Research idea: require specific elements for each research step

[GhostEcho]

Research is a nice aspect of the game, but sometimes it feels like you are just rushing through it. It takes no effort except time (and a little power and water).

The idea

An idea to make research more involved is to have specific requirements for each step in the research tree. For example: in order to research decontamination, you need to feed your research station (or super computer) chlorine. As in: you need to build a pipe and pipe chlorine into the station. It will consume X chlorine per second while performing this research.

And you can do this for every step: decide what element would make sense for this research, and you are likely to have access to at that stage of the game.

This would make research a lot harder, but maybe also feel more rewarding, as you now have to actually use the progressive game mechanics to unlock new aspects of the game. And it would add a layer of depth to exploring the map. You are now looking for elements for your next research steps

It could also guide new players. You can ask for some slime earlier in the research tree to indicate that it is OK for the dupes to be touching slime before you have atmo suits. 

 

Taking this idea further: the requirements could be more than just specific minerals, liquids or gasses. You can require specific germs (zombie spores!), you can require specific temperatures (very cold, very hot) for certain step. This might even inspire you to set up research stations near volcanos, in cold biomes or near space. But you could also require specific foods or plants that will require some effort in growing these. Or require some ungodly amount of solids that you'd need autoloaders to make it manageable. And I'm sure that you can come up more interesting things to feed the research engine.

Problems / mitigations

Making research harder would slow down game progress, possibly frustrate newer players and have other side affects. So it might be better not to have the early research requirements be very hard. Maybe not even be part of novice research. Or it could be an optional challenge as part of the setup of your asteroid.

I understand that not all maps have the same resources. So you'd need to be careful on how to craft the required resources so that it would not become impossibel to achieve some research steps. Maybe instead of "this requires Gold"- make it "this requires a metal with a thermal conductivity > 50".

 

[pether]

I love the idea! It can be combined with the other good one to improve research tree - using space data to unlock non-space high-tier research. But I'd like to keep it clear and simple, thus "this requires a metal with a thermal conductivity > 50"  sounds like a bad idea... or at least overcomplicated.

[GhostEcho]

Yeah, you could make that "requires Copper, Gold or Tungsten"

[ironjoseve]

I love this idea and this can be attached to a "science room" for morale and research bonuses.

[GhostEcho]

@ironjoseve, good idea!

From a balancing perspective, I don't know if we need morale or research bonusses, but a science room is a great help if you want to define requirements for a science project. One of my ideas is that at some point your research station needs to be near something. Using the science room concept, it just needs to be inside the same 64 tile (max) room!

(Also: I'm going to playtest this idea as a personal challenge. I need to use some extra building, because there is no science station with input for elements. So I need to fake this. I'm thinking about just creating buildings in the same science room that can absorb the elements.)

So I'm going to playtest this on Terra. The list below is my first draft of science challenges, please let me know if you have any thoughts about this.

Level 1:

Liquids    1 Plumbing    (    pipe, pump    )    
Requires: Water (bottled)    500 kg    
Super easy, just to get into things. Thematic, not a challenge

Power    1 Power regulation    (    Jumbo battery    )    
RequiresL Metal ore    500 kg    
Starter challenge: just acquire some ores to get into the new mechanics

Gases    1 Ventilation    (    pipe, pump    )  
Requires: Gass pressure < 1200 grams        
Starter challenge: relocate science station

Food    1    Basic Farming     (Algae terrarium, plant box)
Requires:  Meal lice    5 kg  
Force you to farm existing mealwood (making a first real challenge at level 1)

Colony Development    1 Employment    (    Water cooler    )    
Requires: Researcher dupe morale 3+        
Learn about morale, small challenge for level 1

Decor    1    Interior Decor    (    lamps, plant pot    )
Requires:  shine bug in room    100% of the research time    
Starter challenge: trap shine bug in room
 

Level 2: 

Food    2    Meal preparation    (    Farm tile, Mess table, Electric grill    )
Requires    Berry sludge    10 kg    
Forces you to farm bristle berry, gather sleat wheat grain

Power    2    Internal Combustion    (    Coal generator    )
Requires    Coal, outputs 50 kg CO2    100 kg    
Learning: deal with CO2 that a coal generator creates

Solid Material    2    Brute force refinement    (    Rock crusher    )
Requires    4 minerals    4x 100 kg    
Force to do a little scouting

Colony Development    2    Advanced Research    (    Super computer    )
Requires    3 refined metals    3x 100 kg    
Forced to use brute force refinement

Medicine    2    Medical equipment    (    Hand sanitizer    )
Requires    Bleach stone, immuno booster pill        
Force to use apothecary and deal with bleach stone

Liquids    2    Air systems    (    Electrolyzer    )
Requires    2 KW power    During research    
Forces you to have advanced power regulation, a requirement for a SPOM

Liquids    2    Filtration    (    Filters    )
equires    3 liquids (piped)        
Forces you to use pump, and find 3rd liquid besides water & poluted water

