The game is too simplified
While I have been enjoying a lot of aspects of the game, I'm not a fan of how over-simplified it is compared to SE1. Here are things I wish were changed:
-Refining: The joy of SE1 was having some aspects of a factory game. Its enjoyable to set up refineries and have a kind of complex process involved when bringing ores home. the problem solving involved when setting up a base that can handle the slow refining ores in parallel with the fast refining ores was fun. Now there's no challenge. You mine the ores then... nothing. Maybe you use them for the complex components, but that barely takes up any significant portion of the game.
-Production queue: This is more of a qol thing than anything else. I enjoyed being able to just click on a product and have it go straight to production. Maybe include an alternative queue keybind like right click so you don't need to bother messing withe the menu?
-The crafting system: I appreciate having the gear forge be a separate station for tools. However, I strongly dislike the lack of component crafting in the game. I dislike that ore can directly build blocks. I think the co-processing system and the need for it in SE1 has some issues. However, it was still an enjoyable system, and the need to build assembler arrays and have a factory growing at your base was enjoyable. While some things require the parts at an assembler, allowing ore to go straight to building blocks is boring.
-The Survival progression: Why is there campaign-like objectives in my survival gamemode? Survival is supposed to be letting players work for themselves, but the game is telling you what to do and handing things to you. That feels like things that should exist in the campaign. I'm not talking about the technology progression, but rather the forced objectives at the start. The joy of survival in SE1 is you can start on the Earth-Like planet and spend time struggling to finally reach space. Whats the point of the planet if the game is going to just force you off it with everything you need for space travel?
These are all things that added complexity to the game. I can understand if the goal was to remove this complexity so new players can quickly get invested in the game, but I would argue finding ways that ease new players into these complex processes would have been better than just removing them entirely.
"a life without problems would be boring"
I like this feedback
Yeah, there are serious problems with the current system. Engineering is missing, and so is fun.
Yeah, there are serious problems with the current system. Engineering is missing, and so is fun.
-Refining
We don't have any so far.
-Production queue
This is particularly needed considering the more complex production chains we've been promised. It would be handy to just enqueue the thing you need and all the necessary dependencies would be placed into production in all the corresponding production blocks for you. So you could control the production from the top down. Even an entire blueprint might be placed into production inside some kind of "projection console table." These automatically created queues should not be removed manually; instead, you will always need to go to the top-level block where you started the production. Same for backpack building. You should be able to open its production UI and queue up whatever you might need. When trying to weld a block, a queue can be automatically created for you and removed when you stop welding, or not if you decide to, for example by holding an additional key before starting to weld. For example, you can approach a block, start to weld it, and it will create a production queue in your backpack. You can then open it and see what is in queue. If you controlling a welder arm connected to your base, you could add things to production in the same way as you do with your engineer and a hand welder. The backpack production UI needs to be the same as any production block UI.
It does not matter the complexity of the production chain if you can queue up anything from top to down. If ore or scrap had to be smelted to ingots before making components, it would be just another step in the dependency graph. A clear UI should only show you if you have enough resources to finish what you have in your top level queue.
-The crafting system
The only thing I would add is that the gearbox could require no power for basic tools and equipment (or use your suit power) and use ingots instead of raw ore. This is because the gearforge is meant to be your first production block where you make your first welder or other tools, or even your backpack or jetpack suite modules. You will need to make ingots either in your backpack, smelter, refinery or find them as a loot.
-The Survival progression
Technically, we are already free to play the way we want without doing any missions. The major obstacle is travel time to other sectors. Without completing arbitrary (and for now very boring) colonization contracts, you won't have fast travel, and the jump drive (or building your own fast travel station) is not in game yet, and we don't know what resources/technologies will be required to build one. Also, the abundance of contract grids undermines all the effort to mine resources as it is just way easier to grind down those grids and progress extremely fast in early game.
-Refining
We don't have any so far.
-Production queue
This is particularly needed considering the more complex production chains we've been promised. It would be handy to just enqueue the thing you need and all the necessary dependencies would be placed into production in all the corresponding production blocks for you. So you could control the production from the top down. Even an entire blueprint might be placed into production inside some kind of "projection console table." These automatically created queues should not be removed manually; instead, you will always need to go to the top-level block where you started the production. Same for backpack building. You should be able to open its production UI and queue up whatever you might need. When trying to weld a block, a queue can be automatically created for you and removed when you stop welding, or not if you decide to, for example by holding an additional key before starting to weld. For example, you can approach a block, start to weld it, and it will create a production queue in your backpack. You can then open it and see what is in queue. If you controlling a welder arm connected to your base, you could add things to production in the same way as you do with your engineer and a hand welder. The backpack production UI needs to be the same as any production block UI.
It does not matter the complexity of the production chain if you can queue up anything from top to down. If ore or scrap had to be smelted to ingots before making components, it would be just another step in the dependency graph. A clear UI should only show you if you have enough resources to finish what you have in your top level queue.
-The crafting system
The only thing I would add is that the gearbox could require no power for basic tools and equipment (or use your suit power) and use ingots instead of raw ore. This is because the gearforge is meant to be your first production block where you make your first welder or other tools, or even your backpack or jetpack suite modules. You will need to make ingots either in your backpack, smelter, refinery or find them as a loot.
-The Survival progression
Technically, we are already free to play the way we want without doing any missions. The major obstacle is travel time to other sectors. Without completing arbitrary (and for now very boring) colonization contracts, you won't have fast travel, and the jump drive (or building your own fast travel station) is not in game yet, and we don't know what resources/technologies will be required to build one. Also, the abundance of contract grids undermines all the effort to mine resources as it is just way easier to grind down those grids and progress extremely fast in early game.
-The Survival progression
DevPost said that the 'tutorial' for the new player experience, which they are prototyping in alpha, would be totally optional. That implies that they will include multiple start scenarios(as per the norm), which is kinda interesting with the possibilities with npc's, factions, and the contract system gets more developed out.
-Production queue
Push vs Pull systems. It seems like to me that we currently have a pull system for backpack welding, and a push system for production chains. Inval had an interesting post on how to implement a push system on backpacks, and I think a 'build planner', as Ana;u mentioned, would fix natec's top-down management need, although with some UI additions.
-The Survival progression
DevPost said that the 'tutorial' for the new player experience, which they are prototyping in alpha, would be totally optional. That implies that they will include multiple start scenarios(as per the norm), which is kinda interesting with the possibilities with npc's, factions, and the contract system gets more developed out.
-Production queue
Push vs Pull systems. It seems like to me that we currently have a pull system for backpack welding, and a push system for production chains. Inval had an interesting post on how to implement a push system on backpacks, and I think a 'build planner', as Ana;u mentioned, would fix natec's top-down management need, although with some UI additions.
Replies have been locked on this page!