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« on: November 16, 2019, 07:18:26 PM »
IDEA #1
Let's consider what probably constitutes colonist Domestic Goods, which are produced by Light Industry: Clothes, toilet paper, toothpaste, shoes, light bulbs... pretty much everything you need around the house that you don't put in your mouth.
Now let's consider what probably constitutes ship crew Supplies, which are produced by Heavy Industry: Clothes, toilet paper, toothpaste, duct tape, spare fuses... pretty much everything you need around the ship including things that you eat.
It looks kind of familiar, yes? Except for food, ship supplies are probably at least 50% of the same sort of things domestic supplies would have inside their crates as well. Meanwhile, you've got the Fuel Production facility which makes fuel and... that's it.
Which lead me to wonder: Would it not make more sense to put all this stuff under one roof, or more specifically, one facility? So here is my idea/suggestion, and if not for main game then at least to consider as a mod:
1) Remove Supplies from Heavy Industry.
2) Remove Fuel Production facility entirely.
3) Allow a small amount Supplies to be created by Light Industry and add organics to their base cost (figure MREs can be made from nutrient paste rather than real food).
4) Where Fuel Production was add a new facility, Space Industry. This facility produces both fuel and supplies in modest amounts, using the same resources as before (i.e. volatiles, organics, etc).
5) Allow a toggle to allow players to shift priority for the facility for the coming month. 50/50 or 75/25 in favor of one or the other.
This would help a lot on the logistics side, as it would allow even a starter colony provide some kind of support to the player's fleet. It would also streamline the process of satisfying the needs of things like space stations and starports as well. You would no longer be forced into spamming Heavy Industry on every colony that wants to have a space station and ultimately end up with far more Custom Production points than you could ever hope to use as a side effect. Now you could just keep you Heavy Industry to a more practical level while the Space Supply facility would be enough to keep the colony able to support its own fleet/spaceport/space station on its own.
IDEA #2
Allow the use of surplus Nanoforges in Light Industry as well. Results & reasons should be obvious. I can't imagine why such an advanced technology would be so limited in its utility. If it can fabricate spaceships then it should be able to make shoes & toothbrushes as well.
IDEA #3
Allow use of surplus Nanoforges in the base colony slot (1st slot) to build housing and whatnot, thus creating a free bonus to population growth. Concrete is even easier than toothbrushes.
IDEA #4
Add toggle to Heavy Industry to shift production priorities (see above) - leave balanced, or put an emphasis on ship hulls or military hardware.
IDEA #5
Add a Hybrid Composites facility. What does this do? It combines both the effect of a Mining Facility and a Refinery, but is only half as effective as either. For those with more cash than free space, this would be a handy crutch until your colony grows enough to properly support having both of the more dedicated types of facilities, or for colonies that had poor mineral wealth to begin with and thus aren't really worth investing too much into.
IDEA #6
Allow multiples of the same type of facility. Dedicated farming worlds that do nothing else. Dedicated mining worlds that do nothing else. And so on. Even just expanding the limit to two of each type would be enough, honestly.
