Your Cheapest Ideas

Started by Tynan, October 09, 2013, 12:17:07 AM

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Haplo

Two things that I've seen a lot in the videos, that may be easy to change..
It may lessen the grief of some players. (Some even needed to take a rage time-out in video ;) )

1. Colonists do often stop their work because they want to do something else.
This seems to annoy most players. Especially when they are building something big and needed at this moment, like a turret before an pirate attack. The colonist sometimes just leaves the work half finished to do something else.
I think the test, if they should do something else, should only be performed after a task is finished, not while it is running. So they would build the dispenser / turret until it's finished and get their food a bit later..
At least it should be changed for prioritised work items.

2. It should be possible to give drafted colonists the order to repair something like a damaged turret, so that they don't run of afterwards.
Right now the players undraft them, let them repair, and when they don't watch out, the repair man runs of to do something else somewhere far away from the battle. Or even better he runs towards the pirates.. :)

I'm not sure if it was already mentioned or not...

DeltaV

Haplo, for your first point, maybe it could be based off of the colonist's loyalty? As in, more loyal colonists would be more likely to keep working on something until it's done instead of wandering off.
Quote from: Douglas AdamsIt is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Haplo

#197
Hmm, that's a good idea..
If the loyalty is lower than a specific threshold the colonist will simply do only marginal work on the priorised targets and wanders off easily.
He will be assigned again and again. Then he builds one micro-square before he again looks for something else to do. Or maybe he even refuses to work further on this target.
This is how players are driven into madness, do it again and again.  8)

BlueEyeNInja

-I think that there is a need to improve shooting skill like targets or something that could be both fun and useful

-suicide bombers that go straight for turrets and colonists

-maybe if someone got about 50+ shooting skill they could equip 2 pistols

-Thats it for now ill post any new ideas!

huxi

Quote from: Haplo on October 27, 2013, 01:16:20 PM
1. Colonists do often stop their work because they want to do something else.
[..]
At least it should be changed for prioritised work items.

That's a good point. Saw this a lot myself. I wouldn't even let this depend on loyalty since it is really quite annoying. A colonist should only quit doing a prioritized task if his live depends on it. An example for this would be a fire in direct(!) vicinity. Even taking damage from starving shouldn't have an influence.

It would make sense, however, to have different behavior depending on the current alarm level. So if raiders have just landed (lets call that yellow alarm level) or are actively attacking (red alarm level) the colonists should behave like I explained above while in times of "peace" (green alarm level) they could very well work unmotivated based on their loyalty.

Slacking off in a yellow or red situation is simply very dangerous so even unmotivated colonists should work based on their will to survive.

Now that I think about it: it would probably be nice to really have a visible green/yellow/red alarm level via icon. Insane creatures could also cause a yellow alert.

Quote from: Haplo on October 27, 2013, 01:16:20 PM
2. It should be possible to give drafted colonists the order to repair something like a damaged turret, so that they don't run of afterwards.
Right now the players undraft them, let them repair, and when they don't watch out, the repair man runs of to do something else somewhere far away from the battle. Or even better he runs towards the pirates.. :)

+1, drafted colonists should be able to repair on direct order, then getting back to the fight.
They could even remember an object that they are supposed to keep repairing, if needed. So you could assign one of your colonists to a turret and if it reaches a certain damage level he would automatically try to repair it. After that (s)he would fight again until the turret needs some more love. This would enable more strategy before the actual fight.

This could even be an alternative to my green/yellow/red suggestion above if drafted colonists would always finish what they started. But that could be abused by simply drafting colonists in a green situation to make them work without them running around.
Not nice. And also not good for the (mental) health of the colonist in question...

Morrigi

Reinforced walls/Barricades. Somewhat tougher than normal walls and don't burn, but quite expensive to build.

Xanting

#201
How about negative hit points? In most videos I see that prisoners are few and far between after the player gets more potent weapons to use against raiders which almost always kills potential prisoners. If both colonists and raiders had negative hit points it would give you a chance to save or capture people from battles. It would be a low number like -10, and damage past 0 they take half damage, rounded up, from damage so they have a chance to survive.

