Frequently Asked Questions

Out of date: This page is out of date (check page history for the latest changes). Most of the information here is from the early days of Closed Alpha (mid-2020). Some information may be incorrect; check out Early Access, Closed alpha, and Roadmap for some updated information on those topics.

On General Topics

Is there a shorter FAQ?

Jornexe (05/03/2020): yes, we have created a shorter list for Very Very Frequently Asked Questions

Will the game be translated into other languages?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Yes for EA launch we plan to have Starbase available in at least English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese. Not a 100% promise but this is the plan.

Will it work on low-end pcs?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Starbase will require some computing power but probably not as much as the worst offenders in this space... We'll figure out the minimum and rec sys specs during Early Access or just before. … Will need a dedicated GPU though, no integrated will run Starbase (well my guess, not sure how good the latest CPU integrated ones are, probably not enough juice in them).

LauriFB (5/30/19): Well we definitely want to support 1060 (and that means also 980 and maybe 970), so 4 GB could be more correct requirement. 980 runs game better than 1060, so I'd imagine 970 is still within playable

Hardware

• What has been tested (1080p. probably 30fps)
  • “It worked just fine” -PipFB
  • OS: (64-bit) Windows 10
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz | 4 core 4 threads
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Storage Type: HDD

• What Devs Use (1080p)
  • OS: (64-bit) Windows 10 / 7
  • Processor: Intel i5 8600 @ 3.1GHz | 6 core 6 threads
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • DirectX: Version 11

• 4K Max Settings
  • OS: (64-bit) Windows 10 / 7
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 / Intel i7-6700k @ 4GHz | 4 core 8 threads
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Radeon RX Vega 8 GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection

• Additional Notes:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • The game requires an Internet connection to play.
  • It only supports windows because the game uses directX Making it very unlikely for Mac/Linux support in the future.
  • Storage: 15 GB available space
  • We will revise the requirements closer to the Early Access launch

How fast does your internet need to be?

LauriFB (22/07/2020): if we ignore ship transfers the actual playing in the fight events seems to work well even with a 5/3 mbit stable connection for 80-100 players, and ship transfers can be done with a lot smarted ways and use server for that so the uploader doesn't need to have more upstream [...] fight type also has effect on that of course, but that has some slack and room for all kinds of tricky improvements [...] there's still room for all kinds of fun tricks. we are going to implement the server upload soon, that has major impact on low end upstream players.

Essentially, this way ships are first uploaded to a server, then the server then echoes that data to clients. That means each player doesn't have to upload their ship to every other player in the area, making things a lot better in large fights.

Is the game coming to consoles?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): I don't think we have any console versions planned.

LauriFB (5/29/19): we don't have any plans for consoles, although our engine does have console support (Trine 4 is made with same engine)

LauriFB (06/07/19): in general we are a console developer supporting all consoles, but starbase isn't at the moment something for consoles

PipFB (06/02/20): I'm afraid there are no plans for console right now

LauriFB (21/05/20): no plans for consoles at the moment

AkseliFB (07/07/20): currently we focus only for PC.

Will the game support ultrawide monitors?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Ultrawide monitor support should be reasonably easy to implement in Starbase (i.e. there's no gameplay limitations to consider, or at least I can't think of any)... So a pretty high chance in some update (not at EA launch).

AntonFB (07/31/19): BTW the game technically works in ultrawide, the UI does get streched over the whole screen though so if you run tripple monitor you the esc menu for example is split across all monitors

Will the game support Virtual Reality?

SaskaFB (5/29/19): Game will not support VR as of EA and we don't have plans for it.

LauriFB (5/29/19): No VR at EA launch, but we have done some tests. but definitely not EA or this year.

LauriFB (05/30/19): the game is designed to support VR but we don't have VR tech yet in our tech pipeline, so if that ever happens that will take at least one year, maybe more.

What is the game’s control scheme like?

SaskaFB (6/4/19): Rather simple. For keyboard players, there is good ol' WASD with some keybinds. Not excessive amount. All can be rebound.

Can I use a joystick or controller? What about TrackIR or HOTAS?

ArtturiFB (6/1/19): We want to support any controller we can. There's still some work to be done in the UI and binding logic right now to get the support on the level we want it to be, though. But don't worry, we're not going to forget about all of that. I have a full HOTAS+pedals+trackIR setup at home and I know some other devs who play stuff like DCS as well.

ArtturiFB (6/1/19): Definitely want to have [controller support] in, yeah. As I said, there are some UI and binding logic stuff that needs to be worked out for a nice analog axis binding experience. The modular bind system has its own challenges, since we can't really rely on any standardized control system for any of the ships in the game

LauriFB (03/27/20): so I got curious and plugged in my controller, turns out you can bind gamepad already and it works like it should (our tech has support for anything windows supports) just need to add support for binding aiming, currently it's assumed to mouse and unbindable. easy stuff.

LauriFB (03/29/20): I'd imagine proper joystick support will be done during alpha

LauriFB (05/21/20): binding joystick works already, but we'll add better support at some point

Will the game have a borderless full screen mode?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Most likely yes on the borderless full screen mode. Not sure if you mean windowed full screen with no titlebar/borders, or full screen and not windowed, but I imagine it's a yes to both as we've had these in the engine for a while and will probably make them for the new renderer too.

Is there any word on pricing?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): B2P (no subscription) … [No word on price] at this time.

LauriFB (5/29/19): we have plans to keep pricing below full price, but exact price has yet to be decided

LauriFB (07/01/2019): yes, it's going to be $40 or less and equivalent prices. (due to different tax systems $ converts to euros 1:1 most likely)

Do we have a ballpark on when EA starts?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): 2019

LauriFB (5/28/19): Our release date depends not only how we feel about the game and how any possible pre-alpha tests go, but also how well for example wishlist amounts progress, but we really aim for 2019.

AuraFB (11/18/2019): Starbase Early Access Delayed Hello @everyone! With less than two months remaining of 2019, many of you have been rightfully asking what our current plans with Early Access and the Closed Alpha are as well as the schedule regarding them. Even though we've made a lot of progress during the months after the announcement, we've not been able to start outside testing as early as we predicted. This means that Starbase will not be Early Access ready in 2019.

Jornexe (4/10/2020): EA delayed to this year. (this is just my own Thoughts. not official: Closed Alpha most likely starting this or next month.)

Is there any way to support the game in regards of pre-ordering or donating?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Well, telling people about the game and getting people to wishlist it on Steam is a great way to let us know about interest.

JoelFB (01/30/20): Starbase is on the #2 page on Steam top wishlists

Is there any lore regarding the factions except for the basics?

LauriFB (5/28/19): It's up to players to create everything lore-wise, empire and kingdom are just starting factions to provice early stability to the universe. Empire and kingdom hates each other since we had this developer convoy event where empire had a convoy escorted by fighters and kingdom attacked it totally without provocation, just like in the trailer. Early factions are dev controlled but we expect that player factions will be the real power players there, and what player factions do is completely up to them.

Jornexe (4/15/2020): there is currently a lot of lore, however not official lore. the community has put in a lot of effort to create what is currently today. most of it can be found by taking a look in the discords #Community-Creations Pins

LauriFB (23/07/2020): there's not much any kind of starting story/lore in starbase universe, the endos don't have any memory whatsoever so it's all up to the players to create the history [...] that doesn't prevent players creating theories or even digging up something from somewhere, but as for now at least there's nothing known.

What will my first minutes in the game be like?

AkesliFB (5/29/19): The design atm is that you will spawn in one of the huge stations. You have access "bulk jobs" to make money for your first ship and gear. The bulk jobs are kind of tutorials and simple way to earn money.

SaskaFB (6/6/19): Regarding generated jobs, some examples are some basic introductory mining job (where you hack an asteroid into more manageable pieces that get collected - and you get margin as credits) or some planned delivery/trade jobs. But there is social focus, so you can probably find more unique ways to make income (ex. fuel ratting, sabotage?)

Jornexe: This video ->

Will there be some kind of insurance for your ship in case it is destroyed?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There is an insurance system.

VilleFB (5/29/19): Insurance is going to cost you. I can't go to details, but I assume the cost of refunding your ship comes from total damage it has sustained.

XCompWizFB (6/3/19): You can respawn at a "saved" insurance terminal. Ships can be reclaimed through an insurance terminal for them.

Jornexe (4/10/20): Insurance system is currently undergoing huge reworks. Anything said prior to this date should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

LauriFB (04/08/20): contract and insurance systems, once created, should for example enable automatic ship retrieval/rescue rewards, if company chooses to pay one

What happens to my ship when I disconnect from the game?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): You should log out at a station after storing your ship. Ship otherwise stays where it is.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Safe zones usually allow despawning [your] ship

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): If you save your ship at a staion and log off, your ship is safe.

LauriFB (02/17/2020): ships depending on size can despawn if left out in the open. though this timer is huge and some ships can stay behind for 6 months. timer is reset once a player renders the ship.

Can I temporarily despawn or store my ship? Where?

LauriFB (6/1/19): We plan to allow immediate despawning at safe zones and no despawning at all outside of them. But plans can change.

What can you tell me about the game’s music/soundtrack?

TeoFB (5/30/19): The soundtrack is composed by Marcus Warner. I recommend checking out his work online. ... The soundtrack will have a release once the full game releases

JoelFB (07/16/20): Starbase Official Soundtrack Vol. 1 is now available for purchase on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1312940/Starbase_Soundtrack_Vol_1/ The soundtrack contains 23 tracks in total. It includes 14 original songs composed by Marcus Warner, tracks for the "Announcement Trailer" and the "New Features Trailer (January 2020)", two instrumental versions, and five ambient mood pieces by Sauli Lehtinen. The total play time is 2 hours 28 minutes of Starbase goodness.

On the Development Process

What engine is Starbase made with?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): We have our own engine, built to suit the needs of this game.

What language is the engine written in?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): C++ ... Some in-house stuff and Lua.

What is your renderer built on?

KaiFB (5/30/19): [DirectX] 11 afaik

How long have you been working on the project?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): 5 years.

Jornexe (4/10/2020): as of now, 6 years.

How big is your team?

LauriFB (5/30/19): Team size is about 60 people, whole company is 120

How is the team organized?

