General feedback and feature request

[Toad_1998]

Good day everybody,
Here is a collection of things that could potentially benefit the game:

Disclaimer: Some things might already be introduced/be that way and I just don't know about it because I haven't played enough.
In that case just ignore what I said.

Features:

• Air Scrubbers outputing coal and O2 (as in: CO2 -> C + O2)
• Hydrogen generator produces water (as in 2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O)
• Rock crusher, crushes minerals into filtration medium
• [insert cool name], Dirt from slime and raw mineral
• Plants consume CO2, produce O2
• Algae terrariums produce Algae, consume water
  • Algae in farm tiles/planter boxes
  • Growth lamps, accelerates plant growth
• More types of clothing:
  • Scuba gear, for working underwater
  • Respirator, for prolonged work in unbreathable areas
    • Oxygen compressor to fill Scuba/respirator
  • Gas mask, polluted oxygen/chlorine has no/less effect
  • Wardrobe, for storing quickly changing outfits
• Glacial Percipitator, machine that produces a small amount of water from air indefinately
• [insert cool name], dries clay into sand, produces water
• More power production methods:
  • Steam turbine, power from steam geysers
  • Stirling engine, power from temperature difference (to gas input, one cold, other hot)
  • Thermopile, power from ambient heat
• Heavi-watt wire:
  • Heavy wire bridge, for Heavi-watt wire
• Zones, predetermined spaces in which dupes should perform certain tasks
  • Auto mop
  • Auto sweep
  • Stress response (see: rubber tiles)
  • (No access)
• Jobs presets, player can preset various scenarios
• (Solenoid valves, prioritize flow of one gas/fluid pipe over another, heading for the same input)
• More tiles:
  • Rubber tiles, indestructive tiles for destructive dupes, made from slime and abyssalite
  • Decorated tile, paintable, decor boost
  • Reinforced tile, withstands pressure damage etc
  • Hollow tile, Heavi-watt wire can pass trough
• Chlorinator, consumes small mount of chlorine gas to turn polluted oxygen into clean oxygen, high flow rate and range
• Gas/Liquid tanks, for holding gases/liquids, various sizes (tiny/large like batteries)

Fixes/Changes:

• Rework water physics, less surface adhesion
  

 

That's all that comes to mind right now. I shall add to it if anything pops up.

P.S. Fantastic game, nice art, very enjoyable although frustrating at times.

-toad

Edit: made some changes. A couple of points were indeed the result of frustrated-noob-me so I removed/changed those in order to create a more constructive post. Thanks for all the feedback so far.

[Whispershade]

You can already use valves and bridges to prioritize flow. If you bridge onto a main pipe the main pipe has complete priority. It also enables packet merging if the contents are the same and the main pipe is not at capacity. Practically all my junctions are set up this way.

You can also set up no access and restricted access areas through access preferences on powered doors. Though the update will add that feature to all doors.

Insulated pipes and tiles are a trap. Use abyssalite if you want to keep heat and cold in place. :\

I am 100% with you on the explicit heavy-watt bridge. Currently you can use the standard bridge with heavi-watt wire as long as your transformer break out is up to snuff.

[xsansara]

I am all for realism, but making a challenging and fun game should be a higher priority. For example, I would never have expected algae to be a limited resource. It literally multiplies on its own. However, in the game it works well in making you choose to expand or update your oxygen generation to new tech once you run out. 

I read a lot of complaints about the air deodorizer. I tend to disagree. It is very finely tuned towards being able to help you clean up after a malheur happened, but not to counteract the malheur while it happens. You need to do that with other means. Once you understand that, it is very useful in getting you back on track without having to install pumps, filters, a gas dump, ...

[Toad_1998]

thanks for the help, with only 37 hours I am still quite the noob

[TheGCat]

U have forgotten a goal of the game. We cant win. Only lose.

[Buldric]

On 7/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, Toad_1998 said:

• Increased coal, algae, metal spawn rate in starting biome
• Reduced decor penalty for heavi-watt wire
• Reduced polluted oxygen production/increased air deodorizer range and flow rate
• Increased wattage before overload
• Increase max gas pressure for gas vent overpressure to 5kg
• Decrease power consumption for gas/fluid filters, and pumps and microbe musher
• Increased power consumption for big machines
• (Pipes inside insulated tiles act like insulated pipes)

These could all be pretty much summed up as "make the game easier".

