”.

 

 

Each mode has special conditions and rules, and changes once a week. This allows you to rest from the standard PvP battles and PvE missions and try some new or rare modes. 

 

There’s still a lot of new and interesting content ahead. Stay tuned and see you in space!

 

Sincerely,
Star Conflict Team

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interesting, and terrifying

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This is just a recap of past updates. What gives?

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3 hours ago, Deelena said:

beginners and experienced aces

I see this and all I can think is “beginners and experienced noobs” because it converts noob to Ace.

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Dear devs, I have to say it clearly. Change something else, please:

1. Update Open Space; and make a big change. Here it is: When you fly near an object, you hit it, although it is transparent.

Spoiler

So, you kill your ship because somebody did not craft correct borders for asteroids and stones in Space. Solution: run some sript which shows these places, and then automatically redraw them or just mark them and remove.

2. Add a new Spec Operations mission ,

Spoiler

because after 500 or 1.000 times Spec Ops is extremely boring.

3. Look at the Hangar - there are huge pixels from shadows; gigantic un-anti-aliased shadows near the entrance which spoil all the good view. AND THIS IS THE FIRST THING A NEW PLAYER SEES in the game. 

Spoiler

Maybe you cannot see those pixels on smaller screens, but I hate them on my 27 inch display.

4. redraw the old icons /thumbnails, those ugly pixels.

Spoiler

Do you think I’m blind? I can shoot from 5 kilometers on my Tackler! So, I can see even tiny pixels.
F.e. The Ammo/Munitions look bad, because you have not changed them for 5 years. Many modules or guns look pixelated and cheap, and outdated. Hire aan artist and redraw many things in the game, like GUI, Munitions, Open Space, Hangar, and those ugly corners of ships, when the sip looks great, but those pixels between plates or different segments make it look cheap and they annoy!

5. WRITE A STORYLINE finally - the game is just chaos.

Spoiler

I want to go to Pilot Academy, buy my first ship, find friends, defeat the Aliens and find a friendly Alien race. Some Aliens on my side.

6. Make new models for Caravans in Open Space. The caravans from that new zone in Open Space (Excavation site №6), already look perfect, and even better than many Empire ships which look like a bar of soap.

Spoiler

Why is it so difficult to port them to the other Open Space zones? Or, do you think many people can see them in that new location, especially before they can visit Excavation Site №6 somewhere in the middle of nowhere?

7. Make a default folder for screenshot user set.

Spoiler

Let me show the game where to save screenshots. For example, Desktop or C:/User/Desktop/Any folder I want.

8. Adapt the game to large monitors.

Spoiler

I have a 2560x1440 resolution, and sometimes I get glitches after I use Alt+Tab or some elements are outside the visible field, or I cannot move my mouse cursor to the top left corner (the gear icon) to open Settings.

Some more suggestions: The players need to know the correct time/time zone. You have already made Trade automatic, but now convert your UTC time into my time.

Spoiler

For example, if the match starts at 1 UTC time, convert the time for me into the time in MY CITY. I do not want to calculate or think too much. Give me my time in Berlin. I do not want to see the UTC time, because I do not use it and I do not understand what it is (as well as many other players who do not know time zones by heart. So, how do I come and play, if I do not know the correct time? I will better not come, and watch Youtube then just because I do not know the time).

And, maybe, you can fix Sector Conquest somehow. I am never able to play it.

Spoiler

I want to defend and attack drednoughts, but every time I want to do it, my ships don’t fit, my guns don’t fit, my b+tt doesn’t fit, or anything else. So, I am stuck at level 16. Dudes, it’s simply demotivating. Make it easier to try and have some fun. I don’t want to know all the maths, I am not a scientist - I do not want to calculate time zones, or set any alarm - you know nobody will do it. I just want to be in game, click it and play it.

The schedule is a bad idea for me because I do not play on schedule, like a trained dog.

If you do not have resorces to improve all of these at once, just focus on what people see every day in the game: hangar, caravans, SpecOps. Make it fresh**.**

The automated Trade is good!!! 
" use the updated trade bulletin board. " I have used it, and I liked it, although it needs some sorting by amount/price. And the Survival mode is even better than Spaceball! Cool!

 

•  

[DrDeath_ScD]

Funny how the review of a player with only 300 hours in game is taken more seriously than players with several thousand of hours. 

