Rockets and space could use some loving

[brucemo]

Space feels like alpha software at best and I'll post a summary of space problems in the hopes that some long-standing bugs are fixed, and that space stuff could get at least a very minor re-think, so that a part of the game that's probably necessarily something of a let-down isn't also a buggy and hard to manage let-down. As is now it's by far the weakest part of a game that has a lot of very strong parts. It should be the cherry on top of the game, but as of now I don't know what it is, but it is not a cherry.

Major bugs:

1. Rockets are visually half-present on a reload. This is immersion breaking, is very distracting, has been reported numerous times and is the subject of frequent "stupid ONI tricks" posts, and seems like it should be easy to fix. Having to see a headless rocket on your screen is just bad.

Minor bugs:

1. If a dupe goes to sleep they'll forget they are supposed to pilot the rocket the next day.

2. If you build your scanner before the associated rocket, the scanner won't have the rocket in its list. I don't know if it ever gets it in its list, but reloading a save fixes this. This is an annoying bug because a) endgame loads take forever, b) you end up triggering the first bug in my list.

3. "Ready to land" tells me that a rocket called "SaveGame" is ready to land. It also triggers something like 16 seconds before the rocket lands, which is not time enough to open bunker doors. So this isn't an informative message, it's a report of disaster, if you manage to see it, because "Ready to land (4)" isn't visually much different from "Ready to land (3)", and you can't dismiss the old ones.

4. It is a pain to deal with over-filled tanks, so in order to avoid this I often set capacity to zero before I launch. Granted, I could make a better refueling system. These tanks aren't unloaded because they are inaccessible. But often the fuel is dumped on the ground (in bottles) on the return trip. This bug is in my favor, I guess, but it's still a bug.

Conceptual problems:

1. A scanner should know when its rocket gets back, rather than being affected by scanning quality. It is silly to have to go to incredible pains to save one's bunker doors when the information about return time can be accessed from the star map. The only reason I'm wanting to automate this is to avoid having to watch the star map rocket return time list like a hawk, in order to manually open the doors if the scanner doesn't pick up the rocket during a meteor storm, and that shouldn't be a major project for the player. Bunker doors are cool and it should be possible to use them in a nice way.

2. Likewise with regard to the amount of material that can be harvested via cargo rockets. I can access this from at least two different places but rocket automation can't access it. I'm pretty sure a rocket will happily take off if there isn't a load worth of stuff at the destination.

3. If you're wanting to see how much material can be harvested, it makes sense to use the star map, and the information is there, but it's not presented easily. I don't care about the maximum mass of the planet, the minimum mass of the planet, and the current mass of the planet, I care how much stuff there is now, and I have to do annoying math to get this, and then confirm it after selecting the planet, or just cycle through all of them.

3. Can't sweep or store pedestal items such as the teapot. They fall out of the rocket on return, and sit there and get hot, which is annoying since they are 25 kg of something that's almost as hard to cool down as water. These shouldn't be the impetus to install active base cooling.

4. Gantries can take damage and this should probably not be the case. I'm not certain if this is only when extended but if so that's fine. A retracted gantry should be immune as long as you have to open your bunker doors during meteor storms.

5. Regolith is a pain to deal with and it's difficult to automate mining it, because you can't auto mine through an open mechanized airlock. I don't know if bunker doors would work for this but they have an overheat temperature that is low enough that they would take damage from rocket exhaust.

Wishes:

1. This is endgame stuff, and people who play to the endgame shouldn't get jerked around. It's a bummer to explore space in order to find that important stuff, like tungsten, still can't be obtained. I don't care how far away it is or how little of it there is, but it should be possible to get all of the things that one can get from space.

2. No use for databanks once research is exhausted.

3. It would be pretty game changing if regolith that hits a bunker tile became debris instead of a solid tile. Some challenge would be removed from the game, but the challenge is in avoiding tedium at a point in the game where things should be more fun rather than more tedious.

 

[SharraShimada]

What you call major i call minor and vice versa. I dont mind the parts a visible during absence. Dupes with amnesia about piloting a rocket is way more critical, because it means you have to micromanage this.

But for the rocket, there may be a solution. Draw an overlay over the launch bay when the rocket is away, as workaround if the devs cant figure out the bug.

As for the rocket scanner, i would like a complete replacement. A rocket-command center with radio. 

[Assault Chicken]

... and please give us the possibility to select more than one target within range. Consequently a cargo rocket should only launch, if it can bring back a full load.

 

I don't like, that dupes can be put into a rocket endlessly without using any resources. I would prefer a cool down. (maybe as long as the mission lasted)

[brucemo]

12 hours ago, brucemo said:

2. If you build your scanner before the associated rocket, the scanner won't have the rocket in its list. I don't know if it ever gets it in its list, but reloading a save fixes this. This is an annoying bug because a) endgame loads take forever, b) you end up triggering the first bug in my list.

This doesn't always repro.