Ground Construction
This describes several changes which I think would be fairly easy to implement (at least, the firstpart) while improving gameplay in several ways.
Buildings as templates
The core changes are:
- Items in the construction menu are divided into two types: components and templates
- Components (iron plates, gears, circuits etc.) are unchanged
- Templates (smelters, factories and other buildings, cars, trains) do not build objects in the
inventory, but allow placement of construction templates on the ground - The player constructs a template by holding a build key while having the necessary resources
(reverse of mining), while construction robots deliver materials and hover over to construct - Buildings are deconstructed as they are removed and cannot be built by factories, so complete
buildings can never be in an inventory - Make the personal robo-port available earlier (already planned?) and blueprints available
much earlier
construction site could simply be a transparent sprite (like the current templates) which is a type
of container (materials present shown on mouse-hover).
The build process, could, I think, be quite simple: the player mines for a short time, after
which one resource component is removed from the player's inventory and the construction is
advanced one phase. Construction robots hover for a short time, after which one item is removed
from their inventory. Buildings are deconstructed by mining for a short time, after which a
component is reclaimed and the construction reverted one phase. Damaged buildings could be
deconstructed the same way but at a resource loss.
Controls: there could be separate building and removing (mining) keys. Or the same key
(right-mouse-button) could do both, if the "deconstruction planner" is made part of the interface
and available from the game's start (in this case, trees, rocks etc. would always be deconstructed
when mined). Possibly there should be a key to toggle the construct/deconstruct state of individual
buildings. Repairing could now be done simply by holding the mining key, so long as repair kits are
in the player's inventory.
Vehicles: these could be placed and constructed in exactly the same way, only becoming mobile
after completion. No more carrying an entire train in your inventory.
Construction components: ultimately, recipes could be changed. I would suggest:
- all small buildings (inserters, belts, electric poles, boxes) have their own component which
can be mass-produced and constructed in a single step; alternatively these could be left
unchanged - basic smelters remain as they are (built directly from stone)
- add a "housing" component for the external structure of factories, accumulators etc.
- labs and steam engines use one or two new components
- gun turrets be constructed from two or three components (a base common to all turrets,
the gun, and possibly an extra component for the main body)
Advantages:
- Templates are always available without having to have an item in your inventory.
- Make construction feel more substantial by making planning (with templates) easier and actually
building a little more work - Constructing templates would be simpler for the player: just hold the mining key instead of
finding each piece in the inventory. - Blueprints would actually be useful before construction robots are available.
- The early part of the game would be slower. Personally I don't think this would be a problem
so long as construction robots can be built earlier; it also wouldn't need to be a lot slower
if inserters, belts etc. could still be built fast and the simplest smelters and factories
are fairly quick to build.
already been scheduled for destruction.
It might be useful to allow placement of templates without activating construction robots,
possibly by marking the area as planning only, however I don't think this is essential.
Robots
Slightly related to the above construction templates...
Non-flying-robots
You already have path-finding for biters. You could add wheeled or walking construction bots as
an early alternative to flying construction bots.
Flying robots
Not really related, but worth a mention: can you please make drones recharge after landing, not
in flight? This would make personal construction robots much less annoying. I know, it means that
a stack of drones in the inventory won't be identical any more (because each will have its own
level of charge), but that's feasible. (This mechanic could also be used to allow batteries to be
removed from modular armour without losing charge; this could even allow external charging of
batteries if you wanted to allow that.)
To make drones less annoying, maybe they could initially have a little more speed but short flight
times (battery), with another research tree for flight time improvements.
Also, I really don't like the robo-ports. They're fine as a "home" port for drone storage and
repair, but it's annoying having to have so many. How about small 1x1 or 2x2 charge towers
which double as electric poles for power distribution, and pre-calculating coverage based on how
far they can fly from each charge-tower and return before battery failure?
If flying with a load massively increases battery drain rate (e.g. double), range available for
delivery would be much less than that for "scouting" or repairing (if repair tools are light).
This would also incentivise having many storage boxes available if robots were programmed to drop
at the nearest available box and logistic drones would move materials close to construction sites.
Personal robots & armour
I feel that the personal robo-port should be available before shields, so that first-gen modular
armour set-ups would usually be batteries, solar, robo-port and night vision. Shields and the
exoskeleton could be added later, with the fusion reactor and laser turrets remaining very late
upgrades.
Possibly a mid-game option for charging batteries could be external charge stations, with robots
automatically swapping depleted batteries in the player's armour with fully-charged ones.
Another option, if you want one, could be short-distance wireless power transmission from all
electric poles (also as an option for charging drones).
More
I have plenty more ideas, but that's enough for now...
