Space capsule habitat mini-game

[speckle21]

The command capsule is pretty much a perfect cryo-unit, the dupe never needs to eat or breath while inside. I'm thinking for longer missions that such considerations have to be made.

So i propose a habitat module that goes under the command capsule but inside is a minigame where you have to build the same components as a colony but to self-sustain one dupe.

When you click on the habitat module it brings up a tiny map of a few dozen squares by a few dozen squares (maybe the map is placed off to the side or above the main map for easy scrolling). In this habitat module you need to store and maintain food, air, sleep and recreation. So you need to build a cot, oxygen source, refrigerator, batteries, recreation, etc. If you don't, your dupe runs out of resources on the way to the target planet and dies. So you need to really be on your game.

The material transfer between maps occurs when the dupes deliver materials to the habitat module on the main map. Those materials appear in the habitat module map and can be used to build.

Once you're done and the space ship takes off, you can see your dupe using the facilities as they travel to the destination. They are now cut off the from the main colony, but you can instruct them around if you wish. Maybe you have to repair broken machines on occasion due to micrometeor impacts.

For fun and variability there is a "cargo door" section of the map that's "locked" when the space ship is on the launchpad and in space, but opens up and exposes the surface of the target planet upon arrival. So if you go to a rocky world. The section turns into giant chunk of rock. This is supposed to represent the space ship physically landing on the planet and opening the cargo doors to expose the surface. The dupe has to be instructed to dig into the rock to get the required resources (like fullerene, isoresin, etc). If you land on a liquid world, then the doors reveal liquid that fall into the habitat module and now the dupe has to put a pump in there and siphon it out. Same thing with gases.

Using robominers and sweepy would be very helpful in speeding up the process. 

Once you're ready you click "return" the cargo doors close and the space ship returns to the colony. Hopefully you were smart enough to pack enough resources and food for the return trip too!

Upon return the dupe can leave and the resources can be transferred off the habitat module and use for the colony.

 

Overall this changes the game in that command capsules are no longer perfect cryo-units. Your dupe is still eating and breathing and you need to provide them with resources. It also makes the space-material retrieval side a little more engaging and interactive as you have to mine the materials and build systems to handle and store it just like on the colony.

 

Special bonus content: If you go to the temporal tear then when the cargo door opens, you see the dupe look upon in awe at the energy vortex as neutronium chunks fall out. Then the energy vortex glows in brightness and the space ship undergoes a "white out" and vanishes. If you send a second dupe to the temporal tear, they see the vortex but this time an artifact falls out. If you check the artifact it's a crudely drawn picture from the first dupe with an "I love you" message or something. Just to show the first dupe is okay wherever they are. The second dupe will not be consumed by the vortex and may return at any time.

 

 

 

[Meltdown]

While I like the general idea of requiring life support for astronaut dupes I'm not sure about introducing additional minigames/separate minimaps.

Requiring controlling dupes in order to fill cargo modules is a chore. It would be really easy to get used to the process and become bored with the same digging/pumping microcontrol routine every single flight. Imagine having half a dozen of automated rockets, that spend most of the time traveling in space. Monitoring them, diverting your attention from your base to order pilot of yet another landed rocket to dig some rocks — sounds like an unnecessary complications.

Interesting concept, but it doesn't really go well with automation and scalability.

[pether]

Currently, in my oppinion, space and rockets are too complicated, too complex and not enough rewarding... Your idea makes this even more complex...

The simplest way to achieve this would be to require command capsule to have delivered oxygen and X calories of food, but I still don't like the idea of waiting 3 cycles for food delivery because Meep is currently busy.

Once rocket system is redesigned we could think of something similar, but I don't think this is the right time for that

[Sasza22]

I think it would be cool if we could send a "base module" to a space destination. The base would provide some benfits and could host a single dupe there that would get stressed over time so you`d eventually have to bring him back home. While in the base the dupe could stockpile rare resources and do research.

It wouldn`t be a base you control, just a place marked on the space map.