 

 

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kitchaiz/recommended/212070/

 

 

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Just now, DrDeath_ScD said:

Funny how the review of a player with only 300 hours in game is taken more seriously than players with several thousand of hours. 

 

 

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kitchaiz/recommended/212070/

 

 

Steam players? One per cent of the whole SC community? But, OK, maybe the devs are going to focus on money now. They should have reacted faster when many players left the game after the OVERPOWERED Alien ships had been introduced, like Targa was introduced. The exodus began with the destroyers, but I’ve been here for just about 2 years…
Damn, devs, change those names to something readable, please, please again. Nobody likes those Alien ships’ names, and 4 thousand years later humanity would not choose a name like that: G’Th’A’R’Du, Gthar’G’aa, Ghwhwgun, Arrrrrwowow-ship. Is this some conscious mischief, or maybe, you somehow need it in the storyline? You told us the ships were called after Aliens, but the names can also be read only by the Aliens.

 

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15 hours ago, Deelena said:

Trade has been improved and is still being continuously improved. Now to sell an item, you can simply place it on the bulletin board and assign your price. Purchase of the desired item is carried out directly from the bulletin board.

 

Yeah, except that if you want to trade a large quantity of stuff with a specific player, it is not possible.

 

Trading via mail is still limited to 3 item per mail.

Posting on the bulletin does not allow you to specify who gets what. It is more a grab-what-you-can-before-someone-else-does.

 

This is all good if you just want to buy stuff from some random anonymous seller, or vice versa.

However it is really, really, REALLY, annoying when you want to trade with a specific friend.

 

Unless you want to spam half a hundred email.

 

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The hatred is so strong that there is only a bot posting messages in this blog. Anonimity. Any dev any time since this blog was founded? I am asking this question: why are the devs not asnwering? Where is, at least, Cinnamon? Blown away by what? Have the rest immigrated to California or what? Here is my post somebody is hiccupping to. You know, in Russia you hiccup if somebody remembers about you. Last time I hiccupped about half-a-year ago. I also forgot to say their Facebook moderator surprised me a month or so ago. But, usually, there is no movement in the house. The tacklers are recovering. The Monolith is sending the mighty Predeccessors its Signal. Devs, it’s just my dream to see more development of the story line. I have developed some sort of paranoia in your game, and I need an engineer to fix my storyline. I mean, the Humanity is fighting with the Aliens, and we need some friendly race or some scientific breakthrough. Or, maybe the devs have got a talented practical mathematician who loves this game, and devotes his working hours to Star Conflict.

Now, I’ll go PVP to show those chickens what I came for.
P.S. I noticed  a dev in PVP today. Got a medal.

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Hey Guyz!

 

I’ve noticed other changes besides what’s listed here since I started playing.  I’ll make note of those here:

 

1. huge reduction to cost of paints and stickers for ships, and making those permanent purchases.  This is a point of demonetization.

2. reduction in gs cost (previously) for mod leveling.  (now you can do this with credits instead)

3. removal of the fuel system from open space.  (an unnecessary mechanic)

4. reduction of cost for iridium jumps through the space map.

5. bots added to both pvp and pve so players don’t have to wait for more players to start a match.

6. it no longer costs 50k credits to change nodes in the crew.

These are just off the top of my head, right now.

 

One thing I want to point out:

The currency exchange creates this value without doing anything with it:

8750 credits = 1 galactic standard at the highest trade rate (10,000 gs to buy 87,500,000 credits)
or roughly 375 gs to 1 dollar at the 40$ price, which is about $26 worth of gs from the $40 gs bundle.
 

the base credits value for gs is 7000:1

to buy 87,500,000 credits without discount is 12,500 gs

What about a system that allows credits from in game farming to be traded for gs?  say, at 1/2 or 1/4 value?

that would mean that it would take 350,000,000 to get 12,500 gs at 1/4 value, or:

175,000,000 credits to get 12,500 gs

 

This game would do so much better if it could allow people to create textures / shaders to apply to the ships, then offer those player created textures / shaders for sale through the game in similar way that warframe does, and dota 2.  moving away from earning money through gameplay changing systems, and moving toward selling aesthetics instead would be a great step in the right direction, I think.

With the Aesthetic System, the creators must earn a % of the earnings. 50% is a common minimum from places like http://www.daz3d.com/ and other places that sell 3d related products.  Players would be able to submit stickers of their own creation for sale at a higher price then the base stickers.  These sales must translate into actual monetary earnings, and not just gs earnings or it won’t work.