LauriFB (5/30/19): 14 designers, 19 programmers, 10 artists, 6 QA, 5 community, rest various other roles

What is your full timeframe for release?

LauriFB (5/29/19): We want to have a pre-alpha followed by early access, final release will take 1-2 additional years at least.

Are there plans for a server wipe when Early Access ends?

LauriFB (5/31/19): We are aiming to not need that, but between alpha and ea it's likely. Partial wipes are also possible.

Jornexe (4/10/2020): CA to EA will be wiped. though they plan to place some results from CA events (CA sponsored wars) into the game. location unknown.

Is there a roadmap anywhere we can see?

JoelFB (5/28/19): We'll release a roadmap along with Early Access launch... We do plan to release more stuff including "feature" videos in the coming months

Do you think you might end up doing developer diaries down the line?

JoelFB (5/28/19): We totally will. We'll start with some feature introduction videos probably, update note videos for Early Access, and I'm sure some kind of diaries are coming too.

Jornexe (4/10/2020): Weekly progress reports can be found here.

Do you plan on supporting modding?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Modding is unlikely in the context of the MMO aspects. Though I think we want to offer workshop things, I can't speak to the extent and options there.

Do you have custom physics engine or are you using PhysX?

LauriFB (5/28/19): It's each month less and less physx and more our own. Our tech programmer has been hoping to write completely own physics engine, but it seems it's already slowly happening ..

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): In-house + PhysX. Everyday more the first and less the latter.

Will there be any testing before Early Access?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Something like that is our plan, either a pre-alpha team for it or the very early of early access

Jornexe (4/10/2020): there will be a Closed Alpha before the release of Early Access. Here's the CA Survey for those interested.

Lootboxes?

LauriFB (5/29/19): Hell no with loot boxes, that stuff is poisonous and straight out criminal

LauriFB (6/6/19): No lootboxes or any predatory pay to wins or other predatory models, it's a single purchase model (we reserve option for small cosmetic in-apps, but even in that case best cosmetics are obtained via playing)

What about all this Epic Store business?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We are embracing Steam, but we indeed have also heard what kind of offers some developers have received. Steam wishlist is what we are looking in terms of .. everything.

Will the game have Discord integration for voice chat?

MarjutFB (6/1/19): Not planned. We kinda assumed people might just use Discord, but if there are good links for intergration I'd definitely forward those ahead.

LauriFB (4/9/2020): voip is technically possible, we just don't just now have time to do it (and it may have some bandwidth issues, but we'll see)

LauriFB (02/27/2020): voip is on the very long list of nice to have things

On You and Your Character

Is the game in first or third person?

SauliFB (5/29/19): You can zoom out from 1st person to 3rd person and there are some cases where 1st person is forced at the moment

Do I have a third person view when piloting a ship?

AntonFB (6/3/19): There's currently no ship wide 3rd person, only when you're running about. There's been some mumblings by the watercooler about external cameras, no actual design on them yet though.

LauriFB (05/27/20): mostly visual detection yes. no plans for cameras yet

How customisable are the characters going to be?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Robot outfit is customizable per part, I think there's like 16 slots or so. (Jornexe: actually 19)

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The different heads and things in the trailer are a great example.

PipFB (6/3/19): Four slots for each arm, four slots for each leg + head, chest and pelvis slots (Jornexe: correct. 19)

JimiFB (6/3/19): Armor coloring variations and different sets. Cannot promise for all to be in EA that you see here but at least you have some idea now that we have quite a few sets ready.

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Can I have multiple characters?

JimiFB (5/29/19): We are planning on giving players a possibility of making more than one character

LauriFB (05/06/20): current plan is to support multiple characters per account, albeit final decision is yet to be made (we need more information on that)

Are player robots voxel-destructible as well?

JimiFB (6/3/19): Characters do not support voxel damage atleast right now. They do have limb detachment and damage. But animating voxels is a different matter altogether without the models having major clipping problems.

Do I leave a 'sleeping' body when I log off?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Currently ships can be left behind but not player bodies, but it's something we haven't finally decided yet whether or not we want robots also to stay behind if player logs out in a non-safe zone

LauriFB (02/06/2020): powering off and staying in the world is one option yes, but no decisions about that yet. 3rd option is allow exo to stay in a homeless mode when logged off, for even more authentic dystopia [Jornexe: these are mainly ideas. not currently in the game]

What are the consequences for player death?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We haven't decided, but it's something not too harsh (ie. you get a cheap insurance body at recent insurance terminal of from a choice of five or so)

Can I upgrade my character?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Yeah there are at least equiptment upgrades available right at the start, and also appearance upgrades

Does my character need “food” or anything to stay alive?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Currently robot players don't need any energy or rest to function

Is there a bank or safe way to store materials?

VilleFB (5/29/19): You can "bank" items and material to station stash. Also if you buy insurance for your ship, you can get it back if it gets totaled.

Jornexe (4/10/2020): note that Insurance is being reworked. any info about insurance before this date is most likely invalid now.

Can I grab chunks of ships or other voxels with my hands and move them?

VilleFB (5/29/19): yeah you can grab ship chunks if they are not damaged beyond saving

Do players have jumpjets? Do they have limited fuel?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Yes, players can control themselves in zero-g with "jumpjets" and no, they don't have limited fuel. [They are] much slower than any ship.

ArrturiFB (5/29/19): The default player jetpacks don't have limited fuel (it'd be really annoying to get entirely stuck with no chance of movement), at least.

VilleFB (5/29/19): Player can be catapulted/slingshotted from a ship. That has happened to me too many times. Getting my pilot chair shot off during combat, leaving me rocket into space.

SaskaFB (6/3/19): The focus of the game is not the survival elements, hence players have unlimited movement in space, etc. and do not need to refuel. Although some people might prefer such survival-oriented gameplay, it is not our focus.

JimiFB (12/11/19): I'm the art director and we've discussed in the office of having a slow jetpack for the endoskeleton and an upgrade backpack is something that might make the "flying" speed faster. not really sure there won't be any possibilities of space flight without the use of that backpack

LauriFB (01/30/20): some asteroids are in jetpack distance even

Are there melee weapons?

JimiFB (5/28/19): yes, we are planning on making scifimagic melee weaponry

VilleFB (5/29/19): I've boarded and defeated kingdom ships with only my pickaxe. There are plans for actual melee weapons too.'

LauriFB (6/2/19): We do have combat shield, because why not

Jornexe (4/11/2020): All melee stuff i could find in gallery below (not all are confirmed to be in the game, however all are made by devs)

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LauriFB (01/13/20): melee weapons need to have a purpose, and I think that purpose could be found when we create the final damage/loot/etc model

VilleFB (02/13/20): Limited access to infantry weapons might even cause melee weapons to become very valuable in far reaches of player expansion.

What about gravity?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Players have mag boots, ships don't make gravity.

LauriFB (5/6/20): well, technically easy if we get gravity working, but gameplay-wise it's a ton of work to do, definitely during ea -stuff. [talking about gravity on moons]

Magboots? So we can walk on walls?

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Yeah there's a couple of bits of wall walking in the trailer. The combat scenes have people on all sorts of different surfaces.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Magboots are a toggle. And they allow you to walk around moving ships. (And jump while still on them.)

AntonFB (6/4/19): Think the current mag boot latch range is a bit above double your jump height.

AkseliFB (9/26/19): If you chop off pieces of asteroid your magboots wont react to those pieces. The asteroid needs enough mass to activate magboots. This is purely for gameplay reasons. It's horrible to mine asteroids with pickaxe if you'r magboots randomly pulls you towards a small piece of rock/ore.

Do I inherit my ship’s momentum as it moves?

AntonFB (6/4/19): If you are standing on a rolling ship you will roll with it. If you just jumped off the rolling ship you will keep your momentum for a while and then gradually slow down until you are at a standstill while the ship still rotates

What is my personal inventory like?

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): Holds parts, ores, tools, etc. There's a backpack system and a player bank access at stations. Mostly slots, though mass affects ship speed.

SaskaFB (5/31/19): Some backpacks have additional functions. Such as mining backpack having function to vacuum ore - it cannot hold regular items, but instead can hold and process ores. It also has one slot for pickaxe.

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): It has a slot for a pickaxe (a wide slot) and one small slot for soemthing else. Then lots of space for materials.

Jornexe (4/15/2020): for those with widescreens. picture on the right :D

What are the personal firearm mechanics like?

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): Guns work as you would expect. Projectiles are not affected by [drag].

SaskaFB (5/31/19): And there is no dropoff in space. Guns do not function as propulsion as of the moment.

Jornexe (410/2020): heres pictures of all weapons i could find.

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Will small arms have aim down sights, cone of fire, and recoil mechanics?

LauriFB (6/2/19): Yes, all of those at least. also as a bonus, custom clip loadouts.

Will there be different ammo types for small arms?

VilleFB (6/2/19): Small arms ammo customization will likely follow one type of ammo per round. Things like APDS and HEAT don't mix pretty well anyways (to my knowledge). But for missiles and such, more indepth customization will be likely as they are built out of multiple components.

On the User Interface

How much on-screen HUD will there be?

LauriFB (5/31/19): We are currently focusing on all 1000's of other UI's and will save hud decisions last, as it's most important UI. Currently only quickbar is implemented.

LauriFB (5/31/19): This rendering shows robot looking at his/her universal tool…

LauriFB (5/31/19): It's [a PDA] and can also access all electronic devices and configure them. We add all tools which require a screen/larger inteface to that tool. Here's an example UI of what will be embedded to universal tool...

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LauriFB (02/05/20): all indicators, hud, etc. are not even designed yet, but most likely will feature a ton of yolol customization

Will there be any HUD aside from the universal tool?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Some, but we leave final decisions to very close to launch as HUD is the most important UI element.

Can you script the HUD?

LauriFB (5/31/19): You can write to chips or to your universal wrist tool

Will code written in my PDA/HUD persist with me after I die?

LauriFB (5/31/19): I would imagine it's saved, but really don't know does that have negative implications. Shouldn't.

On Space and its Contents

What is the game’s starting area?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): The starting environment is a "sector" around a single planet. This area is already more than 10000km in radius in terms of existing content. You will be able to travel to other "sectors" (moon first) later.

