As an optional feature, when starting a new game, I would like to see the following innovation: New factory mechanics. At the moment factory works as a cheating tool: You can create huge objects out of thin air anywhere; You can dump any amount of resources in nowhere; You don't need any constructors for more complex components. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What I suggest: Make the factory a separate building; This building has its own limited warehouse, where only ready components of the blueprint are placed; With a sufficient number of components, you can start building the blueprint; The construction time is not accelerated in any way; Only 1 blueprint can be built in the factory at a time (but more factories can be built); The blueprint can only be spawned within a certain radius of the factory (or, alternatively, on a special platform (but it's more difficult to implement, I think)). Possible buildings: Portable factory, limited capacity, no wifi, can only build T1 SV/HV/BA For BA: Basic factory T3-SV/HV/BA; T2-CV; Regular factory T4-SV/HV/BA; T3-CV (boost to build time, costs a lot of CPU); Improved factory T4-SV/HV/BA; T4-CV (big boost to build time, costs a lot of CPU); For CV (costs less CPU than the BA option, but can't build CV): Regular factory T2-SV/HV; T3-BA (costs a lot of CPU); Improved factory T3-SV/HV; T4-BA (boost to build time, costs a lot of CPU); For BA and CV - capacity limited by connected container. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With these changes, the following opportunities appear: It turns out that a special base building ships will be needed for large bases on remote planets; You can also build shipyards; The best constructors for complex components are also needed; Large cargo ships are needed; It is necessary to protect and repair ships on long trips (because you can't spawn a new one anywhere); For really big and heavy bases, you may need to build a smaller base with a huge warehouse and factory. Because so much will not fit into the ship at once.
Not that I've put a great deal of thought into it but it does sound a bit better that as you say, placing a pile of junk into an invisible doorway to nowhere and having a ship or building spawn a little later. Perhaps a parts bin (that the player could fill up) could be placed at trading center with a landing pad for spawns of SV's and GV's (albeit where the dimentions fit) for the early game, though I don't know about spawning in Polaris zone (I guess the penalty would have to be turned off for the station pads) Equally, I'd like to see ship purchase from Shipyards!
