Alloying Materials

[Warrax]

Hmm ... This suggestion, i think, may be a radical game changer.

 

I am wondering about the possibilities of alloying materials may mean.

And before responding, if i may suggest ... Think about the implications ...

 

Alloying - of course - should be extremely expensive, and, i am guessing would be a coding nightmare for the devs.

 

However, i think the idea has "some" potential and could possibly give allinances something to fight over.

Such as - Alloying Factories are only player built, and ... And a variety of requirements that would render them vulnerable, yet worthwhile to have.

 

Thoughts?

 

:8

[Spacefaring_Guy]

Let me break down the interesting (in my opinion, anyway) ideas in your post:

 

1) Materials should have different attributes other than just mass and toughness

 

2) Alloys mix and match those values (presumably in fixed process, not an RTG-powered one... please!)

 

3) Only player-owned entities can create alloys

 

4) The trading system would allow NPC factions to acquire alloys

 

 

So the devs would need to (yes, another list!):

 

1) Come up with additional material attributes

 

2) Give them an effect on the game

 

3) Create a system to calculate alloy names and attributes

 

4) Create a new factory type for generating alloys from standard materials

 

5) Build a cross-sector trading system to allow NPC factions to utilize them

 

6) Modify the build menus so you don't need to wade through 2000 copies of the parts list, one for each possible alloy.

 

Tall orders, but in the long run I think worth it.  With a creation system that uses 2-6 different input materials and is order-sensitive, you'd have almost 2,000 unique alloys!  Give source materials attributes like density (obviously!), hardness, conductivity, machinability (higher rating = easier to work with = more blocks / unit of material), rarity, colour... maybe some other game-specific attributes that affect integrity fields, shields, and hyperspace jumps, and you end up with reasons to look for that 'perfect' alloy for your ships... and maybe a reason to make your integrity field generators out of one alloy, your shield generators out of another, and your armour out of a third.

 

I think the alloy generation algorithm should be randomized at galaxy creation, so every game is different and you can't optimize without doing the research every time.  Knowledge from one server should not transfer to another in this case.

 

 

[Warrax]

Cool ideas

I especially like the idea of trial and error, on a per galaxy basis.

 

I wonder if your "factory" could retain the "characterstics" of the trials?

Again, part of the idea is to make certain sectors flash points where these super expensive player built structures are built.

 

8)