For example, if a Raider had 10 hit points and got shot for 23 damage the remaining 13 damage would be divided in half and rounded up and then be at -7 and be 3 points from dying. You could capture the raider alive if its near the end of combat but if its during a heated firefight then he will probably bleed out.

Another example would be if a colonist was at 20 hit points took a grenade to the face for 50 damage he will still die outright because (20 - 50)/2 = -15 which would be over(or under) -10 hit points.

Also another suggestion is to have deployment zones for colonists to automatically move to their positions when you draft them.

letheus

Rivers! (and small lakes! and bridges maybe, and maybe boats. )

smoke-grenades
target lights? that spotlight enemies?
heavy doors!!! (for those players who dig themselves into the rock deeply)
scarecrows to hold off nasty animals that eat crops
how about different vehicles? hovercrafts, motorcycles, ...



DIEHARD24

Quote from: letheus on October 29, 2013, 06:07:38 AM
how about oil-wells? the colonists need to develop an oil-pump, and the oil well runs out of oil one day.

pretty nice idea) but it seems to be hard to code.
anyway, the last word is for Tynan.
I'm sure, he already have a full concept of raw resources and production lines.

DeltaV

Wind Generator: Very low power generation, but generates constantly and doesn't take up much horizontal space. Build away from mountains for optimal generation of power, makes more energy during storms.
Quote from: Douglas AdamsIt is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

emreakyel

Chef class! So Npc's stop complaining about nutreit paste

Voltronguy

#206
Electrified Fences nd allow us to teh Turrets programming so we can make them target wild life, or even our own people during mass riots!

overseers chair, and even artificial intelligence to control turrets or forced systems to work during electrical storm, maybe goes rogue! ok thx!


also please add flame throwers

incenerators for our dead and alsooo traps! incenerator or laserhall way traps from resident eviL!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYFOr1PN6EE


PLEAS ADD LASER HALLWAY TRAPS!!

Wonky

New food ideas, like meat from animals. i hate it when they are unhappy cause of "Ate nutrient paste"
And also Construction and Repair should be separated, id like them to build something but NO! they rather fix red spots everywhere :D

TvoEx

#208
Quote from: Matty on October 27, 2013, 12:28:16 AM
Off topic: I'm learning Software Engineering at University, what software did you use to create this game?
If memory serves, he is using Unity. (If not, then feel free to correct me, or just pout at my wrongness )

About cheap really ideas. I really would just like to see more useless furniture to fill in those gaps that I could use to make rooms look nicer, It doesn't all have to be useless though, it can make the environment feel nicer to the colonist as well.

And like I said before. I still would like to see some walls that don't conduct power but are far stronger.

EDIT: Now that I really think about it on the not so cheap side, What about something interesting that you can do with the roof. Weather it is placing items on it or making different types of it that do different things.

Nemo

#209
-assignment objects e.g.
warning siren looks like a speaker tower and when built allows you to select 1-5 people (can change them later) and when activated automatically drafts them and orders them to the speaker (would solve finding your best fighter every time raiders say hello)

Planning table (could use a better name) you can select 1-5 jobs that will be top priority when activated which colonists will complete up till a break down (+ penalty to loyalty when activated)

battery packs cost materials to make but if a colonist get one (from equipment bench) and puts it next to a unpowered item the item gains power for a few hours (depends on game balance needed)

-Lore stuff

paste dispenser = mushroom cultivator. Basically mushrooms that feed off on inedible stuff and turn it into stuff you can eat (though you'll probably get sick of it quick). Mainly as this is something nasa is looking into. Colonists would have carried the spores in there space survival kits.

Traders = automated traders. A) who would want to spend 20+ years traveling some where to trade with a back water where your more likely to get attacked by raiders than make a profit
B) makes more sense as to why they can't pick you up there not programmed to. get picked up by a slaver automatically in the slave hold and branded until you get sold (and yes the slave buyers have heard the I'm not a slave I just did it to get off planet excuse)
C) could allow some cool stuff with trading with ships sent from extinct civilisations (just set themselves to default 'trade' mode.

(Also I think it would be fun to give the option to ask for help only to be told... your call is important to us and we will put you through to a help desk in.. calculating 8 years (light speed) please hold the line. (Maybe if you could have the colonist who did this automatically have a break down :-))