Basic/Uncommon/Advanced/Rare Industries...

[Penwith]

Okay, I get the why behind the introduction of the necessity of having higher tier industries to deal with higher tier ores.

 

However, as the higher tier elements are visually the same and they are just really a difference to be different, I'd rather see this aspect of the game handled...differently.

 

My suggestion is this:

 

Since we already have the schematic library for each machine, and it is here to stay, why not make a "controller" slot where a dedicated circuit board, which is common to all industry elements, would be inserted.

 

So, you open the industry element screen, and see the tabs for schematics on the left, this would require a "Controller" tab that has space for one to four circuit boards, so that the same industry element could handle all tiers, but require the proper circuit board to be inserted for it to do so.

 

These circuit boards would, of course, require the higher tiers of ore, like the higher tier elements now do, but instead of having to build industry elements to gain the ability to use the higher tier materials, the circuit boards that the place of that.

 

The basic boards could be built out of the nanopack, but they could all be built from the xs assembler, which would need the proper schematics, of course.  This would not put those who are selling these higher tier elements out of business, as they'd simply switch to making the circuit boards.

 

To easy the pain of transition, withdraw the uncommon, advanced, and rare industry elements, replacing them with the basic version AND the appropriate tier of circuit board. For example, if I had 2 uncommon refiners and 1 advanced refiner, when the patch for this occurs, I would end up having 3 basic refiners, 2 uncommon industry circuit boards (or whatever they would be called), and 1 advanced circuit board.

 

Under this version of industry, there's less need of space to perform the same functions, their would still be a differentiation between refiners equipped to handle the higher tier ores, and people would still be needed to provide the "circuit boards" in order to gain this higher  tier production.

 

It also would require less hassle, and time, to manage one's factory, as progressing up the tiers would only require adding a new circuit board to the element, instead of re-arranging or expanding the factory.

 

Of course, this also opens up the possibility for potential future development of this mechanic, by allowing research into more efficient controllers that add to the productivity of the industry element, perhaps increasing productivity by some percentage or reducing material costs.

 

This would not replace talents, but instead add enhancements to the current benefits. Talents provide a linear increase, say -3% per level, but my thought on this would be that an uncommon "improved controller" (or whatever the gizmo is called) would be -1%, advanced -3%, and rare -5%, on top of whatever the talent level of the player happens to be, even if currently zero.

 

What brought this about is having to once again rearrange my factory, which is not huge by any margin, but still a PITA. When I expand to include all of the higher tier production, it will become a nightmare to deal with. I did not see anywhere in the development design intent that they wanted the game to become a nightmare for players to have to deal with.

[blazemonger]

Not a bad idea at all but I think the simpler way to effectively do the same thing is to just change the price formula for schematics to make higher tier schematics more expensive to obtain. Also if the suggestions I made in this thread would be considered, that process could add time, material and a RNG factor to allow for a more controlled and slowed down process of obtaining higher tier schematics.

As that system works great for other MMO style games, why would it not work for DU?