Drop system and more features

[GrigorisN]

Enemies drop: 

• Blue and green resources
• Special Parts of the drone, such as large batteries or small solar panels.
• Consumables, such as energy crystals, or fuel.
• Upgrades with limits for a weapon.

Features:

• All drone parts cost per unit added to the drone.
• In order to avoid ten weapons of mass destruction added to a drone, weapons could be purchased in weapon editor instead of simply be created and added to the drone.
• Extra slots could be purchased per weapon. For every slot will be a dramatic increase of its price.
• Each weapon upgrade sould have cons and pros. For example, Attack Speed Increase should decrease accuracy and increase energy consumption while its counterpart would do the opposite. This will allow the creation of High Powered Cannons and such builds.
• Customize the efficiency of an upgrade by adjusting the bars that show the stats of the weapon. For example, Attack Speed Increase upgrade, should cost an amount of energy per percentage, while Attack Speed Upgrade 2 or 3 are more energy efficient, yet more expensive, so that the user can make his own upgrade. The cost of the upgrade will depend on how powerful the upgrade is. There could be limits of course and the analogy of the amount money and energy the upgrade costs compared to its effectiveness should be unforgiving for high amounts. No easily made super weapons. Plus the finite weapons feature means even if you manage to make an OP turret you will be able to add it once and will have to make more to increase their number. Finally this will help in the resource consumption because at some point very soon one can research all researches and have no need for resources after that.
• Fast Charge Battery should have more e/s recovery rate. The name says it, cant have the same energy recovery as the large battery and be called "fast recharge battery".
• Magnets can be toggled instead of continuous pressing of the activation button.
• Chest can have other resources combined or not.
• More drone parts have upgrades. For example, Batteries can have an extra recharge or capacity upgrade, Fuel tanks, thrusters, etc.

Drone Parts and Upgrades

• Upgrade: Decrease Attack Speed (+Accuracy, -Energy Cost)
• Upgrade: Increase Energy Consumption (+Overall Stats)
• Part: High Capacity Battery (Four Blocks, No recharge)
• Part: Storage Unit (Small: Two Blocks, Large: Four Blocks) that can carry consumables, if implemented. Each block can be used seperatedly with respective custom shortcut key.

[jbox1]

11 hours ago, GrigorisN said:

All drone parts cost per unit added to the drone.

I much prefer nimbatus with its unlimited parts system. It really makes all the challenges revolve around your current situation, not your budget.

 

11 hours ago, GrigorisN said:

Extra slots could be purchased per weapon. For every slot will be a dramatic increase of its price.

Ditto above

11 hours ago, GrigorisN said:

Fast Charge Battery should have more e/s recovery rate. The name says it, cant have the same energy recovery as the large battery and be called "fast recharge battery".

Fast charge batteries charge faster for their size. 2 fast charge batteries will charge faster than 1 large battery, despite it having the same size.

 

11 hours ago, GrigorisN said:

Magnets can be toggled instead of continuous pressing of the activation button.

THATS WHY THEY HAVE SWITCH GATES!

[GrigorisN]

5 hours ago, jbox1 said:

I much prefer nimbatus with its unlimited parts system. It really makes all the challenges revolve around your current situation, not your budget.

 

Ditto above

Fair enough. Still my point about resources remains. Rsearches sometime will be all completed.

Quote

Fast charge batteries charge faster for their size. 2 fast charge batteries will charge faster than 1 large battery, despite it having the same size.

True

Quote

THATS WHY THEY HAVE SWITCH GATES!

Forgot about that.

[DethLazrs4Lyfe]

Honestly, I think the weapon modifications systems you suggest would make the game very convoluted. At a certain point, more customization just makes the game bulky and non-intuitive.

[GrigorisN]

4 hours ago, DethLazrs4Lyfe said:

Honestly, I think the weapon modifications systems you suggest would make the game very convoluted.

I understand what you mean, however if a single upgrade changes multiple stats this will allow you to make more and, if you want to, more complicated combinations. However you dont have to make a complicated weapon. Selecting a few basic upgrades will do just fine.

Quote

At a certain point, more customization just makes the game bulky and non-intuitive.

Bulky as it has to do more calculations per second? Non-intuitive as you have to think what to do before you do it? I agree with it becoming bulky but I simply cant imagine how it will become non-intuitive. Were you not thinking before acting, before?

 

P.S. Forgive me if i dont understand the correct meaning of the words "convulted", "bulky" and "non-intuitive". English is not my first language.

[DethLazrs4Lyfe]

No, I think your English was spot on. I actually wouldn't have guessed you weren't a native speaker; you articulate very well.

But what I meant was making complicated weapons seems far from the point of the game. There's a good variety of weapons modifications as is, and I expect there will be even more before the official release, since modification suggestions are common in the forum. As it is, it's simple, easy to manage, and I can get on with customizing my gear for whatever particular drone I need, rather than managing a complex array of stats, slot costs and grinding out the resources necessary to make a couple of decent mining lasers and a handful of defense blasters. It seems to me that your proposed system would require an enormous amount of gameplay balancing, in terms of cost and stat values, and basically require a whole new play type besides the sandbox creation mode we have now.

Honestly, it sounds like it might be fun with a campaign or competitive game, but until those are added, I don't think I would enjoy it. This is, of course, my personal taste in games, and not a reflection on the value of your suggestion.I think I'd like to revisit this thread once we see which direction the devs are planning for later releases.

