Technology and research there of is a topic we all always seem to come back to. But now that Hazeron is no longer a MMO, the topic is very different.
I will first quickly try to explain what was good about the patent system, and what was bad about it. This should give us a good baseline to discuss from.
Old Patents
The patent system had a couple good features. This was mainly the fact that it hid advanced technologies before the player had the resources to use them. The other being that having a type of "research" that unlocks more advanced technology just feels nice and natural in this type of science fiction game.
The bad things about patents was how there was way too many and they were over complicated. Having a patent for each and every manufacturing process was too much. And the whole quality limiting aspect made it so you had to keep updating all your many patents every time you found a better quality resource.
Desired Technology Research Features
Since the game is now a singleplayer game, and there is no need to have technology be a constant worry or something you can lose. Having it be a simple system that just unlocks the path to first space travel and then more advanced spacecraft subsystems is perfectly fine.
To try and make a basic list of things we would want it to do:
Basic Example
When you first start the game, have it so you can only build basic building types. Such as Farms, Houses, Mines, Smelters, and Universities. Then have the player have to build up a basic settlement with these buildings before having them research a simple "Cities" technology at the University, which then unlocks all the morale buildings, Apartment building, Capitol building, and the food and liquor industry buildings. Then once they have a city built, they will be able to research "Oil" technology which will unlock the Well and all the industry related to plastic production. After that have the same for "Electronics". Basically unlocking areas of the game as they become necessary for the player to advance, to prevent new players from being too overwhelmed and confused.
Once basic space flight is possible, each of the advanced resources the player finds could be used as a technology research each. You found Eludium, you can research a technology to unlock all manufacturing processes related to it. It could also be based on the individual spacecraft subsystems and module types, such as researching shields, FTL, and so on.
And I have mentioned this a number of times. But the idea of researching a FTL drive giving you a story mission to do a test flight in a prototype spacecraft just sounds awesome.
Anyway, what does everyone else think?
I will first quickly try to explain what was good about the patent system, and what was bad about it. This should give us a good baseline to discuss from.
Old Patents
The patent system had a couple good features. This was mainly the fact that it hid advanced technologies before the player had the resources to use them. The other being that having a type of "research" that unlocks more advanced technology just feels nice and natural in this type of science fiction game.
The bad things about patents was how there was way too many and they were over complicated. Having a patent for each and every manufacturing process was too much. And the whole quality limiting aspect made it so you had to keep updating all your many patents every time you found a better quality resource.
Desired Technology Research Features
Since the game is now a singleplayer game, and there is no need to have technology be a constant worry or something you can lose. Having it be a simple system that just unlocks the path to first space travel and then more advanced spacecraft subsystems is perfectly fine.
To try and make a basic list of things we would want it to do:
- Have the research be simple to understand and easy to use.
- Have each step of the technology research feel useful.
- Hide advanced buildings before you can use them.
- Hide advanced manufacturing processes before you can use them.
- Unlock new features of the game in milestone like research projects.
- Possibility to have some technology research require a story mission to be completed.
- Use technology research as a part of the tutorial.
Basic Example
When you first start the game, have it so you can only build basic building types. Such as Farms, Houses, Mines, Smelters, and Universities. Then have the player have to build up a basic settlement with these buildings before having them research a simple "Cities" technology at the University, which then unlocks all the morale buildings, Apartment building, Capitol building, and the food and liquor industry buildings. Then once they have a city built, they will be able to research "Oil" technology which will unlock the Well and all the industry related to plastic production. After that have the same for "Electronics". Basically unlocking areas of the game as they become necessary for the player to advance, to prevent new players from being too overwhelmed and confused.
Once basic space flight is possible, each of the advanced resources the player finds could be used as a technology research each. You found Eludium, you can research a technology to unlock all manufacturing processes related to it. It could also be based on the individual spacecraft subsystems and module types, such as researching shields, FTL, and so on.
And I have mentioned this a number of times. But the idea of researching a FTL drive giving you a story mission to do a test flight in a prototype spacecraft just sounds awesome.
Anyway, what does everyone else think?