LauriFB (6/2/19): We scale it based on estimated player amount. currently 5 mega stations and about 20 smaller. also, main plan is to utilize players to create more stations.

Jornexe (4/13/2020): Inserting relevant information below.

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Will the Universe expand in the future?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Universe is built to expand, but any expansions are decided based on how the game plays out. If expansion happens, it doesn't have any effect on existing planet/moons. Property doesn't disappear, but also transferring some static property (stations, cities) is most likely more expensive than just building fresh ones from scratch.

Will you add planets, new moons and other celestial objects?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Most likely at least something. Currently we are working on with new dust ring to Eos, which also allows dust clouds/nebulas outside the dust ring.

Will our Sun and other real world stars be added in the universe?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Starbase universe is in a not located in any particular galaxy at this moment, so all this remains to be seen.

Will we eventually be able to explore Eos's upper atmosphere and build stations there?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Currently there isn't any plans for this feature.

Is it possible to reach the borders / end of the universe?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): There's no limits, just vast emptiness.

Will there be any NPC (rogue endos, pety organics)? Hostile AI drones/ships?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Not in the traditional sense. However, it's possible that one day YOLOL-controlled drones attack players on their own.

Will there be any places of interest (raidable stations and cities ran by NPCs, moon caves and caverns, abandoned lootable handmade stations)?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Once players are free to build (and free to destroy or abandon) anything the places of interest will grow exponentially.

(Subquestion): If the stars will be a thing - will we be able to orbit them, build bases near them and 'bath in protoberances'? :)

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Currently there's no plans allowing closer approach of the star.

(Subquestion): Will there be any ways for direct energy / propellant replenishment from the star (apparently some kind of ramscopes / vacuum suckers for hydrogen are meant here)?

LauriFB(2020-08-06): Only solar panels are planned at the moment.

Do the devs have any ideas or plans for planetary bases?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Once planet landings are possible (more likely moon landings in the early stage as they are easier with no atmosphere etc), then there's nothing stopping players from creating such outposts.

CuomaFB (5/28/19): About planets you asked earlier. I have started prototyping landable planets but cannot make any promises whether and when we would have them.

Jornexe (4/13/2020): the newest trailer of Starbase showcases the moon, including a base which is located on top.

What about moons?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We want to have moons and such, reaching them is a huge objective for large playerbase

LauriFB (5/29/19): reaching moons and landing on them will be objective for the whole playerbase

Jornexe (4/13/2020): as of now, there are 10 moons in the world. where the closest one is a 60 hour ride. (time depends on your ships top speed)

Will the moon be on the far side of the belt?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Yes, it's way out of that picture shown [above].

What kind of ores will be minable on the moons?

LauriFB (2020-08-06): Exact details are not yet decided, but the plan is to have minerals unique for the moon(s).

Would it be possible to voxel mine moon's surface (and thus make quarries, tunnels and etc)?

LauriFB (2020-08-06): Currently not, but we are also testing technology which could allow mining the moons in the future. If the technology works the first version supports only holes (ie. quarries), but not horizontal tunnels.

What happens if I fly into the gas giant?

LauriFB (5/31/19): You burn and then crash and burn, at least with current universe tech. But it's a real planet in a sense that if you get closer it gets larger, etc.

Are there safe zones for things like trading hubs etc.?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The starting areas are safe. … You can trade in the starting areas. And build some, even. Not sure how far the area extends, but mining might be slightly at your own risk.

Can players establish their own safe zones?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Well, it's partially a complex thing and partially not designed yet, but essentially I'm looking for a system where factions can team up and form safe zones themselves, and then build on their own safe zones

Are abandoned ships and shipwrecks persistent?

JoelFB (6/5/19): Any ship that is intact is unlikely to stay in space for a long time (I think we have some login/logout stuff maybe too that prevents that, but if not, a player will come around and take it probably). Any ship debris/wreckage though, that could be scooped up by others after e.g. a battle...

LauriFB (02/17/2020): most parts of ships and bodies are semi-persistant, for example derelict lifetime is currently 6 months. but some small parts which fly off from explosions or collisions won't remain.

LauriFB (11/03/2023): derelict lifetime is 365 days since last encounter with player(s)

How will you prevent safe areas becoming too cluttered?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): OK, so the main thing to keep building areas "uncluttered" is lots. You rent a lot. You then get rights to use the station designer in that lot and lay out your blueprints. You can then, with the help of your friend if desired, fill out the blueprint with materials.

What would happen to a large group of griefers that spawn-camp the safezone?

LauriFB (6/27/19): That is prevented technically but also forbidden to even try. ... Some spawn camping is perfectly legit, for example if another faction is capturing entire station it's just normal to kill everyone and capture spawns. But of course safe zone campings are prevented and trying to circumvent that leads to saltberia time. ... I'd imagine they would find themselves destroyed by imperial army and sent to saltberia, where camping is perfectly ok.

What about too much debris and space junk?

MikkoFB (5/29/19): If it's a wreckage we plan on "cleaning" the ship away after a certain amount of time has passed.

LauriFB (6/4/19): We are next starting to experiment how and what is kept from shipwrecks, but the default is to keep major chunks forever-ish (ie. until someone salvages/cleans them up)

XCompWizFB (6/6/19): Things left drifting in space may despawn after a time, depending on circumstances

Jornexe (4/15/2020): objects have a lifetime. if they are not rendered within their life time, they will despawn. however take note that this lifetime can be Very long and depends on size. some can persist for 6 months without meeting another player. though junk cleaning can be profitable too. so i would imagine players would do it, if there where a lot of it.

Is the world contiguous? Can I fly straight from one end to the other?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The "world" is... big. You can technically fly from one end to the other around a planet, but from one planet to another is a little too far....

What’s the render distance on ships and stations?

LauriFB (6/4/19): Currently 20 km for stations, 5 km for ships. We are in process of increasing station distance. 5 km for ships means already a tiny dot often.

LauriFB (01/03/20): ships are small so they are 5 km atm. stations are currently 200 km but we'll increase that to .. a lot longer distance. asteroid belt, planet and such stuff have infinite-ish render distance

Will ships move like IRL space ships or like aerodynamic planes?

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Neither. Our space has drag, so stuff slows down unless it's being pushed by something. But other than that the thruster positions and so on move them like you would expect.

AkseliFB (5/28/19): It kind of feels like space since you can float around, but the drag will stop you if there is no force pushing you. Hard to explain how the space/flying feels. It suits really well for the game.

How big is the world? Infinite? Really large?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Well... my mantra through a lot of the procedurally generated universe work has been "space is big" … The starting game/EA state will be around one planet with a really large playable area. I think the asteroid ring is currently 2000km wide. The planet is about 6000km in radius, and the distance from the surface of the planet to the ring is... I forget. About that distance again.

AkseliFB (07/07/20): Technically there is a "border" but no one will ever reach it [...] Well, if no one can reach the border it's practically infinite. You can think it as infinite, as in never ending emptiness.

Is there warp/lightspeed in the game?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not at Early Access.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Technically we have warp gates, it's very easy to develop, just need to decide how to introduce them to the world the right way

LauriFB (5/28/19): I've been thinking that it would require both ends, so some brave explorers need to actually go slowly to the other end and setup the other gate there

LauriFB (5/28/19): We'll definitely introduce fast travel ways once the exploration and colonisation really kicks in

VilleFB (06/09/20): About warp gates; Someone would still likely need to build one in the end destination, so reaching far off places might still need someone to make the trip there with old fashioned way. But who knows...

LauriFB (2020-08-06): We'll introduce fast travel gates between Eos and moons after player-built stations are available. However this fast travel method is not fast enough to travel between planets, if there some day will be more planets.

Is the sun part of the skybox or a real object?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): It's actually several things, but it can move separately from the skybox. We have some awesome dynamic skybox tech.

LauriFB (04/18/20): skybox is made from parts, and it's being separated more and more all the time

Will skybox be changed to something different from current blue theme? And will it be high res is the future?

LauriFB (04/18/20): We are in the process of changing all element to individual parts, which also results to infinite-ish resolution. There's no plans currently about the colors of the visible universe.

How long is a day cycle?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Current test values are day cycle of 2 hours and a year cycle of 3 months.

LauriFB (01/28/2020): whole day/night cycle is two hours, night should be 20 mins out of that and might be reduced to 10

What happens when the world gets old? Will there still be resources?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The world is really big. (smiley) You won't make a dent in the available resources, nor space.

Can a ship burn once and drift to its destination?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Our space has drag so you have to burn fuel constantly.

Drag in space is an odd choice. Can you explain the reasoning behind it?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Gameplay and performance, mostly.

[AF - LCO] Lingon_ (12/12/2019):

[most definitely outdated]

having drag in starbase might sound weird but here is some rough reasons to why there is drag in a space game:

1. people will not be able to fly forever, making the game more challenging.
2. people won't be loading chunks to quickly
3. if you accidentally loose cargo at 150m/s it will stop therefor saving it from travelling through space
4. people wont be able to launch ships at max speed and leave them flying through space with the sole purpose of lagging peoples game
5. Players won't be able to use asteroids as long range super weapons. Therefor with the drag slowing down the asteroids before someone blows your ship to particles. So simply: if someone speeds up an asteroid it will slow down after a while therefor minimizing the catastrophical damage.
6. And of course for performance reasons

This is a simple explanation but yeah it's enough to understand why.

<C:\IHaveNoLife> (17/07/2020): Additionally, it means you don't have to either flip and burn every time you want to slow down or put loads of ugly thrusters on the front of your ship.

Is the "space drag" aerodynamic, or is it just a flat speed reduction over time?

AkseliFB (6/27/19): I think [the second] would be accurate enough.. a force applied to reduce movement. ... It's just [dependent on] the mass, not the shape.

Is there a galactic map? Or a data API for the community to make one?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not at present, but cool idea

Are there environmental hazards?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Later we will also introduce dust clouds/nebulae which require proper outer plating.

LauriFB (5/28/19): We have plans for various clouds but currently no eta when we would be actually doing them, definitely not at EA launch at least

LauriFB (03/10/20): target is to allow harvesting gases, but again need tech first to really know. damages are planned to be density and material dependant, so not all nebulas do corrosive damage. remember, tech is being created currently, once it's done the design is updated to work with the tech.

