Here at Innovative Ideas Inc, we like to use machines to do things too dangerous for humans. That’s why we’ve created the M.O.M, or the Matter Obtaining Machine. What’s that? You were expecting something else? This is far better. This latest invention, created by our trusty scientists, will take all of the danger out of matter collection, and it’s a lot more efficient. Gone are the days of picking up matter by hand, only to die in gruesome matter-related deaths because you were foolish enough to try to pick up matter (thanks, Aeolus!) by hand. With the M.O.M, there’s no need to worry about that. Best of all, there are models that will suit everyone. Are you resource-poor? Don’t worry, you can still collect matter, with the M.O.M. Mark I. The Mark I is simple to make, but regretfully, not very efficient. However, you can use multiple ones at the same time, to make up for its low efficiency levels. To make the Mark I, all you need is: 20 low tier metals (there are three tiers: low, medium, and high. The amount of metals in each tier depends on how many metals there are available). The type of metal does not affect the performance. 50 wires 3 Batteries (For powering the machine[Thanks Relinies and Auraknight]) And alternative method of powering is Solar Panels, but those aren't as useful. This can hold up to 5 matter at once, and collects one matter about every minute real time. Then there’s the Mark II. This machine is a bit more expensive, but it’s also more efficient and can hold more matter. To make a Mark II, all you need it: 30 medium tier metals 75 wires 5 Batteries This can hold up to 10 matter at once, and collects matter about every 45 seconds real time. The Mark III is the best M.O.M. To make it, you need: 50 high tier metals 100 wire 10 Batteries However, it can hold up to 25 matter at once, and collects matter about every 30 seconds real time. Recently, our scientists have created an even better M.O.M, designed specifically for collecting Red Matter. To make the Mark IV, you need: 50 Light Matter 50 Dark Matter 10 Batteries 100 High Tier Metal 250 Wire. This is the only M.O.M. that can survive the conditions of the Worm Hole and withstand Red Matter. However, it can only collect 3 Red Matter every 30 minutes real time. With your M.O.M, you can collect all the matter you need for you next project, be it a colossal space laser or just a simple handgun. What are you waiting for? Buy one today! Innovative Ideas Inc is not responsible for any injuries that occur while using the M.O.M. Users do so at their own risk. In the event of a rip in the holding area of an M.O.M, direct contact or being in the general vicinity of the unprotected matter can cause injury or death. In the event that the M.O.M. becomes sentient, it may try to kill you. If this happens, don’t use any matter related weaponry against it, because it’s been built to withstand matter. Using matter is also done at your own risk, and Innovative Ideas Inc. is not responsible for any injuries, deaths, or mutations that occur while using it.
Awesome idea but I hope it would have some sort of limitations because it might take away from gameplay. But then again it would be cool to have an assistant help bring you materials while focusing on other projects.
Well take into account it's supposed to be a pain to make and it's a very slow process, those are limitations, but yah, I get what you're sayin.
I tried to design it with those limitations in mind, although the earlier level things wouldn't really be that powerful, so it wouldn't be too overpowered. I tried to make Red Matter as hard to get as possible, because of how powerful it is. I might have to make it even harder though. Also, keep in mind that it's still pretty hard to get all the materials needed for the higher level devices, so that's another limitation I set in place.
Ah I see. That sounds really awesome then because I would love to have an assistant help me with obtaining matter but I think I would enjoy it that much more if I had to work hard just to make it.
I think there should be just one enormous stationary M.OM. (one per world) that collects matter directly underneath it -15 blocks wide ,~500 deep. This is just a very rough idea however
If building a normal sized M.O.M. is hard enough, imagine how difficult it would be to manufacture an enormous one? It would probably take forever but be worth it once you have a few up and running on different planets. I think there might be a problem with this, though, as when you leave a planet there's no telling if activity in-game would still resume (for processing purposes) so it might not be possible. Imagine after a long time of gathering resources you make 10-20 M.O.M.'s and place one on each planet. For each M.O.M. to continue to gather resources while you're away from the planet, the game has to keep track and simulate activity on all of those 10-20 planets to be able to provide constant and realistic activity and that can be straining on the game to manage while procedurally generating new content if planets are infinite. It's probably not going to be a problem at all, though, given the scope of the game and how much seems to be able to go on. Personally, I feel that once you reach around 5-6 M.O.M.'s the game might become a whole lot easier since you can collect resources at a speedy rate and manufacture mechs and vehicles like crazy. I could be wrong about that though because they said that planets (they will have a difficulty of 1 to 100) with a difficulty level of 100 will still be hard even for the best-geared players.
