Unfathomable Potential

[DarkCloudDeity]

To start off i just want to say that i love this game dearly and i love the mechanics and attention to detail required in managing your duplicants and their base, but in saying so i feel although this game will be continually developing there is so much room for potential that it is barely scratching the surface at the moment.. 

So below i have a list of suggestions that I've sat down and compiled for ways this game could be improved drastically in terms of difficulty, priorities as well as content. 

It's difficult to even know where to begin because i have quite a list of suggestions and many of which are directly linked to counterpart suggestions so please bare with me and i hope you enjoy them.

I'll begin with; Duplicants

Duplicants should require a supply of water to drink as well as the food.

Injuries and Illnesses

-Broken Bones, Arms (Via being attacked by creatures) & Legs (Via duplicants falling from certain heights).

The direct effects of these injuries would entail slower effectiveness of all tasks if the duplicant has sustained a broken arm & reduced movement speed if the duplicant has sustained a broken leg, both of which would slightly increase stress over time.

-Malnutrition (sustained period prior to complete health loss of starvation) This would be a period of time when the duplicant is less effective in movement and task completion due to not having eaten in a while and would slowly increase stress also.

-Infections, from spending a prolonged time with light wounds, broken limbs or simply having too low an immunity a duplicant would be susceptible to infection which would work much like diarrhea only slightly more contagious, duplicants could also contract 'Lung' infections from spending prolonged periods in areas of contaminated oxygen, chances of infection are reduced drastically depending on the level of bacteria/germs the duplicants are around and Fungal infections via spore ridden areas. (To be discussed further)

-Heart Attack, if a duplicant has spent too long at an extremely high level of stress there is a chance of them having a heart attack which could result in one of two occurences, one being immediate death, the other being they are unconscious and require aid getting to a medical table or pharma chamber immediantly to potentially survive. (Heart attacks may also have a chance of reducing the said duplicants stats, which skills are entirely variable based).

-Dehydration, If a duplicant goes too long without drinking fresh water they become dehydrated and work slower as well as gain stress.

-Bug Sting, Works like a light wound (contraction explained further down)

 

There may be other suggestions below as i go on but those are some of the additions i think will help the complexity of the game.

Here are some more. 

New Mobs, New Plants, Particle and Lighting effects

Adding flowers to the game can help in a variety of ways, different flowers improve decor different amounts, the addition of an alien bee/wasp could have added benefits and dangers too, they would be a mob that congregate in groups and stay around a hive tile/tiles and are attracted to all flowers and are repelled by Bug repellent (Made with Liquid Chlorine ((To be discussed further)) and administered through sprinklers (((also to be discussed further))) The bees/wasps could be a source of food via a form of alien honey which lasts longer than any other food source and doesn't require refrigeration and could also be used to add new food recipes into the game such as honeyed meat and so on, the said flowers to be added could inhibit bio-luminescence  which would cause a glow (colors may vary) other inhibitors of bio-luminescence could include certain mushroom varieties, Algae lamps/lights ((To be discussed further)) as well as a new gaseous element to the game, Fungal Spores (Emitted by varieties of mushrooms and slime blocks) This new element to the gas of the game i believe would make  the game look so much more vibrant and inviting even if the Fungal spore ridden areas are actually dangerous. Another plant to be added could be a form of alien potato (used as a cooking ingredient to create various new recipes, and usable to create Vodka ((To be discussed further)

The addition of a few more fruit plants would be brilliant as well for furthering the variety or choice ((uses of fruit to be explained further)

 

Pressure Management Research

A brilliant addition to this section of the research tree i believe would be a 'Slow Release Valve' which would consist of a two tiled mechanism (the intial valve and its built-in release outlet. This mechanism would require ventillation piping and electrical wiring to run merely to the valve input which could be placeable on a tile without the need to break it and would enable the device to slowly release a gas from ventillation into a specified area which would be extremely useful for either filtering gasses out of a certain area by pushing them elsewhere without the need to directly open up that area, but most importantly could be used to slowly pump gas out of vacuum pockets to relieve the pressure and eliminate the risk of popped ears constantly occuring which would be delightful, or in the same instance used to pump areas with no oxygen with a slow supply of oxygen to make them eventually accessible without the risk of your base being instantly flooded with unwanted concentrations of gas. This device would be listed under Ventillation

 

Gas & Liquid Storage

This is an area i would love to see developed as it has many positive benefits for progression. Being able to build a 'Storage Vat' which would store a set amount of liquid/Gas (20kg?) in a small 2 tile space much like the storage compactor only for liquids/gasses. This device would come under Base builds and be useful for either storing contaminated water/CO2/Helium/Chlorine/Hydrogen etc.. prior to having an area dug out for releasing it or for storing other liquids (aside from magma) such as fresh water for a backup supply should your water source become contaminated and other liquids (To be discussed further)

Fermentation

Under Distillation Research another handy device that could be added is a general "Distillery" which could be used to ferment potato (as suggested above) into vodka or wheat into beer, These alcoholic beverages would work as temporary stress relief but as a consequence the day after a duplicant consumes alcohol they would as an opposite to the early bird trait be affected by hangover and seek additional water to combat dehydration, addition food to combat malnutrition, have temporary reduced bladder control and be generally less productive throughout the course of the morning. 