LauriFB (2020-06-06): Yes, the new dust ring will include hazardous areas, and so will the new dust clouds/nebulas.

What would I need to do to protect my ship in a hazardous nebula?

LauriFB (6/27/19): Secure outer plating at least to all of them, and since there will be a lot of different nebulas they all will have their own special requirements for structure. But that's post-ea launch stuff.

Are there black holes?

LauriFB (5/30/19): It's something we haven't thought of yet, but technically there wouldn't be any issues (other than what does it look like?)

LauriFB (5/30/19): our final goal is to have a whole galaxy and I've heard there's always a black hole middle of them, so in that sense it sounds like we have to create at least one at some point ...

What about the asteroids?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Asteroids are all saved and they deplete, but there are a lot of them. players just need to move a bit when one part is eaten up, if that ever happens ... they are in a belt around the plane. I think the belt diameter is something like 14,000 km and it's 2,000 km thick, so there's like .. a lot of asteroids. Asteroids are permanently gone once mined, broken or carried away.

AkseliFB (25/05/2020): The algo does spawn asteroids in pattern.. sort of. So you'll see them sometimes. But this is old tech. The asteroid belt will go through some major changes before EA. The belt will be way more interesting.

How big are asteroids?

LauriFB (6/1/19): Current asteroid sizes compared to robots. kv stands for kilovoxel, it's literally how many (1000) voxels the asteroid has.

Can I move an asteroid?

LauriFB (5/29/19): Yes you can move asteroids, my favourite mining technique is to haul entire asteroid to the station and cash it as a full asteroid.

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): Asteroids can be moved, but do not move by themselves.

LauriFB (5/31/19): Bonus video! Whole asteroid despawns at asteroid collection station, revealing the valuable core in the process.

What parts of an asteroid are valuable?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Each voxel is worth something. the outer rock is used mostly to build stations, while core is used for ships, devices, etc. depending on what the core is. But core is worth 10-100x more than the rock parts.

LauriFB (6/1/19): All asteroids contain ore, you just need to crack it open to see which. there are faster ways to do this also, like explosives.

Can I build a base or a ship inside an asteroid?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): When we get tech for bigger asteroids we will aim for this, able to build inside an asteroid. Makeing an asteroid to fly, as building a ship inside it is a fun question and might be doable. Have to try it.

Jornexe (4/13/2020): Yes, video below shows that it can be done. (last scene)

What kinds of resources will we find in space?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): I think we currently have like 20 mineable materials.

LauriFB (5/29/19): Here's inventory icons for materials and their processed ingots:

LauriFB (6/4/19): Here's some names at the moment:

Asteroid rock shell materials

Valkite

Ajatite

Asteroid core metals

Bastium

Oninum

Aegisium

Charodium

Merkerium

Lukium

What do the various processed materials do?

VilleFB (6/11/19): Nhurgite and Surtrite are used to make different explosive types. For example just simple C4 / RDX explosives would be made out of primarily by Nhurgite while incendiary versions would include Surtrite. Karnite and Haderite are still looking for their homes. But Alloys are one thing they are certainly being used.

(To be expanded…)

How are resources distributed throughout space? Is it uniform?

AkseliFB (5/29/19): Ore distribution will be.. interesting.. not equal

VilleFB [1stRCT] (07/31/2019): Minerals are distributed randomly within the field. There are some hotspots and special "rings". For example Ice is concentrated into several (8-10) rings. Amount of valuable ore per asteroid is still being looked at. "veins" are also something that we are looking if and how they should be implemented. "rings" are basically narrow ring shaped fields within the field that have certain ore distribution.

AkseliFB (25/05/2020): The asteroid belt will go through some major changes before EA. The belt will be way more interesting.

Are there rare resources/materials worth fighting over?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): There is a lot of materials in design, and some of them are quite valuable. Fighting for resources will be a thing for sure.

Are there rare artifacts out in the world? Things that can’t be built at home?

LauriFB (5/29/19): We have to decide after Early Access launch, most likely involving the community somehow

On Starbases or (Mega-)Stations

Are you going to have a "starbase" as a start area? What does it do?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Starting area in Early Access will be the Mega Station, or one of the areas within that (probably 5 different spawn areas). You can then travel to anywhere and start exploring the universe.

LauriFB (5/29/19): Starting stations are controlled by dev factions but player factions can build their own stations. … In general we are there to just provide safe havens and starting jobs for everyone, player factions will run their own course.

LauriFB (5/29/19): Starting area has many what we call mega stations, only one of them was shown in the trailer

LauriFB (5/29/19): Mega stations come also in different shapes, here's one we have tested

Jornexe (4/21/2020): amount of mega stations for EA is not yet finalized, and will be scaled according to player amount.

What else can you say about renting lots in stations?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There are areas within the starting area you can rent to build "small" station parts in.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): You can't buy stations (did I say that? I'm tired.) You can rent sections inside a station to build within.

LauriFB (5/28/19): renting is just one way to have a secure, nice lot with reasonable effort. building your own station to middle of nowhere (outside safe zone) is a proper hard mode ... I think rents are negotiable .. with (fire)power. and if you build outside faction areas there's no-one to tell what to do (or to protect you)

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): At launch, you won't be able to create new stations.

LauriFB (5/29/19): How many lots we want to one station to hold is completely up to the station owner, but typically they start in a range of few hundred to less than a thousand. but it's not a hard limit.

Can I control who has access to my station lot?

LauriFB (5/29/19): Lot access is controlled by owner

Will player made mega-stations be able to spawn and despawn ships?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): Yes

Will player made mega-stations be able to have a bank?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): Yes

Will player made mega-stations be able to pay out insurance claims?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): Undecided but most likely something will be allowed

Jornexe (4/13/2020): insurance is being reworked. anything about insurance before April 2020 is most likely outdated.

Will player made mega-stations be able to set their own prices for services?

LauriFB (5/31/19): That's the plan, but nothing done yet, and functionality most likely isn't right at the ea start there unless its been added and named differently.

Can I travel between stations without my own ship?

LauriFB (5/29/19): You can program your own AI and we already have public transport flying around and between space stations which is autonomous

AkseliFB (6/5/19): The stations are big and close enough each other. And they look a bit different from each other. They are placed more like center of the safe zone, not on the edges. I'm sure we will add easy enough info on the public transport so you know how to travel to your friends.

Can you move a space station?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Stations are stationary, so no.

LauriFB (5/30/19): indeed, stations are immovable as a whole entity, but in other hand it's perfectly possible to disassemble station into pieces and move those pieces away

LauriFB (29/06/2019): yeah, moving stations is also possible, although just building new and bigger is also fun (and it populates the space, even if that is with abandoned stations)

Will space stations orbit, drift, or move over time on their own?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): Undecided

On (Non-)Player Interaction

Will there be voice chat in the game or will it be text chat?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Text chat exists currently. Voice chat we could probably implement if there's enough demand (we kinda think people use e.g. Discord and others nowadays more than ingame).

Jornexe (4/13/2020): there is enough demand. and it has been added to the list of nice things to have.

LauriFB (04/09/2020): voip is technically possible, we just don't just now have time to do it (and it may have some bandwidth issues, but we'll see)

How will two players trade items?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We haven't made decisions how we want to handle player to player trading. You can drop stuff to others already. You can also toss stuff towards each other, they fly for a some distance before speed damps out, so I suppose thats a form of trading.

LauriFB (5/29/19): we will implement a trading interface once we have decided how we want player trading work

Can we build vending machines for trade?

LauriFB (5/30/19): I don't see why not, but I also would guess someone would hack or crack it open pretty fast

Is it PVP only or also some PVE?

JoelFB (5/28/19): PVP/explore at this stage at least.

JoelFB (19/06/2020): Right now no PvE planned (foreseeable future).

Is there friendly fire?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Pretty sure there was friendly fire last time I tried. (smiley)

LauriFB (5/28/19): Game doesn't diffrentiate friendly and non-friendly fires, but there are safe zones.

How do you plan to handle griefing?

LauriFB (6/5/19): My main plan is to turn all griefing into gameplay also, ie. hire players to secret police who then handles with this mess.

LauriFB (6/5/19): I intend to turn the tide, but in the other hand I'd imagine all devs think the same and still they fail .. but I'd say we have some pretty good ideas how to divide war, risky business and safe business, easiest being that allow killing only where it contributes to the experience (warzones, dangerous trade routes) ... We aim to offer relatively safe creativity for those who value that over destruction and thrills.

Will there be AIs in the game?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): As of this moment none are planned for EA launch.

CuomaFB (5/28/19): No AI (except the ones players manage to code themselves).

What kind of group systems does the game have? Guilds?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Players can form their own groups and factions.

LauriFB (5/28/19): We are implementing traditional clan/company and a smaller group for starters.

Is there a limit on how big a player faction can be?

LauriFB (5/31/19): No planned limits, but obviously we need to make scalable UIs to support huge factions. Our first UI is pretty standard, so we need to upgrade that once factions grow.

What differentiates a dev faction (Empire, Kingdom) from a player faction?

LauriFB (6/6/19): Faction strength depends how many members it has. If all players team together that's maybe what they want, but we will still maintain dev factions to upkeep neutrality and keep game fun for everyone (and provide reasonable conflicts where either side can win). Dev factions are not immortal in any way but they are beacons of light of some sort, ie. against toxic play.

Jornexe (4/13/2020): the main difference is that Empire and Kingdom starts with a mega station. else it should not be any different from your standard faction.

Is there a diplomacy or hierarchy system for factions?

LauriFB (6/6/19): Factions can be sub-factions, ie. vassals, to each other, and it's likely empire and kingdom will have such vassals a lot (to do all the proxy wars and such)

Will players sided with opposite factions be able to join the same group?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Factions aren't forced to opposition. Should be fine

LauriFB (5/28/19): We haven't decided that one yet, but I'm kind of keen exploring the idea that players form their own groups and that group can pledge alliance to kingdom/empire or stay neutral

SaskaFB (6/3/19): Factions are not that rigid, there is more emphasis on social factions.

Can ground/guilds/clans hold territory?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We are planning a territory system but initial version might be very rudimentary or not at all .. but that can also mean that building to space is unlimited and territories are defended with weapons.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not sure how much of that will be rolled out with EA (we have a lot of things built but not slated for EA).

