A few suggestions and ideas.

[Livewithjohn]

As I don't want to seem as though I'm just picking apart the game, let me start that I do really enjoy the game, if I didn't I wouldn't bother taking the time to make suggestions. Some of these might also be repeats from others but oh well if that is the case then they might be for good reason if others are also mentioning them. I am not an expert and might have missed some things in the game so far, and I'm sure there are probably mods that do all these things, but I'm thinking along the lines of just some base game simple improvements that don't seem to be drastic changes that would require mods.

Chlorine gas. Other than for farms this doesn't seem to have enough of a purpose for the vast quantities you are forced to deal with early in the game. This presents with two possibilities for me, 1. Another use for it such as combining to make bleach (maybe as another system for sanitation or to refill what they all seem to be using constantly everywhere). Could have some simple machines for earlier on to capture and process. 2. A better storage solution for it (and all gasses). Since gases are one of the most important aspect of the game, enough to be in the title, having the ability to store gases earlier would be nice and the storage tanks seem drastically small (especially for how large they actually are). The materials bins, a 1x2, holds 20,000kg while the gas tank, a 3x5, holds only 150kg. The tank seems to almost take up as much space as what the gas was in to start, it might be slightly realistic but this is a video game (unless you want to add a pressured tank system, which would be great as well) it would be very nice to have a bit more storage to make this seem more realistic than just pumping them into a room and an earlier game gas storage system would be nice. A 1x2 that holds 150kg wouldn't be bad at the start, then a pressurized system later for making more complex setups such as with the gas power solutions.

Fluid storage and removal. Having fluid storage slightly later is okay but it would be nice to have a way to store it earlier because of the cleanup (or a way to sort with the unbotteler what you ware pouring out to you aren't putting dirty with clean water. Additionally there doesn't seem to be a mid/later game solution to the basic pump to get your needed water for machines. With all the tech it doesn't seem to make sense that later on you would still be stuck with hand pumping water out of a hole instead of piping it out of the fluid containers to a bottling machine (that could be a little faster than the pump) the same as you can pump it out to the machines that need it.

Pipe and wires. It would be very nice to have a way to connect/disconnect or route these things without having to constantly deconstruct them and then have to build them again if you make a simple mistake or need to remove them from a machine. 

On/off switches on machines. In combination with the last suggestion, it would be nice to have on/off switches on most of the machines. There are many times when you are power restricted and since you can't simply "unplug" the machines without having to do the above removing wires method, having an on off switch (even one that the characters have to manually switch) would be far better than being forced to remove the wires entirely from the system, many times also cutting off power to other things you want to keep running.

In game information. For the most part much the game has a great system for information about game play, it is quite well laid out and covers almost everything when dealing with the items, creatures, and even some of the lore of the game. However there are a few times when it doesn't seem to give quite enough and it feels like you have to go online looking for answers outside the game. One specific example are the "rooms" such as the hospital setup (or massage, dining, power, etc.), there doesn't seem to be anything in the game itself that tells you what all you need for that to work even though it is needed for some of the machines to properly function. The tool tip just says "not in a hospital" and doesn't bother saying you need the required 12 spaces without industrial machines (also not specific what those are) with a bathroom, table, and a door to make. With the already great in game information system it would also be very nice to have these things so you don't feel the need to close the game out and do a google search to figure out basics. Maybe a "room setup" section. 

Zooming out. It might only effect a few depending on the screen used, but I personally use a 40in monitor as my main screen and it would be AMAZING to be able to zoom out further. I can zoom in to see only a few blocks at at time but can only zoom out to a limited area and am constantly wanting to zoom out more. This is only on a 1080 monitor, I can only imagine that with a 4k monitor it would be even more frustrating. 

Again, I enjoy the game and will continue playing it, these are just a few of the things that were going through my head while playing that I didn't feel were quite advanced enough to need to require installing mods to the game, just a few little quality of life and basic progression ideas. 

