Less pathetic Station salvaging

[Winterhome]

Right now we have Decayed stations all over the place, yeah? You can get one Scrap Alloy or Circuit (or whatever the name is) per each block harvested when salvaging a station.

It takes a number of these to create one Alloy Mesh or one Crystal Composite. You seriously get more Mesh/Composite when you salvage a small handful of asteroids and process the minerals.

Let's make station salvaging more useful and profitable.

The idea: When salvaging a derelict station with Salvage Lasers, you get a few of the original Capsules used to produce the block being salvaged. I'm thinking half of the base capsule cost of all combined materials. In order to salvage a derelict station with salvage lasers, though, you need to first drain all of its shields - and doing so turns the station and its turrets hostile. Some stations are safer than others because of this. You can *not* get these capsules with a build block. Bonus concept: Possibly make Pirate Stations give a higher percentage of capsules when salvaged, due to them having significantly higher danger levels than normal derelicts.

It'll give those old derelicts a use beyond simply looking amazing and giving the game flavor, and it'll help make shield capacitors more accessible without planet mining.

 

[FullMetalFox]

I would go even a little further with changing the "Decayed" state, in terms of salvaging i would suggest the same as you do, but with a few more possible results.

For Example:
40% chance: Random Capsules, or a random amount of those used to produce the block being salvaged.
25% chance: Alloy Mesh/Crystal Composite Item.
25% chance: Alloy Mesh/Crystal Composite Block.
9.9% chance: Salvage the actual Block intact.
0.1% chance: Block explodes, blast radius and damage based on the blocks base market value.

Or possibly other results should crafting get more complex in the future.

 

[Winterhome]

I'm not such a big fan of random chance in a building/engineering game, myself, but your idea is sound.

Let's not do the exploding block thing, though. That's pretty much just a pointless frustration device.

 

[Visitor]

I actually like the idea of abandoned stations being largely dilapitated and providing far less resources than one would expect but the idea isn't bad. A bit of variation of chance in how much resoruces one gets from decayed-status block, with miniscule chance of getting the block itself as intact would be nice. I wouldn't want to make bigger differentiation than 'regular block, some scrap/parts, nothing'.

The exploding block idea I actually like. While I can understand Azereiah's dislike for random factor, until someone codes (probably resource-intensive) realistic simulation of neutral station's block decay tracking viability of each block for salvaging (and I don't think it's worth the work), some random effects are necessary.

I would limit exploding block to electronics rather than the hull - weapon blocks, computers, shield and power generators etc - as per immersion and the fact that cutting out panels of highly-powered but potentially unstable, decrepit subsystems should be somewhat risky and requiring careful approach, instead of just getting some big ship with batteries of salvage beams and keep then on till whole station is bits and pieces.

Generally though, I'd leave salvaging somewhere near the current relative level of profitability. Averagely-sized station that gets salvaged usually provides plenty of resources/cash despite low profit per block. While it may not be equal to (potentially very high in its own regard) that of a major mining undertaking, I think it's quite fair - salvaging should be an enterprise of actual scavengers, looters, spelunkers and other small-time element - not a viable source income for big initatives.

 

[Winterhome]

Mining one station takes far longer than mining five to ten asteroids and provides a similar amount of resources, Visitor.

There is seriously no reason for players to touch them after they have a non-decayed base.

 

[Visitor]

Mining one station takes far longer than mining five to ten asteroids and provides a similar amount of resources, Visitor.

There is seriously no reason for players to touch them after they have a non-decayed base.

Which is kind of good from the perspective of having salvaging space stations an occupation for those down on luck, with not many alternatives - (stereo)typical scavengers and spelunkers looking for riches among leftovers of others.

I don't want station salvaging to be (relatively) much more profitable, on par with mining - as I've said in my post above. I wouldn't mind it being more interesting, with some additional risks and a slight chance for somewhat better rewards from time to time, if one's lucky. But that's all.

 

[Edymnion]

There is seriously no reason for players to touch them after they have a non-decayed base.

Which means that we get to keep some flavor elements in the universe, and have them available for new players that come through later.

I'm down with that.