LauriFB (5/29/19): yes, we have plans for claiming space. before the claiming system you can just fly your warships to a certain point and tell everyone else to bugger off.

Is there potential to be a mercenary?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We plan to utilize privateers in warfare, so kind of mercenaries yes.

Are there permissions to restrict/allow my friends to edit my ship?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Team work is highly supported, if it's not in the EA launch, it will be eventually. So yes, you will be able to build ships and stations with your friends/group.

Is there a trading currency? Are there NPCs to buy from/sell to?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): "Credits" And there are shop terminals.

Will there be an auction house, or will all transactions be through NPC vendors?

LauriFB (6/27/19): Both are coming, no idea though [if] AH [is] up at EA launch.

VilleFB (10/02/2020): Currently that is yet to be designed fully [...] Basically standard "auction house" setup which is seen in MMO's. Ability to look up what is sold in which prices and ability to set your merchandise to be sold at prices you want them to be sold.

Is the currency a physical item that can dropped/given to other players?

LauriFB (5/29/19): we haven't decided on that yet. transferring physical objects does work at the moment.

Will there be rich economic systems like Star Wars Galaxies or EVE Online?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Those are intended, yes.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Trading part should be doable as the war part is what we have been focusing on.

What determines the cost of an item?

VilleFB (6/4/19): The current iteration of economy, the mass of an object has great impact on the price. As most of the items and objects found in the game are eventually something that players can craft. That doesn't mean that electronic parts are cheap just because they tend to be on smaller side of objects in mass. Most advanced electronics are made out of rare noble metals that have much higher value than standard industry metals.

SaskaFB (6/4/19): Plus the more advanced electronics have also attached modifier to them - more difficult manufacturing process, more expensive.

VilleFB (6/4/19): Ship prices are quite broad. Vasama costs much, much less than multi million frigate. I can't recall the values out of my head (off from work atm), but by doing the most simplest and worst paying of jobs, getting a Vasama is 30-40 minute job atm. Beyond that, it really depends how player decides to earn money. There is always possibility to "strike gold" so to speak, and find valuable minerals from single enough to finance a complete fighter.

Does the damage model apply to players? Can I shoot off their limbs?

LindaFB (5/28/19): Yes, you can.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): you can even shoot their head of. prepare for vision impairment. - the torso is what kills.

Can we shoot off someone leg and then use it to hit someone with it?

LindaFB (5/28/19): You're free to try (smiley). Improvised weaponry at its best.

Can you enslave people and make them fight in a space fight club?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Tasing and taking prisoners sounds like a very Empire thing to do, but not sure if those are supported yet at least... Let alone space fight club…

Can I steal others’ ships?

LauriFB (5/28/19): You can steal a whole ship if it's not a safe zone.

Can ships ram other ships and move them in safe zones?

LauriFB (5/28/19): I think we haven't decided all physics impact details yet in the safe zones, but the zones are quite large so ramming one out would take a lot of work.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): and i note, A Lot Of Work. (though i believe they will change it so you cannot move other players ships in safe zone.)

Do ships have player respawn points you can build into them?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We haven't decided which is minimum size for respawn locations (ie. what size ship they require).

LauriFB (01/01/2020): ship respawn idea is something around a medium-size machine and you need to have the exoskeletons stocked with you at the ship. so it's not endless, if you run out of exos there's no respawn

How many players can crew a big warship?

LauriFB (5/29/19): The biggest warships are pretty useless without crew. I think the biggest ship briefly seen in the trailer would benefit most from a crew of 20-40

LauriFB (5/29/19): Smaller ships, which use crew of 5, were pretty efficient against single-manned fighters, but in the other hand 5 fighters working together is also super lethal. So I guess it's all about coordination.

Can two players work together to carry something heavy?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Currently it's only solo carry

Are there in-game bulletin/notice boards to post information?

LauriFB (6/4/19): Yes, definitely something like that, most likely for multiple purposes as well (ie. job board, etc.). ... We are currently creating signs which [can be programmed], but next logical step is to expand them to other types as well.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): progress reports shows a lot of holographic signs. which can be animated. there are also screens which can be animated using YOLOL. a lot of this is mainly seen in the new trailer.

On (Massively) Multiplayer

Is this fully dedicated MMO servers or something P2P like No Man’s Sky?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Somewhere in between. Hard to explain completely. We have a fairly distributed architecture with some amount of P2P involvement.

LauriFB (19/02/2020): p2p allows very good scalability and much heavier simulations than server-side. in some cases it may also reduce latency as connection is direct.

Are we talking “MMO” like 64-player servers or a true MMO like WoW?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): More in the direction of WoW.

What's the largest number of people you can comfortably fit in one area?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Can't say on the number sadly, I think it's quite high but we need to do more tests before I want to say anything (others might know a bit more).

AkseliFB (5/28/19): We have done [75+ people] already, we need more players to test our boundaries.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Generally I think the game caps visible players to ~100. Server won't complain, though. … We have some pretty clever server architecture and networking going on, so that should be handled, but there may be issues to iron out that we will have trouble producing until there are players doing that.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): ^this number has been upped to 1000.

LauriFB (5/28/19): It definitely needs to be addressed, but one way would be to priorize the ship always and skip some of it's crew instead.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Which I believe we do.

LauriFB (31/05/2020): I would guess recommended specs and everyone with at least 20/10 [download/upload speed] would likely bring us closer to 100 vs 100

Is this a seamless MMO? All the players on one server? Or are there server lines?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Yes, seamless MMO, all the players are in the universe at the same time.

Will people connecting from different countries experience rubberbanding or lag?

LauriFB (5/30/19): Each player experiences him/herself without lag, other players are seen based on connection between the players

Jornexe (4/14/2020): each player hosts their own space, which is the reason why no player should experience lag themselves. however if connection between 2 players is especially bad, they will both appear as rubberbanding for each other.

Is there instancing in the MMO part?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not normally, no. Some spaces may be instanced to give players a controlled environment.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): I think large space battles should have minimal to no instancing. We'll see how it goes.

LauriFB (5/28/19): It's not instancing in traditional sense in combat, rather than just showing the nearest 100 players (at the moment). It can be arranged in any ways and there are coming some neat improvements to increase the limit

How far could I get in the game as a solo player?

SaskaFB (6/4/19): Having meaningful trading is part of sort of social gameplay aspects we are striving for. I think self-sustenance is possible, but requires much more work as some necessary things are more difficult to acquire - such as some advanced tech needed by ships.

Do you have your own servers or rented ones?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Distributed server systems. I don't know the exact plan on hosting them, but probably not on our office network. … It's a distributed model and we've built the different "droplets" in-house.

SaskaFB (6/11/19): The player interaction, physics, etc. is handled with rather sophisticated peer-to-peer. Persistence and some security elements are handled on servers.

Can we self-host a Starbase server?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): No, but there is a sandbox mode which is close.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): sandbox mode has been shelved.

What is the sandbox mode? (Shelved)

AkseliFB (6/5/19): Sandbox is offline universe with no progression atm. There are plans to add tutorial/scenarios to the sandbox, but probably not in EA launch.

So no progression on a private server? (no private servers)

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Basically, yes.

Will the server have periodic downtime for maintenance?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Our servers update pretty fast and can be updated individually. Don't really know yet how that translates to players, but I'm hoping it will be as smooth as possible. However during EA we will be updating game very often, and every time game updates servers do also.

On Interstellar Engineering

How intuitive will building be?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We have pretty good base for the tools and the editor improves on a constant basis, so we aim for a pretty smooth experience.

How do I get materials? Do I have to mine/refine them or can I buy them?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): You can buy materials directly, but it's cheaper to produce them from scratch if you have the capability

Can we make alloys by blending other metals?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): Alloys will be a thing. We'll see when. Windows/glass is an alloy for starters. There is some design behind this.

Will there be premade ships to use or do all ships have to be built?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): You can buy premade ships

LauriFB (5/28/19): there are a plenty of pre-made ships, and also broken ships to be repaired

Can I find and salvage or repurpose existing ships?

VilleFB (5/29/19): You can buy any ship and kit-bash weapons on it's hardpoints. Or go little further and use larger shipping vessel's cargo room and make hidden weapon ports or torpedo tubes and masquerade as harmless civilian ship

What kinds of parts are necessary for building a ship?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): There is ton of assets where to build from. Every ship needs frame (built from beams), thrusters bolted to the frame and buttons/levers to operate. And of course electricity and propellant. Everything else is optional. Like plating, windows, doors, other devices etc.

AkseliFB (5/30/19): [The] base building blocks are everything from a single bolt to armor plating, devices and such. But we'll probably provide pre-build "modules" to ease the overall experience. You may also save your own modules for later usage.

AkseliFB (5/30/19): There is several different fixed length beams, also intersections etc. Same with plating, a lot of different fixed sizes. Or you can use "modules" that are pre built combinations of several items, and you can create and save your own modules, you basically will build your own library of modules eventually. At least that's the what we aim for.

AkseliFB (5/30/19): I created two pictures to show you a ship with only the frame built and fully completed one.

AkseliFB (5/31/19): Each part needs to be bolted together to make a spaceship

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Can I scale and resize ship parts?

AkseliFB (5/31/19): No custom scaling, we'll provide all the parts you can use.

Is there vertex/grid snapping?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): You are able to snap [parts] together.. no specific "grid" atm, but it's similar to grid building.. and we might support grids as well. We'll see how the ship editor comes around.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): the grid can be toggled. watch the space ship designer video for more info.

Can parts be built on an angle from one another?

LauriFB (5/30/19): There are angles, but they are a selection of angles. in trailer you can see a fighter with similar angles in the scene where the large kingdom fleet approaches the station they are attacking

AkseliFB (5/31/19): You need to follow certain rules similar to real world. You can't place I-beams in weird angle, they need to be in 90 degree intervals to each other so attachment plates can be set correctly and bolted together. When you follow these kind of rules everything else is free-form.

JannemFB (6/4/19): If you're talking about a ship's inner/outer paneling, I believe most if not all current angled panels are 45 degrees (and often flat on either side of the angled part). This is to match the underlying beams (the structure of the ship). I think there are currently a couple slightly curved decorative panels as well (that can be used on top of structural plates to decorate). We have experimented with other angles as well, but those are for certain as of now.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): ^so scrap this. you can freehand any angle you want atm, and it will work perfectly fine. though using a grid is probably better.

