Subcomponents

[Dinkledash]

In order to make the game more interesting, I think that major components should consist of subcomponents. For example, one of the basic components now would be a power component. Presumably at higher tech and fabrication skill levels, a power component would produce higher output, be smaller and more durable than older designs. I think it would be more fun if a powerplant consisted of subcomponents which could be researched and designed independently and could be assembled into a resellable product.

 

Say you want to make fusion plants. A fusion plant would have a combustion chamber, a magnetic containment bottle, a laser array, a fuel injector and depending on whether it is meant to produce electricity or be used to power a fusion rocket, it would have a dynamo or a thruster. Each of these components could have its own independent properties, methods, interfaces and tech/skill tree, which could make the job building, maintaining and repairing damage to fusion plants an interesting and challenging role for a player to specialize in.

[ATMLVE]

I think this is a decent idea, but the main issue I see is that it is decently complex but not necessary enough to get development attention for quite a little while. Long enough, that what would be in the game until then as a "placeholder" (assuming this was a planned feature) would be well-established and used uniformly, and to change such a fundamental concept at that point would piss off a lot of people. Perhaps as an alternative to components later on, still keeping the originals in the game but allowing the new ones to be more efficient for the same cost. But just to restate, I think if this wasn't present in the initial release, it would be difficult to implement at all.

[Heliomance]

I think this is a decent idea, but the main issue I see is that it is decently complex but not necessary enough to get development attention for quite a little while. Long enough, that what would be in the game until then as a "placeholder" (assuming this was a planned feature) would be well-established and used uniformly, and to change such a fundamental concept at that point would piss off a lot of people. Perhaps as an alternative to components later on, still keeping the originals in the game but allowing the new ones to be more efficient for the same cost. But just to restate, I think if this wasn't present in the initial release, it would be difficult to implement at all.

Yeah, this is the major problem with it. Something like this, while amazing, would have to be in the game from launch to work well, and it simply isn't going to be. Which is a shame, because it would massively increase the value of R&D, which seems like a really good thing.

[Dinkledash]

Yeah, this is the major problem with it. Something like this, while amazing, would have to be in the game from launch to work well, and it simply isn't going to be. Which is a shame, because it would massively increase the value of R&D, which seems like a really good thing.

 

Thanks for the support.  I agree that it would have to be something that's in the initial release, but maybe not in alpha.  If we said that R&D was boring because it was too simplified, we could get them to allocate resources to designing a deeper R&D (and component interaction) system.  Imagine if your post on the starship is in engineering and you have to monitor the power plant.  It sounds extremely tedious, doesn't it?  Basically you're waiting around until there's some combat damage to the component and then you hit the repair button.  

 

If instead you had a station that displayed all the subcomponents of a major system and there was actual stuff to do that could impact the power output, like changing the fuel mix, tweaking the pressure in the #2 fuel valve, examining the fuel tank for leaks from micrometeor impacts, then that becomes an actual job.  When the engine takes a hit and one of the fuel injectors goes off line, you have to check to see if the injector has taken direct damage or if it's a problem with the electronics, and hope you brought spares.  Or have time to fabricate a replacement.  It wouldn't just be an improvement in R&D, it would make running a starship much more fun.

 

For small ships, it may make sense to use unitary components simply because you only have one set of eyes.  Perhaps it could be added later by leaving the unitary components in place and making the complex component systems more efficient and powerful, and allowing skills to be transferred to the complex component system.  That way people who don't want to have a screen full of nerd knobs at their station won't have to deal with it and their investment won't be wasted, but there will be an incentive to upgrade.

[Velenka]

I like these ideas. Perhaps if this draws enough attention from the devs, they may consider it.

[Bluestorm]

Doesn't it partially exist with the snapshot system? Although you can't sell them.

[Dinkledash]

I'm new and my understanding of the existing system is limited to watching the videos, so maybe I need to do some more reading around the forums, articles and such. But if there is more to a mark 3 engine than researching the mark 3 engine and collecting the raw materials, that would be great. But say you wanted to make engines; one player could specialize in injectors, another in combustion chambers, a third in vectored nozzles, and perhaps you buy the other subcomponents on the market because you aren't big enough to have a full-scale R&D department. And maybe nobody is willing to sell their best blueprints. I wouldn't. Heck it could be a crime to sell a blueprint to a competing state or corporation. Industrial espionage, bribery, skullduggery... selling parts that have scripts hidden in them that allow them to be disabled, or even explode if a receiver built into it receives a code word.

 

Yeah I'm pretty jazzed about this game.

[Dinkledash]

After reading up on DPUs and LUA Scripting, it looks like we'll have something similar, just not to as granular a level as I was thinking.