A scarcity game mode for the new DLC

[kerosene]

Here's my rough concept for a scarcity game mode.

The idea is that you start out on an asteroid where very few key resources are renewable and the rest are scarce and available in limited quantity. You need to manage these resources well and go into space early and set up resource harvesting operations elsewhere and supply chains. I want to see rockets bringing cargo with vital resources (like oxygen) back to the home base. You're going to have to explore and prioritize which resources to start bringing in first. It's meant to put pressure on players to expand and carefully balance things. Asteroids are also smaller and there might have to be mechanics to put time pressure on players (to discourage strategies that delaying having additional dupes for as long as possible). Expanding into other asteroids is tied to tech progression and better tech will enable you to expand into richer asteroids. Over time you'll not depend on nonrenewable resources as much but probably have to deal more with the complexities of supply chains.

 

 

[Gurgel]

Well, since I like to take my time and play slow, I would probably not like such a mode. Of course, I am not opposed to having it as an option.

One problem I see is that it would be very tricky to balance this so that winning is still possible, but it is a close thing. That would likely require manual design and I doubt Klei will do that.

But there is an idea: For a group of players into this style and make "challenge maps" that are hand-crafted exactly for this play style. Then share them. 

[Steve8]

Balancing it so that everything hangs on a knife's edge is impossible. But I'd really like for space resources to be more relevant. Except for exotic materials like isoresin, fullerene and niobium - and maybe some things like diamond - everything else usually exists in abundance in your colony. It would be cool if there were an incentive to bring back stuff like water or petroleum

[kerosene]

1 hour ago, Steve8 said:

Except for exotic materials like isoresin, fullerene and niobium - and maybe some things like diamond - everything else usually exists in abundance in your colony. It would be cool if there were an incentive to bring back stuff like water or petroleum

Yes that was the observation that led me to propose this.

If the home base depends on imported water, then you need regular and reliable cargo rockets arriving and leaving, with facilities to unload the water and refuel the rocket, all automated of course.

If several such rockets are needed to meet the demand for raw resources, then you'll need an automated spaceport.

 

[felonious_caper]

Or maybe even... cloud saves for the new dlc

[Gurgel]

8 hours ago, kerosene said:

Yes that was the observation that led me to propose this.

If the home base depends on imported water, then you need regular and reliable cargo rockets arriving and leaving, with facilities to unload the water and refuel the rocket, all automated of course.

If several such rockets are needed to meet the demand for raw resources, then you'll need an automated spaceport.

Automating a spaceport now is exceptionally tedious and difficult. But it looks like the DLC will be a different matter entirely in this regard.

[BaloneyOs]

12 hours ago, Steve8 said:

But I'd really like for space resources to be more relevant. Except for exotic materials like isoresin, fullerene and niobium - and maybe some things like diamond - everything else usually exists in abundance in your colony. It would be cool if there were an incentive to bring back stuff like water or petroleum

The game will naturally move in this direction since there'll be far more variety of resources but unlikely for individual asteroids to have too much more variety than they currently do.

They'd have to re-balance renewability to give incentive for bringing back the likes easily accessible resources such as water, or questionable resources like most gasses. It would be very interesting, however, if they added more space-only resources that are not defaulted to tiny quantities like the current 4 are.

[cpy]

Mods... simply use mods. They usually scratch every itch of your gameplay need.

[Rainbowdesign]

the map can completely be changed with the lua scripting engine, it has however still some bugs which is why i consider it still a beta.

 

If you want to write me the rules for mapchange i can look into adding a setting to my scenarios and configurations mod.

[yoakenashi]

I made my own and added one mod to make it more interesting:

• Modify badlands.yaml and set feature_geyser_generic to 0
  • Eliminates 12 generic geysers/vents
  • No swamp biomes, meaning:
    • no dusk caps (ie, mushrooms)
    • no gold amalgam (at least not until space biome is reached)
    • one less cool steam vent and one less natural gas vent
  • Leaves only 1 cool steam vent and 1 chlorine gas vent (seed dependent), and a few oil reservoirs (also seed dependent)
• Metal poor (seed dependent)
• Add the mod "Lights Out (Darkness Revived)" by Cairath

Game play changes drastically when you have such limited starting water and algae: no Electrolyzers, limited use of Algae Terrarium

The Lights Out mod means everything must be lit at the start of the game, but no Natural Gas Geysersmeans power management becomes very difficult.

The seed I am playing that has no Natural Gas Vent, only 3 oil reservoirs, and medium boulders, is: BAD-A-459181726-WLH