Can I build spherical or circular parts?

LauriFB (6/5/19): [Our] system allows perfectly round parts but we haven't introduced such parts as their re-use possibilities are low (basically they would fit only one certain shape ship), and fully unique parts would quickly take toll on technical side and on experience (meaning parts which are useless for others deteriorate the experience also).

Do I need to worry about bolts and structural integrity when building?

SaskaFB (6/4/19): There is structural integrity ingame, so you need to build things robust enough. As for the specific question regarding bolting, I'd need to investigate. The durability system is very complex. … There is limits to bolts' durability. So insufficient bolting can break.

Will material properties affect parts like a ship’s frame?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): We do have various materials. But for now there is only few that have high structural durability. Most materials wont work as ship frame.

AntonFB (6/11/19): On the material front we have cheap stuff that can be shot even with handheld weapons, up to "military grade" plating that can stop ship weaponry

What happens when a ship takes damage?

SauliFB (5/29/19): Generators and other objects have some kind of threshold for how many percent of mass they must lose before breaking

MikkoFB (5/29/19): If a bullet manages to pierce the generator it's most likely going to explode. … If cables are destroyed the ship might lose its functionality regarding power management for example.

SauliFB (5/29/19): Currently the cables are superdurable though, so usually if the cables break your ship is in pretty bad shape already, or someone is targeting the cables with close range tools

AntonFB (6/11/19): It would be fully possible to disable a poorly designed ship in one shot by getting a lucky shot to their generators socket board (where the power comes out)

How do I repair damaged ships?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): There's the repair tool that's shown in the trailer, that can be used to "paint" the missing voxels back onto objects that have been damaged (though there has been talk about putting in a threshold of damage beyond which it can't remake it), as long as you have the materials … Anything entirely gone you would have to find replacements for, and then place them back. The insurance system should also help if your ship takes catastrophic damage, though fixing it yourself would most likely be cheaper ... the repair tool can't just wholesale bring the entire ship back

If I cut something in half and repair both pieces, do I now have two parts?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): Yes

LauriFB (5/29/19): Yes you can duplicate stuff with [the repair gun] but it takes slightly more resources than using industrial 3d-printer, so it's not most efficient way for duplicating, just most convenient

PipFB (6/3/19): Yeah, there's been talks about there having to be at least 50% of the piece left in order for the building tool to be able to fix it in order to avoid duplicating

How much of a ship can be replaced before it's a whole different ship?

LauriFB (5/29/19): We have been thinking that the [Flight Control Unit] of the ship is the ship’s identity, so you could replace all but one part.

What is a Flight Control Unit (FCU)?

MikkoFB (5/29/19): Essentially your spaceships driving wheel system thingy.

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): FCUs take control input and translate it into thruster values, balancing out placement issues and so on. So you don't have to have all of your thruster assemblies exactly positioned so the centre of thrust is aligned with the centre of mass. The FCU adds turning input to make you go forward when you want to go forward, for example.

Will there be faction specific ships?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Yeah there are warships for kingdom and empire, but it's not like others can't fly them, they just aren't socially allowed (ie. stealing a warship is a bad idea)

LauriFB (5/28/19): the current faction ships, while perform and handle well, definitely are not the fastest/best designs, as they have also some plating used for looks

Jornexe (4/14/2020): permission systems allow you to make exclusive blueprints for your faction, and also set rank limitations to access them. player by player exceptions are also a thing.

Do ships and stations have any exclusive parts?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Stations and ships have almost all exclusive parts

Jornexe (4/14/2020): editor does not allow you to place station parts on ships, the same the other way around. However, this be be done manually by hand. so you can technically make a ship of almost only station parts.. just not with the editor.

Will ships come with manuals on how to fix them?

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): The ship is the manual; rip out all the plating and check out the cabling under them. Better to get hands-on experience on where everything goes for when it's all in pieces and you're trying to figure out which bits need to connect where :D

Are all ships voxels?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): All ships are made from parts that can fracture and/or be damaged at a voxel level. … We voxelize the model only after voxel damage.

Is there any sort of max size for a ship or station in the game?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not sure we can say. As in, not sure we know the exact limits. Design might set some based on performance expectations.

VilleFB (5/29/19): With current tech, stations could be pretty much as large as you could make them. There might be some limitations, but 1.8^3km size station should have no problems. Ships in other hand have more limitations, both in actual design side. But once we hit the technical limitation on engine side, we will put our talented codes to the task to increase the limit.

LauriFB (6/1/19): Currently biggest ship is the frigate seen in the trailer, and it's slightly over what our tech likes to have

Is there a max block/triangle limit on building?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not specifically.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): limit is officially 100k parts. Bolts, Cables and Attachment plates are excluded from this limit, however they have their own limits to avoid spam. (like 20 max bolts per object.)

Can we build capital ships?

LauriFB (5/30/19): That is our goal to introduce such capital ships at some point. definitely not at ea launch though, we need to do some tech magic first but we actually have a few ideas ...

Is there a maximum speed?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There's an upper limit, I think. Not sure if hard cap or damping mechanic. Ships have different speeds based on mass, though.

AkesliFB (5/29/19): Currently we are experimenting with 150m/s as max speed (if remember correctly). Some kind of limit is necessary to detect collisions.

AkseliFB (6/12/19): Hard cap, for performance purposes, like collision detecting etc.

MarjutFB (6/12/19): There will be a max speed, but also if it's a big object it's harder to go that fast.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): limit is 150m/s. hard cap. though there is also drag mechanic, so ships based on mass have their own top speed. (not based on aerodynamics)

Is my ship control console customizable?

AntonFB (5/29/19): Yeah they are custom made, as in you can place your own levers wherever and make them interact with whatever [chip programming] field you want. As long as it's securely bolted and you can run a cable to it.

AntonFB (5/29/19): Yeah you can bind the controls to whatever key you want

Jornexe (4/14/2020): can even be mapped to a controller. they are working on allowing for mouse/axis controls to be bindable too.

How are ships powered?

SaskaFB (5/29/19): Generators have limited output. You can use multiple at the moment to cover huge expensive things. They all will also use fuel and require eventual maintenance (switching fuel rods, repairing possible damage).

Jornexe (4/14/2020): Generators are modular. can be designed for huge ships or small. having multiple instead of 1 huge may be preferred for a lot of reasons.

SaskaFB (5/29/19): We have solar panels, but I don't think they are yet implemented fully as of the moment.

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): There are batteries and spare fuel cells as well.

Do parts need to be physically/manually wired to each other?

LauriFB (6/2/19): The wiring can be put to almost any surface and it doesn't take that much space. I think curently it allows even between plating/superstructure, but that's very hard to repair if it gets cut.

LauriFB (6/2/19): Here's a boltable socket, used to get electric and gas wiring through plating

LauriFB (6/2/19): Currently only combined electricity/data and separate piping for propellant, but we'll consider additional options as well

Do generators explode?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): Active generators are very volatile. Taking a well-placed hit into your generator will be catastrophic (like ripping the ship into pieces catastrophic).

Can my ship self destruct?

VilleFB (6/12/19): Self-destructing is possible. Yesterday we played with disabled gunship and attached autocannon ammo case next to reactor and hit it with pickaxe. It all blew up in chain reaction.

How do thrusters work? Do they require fuel?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The thrusters require propellant and power, and are individually controllable.

VilleFB (5/29/19): Propellant is currently refined from ice.

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): There are multiple thruster variants with varying power/propellant consumption ratios and max thrust

Does thruster position affect speed and propulsion?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Speed is measured in meters per second. Ship thruster count and mass don't really translate directly to "top speed" as thruster positioning and shape of the ship can have serious impact on that

AkseliFB (6/5/19): Center of mass affects the flight for sure. FCU + MFC [Flight Control Unit and Main Flight Computer] can balance the flight but non optimal thruster placement wont be efficient vs well placed thrusters.

Do thrusters do damage?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Thrusters emit super-corrosive trail so you can't block the side which providest thrust

How does my ship turn?

MikkoFB (5/29/19): We have main thrusters that are your main way to propel yourself forward but for turning and such you'll have to add smaller "maneuver thrusters" to the side of the ship.

Can ships be pressurized?

LauriFB (5/29/19): We have actually developed some checks to check for air tightness of the ship, but we haven't found any uses for that so far and I think currently it's legacy tech. So no plans now, but a possibility if we come up with the need (like once we get landing started, that might need pressurization)

Jornexe (4/14/2020): current idea is to use this for when the Nebula idea is implemented. (yes i know. lots of ideas.)

Are there liquid physics? Can things leak?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Not much for liquid physics, but definitely resource leaks. And the resource system is a closed-system fluid simulation for resource flow.

Do machines produce heat and require cooling?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): Yeah, generators and weapons produce heat that has to be counteracted by coolant

Will there be a system for coupling/decoupling ship parts?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Some coupling-like/cargo systems, yes.

What about coupling/decoupling explosive charges?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Yes, explosives exist. (Evil smiley.)

Is it possible for bigger ships to carry smaller ships, (i.e. carriers)?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Bigger ships can carry smaller ships indeed.

What are limitations with ships docking with each other, if any?

LauriFB (5/28/19): No limits, but colliding with high speed will leave wreckage. We have both tractor beams and cargo lock beams for docking solutions. … So if you want to have a fighter bay you would lock the fighters to your mothership with cargo lock beams, and if you want to slowly pull something near you would use tractor beam.

How long it is intended to take for various ship sizes to be constructed?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): We have not decided how long the actual construct time will take, but the time consuming part is the design part. There will be ingame editor for ship building at some point.

Can I make and save ship blueprints for building?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): I remeber that being discussed. Not sure the current timeframe for printed ships from blueprints, but would be a later update (not at release).

LauriFB (5/28/19): Yes we actually call them blueprints that can be created in the ingame editor(s) we have. you can order the blueprint (with a ton of credits) to be built for you, or build it by yourself.