[Gwido]

8 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

The materials bins, a 1x2, holds 20,000kg while the gas tank, a 3x5, holds only 150kg. The tank seems to almost take up as much space as what the gas was in to start

You get it by the wrong side.

At first material storage and gas storage can't be compared, because you can't store materials in a solid tiles.

For gas, with a high pressure vent as input, a 3x5 room (including walls) with 20 kg of gas in each tile will only contain 60 kg for the same space than the gas storage.

Gas and liquid storage are designed to get better storage solution for a small amount. For big volumes it is still better to build a room.  

 

8 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

Pipe and wires. It would be very nice to have a way to connect/disconnect or route these things without having to constantly deconstruct them and then have to build them again if you make a simple mistake or need to remove them from a machine. 

Asked many times by many players.  

 

8 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

On/off switches on machines. In combination with the last suggestion, it would be nice to have on/off switches on most of the machines. There are many times when you are power restricted and since you can't simply "unplug" the machines without having to do the above removing wires method, having an on off switch (even one that the characters have to manually switch) would be far better than being forced to remove the wires entirely from the system, many times also cutting off power to other things you want to keep running.

The game allready includes a power shutoff with automation. Conbined with the smart battery, you can automatically disable buildings.

The only problem is that the smart battery have less storage capacity than the large battery. It's quite annoying. :-/

You can also place manual power switches on the wire.  

 

8 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

One specific example are the "rooms" such as the hospital setup (or massage, dining, power, etc.), there doesn't seem to be anything in the game itself that tells you what all you need for that to work even though it is needed for some of the machines to properly function. The tool tip just says "not in a hospital" and doesn't bother saying you need the required 12 spaces without industrial machines (also not specific what those are) with a bathroom, table, and a door to make.

This info is allready available in the game.

 

8 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

Zooming out. It might only effect a few depending on the screen used, but I personally use a 40in monitor as my main screen and it would be AMAZING to be able to zoom out further. I can zoom in to see only a few blocks at at time but can only zoom out to a limited area and am constantly wanting to zoom out more. This is only on a 1080 monitor, I can only imagine that with a 4k monitor it would be even more frustrating.

You can allready zoom out more, but only if you turn on the screenshot mode.

From there once you don't zoom in, you can keep this custom zoom.

But your right, this should not be limited to the screenshot mode.  

[Livewithjohn]

I did intend to come back and make a few edits but skipped a few days and can't seem to find an edit button now. As I had said I was somewhat new to the game when I posted so I hadn't seen everything yet. I'm still somewhat new (only about 60hrs) to it and still finding a few things. Though some still haven't seen work arounds for.

Yes after a few more hours of playing I did see the "room" overlay feature. It does say what is needed and for the most part does work alright. There are still a few issues that I haven't seen explained. It doesn't go into very good detail with the decor values and how to deal with them when making room (my great hall says I'm missing decor but I have a good deal in there, just says "20 decor" but not how its missing) or with things such as "industrial machines", my bathroom wouldn't work because apparently a water cooler is an industrial machine.

I have seen that some machines can be disabled, something I also didn't notice to start. There are switches but they also take up a full tile and can be somewhat cumbersome, but that can kinda be worked around. I'm still playing around with power situations and trying to figure out how to keep everything running with the limited resources, time constraints with NPCs, AND attempting to keep things mostly organized in the base area. 

