I am a new player, and playing in one of the first extended re-bangs. I am trying to figure out if this game is worth my time in the long run, and so far it is falling short, in one very important area. My time is valuable, and I don’t like wasting it on drudgery.
Last weekend I spent about 3 hours of my time, and 500ish fuel, hauling crap from planet to planet to facilitate building. The vast majority of this has been done in a single system, thus the fuel conservation. It has not been fun, it has not been what I would call a ‘good’ part of the game, it has been a time sucking drag. If this is what building is like, no wonder people put more effort into invading.
Here is how it goes, for those who don't know or haven't counted.
Check your holdings and identify a planet that needs resources. Planet (A)
Check to see if there is a planet with excess of that resource. Planet (B)
Check to see if planet (A) that needs resources has an excess of resources planet (B) needs.
Up until this point you have only done research and not used flying time, here is where the "fun" starts.
- Travel to and land on Planet (A) (1 Click for auto pilot one key press or manual maneuver)
Select travel into dome (Sometimes two clicks)
Select Refinery (1 click)
Select desired resource (1 Click)
Select max (1 Click)
Select Pickup (1 Click)
select leave planet (1 Click)
Travel to and land on Planet (B) (1 Click for auto pilot one key press or manual maneuver)
Select travel into dome (Sometimes two clicks)
Select Refinery (1 Click)
Select drop all (1 Click)
Select desired resource (1 Click)
Select max (1 Click)
Select Pickup (1 Click)
select leave planet (1 Click)
From my math, and it could be wrong, every 65 colonists eats one of Anaerobes, Organics, Oil, and Medicine every hour. Based on that, for a planet like a volcano, which never produces enough regardless of the settings, with a population capped bio 2 at 5000 cols, you are looking at a worst case of 77 of each per hour, or 308 holds per hour, just to maintain the planet. For a day, that would be roughly 7400 holds, or 37 trips or 703 clicks. Assuming even a generously minimal 30 seconds per trip, that is roughly 20 minutes of real time, just to maintain a practically worthless planet, and for that matter, play a game more like it is work. Oh, and the fuel cost, only 74. Less than a hundred.
Ok, so now that I have experienced this joy multiple times and done some math, I have put on my thinking cap to see if there is some way to take this horrific drudgery out of the game, without upsetting balance. I therefore put forward the following.
Proposal:
A new construction be available called something similar to the “intersystem shipping port”. This building will facilitate the transfer for material, from one bio dome to another, within a given system, without the need to shuttle those goods manually. This building is available to all planets.
To shuttle goods, you simply select the planet you wish to trade with, use the transfer sliders, and poof, the exchange is made. Both planets need to have this building for the trade to work, and the movement capacity is based on the lowest planets upgrade level. Any amount of goods or colonists can be transferred this way, just the same as if you had done it manually.
Now to keep it balanced, the following would have to be part of how it works.
- For every X number of holds transferred you need to spend 1 fuel to make the transfer.
The value of X will be based on the number of upgrades to the building. 50 holds for level 1, 100 for level 2 and 150 for level 3.
It could be simplified to just one level of 150 holds, but the idea is the same. This makes the for fuel cost the same or more for these transfers as it is for manual shipping, the only thing removed is the time drudgery.
[Hint] My time is valuable to me, I would pay in emperor tokens to be able to build these things.
Another alternative would be to have only one level of this building, that ships goods based on the current best rate for the players ship. So if you are in a 200 hold Corporate flagship, its one fuel for 200 holds hauled.
With these changes at 150 holds per fuel, the 20 minutes, 703 clicks, and 74 fuel would turn into 1-2 minutes, less than 10 clicks, and 100 fuel. A system could be optimized for days worth of production in less than half a hour, leaving the player real time to deal with the fun parts of the game, like invading.
Some benefits would be that certain planet types, that are currently non-viable (such as the volcano) become more viable for the specific purpose they were intended, such as weapons manufacture. By enabling systems to be managed more quickly as a whole, players will be better able utilize the benefits of all planet types, and not just stick to the better ones, simply because maintaining some planets is too much effort.
Additionally, planets that can not support strong solar cannon defenses, would be easier to prop up with metal supply from planets that can. Any planet you invade could be a 10 shot, simply because overstocking is simplified.
I’m sure you can all see, just how much real time this would save players from just having to do trivial maintenance tasks on planets. As I understand it, fuel is supposed to help balance players who have unlimited time to fuss around with the game, from those who can’t. This would simply be an extension of that philosophy.
i got a special notice...