[GrigorisN]

1 minute ago, DethLazrs4Lyfe said:

But what I meant was making complicated weapons seems far from the point of the game. There's a good variety of weapons modifications as is, and I expect there will be even more before the official release, since modification suggestions are common in the forum. As it is, it's simple, easy to manage, and I can get on with customizing my gear for whatever particular drone I need, rather than managing a complex array of stats, slot costs and grinding out the resources necessary to make a couple of decent mining lasers and a handful of defense blasters. It seems to me that your proposed system would require an enormous amount of gameplay balancing, in terms of cost and stat values, and basically require a whole new play type besides the sandbox creation mode we have now.

Agreed. I guess a Creator's Mode would solve your issue and still help me achieve mine. As for the simplicity, fair enough, thats a game style you prefer and I will, probably, not be able to convince you Nimbatus is better off otherwise.

1 minute ago, DethLazrs4Lyfe said:

Honestly, it sounds like it might be fun with a campaign or competitive game, but until those are added, I don't think I would enjoy it. This is, of course, my personal taste in games, and not a reflection on the value of your suggestion.I think I'd like to revisit this thread once we see which direction the devs are planning for later releases.

Fair enough. These are simply suggestions and ideas at this point. I agree, we will need to see some progress before we continue to support or change our points of view.

[pieguy56]

On 6/30/2018 at 5:32 PM, jbox1 said:

much prefer nimbatus with its unlimited parts system. It really makes all the challenges revolve around your current situation, not your budget.

I agree with this, it is one of the things that makes nimbatus what it is

[Markus]

Very good discussion here. This is exactly what we're currently thinking about and working on. The classic way is to have a campaign mode with more restrictions and progress/unlocking, and you add a sandbox/creators mode where everything is unlocked from the start.

It is a good compromise which has proofed to work - but as a game designer I hope to find a more elegant solution, but not sure yet how that will be  I would love to see one game mode which incorporates all these things, like open and free creation from the start, but enough motivation to keep the players engaged for a long time without overwhelming new players. Hard stuff  

[GrigorisN]

1 hour ago, Markus said:

It is a good compromise which has proofed to work - but as a game designer I hope to find a more elegant solution, but not sure yet how that will be  I would love to see one game mode which incorporates all these things, like open and free creation from the start, but enough motivation to keep the players engaged for a long time without overwhelming new players. Hard stuff  

Man, you want the pie whole and the dog stuffed, aren't you? How about this. Some basic stuff and probably without upgrades to be free in order for the new players to be able to make a nice starting drone and the advanced stuff would cost some resources, to keep the players engaged as you said. Ah, another good idea to have them all is to set up difficulty options. Easy mode for example would have parts and some upgrades free of charge and the better and above upgrades to cost some. The higher the difficulty goes the less free stuff you will have.

[STM]

19 hours ago, GrigorisN said:

The higher the difficulty goes the less free stuff you will have.

Does that really increase the difficulty? I think it just increases the time it takes to get to the same point (parts and tech).

Grinding resources as a timesink don't make the game harder, just more 'annoying'.

It could be an additional option to resort to, but grinding can't be the only thing to change with difficulty.

@Markus Ich wünsche dir viel Glück die eierlegende Wollmilchsau zu erfinden! 

(I wish you good luck inventing the thing i don't know how to translate😅... egglaying woolmilkpig?)

[GrigorisN]

4 hours ago, STM said:

Does that really increase the difficulty? I think it just increases the time it takes to get to the same point (parts and tech).

Grinding resources as a timesink don't make the game harder, just more 'annoying'.

It could be an additional option to resort to, but grinding can't be the only thing to change with difficulty.

Very true, actually. I guess extra grinding would be a part of the difficulty, like you mentioned, as it will take you longer to make a decent drone and you will have to do missions with a pathetic one. 

 

4 hours ago, STM said:

Ich wünsche dir viel Glück die eierlegende Wollmilchsau zu erfinden! 

I think you mean the gold egg laying goose, or simply say to find the silver lining (best possible solution that covers all problems)

[Markus]

Thank you  I guess that's the fun and challenge of being a game designer  If I don't at least try to find a good solution it would be boring. At least spend some time thinking of alternative solutions before just taking the things everyone does and has accepted as the only solution  (at least until we run out of time )

[OmegaRogue]

On 7/5/2018 at 10:29 PM, DethLazrs4Lyfe said:

No, I think your English was spot on. I actually wouldn't have guessed you weren't a native speaker; you articulate very well.

But what I meant was making complicated weapons seems far from the point of the game. There's a good variety of weapons modifications as is, and I expect there will be even more before the official release, since modification suggestions are common in the forum. As it is, it's simple, easy to manage, and I can get on with customizing my gear for whatever particular drone I need, rather than managing a complex array of stats, slot costs and grinding out the resources necessary to make a couple of decent mining lasers and a handful of defense blasters. It seems to me that your proposed system would require an enormous amount of gameplay balancing, in terms of cost and stat values, and basically require a whole new play type besides the sandbox creation mode we have now.

Honestly, it sounds like it might be fun with a campaign or competitive game, but until those are added, I don't think I would enjoy it. This is, of course, my personal taste in games, and not a reflection on the value of your suggestion.I think I'd like to revisit this thread once we see which direction the devs are planning for later releases.

There are mods for removing resource costs