I'm sorry but there was a reason as I stated previously, without a core people couldn't complete the quest. And whenever people saw the core, they more often than not destroyed the core. Exchanging the core for an admin core resolved that particular issue.
I understand why people are not impressed about these types of POI's. It restricts the gameplay and forces the player to play in a certain way. This is a great game that usually lets people play it how they like. Couldn't the POI's just have a normal core, then the people who want to do the 'corridor shooter' style gameplay can still do so. There is nothing stopping them. People who want to tackle it a different way can also do what they want. Everyone is them happy. Choices for everyone.
Yes, part of the problem is facilities which have quests. I had the problem with the remnant planet on which I mined all the alien rare ressources unavailable on the starting system before doing the quest. Then when I did the quest I had some difficulties following the red lights(quest markers) because they were floating in the void (originally they were in mineral tunnels that I have mined for the promethium). Both points have their arguments. In a matter of "roleplay" or "conquest" having an undestructible POI inside a cleared zone spoil a little the feeling of having "liberated" a planet. Meanwhile, going on foot sometimes to explore dungeon like with monster/reward is part of the fun too... It is not easy to make a game balanced, especially when you open "the door of endless possibilities" with a destructible environment and a wide crafting range.
Baked-in narrative content is a different thing. You're entering a pre-written scenario with a determinate outcome told using game systems. You're there because you want to see how the tale plays out. Fudging the rules is perfectly acceptable in the service of conveying the story. Many legendary examples of such video game storytelling could be cited. It's when you aren't in an embedded narrative and instead engaging purely with the rules that fudging them becomes a problem. There's no useful purpose, narrative or otherwise, for some random raid content selected and placed by procedural generation to change the rules and disallow players from using the primary features and systems of the game. There are more than enough crappy Unity FPSes available already for us not to have to forcibly turn Empyrion into one.
I honestly don't see what the big deal about the admin cores are, I personally love them and won't be lying when I say I wish there were a lot more of them. There are plenty of poi's available without an admin core, why the fuss about the few that do? Some of the larger poi's present a great deal of resources available to salvage and make use of, I simply don't think allowing such a poi to be easily defeated by just drilling down with a CV or SV to destroy the core, or allowing someone to come up from the bottom thereby bypassing a huge chunk good for balance. Then there's the fact it takes a long time to build some of those poi's. It's cool to have poi's where you have to do certain things in order to blow the core, it adds to variety. But if you don't have an admin core on them, then the player can accidentally destroy key elements to that signal logic, even when they're trying to complete it the way the designer intended. Of course there's also comments by various people I've heard that wish there were poi's of a much greater difficulty because the ones currently available are too easy. Probably a difference of opinion, but for me the best way to achieve that...yup you guessed it Admin cores (with some added....elements shall we say from the designer!)
**Baked-in narrative content is a different thing. You're entering a pre-written scenario with a determinate outcome told using the game's system. You're there because you want to see how the tale plays out*** The fact is that at the time I didn't knew it was part of a quest, since I was a beginner...and got there randomly. I didn't understood while my turrets where shooting on the mining building without damaging it...
the best way to achieve that...yup you guessed it Admin cores (with some added....elements shall we say from the designer!)[/QUOTE] Yes, but the fact that they decide to use the "undestructible" joker card requires an increased responsability for the designers in balancing the overall difficulties of their creation. 1) The balance should take into account SP or MP, because the firepower of a SP is certainly less than if you have a covering squad in MP. 2) Respawns points of enemy reinforcements should be visible and destructible, to give a chance for players to advance by steps while cleaning areas. Yesterday , I finally did the admin cored zirax gas station. One problem was the never-ending respawning troops in already cleared rooms. Some spawnings occured just in my back or in front of me with 2 zirax commanders, 3 cyborgs and a few soldiers at the same time ! If the spawn points had been visible / destructible, the progression/feeling of achievment would have been better. I wouldn't had to use godmode, just to make a dozen trips around already visited rooms, just to find what I missed at some point, after having beeing killed XX times...
