Progression system for a 'suit only start' to a jump drive, and beyond

Progression system for a 'suit only start' to a jump drive, and beyond

Disclaimers:

1. Limited scope, to avoid all the different things Keen is actively making for us to explore, test out, and discover. Their lore, history, background, and the journey that they plan on taking us. This idea is in a closed system and limited to the initial start and then the transportation framework, to avoid stepping on any toes for what they have decided to do with the different stories and factions for players to experience.

2. Progression vs Scavenge. A recent good discussion with another player had me thinking on this, as different ways to 'gate', or limit, a player's tech progression. A scavenger approach, where you unlock tech by actively finding existing blocks you cannot make and grinding them down to 'unlock' them for future use, or to progress along a tech 'tree', unlocking a block, by researching the preceding technologies that allow you to unlock more advanced ones. One is a fill in the blanks, one is moving down a path. I like the tech tree approach. It allows the idea of 'me' researching and developing a tech solo, vs grinding down some other tech to see what someone else researched and developed, on 'their' own. Pioneer vs scavenger. More later.

3. Why a suit only start? Well, Keen already developed their escape pod start for pure sandbox, so that is already done. I found myself in a 'suit only' start a couple times, and rather than save-scumming or starting over, I gave it a shot. This thread is in response to the question I kept asking myself..."How would a suit only start progression system work, on a purely random starting location on a purely random planet...?"

4. Tech Tree depth. I will be limiting the ideas to the initial start, the actual tech progression will be just a few examples of transportation 'gates' to progress through, as any ideas beyond that is dependent on taste. Or, in how much should be restricted? So the blocks are grouped into different trees that branch off from the different ores needed to actually produce them. With different biomes having different ores seeded there...the tech trees unlocked will have to be grouped and suitable to those biomes. This creates differentiation, and unique builds each time you start on a different biome. The tech trees eventually converge, with some hard 'gates' along the way for each 'tree' of grouped techs. The blocks beyond that gate may not need exotic ores to unlock, but the block that is the 'gate' preceding it will. That is one way to ensure a steady block tech progression, all throughout the gameplay.

Here it is:

Ore:

Ore collection and time to research is the currency used to unlock blocks/components. Example: To make a motor component, you need iron and nickel. So...to unlock the component...you need to gather iron and nickel. Simple. Your crafting machine (in this case your backpack) -is- also the research block. The time and amount of ore needed to unlock that tech is directly related to the time and amount needed to produce it, with a multiplier added for the process of 'Designing, Prototyping, and Iterating' (DPI) on it until a production-ready template is done.

So...say 100x (ish) the normal production amount and time to 'unlock' it, where your backpack is using the excess amount to design a prototype...then iterate on it...then create another one...then iterate on that...the DPI until it has a finished design. Same with say, a Light Armor Block, you take the amount of iron needed to make one, and the time for the smelter to produce it, and multiply by 100x (ish). These are just 'initial' numbers. Could be on a scalier, early game multiplier, mid game multiplier, and late game multiplier.

The multiplier could also adjustable in the main menu, to enable either a shorter/longer time or more/less ore required, depending on what kind of play-through you are wanting, such as a Wide approach (multiple trees started) or a Deep Approach (one single tree is concentrated on). A (short time/large ore) setting will lean to a deep play-through, where as a {long time/small ore) setting will favor a wide strategy. Or just turn them off.

Same principle with researching blocks/components with your assembler, refinery, etc. They will also have an extra 'research' slot in the production tab que for unlocking, you drag your block from the tech tree (or just use the build menu screen) and dump it into the research slot on the production tab. You can have multiple 'unlocks' going at once with different production blocks...just no production unless it pauses the researching. Scale up? Sure, but the tech unlock is along a progression system, which means lower techs must be unlocked first. Or use a dedicated research block to build, with expansion slots. And create a Research screen, to manage it all, if you want to.

Simple system, easy to understand the logic of, easy to tweak, and easy to mod. No problem adding in new blocks, components, suit components, etc...since everything that is made is based on the different ores needed to build it, in the first place, so a natural progression is inherent with it already.

Gates:

A block progression system, by it's nature, is restrictive. The idea being to present a challenge to players throughout their gameplay, to extend that early to mid game resource and tech limitations, that will also reward a player's creativity, and is flexible enough to avoid repetition with repeated runs. So...every block is it's own unlock. And some blocks require other blocks to be unlocked, first. How you 'gate' these requirements...? The self-emerging gates that are there are...transportation and ore scarcity (and combat ability, later).

A player's sandbox start, right now, with all tech already unlocked, already has a progression built in based on this principle of transportation and ore scarcity. You cannot build everything immediately, as you need access to the ores needed to make it first, and the ability to make transportation to get to those ores. We already do an ore based progression! The idea is to formalize and codify it into a research tech tree. Different biomes are more suited to different initial builds during your start. You may want to dip into another ore tech tree line, if able, for QoL reasons or to meet a particular need. This presents challenges to a player, risk vs reward, investment vs return, limitations vs bounty.

So, for the initial scenario, we will have a suit only start on one of three planets:

-1. moon

-2. water

-3. terra

All the other planets will be variants of these, with their own unique challenges, but this however is the main three core types of tech progressions. The initial non-ore resource you can mine is dirt (iron), sand (silicon), and regolith (basalt). Each of these will give a 'variant' of the initial building blocks you unlock, i.e. steel for iron, glass for silicon, and cement for basalt. For the 3 core starting locations, you will need the ability to generate oxygen, food, battery, power creation, basic building block variants, initial transportation method, and hydrogen.

So...a variant of the starting block types is used for these 3 different type locations. This means tradeoffs. Limitations. Your tech tree unlocks are limited to the ores that are seeded in your starting biome. This also means unique builds to survive and expand. The ability to 'dip' into other tech trees later on as your transportation scouting ability grows means you can add variation to what you are trying to build. Again, adds to the uniqueness.

Your suit backpack is a...3d printer, it can take a variety of materials and ...abit slowly...print any of the beginner components and blocks. Versatile but slow. The actual 'Survival Kit block' is also a 3d printer, that is how it 'heals' you (and creates your respawn point)...so your suit can do the same. Heal slowly (a tick regen, essentially), ...but not the respawn. The suit also processes oxygen and hydrogen from sources that have them, in whatever fashion they occur in. The suit also has it's own 'production' tab, to unlock starting components and beginner blocks, and you cue up what components you need, like every other production block does, to build blocks. You suit also produces 'power', abit once again, slowly. An RTG solves that, so when standing still, your suit battery recharges. And so, since it is a 3d-printer, it can handle a variety of non-ore materials, for survival printing.

Hydrogen thrusters are the default suit thruster. Works in any environment, but requires a source of fuel. Later unlocks give a more suitable thruster upgrade for your thrusters, for your current biome, i.e. air thrusters, water thrusters, ion thrusters, that are all battery operated for greater efficiency.

Mech Legs:

Mech legs are added for the terra start. They function like wheels or thrusters, i.e. you slap a 'pre-made' one onto a base, which is the 'waist' block, and then off you go. You build whatever you want on top of the waist-plate, the bottom part is 'locked in' by Keen so it just 'works' as a mode of transportation. Different sizes of legs, just like wheels and thrusters. Why? Mountains. Crags. Forest. Cliffs. Rocky terrain. Hilly Terrain. Swamp. Bushes. Asteroids. Outside Bases. Inside Bases. Underwater...?

Mech legs can traverse all that, by having a 'crawl' mode, where each step locks the foot to the ground, just like your landing pad does, as it stomps around. Automatically, tied to the walking animations, with the option for manual control. Yes you can make your own mech and mech legs, but they are a 'proof of concept', at best. A faster gait can be selected, but you may fall over. But if the feet can 'lock' onto any object...you should be able to easily up-righten your mech. Janky, yes. Just 'works' though in all environments...yes.

Scavenging:

Scavenging should be limited to functional blocks only...you can repair to 100 percent, if functional, but once they go below that line then they are bricked, and unable to be repaired. For the idea of learning from grinding down blocks for the tech tree...nope. Blueprints will add that block variant to the tech tree, you still have to research up to the requirements for it first, to repair up from non-functional, or to build a new one.

Dependencies:

The progression gating will be based off of ore accessibility, to unlock and build more advanced blocks and components. Better weapons, reactors, larger variants of blocks...all require ores that might not be available on your planet. It will require travel to space, then travel to other planets, then travel to far off space, then travel to the most difficult locations 'on' a planet or in space, to access all the different types...purposely. Once you get to those limited ore locations, and unlock a transportation type (or the more advanced blocks), then it will be easier to access them again. I.E. Ion engines to painfully get to the ore location to make jump drives, then easier subsequently when you warp to it again.

The actual order of the unlocks, either a wide spread without dependencies, or a deep line that requires multiple block unlock dependencies, depends on how it is decided to be balanced for gameplay. I am more interested in the 'hard stop' blocks, since they can be more easily deduced logically. The other stuff can fall to either side of it, as you decide for balanced purposes, and depending on the actual ore seeding algorithms that are finalized.

If every planet has everything, then you can unlock the entire tech tree without leaving. If the ore seeding is spread out to require exploring, then the unlocks can be tied to what is required to do the exploring. The other blocks can be slotted in as you think they should be more useful in each 'stage' of exploration, to slow down the ability of one good asteroid field unlocking the whole tech tree. Maybe blueprint requirements, that require a certain faction standing or enemy/scavenge loot, or story mission unlocks, to gate certain tech advancements.

Example: You unlock a square light armor block. All the other light armor block variants can now be researched, either one-by-one, all at once, in it's own miniature 'tree', or etc. Leading to a ...you guessed it...a heavy armor block. Should it be it's own tech tree? Or branching off a fully-unlocked light armor block tree? Or tied in to another block's tech tree that requires the Heavy Armor Block components, and the light armor tree combines with another tree to unlock heavy armor?

With the necessity of a wide variety of ore seeding among different planets for gameplay reasons, a way to ensure balanced progression as well as ore availability across multiple locations is to separate the different transportation block tiers as a 'hard' gate to progress beyond. Meaning a block might not need that rare ore to unlock...but it is dependent on another block that 'does' need it, to be unlocked, first.

But -every- single block must be unlocked, individually. If a developer took the time to think of a purpose, design, and to code that block into the game...we the player will have to unlock it, individually. To actually consider it, to debate it's usage, a block he may of never actually thought about using before. It will enable better builds and better understanding of the different systems built for the players in the game... in the long run.

The initial 3 core type starts:

-Tier I Tech Trees-

A. Moon (Palatine)

1. Oxygen - Ice - Found inside comet impact craters, your main limit on surviving.

2. Food - Algae Wafers

3. Battery - (Sodium-Ion variant) Battery - based off backpack mining regolith for Basalt and ore deposits

4. Power Creation - solar panels

5. Basic Building Blocks - Cement Variants - based off backpack mining regolith for Basalt

6. Initial Transportation - Wheel Rover - based off mining nearby ores and regolith

7. Hydrogen - Found inside comet impact craters

...The basic moon start. Ice is the primary consideration for survival, you must locate a crater that is from a comet impact, or some other source of oxygen. Favors mining regolith to get Basalt to create cement variations on building blocks for the builds, like igloos for your moon base, or an initial underground bunkers.

B. Water (Bylbos)

1. Oxygen - water or atmosphere- Your suit can process water automatically.

2. Food - Kelp Krisps

3. Battery - (Lithium variant) Battery - based off extracting lithium from (salt water?/ore deposits?) and silicon from sand

4. Power Creation - H2 engine - Small survival H2-combination extractor/Engine block, for use in water.

5. Basic Building Blocks - Glass Variants - Based off backpack mining sand for Silicon, to make tempered glass to build underwater structures

6. Initial Transportation - Water Thruster - boats/ shallow submersibles - based off mining Silicon and using tempered glass block variants for boat blocks and tempered glass water thrusters variants.

7. Hydrogen - Either suit processing or from survival H2-combination extractor/engine block

...The basic water start. Favors tempered glass builds, so lots of glass walls in the underwater bases, off the ocean floor, or in the shallows. Floating builds, as well.

C. Terra (Verdure)

1. Oxygen - ice/water/atmosphere= Suit can extract Oxygen automatically, just slowly.

2. Food - Kale Kracker - ...or lentils? Beans? Something that is hardy and basic

3. Battery - (Alkaline Variant) Battery - based off mining iron from dirt and copper deposits

4. Power Creation - Wind Turbine

5. Basic Building Blocks - Based off backpack mining dirt for Iron, to make steel variations of blocks

6. Initial Transportation - Mech Leg Walker - Works on the side of mountains, crags, heavy forests, cliffs, etc

7. Hydrogen - Suit Processing air, water, or ice

...The basic terra start. Favors standard blocks and builds.

-Tier II Tech Trees-

A. Moon

6. Transportation - light ion thruster - space tug to hop around the moon, looking for better ores to unlock other tech lines and create better infrastructure. Slow, might not break gravity, but faster than a rover overall. With access other ores, can now 'dip' into other Tier I tech trees and unlock mech leg walkers, silicon based parts, etc.

B. Water

6. Transportation - air thrusters - Can access islands and other ore deposits, dip into other ore tech trees and unlock wheel rovers and mech leg walkers, solar panels, and other Tier I parts

C. Terra

6. Transportation - Air thrusters - Can access other ores, and unlock water thrusters, wheel rovers, boat parts, etc.

With access to other ores, can unlock the other Tier I trees, as needed. Ore deposits are limited to biomes, so different types of transportation might be required to access them, first, before unlocking the rest of the Tier I or Tier II blocks (all the other stuff in those tiers).

-Tier III Tech Trees-

Heavy Vasimr Ion Thruster - can now traverse other asteroids and to planets freely, in your sector. Need helium for fuel. High ISP (thruster efficiency), low TWR (thruster power). Harder to find fuel and find ore for components, comparatively.

Hydrogen Thruster - can now traverse other asteroids and planets freely, in your sector. Need hydrogen for fuel. Low ISP, high TWR. Easier to find fuel and find ore for components, comparatively.

Heavy shielding blocks for pressure/heat/radiation - can now access deep water, hotter volcanoes, and heavy radioactive areas.

As before, the other blocks and components can now be unlocked as you can now access the rarer ores (and higher quantity of rarer ores) needed to research them.

...Everything else below, is just pure theory. The idea being of a separate Helium-based research tree converging with a Hydrogen-based research tree, to the final end-game stuff.

-Tier IV Tech Trees-

Plasma Ion Thruster - needs Helium 3 (Helium variant), Medium ISP and Medium TWR. Fuel harder to get and produce

NERVA Nuclear Hydrogen Thruster - needs Deuterium (Hydrogen variant), Medium ISP and Medium TWR. Fuel harder to get/produce

These two tech trees converge (you have to unlock them both) to the end-game tech(...that we know of) that requires both Helium 3 and Deuterium.

-Tier V Tech Trees-

Fusion Reactor and Fusion Thruster - Fuel is Helium 3 for the fusion reactor, and Deuterium for the fusion thruster. High ISP, High TWR. Which enables unlocking a Jump Drive for long distance travel, and that also unlocks buildable Static Sector Warp Gates. Fixed locations, for use to travel to other sectors in a solar system. Can charge other players or factions to use, or deny their use.

Lastly, an idea for universe gameplay:

One, giant, Warp Gate (or something similar). Already at a fixed location, built by the NPCs (who...?). Freely available and usable by anyone. For travel to other Stars (linked, somehow), used for visiting other solar systems. The ultimate thing to try and control the space around it. NPC's will create wars for it, continuously, as a goal for their faction. A dynamic, creating gameplay.

Or maybe something else, like a star-drive for your ships. Dunno what is already thought of, if something beyond is in the works.

-thanks ;)