I realize it's a tough game to get a handle on at first, but once you figure out what you're doing the game is, honestly, too easy as it is.

Think about it this way: scarcity and non-renewable resources exist to compel you forward, and constraints like overloading wires, decor penalties, heat radiating from pipes, etc., force you to put real thought into your designs. Take away either of those things, and the game simply isn't very compelling.

[FistfulOfZen]

I agree that the early game is a bit overwhelming, but that's mostly a learning curve. I'm a fan of Algae Terrariums, but water is presently kind of buggy. As far as a source of Algae is concerned, you need to get access to Pufts. They produce Slime from Polluted Oxygen. You then use the Slime to produce Algae, and use that Algae to produce Oxygen (though you should look also at getting some Electrolyzers for use with Hydrogen Generator(s). It's kind of a long slog of trial and error and dumb luck.

[BlueLance]

The hydrogen generator would need an oxygen intake if this were the case, which negates the electrolyzers job of producing Oxygen and a gas which is burnable. 

Plants usually need sunlight to product O2, as the moment these plants are in an asteroid and have never seen what a light looks like, so they most likely dont grow using photosynthesis, although that is going to change slightly.

Certain gasses can go to 5kg (Natural gas for instance) 

You can use a normal wire bridge and it will not overload unless you have a normal wire somewhere on the same circuit.

Depending on what material a tile is made from changes its strength.

Otherwise I do like a bunch of the other stuff. and I totally agree its a great game

[Kasuha]

34 minutes ago, BlueLance said:

Certain gasses can go to 5kg (Natural gas for instance) 

It's more like certain gas outputs can go up to 5 kg. Particularly geysers. And maybe some machines (fertilizer maker?) I'm not sure about that, though. AFAIK polluted water still produces polluted oxygen with no pressure limits.

 

[Whispershade]

8 hours ago, Kasuha said:

It's more like certain gas outputs can go up to 5 kg. Particularly geysers. And maybe some machines (fertilizer maker?) I'm not sure about that, though. AFAIK polluted water still produces polluted oxygen with no pressure limits.

 

As far as I know there is no limit to room pressure at which fertilizer makes continue to output natural gas. In my AU colony I have seen over 50kg of gas per tile in my fertilizer rooms, but it generally hovered around 30kg

In fact I considered setting up a large fertilizer array just to pump out natgad and consume polluted water and effectively make a natgas superbattery and super concentrate my map's polluted water. But it felt really outside the spirit of my endeavors.

[BeardFistWilson]

i like alot of these suggestions, near all of them.  These would not make the game easier but just makes more sense.. (the algae terrarium consumes algae but doesnt produce it?  Plants consume co2 but dont produce o2?)

[Buldric]

4 hours ago, BeardFistWilson said:

These would not make the game easier but just makes more sense

Really?

On 7/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, Toad_1998 said:

Increased coal, algae, metal spawn rate in starting biome

Difficulty nerf.

On 7/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, Toad_1998 said:

Reduced decor penalty for heavi-watt wire

Difficulty nerf.

On 7/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, Toad_1998 said:

Reduced polluted oxygen production/increased air deodorizer range and flow rate

Difficulty nerf.

On 7/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, Toad_1998 said:

(Increased wattage before overload)

Difficulty nerf.

...etc.

Why do any of these "make more sense"?

You're right that it makes more sense for algae to reproduce, but that would really mess with gameplay balance. As I pointed out before, the game isn't very compelling if you have no incentive to reach for the next rung of the ladder.

Most of these ideas seem like they belong in a Minecraft mod. ONI just isn't that kind of sandbox.

[BlueLance]

On 28/07/2017 at 8:32 PM, BeardFistWilson said:

i like alot of these suggestions, near all of them.  These would not make the game easier but just makes more sense.. (the algae terrarium consumes algae but doesnt produce it?  Plants consume co2 but dont produce o2?)

The algae terraniums do produce o2.