Science -> Tinkering
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:07 pm
I used the word tinkering as I'm familiar with it being used in some other games, but hopefully my explanation will be sufficient, and any word like that might do.
I know the research tree will be expanded in future, which is great, but eventually the faction will have researched everything and that'll be that. Most games don't have anything past this point. You've got everything, well done, now go and win the game or something. In a sandbox, though, where time is potentially infinite: this doesn't usually end so well.
As a result, and sorry if this is already planned, but I think there should be some further improvement research. I personally think it should be more arbitrary so that rather than concentrate on something in particular (like beds, hemp farming, etc.) you're given either no option at all or a very generic option like farming, combat, etc. The idea being that after a pre-determined amount of time has passed: you're given an enhancement to something in that area. If you picked farming then you might see a 5% increase in the efficiency of all hemp farms, for example. These could all be taken from a giant master list of effects and percentages with the result being almost random, but within the confines of the area you selected. This way there's an incentive to continue research beyond the tech tree.
In addition, you could extend the amount of time each improvement needs to research by one hour... or you could not, depending on how the balance ends up working out.
Since there's an automatic research table, I suggest that to do the improvements you need an additional "tinkering" table which requires at least one actor to operate, but again that would depend on balance.
I know the research tree will be expanded in future, which is great, but eventually the faction will have researched everything and that'll be that. Most games don't have anything past this point. You've got everything, well done, now go and win the game or something. In a sandbox, though, where time is potentially infinite: this doesn't usually end so well.
As a result, and sorry if this is already planned, but I think there should be some further improvement research. I personally think it should be more arbitrary so that rather than concentrate on something in particular (like beds, hemp farming, etc.) you're given either no option at all or a very generic option like farming, combat, etc. The idea being that after a pre-determined amount of time has passed: you're given an enhancement to something in that area. If you picked farming then you might see a 5% increase in the efficiency of all hemp farms, for example. These could all be taken from a giant master list of effects and percentages with the result being almost random, but within the confines of the area you selected. This way there's an incentive to continue research beyond the tech tree.
In addition, you could extend the amount of time each improvement needs to research by one hour... or you could not, depending on how the balance ends up working out.
Since there's an automatic research table, I suggest that to do the improvements you need an additional "tinkering" table which requires at least one actor to operate, but again that would depend on balance.