TeoFB (5/31/19): There is an ingame editor in the works for designing ship blueprints. Basically it allows building without limits and doing test flights. Multiple users can play in the same editor session. There is an asset browser for selecting parts that can be placed into the scene. Part placement is free as long as parts don't overlap with eachother. Snapping parts together makes it easier, but it can be disabled if so desired. Usual editor functionality like copy & pasting, undoing and redoing works. Ships can be saved onto the local hard drive into blueprint files.

Can I sell them to others in game so I can make game money by being creative?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Definitely, but can't promise this at EA launch.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): plan is for this to be possible. not sure if you can already.

Are there pistons/joints/rotors that can deform parts of a moving ship?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Yes, all/most of them ... They also can be damaged, so you can have damaged door still opening.

Could an automated mining drone setup work? Like a drone carrier?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Yes.

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): I'm not 100% sure what types of sensors will be available at EA launch, but eventually yeah.

Are there remote cameras?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): There are no cameras right now, though there has been talk of them.

LauriFB (27/05/2020): mostly visual detection yes. no plans for cameras yet

What are the ship sensors?

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): I mean I want ALL OF THE SENSORS, but likely most of the really cool stuff will roll out after EA launch. Right now we have limited radio transmitter/receivers, laser rangefinders, and many devices that self-report on their own operation that can be inferred detail from

VilleFB (10/04/2020): I think transmitters for ships are being reworked and currently unavailable due to performance reasons.

How do rangefinders work?

ArtturiFB (5/30/19): Currently, a simple raytrace forward, reporting the range to whatever it hits

What kinds of data do sensors report?

ArtturiFB (5/30/19): Sensor data is likely to be limited to diegetic information inferred from sensors, so no "magical" data. But the larger ships in the trailer for example have programmed fire control systems that work on their own local coordinate frame (custom made in the yolol running in the ship)

Can we detect and transmit data sent between ships?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): The transmitters have a "channel" and a "message". You can see the ships detecting these and displaying them in the trailer. The detectors can adjust their target range, band (cone), channel, and spin. And output what they find (distance to and message value). Transmissions have distance falloff and I think the transmitter can set target range.

Can transmitters and receivers be coded to only work for a "frequency"?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): Yes

How far can a transmitter reach? Can I detect its distance?

XCompWizFB(5/29/19): Transmitters can cover 10s of km easy

LauriFB (6/2/19): [A transmitter gives off] a signal strength, but you need to know the power of the sender to calculate the distance

What do I use to receive broadcast signals?

LauriFB (6/2/19): The yellow-black thing repaired in trailer is a signal receiver, it can be turned when bolted to a universal rotating platform, and you can program [a chip] to automatically search for signals and maintain direction towards them.

Can I mark areas of space with a beacon?

LauriFB (6/2/19): Beacon building is for those who want to explore the unknown … I think the beacon signal is good up to 100 km, but it's safer to have more, it's really difficult to locate signal 100 km away. Of course there might come more powerful devices and such, but the base of navigation requires beacons. Note that you can triangulate also based on beacons behind you.

How small could I make a ship or drone?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Good question! Challenge would be making a small but still maneuverable vehicle. I think ArtturiFB tried that once.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Our smallest ship can be carried by one robot, so it's rather lightweight and I'd bet players come up with even smaller designs. It's one person space scooter rather than a ship. ... But the seating is optional as you can stand on top, side, bottom or any side of a ship, pilot chairs are not requirement for riding or controlling ships, so you and your buddies can ride the single-seater as well.

PriskaFB (5/29/19): Smallest ship, 329 parts:

LauriFB (5/31/19): I uploaded a small video showing the small scooter and it shows also a few stations and such. The video is from March, so it shows a bit outdated visuals.

LauriFB (6/2/19): [This ship] actually is powered by battery only as that's enough for it. That small ship uses only maneuvering thrusters as they are enough for the small size.

What about automated manufacturing? Can a machine produce these drones?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Eventually yes.

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): I've made some smallish automated construction, yeah.

ArtturiFB (5/30/19): We are working on fully automated factory stuff. The specific operation of any 3d printing is still being considered, but I've got a working system for building ship hull parts from the component parts using robot arms and tractor beams

How does a robot arm like that work?

ArtturiFB (5/31/19): Each section between the hinge parts in the robot arms is its own object. We're experimenting with various ways of customization (the arm in that video is an old version that didn't have the capability for 6DOF end effector orientation for example), but there will definitely be variety in the eventual arm sizes and tools you can assemble your own from

Can you build equipment to refine materials on a ship?

VilleFB (5/29/19): You need room for those machines but yeah. You should be able to install most if not all crafting related things inside your ship

LauriFB (5/31/19): Most likely a large ship can carry refinery equipment, but the energy requirement is the problem

Do you have pipes that transfer items around? Assemblers that build stuff?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Pipes and assemblers and the generators use fuel and coolant and the resources are stored in tanks and used as elegantly and possible. The mounted weapon systems even use the resource system, so they can do "fun stuff".

Is the resource system smart? Can you accidentally load missiles with coolant?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Resources only go where they are allowed, and only flow to where needed.

How does cargo work?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There are containers of various kinds

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): There are several cargo systems atm.

LauriFB (5/28/19): there's a number of ways to haul cargo, you can just use force field to lock it, or lock beams, or bolt the cargo to walls, or use different size containers

Can I shoot a hole in a cargo container and see/take its contents?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Yeah, you can do just that

How do I collect stray/mined materials from space?

SaskaFB (5/29/19): It's possible to collect mined materials with ships; I recently created a device to vacuum small nuggets yielded by mining (same vacuuming effect seen in trailer).

Will there be conveyor belts, rails, or trams to transfer people or resources?

LauriFB (5/28/19): we have what we call rail movers, it's a rail where is a cart. you can attach anything to the cart, for example tractor beams.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The "cart" is actually a small disc, but like everything else in Starbase, you can build lots of things with it.

LauriFB (5/28/19): yes, trams can be done with rails but also with ship tech … our current public transport is automated ships

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): We have rails in a train sense (which may not be EA launch content), sliding pieces, and hinges of many kinds.

LauriFB (6/6/19): There was a question yesterday whether or not a rail device could switch it's rail. Our designer tested it as we were also intrigued:

Can a docked ship transfer inventory to/from another docked ship?

JoelFB (5/28/19): Short answer to inventory/docking: yes (or at least player inventory and ship cargo and interact).

Jornexe (4/14/2020): there is a bridge laser hose thingy which can transfer materials.

LauriFB (26/04/2020): the resource bridge hasn't entered tests yet although it's soon completed, so we have still second round of balancing/testing coming

Is there a size limit distinction between "Station" and "Ship"?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The distinction is how you build it.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): yes. ships can only have 100k parts max, while stations have a size limit of 1.8^3km limit as of now.

Can you save a design and print designs?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): The ship blueprint designer, for example, is likely to roll out later, but you can take an existing ship and modify it to whatever you like. … Station building is done by designing a blueprint and then filling it in using materials.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Ship and station designers have different toolsets and a bit different approaches, so they are separate and includes a bit more designing also.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): the editor is usable now, and more tools are coming (points to video)

What will happen to ships or starbases with... naughty designs?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): We have plans for how to deal with unsavory ship and station designs.

JimiFB (5/29/19): We can't stop that but we are toying around with the idea of bounty hunters being employed or even an inquisition agents that hunt down these ships and their owners

SauliFB (5/29/19): Yeah bounties and ingame prison sentences have been discussed, but also harsher punishments, but I'm not exactly sure where the line will be drawn with naughty ships and continuously doing offensive things. Similar ingame punishments are also usable for bad behavior, that isn't against the rules.

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): There will be policies in place to prevent inappropriate created content, and due responses for offenders.

What about asteroid mining bases?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Mining is a significant mechanic and there are bases situated to support that. Later you'll be able to build your own.

The trailer had a blue forcefield that locked some rocks in place. Explain?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Cargo lock box thing. There's like 3 or 4 cargo systems and they all have similar sounding names. Think that's the "cargo frame" in current naming.

Are there wheels with suspension and such?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): No wheels as such.

LauriFB (5/28/19): Not in a traditional sense, but you can use distance sensors to fly ship at certain height -- just paint the wheels

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Until you can land on something with gravity, wheels aren't much good. You can make rotating things that act like wheels.

LauriFB (5/28/19): we are not in the landing part yet .. :P

On Ship Combat

How many weapons are there? Can we make custom weapons?

LauriFB (5/28/19): In a sense fixed weapons (a lot), but in a sense custom .. How you use them, place them, aim them etc. is the key, and that is completely up to players. Also some missiles have ingame-programmable guidance chips.

LauriFB (5/28/19): ArtturiFB for example has done some custom in-game targetting systems, which work pretty well -- well in a sense that the targets were non-moving walls, but still.

JimiFB (5/29/19): Currently we have Flak, Autocannons, Rail Cannons, Laser Cannons, -----> Missile weaponry is in development (swarm missiles, charge missiles, torpedoes)

AntonFB (6/11/19): Ship weapons are designed to be modular yeah. Don't know if we will have different versions (faster firerate etc.) in for the ea launch but every part of the ship weapon has its own role that could be tweaked for variations.

Do weapons have different damage types?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Kinetic, laser, plasma yeah. Missiles, torpedoes and dumbfire rockets are also a thing. If we are talking about ship scale weaponry. But every ship in space is potential weapon. Ramming is darn effective if you ask me

LauriFB (5/30/19): We have projectiles, explosives, lasers, plasma, emp, railgun, heat and corrosive at the moment either implemented or planned

Do different materials have unique building properties?

VilleFB (5/29/19): Materials have stats and uses in different things. For resisting weapon damage, the most important stats are Armor Value of an object given by it's material type and objects actual mass. So large plate made out of strong armor material can withstand small arms fire for quite some time. There are plans to introduce weight of an material so you can have heavy armor plating or go light.

How important/complex is armor plating?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There is a really cool armor system, actually!

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Various materials have a ton of variables for how they react to damage of all types

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): And you should be able to choose the primary material of a lot of things (at least eventually).

LauriFB (5/28/19): Certain strurcture is needed for high speeds and later we will also introduce dust clouds/nebulae which require proper outer plating. Landing also will require specific things from a ship. The trailer ships actually have very nice protective plating vs. being fired at. the frame of ship is very vulnerable to enemy fire, not to mention all electricity cables and propellant pipes, and devices.

