Jump to content

[Request] Quality of Life Improvements


Recommended Posts

If I can be so bold as to make some recommendations to the devs, or to potential moders out there, for some small changes that would make things vastly more player friendly at virtually no change to the gameplay and, I would think, little cost to implement.

1) Priority pipe. Essentially a bridge without the middle section, or a valve always fully open that can go in the background behind tiles/buildings. This would be super convenient to define a single direction for pipes, and to define the priority input/output at T-junctions.

2) Critter overlay. I just want to see where the buggers are, different colours for the different species, and an option to see all/wild/domesticated.

3) Delay logic gate. Output is the same as input, but with a settable delay in seconds. Useful, for example, when you have a pipe sensor followed by a shut-off, but there's some sections of pipe between them.

4) Flow rate pipe meter. Sometimes I don't want to know if there is something in a pipe, but whether something is flowing. This would have a setable value between 0 and 10000g/s, as well as a above/below toggle.A lot of my machines require something to flow continuously without gaps and, if too much fluid gets in and the whole thing gridlocks, I'd like to have an automated way of triggering some release.

5) A table of the density/conductivity/heat capacity of every (discovered) element in the game. It's super hard to compare the different materials to build, for example, tempshift plates at the moment. This isn't even in the wiki as far as I can tell.

6) Bottling station. A new 2w x 3h building with a liquid input and a liquid output. Dupes can drop off bottles there, the contents of which flow out of the ouput. They can also fill bottles there, taking stuff in from the input. Would be *super* helpful for water fountains, cooking with water and the super computer, as well as for cleaning up spills. At the moment, the only alternative is to have a puddle storage, a pitcher pump, bottle emptier, liquid pump, and liquid vent which, I believe will take a minimum of 4w x 5h and some power. It's also very messy. This seems excessive.

7) 1w x 1h version of all the doors, to use as trapdoors for stairs.

8) Some kind of door that maintains air pressure while open. Make it bigger than a normal door (3w x 3h ?) and take lots of power or a liquid input for balance . We all use liquid locks everywhere anyway, but they're a micromanagement nuisance to set up. it's fun to do once or twice, but then it's tedious, this is crying out to be late-tech building.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Olleus said:

5) A table of the density/conductivity/heat capacity of every (discovered) element in the game. It's super hard to compare the different materials to build, for example, tempshift plates at the moment. This isn't even in the wiki as far as I can tell.

I agree that it would be convinient to have element property table in game interface. But right now you can find those tables online - for example, on ONI Assistant or ONI wiki on Gamepedia (the latter has multiple tables for different element groups instead of having one big table like the former).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/11/2020 at 12:09 PM, Meltdown said:

I agree that it would be convinient to have element property table in game interface. But right now you can find those tables online - for example, on ONI Assistant or ONI wiki on Gamepedia (the latter has multiple tables for different element groups instead of having one big table like the former).

The Gamepedia only has some elements in some tables, Not a big central one. ONI Assistant is better, but it not being sortable is kind of a killer.

EDIT: My bad, it is sortable! I guess the page didn't fully load for me last time I tried. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/11/2020 at 5:10 AM, Olleus said:

8) Some kind of door that maintains air pressure while open. Make it bigger than a normal door (3w x 3h ?) and take lots of power or a liquid input for balance . We all use liquid locks everywhere anyway, but they're a micromanagement nuisance to set up. it's fun to do once or twice, but then it's tedious, this is crying out to be late-tech building.

I was going to make a separate post about this but this seems like a good a place as any to have this discussion.

IMO, Airlocks should be airLOCKS.  The whole idea is that they don't allow gases to pass.   Since they don't work that way in the game players have discovered the waterlock, CO2 lock, etc to accomplish the same effect.

What is important here is the fact that we can accomplish the same effect within the normal mechanics of the game.  I assume that Klei is aware of this since it has been around forever and it doesn't appear that this will change.  However, they have also neglected to give us a functional airlock either.  This does not make any sense.

As a new player, I avoided using waterlocks for the first few bases I made because I incorrectly saw it as an exploit.  That changed with experience and I started to use them.  That later changed again when I realized that I am basically building a structure to achieve the same exact result as I would with a proper airlock door.

So since it is the same, would it be a game-breaking exploit to use a functional, proper airlock instead of a waterlock?

My answer is "No."

I then started to use this mod and have zero regrets.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Crapgame said:

The whole idea is that they don't allow gases to pass

I think that ability to move gases around by pushing them with airlocks has it own value, and taking that feature from airlocks would break many interesting designs. 

When I just started playing ONI, I imagined that I would have to build something resembling a real life airlock - a room with airtight doors, which is locked until all the gases are removed from it. As it turns out, creating an efficient prototype of something like that in game is not that easy (and therefore why would you bother doing it instead of setuping liquid airlock). I think that we either need some tools to quickly remove gases from limited space, so creating time and energy-efficient "real life"-ish airlock wouldn't be that much worse than using liquid airlocks, or a separate set of "true airlock" doors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Meltdown said:

I think that ability to move gases around by pushing them with airlocks has it own value, and taking that feature from airlocks would break many interesting designs.

