Should Factories/Industry be More Challenging?

[Valiant70]

Factories are very simple, straightforward, and not particularly annoying. Unfortunately, they're also a little bland. In the past, this simple approach was necessary because factories were the only reasonable way to get lots of resources. Now that there's an actual economy where you can order bulk loads of stuff from the trade network, factories could be made more challenging or complex without making them frustrating.

What I mean by this is that instead of making a factory produce more things faster by placing 10,000 blocks instead of 100, you have to consider a few (even just one or two) additional factors to get the most "stuff" out of your materials. The details can go in suggestion threads (and please link them!). I'm just looking for general opinions here.

 

[nightrune]

Factories are very simple, straightforward, and not particularly annoying. Unfortunately, they're also a little bland. In the past, this simple approach was necessary because factories were the only reasonable way to get lots of resources. Now that there's an actual economy where you can order bulk loads of stuff from the trade network, factories could be made more challenging or complex without making them frustrating.

What I mean by this is that instead of making a factory produce more things faster by placing 10,000 blocks instead of 100, you have to consider a few (even just one or two) additional factors to get the most "stuff" out of your materials. The details can go in suggestion threads (and please link them!). I'm just looking for general opinions here.

Are you looking for complexity or depth?

 

[Valiant70]

Are you looking for complexity or depth?

Depth, obviously. Complexity is merely a side effect of depth and shouldn't be overdone, at least in this game. I'd like to see tradeoffs and choices, not just "hmm.... big factory or mammoth-humping huge factory?"

 

[nightrune]

Depth, obviously. Complexity is merely a side effect of depth and shouldn't be overdone, at least in this game. I'd like to see tradeoffs and choices, not just "hmm.... big factory or mammoth-humping huge factory?"

What would a meaningful trade-off actually be for factories?

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I think we could use secondary modules that alter factories' power consumption, speed, and efficiency (ratio of produced goods versus input materials). You can prioritize one statistic at the expense of the other two. There might be other things to tweak too. Perhaps stealth, via some kind of EM emissions from factories?

 

[Valiant70]

What would a meaningful trade-off actually be for factories?

First of all, we need materials of varying rarity from different sources. Ratio of common to rare materials is one option. Ratio of power consumed to material efficiency is another.

Manufacturing would be a nice place to re-introduce the wonky geometric puzzle-type building that current power reactors provide (since that's probably, hopefully, going away for reactors). In a factory unit, total volume, total block, total box dimensions of all groups combined, and probably other things could all influence factory performance in different ways.

 

[jayman38]

I think it would be neat if you could create a complex factory layout that could do things that "lesser" factories simply cannot do. For example, with sufficient factory geometry, maybe your ultra-mega factory can convert scrap into genuinely useful stuff. Of course, to get to this level would require an immense undertaking, so that players don't quickly return to the days when whole stations could simply be turned into fast cash and immense ships.

I can see complex factories being a whole end-unto-itself goal in the game.

 

[Valiant70]

I think it would be neat if you could create a complex factory layout that could do things that "lesser" factories simply cannot do. For example, with sufficient factory geometry, maybe your ultra-mega factory can convert scrap into genuinely useful stuff. Of course, to get to this level would require an immense undertaking, so that players don't quickly return to the days when whole stations could simply be turned into fast cash and immense ships.

I can see complex factories being a whole end-unto-itself goal in the game.

That's kind of the general idea I'm going for. Not that specifically, but something along those lines.

 

[wafflepie]

It would be interesting if different categories of items required different types of factories to make. Already, capsule refineries are used exclusively to make resource capsules, but what if there were paint factories that only made paint, armor factories that only made armor, computer factories that only made system computers, equipment factories for making handheld items, etc. It would make crafting more intuitive, because instead of having to remember which type of factory you need to make a certain item, you can figure it out based on what type of item it is.

Another idea is making a factory block only capable of doing one input and one output at a time, so instead of dumping all your ore into a single capsule refinery, you'd have to either wait until one resource is done being processed to start on the next one, or build multiple capsule refineries for each resource to speed things along. This would encourage the creation of much bigger factory rooms and assembly lines than we see today.

 

[JinM]

I think factories need more depth. But that is hard to implement. My idea is, that they could produce some waste material, that could lower a homebases faction points or power generation, if not trashed right: Like having to put the waste materials into a waste factory. :D Waste factories need many energy but only a short time and in this short time they also burn a lot of waste.

Whatever, this is only one idea, there are many ways to redesign it.

And I have no clue what a deep gameplay for factories would be anyway...An other idea would be, that a whole station only supports one type of factory, and needs material to function higher factories, that material can only be produced on other type factories... I mean depth rises from the players thinking about easy factory rules, but with the current 1000 different ores and capsules system...

OH, and I would factories made hazardous to the player and surrounding blocks depedning on type and overall blockcount on the station of a factory type vs blockcount on touching blocks. Maybe dont do block damage to the station itsself but to entities that are not docked to the station. And maybe let things happen like undocking rails, or lowering shields, or resetting weapon cooldown on docked entities if factories are managed wrong. :D

 

[Edymnion]

The details can go in suggestion threads (and please link them!). I'm just looking for general opinions here.

Blasphemy: More Complicated Manufacturing. Much More Complicated.