Liquidator, Condenser, Fertilizer, Sprinklers, Algae Lamps&Lights, Fires, Carbonater and 3D PRINTING!

-This device and its counterparts would be under the fourth research tree of the plumbing tier and consist of a 'Liquidator' a device that would come under refinement and require power to run and certain solid materials to use. Its core use would be to turn normally solid materials into a liquid form (This would open up a wide variety of potential progression to the game) some of the materials that would be applicable to the Liquidator would be, Fertilizer to make Liquid Fertilizer (emits contaminated oxygen but is more effective at growing crops) and something i'd adore to see.. Liquid Algae (Liquidating Algae like Fertilizer would both be storable using the Vats Liquid Storage mentioned above but the Major Benefit to Liquid Algae would be that it is needed to fuel Algae lamps and lights (Algae Lamps and Lights would be a fourth tier farming research labelled Biology possibly) that enable the use of Lighting without the need for direct electrical energy, To craft them you would need Algae and to keep them running they would need a supply of liquid algae, the lights themselves could give a faint green bio-luminescent glow creating more beautiful texture in the game as well as being an alternative to constantly using the same lighting fixtures and relieving the use of electricity, another key benefit to the liquid algae would be the creation of 'Algae Farms' to explain further; If a user were to pump liquid algae onto fresh water it would remain on surface level being lighter than the water and multiply to create a sustainable supply of liquid algae (As an added difficulty if a user places liquid algae on contaminated water it would produce contaminated algae which emits toxic Fungal Spores also and poses risk of infections as well as making the liquid algae an extreme danger, for instance if a Duplicant were to deliver Contaminated Liquid Algae from a Storage Vat to Algae lights or lamps, as a side effect to the initial light it would produce the lamp/light would then also emit Fungal Spores posing a risk of total base contamination if not properly managed) Another use for the Liquidator would be to turn Plastic into Liquid plastic which could then be used to run the next topic a '3D-Printer'.  The 3D Printer would come under the same research as a Polymer Press but allow the user to create a few new items that are needed to improve your base further. the first being Plastic Plates which are needed to Craft an Improved Mess Table (a higher tier of the original) that allows Duplicants to eat faster and the second item the printer could be renown for is IV bags, the IV bags could then be used to make a number of things; Blood Bags (Extracted from duplicants at a Med Table or Pharma Chamber if they aren't stressed and usable to perform Transfusions in emergency cases of Illness or Disease to help improve the speed of Aid) a third item the 3D printer could create would be balloon which when combined with Vat Stored Helium could be used to build Helium Balloons (An Improved Decor addition) another decor item craftable with the 3d printer could be Tables and Chairs much like those already generated into the game (The more Variety in Decor the Better). Other uses for the Liquidator would be its ability to compress a variety of fruits into juice as another source of hydration as well as the key ingredient for the Carbonator.

-Now The Carbonator would be a device used to infuse liquified juices with Carbon Dioxide as both a method for alleviating the amount of Co2 aswell as the creation of FIzzy Drinks. Fizzy drinks would have temporary benefits and downsides. The temporary benefit could be increased movement speed or production but at the cost of the downside being a decrease in hydration. 

-The Condenser would be a device used to turn certain gasses into liquid form mainly gasses such as contaminated oxygen back into contaminated water, turning chlorine into liquid chlorine which (needed to make Morphine at an apothecary ((An improved form of the earlier mentioned Blood Bags (((Obviously still requiring IV bags))) and also to make the earlier mentioned Bug Repellant which could be used to limitate the areas in which the new alien bee/wasp mob as well as pre-existing hatches would travel, handy for saving items you've yet to store by repelling areas the hatches can travel and for ensuring your base isn't invaded by swarms of aggresive bees/wasps that cause your duplicants to be stung. ((Liquid Chlorine would also be used as a decontaminator)) 

-FIRES honestly not sure what i can say about this, as a side to explosions there should be a variable chance that an area with too high temperature may start a fire which can spread throughout your base, create immense CO2 concentration and reduce oxygen levels drastically (Basically a fire that you're unprepared for could be a game ender) having this sort of risk would make people a lot more cautious and inventive about the way they set up and prioritise their base.

