TBH, I have mixed feelings about Fast Friends

[pether]

So yeah, it might be an unpopular opinion, but I have mixed feelings about last content pack...

On the one hand its a new content, quite nice and good, and even if something isn't really my thing (not everything must be) I'm not forced to use it or to pay for it. So yeah, it's nice. I won't go into details of each new thing, but overall I like them.

On the other hand it's not about what the pack is, it's what it isn't... It's what I expected, hoped for, overhyped for and in the end didn't get. That disappoints me and what's worse - I fear that if we didn't get things when it was best pack for them, we will never get them... And all of that overshadows the joy of new things...

So, let me explain:  

Spoiler

 

In SO! Launch Announcement (link above) we got this promise:

Quote

"Once Spaced Out! has launched our next move is to...keep working on it. There’s always more to do, so we'll work on some post-launch updates for a while before moving on to the next new thing for Oxygen Not Included. Stay tuned! "

I feel like some DLC features could need some polish and get nice cherry on top. However, I perfectly understood why Klei wanted to release it before Christmass. This was fine, I thought, there will be content packs to address some of unfinished things. And I was super excited when roadmap stated that:

On 1/28/2022 at 10:21 PM, JarrettM said:

Some of the ideas we’re exploring for this free content pack include quirky new Duplicants, new critter morphs, and fresh decor and recreation buildings, all designed to expand opportunities for expressive gameplay.

I connected the dots and it was clear to me at the time that you want to address Plug Slug issues - we all love the idea behind the animal, but its current diet is too much for many players and some morph with appetite for refined metals would solve the issues. And that pack was perfect moment to add it. But it was missing... My disappointment is immeasureable... 

I understand that making new morph could be demanding task and art team needs to spend many hours to get all animations correctly. But I cannot imagine why you wanted to focus on eg. Pips and Voles - beloved critters that don't need any additions to be good - instead of the one that urgently needs some love and attention...

Another thing I miss is "fresh decor and recreation buildings". We got nothing like it... I understand that getting a new and fresh idea for some creative addition in this saturated field could be difficult... But data mining thread showed that you guys had great ideas! I was so hyped when I saw new shooting animation, it would work great on some radbolt-powered shooting range rec building - another thing I believe the DLC lacks - but we got nothing like that...

Decor buildings are another issue - I could imagine why we didn't got new buildings and I'm fine with that, but why did we get only 2 new artworks? Why only for lowest-tier painting? This should be something that is super easy to make - there are no animations, no big logic behind that, you just make a sprite and it's ready... So why only 2? Why nothing for sculptures? Why couldn't we get monument-like selection panel for artable items? The code is already there, it shouldn't be hard to add it to more buildings...

I'm also sad about the "expand opportunities for expressive gameplay" part... We got only new clothing building, but most of the recipes don't really fit anything (at least for my preferences) and won't really be used. I mean - I'm fine with things that don't align with my taste, but at the same time I'd love to see something that appeals to it. We could also get things from the POI - there are already there, just unlock them for the players... We could get steel ladders to express more than "its either plastic or ugly"... I understand I shouldn't have unreasonable expectations, but come on, we got so little tools for expressive gameplay and we could get so much cool stuff with so little effort...

So yeah, that's how I feel... 

Don't get me wrong, I like most of the new things, and many bugfixes and performance improvements were really needed... But at the same time I'm sad that this Content Pack didn't seize the opportunities... It could polish some areas of the DLC, it could add already existing QoL or unlock existing buildings, but none of this happened...

[Sasza22]

Yes i had similar feelings for it. But i`m not losing hope. Remember that pips, voles and pokeshells are in the game since the base game released and they didn`t have morphs until now. If they added plug slug morphs before those i`d lose hope that those three would ever get them. How bad it might sound i`m happy they adressed those first. It makes it look like they plan to get to the newer critters eventually.

As for the decor&recreation part it seems like they focused too much on the critter part and didn`t fit much of that into the update. Possibly it will be split into another patch. Datamines seem to confirm that there were new recreation stations being worked on.

Honestly i like the clothing station. Now i can color my dupes so it`s easier to recognize on which schedule they are. It`s a nice QoL touch but doesn`t come into play until midgame which is fine.

Generally while i really hoped for the slugs to get a morph and a new radiation based building (for recreation, cooking or whatever) i got a feeling they decided to do stuff they planned even before the dlc but didn`t have time to. Hopefully they can get some time to do the same kind of polish for the dlc exclusives while they work on the second dlc.

[Nebbie]

Screw Plug Slug morphs. Just make Plug Slugs actually have a point by making them not EAT MY METAL.

[SharraShimada]

I side with you pether on this one. TBH i´ve nearly missed everything in this update, besides the new dupes. Everything else wont fit my playstile anyway, so... But thats okay for me, because i´m not the only player, and i´m happy others can enjoy the new critters and stuff.

[AtlaStar]

On 6/21/2022 at 1:06 PM, Nebbie said:

Screw Plug Slug morphs. Just make Plug Slugs actually have a point by making them not EAT MY METAL.

I think that Plug Slug's are fine eating metal...what I would like is if ranching made it to where you could get morphs that ate refined metals and the chance to lay that morph is increased when they eat metal...then there could be a morph that has a greater chance to be laid when starvation ranched, that instead of creating electricity gets calories from consuming it.

[calibayzone]

Plug slugs eat raw OR refined metal = good. Maybe as different morphs, maybe not.

Why? Early game does not mean "early only". Consider the hamster wheel: useful late-game for starting a base, dupe training, or even for very low power circuits (such as auto-sweepers that run rarely). Or oxylite: Very early game and also useful for engines and on-board rocket O2 storage.

Infinite raw metal can only come from space POI and mining is expensive. Raw metal is useful for refinery heating.

Plug slugs are early game: mine ore, get hydrogen, get power. But why not have a garbage disposal for all those hundreds of tonnes of gold coming out of the volcanoes? You need to set up a ranch, tame the volcanoes, and set up a hydrogen catch/delivery system. And it takes time to build the critter numbers up. So it should be rewarded with abundant power (and reduce CPU critter lag please!) much like a sourgas boiler or a beehive nuke plant, both of which can produce incredible amounts of electricity.