King Bob IV Posted October 1, 2018 (edited) I was thinking to myself about how one could be able to print one of those giant docking platforms you find abandoned around planets, and then had some thoughts about printer progression in general. Now that you've nicely simplified and unified fabricators and printers have a bit of a progression starting to appear, the vehicle bay seems like an odd fit. Perhaps doing away with the vehicle bay and building on the progression you've started could open doors to printing more varied things and add even more long-term goals to the gameplay. I threw together a screengrab that might better show my suggestion. I think an XS, S, M, L, and XL printer with these varying dimensions on packages produced, could allow for this sort of variety without breaking the current 1-tier, 2-tier, etc system you've already got on platforms and rovers. I.e. you could transfer a medium package on a medium rover, a large package on a large rover, and this would even allow you to print that teeny XS or huge XL rover concept you had in the works a while back, or even landing pads, habitats, etc. These could require 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 materials to print a package of their respective size, and material rarity could drive difficulty to acquire (for example 4 compound/4resin to build an XL run-of-the-mill structure, but 8 titanium alloy to build a super-rare structure). Modules would still require a platform to unpack but others could be the opposite (on the ground, in a clear space). And this way you could even bring packaged rovers and structures with you on a shuttle to a fresh new planet! Hope I explained that well enough to hear folks' thoughts! Maybe it'll just be good food for thought but I think it'd unify a lot of the systems in place and continues in the direction you seem to be going in! Thanks for an amazing game! Edited October 1, 2018 by King Bob IV Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AbeStrange Posted October 2, 2018 I like the visual of the layout you've set up, but am having some trouble visualizing how the progression would work from your XS up to XL. We currently have backpack (XS), Small Printer, Medium Printer, and Vehicle bay (which is really a Large Printer). They follow the progression of taking up 1 slot, 2 slots, and then 4 slots for a Vehicle Bay. By that metric the XL Printer should take up 8 interconnected slots, which could only be placed on an Extra Large Platform A. I feel like that implementation of an XL printer would be large enough to print everything we've seen in game thus far, including Giant Solar Panels and functioning landing pad bases. Either way, we definitely need to have the Vehicle Bay act more like a Large Printer (which is what they really are) and have its products boxed up. It is kinda annoying being unable to move around modules printed onto rovers and shuttles, and doesn't fit with the rest of the modularity of the game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
King Bob IV Posted October 2, 2018 +1 to all that @AbeStrange. I had completely forgotten about the backpack printer! ?♂️ But sounds like you get the jist ?I just think there's plenty of room for tightening up printers/packages, and I would love to be able to print rovers into a package for transporting before opening it up and scooting around! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
