crambaza is back for his daily therapy.
The Oil.
The original "problem" with Basic Oil has been relayed as:
Multiple outputs are too hard and when the outputs (light and heavy oil) back up, oil stops working, and new people don't notice, and then they rage, and cry and quit, and tell their friends how stupid the game is... (wait, sorry, I got carried away here, but that's generally the idea, factory stops working, frustration ensues)
Upon self reflection, I think the part that bothers me the most is that a fix for the "problem" with Basic Oil had already been implemented, and it seemed to be working.
The original fix was to make Blue Science need solid fuel. Needing solid fuel meant that both Heavy Oil and Light Oil could be converted to solid fuel, which you needed to progress. Great! Now your "extra" fluids had purpose.
So, let's examine the solutions.
A - Basic Oil outputs Pet Gas only, Blue Science needs sulfur
B - Blue Science needs solid fuel
Hmm, so both solutions say build Oil, then Blue.
So how does solution A solve the "problem"?
Solution A
So, really, the solution doesn't even do anything to fix the problem. It pushes the problem later. People refer to this as "dumbing down", which I kind of see. Solution A automatically burns off the extra fluids that were causing the problem (using unseen, yet fully functional flare stacks, which I agree with V, flare stacks are the ultimate dumbing down). BUT, I disagree that we are actually talking about "dumbing down" for the solution. It's not really dumbing down, because to launch the rocket, you need to upgrade to Advanced Oil, and deal with it anyway. It's more of a "complexity delay", than a dumbing down. Again, it's not doing anything but delaying it. And I know people are saying, the delay is good, it should be a "smoother curve". I understand, but let's really look at this delay.
We are talking new people, on their first playthrough.
It's been 1-2 hours getting to red science. Another few hours getting to green science. Another few hours figuring out you need a lot more Iron than you initially had, because now you have steel. Then a few hours to set up your first Oil pumps and Refinery. We are at the 6-20 hour mark here, depending on if you set up Military Science, before the "solution" is even going to be noticed. Now with 1 output only it will take a couple hours to take the next step to oil products: plastic and acid. A couple hours to set up blue science, then it's Advance Oil, and a couple of hours fixing the bad Oil set up. Add in tear down time, and then learning about multiple outputs, and you haven't "saved" any time, because it's all time playing the game. The "frustration" saved by having "easy oil" is lost during tear down, and setting up "hard oil". And all this is happening many hours into the game.
All solution A is doing is adding 2-4 hours of game play before the same bump is hit. This may seem like a huge victory, but remember the game has already been played for 6-20 hours. Is adding 2 hours that big a deal, when you haven't made it easier, you have just pushed the difficulty down the line?
I don't think so.
Solution B
Well, of course, this solution doesn't make multiple outputs any easier either. Both solutions will eventually throw multiple outputs at the player.
What this solution does do is give the "extra fluids" a purpose. Solid fuel. The player sees that solid fuel is needed for the next science, along with plastic for chips. They are guided to making the plastic with Pet Gas, and then solid fuel with the other outputs. Feed them into the system, and make Blue Science. This has the effect of lessening the ability for the system to stop working because there is a back up.
As well, they will notice that they have a lot of extra solid fuel, so the truly smart ones feed it into their smelters, because they notice that coal has a much better use as plastic than fuel now.
My demand for coal remains the same (instead of skyrocketing under solution A, because I need plastic, and still coal as fuel).
So what crambaza
Yeah, I know. I'm only complaining because I hate all change.
But maybe, just maybe, the problem was already solved. I agree with the posters that said the original solution should have been preserved in this release to stable, and then use 0.18 to mess around with it. Then you can actually see if it was a good fix, which I think it was, and have shown above. As well, if it wasn't perfect, then tweak the outputs to find balance.
And, of course, above all, stop pushing those Construction Robots!
To everyone, keep it civil. I'm annoyed because of the change, but I'm trying to be respectful, and encourage discourse. Yelling at people who have already given you hours of super enjoyable game play isn't very helpful. I get that emotions are running high, but much like the Basic Oil recipe used to be, you have to find useful things to do with the multiple outputs you are experiencing. Don't "dumb yourself down" and only output 1 resource, anger.