Liquids    2    Sanitation    (    Lavatory, Sink    )
Requires    Water (piped) 5T, output pol water    5 T    
Forces you to use pump, preview of bathroom

Gases    2    Pressure management    (    Manual airlock, airflow tile    )
Requires    Vacuum        
Forces you to learn how to vacuum a room, create air seal

Decor    2    Artistic Expression    (    hanging plant pot    )
Requires    Decor >= 20 everywhere in room        
Force learn about decor

Computers    2    Smart Home    (    Automation wire    )
Requires    Wolframite      100 kg  
Forces you into the cold biome 

[PIRATE D KING]

On 28/2/2020 at 8:36 PM, GhostEcho said:

Research is a nice aspect of the game, but sometimes it feels like you are just rushing through it. It takes no effort except time (and a little power and water).

The idea

An idea to make research more involved is to have specific requirements for each step in the research tree. For example: in order to research decontamination, you need to feed your research station (or super computer) chlorine. As in: you need to build a pipe and pipe chlorine into the station. It will consume X chlorine per second while performing this research.

And you can do this for every step: decide what element would make sense for this research, and you are likely to have access to at that stage of the game.

This would make research a lot harder, but maybe also feel more rewarding, as you now have to actually use the progressive game mechanics to unlock new aspects of the game. And it would add a layer of depth to exploring the map. You are now looking for elements for your next research steps

It could also guide new players. You can ask for some slime earlier in the research tree to indicate that it is OK for the dupes to be touching slime before you have atmo suits. 

 

Taking this idea further: the requirements could be more than just specific minerals, liquids or gasses. You can require specific germs (zombie spores!), you can require specific temperatures (very cold, very hot) for certain step. This might even inspire you to set up research stations near volcanos, in cold biomes or near space. But you could also require specific foods or plants that will require some effort in growing these. Or require some ungodly amount of solids that you'd need autoloaders to make it manageable. And I'm sure that you can come up more interesting things to feed the research engine.

Problems / mitigations

Making research harder would slow down game progress, possibly frustrate newer players and have other side affects. So it might be better not to have the early research requirements be very hard. Maybe not even be part of novice research. Or it could be an optional challenge as part of the setup of your asteroid.

I understand that not all maps have the same resources. So you'd need to be careful on how to craft the required resources so that it would not become impossibel to achieve some research steps. Maybe instead of "this requires Gold"- make it "this requires a metal with a thermal conductivity > 50".

 

i dont rly see what value this would add to the game, making something more incovenient for the sake of it doesnt feel very appealing to me honestly.

[GhostEcho]

@PIRATE D KING thank you for sharing your feelings, I respect that this mechanic might not be for everyone.

Personally, I am currently playing with this challenge, and having tons of fun. It forces me to play in a different way, and explore mechanics that I normally ignore because there are more efficient mechanics. Additionally, I feel a sense of accomplishment when I overcome some of these self imposed challenges.

But I'm switching my idea about this. Maybe it is better as a challenge that people can self-impose when they have already gotten some experience in the game. But if you just want to focus on other parts of the game, or if you are new to the game, then it might not be for you.

I'll share my experience of doing this challenge somewhere else (but I have to the right place for that).

[GhostEcho]

I have played through the first 150ish cycles and had a blast! I've created a proper write up of my: https://verik.wordpress.com/oxygen-not-included/

Also: I'm abandoning the idea that this should be addressed by the game designers, and have moved to having this be a self imposed challenge. Further discussion here:

 

[Emeal]

This is a very good idea, also maybe the researcher should also be required to visit another machine sometimes.
Im reminded that there is a dupes that comes and takes a reading of the Coal Generator on the main menu screen.

This would be WAY better than Stationary Boring Researchers who stand by a desk while doring science.

[GhostEcho]

One of my requirements is to have a power station produce more than 1000 W. This requires you to build a power station and do an Engie tuning. So in my mind's eye this is already what was happening:

But yeah, thematic that would be very cool to have researchers running around the place, making notes.

However, not sure that it would lead to fun gameplay. If you have to manually move them to these machines, then this would add micromanagement. And if they go to these machines themselves, then it does not address the underlying issue: research is just busy work for a single dupe.

I like the idea though, maybe there is some way to make it work.

[alexkuzmov]

But where is the motivation?
If the research is more complex, then it just adds one more layer of easy problem solving.
We do the research to get access to specific stuff so we can do the things we want to do, right?
If I want to build a plastic production room, then I do the research needed for it.
I dont WANT to problem solve for the research so that I can then do what I really wanted to do in the first place.
It makes no sense to me to complicate research.

[GhostEcho]

@alexkuzmov Some people find that the research part of the game is not very rewarding. This is an attempt to bring flavour to it, and combine it with other mechanics.

My current feeling is that it should be opt-in. For those players who want to shake things up a bit, to make that the focus of a specific colony. So if you don't WANT it, then don't opt in

As I stated earlier: I had a blast in overcoming the simple and harder requirements. So it worked for me.