New machine aging system?

[SamLogan]

Hello,

Since the last patch, there's a new machine aging system :

You can notice, now there's an "Age" and a Uptime. Is it the first basis of a wear system by the aging of machines?

[blacknight7890]

I'd be down for that, would add a cool new angle to the game.

[Ketmol]

Machine aging .... Micromanaging machine repairs or replacing them when they age?

To me that that just sounds like micromanaging and resource burn without adding any fun gameplay. What is the fun in that.

Like old space debris pre robo-miners. Just a lot of micromanagement and no fun.

If they introduce machine degradation over time it must be tied to a system where you can create automated maintenance for it to be fun

[blackbellamy]

While I appreciate the uptime stats, the age worries me because machine degradation sounds totally not fun.  The net effect will be one or more dupes just running around repairing things and not doing other tasks.  

[DarkMoge]

Agree with everyone, machine wear sounds atrociously not fun... Not only that would be a resource burn and micromanagement. It would make most of the actually fun elements in the game impossible... Like, if you make an automatic system that does not account for dupes coming in (for example, making a thermo aquatuner + steam turbine combo), trying to account for dupes coming in would be atrociously annoying... Best electrolyzer setups would be just slapping them in the center of your base... Best power generator setup is just slapping it in the middle of your base... And just micromanaging things.

[badgamer123]

the worst case,act like repair drop a small chunk of metal,break many build....

[metallichydra]

maybe it will be tied to tidying, and then whenever a machine reaches 75% or so of its maximum aging, it will be repeared?

[Blazing Falken]

Maybe tie it to the rate of damage taken when overheated or wrong element damage.

Brand new = 50% damage rate to "max" age = 150% damage rate.

Maybe use it as a delay before damage happens. New = x seconds delay before damaging begins, old = instantly starts taking damage.

New equipment should be able to take more abuse than old worn out stuff.

[Oozinator]

39 minutes ago, Blazing Falken said:

"max" age = 150% damage rate.

What means 150% in this case?
Machine destroyed and dupes ponder +5% per cycle?

[Dupely]

This could just be fun all by itself.  I'll often look at my base and think about where I started.  If I can click around and see how old certain items are, that just adds to my sense of progress.

 

[MauPow]

Hell. No. If I build a system right, I want it to last, not have artificial maintenance applied to it. There is already a system like that in Rimworld, where you don't really have sensitive enclosed builds, and it's pretty damn annoying. It would be 1000x worse in ONI. Hard pass on machine maintenance.

[CDoroFF]

Aging system how people imagine it in this thread is absolutely not fun. It obvious for dev's as well as for the community. Imho, our fears are groundless and panic is vain.

[MorsDux]

I would welcome a good machine wear system for harder difficulty levels. It would add complexity for hardened players to setups as continuous accessibility would be a must. I dont think the age stat is hiding new feature though, so dont worry.

[Nightinggale]

I'm wondering if the age thing is just a display to tell the player which parts of the base is new and which are ancient. Maybe it's step one in adding ancient buildings in ruins like writing that a Anti Entropy Thermo-Nullifier is 7 million years old or whatever. I don't think it's intended to make it beneficial to deconstruct buildings and then build again to reset the age. At least I would view that as a mistake.

[DrSugarFreeman]

I hope this doesn't become anything major. It'd be nifty to have this stay in game so that way you can always look at something and figure out just how long you've had it around for. See how far your base has come and how much it has changed (aside from the time lapse).

 

The least I could see this being is that once a building reaches a certain age it has to be replaced entirely. I don't want that, but if they go further with this I hope thats all they do.

[RonEmpire]

Adding more checks to the game will just lag the game more.  Please no more lags.  Aren't there enuf things in the game to check for as is. 

[lunazone]

I think it's just a bug that it's showing that.

[Nebbie]

Having to get dupes into steam chambers and such would just be so stupid that I really don't think they're gonna do anything with this.

Not without some kind of amazing new airlock stuff that not only separates gasses but also strongly separates temperature.

[Coolthulhu]

Or maybe it's just display for players' convenience, not a warning that things will break down.

"Uptime in last 6000s" is a valuable info to be displayed. It really helps to know if your build is peaking for 30 seconds and then going asleep for half a cycle or actually working at 100% uptime.

Age, by itself, not so much, but it helps to understand uptime values for "young" buildings.

[kerosene]

At the moment there is not much of a downside to heavy automation so players tend to automate as much as they can. Some sort of maintenance cost would mean that the game could be balanced so that there is a reason to not automate everything, and that building overly complicated machinery systems might be counterproductive.

[Gus Smedstad]

5 hours ago, Coolthulhu said:

Or maybe it's just display for players' convenience, not a warning that things will break down.

That's my immediate thought. They aren't planning any new mechanics, it's just displaying an additional bit of information which the player might find interesting.