 

I am more than willing to do some texture work as a trial to work out a system if that’s something interesting to the players and the devs.  It removes work from the devs,and gives the devs income without effecting gameplay, which is the direction the game needs to go in.

One thing I thought about regarding ship ranks and balancing I want to share - lets say we have:
 

rank 10 frigate - 15,000 hull  15,000 shield,  speed 300 energy 1000 - has 4 actives

rank 15 frigate - 15,000 hull 15,000 shield, speed 300 energy 1000 - has 5 actives, the 5th can only be an escape active.

What I mean with this is that with higher rank ships, you add more elements that don’t effect the ship’s damage pool (hull + shield+regen) but give more play options for escape, but not damage.  Which means that while the ship can only dish out the same damage as rank x, at higher rank the pilot learns other ways to escape from near death situations when facing 1-2 ships.

And another note regarding PVE:  Bots must act our roles.  Engineer bots should repair player ships.  Bots should know to pick an engineer frigate if no player or other bot picks one.  If no destroyer gets picked by a player, then a bot should pick a destroyer.

Regarding PVP:  I’ve seen some people complain about pvp having bots.  In that case, make two queues for pvp players:

 

1. pvp without bots.  must wait until enough players join to play.  allows adding more players to the game as they come.

2. pvp with both for a low wait time.  the pvp queue does this currently.

 

Now, comment about the tasks.  I do not like that I’m forced to play PVP to get xenocrystals or other resources.  Players shouldn’t be locked into playing a certain mode to get access to materials.  In open space that’s fine, and makes sense, but not for game modes like PVP or PVE.  Ship kill counts are fine, killing ships with certain damage types, sure.  Doing those things in PVP only or PVE only isn’t ok.  Also, only being able to get 10 to 15 xenocrystals a day for multiple ships that require over 3000 xeno to finish is far too few.  Likewise for the amount of the yellow / orange crystals that I can’t think of the name for.

 

Trade - limiting people’s ability to list only 5 items doesn’t work for the economy, nor does giving a built in minimum gs price for an item.  These two things need to be changed to open the economy.  the 48 hour listing is ok, but not ideal.  Please reference ( https://warframe.market/ ) for ideas regarding an ideal market for star conflict.  Not only should sellers be able to list their prices, buyers should also be able to list the top price they’re willing to pay for an item.

 

Iridium - another resource locked behind certain game modes.  If you want people to only be able to access a certain number of chances for x part or item in the boxes, change the lotto box chances instead of limiting how many times they can open them or do the tasks to get the lotto boxes.   Giving more access to the rare parts lotto boxes means people play more because they’ve got a goal.   Example:

 

Every hour I can run x task and get gamma c cache to open.
 

gamma c cache has:

------below 70% roll ----------

35% chance to get - base ammo for x rank depending on box type
25% chance to get base missile type (including drones and doomsday missiles) for x rank depending on box type
10% chance to get special purple ammo for x rank depending on box type

-----above 70% roll -------------
10% to get x gamma c cache item

10% to get x gamme c cache item

5% to get x gamme c cache item

5% to get x gamme c cache item

 

so, a player would need to get a roll above 70% to qualify for a roll within the top tier rare items, instead of a guarantee for one of them each time.  This cuts down on market flooding of rare parts from the caches / lotto boxes, and gets people playing more to achieve the goal.

 

OR:

 

1. drop the cache boxes all together

2. add the items to the possible after battle rewards from drops

3. remove the element of +2 drops from the license and make all people able to get the same number of after game drops

4. add another 25% credit increase to the license bonus

The mechanics around ship building are great.  the crew, mods, and frames.  The mechanics for the economy and materials need refinement.  I aimed here to present some base ideas to get the community to start talking more about these changes, and give approval or better, more refined, ideas because the core gameplay for star conflict is great, and I’d like to see more people play.

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Good underlining

they will remove you like everyone who wants to help.

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Another annoying thing - I like when I get something for my battle. But, there are some tasks which give you some loot, and you do not need this loot. I have 10 letters with Nanoreceivers, and every day I get lot of letters with Alien resources. I started playing less because I feel demotivated.
You will fool me again and give unnecessary resources, what a LOHOTRON лохотрон lottery. Give me only the resources I want. I do not want to work for nothing.