Can you give me an example?

Honestly, because I just don't know them.  I've only been playing a few weeks now. (This is my Covid-19 game)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pether said:

You can use airlocks to pump gases into chamber that is overpressured.

Not only that, you may use mechanized airlocks to pump gases that are too hot to be handled with pumps. For example, hydrogen vent outputs hydrogen at 500C, so, you cannot directly use gas pumps until you get Thermium, which only happens in the late game. To get around it, you may use mechanized airlocks, which dont have overheated temperature. Just place an array of those above isolated vent, add some automation in order to make doors open and close in correct sequence, and place a chamber for the gas above them. The chamber may be connected to some kind of cooling system, and to another chamber (that is, again, could be isolated with automated mechanized airlocks) with gas pump that can safely move hydrogen to the gas pipes once it is cooled below pump's overheat temperature.

Small note about overpressured chambers - while that way you can surpass the pressure limitations of High Pressure Gas Vent, I think that the possible "exploit" part of it is related to gas pressure not triggering pressure damage on tiles and airlocks. In my opinion, overpressure damage should be more common issue and require far more attention and planning than it currently does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/11/2020 at 11:10 AM, Olleus said:

3) Delay logic gate. Output is the same as input, but with a settable delay in seconds. Useful, for example, when you have a pipe sensor followed by a shut-off, but there's some sections of pipe between them.

?

image.thumb.png.389d5f2592e5528b25c5ba9a4ca85a92.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, stoeberhai said:

?

image.thumb.png.389d5f2592e5528b25c5ba9a4ca85a92.png

The buffer gate delays only red signal. If I understood the OP correctly, the delay gate should reproduce the exact sequence of the signals with respect to their duration, not just delay one type of signal. For example, if a pipe sensor outputs green signal for 3 seconds, than red signal for 2 seconds and than switches back to green, the Delay Gate would replay the exact 3 seconds green, 2 seconds red sequence after a set delay, than return to green signal again.

But, I guess, it wouldn't hurt to get some clarification from OP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Meltdown said:

The buffer gate delays only red signal. If I understood the OP correctly, the delay gate should reproduce the exact sequence of the signals with respect to their duration, not just delay one type of signal. For example, if a pipe sensor outputs green signal for 3 seconds, than red signal for 2 seconds and than switches back to green, the Delay Gate would replay the exact 3 seconds green, 2 seconds red sequence after a set delay, than return to green signal again.

But, I guess, it wouldn't hurt to get some clarification from OP.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. So if the incoming signal is (in clock ticks):

G R R G G G R G G R G R

the outgoing (with a delay of 4 clicks should be)

R R R R G R R G G G R G G R G R

where the initial 4 R are the what the gate is doing while "buffering".

There is no trivial combination of existing gate to get this result. I sat down with some truth tables and I could only do it for a fixed 1 sec delay under the promise that the incoming signal changed only once per second max, and that took 5 gates already. Making it adjustable is way beyond me.

On 4/16/2020 at 9:22 PM, Crapgame said:

I was going to make a separate post about this but this seems like a good a place as any to have this discussion.

IMO, Airlocks should be airLOCKS.  The whole idea is that they don't allow gases to pass.   Since they don't work that way in the game players have discovered the waterlock, CO2 lock, etc to accomplish the same effect.

What is important here is the fact that we can accomplish the same effect within the normal mechanics of the game.  I assume that Klei is aware of this since it has been around forever and it doesn't appear that this will change.  However, they have also neglected to give us a functional airlock either.  This does not make any sense.

As a new player, I avoided using waterlocks for the first few bases I made because I incorrectly saw it as an exploit.  That changed with experience and I started to use them.  That later changed again when I realized that I am basically building a structure to achieve the same exact result as I would with a proper airlock door.

So since it is the same, would it be a game-breaking exploit to use a functional, proper airlock instead of a waterlock?

My answer is "No."

I then started to use this mod and have zero regrets.

 

While I agree with you in principle, I think that mod goes too far. It should be easier to keep gas separated only when the door is closed, than only  when the door is closed. In RL, a simple airlock is two doors with a chamber and a pump in the middle. For that reason, I think in ONI a "pump" airlock door should be wider (2 or 3 width), take power to keep gases separated when a dupe is walking through, and have a significant time delay (3s maybe). Or have a liquid airlock as a single building (also 3w and maybe 3h) that requires a liquid input to function and gives the "soaking wet" penalty to dupes.

I don't like the micro of building liquid air locks, but I don't think it's good to make gas management completely trivial either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Please be aware that the content of this thread may be outdated and no longer applicable.

×
  • Create New...