Gwido, You can compare them, you do store materials in a solid tile its called the "storage bin" its a solid tile just like the gas tank is a solid tile, and we are already breaking reality when everything can sit on the floor in one tiny pile (and don't vanish just like the gases don't) then take up many bins space when picked up, this isn't fully about realism as its FAR less realistic to put 20,000kg in a small bin than a large volume of gas in a smaller container, but more about taking a little sense in game mechanics. I'm also not sure what you are trying to say about the gas storage, and I'm not sure your numbers are correct. If each space holds 20kg a 3x5 would still be 300kg, twice as much as the gas container Right after I hit the submit button I realized you meant the 3x5 AS the room and only the 1x3 space inside to get 60kg... though even if you want to include the 5x7 room it would take instead of the tank it would still not make up for the very limited volume. I haven't played around with the pressured vents yet so I'm not sure what all you can force into a small room, I have however worked with pressurized gases in real life and its amazing how much you can store in a small space when it comes to gases. You also get almost nothing from them when actually using the gases, a whole room of natural gas or hydrogen make almost no power yet take up multiple tanks to store it.  I'm still going to stick to it being a bit limited since its a mid level research skill, and since you can't move these tanks around easily it almost makes them pointless with their exceptionally limited space. Another issue with this is also just game performance, if you have all those gases in rooms around with the animations and the machines also needed that are animated, it cuts into processing power to run the game.

Yes the liquid storage is somewhat better, but the problem with that one still comes down to the few tasks needed that you can't actually do from the storage, if there was a tap that you could get fluids from the storage (like most liquid storage solutions tend to have) it would be different. But as it stands you seem to still need the pitcher pump so you will still need a hole with water in it, and at some point that seems slightly absurd since almost everything else gets upgraded a bit. 

I still haven't gotten the gas canister machine to work right I don't think, it doesn't actually output the canisters for some reason (probably my own fault). 

There are a few issues with automation, first you have to get to that point before starving or running out of resources, and you have to deal with the fact that you are then forced to change everything around again (taking up time sometimes needed for other things to survive) to set it up, and of course trying to keep the Duplicants from getting themselves killed by doing something stupid like being stuck 3 blocks above the ground and suffocating instead of jumping down or making a ladder or yelling for some help (almost 100 cycles in and this happened when I walked away to use the bathroom, I'm not even sure why he was up there to begin with). 

[Supraluminal]

16 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

There are a few issues with automation, first you have to get to that point before starving or running out of resources, and you have to deal with the fact that you are then forced to change everything around again (taking up time sometimes needed for other things to survive) to set it up, and of course trying to keep the Duplicants from getting themselves killed by doing something stupid like being stuck 3 blocks above the ground and suffocating instead of jumping down or making a ladder or yelling for some help (almost 100 cycles in and this happened when I walked away to use the bathroom, I'm not even sure why he was up there to begin with). 

There are certainly plenty of issues with ONI, a few of which you touched on. However, as I think you're noticing, some of your struggles are due to the fact that you're still learning the game. ONI is really complicated and it takes a while to discover and internalize the intricacies of how it works. Eventually, though, you'll get your head above water and be able to focus on longer-term, larger-scale projects instead of spending all your time lost in the details. You'll start thinking more about higher-level concepts (meeting overall cooling needs, balancing resource usage against constraints, setting up production chains) and less about moment-to-moment small-scale issues (I ran out of algae, water is going the wrong way in this pipe, my farm is overheating, this dupe is starving/suffocating/peeing on the floor).

Which is why I quoted that specific bit of your post, as an example of the learning curve - if you stick with the game long enough, you'll get to a place where it's trivially easy to survive long enough to unlock and start building automation. (Under normal difficulty settings anyway.) The challenge becomes planning and executing big, complicated building projects rather than achieving basic subsistence.

Since you seem particularly interested in storing gases, for example, it is possible to liquefy gases and store them cryogenically. It takes a big investment of infrastructure and energy, but then you get to stuff 5,000 kg of natural gas in a 6-tile liquid reservoir instead of a 250-tile room. And that's not even getting into infinite storage devices that exploit the game's physics simulation to pump arbitrary amounts of liquid or gas into a small area.

This post may seem like a long-winded way of saying "git gud," but really it's saying "you can and will git gud if you stick with it, and that will make a lot of things that seem hard right now easy." Like many sim/strategy games, learning the game is the game in ONI. There's room to make it more welcoming to new players and to make that learning process less intimidating, but even as a software developer who cares a lot about user experience, interfaces, and all that, I think some sense of being overwhelmed at the beginning is probably impossible to design out of the game without making it into something quite different.

