3 things that would make ONI even more amazing

[clickrush]

Worldgen Parameters

This is kind of an obvious feature but also a very important one. With DS/DST the worldgen parameters are cool but I personally haven't dabbled around with them too much because it is a game that is more challenge centric and less sandboxy/simulationy, so I mostly wanted to play the it was meant to be if that makes sense.

In ONI however I would love to be able to play around with worldgen parameters because it is much more toy-like. It is less like Pen and Paper and more like LARP (yes I'am *that* cool!). You set your own challenges and try to make your own designs etc. And this would totally help in that regard.

Biomes, POIs and Fluff

It was already announced that this is one of the things that will grow in the future, but let me explain what I personally find the most fun in that regard.

For example it would be incredibly cool if we could find different skins for buildable stuff. Then each world would feel more unique. The neuro thingies that give my dupes additional bonuses are nice and all, but you barely notice them at all when playing, because you don't just follow dupe X around like you would in a plattformer for example, so you can't really feel what improved or changed.

POI's that are really impactful are of course the geysers and the nullifiers, because they open up new possiblities and they are the main reason you want to explore the map. It would be very cool if we had more of that stuff. POI's that you can hook up to your base and have meaningful and noticable impact. This also ties into worldgen parameters. If there were more impactful POI's then a randomness factor could lead to totally different experiences per world.

I also generally like the idea of having stuff around the asteroid that stays in place and forces one to to adapt a base layout around that. What about a magical raw metal printer that draws power? Suddenly conveyors and tubes become super interesting when a thing like this exists.

Bottom line is that biomes and POI's could have more impact on how the game is played from asteroid to asteroid, especially alongside worldgen parameters and randomness.

Larger, more Complex Compositional Systems

This one is a less obvious thing and is kind of hard to explain properly. In a sense a complete base is exactly that. It is a system that is composed of smaller parts. The cool thing about this is that you can come up with your own layout and your own design. ONI does a good job at providing orthogonal components that work nicely together. But there is always a danger that a piece of equipment does too much by itself, so it basically cuts down on what the player can come up her/himself.

A good example is the steam turbine. Allthough it isn't integrated in a way that is feasable yet, it has requirements that lead to all kinds of player made choices and tradeoffs. This leads to more ways of integrating this equipment in terms of layout and optimisation.

A bad example would be the electrolyzer. It already does a lot of things by design. Even though electrolyzer setups can be done differently in terms of layout, size and automation, it could be a more general piece of equipment itself that needs to be composed with other things to provide the same functionality. It could easily be a more fine grained system that actually uses smaller parts, which we can layout more individually to meet our scaling and efficiency requirements.

My favorite examples of this are oxygen purification and crude oil refinement. Both can be achieved through pre existing equipment and both can be achieved through self made systems (allthough oil refinement is not sustainable anymore since the tepidizer fix). I feel like whenever there is a pre designed solution it should always be less efficient than a DIY one that is well executed because the latter leads to more fun gameplay.

[ScottFree]

I disagree about complexity. The game is already complex enough. I hate doing pipes, wiring, and venting to operate 1 building. That doesn't include managing temperature and resources. The electrolyzer takes two networks to function, a resource with specific quality (clean H20), and produces a waste product. What complexity is lacking?

I'm setting up a nat gas facility and it is taking forever. I've spend maybe 10+ cycles at least. 

[clickrush]

2 hours ago, ScottFree said:

I disagree about complexity. The game is already complex enough. I hate doing pipes, wiring, and venting to operate 1 building. That doesn't include managing temperature and resources. The electrolyzer takes two networks to function, a resource with specific quality (clean H20), and produces a waste product. What complexity is lacking?

I'm setting up a nat gas facility and it is taking forever. I've spend maybe 10+ cycles at least. 

The last examples I gave, oxygen purification and oil refinement are the best of both worlds. You can do it with simple methods or with more powerful/efficient methods. This way people who want to keep it simple can do it simple and people who want more complexity and power can do that.

[TehPlayer14]

Most of that stuff will come in the future otherwise it can be modded at least first and second one, third one is secured behind compiled C# data

[Master Miner]

Complexity is very much needed, otherwise the game becomes dull very soon.

Just the learning curve shouldn't be too steep (should not require too intensive learning to progress), and it should be possible to solve problems in less complicated ways.

Example: using electrolysers is simple, oxygen purification by liquifying is complex, but much more fun.

Another example - the nuclear reactor (if implemented) should be just that - only the reactor, so that we can build all that is needed around it (outer container, radiation shielding, fuel preparation (refinement: centrifuge) and storage, cooling, making steam and feeding it to steam turbines, processing (refinement: nuclear fuel recycler) and storing of used up fuel, taking care not to get an uncontrolled chain reaction or reactor meltdown - to avoid a severe nuclear incident). (https://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/87553-radioactive-biome/)

Players shall be able to adjust the designs to their needs and preferences and to play their way. Only that can provide for creative game-play and long-term fun.