Will shields be a thing?

LauriFB (5/28/19): It seems that at some point ship designs and counter-designs might need some spicing up, and for that shields will be a good contestant .. but first we'll want to see what players come up with traditional ship designs.

AkseliFB (14/05/2020): Shields are of course possible at some point. For now we don't want them, they are boring. We got great destruction technology so we want to embrace it

Will cloaking be a thing?

LauriFB (5/29/19): cloaking, no plans in a traditional sense. But I suppose you can park behind an asteroid, if that counts

Will space mines be a thing?

SaskaFB (6/4/19): Proximity mines are already possible with simple YOLOL and rangefinders - there are probably other possible sensors to use as well.

Can I "tackle" a ship to disable its movement?

LauriFB (5/28/19): We have tractor beams and cargo lock beams which can be used for that.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Ah. To minimally damage and disable. Ya, cargo/tractor beams.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Tractor beam might be more practical; cargo beams would be more like "latching on".

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): You could also use some cargo lock beam structure to grab a tighter hold of the enemy ship to keep it more solidly in place. Just need to be sure the frame is solid or the enemy trying to accelerate away will rip it apart

What kind of security does a ship have against boarding attacks?

AkseliFB (5/31/19): It's to be decided. But there has been some discussions on how to secure your doors etc. Atm you can just get into the pilot seat and fly away. We obviously will design fair gameplay for this.

On Coding and Chips

Can we get more info on what the in-game programming features will be?

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Basically anything that moves or does something in the game can be operated with the programming language - each device has its own set of values which you can access and change either directly or through a programming chip.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): [A] chip has a limited number of lines. And the lines can only be so long. And tick at a specific rate.

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): You can of course make multi-chip systems that run either parallel or sequentially.

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Artturi here has made some crazy things using many chips.

What is the programming language called?

(Various): YOLOL

Is YOLOL executed on the client or server? What about cheating?

XCompWizFB (6/07/19): YOLOL is client-side. Biggest danger is people cheating performance out of them, but that sounds like a pretty difficult and less effective hack to me.

How do I “use” a chip? What do different chips do?

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): This picture has several chips in slots, and those chips are actually of different kinds.

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): We're still working on the exact differences for chip types available at EA launch, but more expensive chips will at least have more natively working keyword functionality. The one open in the picture is the most advanced one, which includes trigonometry stuff. Cheaper chips are more limited in the available commands. The system in the picture combines different chip types so advanced chips aren't wasted on simpler logic chains.

ArtturiFB (5/31/19): The rack itself is modular and stacks with itself. There are several types of modules that can be placed inside, with different configurations of chip slots and other stuff.

ArtturiFB (6/3/19): The selection of the programming chips, which run the code, is still being considered, but it will at least include 3 different tiers of chips with a varying selection of native functionality (whether square roots, trig functions, etc, are available).

Can chips pass data between one another?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Chips work on "external variables" mostly, and that data is shared across the "network" (of connected devices)

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Yeah we have memory chips, which essentially have a limited number of network-shared variables that can be accessed by everything in that network

ArtturiFB (5/29/19): There are dedicated memory chips that contain a number of fields for the sole purpose of holding data accessible to a network. Each programming chip also has an internal memory for variables

What kind of data can chips store?

ArtturiFB (5/30/19): Currently only simple numeric and text data types. Memory chips can be used to store individual variables for use in all chips sharing the network, and can be used to make custom lists etc

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): No lua tables. No internal variables, to my recollection. The chips only have external variables defined within the device network they are in to work with. So strings and numbers. We have had some ideas for how to permit arrays, but I don't think there is a way at present.

ArtturiFB (6/3/19): Currently there is only one memory chip type, which can store up to 10 variables for its network. More might be added later, of course.

Do I need chips? What if I don’t want to program?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): On devices, you don't even need a chip to make them talk to each other. They have "fields" which you can change the names of, and devices that output on a field will affect every device field with that name in the network.

XCompWizFB (5/29/19): There will be pre-written scripts available at EA launch. Not sure what all at first.

AntonFB (6/3/19): The intricate code is only one aspect of the game that a lot of people are excited about. In no way is it necessary to interact with those systems if they don't interest you.

ArtturiFB (6/3/19): I think there might be a perception that the coding is a larger and more fundamentally important part of the gameplay than it is, due to many people here being interested in it specifically. Large amounts of the game are entirely possible without ever touching the programming side.

Is there an easy way to copy/duplicate YOLOL chips?

ArtturiFB (6/13/19): Copy/paste will be possible for code at least, we're still looking for the best way to automate construction of any more complex stuff that includes devices and yolol chips, so I hope we can get some neat solutions for "flashing" device configurations and yolol script from there.

So if you managed to get to one of these chips could you hack a ship?

AkseliFB (5/28/19): Technically, yes.

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Yeah, you can control the thrusters and read any sensor inputs the ship might have.

Is the coding based on an actual language?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Roughly based on Lua.

LauriFB (5/28/19): The language is very Lua-like but with goto.

How do chip types vary from one another?

ArtturiFB (5/31/19): The more expensive chips have a larger instruction set. ... Trigonometry is included there. The cheaper chips will have to do with more basic math functionality.

ArtturiFB (5/31/19): We're experimenting with alternatives and balancing the options available (currently the difference between the various chip tiers is the available instruction set), so I can't say anything definite yet. We're super aware of the needs of precision machinery and any automation that has to react to sudden changes in their environment, though.

Any way to share scripts with friends?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): We'll probably offer copy-paste. Not likely to have fancy direct-to-github export options soon, though.

Will my scripts/code run while I'm offline?

XCompWizFB(5/29/19): Maybe in some contexts, but not most as of EA Launch.

How many things are going to need programming on a ship?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Purchased ships come pre-programmed, and actual required code is fairly minimal. You can do a lot with just "mechanical parts" and cables.

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Even fuel saving modes could be made without any code, but would require adding in a button to the network and then configuring it properly.

LauriFB (5/28/19): You can create your own ship, which requires some programming if you want automation, but not much if you don't want those fancy fuel saving modes or automated landing. You can purchase also ready ships which won't require any coding, or modify existing ships.

Can other users see our code? Can I steal code from a ship?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): Yes

LauriFB (5/28/19): Yes, it's possible.

Can you write code to send/transmit data to other ships?

LauriFB (5/28/19): There's a basic signalling system which can be used to transfer data .. bitrate isn't high though.

Could I pilot a ship remotely using the in-game scripting?

JoelFB (5/28/19): This should be possible yes. Not sure if there's a range limit (probably) but yeah you can order the ship around (useful for secondary controls in the rear of the ship for example).

Could I remotely direct drones to attack a target?

ArtturiFB (5/28/19): Yeah, you could. Depends on how much of their stuff is controlled through the programming, and depends on what kind of access you get.

Can we lock our ships with a code to control access?

XCompWizFB (5/28/19): There are ways. Artturi and I have tested some fun methods.

Are there computer screens to display chip information?

LauriFB (5/29/19): Yes there are screens, and more variations are coming

Can my chips make notification sounds?

AkseliFB (5/30/19): There is no sounds in YOLOL at the moment, and this is something we have not discussed at all, sounds fun tho. Maybe at some point.

Does a given YOLOL chip know what ship it’s running on? Like an ID?

AkseliFB (5/31/19): It's about where it is connected. Data will run in the same network as electricity. So cabling will create the network where YOLOL runs and it will identify devices and variables from that network.

Do I need physical access to connect to a data network?

LauriFB (5/31/19): Yes.

XCompWizFB (5/31/19): You have to physically access a thing to hack it at all. Unless there are chips reading incoming transmission messages. So viruses would be very hard. Adding "bugs" to a device network would be very viable.

Does my endoskeleton have data that can be read/written by devices?

SaskaFB (6/10/19): As of the moment, no. Heh, but really, emphasis on 'as of the moment'. I can't say anything without being certain.

On Customization, Cosmetics, and Fun

Can I paint my ship?

JimiFB (5/29/19): We are still experimenting with painting .. coloring and decals on ships. we hope to get a good experience out of that

LauriFB (04/07/2020): painting interface/tools design has progressed, although first version is for ships. but similar interface can be transferred to endos/weapons as well, once we figure out all details.

Jornexe (4/14/2020): there is no RGB, though a color palette seems likely.

LauriFB (26/05/2020): ship designer paint tool is pretty soon done-ish, then there's endo paint tool, then maybe decals ... we'll see.

I want a cape. Can I have a cape?

JoelFB (5/28/19): You must earn the cape.

Can I make robot beer?

LauriFB (5/28/19): Well we have been planning bars to the marketplace, just don't know what the robots want

(Editor’s note: The robots want beer.)

Are there any minigames in stations?

LauriFB (5/29/19): space poker vending machines can be created with the ingame programming language

LauriFB (5/29/19): I think one of our developers have already created functional game machines and even a functional pong with AI player

Will cosmetics be sold as microtransactions?

LauriFB (5/30/19): we plan to fully live forever with the one-time payments, but we are prepared to sell some cheap, one-time, cosmetic only in-apps also. but if we ever add cosmetic in-apps, we will make sure best cosmetics are obtained only via playing. there's a great paper by subnautica devs how you can sustain one-time purchase model but still run it as a service forever, I think they call the model something like purchase as a service or similar. ... Also it helps that we have already done some 10 games, out of which some are pretty popular (like Trine series), and we still earns nicely from those games

Extra Resources

Original FAQ (Outdated)

Google Docs FAQ

Which developers to ask for information not listed in this page.

Developers:

Lauri - Creative director, all knowing. Boss.
VilleFB - Economics and resource dev.
HamstahFB - Heavy weapons ship expert.
JimiFB - Arts dev.
AkseliFB - Cargo storage, delivery and manipulation dev.
ArtturiFB - Yolol and devices.
PipFB - Feature videos and side videos.
KaiFB - Boltcracker video series.
TeoFB - Ship and station editor programmer.
SoosiFB - Faction designer.

Community Managers (Discord, SB forums, Steam forums, Moderation):

PriskaFB - discord.
ElluFB - SB forums.
VenlaFB - Steam forums.
AuraFB

Please do ask the community before you decide to ping a Developer.