Only stations I salvage are pirate stations.

 

[Malacodor]

Mining one station takes far longer than mining five to ten asteroids and provides a similar amount of resources, Visitor.

Only for players who don't know how a build block works.

 

[Winterhome]

Only for players who don't know how a build block works.

Build blocks are for scrubs.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

i should point out that the current station mining mechanics was a nerf to stop players from easily gathering thousands of blocks by just farming abandoned stations.

the whole point was to force players to mine asteroids and planets in order to make their blocks.

 

[CyberTao]

Only for players who don't know how a build block works.

And that logic is why they give useless scrap.

 

[Winterhome]

i should point out that the current station mining mechanics was a nerf to stop players from easily gathering thousands of blocks by just farming abandoned stations.

the whole point was to force players to mine asteroids and planets in order to make their blocks.

Of course. But the way it's set up, they might as well give absolutely nothing.

 

[Edymnion]

Only for players who don't know how a build block works.

If you believe removing blocks via the Build Block is faster or easier than using a salvage ship, you either don't know how to build a decent sized salvage ship or are on a server that has customized the mass build options to truly epic proportions.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Of course. But the way it's set up, they might as well give absolutely nothing.

something is better then nothing. I might not get actual alloyed metal mesh or crystal composite but I at least got something for my troubles.

 

[Winterhome]

something is better then nothing. I might not get actual alloyed metal mesh or crystal composite but I at least got something for my troubles.

Your troubles are seriously better spent by eating asteroids, though. As in there's quite literally no good reason why you would ever salvage a decayed station, unless for some bizarre reason you want to have scrap in your inventory.

I'm not asking them to be a good source of materials, I'm asking them to at least be useful in a pinch.

 

[FullMetalFox]

I'm not such a big fan of random chance in a building/engineering game, myself, but your idea is sound.

Randomizing has its pros and cons, while yes i may be frustrating if you get the les rewarding outcomes of a random factor, it allows to introduce an uncertainty that can promiss large rewards, but statistically produce balanced rewards. Its also much simpler to implement than some algorithm to keep track of blocks salvaged and output accordingly.

Let's not do the exploding block thing, though. That's pretty much just a pointless frustration device.

The explosions was rather a flavor and minor danger part, i guess you could make it impossibe to be triggered by astronaut based salvaging, but if your in a ship there wont happen much except losing some minor part of your salvage target. It would essentially be the least favorable outcome, but add some feeling of danger to salvaging decayed blocks.

It could also be replaced by some random effect list to just flavor the event of salvaging, sparks, fire, dust, smoke, explosions, small powerspikes in an otherwise dead object, spawning of some space parasite mob... essentially something that makes salvaging an abandoned dead station in space, a bit more of a visual and acousticly engaging event.
Such a system could also be used on other salvaging targets to flavor the salvage process as a whole.

 

[Visitor]

I'm not asking them to be a good source of materials, I'm asking them to at least be useful in a pinch.

And that's the point - stripping space sations is bothersome and hardly as profitable as most other ventures but in a pinch (as usually defined as troublesome situation with very limited options) it'll keep a player going. I would know, I did that during small, somewhat RPish and hardcore gameplay - first by hand as we didn't start with many credits or enough parts to get a sizeable, functional ship and then using small shuttles with two several-blocks-big salvage beams.

It took time, it was even boring at times (and that's why I am still suggesting randomized effects, possible dangers of explosions and whatnot) but it was enough to get us going.

 

[CyberTao]

unless for some bizarre reason you want to have scrap in your inventory.

Mayhaps we should just consider finding new uses for scrap? I mean, with the HP and shipyards, you need to repair your ship somehow.

 

[Winterhome]

Mayhaps we should just consider finding new uses for scrap? I mean, with the HP and shipyards, you need to repair your ship somehow.

That could be an option, as long as we could repair using other materials like alloys and meshes for repairs too (albeit less efficiently than scrap, perhaps)

 

[PizzaPress]

I'd be alright if it just gave 1 scrap and 1 composite, and didn't give anything from build-block. Minor buff, plus it'd be easier on those of us with OCD.