Or they could just calculate how long it's been since you were last there and than load up that much times worth of gathering done by the M.O.M... just sayin
True, but I wouldn't want just some random number of resources gathered based on time given to me without any effect on the planet. I'd want to be able to to that planet after getting those resources and physically find less resources. And realistically the natives/creatures of that planet might attack the M.O.M robot out of fear. If everything didn't play out in real time I wouldn't be able to go to that planet and defend my M.O.M (lol that sounds funny). It's an interesting problem
That's what I mean, if you were gone for 10 minutes say, than when you next go to that world it will load 10 minutes of damage to the surface and have "mined" for 10 minutes
Sounds pretty useful. I like that the tiers of materials and difficulty of creation fit well with the rewards. We all know that as you get closer to end-game, you need more of the resources you already used up getting to your current level. A M.O.M. would be a big help in retrieving materials while the player can utilize special conditions to complete tasks requiring those special conditions (such as only finding an enemy during daylight, but you need ores mined, and the sun is setting soon). Not to mention, in similar games, I've been in plenty of situations where I wish I had a remote means of retrieving resources. I'd enjoy seeing this in the game. One thing I'm thinking of, though, might be a limit to how many M.O.M.s can be on a planet at once. Not only would it take away some of the fun and challenge if someone covered every foot of the planet with a M.O.M., but it wouldn't be too friendly to the solar system's balance if the planet were mined nearly hollow. If you agree, I can give you an idea to start from, too. (I was always taught to not bring up a problem without a solution.) You could assign point values or weights to each tier of M.O.M.. For example, its Mark rating could be it's point value/weight. Maybe a planet in the Small category can only hold 15 M.O.M. points/weight. Scale from there. Something like that. I understand as the creator, you'd like to see your creation used plenty, but such a useful item would be very useful to take advantage of, and could harm the experience for players. Just something that crossed my mind while I was reading. I figured you'd like any feedback.
Let me start off by saying you're right, I do like feedback, of any sort, as long as it's productive, and yours is definitely productive. When thinking about this idea, what you said was pretty much what was going through my head. It's why the M.O.M. was created in the first place. On to your suggestion: I think that's certainly a good way to balance it. I was kinda going with the fact that it's pretty hard to get enough materials to make multiple M.O.M.s as a way of balancing the power of it, but I think you're idea is more practical. I think there would be four sizes, Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large. Small could hold 15 points, Medium could hold 30, and so on. However, instead of having the better M.O.Ms take up more of the points, I think they should take up less, for two reasons. One, the amount of resources necessary to create multiple Mark IIIs or even Mark IIs is staggering, even with the help of other M.O.Ms. Also, if the point values went up by one for each Mark, excluding Mark IV, then 15 Mark I M.O.Ms would be better than the 7 Mark II M.O.Ms that could be operating on a small planet. In fact, the maximum number of Mark IIs could never outclass the maximum number of Mark Is, and given the resource difference, it would only make sense to go with only Mark I M.O.Ms. Secondly, it could make sense if the higher Marks actually took up less space than the lower Marks - think of it as advances in the science of making M.O.Ms. So, I propose that Mark III M.O.Ms would take up 1, Mark IIs would take up 2, and Mark Is would take up 3. This would balance out the Mark II and Mark I differences. However, there should be a limit of say, 10 Mark IIIs on a small planet, 20 on a medium, and so on. The rest of the possible points could be taken up with either Mark Is or Mark IIs. I thank you for the feedback, and I'd appreciate if you could look over this and perhaps give some feedback on it as well. Also, when we smooth out the idea, with your permission, I'd like to add this to the OP and give you credit for coming up with it.
Maybe the Solar Panels should be replaced with a few battery packs, and THOSE power the machine, even on Night worlds or at night. However, if they power down while still out hunting, gotta go find em. Two brand new limitations to prevent OPness. Naturally you could have different tiers of battery, and these will last longer. As well as the M.O.M. tiers decreasing power usage, to have even MORE hours of work. The highest tier of these could have an automatic homing system when power runs low, but you'll still have to replace the batteries.
That would work really well, actually. In fact, the only place that wouldn't is when they're just in space, floating around and collecting Light/Dark matter.
Thanks man, I appreciate you like my idea. Do what you want with it, and while i'd like if you credited me, you don't have to. In space, the robots would just fall back to the nearest planet, yes? And since they took off from one particular planet, it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to fall back to it. I haven't seen or heard anything about light and dark matter, so I don't know EXACTLY where they'll be located, but my thought seems reasonable. Repeating what I said on the Black Holes thread: M.O.Ms could work in pairs when out in space, one would collect and one would not. The one that doesn't collect would follow the other, and bring it back home when it ran out of power.
