Mass Storage

[EvilTesla]

It is obvious that Factories are awesome, but a little too much so.

I like the idea that parts cost resources (right now I have more resources then I can spend, the weapon upgrades are interesting, but not overly so. Seems weird to have an entire resource system for one small part of the game).....  But I have another suggestion.

 

What if we made another resource on top of power and fuel, factory mass. 

Your drone would have a factory mass tank that essentially holds resources for the factory. When the mass tank runs out, no more building things.

 

I think the mass resource tank should change its weight depending on how much mass it is holding. A mass tank holding  10 units may weigh 11 (tank may weigh 1 unit), and allows a factory to produce 10 units of parts. A full mass tank may start off as your heaviest part, but get lighter as it is used.

 

I think this would make using factories much more difficult, to the point that small important things can be made, but you won't be using factory's to destroy planets, give yourself infinite lives (like I do ) or whatnot. 

 

EDIT:

Just had an idea, that if the mass storage is added, we could also add a mass-collector. Similar to the resource collector, except that it re-charges mass tanks by sucking in mass from environment, perhaps rock-dirt.  One problem is that this may make digging very easy, so maybe it would only work on disconnected drone parts and resources in environment. 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by EvilTesla
got a new idea

[Ookami-sama]

I am against the consumption of ore to power factories, because my idea of fun is totally opposite to needing to do some boring things like collecting ore. Some sort of resource is fine by me as a means to avoid ludicrous designs (thus introduce some challenge), so long as it does not have to be harvested and is not available only in limited amounts. A factory consuming large amounts of fuel and energy to charge up would be my first choice. One of each for ten durability points of the printed parts, perhaps, doubled for components other than basic blocks, with the need to fill any fuel tanks and batteries thereafter? I am not sure whether it is too much.

(as a note, this would make a small basic block a hundred fuel and energy, so five seconds worth of recharge of energy with a large large battery; forty seconds worth for a large battery; etc.)

[Lurkily]

I think he means collecting terrain as a resource that is only available in that mission, like fuel or energy, harvested by collecting dirt.

I think I'm good with this one.  I think I like this.  The factory can draw mass at exactly a rate that matches its present cooldown, but you can add a limitation on factory insanity by making you either work for or engineer a solution.

Normal couplers or someway to reconnect parts would be needed.  You would have to be able to transfer a storage of mass to another drone; that means the tank would need to be physically coupled, so the factory could eat mass from the tank.

[EvilTesla]

As Lurkily said.

I'd think the mass consumed by the factory would be equal to the weight of the generated part, the physicist in me wants mass conservation. But there are other ways to balance that.

[Ookami-sama]

The physicist in you should stay hidden, I believe, because we are talking about a game in which a laser that pushes e.g. opponents away does not push your own craft away: it pushes it forward, so as to compensate for reaction force. This allows for marvellous laser-thrusters (thrasers, if I may coin the term).

If it is some rock and dirt, well, I do not mind. Still, tanks do produce fuel out of thin air void, so why not some other matter out of this and electricity? Fusion and atom-building should be easy to the Nimbatus, I imagine.