The Oxy Gene

[jayce]

So, looking at the posts on the latest blog entry, Oxygen and the rate of depletion is gathering a lot of attention.

I personally like the current situation, it seems to me that the focus of the game is on "hit and run" as Vaconcovat mentioned. Trying to play it like Successor won't work; it forces you to play tight. But, since a lot of people want some kind of change, it's probably the case that I'm in the minority =D (It would be nice maybe, if the higher level stations had the "bump to refill" functionality some mentioned, but I like the animation, so I'd want to see it somewhere!).

With that ramble out of the way, the point of this post was suggest some alternatives to decreasing the rate of Oxygen depletion - I feel this might change the flow/feel of the games urgency (could be wrong though!)

Trapper/jammer Ships dropping Oxy bonuses - I've seen mentioned, sounds like a neat idea, very coin-op arcade. It does add a weird collectable element to the game though (where usually you drag stuff you want with the mouse).

Oxy Tanks/modules - weight/size trade-off with Oxygen capacity, more in keeping with the ship building mechanic, increases the amount of Oxygen you can store.

Stop Oxygen depletion in "owned" station areas" - I mentioned in the blog post, maybe stop (or greatly slow) Oxygen use in the "Grid" areas (maybe only ones you've liberated). You'll keep the fear of venturing too far into the void without having to change the scale of the game. You could be sure of at least exploring a far off station, even if there was no Oxy there to refill you (risk/reward). It would also mean you wouldn't have to keep filling up in station heavy areas when you're banking/repairing/scrapping etc.

Possibly combinations of the above, possibly that's all garbage and changing the rate is what you need; I quite like the current sense of urgency/fragility the current depletion bestows on you in the early stages, once you've got decent thrusters, you feel a bit more comfortable exploring.

I guess you could always add Oxy difficulty settings, incorporating some of the above or rate changes =D Comments/suggestions welcome!

Love the game so far, cracking work Farbs!

[Vaconcovat]

Well, I do think oxy shouldn't always be our main concern when playing. Currently it is. I do suggest giving us more oxygen (Or a slower use rate) definitely. Then, on top of that, add oxy tank modules, increasing your max oxy. Also, may I ask, what is the advantage of a bravo oxy station over an alpha one? Currently I only notice that one is a different colour.

[ryan]

heres what i posted on farbs site

"what if you made oxygen capacity a function of the quantity, size and level of girders your ship has? so like an alpha single unit girder provides +5% air to your base capacity where a bravo unit of the same size adds +6% or a delta 2 unit adds +10% i think that coupled with a slightly lower consumption rate would be a fantastic mechanic. players will be more careful with their attacks as not to lose oxy. it gives girders a bit more worth to the player (not credits, just usefulness as its not just a block to bolt more useful things to) and makes building different sized ships more rewarding. you can choose between small fast and lethal ships or exploring ships with large oxy capacity.

i was playing last night and i managed to find a delta ship with two chronogears, and i died right as i got within range of the oxy station on my way back, it was fairly disappointing."

[pieman]

need .. oxygen .. removed .. seriously this screws my urge to venture around further .

[moth]

The extra 2 minutes of oxygen seem to make a huge difference to how the game plays. 0.1 was HARD. It took real thought and effort to stay alive, and you'd be faced with a lot of things you just couldn't do because they'd take too long. Once you'd got enough thrust to get around quickly it got a bit easier, but it was still a pretty fragile situation. 0.2 is a lot less stressful to play and progress feels a lot easier to achieve. There's time to find routes through the asteroids and fight slow careful battles and go hunting for weak enemies and lug a lot more scrap home.

I get the impression that you've spread the map out a bit to compensate - is that right or is it just a different seed in the same random generator?

[Farbs]

Awesome. This map uses the same generator with a new seed but no tweaks. I'm glad this wasn't immediately obvious ;D

[jayce]

I must say, I was a bit worried that too much more Oxy would open up exploring far too quickly but the current rate/system feels like a great improvement. The fact that I've found a couple of Oxy modules improves my delight further, because... who doesn't like finding more modules =D

Does the Oxy module vary in capacity at all? I've found two 5L ones thus far, Alpha and Charlie, I binned the Charlie one because it was quite heavy in comparison (I guess two is a fairly meaningless sample size though =D )

Good work Cap'n!

[Farbs]

Radness.

The oxy modules are all 5L, since I figured they'd be rare enough that level wouldn't matter all that much. I also rather like that this creates an exception where lower level modules are generally better.

[moth]

If i'm not relying on them for protection, i've always favoured alpha chronogear and girders to make my ship as light and fast as possible. And even when bubble-shielded up it can be good to add some alpha or bravo modules as sacrificial padding to protect more valuable stuff when your shields are briefly overwhelmed.

I keep loosing oxygen modules. I had a pair of golf modules, which kept me alive on a trip out into the void to where the y coordinate rolls over (i assume it's just the display that rolls over because it has no thousands column, but space continues?). I lost them in collision with a fast-flying wall of Golf ramming spikes.

After much searching i found an Alpha module, but as soon as i'd picked it up a fast-flying wall of Delta spikes smashed it off again.

[jayce]

Awesome, I'm glad the levels thing is intentional. As Moth mentions, it's nice to have the option of the lower level modules with similar effects to build speedy/lightweight ships; also lets you design big hulking juggernauts if needs be =D