Obsidian Boulders

[lilibat]

I don't much care for them. OK as long as they aren't in the starting area and large ones are too large.

[Glassyfo]

So you have to be forced to change the layout before you actually change it? Yeah not a good reason for boulders imo.

[bryce325]

There are many way more enjoyable ways of blocking off an area other than a block of hard to dig junk... Whether it be toxic gases, hostile critters, diseases, unsuitable temperature.  This just feels like a lazy way to achieve that.

[Glassyfo]

12 minutes ago, EnderCN said:

I really don't understand what you are saying here?  Dropping a big old boulder in the middle of my base before I can dig it means I have to completely restructure everything I do.  If I have a base layout in my head going into a game and a boulder drops anywhere near my printing pod it makes me completely redo my base layout.  These make the game different every single time you play whereas the old patch I built the same base every single game because there really was no reason to not do that.   I could show you a screenshot of the last 4 bases I made and in the core middle section every single one of them is exactly the same, you could just copy and paste them.  This adds a mechanic that makes me move out of that basic design and that is good.

Yeah they may be too big at times, that just takes more testing.  But the basic mechanic is a good one.  This game is way too easy and it is way too easy to just autopilot with the same design every game, this really needed to change for the long term health of the game.

I on the other hand switch things up when I feel like it and when I don't no amount of boulders are gonna stop me. These things pop up between biomes and mess things up, as well as replacing things that are more useful. I once had one that spawned on top of what would have been a bunch of wolframite.

[Wintersdark]

59 minutes ago, lilibat said:

I don't much care for them. OK as long as they aren't in the starting area and large ones are too large.

The large ones are definitely too large, and even the medium ones shouldn't be in the starting biome, but the little ones are ok.  

 

I like how it forces your early base design to change.  However, the starting biome resources lost of medium and large boulders is too extreme.  Honestly, that's really the problem with the boulders more than anything else: The fact that they remove so many resources from the map.

[goboking]

1 hour ago, EnderCN said:

I really don't understand what you are saying here?  Dropping a big old boulder in the middle of my base before I can dig it means I have to completely restructure everything I do.  If I have a base layout in my head going into a game and a boulder drops anywhere near my printing pod it makes me completely redo my base layout.  These make the game different every single time you play whereas the old patch I built the same base every single game because there really was no reason to not do that.   I could show you a screenshot of the last 4 bases I made and in the core middle section every single one of them is exactly the same, you could just copy and paste them.  This adds a mechanic that makes me move out of that basic design and that is good.

Yeah they may be too big at times, that just takes more testing.  But the basic mechanic is a good one.  This game is way too easy and it is way too easy to just autopilot with the same design every game, this really needed to change for the long term health of the game.

It takes, what, 10 cycles to earn enough skill points to cap out mining?  I'm not going to completely restructure my "same old boring base" over a 10-cycle delay.

 

1 hour ago, bryce325 said:

There are many way more enjoyable ways of blocking off an area other than a block of hard to dig junk... Whether it be toxic gases, hostile critters, diseases, unsuitable temperature.  This just feels like a lazy way to achieve that.

"I can't expand this way yet because that shockworm looks angry and I haven't built a hospital yet, so I won't be able to mend the wounds my dupes are bound to suffer fighting it."

Or

"I can't expand this way yet because that caustic biome is full of chlorine and I haven't build a textile loom yet, so I won't have any hazmat suits to protect my dupes against chemical burns."

vs.

"I can't expand this way yet because I have to level up a miner so I can dig through granite.  Then I have to level her up again so I can dig through abyssalite.  Then I have to level her up a third time so I can dig through boulders."

To each their own, but in my eyes the former two are far more interesting problems to solve for than the latter.

[lunazone]

mine ate like three biomes 

 

 

[Greybear]

While I do like the idea of adding some boulders for map variety, they are way too invasive and boring as they are now. Maybe if they were made up of more than 1 type of mineral (possibly with some rare metals inside) and a lot smaller and less frequent, they could add something to the game. Right now, they just suck.

[Promethien]

39 minutes ago, Greybear said:

While I do like the idea of adding some boulders for map variety, they are way too invasive and boring as they are now. Maybe if they were made up of more than 1 type of mineral (possibly with some rare metals inside) and a lot smaller and less frequent, they could add something to the game. Right now, they just suck.

Your idea has already been implemented. Its the map modifier called geodes.

[Greybear]

7 minutes ago, Promethien said:

Your idea has already been implemented. Its the map modifier called geodes.

After starting many maps with the "geodes" trait, I have yet to see a single one of them. This, as well as metal-rich, seems to do nothing at this point.

