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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining  (Read 609 times)

Wyvern

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Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« on: November 27, 2022, 02:27:00 PM »

Tech-mining remains one of the most lackluster industries.

I'd suggest restoring some of its old production capability, turning out small amounts of metals, supplies, fuel, and volatiles*. (Why volatiles? So that a size three outpost colony with tech-mining can be used as a materials source for the Neutrino Detector.)

And then replacing the monthly random rewards with monthly progression along an event counter - instead of a guaranteed larger haul the first month it's working, let it build up towards a guaranteed haul - and then include in that haul some exploration notes: you get some stuff immediately, and you get coordinates for, say, a mining station or a research station or an orbital habitat, something you can go out and loot. (For extra fun, make these sometimes be coordinates for a station with guards - "This data points to a Tri-Tachyon research facility from the first AI war; it's likely that some of its automated defenses are still in operation.")

Salvaging other ruins would give you progress on the counter as well, justified as data pointing to specific coordinates, or access keycodes for old facilities, that sort of thing.

* I'd suggest something like ruins-size plus one for metals (2-5 units), ruins-size minus one for supplies & fuel (0-3 units), and ruins-size divided by two (rounding down) for volatiles (0-2 units), modified of course by alpha core usage, story-point improvement, or the industrial planning skill, as usual.
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Alex

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Re: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2022, 03:47:18 PM »

Hmm, I like this idea quite a lot! Especially since multiple Tech Mining operations could just tie into the same event, and you could do allll sorts of cool stuff there. Definitely going to note this one down, thank you!
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SonnaBanana

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Re: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2022, 04:35:01 PM »

Alex is the best!
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FooF

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Re: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2022, 06:11:23 PM »

This really is a good idea. Larger ruins improve the progress meter more but likewise having multiple smaller operations achieve the same result. What I really like is the fact that you still have to go out and get the goodies. It would be my hope that these tip-offs kind of cherry pick the stuff nearby. Granted, once you exhaust all the low-hanging fruit you have to go further and further out but even if the game generated some loot at times ("Scans indicate a hyperspace storm may have blown a large vessel into the Gamma Epsilon system..."), it would surprise and keep traveling costs to a minimum.

The real question I have would be whether or not the progress bar would have diminishing returns or not based on the age of the industry (as it is currently). The problem I currently have with Tech-Mining is that it has a certain life-span, when all other Industries do not. I think the progress bar could get "n+1" larger per iteration perhaps, but never so much that it is no longer "worth it" (also, as it is currently). Perhaps this means you have to re-tool how much Tech-Mining costs and whatnot but semi-frequent, guaranteed good items or good fights is well worth an Industry slot to me. It beats just getting more credits, at least.
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Wyvern

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Re: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2022, 10:35:51 AM »

One: Thank you for the response, Alex! Glad you like the notion, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes in the next Starsector release.

Two: I think that some amount of ruins-decay is a good thing, just to give the player an extra reward for setting up new tech-mining operations... but I also think that the current decay-towards-zero thing is a bit much. A planet is a really big place, after all.

So I'd suggest having even a 'fully-depleted' ruins still offer some event progression - bottoming out at, I dunno, one-tenth what you get from the first couple of months? One quarter? Eh, depends on the decay curve (and exactly how lucrative that first month is).
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FreonRu

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Re: Use the new event system for Tech-Mining
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2022, 11:11:19 AM »

I really like the above idea, but I dare to add one more, let's say in addition to. it doesn't contradict the idea.

In my few years of playing Starsector, I've only built this building a handful of times. Because it does not bring constant profit, the ruins are quickly exhausted and the building itself (industry) can be sold. The proposal is to make a special upgrade for this building - an "interstellar research team" - which will once a month send a research fleet to systems in which the player has already found ruins (but has not established a colony) - and within a month the research fleet will excavate there, and then they will return to their home system and send all the finds they find. Due to the fact that such an industry is very expensive - you need ships, fuel, supplies, a research group - it is most logical for this building to occupy two industry cells at once.
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