The question is, How it will all be in multiplayer? A new player who goes to the server, it will not be able to defend, he will be held hostage to the fact that he was not overclocked, and nothing can not ..?
Personally, I'm very disappointed the "skill tree" actually turned out to be a tech tree. Haven't had time to play with the new patch yet, but I'm worried I won't like it. Putting restrictions on what I can build, while so many restrictions are already in place, is a bit ridiculous. Basically, if this forces me to walk places rather than be able to build a vehicle, I am going to be very, VERY disappointed.
I think the grind to unlock constructor is to long, things should unlock faster, tier one should be all about unlocking everything basic, when you get to level 20, it should then move you into tier two and from level 21 to level 40 could be armour block toughening [ or in future shield strength ] , then at level 41 you hit tier 3 and special features , abilities, blocks and events are unlocked in the final 20 levels. When you hit level 60, the final level, the game then randomly spawns in the planet Empyrion into the universe for you to find to complete the story side of the game.
You are logged on to the server started to gather resources, gather resources, we have adjusted production. The flies pumped gamer destroys your starter ship takes resources and flies away. What is joy?))
I don't know if this has been mentioned, but there was a survey posted on the main website a few weeks back. It asked what we'd most like to see next. One choice was experience/ leveling up/tech tree. There were about 5 other choices I believe. The current patch added the thing that got the most votes. I personally didn't vote for it, but I think it can be made to work. I felt like simply playing the game itself was, for me the player, the means of gaining "experience". I figured out what works and what doesn't, what's the best way to do something, and what way I like to go about playing. With this system I feel like we are restricted. However I do like the idea of our in-game character gaining some kind of proficiency in certain skills so they can do it better, faster, or more efficiently. I feel that in the game world we craft stuff with a machine that should, theoretically, already have the schematics to build everything that the particular constructor is capable of.
I would like to see tech tied to exploration rather than xp. I'll try to make my idea as coherent as possible but i'm not a writer so bear with me. At start your constructor has all the base items it does now. Plus an Analyser hand tool, a research station and a datacore. When you come across a POI it may have a few blocks that are more advanced than what you currently have, say a downed ship has some thrusters with better output. You can use the remove tool to get parts, OR the Analyser. The Analyser would break apart the thruster and give 0-1 research fragments for that thruster only. (better analysers can come later) After breaking apart all the thrusters on the POI you stick them in the research station, along with a blank crystal (maybe made with an uncommon resource, not too rare, just enough that you dont wanna waste em). Every 5-10 seconds of running the research station uses 1 fragment and adds 10% to the completion of the blueprint. Once the blueprint is at 100% you can put it in the datacore (10 slots capacity) and any constructor attached to that grid would be able to make that item. Putting a 100% done blueprint and a blank crystal in the research station would allow you to copy it (this is why the crystals shouldn't be too common). MAYBE even have to find some prereq bp's to research the really good stuff, but I'm not a big fan of walls like that in a sandbox. Reasons: This ties advancement to exploration in a logical manner, plus it encourages people to go out and find stuff. Having the BP be a physical item means it has to be defended. Do you want to have them all on your CV as you go into the unknown or leave them at a well defended base? (an organic way to promote outpost/shipyard construction without penalizing players who want a mothership) In PvP players will suddenly want to cripple and board to loot these valuable schematics instead of just rabid blow everything up. It opens paths for item customization. (as follows) An advanced form would be item customization. One thing that bugs me about SE is to make a fully realized... well.. anything you have to have a sampling of every ore. Customization could fix this. The base materials are already in game, but advanced materials could also be added throughout the world. As an example lets say Adamantium. I find some Adamantium, as i mine it I get a rare Pure Adamantium Sample. I stick this in the research station and I reveal that one of its properties is "enhanced strength". (each sample could reveal a new property, until you know everything about it) So i decide to apply it to a base thruster. In the research station I select the base thruster and get a list of all the components it takes to make it. I can now select any component and choose to make it from adamantium. This would be a little more complex but follow a logical system. So the casing would determine the thrusters hp, making that out of adamantium would increase the hp value. Motor would determine thrust, so it wouldnt really benefit unless we find out it has some properties related to thrust. After using my library of rare materials to make my thruster I imprint it to a blank crystal and name it, now I can make "nyds thrusters" at my constructors, a hardier engine with more thrust but eats more power. More BP's to make and defend, and more ore's to discover and gather without making the whole library of ores mandatory. Sorry, kinda got carried away with this. I just prefer the discovery method as opposed to just getting a chunk of xp for grinding then "ding" I can make new stuff. ps. This could also help with the CV in atmosphere debate too. You would have to find engines powerful enough to allow a CV in atmo.