-The Sprinklers this would be an additional to improved agriculture research and be built via utilities it would come under two distinct types, the manual sprinkler and the automatic sprinkler, the only difference being when wiring an automatic sprinkler it will continually spray whatever it's fuelled with whereas the manual sprinkler will require a switch on the wiring line, there would be 3 Core uses for the Sprinkler; 1:when linked with appropriate piping via either a vat or a pump it can release Fresh water for two things A) Watering Crops B) Stopping fires (The sprinklers that are in areas a fire is in would automatically extinguish it given they have sufficient water) the second core use of the sprinkler would be if supplied with Liquid fertilizer through a vat they can fertilize Crops. (Liquid fertilizer would work much similar to normal fertilizer only help crops grow even faster but produce contaminated oxygen)  the Third core use of the sprinkler (Manual Sprinkler) and one i'm fond of would be the ability to Decontaminate when fuelled with Liquid Chlorine, enabling the construction or Airlocked Decontamination rooms with switches to Decontaminate Duplicants before entering the base.

 

Alien Spiders and Silk and Even BETTER Decor

Bringing an Alien Spider into the game could also house a variety of uses, namely it makes it more challenging much like the suggestion of Alien wasps/bees (All of which would be dangerous) Aside from the challenge of working around spiders they could house a new tile similar to that of don't starve but not really, the spiders when beaten would drop meat much like a hatch, be repellable via the bug repellant to keep them at bay and if the Nest is destroyed you could harvest Spiderweb from it, Spiderweb would be a crucial material needed for the highest tier of decor and bedding as well as stress relieving clothing, once harvested spiderweb could be used on a textile loom to craft silk and then again on the loom to create flashy attire for your duplicants to reduce their stress or used instead to build Exquisite Beds that relieve stress as well as give stamina to duplicants and be used to create Tapestries which would be a welcome change in the decor department.

Wiring Clutterstorm

I'm sure it's not just me but wiring in this game can become a hastle especially when you get a lot of machinery going on, so another idea i've concocted to help manage this is the addition of Wireless Router and Wireless Recievers, they can be attached to the end of a wire and can be set with a value corresponding to numbers or letters and if you set both a wireless router and a wireless reciever to the same value the wires can essentially transport power wirelessly to one another over extended gaps (Like a Wire Bridge only handier) enabling the construction of more diverse and advanced mechanical ingenuity and relieving the clutter of wires from all over the place at the cost of some added power. (This would also make transporting Heavy Watt Wire simpler! which everyone wants!!)

Making Research not as easy..

I know a lot of people might appose this idea because there are a lot of higher tiered researches that become extremely beneficial and in most cases crucial to base development but even so i find researching everything there is, is just far too quick, it's not as much of a challenge as the general management of the game and i feel it needs a little balancing. So another suggestion i can make is that the Reeds in the game can be refined at a Textile loom to fabricate books and after fabricating enough books you can craft the final tier of research station the Library (A rather large station consisting of a chair between two 3x3 bookshelves but essentially taking up a 7x3 space. making it almost a room of it's own but the benefit of it being it doesn't require a power supply and if a light is placed in the room research is slightly accelerated whilst using it. (Adding this Third research tier, making them scale from, Novice, Intermediate and Enhanced research i think would be a brilliant addition to the games complexity.

 

Conclusion and additional notes

To start i'd like to say thank you to anyone and everyone who've bothered to read through this list of suggestions I've concocted, it would be beautiful if some of them made it into the game and i hope you agree and if so feel free to discuss it with me further, a few additional notes i'd like to add are that I'm not merely trying to suggest the game be more difficult than it is (I can barely last 50 cycles) it is indeed a complex game but i'm merely trying to suggest more to develop, more to consider and more choice, more variety.. I want it to be more satisfying to look at, more inventive with choices that you could make. (Let's all be honest, rooms full of the same paintings and statues tend to look very bleak and dull after a while.. adding some more variety would be a welcome sight) 

I LOVE OXYGEN NOT INCLUDED and i'm not in any way by making these suggestions trying to say it isn't a good game or that they aren't doing anything o make it better, obviously it's in alpha, it's still a baby and there's heaps i'm sure they plan to add, but these are simply some suggestions i think would give the game a heap more depth than it already inhibits.

Thank you all for your time and remember, oxygen is not included..

 

 

 

[Oozinator]

On 16.11.2017 at 4:04 AM, DarkCloudDeity said:

.. (I can barely last 50 cycles) ..

 

Not really?
Where are your problems, get the game going?
It's from my player point of view, an easy to medium(sometimes) game, but never really hard.