Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: Tartiflette on March 23, 2019, 04:22:55 AM

Title: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: Tartiflette on March 23, 2019, 04:22:55 AM
 So next patch we won't be able to just spam all the buildings and industries at once on a new colony and get everything up and running in a couple of month, and that's certainly a good thing. But with the colonies taking longer to get running I think it open up a new way to make some planets valuable and interesting to colonize: in the same way some planets have ruins, some planets could have pre-collapse industries already built that could be reactivated.

 The way I see it, they would start "disrupted" for a few months, and would slowly get back online without taking time in the building queue, helping to get the colony running a bit sooner and at a lower cost.

 Those industries could maybe even not be counted against the limited number of production slots, making such finding even more interesting.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: Alex on March 23, 2019, 11:28:51 AM
Neat idea! Probably not for .1, but I really like this. At least in theory - there's a bit of a risk that this would make *only* worlds with an extant dormant industry desirable for colonizing, if it lets you break the limit. And if it doesn't, then... I guess that could still be useful. Especially now that (in .1) building stuff gets significantly more expensive. Though one could colonize, then shut down the industry (for a refund!) and then abandon the colony, if the refund is large enough. Would need to somehow make that a bad idea, probably by increasing the "abandon" cost. But I digress - yeah, I really like this!
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: SCC on March 23, 2019, 12:35:41 PM
I want to mention that, currently, there are only two things colonies are good for (heavy industry for custom orders, general purpose money making) and both rely on the same stat (hazard rating) to function. Well, HI sort of doesn't, but the player is likely to be interested in making HI not be a drag on his bottom line and the hazard rating is the way to go. I would really like more unique conditions and resources that carry some gameplay consequences. Currently you just want a bit of everything on your planets, so that you can build all the resource industries and boost them with skills and cores into brokenness.
About having the player opportunistically dismantle the industry — it can be "discouraged" by simply having the option to do so from the orbit for some quick cash. That, or make built-ins impossible to dismantle, having manual disabling of them instead.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: Wyvern on March 23, 2019, 01:04:07 PM
Yeah, going to have to agree with SCC here - a free extra industry, even one that breaks the cap, isn't going to make a hazard rating 175+ world worth colonizing.  I don't have any good ideas for how to do it, but it would be really nice if hazard rating wasn't quite so dominant a statistic.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: goduranus on March 23, 2019, 01:12:34 PM
But does that make sense though? If you find a nice factory, why wouldn't you be able to salvage it and sell it for scraps? and why wouldn't you be able to disassemble it and move it around? Flavor is good but it should be explainable and consistent within the game's lore.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: intrinsic_parity on March 23, 2019, 01:29:18 PM
What about an automation industry of some sort that increases the output of other industries without requiring increased population. It could take up multiple industry slots if necessary. The idea is just that a colony with low population on a high hazard world could still create useful production, it would just be limited to a reduced number of industries (possibly just 1).

edit:
analogously, you could have an environmental control industry that reduces upkeep on other industries (and the population upkeep) while also reducing the number of industry slots (again possibly to 1).
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: angrytigerp on March 23, 2019, 04:05:35 PM
But does that make sense though? If you find a nice factory, why wouldn't you be able to salvage it and sell it for scraps? and why wouldn't you be able to disassemble it and move it around? Flavor is good but it should be explainable and consistent within the game's lore.

Gameplay-wise: The idea of being able to just salvage it is... I mean, that's basically what Ruins are ¯\_(?)_/¯

As for lore: For example, what if it's a factory built out of a natural cavern, or otherwise integrated into the local geological structures (it's in a mountainside or something)? You can't just pack up and move Cheyenne Mountain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain_Complex), for example.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: goduranus on March 23, 2019, 08:10:22 PM
I mean, while you can’t move a volcano along with a geothermal plant, you can take the heat excahngers and install them on another volcano.

I think something that can’t be moved may be geological or truely enormous, like a whole continent converted into a giant factory like the forge worlds of warhammer, or a hive city or something.
Title: Re: "Built-in" planetery industries
Post by: Tartiflette on March 24, 2019, 01:20:12 AM
I'd say it is vastly cheaper to rebuild an industry than to move it though. Except for specific components (some machinery, furnitures, fuel, nanoforge)... Which is just ruins. So maybe the ability to convert such industry into ruins (or upgrade ruins to the higher level) instead of direct "selling" would do it? In 9.1 they will dry out and not produce anything for the economy so that's a fair exchange I think: direct player resources over time if you don't want the industry for your economy.