Tl;dr
Add new consumable non-spoilable items to unlock with Gleba agri research packs, and to be produced on Gleba:- A movement speed and HP regen buff canister consumable
- A crafting speed and attack speed buff canister consumable
- etc (see below)
If you wish to push the idea further, also add machines and inventory grid items that consume this stuff.
What
Same as above.The buff canisters would NOT spoil, and only craftable on Gleba, making them great as an export.
They would be crafted from bio products, and quality would increase the strength and/or duration of the buff.
Multiple buffs should stack, however I personally think it is important to make each canister give 2 different buffs that serve opposite purposes to make each canister as viable as it can be: for example, a player interested in combat buffs could want "movement speed" and "HP regen", while a player interested in base building would simply want "movement speed" and maybe "crafting speed" or "placement range", so making a canister with "HP regen" and "crafting speed" would increase the likelihood that canister has a purpose.
Here is a list of buffs you could give to players:
Combat:
- Movement speed
- Player vision range
- HP Regen
- Resists
- Attack speed
- Throwing speed (for grenades and poison canisters at least)
- Damage
Construction:
- Movement speed
- Player vision range
- Crafting speed
- Personal construction drone speed / capacity
- Personal construction drone area
- Placement range
- Inventory size (yes, this means if the buff expires you would poop items on the floor, so the buff would have to last very long, or you would have to be addicted to the stuff and constantly munch on it)
- Turning the player into a living battery/generator for the electrical network when standing near machines or power poles
- Turning the player into a beacon for nearby machines
Movement speed is really valuable for both construction and combat, so I would suggest putting it with something that is a worth a lot less, such as HP regen (plus, that's the same as bioflux).
Then just pairing 1 construction with 1 combat buff per canister would work best as mentioned previously.
And of course, you can always add a machine and inventory grid item that consumes canisters for automation at the cost of additional space and needing a constant stream of buff canisters. This would allow automating buffs for tanks/turrets/machines and having an alternative "Gleba beacon" or "Gleba power generation" different from burnable fuel and non-polluting.
(also, I'm sneaking this one in: move epic quality to Fulgora where it belongs!!! and give Gleba this major export/upgrade instead)
Also, extra points if you add alternative recipes that use some of these buff canisters for things like electronic circuits, to avoid repeating the exact same production line on Gleba as it is on Nauvis for most products (for everything other than sulfur, plastic and rocket fuel).
Why?
- I think eating bioflux for a buff was fun, however it just is not very worth it to be carrying bioflux around everywhere due to it spoiling.- Having a non-spoilable buff item would add an export exclusively craftable only on Gleba, adding more interplanetary logistics to the game.
- It's an alternative path to upgrading machines and bases
- It would add more creative ways to kill demolishers
- It sounds cool :>