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Component elements (building with smaller parts)


Aurenian

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From the info we have so far it looks like we'll have a set of skill trees that determine tech level and a set of basic pre determined elements to combine into ships and stations.

Maybe there will be ways to get higher tech elements of the same type through research? I remember someone saying something about levels of weapons in an interview but there isn't much to go on yet.

 

Personally I'm in favour of making the crafting system more sophisticated so that specialisations arise naturally among the player base instead of through arbitrary skill allocation. This strikes me as the sort of game where progression through player skill would be a better fit.

 

To that end I propose that the pre built functional elements be smaller components with set properties instead of full parts.

 

So for instance instead of just throwing on a single engine block that takes up a large amount of space you would build an engine out of smaller parts stuck together that function as an engine. 

 

To build a basic engine that works you'd only need a handful of parts. Say an ignition block, propulsion unit, stabilizer, vector cone and control unit.

But you could add more parts to increase it's performance in different ways, with the better ones made of rarer elements. Each component would add weight and energy/fuel requirements. Some might also need a certain amount of space around them to function correctly(eg heat sinks) or have interference with other more sensitive parts. After you'd built the guts of the engine you would then use standard voxel tools to give it a casing and incorporate it into the ship.

 

And this would be the case with every part that creates function. A cockpit would be a pilots seat(with control surface), computer, life support monitor, oxygen tank, heating element, hinged canopy etc. Extra parts could be holographic projector, rangefinder etc.

Some common parts would be found in multiple devices (like power cells) whereas others would be specialised to certain devices (matter transmitter coils). 

 

Each part would have multiple connection points so that they can be configured in various ways. The game would have a master list of devices and when the minimum number of parts are connected together via their ports for a particular device it would treat them as that thing when powered up. Or alternately you might include a way for the player to tell the computer which device they are building (perhaps by including a control chip in every device)

 

Technologies that the devs want to be harder to master (like FTL) could have a significantly larger number of more sensitive parts. And they could not include a standard template if they wanted to make it take real research.

 

The end result of this is that as well as ships and stations players could also become experts at creating ship parts and the complexity of the interactions would create genuine expertise in the player base. When your organisation's engineer tells you the reactor can't take it anymore it's because she designed it. When the ship takes damage, you would replace the destroyed components in a device to get it functioning again.

 

At launch the developers would have a no frills version of each device blueprinted up for each player to start off with so they don't have to become an expert just to begin building. The players who are interested in that side of things would experiment with all kinds of configurations. Later on people would buy device plans off the market if they want to build their own ship without starting from scratch.

 

You could create the coolest looking hyperdrive on the market. Or the cheapest. or the most powerful. And you could create your brand for advertising. 

 

The other benefit of this system is that you don't need weapon tiers or constant injections of tech from the devs. Make up a list of weapon and defence types that are interesting, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Break them into bits that make sense, with lower tech weapons like projectiles requiring less exotic materials for their components. Then let the players experiment with what you give them. 

 

I guarantee you a Blastcorp Annihilator Cannon is way cooler than a tech three plasma cannon. 

 

Just my thoughts.

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I like the idea.

 

From my understanding, we're limited to 25cm (10 inch) voxels.  This limitation would make some of our creations massive.

 

It would be VERY interesting to have a skill tree that would allow smaller builds.  The higher your skill, the smaller the component. 

 

This could open up some interesting scenarios.

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From my understanding, we're limited to 25cm (10 inch) voxels.  This limitation would make some of our creations massive.

 

 

 

I think he is talking about snapping together smaller mesh elements into one larger functioning element.  So voxels wouldn't need to be involved.
 
I think this is a great idea.  It would allow for a bit more personalization from ship to ship, in terms of performance and appearance.  
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  • 3 weeks later...

It's horizontal progression rather than steep vertical progression.

From the gameplay video, it appears that we will have a variety of options for control panels even in a solo ship.

I expect we'll be discovering a variety of types modules to mix and match for various systems, but not quite at the mini-component level.

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But you can do it on "virtual" way - without actual voxels to use, only tiles. For example, to create cockpit, you will need 4 elements: seat, controlls, HUD and cover. Given few types of each one - and by types I mean different stats - you can create series of same looking parts, but with different characteristics. And it can be done without making new game models for everything.

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a skill tree that would allow smaller builds

I think part of the idea was to get rid of skill trees for something more interesting, like aquiring real skills from actually doing something and having to think about it, and getting better from practice instead of the progress of a timer bar.

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You mean grind. We all say big NO to Korean-MMO-style grind ;)

Indeed. Let it be a multiple branching skill tree, give depth to specialisation, let grinding for the people who want to build large battleships.

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You think learning to build better and better space ships by experimenting with cool, functional components as described by the thread starter, and performing test flights with the finished prototypes, is "grind"? Really?

 

I mean: Really?

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Yeah I don't mean build the same item 1000 times until your smithing skill unlocks. I'm talking about real ship building and experimentation which makes you, the player, more skilled. The whole point of building things for fun.

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