[OxCD]

Yup, the main issue is those obsi boulders are overriding abyssalite borders, so if it's happening on the bottom of the oil biome, or somewhere close to a magma pocket when you're playing the volcano, then the heat will spread a lot, and quickly.

[Promethien]

34 minutes ago, Greybear said:

After starting many maps with the "geodes" trait, I have yet to see a single one of them. This, as well as metal-rich, seems to do nothing at this point.

During some of my test maps which I was just revealing everything to see the new stuff I had a map with a lot of obsidian boulders filled with precious metals. It was a Geodes map. Its a good chance the modifier is bugged and doesn't always work though. We are beta testing after all.

[Greybear]

Just now, Promethien said:

During some of my test maps which I was just revealing everything to see the new stuff I had a map with a lot of obsidian boulders filled with precious metals. It was a Geodes map. Its a good chance the modifier is bugged and doesn't always work though. We are beta testing after all.

Interesting - I've been using debug modes full map reveal to check out all the asteroids, but have never encountered a geode. However, the existence of geodes doesn't really change the fact that I think the current boulder system is pretty horrible and boring. Right now they just feel like a negative.

[Promethien]

23 minutes ago, Greybear said:

Interesting - I've been using debug modes full map reveal to check out all the asteroids, but have never encountered a geode. However, the existence of geodes doesn't really change the fact that I think the current boulder system is pretty horrible and boring. Right now they just feel like a negative.

Agreed and not a very interesting negative at that. The harder asteroid types fill that role much better. 

[RichTBiscuit]

The granite/obsidian starter area border is way more random now, so for me that already checks the "force player to use unique base designs" box.

The giant obsidian blobs are pretty obnoxious, especially in the starter area, and they displace way more interesting map features and content.

I think geodes might refer to stuff like the random oxylite spirals, pockets of sand etc. that were in previous versions

[EnderCN]

7 hours ago, goboking said:

It takes, what, 10 cycles to earn enough skill points to cap out mining?  I'm not going to completely restructure my "same old boring base" over a 10-cycle delay.

 

 

It takes a lot more than 10 cycles to max digging.  The fastest way to get the first tier of digging is to take the first blueprint and that isn't until cycle 3.  By the time you get the 3rd digging skill I usually have the entire starting biome dug up and most of an adjacent biome.  There is no way you can build the core of your base the same way if you get a boulder in it.

The boulders may be too big, I think they have some time to tweak them and get them just right.  But I do like that they exist.  I like that the starting areas in general aren't so uniform.

[goboking]

12 hours ago, Dracian said:

Imagine you're new to the game and one of the first things you see when you begin exploring is a giant, homogenized blob of rock you can't dig through.  I could maybe support this idea if A) these things actually looked like boulders...like objects apart from the terrain, and B) they weren't big enough to create their own gravity well.

[Sasza22]

Those things are pretty boring i have to agree. If they had something hidden in them (like some kind of seed or something not present on the map) then maybe it would make them interesting.

They are also way too big. The maximum size should be about 30% less and the shape should be more "sharp". I like the idea of having to build around it before they can be mined but that would be more interesting if it wasn`t a blob.

[SakuraKoi]

For one, they indeed are way too huge.

While more importantly maybe they are also too monotonous. Geodes can be filled with a lot of things (that there is a small chance for it to be Neutronium is pure trolling, the chance is by the by 1 to 150, another 1 to 150 chance is solid hydrogen) but only Obsidian and nothing else is just lame.

[Greybear]

It is possible to get maps without boulders - right now the preview for the asteroids are displaying wrong information. You can fix this by re-rolling the map seed.

[Rainbowdesign]

I wait for some neutronium boulders... Should however be balanced means none in the start biome and none too big so they really obstruct the way completely.

[Oozinator]

I like them, because they transfer heat well and cause chaos.

[goboking]

2 minutes ago, Oozinator said:

I like them, because they transfer heat well and cause chaos.

"Some men just want to watch the world burn."

[sktzofreak101]

9 minutes ago, Greybear said:

It is possible to get maps without boulders - right now the preview for the asteroids are displaying wrong information. You can fix this by re-rolling the map seed.

The problem is that even if you roll until you get no boulders listed it still generates them anyways in whatever sizes it feels like. This happens even if you roll the seed itself. If you managed to get no boulders on your map it's just luck. 

[Greybear]

Just now, sktzofreak101 said:

The problem is that even if you roll until you get no boulders listed it still generates them anyways in whatever sizes it feels like. This happens even if you roll the seed itself. If you managed to get no boulders on your map it's just luck. 

Re-roll the MAP SEED, not the coordinates, to get the preview to display the correct information. Tested it a bunch of times, this seems to fix the incorrect preview information.