This totally messed up my savegame because nothing unlocked like it should. (Or least as I understood the notes) Generally i could probably work with it to some degree since I have a base, vehicle, and resources to live, but my vehicle is damaged and missing parts after attacking the drone base last night, so I can't do much at all, let alone repair it and get it functioning again, plus my low ammo for weapons. Aside from that, I think a tech tree is kind of a hit and miss. I get making it a more complicated game, but at the same time, many other games of it's type don't require it, like space engineers (afaik, not played it in awhile), and even minecraft. You can build whatever you get the resources to, and the constructor for. But added onto this, there is almost no ability for new players to make it. All base and items are locked off, except a very few things like a pistol and ammo, but the supply of materials on the shuttle doesn't give a large enough supply of materials to sustain for long or let you travel away from camp for long periods. Base facilities and things that are usually the first thing you try and build so you have a starting point and safe zone, and a location from which to build a vehicle to traverse the land to gather those resources. (Because for example, the starting resources in my game at my start point were 2 slots of neo metal, and a cobalt. I only found iron within firing range of a nearby base. Something a new player is absolutely not going to be able to defend from. To make it worse, silicone and magnesium were kilometers away from my base, which would probably not be walkable, esp with death reigning facilities and drones everywhere inbetween. So gaining experience at any decent rate to survive is going to be extremely difficult, and turn off players really quickly. The game shouldn't be a walk in the park, but it shouldn't feel like insurmountable odds against you, to the point you just die all the time and can't get off the ground. I think the old system should be put back in place, however, to give the appearance of "tech trees", what you could do is add new machinery made to build advanced items. Like a fabricator to build CPU's, chips (like cores) and computers, and laser components, or even more advanced materials like polymers. Smelting/refineries to craft ingots, and use the current constructors to build the actual items. I'm sure there's some other potentials in there I don't know about. Such as a medical station that lets you build medpacks, antidotes and other things like surgical items, because... really, why does the food processor? Or armour smiths for heavy armour blocks (Do we have plans for those yet? Maybe even used with the above fabricator for polymers) for ships, stations or even player armour, and if we ever get any, for melee weapons. By splitting up advanced items you can make the game harder, and more varied but also keep things in line with a reasonable sandbox survival game without actually locking out essentials or advanced components. This would also help keep constructors clean without having to build 5+ of them for larger operations and refining. If you want players to earn experience, let use use it like Skyrim, or Arks player stats, to enhance your abilities, and stats so you can go further distances, fight harder, or take damage better, but not to use them like a roadblock to building anything. That to me, just hurts the player.
Signed up on the forum to tell you, I am very very very DISSAPOINTED. Level system sucks big time! Not enough new content. My base turrets do not fire a literally anything (before the patch they atleast fired at wildlife) Very bad call, very bad........I really hope this doesn't turn into another space forge (big disappointment) type of game Edit2: Thank you for the hotfix, appreciate the quick response.
Hello all! We just released a hotfix for the savegame problem, see here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/383120/announcements/ Sorry for any inconvenience!
Incorrect. Your CULTURE had all this tech. You personally appear to have been a Deckswabber 3rd Class. And now it's up to you to learn and build and prosper to complete the mission. Your species and culture are counting on you.
I kinda assumed the Constructors had all producible items per-programmed into it, and just looked for the appropriate resources. So with the new tech-tree system, it's your character that knows intimate knowledge of building an Advanced Constructor? Or just happens to know exactly how to build and configure a Gravity Generator? And he learned it all by... shooting stuff and blowing up bases? Doesn't make sense to me.
As a player that is always wishing Empyrion would be harder, I am really liking this update. Tech Tree makes my early game more interesting as now I have to choose what to pursue. My "Cheesy Mode" start of going straight to SV and "win" game is now a bit more difficult. Not impossible, but more fulfilling. Playing with friends, we've discovered we can now specialize in the early game to save points for more pressing matters. New turrets are snazzy, and seem to be smarter to boot (so far). XP is fairly easy to get, but has not felt grindy. Normal progression unlocks things about the same time you need them.
