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The Blueprints System is Bad: Change My Mind


Madrummer

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Schematics are bad.  They are way too broadly applied, and force everyone who was not already established pre-patch into the serf class.  It wouldn't be horrible if it were applied to only specific items (cores, thrust components, complex materials like fuels, weapons and ammunition, warp drives and relays, scanners, etc etc) but I mean...having an individual one for every single voxel, having one for every part of every machine you want to make...it's just tedious, and worse yet it's not fun.

 

The larger economy will not suffer because people can make their own voxels and their own basic parts (I shouldn't need to buy 5 schematics to make a Medium Assembler, which I also need a schematic for, and then need schematics for anything it's going to make).  Buying the schematic for something should include all of the components it takes to make it included in it (not talking about player-made ones like for ships and such, obviously).

 

I think the solution to this is pretty simple, and keeps the economy moving while not keeping people with the only use for mined elements to be to sell them to a friggin' NPC lol.
Okay so here's my proposal: treat the schematics more like "licenses."  You can make all the simple and safe-to-own stuff you want (voxels, doors, signs, chairs, etc), but anything "dangerous" or obviously complex (engines, weapons, fuel, cores) you need the license (or schematic) to produce.  And in order to keep the economy stimulated and to stop "lone wolfing" (which I don't think should be prohibitive for anyone who just wants to rock Small or XS lifestyles, being a space-faring hillbilly of off-the-gridder should still be an option, just to a XS/S limit), you just have to make it so the cost of production is a little higher (use about 15% more materials and take about 25% more time) and then have that offset by progressing through mid-tier Talents (so people who aren't going into the industry line will still have a reason to interact with people who do if they want Medium-or-Up stuff or want to buy in bulk or "want it now").  The purpose to this would be to promote more of a sense of self-pride by saying, "Yeah, I furnished this house!  It took longer, it was more expensive, but I made it," without punishing the economy, and without the gatekeeping being that you didn't sell mined ores to the NPC traders over-and-over-and-over again.  

 

There needs to be some change.  I don't like that all new player will get out of the game for the first week or two is "learn to mine, learn to grind, caravan your goods back-and-forth."  After all the cooool shit the tutorial teaches you, you really only ever use the mining, waypoint, and market.  And as more players join, their starting tiles will be further and further away from the markets.  Nobody's going to want to stick around a game where they have to wait 20 minutes out of every hour just going back-and-forth to a market until they can buy stuff from other players to make their little ship able to cut it down to 15, 10, 5, then 1 minutes over the first week or two.  And as more nodes are mined out and more people join, that's going to be the state of the game. 

 

Even with incoming missions, I still think that early access to minor industry is a MUST in order to keep the game fun for EVERYone.  And remember, some people reeeally love the idea of this game, and really want to have fun playing with people, but just can't devote the time that others can.  There should be a sliding scale for casual gamers in this, and I think these proposals allow for that.

 

 

:::EDIT:::
I may have posted this in the wrong forum.  I meant to make a different post here about consumable items like space-beer haha.  This was supposed to be put in The Gameplay Mechanics Assembly.  Sorry, I think I just switched to the wrong tab when I started typing `:D

Edited by Madrummer
may have posted in wrong forum
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I agree with you that schematics are flawed and should be changed. High barriers to entry generally hurt competition and limit an economy. I think that is the effect we're seeing here combined with reduced demand from the smaller player base.  

Producing XS and S items without the schematics is already possible through the nanocrafter. Other than space fuel, you can get fully operational atmo and space ships just using the nanocrafter. Nearly all T1 honeycombs can and decorative items can be produced as well.

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Well that's really not 100% accurate.  You can get personal vehicles by building stuff yourself, but you can't just have fun exploring the game's mechanics on your own without being forced into mining for credits lol

Don't get me wrong, I know it's part of the gameplay, but I think it's waaaay over-pressured and definitely there should be less of a barrier to new players before they're able to play with making a little manufactory themselves.  Not that you can becomes a super-rich self-entity, but you should be able to at least have fun practicing making a tiny little factory on your own.