Your dupes will always try to get themselves killed though, which is why I led by agreeing that ONI for sure isn't perfect. Dupe behavior can be frustrating (although I can imagine a lot of the problems with it are much harder to solve than they appear). The UI is bad in places. There are plenty of bugs and unintuitive mechanical quirks that can mess you up if you don't know to watch out for them. Whatever balance Klei strikes on greasing the skids for new players versus maintaining the game's complex character, there is clearly room to improve some stuff.

[Livewithjohn]

I don't mind long winded responses, to me (as long as they are mostly polite) it shows that someone is putting in the time to think things out or is passionate enough to do so.

You are right I am on the learning curve side, and possibly am still stuck in my Minecraft thinking where I either have no real automation/machines or in modded where I have ALL THE MACHINES and have unlimited resources so long as I work toward them. It has been some time since I've played a more desperate survival style game, and I am probably just trying to rush things far too much far too fast. My earlier mistakes were getting all the Duplicates offered and starving, then (and still somewhat now) running out of fuel a lot and not finding good enough resources to replaces them. I've made it to around cycle 110 so far (that one still going fine, though again fuel issues) with most unlocks. I have only had one issue with heat/cooling really with a small part of a farm so far but have seen where that will also be a thing later on. 

I am constantly confused by the Duplicates doing stupid things. I have some just wandering off the base to gather random "meat" that I didn't ask them to get when they have food, or the getting themselves walled in, or stuck on a small platform, etc. But you are right, programming for AI in such a game isn't going to be easy, and part of the challenge IS keeping those idiots alive. I will fully agree that there shouldn't really be "training wheels" for the most part in all games, if you don't want a bit of a challenge then by all means watch a movie (I'd say read a book but I'm not sure the younger generations know what those things are), that is why I try to stick to suggestions that don't make things specifically easier but more to remove tedium, fix little issues, or seem to make sense when comparing them to other aspects of the games mechanics (such as my thing with the gases). 

Thanks for the advice and suggestions, I will keep playing more to get good and figure it out better. I do need to keep in mind that this game is all about managing EVERY aspect and finding balance between them, not about working towards having everything or being over powered. 

[Gwido]

3 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

Thanks for the advice and suggestions, I will keep playing more to get good and figure it out better. I do need to keep in mind that this game is all about managing EVERY aspect and finding balance between them, not about working towards having everything or being over powered. 

The first time in this game are always hard. Until you understand how it works and how to solve each problem.

Once you'll get that, you'll see that you can take a lot of time at the corner of the map, far from the main core of the base, without having to manage every things.

 

If you ever want to try a bigger challenge, try "Don't Starve".  

[Livewithjohn]

21 hours ago, Gwido said:

If you ever want to try a bigger challenge, try "Don't Starve".  

I actually got don't starve when it first came out on early access. It is another fun game that is all about learning how to survive with the limited resources and having to manage time. I haven't played it in many years. 
You think Don't Starve is harder than Oxygen Not Included? I guess since there really is no end game for Don't Starve it might be. I don't really know since I haven't played in so long.

[thewreckedangle]

10 hours ago, Livewithjohn said:

You think Don't Starve is harder than Oxygen Not Included?

infinitely. EVERYTHING in DS/T will kill you. at least in ONI you probably won't accidentally a "bad" flower right as you arrive from the "printing pod"

also frogs

and bees

and darkness

and trees that kill you..

yeah, ONI is piece of frost bun compared to DS/T (imo)

[Gwido]

5 hours ago, thewreckedangle said:

infinitely. EVERYTHING in DS/T will kill you. at least in ONI you probably won't accidentally a "bad" flower right as you arrive from the "printing pod"

also frogs

and bees

and darkness

and trees that kill you..

yeah, ONI is piece of frost bun compared to DS/T (imo)

You forgot one very important thing : at least, in Oxygen, there's some advices at the beginning of your very first game.

In Don't Starve. Your alone !