Quality upgrade via single machine

[mudcrabempire]

As per title i'd like to propose reducing the quality upgrade mechanic to a single machine.

Something like an "upgrader" which takes 10 equal items of equal quality and puts out 1 of that item of the next quality.
Quality limitation is enforced by only permitting inputs up to a certain quality, extendable with research.
No receipe, the first item determines what's being done (like a furnace).



More verbose rationale:

Quality is a simple production chain where one only ever needs the end-output (possibly using intermediates for a while until one can afford upgrades later, like with modules). Therefore the proposed random-generation-approach which requires lots of infrastructure for filtering and recycling and even a new building and new modules (-> new building required anyways) seems to me like a good way to bloat up a simple task for no other reason than to make players waste more time on it.

The above is already phrased in a way which reflects my taste on the topic. To a degree it is a question of taste, or a question of game-design-choice. I have a little experience with similar things which is why i voice my taste with some certainty. That experience mostly comes from large-scale extension mods. They have a habit of trying to make the game longer and more challenging by extending "base-receipes". A good example would be smelting. In vanilla, smelting is simply:

ore -> smelter -> result
optionally add fuel to smelter

extension mods tend to do "reality-inspired" things like this:
IM = intermediate machine
IP = intermediate product
ore -> IM_0 -> IP_0 -> IM_1 -> IP_1 -> ... -> IM_n -> result

The intermediate machines and -products are never used anywhere else again, so it just takes more time and space to set up smelting (possibly a little logistic trickery). So far i never had trouble finding things to do with my time and space nor did i have trouble finding things to fulfill my desire for more complex challenges, so i find these "forced" extensions rather annoying. No reason not to keep simple what can be kept simple.

Note: With an "upgrader"-machine it might be worthwhile to think about replacing the tiers of modules with quality upgrades. As opposed to some other tiered stuff (most armor and equipment for example) higher-tier module recepies are mostly just "more more more circuits". Blue circuits require a little sulfuric acid but for the sake of module-production that is not such a game-defining feature as far as i see. Access to high-tier modules would be controlled via research
which controls quality. I don't know if it would make sense to research module-quality-access separately or if it should be merged with other stuff but i shall leave that as an implementation detail if the idea is found to have merit.

[Qon]

Note: With an "upgrader"-machine it might be worthwhile to think about replacing the tiers of modules with quality upgrades. As opposed to some other tiered stuff (most armor and equipment for example) higher-tier module recepies are mostly just "more more more circuits". Blue circuits require a little sulfuric acid but for the sake of module-production that is not such a game-defining feature as far as i see. Access to high-tier modules would be controlled via research
which controls quality. I don't know if it would make sense to research module-quality-access separately or if it should be merged with other stuff but i shall leave that as an implementation detail if the idea is found to have merit.

Quality is a separate mod that requires a purchase. Mods depend on vanilla items existing. Removing higher tier modules just seems to be a change that makes it harder to stay compatible with other mods for no real reason. Also it would be hard to balance. Also, you would have to break the consistency of legendary quality giving +150% to everything or this is just big nerf. And then Quality would have a weirdly strong influence on modules. And then T1 quality modules would be able to upgrade themselves to become like "todays" T2 and then T3 modules instantly when you get them through quality-of-quality-modules self improvement. It's just a big mess.

[Illiander42]

so i find these "forced" extensions rather annoying. No reason not to keep simple what can be kept simple.

The end-result of that argument is a single recipie that makes a single science pack that researches everything.

In reality, you want things simple. In games, complexity can be fun.

(Also, I rather like Angel's smelting)