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RNG (Random Number Generators) is a great tool when not overused. It is something which is very easy thing to slide into a game, especially one which uses Procedural elements extensively. However it is also a trap for player leading often to disappointment as the risk vs reward is often left to the RNG element rather then player skill. Striking the balance between RNG and Player Skill is very difficult, but there is another option to add to the development and that is event based rules. # Examples are completely made up just to explain what I'm bumbling on above. Examples - RNG - Mining for Special mineral - You fly to an asteroid field and start mining (or scanning) - Regardless how the asteroid looks an RNG will determine what you get from the Asteroid- This turns gameplay into brain numming grind which disrespect gamers time Skill Based - The asteroids have Visual element which helps the player to find the right asteroid and there could be unique way of mining to deliver the best results - materials. While still RNG deciding what materials are in the Asteroid before you even see it, this way it requires the player to use their skill to mine, thus making it feel more rewarding Event Based - The skill based level applies, but the best asteroids can be found in areas with certain conditions / events that occured or can be diagnosed through knowledge in the game leading the player into that area in the first place. This added level of rules increases the immersion as player just doesn't fly blindly from asteroid field to asteroid field but looks for an event that could have caused the asteroids to be rich in minerals... Even a Rumor could be a good lead.. Events can drive further systems - Pirating, Bounty Hunting, Corporate espionage ect... All of these are much better when they are event driven then just RNG, so I pitch the idea to avoid too much RNG for the love of the players as this project holds a lot a lot of promise At the end we still get the same materials - but the way we get them is either more or less rewarding and that is why RNG should be very limited in use in the game, but rather a rule/event based system should be in place which allows for more predictability, but requiring more skill..

Currently we know there is blueprints for components that would go on your creations (power, thrusters, controls, shields). Each of these will have its own mesh that would be placed on a ship with certain attribute values. I hope there are dozens of variants of each component type to give some versatility in choices. But these will be limited by the number of components the Devs create and implement. While being able to use as many of these as we please on our creations is great, it is still a limiting factor, especially if space is a factor. What I would like to see is a research system to have RNG modifiers to these base components. This is not a unique idea, and has been done to various degrees in games, but Limit Theory is the only one to my knowledge attempting to implement it in this manner. It is actually where I got the idea from. We will already have a RNG universe so why not RNG other things. The way it could work is to have the basic BPs that the ark provides. You can then do research on these blueprints (maybe in some special lab that requires resources) for a chance to produce a new BP with RNG modifiers to its base attributes. These could be good or bad, i.e. +5% to turret damage as well as -3% turning speed. There could even be a chance you would get all positive or all negative modifiers or maybe dont get any at all. You could then take this researched BP and attempt to research it further for more modifiers. The component could share the same name and mesh model as the parent component, just containing a different meta tag. This would allow for truly unique designs as maybe I dont care about component weight but need fire power. Or I dont care about power storage capacity, just power generation. So I could have more ability to customize my creations by choosing a blueprint with the attributes I want. This could even open a whole new market as you could sell your blueprints that you have researched and modified. Entire business could be started solely as a research lab producing these things. Now heres where it could be interesting, imagine you buy someones fighter BP to make and it requires 12 MK 1 thrusters and 3 guns. If you had modified versions of this it would be awesome to tell it use your version (remember it has the same model and ID) instead of the basic version. So now you can have 2 identical looking ships but with different performance metrics. I think for a game with unlimited variability in everything else, this would help remove the one major limitation I see. Now indexing these meta tags may become complex, but in a game that plans to implement such a detailed but complexed permissions system I think it is doable. What does everyone else thing about this?