New mod idea—help?

[bendb918]

I know quite a bit of Lua, and I am beginning to reasonably understand the game's API. But I'm still not great at modding; I don't have the experience. I have what I think is a really good idea for a mod but I don't really know how to put it into action.

Here is a brief summary:

Paid workers. A new entity as a main office... workers come in the morning, and leave at night, constructing ghost images that you place at a certain rate. You have to build houses for the workers; the more houses, the more workers. You have to pay them weekly in resources or possibly a new item used as a currency. There are early-game blueprints. Intended as a early- to mid-game feature.

What do you think? If you think it's a good idea, I'd appreciate some suggestions, help, or possibly a collab.

[InSicK]

Hey there,

I have a few question about your mod:
What is the purpose of getting these workers?
Are the Office buildings going to be your assembly machines?
If yes, then what is the advantage of having these and what happens to assembly machines?
How do you get workers, do you need to meet certain requirements for them to join your colony?

I myself am looking for a modding project, it would be my first. I am familiar with coding (C, C#, Processing) but have never really used lua although I am pretty sure I would be able to pick it up quite easily. So I would be open to a colab.

[bendb918]

@InSicK

Fair point. I was considering having the workers just as a version of construction bots, but in that case I don't really know if there's much of a purpose.

I am thinking about modifying research so that all crafting has to be done either by you or one of your workers until the mid-game, when you are allowed to use assembling machines. Assembling machines will act as free labor, which I think would be interesting. Maybe there could be a new entity, like a "workshop" or something, that can act as an assembling machine. The office would be for paying the workers, somehow, and there would be a research that gives you access to the office, workshop, and house, probably which costs a small amount of science pack 1's. Each house would give you, let's say, maybe 4 workers.

Lua is required, though, for virtually everything you do in a mod. Do you know about making graphics? I can do basic stuff pretty well, but more complex things like generating images for the workers' office, housing, etc. would be out of my league.

Message me any other ideas you might have, and maybe we can work out a collab through Google Drive or something. I can host a server if you want to talk in-game.