Quality upgrade via single machine
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2024 11:00 pm
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.
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.