My recent experience with ONI

[Ecu]

Heyo all, it has been quite some time since I've been on the forums. 

With the release of the Oil Upgrade, I decided it was time to give ONI another shot and I'm a bit disappointed.  Last time I had really focused on playing ONI, it was too easy.  You could quite simply manage your food and polluted oxygen/water really didn't matter (and were rather easy to process as well).  I decided to take a break, as I felt that we would need time to get more systems in place to really see the vision Klei had for the game.  Two updates later, and despite adding challenges...the game isn't really any more difficult.  In fact, in some ways...I almost feel it is actually easier.  We now have a reliable unlimited water source, reliable infinite power, and still have reliable infinite food.

The game does have additional content but I feel that it currently is false depth.  We have more food options, but they aren't needed to keep a functional colony.  We have more options to manage creatures, but given their poor AI...they can easily die before you even use said methods to manage them.  We have a whole disease system that boils down to building a medical bay and ignoring it (for the most part).  We have clothing that you can functionally ignore.  Similarly, the entire oil and plastics chain can just be ignored as well (not to mention slicksters being better than using a pump).

Don't get me wrong, I love the game's visuals, concepts, and potential.  I just feel like we are getting a lot of bloat with little crunch.  I currently have a colony on the hardest immunity/stress settings that can easily maintain 10 dupes perpetually.  A few more systems (cooling, power, etc.) and I could very easily expand that to 15-20 and still never worry of colony collapse.  There is no real downside to losing dupes anyways, so I've been running around 15 to get projects done, losing some periodically.

What I suggest is more interactions between the various systems forcing people to rely on the advanced mechanics to be effective. 

One method this could be done is by say having the dupe printer require genetic ooze to print duplicants.  Genetic ooze could be acquired by another machine that breaks down organic material (crops).  In this manner, you must use your starting dupes to establish a foundation to not only keep themselves alive, but to be able to acquire new dupes all together.  Later tech could use the same genetic ooze to assist in breeding/printing creatures you've captured.  This also serves to act as a resource sink for extra seeds and plant material you have laying around.  Costs of duplication could be balanced to make each one a real goal to achieve.

I would really love to see a "Kitchen Upgrade" where agriculture and kitchen dynamics have been increased.  More musher recipes which are then used with the fryer.  Maybe even additional machines like a mixer or something could be used as well.  I would love to see a whole kitchen crew of dupes used to prepare good food for a colony.  The only issue I see with this being implemented currently is that food type doesn't really matter at all.  Sure, the better food reduces stress...but I can just make sure I have pictures and statues everywhere, as well as massage tables and not worry about it.  So either the stress bonuses need to be better, or we need something else that encourages diverse diets.

A minor thing I would like to see is a hopper type mechanism.  Essentially a container that would drop its contents when powered.  This would be useful when feeding things like hatches.  Additionally, if the fish creatures we've seen in the game files every get implemented...perhaps they would eat seeds or something that this device could drop as well.  By making it circuit logic, it allows us to create our own timers based on the physics of the game.  Perhaps as something to pair with it, we could have a pressure plate that detects item weight.

Another fun circuit mechanic would be to make the powered airlocks only open if powered, being unable to be opened when not powered.  This would allow us to create actual airlocks, better control creature movement with switches, etc.  The unpowered airlock could be given the same speed as a result and its benefit be that it blocks gases/liquids, while the powered option's benefit is that it can be circuit controlled.  Currently the powered isn't worth powering and airlocks are best handled via liquid (which would probably still be true, honestly).

These are just some of the thoughts I have given my current experience of playing through the Oil Upgrade.  Cannot wait to see what Klei comes out with for next upgrade and want to say that despite my rant about the current state of the game, it is still decently fun.

 

[Botaxalim]

Sum up everything, they havent touch game balance yet, in scale of game changing

Really love your point the game neec expand

Nb*dont you think this should be on suggestion topic