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On 11/9/2018 at 9:52 AM, STALOWY said:

Good underlining

they will remove you like everyone who wants to help.

No, they do not have a moral right. They need good practical mathematicians. I propose them to hire one, or use the players’ advice. Also, the game needs an artist. You think it doesn’t? Click the Battle button and you will see those ugly pixels.

PLEASE, REDRAW THE ICONS IN BATTLE, they have artifacts on a good screen, like a bad-quality JPEG. This game is for 90’s computers or what? My PC is strong enough to show the image without pixels.

The damn pixels are everywhere, like the game was adapted for old smartphone screens. This makes this game look cheap (but I know that it’s only the ugly pixels in thumbnails). The rest of the game looks all right, but the pixels in hangar, icons, thumbnails, and images need more attention. They look old and neglected. A new player will open the Battle and close the game becuase it looks ugly. Let me post a screenshot from my good resolution screen (2560x1440):

 

Munitions also look bad: ](<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2018_11/Battle_menu_artifacts.png.adee2083dfdb8c7376c66f2a4497ebd7.png)

 

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Hey, devs, what do you think about the gamers’ propositions? Do you read this blog or not? What is the point of giving you feedback, if you only follow your line? Can you adapt to the players’ needs? You can see the situation is not good, so why don’t YOU change?
Are you slow because there is some slow person, or because there is no money from donaters? What do you need to remove pixels and remove blurry icons?
Seriously, why are you slow? Should I buy some DLC or what? facepalm
If you don’t understand English, why don’t you practice, and play your own game in the English client? Have you heard what we said here?

 

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On 11/9/2018 at 9:52 AM, STALOWY said:

Good underlining

they will remove you like everyone who wants to help.

They need more good Steam reports. Just try, and I will buy Steam just to leave a bad report, and I will support the bad reviews. You should better listen to me, because I am in love with your game.
I know Koromac and ORCA, and they will spread the knowledge. You can smile, but removing ME will not be better than LETTING me STAY. And even if the devs remove me, I still have the YouTube channles from some old players. I will spend some days to leave some memories. Let’s live in harmony and love and respect, please.
IN SHORT I think that after adding those new ships, the devs should focus on the cosmetic changes, like the ugly pixels, no anti-aliasing for shadows, errors in ship models, pixels on ships, pixels on big screens, pixels in icons/thumbnails, pixels in Munitions and some old guns.
I WANT DEAD PIXELS. Please, upvote me if you also hate pixels!
P.S. And this page goes to Archive.org
 

[9862951]

This isn’t a suggestion thread, there is a contest specifically for this, if you make a good enough suggestion you will see it happen.

16 minutes ago, inyazserg said:

You should better listen to me, because I am in love with your game.

If this doesn’t summarise everything that is wrong with this community then I don’t know what else.

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2 hours ago, inyazserg said:

Hey, devs, what do you think about the gamers’ propositions? Do you read this blog or not? What is the point of giving you feedback, if you only follow your line? Can you adapt to the players’ needs? You can see the situation is not good, so why don’t YOU change?
Are you slow because there is some slow person(…)

Erm, maybe because you are writing in the wrong section? There is currently a contest for the best change idea running also there is a whole subforum for suggestions, from which a lot of ideas actually ended in the game. Writing suggestions here doesn’t really make much sense.

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19 hours ago, niripas said:

Erm, maybe because you are writing in the wrong section? There is currently a contest

I have never heard about any contest. Maybe it got lost in the news together with all the bonus, sale, discount advertisement. Same as the other messages got lost in the MANUFACTURED spam in the game. Please, give me the link to that contest.

 

19 hours ago, niripas said:

suggestions here don’t really make much sense.

I can’t be sure, because at least I got some help from you.

 

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18 minutes ago, inyazserg said:

I have never heard about any contest. Maybe it got lost in the news together with all the bonus, sale, discount advertisement. Same as the other messages got lost in the MANUFACTURED spam in the game. Please, give me the link to that contest.

Check in Events/Tournaments. It’s literally on the front page as you enter forum.star-conflict.com, so no it’s not obscured by anything.

 

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40 minutes ago, niripas said:

Check in Events/Tournaments. It’s literally on the front page as you enter forum.star-conflict.com, so no it’s not obscured by anything.

 

Dude, you could have given me a link. Don’t answer here. Let’s go to that discussion: