water as a semi rare resource

Started by salt1219, October 07, 2013, 05:39:14 AM

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RebCom1807

Would make sense to have it, you could have a system like how the power lines are now for it, possibly having it integrated into the walls by default. For outdoor growing, you can go without it (Naturally moist soil, rain can take care of it), but you need it for hydroponics, aeroponics and, to a partial extent, colonists (Maybe the nutrient paste has a good bit of water in it?). It could be used for automatic firefighting systems, as well as something that can be hooked up to a turret to make it have better cooling (Up to 7/8 shots instead of five, and it won't explode if damaged to a certain amount, just stop firing).

If a water line breaks in a wall, you could say that it is sealed automatically, whereas outside lines could end up with a pool of water on the ground for a bit.

Perhaps even add a recreational structure (Pool/Hot Tub) that is great for happiness, but takes up a lot of water and a good amount of space (If you have it built in a zone fashion, it needs x tiles per colonist for use, more than that and it increases a benefit).

Also, coffee. That is a must, if possible. Space coffee.

W1Z25


Cooky

I love this idea, but how about having some kind of well or mechanical pump (Like those wind ones from the 1860's US Midwest farms) in early game that provides water in a reasonable but regular amount, but is limited by the fact the water table in arid lands is a very limited resource, forcing people in later parts of the game to seek ever more creative ways to sate their growing water needs like air condensers or using local natural sources suggested earlier in the post?

InkedYogi

I am adding my support to this idea. Only having money, metal and food as resources is insufficient, and I like a lot of the ideas for uses of water.

How about keeping with the desert theme, and having oases? It would attract all kinds of living things, animals (food), raiders(danger), traders, etc. They could have a body of water that could either be used up, or slowly replenished.

hermesdj

Water should definitely be part of the game, as a need for the colonist or to make hydroponic food grow a little more challenging !

Luckless

I strongly support adding issues like water to the game. For starters just having water, its collection and storage, and colonists requiring it.

Further developments with it could include things like portable water (producing bottles of various types. Cheap and simple ones don't carry much, are heavy, and risk breaking. Harder to produce ones are lighter for the same volume, and are less likely to break, etc.)

And then you could take it even further with issues like water quality and contamination. Issues of germs, toxins, maybe radiation, etc.

Another feature, possibly best discussed in another thread on its own, would be one of knowledge and 'advanced tools'. An oaf with nothing but a shovel has no idea about water safety. Is it clear? Probably safe. An educated scientist with lab equipment could then give you a better idea on if the water is pure, contaminated with heavy metals, swarming with bacteria, or heavily irradiated. While everyone would be able to build basic wells and ditches, more complex filters and such would require a colonist with higher level knowledge. This would play very well with expanding the research system, and making scientists with poor manual labour stats more useful in the long run as they are needed to "Plan/Design" things that the other characters can then build.

Tobman10

Quote from: Cooky on November 03, 2013, 01:39:58 PM
I love this idea, but how about having some kind of well or mechanical pump (Like those wind ones from the 1860's US Midwest farms) in early game that provides water in a reasonable but regular amount, but is limited by the fact the water table in arid lands is a very limited resource, forcing people in later parts of the game to seek ever more creative ways to sate their growing water needs like air condensers or using local natural sources suggested earlier in the post?
I like this idea, then you wouldn't have to mess with like a flowing water mechanic or anything. Maybe it can be like a futuristic type pump that needs power. Water could be a new resource and this pump would collect water and add it to the resource screen thing. You would probably have to put it on a certain terrain (like a farm) or maybe where you place it determines the amount of water you get and how fast you get it.   
-Tob :)

Tobman10

Quote from: Luckless on November 08, 2013, 10:04:11 PM
I strongly support adding issues like water to the game. For starters just having water, its collection and storage, and colonists requiring it.

Further developments with it could include things like portable water (producing bottles of various types. Cheap and simple ones don't carry much, are heavy, and risk breaking. Harder to produce ones are lighter for the same volume, and are less likely to break, etc.)

And then you could take it even further with issues like water quality and contamination. Issues of germs, toxins, maybe radiation, etc.

Another feature, possibly best discussed in another thread on its own, would be one of knowledge and 'advanced tools'. An oaf with nothing but a shovel has no idea about water safety. Is it clear? Probably safe. An educated scientist with lab equipment could then give you a better idea on if the water is pure, contaminated with heavy metals, swarming with bacteria, or heavily irradiated. While everyone would be able to build basic wells and ditches, more complex filters and such would require a colonist with higher level knowledge. This would play very well with expanding the research system, and making scientists with poor manual labor stats more useful in the long run as they are needed to "Plan/Design" things that the other characters can then build.
I also really like this idea, especially the part on adding more research and making scientists more useful. I think if we combine ideas like this and the well one it could make a pretty beast water system.
-Tob :)

spurdo

I think water should definitely be implemented in the game. It would fit so well with the theme and might also be an interesting mechanic.

Some ideas:

First of all, agriculture should require water. It's an arid environment, your plants should definitely require water.

I dislike the idea of atmospheric condensers, because, frankly, I think they would be pretty uninteresting gameplaywise. They would just stand there, requiring nothing form you. If they would be included, it should be an expensive late-game option with some downsides, like providing only little water. I would find these water sources a lot more interesting:

1. Collecting rain water. It would be inexpensive, safe and requiring little work from the colonists. But it would be unrealiable - rain should be rare in an arid environment like this! Unless you covered massive areas with your rain water collecting equipment, the water shouldn't be enough for large scale agriculture. Though of course the rain itself would take care of your plants.

2. Extracting from cacti and other plants. Reliable, but relatively time-consuming because you need colonists actively extracting the water. Would provide only little water, so it wouldn't be enough for anything but essentials. An interesting option might be farming cacti for water. Maybe extracting water could even kill the plant so if you were too aggressive with extracting from wild cacti, they might go extinct.

3. Rivers, (lakes). These would provide massive amounts of water, making even large scale agriculture very effective. There should be a downside though, so it wouldn't be the only feasible water source: I think these large bodies of water should be located in parts of the map otherwise less desirable. They could always be far from the starting location in areas with little rocks and no metals so players wouldn't always relocate there. Maybe if there was fog of war, players wouldn't immediately find it. What, I believe, would make this very interesting gameplaywise would be the way players got the water from the river to the colony. The colonists could either carry it manually, making it very time consuming and less effective, or they could build water pipes to carry the water to the colony and their fields. If the pipes would have to be long, they would also be very vulnerable. If raiders or some other unfortunate incident would cut the pipe, a colony relying on the river would quickly find themselves to be in trouble.

Thracian

to make normal rivers and shit like that, you need to make the map 8x bigger (yes 8x bigger i didnt spell it wrong) 1600x1600 would be a really cool world..... a big enormous world with al kinds of jungles and alien type animals....

invisible worm

Is it confirmed whether water will be added as a resource? This is one area of development I really think would enhance the game.

Steffmeistro

I too think having water as a resource would be a great feature. Water is life. And besides the more obvious water requirements for drinking and agriculture, it would be needed for sanitation (important for health!) and industrial uses (coolant, steam vents, whatever industry will be implemented).

It shouldn't be much harder to manage than the other features though, but I do believe it should be as important as food for the survival of your colonists. Especially in arid environments.

As to where to get the water from, why not make it more simple initially, then make it harder as game development progresses? I propose initially just having wells that drill to the groundwater, simply assuming that groundwater is available everywhere on the planet. If not that, then maybe restrict building these on freshwater springs, like how the geothermal generators can only be built on steam geysers. This would allow water to be more easily implemented without new environmental features such as rivers or other water bodies. I also feel this would be more in line with the "technological" theme (i.e. being able to build solar panels and geothermal generators from day 1) than more unreliable rainwater collectors or cacti water collection, as has been proposed in the thread.

As for handling the water, how about something like this:

* Water pipes, to get the water where you need it. Similar to the way electricity works. Make walls able to transmit water too, to make things simple.
* Water purifier, making the water entirely safe for consumption (not really needed for other uses).
* Water storage, to, yeah, store the water, obviously.
* Water dispensers, where colonists can drink/fill their water bottles. Maybe also used for fire extinguishing?
* Some way to integrate the water supply with farming. Easiest would probably be to already have water capabilities in the farming structures, and just connect pipes to them to have the benefit of a steady water supply (or in the case of hydroponics, a water supply at all!).

Any thoughts?

Kingoftime

What if you had the ability to damn the rivers? There for creating a silt deposit where the water used to be. The silt would have a higher amount of nutrients then ground normally does so the crops would grow faster here or maybe you could harvest more from them?

But i definitely like the idea of water! in some way shape or form!!

TimMartland

If the world gets much bigger, then you could end up tapping ice deposits! Think about it, the picture on the start screen shows the planet having quite extensive amounts of ice that reach well into the wastelands.
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Solanus

I am thinking that water should be handled as a rate resource similar in many ways to electrical power. 

  • Conduits could easily be switched over to "conducting" both types of flow, and sources for water would have a rate of production, based in part on the presence of water in the near environment and how the amount of water changes over time.
  • Pumps need to be built anywhere next to standing sources of water and would have output depending on the number of unclaimed water tiles nearby and the rain-dependent depth of the water.  If a "flowing" water source could be set (a stream, river, etc.), the draw rate could be higher because of the amount moving past the pump.  Would draw power to operate.  Would probably need additional maintenance to cover cleaning/replacement of filters, more if the water source is "questionable", like a marsh or stagnant pool.
  • Well heads need to be built over specific well sites (to prevent over-depletion of the water table) and would be a less rain-volatile source for water.  Would draw power to operate.  Would probably need some additional maintenance to cover cleaning/replacement of filters, but not as much as pumps.
  • Rainfall collectors need to be built outside, and would be either a standing building (lower tech and fairly efficient but taking up space) or integrated into a floor structure (allows for walking across but less efficient (additional filtration needed) and harder to research/build).  May not need power to operate unless floor version is too OP.  Maintenance would be minimal (filter cleaning/replacement) except for floor version, which individually would be very low but collectively high for any significant placement.
  • Moisture vaporators would be a high tech, low standing water alternative, able to provide a steady source but needing significant power to run and possibly considerable maintenance.
  • Storage tanks would provide the same function for water that batteries do for power, and could be built indoors or out.  I don't know if you would have a similar fault with water supply as power - I could see the sudden loss of all stored water and damage to flooded/battered furniture and buildings.
  • Patches of water on surfaces could be dealt with similar to current filth, needing to be cleaned up to avoid negative thoughts by nearby colonists.
  • Water could be used in outdoor farms (with sprinklers to supplement rainfall), hydroponics (very water intensive), nutrient paste dispensers, auto-turrets (water cooling), "water closets" (like a camper bathroom), and any other uses that can be created (maybe water features, swimming pools, or hot tubs to placate colonists).