It's rather simple, you didn't enjoy fighting those POIs then don't fight them, even the Quests POIs are optional, leave that for people that have fun fighting them There are now more Star System in the game than you can possible count, each of them with several Planets, Orbits, Moons, Asteroid Fields each of which with several POIs, more than you could possible fight with even if you did nothing else in life so if you don't like 0.01% of them you still have plenty to do, let other people have their fun as well.... As for your tactics you should use a CV for POIs inside Zirax Space, this one is a Trading Station for people in good terms with the Zirax so is well defended but I did it in Hard mode and died only once, granted that I knew what to do but the difference is I respawned inside my CV
The solution to problems communicating the different status of quest POIs is simple; use normal cores in POIs we're meant to fight and destroy, and admin cores in POIs meant for other purposes. They already have different map icons. People will pickup on the significance if it's used consistently. We already have the level system for adjusting the difficulty of POIs, so there's no reason to muddy the waters.
POI level has nothing to do with POI difficulty. Blocks do not get more durable, turrets do not deal more damage, and loot is not influenced by level. This only changes the level of the enemies spawned by the POI's spawners and only reflects the level of the planet itself so that enemies inside a structure are not level 1 while the wildlife is level 7.
There's still many types of non-story POIs that require an admin core. Basically it comes down to this: Do we want more or less variety in the types of challenges in the game? Adding different types of POIs increases player choice. It gives players some new challenges to overcome if they want to. Removing admin cores from POIs would kill many custom scenarios and servers like I mentioned.
The problem as I see it is using the admin core for too many things and calling it the same thing. when I think of an admin structure I think of a permanent structure like on HWS the EGS headquarters. Or an admin provided repair pad, not part of a story not part of the regular game. Separate from the regular gameplay. Storyline structures that are required to be preserved only until that part of the storyline are passed should have their own distinct core type. Let us call it a storyline core with its own symbol (perhaps something that looks like a book, books have stories) so the player can without confusion understand that POIs place in the game. Ideally, the core would revert to a normal core after that part of the story was completed.
What about things like puzzle based POIs like the abandoned tomb or data caches? What about POIs that require custom loot, like the various mines? What about starting POIs like the crashed prison transport? Change the POI submission rules, sure, but don't remove the functionality for custom content.
what about them? Put in a storyline core, a core that lets the creator design how it should behave from a list of options say. having its own distinct symbol communicating clearly to the players its role in the game. I am sure there are other options that would be useful to creators but how about these 3 off the top of my bottom. option 1 indestructible always option 2 indestructible until a sensor is triggered option 3 just like a regular core but with a different symbol warning the player that destroying it could have consequences to the story
Separating true admin functions from storyline functions should lead to more creative options, not fewer.
would not break your script in anything ... if you protect only quests, without any dungeons and that kind of nonsense ... I'm not against interesting POIs, but I'm against protecting them by non-destruction ... let's say I want to profit from the Zirax missile base for the second time and I stupidly do not want to do it in the same way as in the previous times. We have a sandbox, so let's make restrictions !!! Ravien, I personally respect your work and even played, but do not sculpt a humpback please with these cores.
How about this for a rule of thumb? If you see a POI with the admin core symbol, you should be seeing this;
I totally agree. All this content is made by players on a voluntary basis, and takes a lot of time. I can appreciate this, at least, and for myself if I'm not satisfied I can make everything myself, and in the worst case just spawn these admin POIs in Creative and change their cores. ( hint...) But if all these player-made "puzzles" can easily be skipped by anyone frustrated by the challenge by simply nuking the whole thing, then why should other players waste their time makinjg these ? I think there needs to be a compromise somewhere.
I can understand where you are coming from but these 'corridor shooters' POI's are forcing placers to play these POI's a certain way. Take 7D2D for instance. They have 'dungeon' POI's where they guide you to take a certain route. (yes they are a lot smaller structures than Empyrion). You can take suggested route or knock down a wall and go a different route or just blast it with your rocket launcher or...... This leads to a variety of ways you can do the POI, therefore better game play.
