Game play overhaul ideas

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    These are my ideas on of the core gameplay mechanics I feel could be improved drastically.

    I generally feel that some of the systems in game are not very intuitive. I feel you shouldn’t need a wiki to learn a game, but rather through experimentation. So these suggestions might make progression more interesting and intuitive.

    1) multi-block ship systems:
    One of the more difficult systems are using secondary computers for effects. My idea is using multiple block types for computer systems.

    For salvage beams:
    a) focusing lenses, which determine range of the beam as well as firing point. Depending on firing direction any end point (farthest forward in a line of blocks) to be firing points. No need to make separate block columns or manually assign it (which is broken now anyway).
    b) power couplers, which determine the power of the salavge beam, at a cost of taking more power
    c) power supply, which determines how rapidly the beam recharges. If you have a lot, it might mean you can just click and hold and jt
    Will mine indefinitely

    For cannons:
    a) cannon barrel, which determines accuracy, and range, as well as firing point
    b) firing gage, which determines how much damage can be done
    c) autoloaders, which determine loading speed

    For missiles:
    a) launch tube, which determine where missiles are fired from
    b) warhead gage, which determine missile damage
    c) warhead propulsion, which determines missile flight speed
    d) missile racks, which determines firing rate, can have more missiles in storage to have back log to fire quick and large “alpha strike”

    For jump drive:
    a) jump capacitors, which determine the range of the jump drive
    b) jump chargers, which determine recharge speed
    c) jump cores, more expensive blocks which allow multiple charges to be stored in a single jump drive system

    2) progression tiers
    Instead of having the way progression works now, a new system which brings 10 tiers of blocks, which get exponentially more powerful each tier. But also taking much more expensive resources.

    3) building improvements
    While the building system is already pretty good, it could definitely see improvement. The system can be a little time consuming, and some build tools to speed up the process further would be nice

    a) rotation keys
    Using the system from Space Engineers is a good example, being able to rotate blocks in this way would be externals helpful

    b) fill function
    A quick easy way to fill instantly a 2d enclosed shape with what ever block you have selected would be beneficial

    c) chain building
    Like in other building games, it would be nice if you could say, good the ctr key to place blocks in a long line at a single time, would be much faster than clicking a hundred times

    4) AI imrovements
    It would be much more powerful and interesting to have the AI system used by From the Depths, to have smart AI be able to control massive fleets to do various tasks for players around their empires. While there are already fleets and AI’s, a much more deep and working system would be awesome. I have found that the fleet system doesn’t always work right.
     

    NeonSturm

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    a) rotation keys
    Using the system from Space Engineers is a good example, being able to rotate blocks in this way would be externals helpful
    And I hate that.

    I wish it would place blocks with their primary facing toward the block you have your cursor on so that secondary direction is only 1/(4-6) choices.
     

    jayman38

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    I definitely like the idea of having a "muzzle" damage indicator on the hotbar, overlaid on each weapon system. There could be two types: a single-damage gauge and a multiple-projectile gage, where the damage of each projectile is given, with a preceding number and a "x" that indicates the number of projectiles. That way, you learn exactly how the damage works when you are in flight mode.

    As systems are destroyed, these numbers would change. Updates could be very infrequent, so that recently-damaged weapons show inaccurate over-estimations. In short, overlaid data indicators would be a welcome addition to the hotbar, and could help distinguish between different weapons of the same type.

    Instead of having multiple (10) types of blocks for all the systems, it might be less resource-intensive and more starmade-like to have multiple tier-enhancement computers that can be linked to systems. (Boy, do I have a deep and abiding love of Starmade's master-slave linking system!)

    Of course, everyone will build and implement tier-enhancement computers at the maximum level whenever possible, but these computers can be restricted through various gameplay mechanics. For instance, maybe the computers aren't available for the first week that the server is online. Maybe one needs to invest heavily, not just credits, but even blocks, into research, which yields access to higher tiers. Maybe higher tiers are only available after successfully running through a special all-server mission, or running through a multiple-mission "storyline". There are lots of opportunities here. On the other hand, if you use multi-tier system blocks, then it becomes much harder (much, much more detail-intensive) to make those different tiers available at different stages of the game.

    As always, I must remind everyone that multiple tiers tend to favor larger, better-established factions over new and/or smaller factions.
    On the other hand, there could be gameplay opportunities for smaller factions to steal tier tech from larger factions with daring raids or combat salvage.
     

    NeonSturm

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    Personally, I'd like a generic computer which can control anything but only one thing at a time.
    "You can connect cannon barrels to it because you don't have laser beam modules connected"
    "You can't connect cannon barrels if laser beam modules are already connected"
    If it automatically swaps to be a cannnon or beam or whatever computer depending on what is connected, it would reduce UI clutter.

    Perhaps it could work like the chamber system where you add a switchboard and decorative servers as slaves.