Starbase

[Henkka77]

If I understand it right, after CA is done, the early access will start?

Yes, thats correct. They are very close to CA now, if i'd have to take a guess, i'd say 2-3 weeks, month tops.
Last week Frozenbyte started a puzzle, which probably leads to CA start date reveal:

Kenetor, Starbase's own "Obsidian Ant" tells about it here:

Puzzle is still ongoing and theres people trying to solve it in SB Discord.
If you want to get into CA, or participate in solving the puzzle, head into Starbase Discord. If puzzles doesnt interest you, you can lurk for the CA access, most active community members will get access first and eventually they will invite more. FB has said that they want to invite as many people in CA as possible, as they need to test the server mechanics with many players before early access.

Join the Starbase Discord Server!

Official Discord for Starbase, an upcoming space MMO with a fully destructible and infinitely expanding universe. | 33348 members

discordapp.com

 

[Henkka77]

Yes, thats correct. They are very close to CA now, if i'd have to take a guess, i'd say 2-3 weeks, month tops.

And that was quite spot on as closed alpha launches today! There is 2-day embargo for those 100 first invited until Wednesday, May 13th but after that there should be lots and lots of videos and streams dropping to YT.
Cant wait!

 

[Henkka77]

So, embargo ended today and heres few videos:

Oh and i have been in alpha for a week

 

[Rick6549]

Too bad you need a job as evil megacorp owner to afford a pc that can run it

 

[Henkka77]

Too bad you need a job as evil megacorp owner to afford a pc that can run it

How come? The game itself isnt that heavy and doesnt require high end pc. I am playing in 4K and gettting 30-50fps with everything maxed with Ryzen 3600, 16g RAM and 2070 GPU.
If you are playing in FHD you really dont need a powerful pc.

Heres my stream from yesterday:

 

[Henkka77]

Did some streaming again last night:

Really liking the game, its only in closed alpha but still theres lots of stuff to do and runs very fine.

 

[Henkka77]

Damn, forgot to post my latest stream 6 days ago..

 

[NeilF]

My main worry about this title is it may be insanely technically amazing, but will the gameplay and creation of things be just tediously technically over the top? ie: More frustration and time consuming that engaging and fun?

 

[Henkka77]

My main worry about this title is it may be insanely technically amazing, but will the gameplay and creation of things be just tediously technically over the top? ie: More frustration and time consuming that engaging and fun?

So far the only mechanism which i have found being maybe a bit too time consuming and a bit tedious, is the base building, which i addressed in that my first stream.
I mainly liked it yes, but its quite slow and might get into tedious chore if you build a really big base. (you shouldnt do that alone anyways)
But, since this is still very early alpha and i have been talking daily with the devs (two of them are in my gaming group's Discord), they have said that many things are subject to change/fine tune.
What comes to frustration, the ship designer might be one thing where casual players gets grimacing faces. It really helps if you have done 3D designing or modeling, or have used Blender for example. I had none of those and boy.. i can tell you i was really lost and REALLY frustrated after i went into the designer, in 15 minutes realized im never gonna understand any of this and quit, did that two times.
Then one day i just decided that i really want to learn how to use it, as designing your own space ships is one of the main features of this game and it is done really well.
Couple of hours later i had my first revision of really small hull ready. (it was actually just a cockpit inside beam frame but for someone who was very frustrated at the start, that was a big deal)
7 hours later i was still in the editor, and i can say that when you get the hang of it, its freaking addictive..
(i havent designed a single flyable ship yet so theres lot to learn for me also)

But yeah, i can understand the concern of frustration but as i said, things are still WIP and devs actively listen and react what playerbase has to say, not being Fdev tho who are constantly trying to please everyone. With that in mind, they have also that they want to keep their vision in some aspects of the game and that not every feature is for everyone.

 

[NeilF]

^ Thanks for the insight

 

[Henkka77]

^ Thanks for the insight

Forgot to mention about the ship designer..
If you dont like it, you dont need to use it. It is not mandatory in any way. You can always buy the premade ships, either what the game has or what players will sell. Yes, you can buy ships designed by other players eventually. You can also transfer your ship in the editor, rip it in pieces and see how it is built.
You can build ships in the game world outside the editor also (editor is in its own private instance so no one can enter).

Heres a pretty good build series if youre interested in how the editor looks:

 

[NeilF]

So do the mass, positioning of thrusters etc, all affect the performance of the craft via a physics engine?

Empyrion was quite nice to build ships in (albeit simply) but there was little adherence to physics, which was a shame.

 

[Henkka77]

So do the mass, positioning of thrusters etc, all affect the performance of the craft via a physics engine?

Empyrion was quite nice to build ships in (albeit simply) but there was little adherence to physics, which was a shame.

Yes. If you build a ship with uneven balance, your ship will veer to some direction. And if you lose a thruster, your ship will go in circles.
Afaik the FCU will keep your ship balanced: https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Flight_control_unit

Also, if you make contact for example with asteroid and lose some parts of your ship, it will affect the balance. I have already made one trip with a ship veering to the left all the time as i lost few things from the back of my ship after unfortunate contact with asteroid.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Yes. If you build a ship with uneven balance, your ship will veer to some direction. And if you lose a thruster, your ship will go in circles.
Afaik the FCU will keep your ship balanced: https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Flight_control_unit

Also, if you make contact for example with asteroid and lose some parts of your ship, it will affect the balance. I have already made one trip with a ship veering to the left all the time as i lost few things from the back of my ship after unfortunate contact with asteroid.

Mining is supposed to go the other way round with asteroid losing things to the ship.

 

[Darkfyre99]

So do the mass, positioning of thrusters etc, all affect the performance of the craft via a physics engine?

Empyrion was quite nice to build ships in (albeit simply) but there was little adherence to physics, which was a shame.

I’m guessing that must’ve changed in EGS recently, because I’m finding the need to design my vehicles with physics in mind to be rather refreshing, especially after having played Space Engineers, where only the wheeled vehicles were affected that way.

I’m still skeptical about Starbase in general. The ship designer looks to be it’s best feature, but I’m not very enthusiastic about it being a PvP oriented MMO.

 

[Henkka77]

Finally found some time to make this stream, but here goes:

Despite of the title, its not ship reviews per se, but more just my personal opinions of the premade ships in Starbase.

 

[Henkka77]

Closed alpha progress news:

 

[Henkka77]

Any Elitists who's got the closed alpha invite? Early access is closing in, hopefully we will see Starbase in EA by the end of Q1..

 

[Henkka77]

Aand we have a date for early access!
Starbase will launch in early access at 17.6.
While waiting for that, heres a latest feature video and a roadmap for this year. (all stuff are subject to change)

 

[Old Duck]

Remind me - is Starbase a pay once game like ED or a subscription service like Dual Universe?