04-12-2017, 04:13 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2017, 06:18 AM by Permeable Ceiling.
Edit Reason: postscript, torus stack
)
So I’ve been thinking.
So far I’m still struggling with the incentive system. I know, getting a colony up to that much population and such is a nice incentive, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way for, well, government grants. The government gives you money to build a space colony, something in the range of billions. At my first LEO colony, I’d return the investment within a century. That is… suboptimal. I know, grant ≠ loan, but still, the government wants to have some, well return money for their investment beyond the propaganda. Which only counts for so much when space colonies are as feasible as the game portrays.
Another way would be disincentives, or goals.
Take the first colony, in LEO. You’re free to design it however you like, within reason, but limited to, say, 2B $ by the grant.
There’s an annual income, but why not have the grant tied to raising the income to amount x in time y? You’d obviously need to see the time you’ve spent with a colony so far, i.e. the colony is in her fifth year and now makes regularly 5M $/a, from the -2M $ in the first and 1M $ in the second. Once a colony is stable, you’re offered to hand management over to an outside agency (Governmental Colony Authority or something) for a more sizeable grant for your next colony. If you don’t manage the 5by5 (depending on colony size, obviously), you’re offered to take over a stock LEO colony. Harder to f*** up, since it’s a proven design and all.
Issues:
Suggestions:
Is there a way to show the footprint of a building? I mean, I need paths for zone buildings to be built next to, and I like to know how close to the buildings I can build these paths, which is especially tricky with wide farms or other buildings with unregular outlines.
So far I’m still struggling with the incentive system. I know, getting a colony up to that much population and such is a nice incentive, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way for, well, government grants. The government gives you money to build a space colony, something in the range of billions. At my first LEO colony, I’d return the investment within a century. That is… suboptimal. I know, grant ≠ loan, but still, the government wants to have some, well return money for their investment beyond the propaganda. Which only counts for so much when space colonies are as feasible as the game portrays.
Another way would be disincentives, or goals.
Take the first colony, in LEO. You’re free to design it however you like, within reason, but limited to, say, 2B $ by the grant.
There’s an annual income, but why not have the grant tied to raising the income to amount x in time y? You’d obviously need to see the time you’ve spent with a colony so far, i.e. the colony is in her fifth year and now makes regularly 5M $/a, from the -2M $ in the first and 1M $ in the second. Once a colony is stable, you’re offered to hand management over to an outside agency (Governmental Colony Authority or something) for a more sizeable grant for your next colony. If you don’t manage the 5by5 (depending on colony size, obviously), you’re offered to take over a stock LEO colony. Harder to f*** up, since it’s a proven design and all.
Issues:
And, I might be wrong, but… is the free design mode gone? I think it was in the demo, where you could design with all tech available? It’d allow one to make a colony one wishes for, as a goal, and then play the career mode with the—found it. Weird to have that as a separate game file, but okay.- Playing with designs… don’t nuclear and fusion power require cooling? I just made a 1000x1000 cylinder at triton and have 16 GW of power. Comfy 23 degree inside.
- Also, shouldn’t Closed Ecology provide a new building? Since it apparently doesn’t. Or was this meant as one of the automated buildings built by zoning?
- The Shielded Suit text is incomplete ("Shielding a space colony is one thing" is all that’s there.)
- Gas Gun Launcher… seems really far fetched as an early technology. I’d expect an EM launch tube on the moon far earlier than the equivalent on Earth.
- Statues increase crime rates? Are they, like, Gargoyle Gangsters?
- I think I had a colony with crime rates soaring adjacent to a police station. Yeah, here, at Phoenix Lane, there’s a police station not far. Two water treatment plants would fit between the houses and the station.
- Trees and paths can be placed everywhere, even in/through buildings. Is the reverse also true? Would a zone building be built in a forest, so to speak?
- A stack of toruses has the same windowed lighting conditions despite the torus mirrors being in each other’s way. Unless it’s assumed the primary mirror reflecting light down the axis is curved in such a way to facilitate lighting all toruses? Doubtful, considering the number of toruses that can be stacked this way (I checked with a dozen, the furthest had 100% lighting)
Suggestions:
- In Manage, provide an overview of a colony. Selecting (but not loading) a file allows one to see that colony’s statistic tab. Ideally, also the position (i.e. orbit).
- Specialised Colonies, which is probable a whole barrel of suggestions, since it’d require specialised modules and the colony part would be living and recreational. To provide an example:
- Base for construction and maintenance of beamed solar power satellites (i.e. the other end of the rectenna). Requires NEA Retrieval (resources) and Space Solar Power.
- Spaceship Drydock, requires NEA Retrieval, Ion Drive / Nuclear Rocketry, Magnetic Shield / Shielded Suit
- Have more interaction between your (and others’) colonies. For instance, you can build a Rectenna for power, but having a station that builds and maintains SSP lowers power cost (since it’s an in-house power provider). (I’ve never built a rectenna, I assume power beaming is reflected in higher maintenance cost or something.) Another flavour would be Squawker texts mentioning people moving from a previous colony to a new one, or vice versa
- More data on what a building does, in gaming terms. Do I need a government building? I don’t know. Maybe it lowers maintenance or crime rate, not a clue. When would I need a dehumidifier? *shrugs* This’d fit in the hover text before building them.
- Sending a police cruiser to a high crime area lowers crime rate for a set amount of time, after which it increases again. Maybe the same for fire fighters (IRL translates to being taught best practice, fire code checks, and evacuation exercises)
Is there a way to show the footprint of a building? I mean, I need paths for zone buildings to be built next to, and I like to know how close to the buildings I can build these paths, which is especially tricky with wide farms or other buildings with unregular outlines.