TL;DR
In the "tips and tricks" messages for space platforms, hint at least a little (even if very indirectly) that orbiting around other planets won't be as safe as orbiting around Nauvis.What?
Building the first space platforms shows us that orbit is filled small asteroids bits that are already collectable, and bigger asteroids in the background, not interacting with our platform.Trying a trip to another planet rapidly shows (if you hadn't planned on it already) the need for defences when moving forward. So i planned my platform around that, with defences on the front only. The trip to the first new planet went perfectly without any damage taken.
Dropping on the new planet, i thought the platform would be as safe there (Vulcanus orbit) as it was around Nauvis, and proceeded to empty it of items/buildings/tools to use them on the new planet. And once i was down, soon alerts started popping up regularly because big asteroids were flying around from everywhere and obliterating my platform from the back, where no defences were planned.
And i couldn't do anything to salvage this (except adding some more foundations around the platform to mitigate damage) as there were no more belts/inserters/turrets left on the platform anymore.
I saved the platform by sending it back once it became obvious that i wouldn't be able to supply it from the new planet in time, but the situation felt unsatisfaying.
WHAT do you suggest? What is your idea that should be changed? Explain in detail your idea.
Add a line (or more) to one of the space platforms "tips and tricks", saying something to the effect of "While the orbit around Nauvis is safe, other planets might differ." ?
Why?
WHY do you think it increases the value of Factorio as a game?See more about here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27087 How is This Board Working? Revision #3
While encountering a surprising situation can be interesting and fun, it is mainly so if you have the means to handle it. If not, it can become more of a frustration, especially in Factorio where we tend to see and be able to plan for what is coming next.
Regarding asteroids "attacks" around other planets (technically i only visited one, Vulcanus, but i now suppose it'll be the same around the others), i feel that there isn't anything preparing us against them. Coming from the orbit of Nauvis it seems quite natural to plan defences mostly in a forward position. And you won't necessarily have the means (either available turrets or ways to feed munitions to them) to repurpose your platform in order to react to that danger once it becomes known.
So the solutions are to just fly the platform back to Nauvis, or watch it get destroyed while trying to race through the content of a new planet in order to be able to build and send new resources to the platform, both of which felt unsatisfying to me.
Each player will probably only encounter this situation once (afterwards they'll know). But having a hint towards that situation allows them to make a choice:
- "i'll ignore that message and will understand later what it meant" (and possibly regret not taking it into account
- "i'll prepare for that situation and will get the satisfaction of having handled an unknown risk well (or not well enough, but that'll teach me for next time)".
This feels more fun and meaningful than the current situation. Keeping the hint vague would avoid spoiling the situation to a new player, while still giving them the responsibility for whichever of the 2 choices (prepare or not) they took.