Yes we can do that. But that's not the point anyway. Never mind. I repeated 3 times now. Yes, more or less in this line of thoughts. Want more variety too but not possible with a finite set of stamps. Sorry @dealler , that's quite off-topic.
Devs must focus on ideas to not force server owners to constantly wipe the server when updates are released because everytime there is a wipe you see loss in interest because people become frustrated at their work being lost. This happens in 7DTD and any other survival sandbox game. Anyway, hoping to see the option to disable blueprints in server browser soon. Perhaps there could be a template server option called "hardcore" that has no blueprints enabled and other anarchy PvPvE oriented stuff to try to popularize a way to play the game and standarize it so those of us that like to play that way can find these servers and form a community.
You can do that with a custom scenario. Put it on the workshop. Advertise it. Get a few people together and run a server. See if there's interest.
This is normal and expected in games that are still being developed. We don't like it, but the updates that require wipes are far enough apart that it isn't a real issue. It's nice to have a fresh start for the sake of stability in these games as well.
I know, but my point is long term devs should think on a modular deployment of updates so you don't need to wipe your world and just have new chunks generated with the new updated content.
This already occurs. Unvisited star systems will use any new configs. Old star systems won't, because they've already been generated.
You and this thread... there is something strange happening with you on this thread, but only on this thread, like some kind of curse preventing you from understanding straigtforward text. Very strange... do you, by any chance, read this on your phone while walking under a ladder while a black cat is crossing your path ? @dealler wishes that "you don't need to wipe your world and just have new chunks generated with the new updated content". What comes after the word "and" is something he knows is happening now, but he just wishes no wipes were required and new content would also apply to visited/ loaded content (which is requiring wipes presently).
The really noisy ones I tend to ignore, because they usually sound like "I want", "I need", "Me, me, me!" and I don't want/need that kind of drama. If I did, I'd attend political rallies. Empyrion is an amazing game for all its versatility, and the community has a lot of great people who will lend anything from simple advise to major overhauls and rework mods to suit - if one just asks with a semblance of manners, and Eleon has demonstrated this as well, time and time again. Yes, things are still a long way from finished and polished, but I'm hard pressed to think of any other game that has the level of community involvement we see here, and it's a great thing. No, Eleon doesn't make a habit of making "your" personal priorities their priorities, but that doesn't mean they aren't listening. They listen. As to answering the OP - Read the descriptions in the server lists, and certainly ask around here, there's nothing wrong with asking. I don't happen to know of any myself, as I'm not opposed to the blue print factory. I've built plenty of ships entirely from scratch, entirely in survival mode, and the best of those become my personal collection of blueprints. Sometimes I'll fall back on using one or more of them, simply because once invented, the wheel doesn't need to be any more round, and I don't actually feel it impedes survival play, as the resources still must be gathered, and construction still takes time to complete. You're just saving yourself the trouble of repeating something you've already done. Now downloaded blueprints... ehhhh... I get it, not everyone has the creativity to make something that is both functional and looks decent, and isn't simply a cube covered in guns, or perhaps they're quite good at making good looking ships, but can't paint them to save their souls.... I do get it. I just prefer to build my own designs, but I won't tell anyone not to download and use other peoples' creations - I have a few of my own out there for general consumption, and welcome feedback from people using them.
Really? I see the exact opposite, after the server reaches a certain age most of the players have quit since they have long since gathered an infinite amount of resource, have multiple palaces and huge ships. Immediately after a wipe almost everyone comes back.
I think both scenarios are possible. On a server where only friends and buddies join, wipes can surely be a problem for ongoing games. On any random server not caring about player retention, anything goes. I think Eleon should release a stable version we can stick to after v1.5 (like the previous versions 6, 7, 8 etc), sheltered from updates.
The best compromise I can think of is that you can "clone" what was already built ingame, in a real survival setting during that server time, and not in cheat mode (creative offline) and then imported online. This way you can have uniformity if you want to create ships that look the same for your teammates, but you didn't decrease the amount of people playing because they are offline building the stuff, and you also can't dump unrealistically overdetailed huge ships which can only be built in the artificial peace that a creative offline mode delivers. This also helps with decreasing lag by not allowing such ships to be dumped on online servers. There could be also the "hardcore" option for those that do not want any blueprints.
I have noticed this as well - and at this point the game is basically "won" once you have a self-sustaining CV in operation, as there is no actual objective to attempt to meet. In Survival, we have some storyline missions available to us, but still no final objective. I have proposed a sort of on-going game-within-the-game for multiplayer environments, but implementing this would take a good bit of time and development to achieve. I will repost this and provide a link when I've a bit of time. Stay tuned.
This is why is better to focus on PVP. Conquering chunks of space and setting them as territory of your faction is a nice incentive for constant struggle for space and controlling resources. On the map as you conquer sectors it would be coloured with the color of your faction and also the name. By not allowing blueprint abuse it would get scaled down and traveling to further distances would be more difficult which means more encounters with players. Add in more POIs with interesting stuff with each update and you can create survival sandbox gameplay dynamics that never get boring as opposed to farming resources, spawning stuff and that's about it.