Played with a system of pumping, I do not see its meaning .. It's awful, it's not a game for such a system of pumping.
I really like the tech tree. But you make a lot of sense here. I get 20 xp for each plant I gather, so how does that raise my ability in the construction of a gravity generator? I do see your point. Not sure how to feel though as the tech tree will drive the player to do more than just repair the SV (or build a HV) and start reaping resources. I like the added depth to the game, but have to agree that it does not seem to fit in a logical way. I'm really in a confused spot... I like the idea of a tech tree but it needs to "fit" the game elements. I kinda hope someone will post something reasonable to justify it and set me straight.
Here are my observations, some of which have been mentioned by other users here. I love the idea in general. But it does seem like it's too much of grinding, and I agree with the previous comments that there is a distinction between Tech Tree and Item Tree. I think something as simple as this will work a bit better right now: Level 1 - everything needed to set up a sustainable base (i.e. blocks, core, generators, fuel tanks, constructors, the oxygen and clean water machines) Level 3 - Everything needed to have a functional HV (i.e. HV starter, energy & RCS, some basic thrusters, a basic cock pit, and one basic weapon) Level 7 - Everything needed to have a functional SV (same as the functional HV) Level 15 - Everything needed to start a CV These should be given to us automatically as we reached those levels. Then we can use skill points to "buy" additional technologies to unlock better thrusters, armored plates, cock pits with better functions, better RCS, and better weapons. I think it makes interesting game play if I have to choose between better armor or better weapons, but not that much if I am grinding to just get to a functional SV to move myself around. Honestly, requiring us to spend skill points in the deco stuff will make me even less likely to build them. There can be an additional tree for upgrades on the player itself. Even at its current implementation, there are still many traits that can use upgrades. For example, we can have (a) more health / more armor, (b) lower food consumption, (c) lower oxygen consumption, (d) better stamina, (e) higher jetpack jumps, or (f) better fighting skills. Forcing us to choose whether spending points on these attributes, especially when the points are shared with the building / engineering side, presents good strategic questions. Do I want to be a better foot soldier to storm the drone base? Or may be I should spend the points on the SV weapons to just take out the base from afar? And we can make similar arrangements with the farms and resources gathering. If we can spend skill points to speed up farming, we will then have to decide if I want faster farm, faster drilling, or better weapons. Choices like that will unlock the strategic richness that a game like Empyrion deserves. If it's up to me, I'd rather see the "pages" of tech trees to broken into these: Survival - better stats for the character (including combat skills on foot) Engineering - everything related to more crafting choices Resources - better stats for farming / mining Vehicle control - better skills in flying a vehicle (including combat skills in vehicle)
I really love the xp difference on gun shot locations, very slick. -Edit- correction: never mind the shot location bad observation. It was just xp adding up. but not a bad idea I think. I like the tech tree idea mostly because I prefer things to not be so easy to get so I get a nice dopamine dump when I achieve something. Simply put it makes the game more immersive per-say when you actually got to earn things, you get attached to your char base ships and so on.
also, an alternative way to make the current tech tree system work is to change the starting conditions a bit. May be the escape pod is changed to be functional (i.e. capable of flying) so that people can find a good starting spot. Or some kind of a cheesy tutorial that guides us through building / gaining control of a first base that also gives enough experience to do other stuff?
Huh, that gives me an idea. You start out in the SV Escape Pod, coming in thru the atmosphere. You have 1 fuel cell worth of charge, and everything else is the same. This would allow you to sort of 'guide' the Escape Pod to an area of your choice (to an extent). Also, in my latest save, I realized that you can remove a large amount of blocks and stuff from the Escape Pod, add only a single RCS, and it will fly (even without any direction thrusters). It will be as graceful as a brick, you have to point about 30 degrees above horizon to fly level, and you will probably miss your landing site 90% of the time, but the important part is that it works (sorta)
I think of it more like you're learning to program new parts. Making the Escape Pod flyable sooner would further devalue the HV. The time and resources invested into getting the Escape Pod setup for interplanetary flight is so laughably low I have to try not to play in cheesy mode. As it is, it is still cheaper and faster to fix the Escape Pod and never build a HV.
