Starting location

[Semmy]

When i was watching the game this morning some things bothered me.
Maybe its been talked about but i couldnt find it.

Where does your starting location come from?
You drop in your pods and there are 3 sleeping bags a waste area and a stockpile.
Furthermore you always drop near some food and metal.

Wouldnt it be more logical to let the metal at the starting location be your pods?
You can deconstruct them or just haul them towards your stockpile.
Just like food they should come as emergency rations out of those pods.
Just to give the story some credibility on where your starting stuff came from.

Also the metals just lying around the map could be scattered debris from your damaged starship. More logical than ramdom lying around metals d-:

Than we get to the already build stuff. I think they shouldnt be there.
Who put them there and why?
Just make your pods worth a bit more than the stuff you start with so you can construct them yourself.

This way your not forced to start where you land since the stockpile is quite costly to relocate.

[miah999]

You're right it probably would be more logical if the escape pods broke down into say 2 metal, 2 food, and a sleeping bag. Also you probably shouldn't start with anything built. The first build order should be a small stockpile.

So in short good points all around.

[Semmy]

Indeed adding a smaller and large stockpile would be cool.
This way one can save space and materials.

Also shouldnt stockpiles have a max to what fits in. Or just seeing it loaded could be cool aswell.

i remember all those stacks of gold in evil genius made me happy

[miah999]

Indeed adding a smaller and large stockpile would be cool.
This way one can save space and materials.

Also shouldnt stockpiles have a max to what fits in. Or just seeing it loaded could be cool aswell.

i remember all those stacks of gold in evil genius made me happy

I believe seeing the contents of the stockpile as well as a limit to what it can hold, has been mentioned by Tynan. I know he said something Dwarf Fortress style stockpiles, but I don't play DF, so I have no idea what that means.

[Semmy]

DF style stockpiles means you can dedicate stockpiles to certain resources.
Also you see them filling up and are able to use barrels/bins to store stuff.

[SteveAdamo]

Also the metals just lying around the map could be scattered debris from your damaged starship. More logical than ramdom lying around metals d-:

for what it's worth, i always considered the metal and food materials, scattered across the terrain, as being debris from your broken ship... i never thought of them as being indigenous...

[Spike]

I did have a suggestion (somewhere) that you start with nothing built, and just give the player some tutorial pop-ups to build things.  Of course, increase the starting resources to reimburse the build cost.  From watching the videos, it seems most of the time you will want to move from the default position into something more defensive.

[AspenShadow]

I agree with the thread's overall purpose, but as far as I'm aware not having any stockpile at all breaks the game, even if you don't have one for only a second. This is why Tynan recently patched the game so that you can't sell your starting stockpile until another is already in place.

Perhaps to work around that there could be a much smaller stockpile square designated where you pods crash and the first thing you're told to do is build the actual stockpile where you wish, afterwards the former smaller version ceases to exist. It would work more like a one-tile-zone than an object for ease of deletion?

[Semmy]

I agree with the thread's overall purpose, but as far as I'm aware not having any stockpile at all breaks the game, even if you don't have one for only a second. This is why Tynan recently patched the game so that you can't sell your starting stockpile until another is already in place.

Perhaps to work around that there could be a much smaller stockpile square designated where you pods crash and the first thing you're told to do is build the actual stockpile where you wish, afterwards the former smaller version ceases to exist. It would work more like a one-tile-zone than an object for ease of deletion?

Why not let your pods count as a stockpile?
they carry your gun some emergency rations some resources.

Than you can choose to scrap them or build your base around them and keep them as a reminder of how you got there

[AspenShadow]

Why not let your pods count as a stockpile?
they carry your gun some emergency rations some resources.

Than you can choose to scrap them or build your base around them and keep them as a reminder of how you got there

It's a nice idea I agree, I'm quite sentimental about sim-building games so I probably would keep them as a monument of sorts. However I think it'd be hard for Ty to add the pod-sprites as an object independent to their falling-animation and then re-script them as stockpiles as well as objects that could be broken down into scrap.  Naturally if they were stockpiles, the emergency rations would already be in them and therefore appear immediately in your top-left resource statistics.

Also I'm wondering how people would feel about something like this^[1] being established on arrival or built by the player?

[1]: A campfire that could be built near your sleeping spots to light up the night (which I do think needs to be a bit darker), it serves a multi-function of being a light, heat source (Mood modifier), scaring away animals and possibly allowing colonists to roast squirrels before they can engineer the paste dispenser. It's very low-tech and all-in-all I feel it could be well-served as the first object a new player builds in-game to help keep their colonists well and fairly happy until they learn the ropes.