Skill line proposal: Archaeology

[JahwsUF]

Intro

There's long been a desire among the player-base for destructable ruins.  I'm no exception to that.

That said... there have been times I wished to actually build some of the ruin features.  Now that there are a few new, very interesting ideas that we're seeing, there are even more cases of that than before.  I've long loved the decorative look of the default ruin tiles, and some of the furniture would be nice for a 'creative'-style lounge, even if it didn't offer significant decor.  (Like the table with fruit + a pair of chairs.)

At the same time, one thing that always seemed really intriguing was the Shattered Planet.  Now that we're looking at asteroid clusters and able to manage multiple in-game sites - it would be so cool to finally land on and explore that world!  So many possible lore opportunities!

The proposal

Archaeology would make a great tie-in for extended interactions with the game's ruins, lore, the long-mysterious Shattered Planet, and with end-game tech.

• Archaeologists can study POI features, analyzing them to gain archaeology points, extract [remove] analyzed ruin objects, and decipher long-lost blueprints.
• A POI feature must be fully studied before it can be removed.
• Some POI features require researches before they may be analyzed (and/or certain other POIs to have been previously analyzed)
• Some ideas for integrating this as a legitimate game system:
  • Printing Pod unlocks the Porta-Pod.
  • Buildable Warp Pipe Input / Output.  (Should require late-game resources like Niobium?)
  • Cryotank (useful for distant, late-game space travel; player-built Cryotanks should require power)
  • Teleporter Transmitter / Receiver
    • These should require a unique, unbuildable component only gained by deconstructing them.
  • Neural Vascillator (requires a Vascillator charge, cannot be deconstructed if uncharged)
  • Lobby Chair > Comfy Bed
  • Office Plant (plastic-based Decor)
  • Plastic (ruins) ladder > Plastic Ladder
  • The big double-helix monument (space ruins) > Monument Top/Base/Bottom

AETNs should be one of the rare exceptions; they're almost on the level of geysers, so those shouldn't be possible to relocate.

Desks in ruins could provide research notes as some form of currency, like the old Interstellar Research points.

I'd argue that the Molecular Forge and its related recipes should probably be locked behind Archaeology in some fashion as well; perhaps you'd need to find a ruined structure that either used the material or was constructed from it, then analyze that, before the player gains access to it.  The Shattered Planet would probably be a good site for some of this - perhaps initial access to the Forge and the Supercoolant recipe, with the other recipes on more distant worlds?

[pether]

Big +1 to that! I love everything in this post - both possibility to deconstruct all what should be deconstructable and rebuilding nice stuff somewhere else so my dupes could sleep next to the space-exposed windows

[goboking]

Would it boost Science or be it's own stat?  If it's its own stat then it could determine the likelihood of discovering artifacts during space missions, assuming that's a mechanic that isn't cut in the DLC.