Duplicants revamped (Detailed Suggestions)

[brightcrazystar]

I have played this Alpha 12 of my last 48 hours on planet Earth.  I am eagerly looking forward to this game!

I considered one thing, the nature of the original Duplicants you start out with is one of choice.  I have gotten to calling the good and bad aspects of character, Assets and Liabilities.  Each character has both.  My question is do they balance out?  With the first three, especially, they should start tabula rasa, blank slate, and only have the Assets and Liabilities you want.  But ultimately, these Assets are purchased with Liabilities.  The more Liabilities, and the more severe they are, the more Assets you can attribute.

Next, make them more directable.  Have a five cycle rotation on them.  Each cycle they have a different work profile, if you want.  I have found what is key is turning things on and off, not over producing, and switching jobs so people can gain some skills and not be stuck on the same grind every day.  My base is home to 10 Dupes, and is powered by two hamster wheels, and I run four people on those wheels, two each on alternating days.  Two of my runners spend the days off the wheel researching and doing technicial things, and the other two cook and clean when they are not on wheel duty, or when the batteries are full.  Similarly all of my Dupes have alternating cycles of tasks, so each cycle I have to go set up their priorities.  Their stress levels stay WAY lower that way.

Stress is broken because some of the very real reactions of stress are not represented in their breakdowns.   Destructiveness will never be worth it as it is, especially for a level 8 cook who also happens to be a gastrophobe.  (Duplicant creation constantly gives people who excel in a skill they can never use.)  Real life stress reactions for consideration are "crying for attention" - dupe follows others, crying and slowing them down on their tasks.  bed-ridden- Dupe won't leave bed.  Stress eating or fasting.  Tantrum, running around randomly, leaves doors open, consumes more oxygen.  Self-injury - Dupe bangs against walls and doors, injuring themselves.  Headaches- cannot focus and may get commands wrong, deconstructing the wrong thing, building in the wrong place.  Also, MOST people have tasks they enjoy.  They should be able to do those to relieve some stress as long as it has not gotten too high.  However some tasks might be too advanced and a stressed Dupe can't even do them.

Colored shirts to distinguish work groups.  I hate to make it obvious but I really wish I could emphasize how much I want this.  R,B,G,Y would be fine, and well, a bit nostalgic.  And can issue order to the people wearing that color shirt.  "All red shirts, please stop your current work, and report to mine shaft three for algae collection".  Without team dispatch, I don't see how more than 12 (my most so far on a playtest) is possible.  In fact, over 6 seems overkill and difficult to manage unless they are all working on general tasks.

Equipment.  This game needs equipment and it needs to be chemical in nature. There is everything we need to make explosives and so much more.  Why no nitrogen and sulphur in the game?  The very biological function of the game indicates that compost and fertilizer processing is producing nitrogen.  Acid is fun!  It also would be a great requirement for making a chemical tech tree that enables the capacitors and a lot of other components.  This could also enable the to craft safety wear and other items.  I don't really want too much combat, but explosives would be great ways to open up area, at the expense of some of the resources or gas.  Any chance we can get a periodic table for this game?

 

Thank you for reading this, if you did.

 

Keep up the great work!