best game ever buy it asap.

[/\]

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[JLarja]

EA development was put on hold in May 2022, which is less than three years ago. Apart from some patches, that lasted until June 2024, at which point STU was created (from the ashes of PTU) and received some significant updates. Work on those updates had obviously started quite some time earlier, so the actual (nearly total) development freeze was less than two years.

I don't think the above makes a significant difference. Whether the hold is two years, four years or just a year, it doesn't look good for the game. Unfortunately we are currently again unable to make much progress.

As a side note, the game isn't build on Unreal Engine, so UE asset store wouldn't be very good place to look for anything. I don't actually know what tools were used by the Starbase team of the old or whether they are still using the same tools (for those who have moved to other projects9. It's also not an issue. I'm sure we could come up with some model, if that was the hard part.

Whether or not PvE pirate gameplay would significantly improve the game is not something I have much opinion about. What I'm always repeating is that there are hundred such things that we could pursue and everyone has slightly (or greatly) different idea about which would be the best choice.

For some idea what has been done since the development continued last year, here are the patch notes for the first STU update. If you check the roadmap section, it does list PvE content in upcoming features.

As for pulling one developer from other project to implement a feature: Serious development doesn't really work like that. As is true for most complex things, once the projects a company is doing grow large enough, there won't be many jacks-of-all-trades that could tackle all and any issues. Sure, even I could implement some pirate ship, represented by a box, flying around. But I don't know how to actually import a model to the game, or how to add audio for it (or how to renew the license for Wwise). I would also likely scratch my head for a while on how to implement a new server to handle such ships.

I could probably find out in a week, but it would be pretty bad use of my time. Once you leave behind the everyone-does-everything style of development, it's hard to go back.

When I talk about there being about one developer working on Starbase, I'm not literally meaning a single person. Just to get a patch out (after the feature or fix has been implemented and committed to SVN. Let's not discuss about maintaining the SVN server. Or keeping the office clean, for that matter) requires someone to maintain the build system (software and hardware, different people), test the build (QA), set the build live (usually QA these days. Jack-of-all-tradeness creeping back), collect release notes (QA) and publish them (marketing).

You can tell a single person to handle all that, but then they need to learn how to do each step, and get necessary user IDs, passwords and permissions from the people who usually handle these things. It's an inefficient way to do things.

So there's some coordination needed. It doesn't make sense to go after new thing every week. Once there's some plan in place, people can mostly manage themselves, but changing that plan is much harder than it would be in single-person operation.

-JLarja / Frozenbyte

[Askannon]

I'd like to point out, that if you consider this a scam, then it is a poorly executed one. Why? Because the servers are still running and costing money. And it was (most likely) not profitable even in the first few months ( Link ). So unless many people are buying the game anything that goes to the servers is a loss.

[JLarja]

Originally posted by Askannon:

I'd like to point out, that if you consider this a scam, then it is a poorly executed one. Why? Because the servers are still running and costing money. And it was (most likely) not profitable even in the first few months ( Link ). So unless many people are buying the game anything that goes to the servers is a loss.

I'd like to point out that your calculation is rather.. optimistic. 952.7$ may be the living cost, but that's far cry from what an employee costs. For reference median salary in Finland is 3160 €. As a rule of thumb, you multiple that by two to get a figure around what an employee actually costs to a company. Starbase developers were, on average, not the most senior ones, but we certainly weren't paying them 900 € / month.

Also in the linked discussion, please note that VG Insights list _gross revenue_ (I don't actually know how accurate they are). Steam takes its cut and then there are taxes. Let's just say that if we are running a scam, we are very bad at it.

-JLarja / Frozenbyte

[Askannon]

Originally posted by JLarja:

I'd like to point out that your calculation is rather.. optimistic.

Was meant to be very over the top to make the best argument for this being a scam as one could argue, and in doing so show how badly executed a scam this would have to be (or in other words not a scam)

[CloversDrop]

They forced PvP on everyone.
You lost everything when you got ganked.
This forced to stay in safe zones.
Safe zones had no access to rare building mats.
The game lost most of it's players as a result.
The devs abandoned it.
The game died.

Hell, you even had corporations that controlled the rare building mats selling their ship blueprints out of game on their 3rd party discord.

[Sandokhan]

Originally posted by /\:

eh w/e they declined the refund anyways so you got my money enjoy. maybe ill pass this down to my grandkids in 2080 when it gets its first real content update.

Probably the steam-company doesn't care at all either. Welcome to 2025. In general people are selffocused and don't want to put any time in other peoples concerns.

[Power]

Originally posted by /\:

Originally posted by Sandokhan:

Probably the steam-company doesn't care at all either. Welcome to 2025. In general people are selffocused and don't want to put any time in other peoples concerns.

I think it just was automated since it was purchased in 2021 tbh, but maybe someone reviewed it. I guess it is what it is. and the dev here cleared up reasons why a single dev cant just work on the game, Still would have been nice if they decided a few months before it lost all players to get it on its feet atleast.

IMO They should just make a new space station (copy/paste it) maybe make it scrapped up or leave it plain and turn that into a call of duty like battlefield players can fight on and respawn with a capture the flag or something. That and NPC units within it like 2007 star wars bf2. Then they can make some pirate stations/outposts and ships roam the universe outside of the starter/station zones I guess. Then players will return to do PVE content and PVP players will return as numbers return as they have targets to fight, and as more come they can fight eachother. No PVP player tho will join a game with 0 players listed on steam playing. But thats just my opinion

Steam only refunds within two weeks or below two hours of play time.
Also with EA games there's a big ol notice on the store page "This game is in early acces and may change drastically or may not change at all. Do not buy this if you are not excited to play this game as it currently is"

All EA games are a gamble. You're not paying for a finished game. You LITERALLY paid to TEST a game that's being developed and you CONSENTED to paying for it even though it may never be finished. Read better next time.

[Askannon]

Interesting rename of the topic.

[neock]

Originally posted by Askannon:

Interesting rename of the topic.

i know right? between the username, the tipic name, and the topic content of the main post... it reads as a bot account alt lol