[Space Age] Make victory condition either more or less ambiguous

[valneq]

SPOILERS for the Victory Condition of Space Age ahead

I think for a new player it is important to know what they are working towards or aiming at. Then, you can plan ahead, bask in the anticipation and fully enjoy the release of the tension when you reach your goal.

Currently, [version 2.0.9] the game gives me two hints as to what I need to do:

1. Before starting a new Freeplay, you see the phrasing "dispatch an interstellar space platform", same phrasing appears in a pop-up at the start of freeplay.

After multiple hours of playing, however, this phrasing becomes less and less clear. In Space Age you are launching or dispatching multiple splace platforms. What exactly would make my space platform an interstellar one?

2. In the Factoriopedia you can find two special locations: the Solar System Edge and the Shattered Planet.
The Shattered Planet description starts with

A mysterious remnant of a former world far in the depths of interstellar space. […]

To be honest, when I first saw this, I was convinced this was a reference to "dispatch an interstellar space platform" and thus made it my victory condition. However, after a while, and mostly by interacting with other people in the Beta discord as well as people doing live streams the week before public release, I realized that, actually, reaching the Solar System Edge is the true victory condition. This surprised me. And to be honest, had I not interacted with other people, I would have found myself astonished and flabbergasted to see the victory screen when reaching the Solar System Edge. Because mentally I would still be in full anticipation of reaching the Shattered Planet.

The description to the Solar System Edge indeed says

The End. Or rather, a new beginning.

When I first read this, I took this as flavor text. As in: wittily rephrasing the "solar system edge" just to increase the tension and anticipation of reaching the Shattered Planet.

My suggestion is to either

• make the victory condition more explicit. By saying something like "reach the solar system edge" at the start of the game and in the flavor text for Freeplay. Thus the player can build the correct expectations and feel the release of tension at the right moment.
• make the victory condition more mysterious by removing the references to "interstellar" from the starting text and removing the "The End" from the Solar System Edge description. Instead use more colorful language such as "reach for the stars" or "embark on your journey home". Thus you keep the player in suspense and they will feel surprised to see the victory screen upon reaching the Edge.

[gyorokpeter]

Agreed. In fact I think the description was a bit clearer at the time of the LAN when

the shattered planet

was

interstellar space

, however even that was ambiguous whether

you had to travel the full 4 Gm distance

or just

travel to the beginning of it

. I assumed the former.

[Arceus]

I made the useless journey
it took hours
there should be some reward for making it there
also a way back that doesn't take hours

11-03-2024, 18-26-29.png (4.05 KiB) Viewed 8351 times

[NGMZero]

I would not have understood the victory condition if not for hearing streams mentioning it, (among other things like radars surface network).and I would most likely would have won by "accident" I think one way to set the edge as a "win" condition is to just hide the shattered planet from the solar system map until the player win. and then they could permanently show it in other games just like the old (blueprint) buttons showing after you unlock robots for the first time.

I made the useless journey
it took hours
there should be some reward for making it there
also a way back that doesn't take hours

11-03-2024, 18-26-29.png

It would also be extremely useful if the game explicitly say, there is nothing there but empty space, only go there to challenge yourself. once again if it's not for a streamer/reviewer declaring it empty and don't waste your time going there. I would have made it my end goal to see what's there in that new planet.

shattered planet "could" have been a planet where all features from other five planets meet. as a reward/canvas for engineers who want to build bigger.

[ObviouslyN0tMe]

So after 20hours of ingame traveling time to the shattered planet, it was REALLY disappointing to see that there is nothing there. Atleast make an achievement for reaching the planet. Guess i wasted a lot of time and will now go back to other games.

[mmmPI]

also a way back that doesn't take hours

There is one, but it doesn't work for ships that would be like teleporting eggs, too strong, but you get a pistol for free

[laudian]

I have to say, I'm really disappointed that there is just nothing when you arrive at the shattered planet.

The tool tip on the space map says

unlock powerful technologies

- what are these "powerful technologies"? There is only one infinite research, and it increases research. It also says

floating in the space it once occupied

- this really implies there is something there when you reach that location.

It's just really frustrating to find out there's nothing there after ~20 hours of flying. The description should make it really obvious that there is absolutely no reason to ever go there.

Also, how about some small incentive for the trip? I can understand that there is no achievement for reaching the shattered planet, as it involves a lot of waiting and is generally pretty boring, but how about a little easter egg - say you find a mysterious egg where the shattered planet once was, and it keeps track of the time since it was picked up. And when it reaches Nauvis, it "hatches" into a statue (or something else) that shows the time it took to get there. That would give us a little race to see how fast we can make the trip. Otherwise, there's just no reason to ever make a better platform again. I can just copy/paste my current platform hundreds of times to automate promethium asteroid collection. Btw, it's also really annoying there is no way to automatically turn the platform around when you are full on promethium.

[Seth0x113]

There actually is a way to turn your platform around, you set fly rather than waiting conditions. So as long as you can detect that you are not full you can add a condition for it and with this interrupts would also work to return you.

I have opened another suggestion Briefing or extended Factoriopedia entry for Shattered Planet that would likely also offer a way to handle this in a good matter.

I like the suggestion of hiding the shattered planet behind seeing the finish screen/reaching the system edge.

[laudian]

you set fly rather than waiting conditions

Thanks so much for pointing this out to me. I don't think I ever would have noticed the button has a different label on my own. But this really helps.

[Seth0x113]

Don't worry, someone else had to point it out to me as well. That one word, one character length difference can skip right past you. Changing the sentence to something more distinct might make it more apparent.

Like "Setup fly condition" or "Add journey condition" or "Append spaceflight condition", it might make it more noticeable or adding a proper Factoriopedia entry/mention it in a shattered planet briefing.