Space balancing strategy depot

[calibayzone]

Of course we need to make the further planets worth it, but how should we do that?

We all want space balancing. Lets start a thread with various ideas, most likely the devs will address this in the next update or so. First take a step back and see what the situation is:

What are the materials in space?

Easily renewable (without care packages or seed-dependent volcanos): Igneous rock, and Magma (regolith melter), pO2, pH2O, frozen gases (O2, methane, CO2). Sleet wheat grain.

Hard to renew: Slime, algae (pufts are slooooow).

Non renewables, but abundant: Abyssalite, Iron ore (maybe this is a care package?), mafic rock, sedimentary rock (care package?). Copper (care package, possible volcanos), obsidian. In most cases you won't need more of these, but if you have a hatch farm...

Non renewables, and rare: wort seeds, wild eggs/critters (for a zero-resource meat/lime ranch), 

Space-only: Isoresin, niobium, fullerine, data banks, artifacts, gas grass seed, gassy moo, vacillator recharge.

So what is actually useful?

Only a few of these materials make a big impact:

Early distance: Isoresin, niobium, fullerine.

Mid distance: Wort seed, algae/slime (for huge pacu farms).

End distance: Not much.

What could make us want to go the extra mile?

Making the early space materials rarer is probably not a good idea, as space is very hard to set up we need a quick reward. So we should add more options.

Artifacts: Decor is very nice, but pedestals take up space and gold block sculptures also have quite high decor. A 1x1 item frame would need less space and could more easily fit. Also, artifacts could have temporary "motivational poster" buffs to dupe stats as well. Make the tiers grow to higher numbers, and this makes long distances more viable.

Gassy moo: Several changes have been discussed, namely making gas grass not need sunlight and letting the moo reproduce, as well as buffing the grass growth rate.

Vacillator recharge: Make renewable, with an increasing % chance with distance (that we can see). Let us build a colony of super-dupes, it will just take a very long time! Right now we get too few to have all that much of an effect.

Data banks: They processed into something useful, like to accelerate dupe operations much like microchips accelerate power plants? 

Other "better versions" of home materials: Super coolant is better pwater, niobium is better steel, and artifacts are better sculpting blocks. What about materials with various boosts, such as 5kW wires, 25kg/packet liquid pipes, machines build out of them boost their output slightly (i.e. bbq becomes 5000 kcal instead of 4000 kcal), ranching stations with 1.5 cycle long grooming effects, 30T storage, etc?

Resources that aren't just "better versions" or scarce on the homeworld: There are a lot of options here. Geyser tweaking and neutronium mining is impossible now but could be done with some space unobtanium. Or dupe teleporting devices and stat-boosting vitamins. Basically any thing in "suggestions" that is useful in the late game and isn't too crazy could go here.

Softer distance penalty: The closest is 3 cycles, so make the farthest only 6 cycles or so. Thus getting farther is mainly about rocket fuel and mass, not wait time. 

There are many ways to expand on these ideas, so feel free to post below. The goal with this thread is to consolidate a discussion of space. 

 

[yoakenashi]

I propose that the destinations gradually run out of resources just like our own asteroid. Meaning, the percentages of returned materials decreases and there is more of a chance of returning nothing.

[SharraShimada]

1 hour ago, yoakenashi said:

I propose that the destinations gradually run out of resources just like our own asteroid. Meaning, the percentages of returned materials decreases and there is more of a chance of returning nothing.

This would be thing, but a hell, when it comes to balancing.

Either they run out too early, while the colony has not the ability to reach far out destinations 

Or they run out very slowly, and then it makes no sense, because you wont need the materials anymore. 

But that all depends on the players game-style. And it also depends on the destinations availlable on lower distances. For example: You always have at least 1 destination at 10.000km and 1 at 20.000km But there may be also 2 or 3 at the given distance. In my current game, i have 2 at 10k, 1 at 20k and 3 at 30k distance. In another game, there where 2 at 10k 2 at 20k and 1 at 30k. The prior game would give me more reossurces at shorter distances. But due to the fact, the amount of something, and if its present at all, is random, there is no way to be certain, you get isoresin at short distance at all. 

[AndreyKl]

Another option is to make closer space destinations both depletable and respawnable. Space objects are supposed to move, so old asteroid either escaping to higher orbit or from map won't be surprising.

Sa at low range player will be able to get the resource like fullerine, but since asteroids can get depleted, it won't fit as permanent source. New asteroids will spawn eventually, but it will take time, will need scanning and there won't be a warranty that it will contain needed resources or considerable quantity of those. This will at least push players to further targets either for quantity or 'stability'.

[goboking]

11 hours ago, calibayzone said:

Softer distance penalty: The closest is 3 cycles, so make the farthest only 6 cycles or so. Thus getting farther is mainly about rocket fuel and mass, not wait time. 

I've been of the belief that engine type should determine mission length, not travel distance.  So a steam engine might complete a round trip to the nearest planet in 3 days and the furthest in 30, a petroleum engine would take 2 and 20, respectively, while a hydrogen engine could do those same runs in 1 and 10 days.

 

9 hours ago, yoakenashi said:

I propose that the destinations gradually run out of resources just like our own asteroid. Meaning, the percentages of returned materials decreases and there is more of a chance of returning nothing.

One of the purposes of space travel is to provide players with infinitely renewable sources of various materials.

[Sasza22]

As for rare materials i think the amount should increase the further the destination is. We can get 100% rare from gas giants so i think the amount of them should graduatly go up to around 40-60% for other types of planets. Isoresin should get the highest amounts while fullerene shouldn`t go above 25% since it`s supposed to be the rarest.

Higher tier artifacts spawn on further planets iirc so that already works but i gues vasciliator recharges should also get a visible chance increasing on more distant worlds (up to 100% or above for multiple recharges from one trip).

Ok another idea for gassy moos (yes milk again): How about moos creating milk that can be somehow changed to isoresin. Either by freezing it or through the molecular forge. It would allow for a lot of isoresin without the need to go anywhere.

Maybe the gass grass itself could be useful for something. It can be harvested. Make the fruit useful for some type of medicine. Maybe a pill that enhances dupe stats for a while or just makes him run faster.