Mod Makers have this 'Problem' all day long. With each Patch of a Game - not only EGS - they have to fix broken things within their Mods. In that way Vermillion and Ravien are no difference. Those who want to keep their abominations...ahem...creations alive have to do hard labor to keep it functioning. Aslain and his Mods for WoWs/WoT are a great example. And he does this since 2014...
Long aware the current Factory is a placeholder for something I'm sure will be much better, hated en masse because it will be introduced as a change that "stifles creativity", or "breaks immersion" or any of the hundreds of quickly googled answer to "why do I hate this change?", and will likely have an option to disable it, leaving it in the "That's the only way I want to learn how to play" mode, so when this happens, this has already been addressed here, so no need to create threads about the latest change when it comes. That said, I don't think the revised Factory should be an "infinite backpack" of materials. This could easily be addressed with the following: 1. As it already does, once a material requirement is met for a specific blueprint, no further materials can be added. But hold on, there's more.. 2.When a blueprint is completed, excess materials that "snuck in" should be lost. Call it "industrial waste". 3. If a blueprint is changed, issue a warning that materials currently in the factory will be lost. This will prevent the preloading of a "25 of Everything" blueprint, that requires 9999999999999 of every possible material to be used to "load" the factory for near-instant production of fleets of combat CV's. That should shore up Factory abuse, and just might encourage people to value their ships, rather than simply mass-producing flying fortresses to blow up endlessly.
Which is the leading reason I've not even but dabbled in Modding for this game. I'll worry about doing that after the game is in a state where updating won't mean "redesigning" every build increment.
There's actually not too much that a scenario needs to do to be updated usually. Except for when they do something big like completely redo the planet or pda systems which they will probably not do much since it's 1.0 now. Most of it for me is learning any new systems that are added and reporting bugs I find with them. That's the biggest time sink personally.
There are too many cases that can't fit under that assumption, unfortunately. Making a scenario can be as simple as using the eWPDA and usual game content/ grab player content from the workshop, to making all by ourselves with custom stamps, decals, videos, sounds and models. Even in the first case content from the workshop may have to be adapted, and depending on how many of these are in a scenario it can represent substantial amount of work. To start making anything there needs to be a targeted context, which presently may still change and make some previous work irrelevant, or new features can spare lots of hours spent on "workarounds" like what @byo13 has to try with his Missions Board.
PREACH IT BRUTHA! I'm of alternate positions on this. Sometimes, if I'm playing singleplayer or a PVE server, I will strive for a "purist" experience, and (a) not allow myself to respawn UNLESS I have an actual spawn chamber (polyfiber tents functioning just like clone chambers is a gigantic breach of immersion); (b) NOT abuse the infinite virtual backpack/factory queue; (c) maybe even build an actual BASE instead of living in a mobile home aka CV up on cinder blocks. Other times, e.g., if I'm playing on a PVP server or a more 'competitive' PVE server: you better believe I'm gonna take advantage of every dirty trick in the book including respawning at a tent, sapping to destroy cores on teh POIs where that is feasible, 'tricking' the computer opponents in every way possible, and abusing the holy heck out of the factory functionality. The game, its owners, the community at large, the universe, and everything are all BETTER OFF if the way the game can be played is more diverse and offers more options than not. But with that said: option toggles to turn on a much more restrictive and "realistic" factory system would be a welcome new way to experience the game! Your ideas for making the system a bit more challenging and less abusable are good ones which could even be implemented right now with a mod I guess . . . On the topic of bandwagons of "why do I hate this game" . . . one thing that startles me is: how many Reforged Eden servers there are now. It is CLEARLY a very popular way to play the game now and I think that is wonderful because it really is an exceptional scenario/mod. But then on top of that, the paradoxical thing is: how FEW of those servers restrain themselves from 'tweaking' the parameters that are in essence the main POINT of the "Galaxy" part of RE and arguably essential to the optimum RE experience in general, i.e., things like turning off CPU Weight /Volume! I think a large fraction of players want more "stuff" in the game, but don't necessarily want the game to be more challenging.
SE does this correctly for the most part. I would really, really, REALLY like to see Empyrion import a similar system. We do not need the detailed things the SE has - that is what sets SE apart and is a different type of play but having a pad that actually constructs the ship and/or projects it for you to build would be FAR superior to the current system IMHO. Allows complex and intricate designs to be designed in creative mode BUT does not become an infinite source of storage that can be accessed anywhere instantly in survival. It would also not allow the instantaneous production of entire fleets. Right now I can produce anything I want instantly, that is rather dull.
Queue the sound of squealing brakes.... Have you ever actually seen the inside of the tent? For all we know there could very well be a portable, fold-up cloning chamber built in, but that's not why I had to slam on the brakes. You use that word... "immersion". Immersion is defined as: "absorbing involvement". If something so minor prevents "absorbing involvement", this is purely a mental block, and not a fault of the game. The perpetual misuse of this word across countless game forums just makes my skin crawl. A suspension of belief is required to play nearly any game, especially in the sci-fi genre. That said, I'm not going to tell you how to play, or what to enjoy, that's not my place. Just don't ask anyone else to have to conform to your "comfort zone". If it's there, I don't have a problem using it. But I do build my own bases, free of rust, holes, broken bits*, mold or whatever comes with these various found structures. Not quite sure how "competitive PVE" works, but I get your point. When dealing with PVP randos, it is pretty much anything-goes. The level of customization possible by server operators is one of the absolute best features of Empyrion. I'll have to take your word for it - I've never tried it, and I'm likely not to until we reach Release Candidate status. This is pretty normal for me, as I simply get tired of downloading and redownloading and redownloading things because the fundamental basis of the game changes enough to invalidate prior mods. Likewise, I have not done any of my own modding for the same reason. I don't like to reinvent the wheel over and over. This one I don't want to touch. lol The whole "CPU limits limits creativity" argument - and fundamental rejection of "adding 16 of everything isn't creative, it's lazy." by far too many of those making this argument was more than enough for me! Ad astra, Indigo
I think we could first have a way to buy/ steal ships already "existing" in game, which could be simpler to code and less PC resouces intensive like what some fancy ghost building animation would require. This could add a fun gameplay element, like losing reputation when stealing a ship parked near a trade station (no faction, a simple "customer" ship). For a space game this sounds like a pretty "conventional" way to get a ship "quickly" and players wouldn't feel so bad to "lose a ship" if they know they can steal another one somewhere at some point. Just an idea. From there, I think it could also be easier to accept (and to code of course) to order ships/ blueprints from a station somewhere, and go get it when ready. This way Eleon doesn't have to design an elaborate system with animations/ protection while building etc, it's a simple notification for time before build is completed, then when ready to pick up. So the factory remains "virtual" as players can't go there and watch a fancy animation, and ship is delivered at X location when ready (via usual warp and normal travel routes). I'm still OK to spawn anything small (small SV/HV) without requiring a base/ factory, for same reason as previously stated : if it's OK to manipulate a 3x3x5 CV thruster or a 150 tons 2x2x6 CV/BA T2 generator and flip / rotate it mid air to stick in place, it's not a stretch to be able to spawn something much smaller, using the same "magic" as the other building blocks.