Answer me a question: when the "Factory" game mechanic was first introduced, my memory is that 'you guys' said that, its 'virtual-access-from-anywhere' nature would be strictly a placeholder. What I recall being stated was that the intent long term was for the factory functionality to depend on in-game 'shipyard' bases or modules, whether they be player constructed or owned or friendly NPCs. I am not trying to entrap you guys or criticize, complain, stir the pot or any other anti-social or unfriendly agenda: I honestly just remember these things and some people have told me they have no such recollections (even though they too have played the game on-and-off since 2015 or 2016). If in fact, my memory is accurate, and the "Factory" as we have it presently in-game IS still a placeholder which is intended to be fully fledged with shipyard modules / BAs, then any comments or elaboration you can make on that would be much appreciated. Personally, I could understand if . . . given how the games Workshop has been a major force in the growing popularity of the game . . . the original intent to create a real Factory system (meaning one where you have to transport materaials TO the "Factory" or other storage and not simply magically drop stuff into "the factory" standing knee deep in a sewer under a Legacy POI while Abominations are screeching in the level right above you and your health bar is slowly ticking down from infections and parasites . . .) got sidelined or even cancelled. I would like to see an option toggle similar to that for weight/volume/cpu which allowed any user/server admin to turn a "Real Factory System" on/off so that everyone could continue to play the game how they preferred to play it. But with that said, I think the additional challenge of NOT having an infinite virtual backpack to store stuff in on every server / singleplayer instance could be fun.
Eventually, I make a "Respawn Lives Matter" mod (as an add-on to your RE scenario) that fixes this Eleon just needs to finish their game. I do not have the persistence that you and Vermillion have, enduring a neverending sequence of updating your scenario with each game update . . .
I'm not ready to agree with that without some numbers. I wonder how many players bought Empyrion thinking "Cool! A game where I can design my own stuff, or let others have all the fun for me! ". In fact apart maybe the odd Bethesda title where a basic player-made mod is required to enjoy the base game because the UI or controls are completely borked, I don't see the "workshop" as a "major selling point" in any game. Apart from the complexity of making a hassle-free, bug-free, exploit-free and not overly limiting feature, I can understand why Eleon is not rushing to make this feature as some players would want it to be. Right from the start, there's a huge difference between spawning an armada out of the blue and spawning a small survival SV/HV and forcing players to face the same requirements to spawn a blueprint can't be fair in all cases. Second problem is POI and bases number limits on playfields, and in multiplayer this could become a problem real fast. I don't think I have to explain this one, I'm sure no one will argue that it would make sense that only the first players on a playfield have the pre-requisites to spawn their stuff, and others have to wait in line. The rest is all about why players accept suspension of disbelief in some cases but refuse it in some others, and it's a very subjective topic.
I think a renewed discussions of these topics are warranted. But I would discourage ANYONE from trying to argue about how the game "should be" or "must be" played. The game is how it is right now, and it seems to be popular, if not growing in popularity. Hopefully the units sold and projected to sell are good for Eleon. That is what I'm getting at when I say "option toggle." Eleon is behooved to NOT estrange their current happy users and currently the game has a "virtual factory," which players use the heck out of. Heck I use it myself despite it feeling like a massive breach of internal consistency. It DOES kind've undermine the whole focus on logistics and organization which the weight / volume / cpu systems impose, but then those functions are optional too (as they should be). I hope it is clear I'm not proposing that anyone be deprived of enjoying the game the way they like it. More optional ways for players to play and server admins to set things up is GOOD! So with that said . . . I think a more 'limiting' or 'realistic' ship factory system could result in a lot of new and interesting gameplay dynamics. We already have this to some extent in cases like starter planets where the blueprint factory is disabled. This requires players to build something by hand, often under austere circumstances, i.e., a "survival game" experience. There are a number of ways by which a "Real Factory Mode" could be operationalized, ranging from extremely limiting to only slightly more limiting than the current system. On the "most limiting" side of things: shipyards could be something which only NPC factions can own and control. Players would have to be of sufficient standing with said faction, and bring materials (or buy them at the factory) and request the blueprint be produced. There could be a wiating queue, a chance for a catastrophe, etc., etc. If the goal were to make just getting a ship built at all complex, unpredictable, challenging and involved then there are innumerable ways that could be done using the games existing systems. I'm not arguing for a system that 'severe,' just acknowledging the implication in some of your comments that: yes, it could be done in such a way that only the most masochistic of players actually 'enjoy it.' But that is only one end of a continuum and there are virtually infinite points along that continuum . . . Instead of having to have standing, there could be one faction that will always produce a ship if you got the credits/materials. Instead of having to transport the stuff to the location of the factory, there could be a "courier" system. The player opens an account (via a sub-space channel akin to the sale network) with an NPC shipyard faction, pays a small one-time fee to have courier services, and now the player can do exactly what they can do right now (drop resources into a drop box almost anywhere) except they must create caches within wireless range of the drop site which all the materials dropped are "stored" (some already existing cargo crate model/texture could be repurposed). These could be invulnerable to player attack (even in PVP . . . though they might provide valuable intell of some sort in PVP . . .) and sit in the landscape for a period of time when they disappear (they got picked up by the service provider). Players account gets charged a pick up and now the materials are in the factory. Essentially functions the same as current system but with a few more requirements and constraints. The Shipyard "Device" could be something players might aspire to build themselve. It could even be as mundane as a "souped up Advanced Constructor," it all just depends on what Eleon would want it to be.
People can play however they want, but to me it's weird to play a game with an endless list of limitations imposed by its block building system and then not actually using the block building system. Factories to build blueprints should be a thing. Generally they need to create some kind of territory control layer to the game where you can't just slurp up a giant chunk of materials in 2 minutes, and instead you have to build bases and control areas on a macro scale to be able to actually mass manufacture spaceships.
