Faction Research and Tech Mechanics

[alexsanderr]

Not sure if its been suggested yet, but with the coming release of npc factions I think now would be a great time to talk about this. A faction would be able to hire/assign npc scientists to preform research. Over time, and with bonuses from certain systems in the faction's claimed space(blue stars or rare asteroids w.e), the faction will earn "research points". These points will be able to unlock new technologies from the proposed tech mechanic. The basic idea being like any civilization/4x space game where empires start with basic tech(hull for example) and unlock advanced tech thru research(advanced armor for example). I dont like the idea of taking away anything we have ingame now from starting players, so instead factions will research "tech 2 hull" or whatever and the tech 2 hull will have more hitpoints at a higher cost. There are a few concerns with this idea but with fleets and the npc factions finally coming soon I cant help but see starmade as a voxelized, truly build anything, sandbox space game, from lone pirating and mining to empire/corporation/federation building. Lone Pirates, scavengers,miners, and the like would be able to either steal,buy, or (rarely) find these tech upgrades to not lock certain playstyles out of technology. Let me know what you all think.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Tech Mechanic?

 

[alexsanderr]

Tech Mechanic?

I was propsing the tech mechanic along with this. As in research for tech.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I was propsing the tech mechanic along with this. As in research for tech.

I thought you were referring to something already out there somewhere my bad.

Tech levels have been proposed before and i'm pretty sure the devs said no. I wouldn't mind either way tbh.

 

[kaemcedlra]

Meh, I feel like hiding anything behind a hard wall of 'points' doesn't suit well. The research is made by you anyway and that takes some of living and breathing out of the living breathing galaxy. Design a ground breaking turret, sell it to those who can afford it. I feel like there is a way we can itch your scratch though: Field Engineer Crew. Simply an npc that works for you which can build things for you while you are away. They are like much slower, mobile shipyards in a way. We don't want them replacing shipyards so they aren't really as capable. All they do is simply build and deconstruct. The more experience they have the bigger projects they can work on. You give them a blue print and tell them in where area. They can say whether they think they can do it or not, how much supplies it will need, how long they expect it to take, and how much it will cost you. They can be experienced up 'leveled' The higher their experience the more they can construct, a soft cap if you will- with diminishing returns (i.e., they will never be able to compete directly with shipyard sizes). They can be good for building small ship- and meh, the more I think about it the more I don't like it. lets just leave research how it is for now: pushed by the players.

 

[Batavium]

I cant help but see starmade as a voxelized, truly build anything, sandbox space game

Exactly! So please no tech ladder to climb before i can "build anything".

 

[nightrune]

This also doesn't add much to long term faction play. The best thing to do if you wanted some form of progression is just build the tutorial videos into a tree.

 

[Comradecolonel]

If this was a serious tech tree that you had to climb, all the top factions on a server would have a much easier time staying king of the hill. I would like some sort of research based mechanics to the game but there's enough R&D in the game already it might be pointless.