But yeah, anyway, not to argue, but....you're wrong on how you talk about honeycombs.  If I want to just make concrete (which I can do in real-life by the way lol and I don't even have the ability to mine all the stuff myself in large quantities) I have to buy like a 50k schematic.  Sure, that doesn't sound like much, but when your basic speeder can only haul like 7-8k worth of stuff, and your starting point is a 12 minute speeder ride away from a market (one-way, mind you), and you already spent like an hour your  first time finding stuff to sell, and hauling it back bit-by-bit.....  I mean that's just not fucking fun at all haha.  I appreciate where you're coming from, but there are just some very, very simple problems already that should be addressed before they grow in linear fashion, but I do appreciate your point of view for sure.

Edited by Madrummer
WhatsApp taking focus and making some words cut off
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I agree with your general point. Concrete is tier 2 though (uses limestone) which is why you can't make it in the nanocrafter. The ones you can make in the nanocrafter are only tier one pure and tier one product (aluminum, iron, steel, plastic, wood and carbon for example). Even then you can't make all of them, since some still require machines for some reason.

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I think it could be a really quick fix, and since the economy is so ambiguous already, it would be best to just give some more basic freedoms for building.  I mean, if I want painted materials, or materials in bulk, or composite stuff, I'll still have to go through a manufacturing company.  But I think there needs to be more basic materials available than there currently is, and that your nano-fab shouldn't be the only unlocked production line.  Let people at least get to making basic Medium stuff and THEN show the licenses or blueprints are required for further advancement.

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I am agree with you, the current state of the schematics is unplayable if you don't have an already player base that can buy them.
In an other word, if the server wipe and without bots the game is unplayable.

Schematics ≠ Blueprints (edit your title)

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The schematics have pretty much killed crafting for me.  I like the idea of having schematics, don't get me wrong, but they were introduced at the wrong time and poorly implemented.  I'm finding most of my time is digging through the schematics I need to make one simple item and setting it active in a factory machine (not to mention I have to check and double check if I'm using the right schematic) and then if I need to make another component I have to go through the entire process again.  Then if I don't have the schematic I need I need to travel to a hub to buy one, if its available, and sometimes it casts too much money.  I was mainly playing this game to mine and craft but this has become cancerous, I can't even force myself to stay on and try to do something.... 
The schematics should be a get and learn system, the schematic bank for each and every piece of equipment is just too much.   I'm all for earning and grinding up to buy schematics for what I need, but having to find which schematics I need to make something like a thruster or even a command chair was just too much.   I would say just have a common schematic bank that all the devices can look at and something to filter out or highlight what ones we need to use would at least take some of the frustration off..
All done, love the graphics update btw
Stay Safe
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i am new to this game.

In just a few days i learned how to use schematics and now (from the very begining) i have a small industrial running, automatic building container s for now.

While waiting i do mining, build some stuff, upgraded a cheap jet, tested spaceflight, visited 2 moons and Alioth without using spacetaxi and just create my first class S ship and am fascinated about the tools i use...

I learned about the mass and how important it is to be careful, for flying into space, i crashed several times, found a great community and helpful people.

Beside i try LUA and my first screen shows "Adams Industrial" and my little bee turns on the light automaticly when entering the pilot seat...

 

In just a few days i had alot to learn, fun, fuckit moments and alot of paper art to understand the schematics and container, hubs, in and out etc....

Yesterday the new update 0.24 with 2,7 GB came and i like the visual upgrade.

 

For all who think, this game is at its end... sorry, no it is not.

It is in an early beta phase, playable and it will take more years to grow.

As a beta tester of eve online and a player from the very start after release, with 10 years gametime, i can tell you: If you like it, you will stay. If you love it, you will pay.

My wife is smoking cigarettes a pack every 2-3 days for 10 Euro. Calculate how much this cost in a month, year... 7 Euro a month for such a fine piece of software, with changing elements from here and there...

 

Before telling people that this game is over, remember that this game is the idea of the developer. At the end they can listen to the community and ideas, but they dont have to.

From my side, i would love to see a fresh start from time to time. Yeah ?some will look like this emote. I wanna be surprised and wish the developers all the best and health, to finish their project.

Until then i pay some bucks, maybe 3 month, maybe a year or more, who knows yet.

 

So stay calm, healthy and hope all will be fine at the end ?

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