10th August - Manipulates anything that matters!

Discussion in 'Dev Blog' started by mollygos, Aug 10, 2015.

  1. The T.C.

    The T.C. Tentacle Wrangler

    Ah good, I always thought having pick-axes were sort of pointless and out-of-theme.

    Though is there gonna be an energy bar or something for it? Or is it going to start just as weak? D8
     
    jasonzoo123 likes this.
  2. Necryel

    Necryel Pangalactic Porcupine

    1: This does not remove the feeling of progression. Just as how you can't pick up liquids at the start, these additional functions can only be unlocked when you have progressed to the point when the required materials are available.

    2: While this change will have little significance to wiring, it can allow increases to the MM radius affect the painting function as well.

    3: A consolidation like this does not take away the significance of certain other specialized tools: (drills, the long forgotten chainsaw.) While the omnitool can increase in radius and power, that power still can't compete with the sheer speed of the drills and old chainsaws at what they did. So a drill will still be a powerful tool since anything but a copper drill on dirt or cobble stone will be able to easily outpace even a full power omnitool in sheer distance mined over time.

    4: This reinforces the idea that the omnitool can truly be used for almost any purpose, and as new new mechanics get introduced, any player control or usage of them can now be routed and unlocked through the omnitool with much less work involved (a single static sprite for each mode, no animations required, and applicable capabilties already in use (range, radius, speed, strength) can simply be applied from the size and power upgrades already unlocked.

    P.S: I do think this change should rely more they use of R/T or T/Y to cycle through modes as opposed to quick keys. Rather than a selector box moving from mode to mode, the mode icons should pass through a central selector box, rather like a dial with only the front three faces visible (previous mode, current mode, next mode in cycle). Each unlocked function having it's own icon added to the rotation. This way you don't have to expand the hotbar, or design a whole new tool with new animations, or program more hot keys every time they come out with a new function, they just have to create an icon and add it to mode icon rotation order.

    The impact seems insignificant but from a functional point of view with thoughts of its implications, this is actually a BIG change with a good deal or future potential as a result.
     
  3. M_Sipher

    M_Sipher Oxygen Tank

    Oh, pickaxes are still in the game. This is just them rolling the MM's normal dig function in with the Wiring and Paint Tools.
     
  4. Kelthazan

    Kelthazan Pangalactic Porcupine

    Should rename them "Harvest MOD, Wire MOD, and Paint MOD," mod for module. Better sci-fi ring than mode I think.
     
  5. Adivia

    Adivia Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    It would be cool if the blue light on the end of the Matter-manipulator would change whenever you change the mode, like when you're painting it's red and when it's wiring it's purple
     
    Spritley Jack and PabloM like this.
  6. NonBritGit

    NonBritGit Cosmic Narwhal

    It's ironic that the icon the MM uses is a now useless mining pick. Change looks good though. When will it show up in the nightlies?
     
    jasonzoo123 likes this.
  7. Hatsya Souji

    Hatsya Souji Parsec Taste Tester

    Nah, not really a useless one, but lore-wise, a throwback on how the sentient ones destroy and recreate structures.
     
    jasonzoo123 likes this.
  8. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    Except all of the changes combined pretty much makes upgrading the Matter Manipulator unimportant. You only need to mine now - you don't need to upgrade for liquid collection because oil is useless and replaced by copper now. Speed, size, and liquid collection upgrades and wholly convenience upgrades now.

    What does take away the significance of non-Matter Manipulator tools is that they are drastically more inefficient to use after receiving several significant nerfs to durability, speed, AND accessibility. It does not matter how fast a drill mines if it breaks after twenty seconds of use and you can't obtain another without praying to RNGesus.
     
    jasonzoo123 likes this.
  9. Kelthazan

    Kelthazan Pangalactic Porcupine

    I kinda miss having to make tools to harvest though - drills and chainsaws rather than picks. Having JUST the manipulator, or rather only needing it, kinda takes some of the fun out of harvesting/crafting like removing the wait time on furnaces. Everything is already there and it feels like all there's just no effort in it.
     
    The MechE likes this.
  10. greenman

    greenman Spaceman Spiff

    The MM has various stages of upgrades. It increases mining speed and size as you progress. You also don't start with the ability to slurp up liquids.
     
  11. Misi0324

    Misi0324 Void-Bound Voyager

  12. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    Quoting from above:

     
  13. TrueEdge

    TrueEdge Phantasmal Quasar

    I would prefer the wire module icon identifier to be a laser diode stacked on top of, but off center of a circuit board instead of the wired nodes.
     
  14. Nujuju299

    Nujuju299 Big Damn Hero

    I am personally saddened to see the paint and wire tools go, personally I liked their icons/sprites. However, based off the image, at least before I zoomed in on it, it looked like the matter manipulator could use mods. That, would be interesting to try at least.
    The hotkey switch between tools I think was already a thing, so nothing new there, just losing a bit of graphics. Again I'm saddened.
    However, my opinions:
    -Add in mods for items, relating to the matter manipulator, to allow bigger mining area, bigger paint area, "smart wiring," or something where you have the ability to wire multiple objects at once.
    -The matter manipulator seems like it can transform or shift shapes, so if the wire tools and paint tools are gone, allow the matter manipulator to transform too. Since, it is meant to be the primary tool and all after all, make it the best darn looking thing possible!
     
    Spritley Jack likes this.
  15. greenman

    greenman Spaceman Spiff

    How do you collect fuel without an upgraded MM? Sure, increasing mining size from 2x2 to 5x5 is merely a convenience (in a game that heavily depends on mining and collecting blocks), but it's the type of upgrade path the guy I was responding to seemed to be talking about. Today's post doesn't make the MM less useful, btw, it just makes it more clear to new users that it's a multipurpose tool. Tons of people on the steam forums don't even realize you can use it for mining and complain about how often their pickaxes break.

    Also, one thing I noticed about Mollygos' screen that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread: Why is the pickaxe an iron one? Does this sort of suggest that crafting better pickaxes for the MM will improve mining speed?
     
    Hatsya Souji likes this.
  16. M_Sipher

    M_Sipher Oxygen Tank

    ... no. A pickaxe is just an obvious visual representation for "mining", nothing more.
     
    Hatsya Souji likes this.
  17. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    You can buy liquid erchius from the store at the Outpost, or mine plutonium. Obtaining the liquid collection upgrade is optional.

    No, it doesn't. It just further over-centralizes the Matter Manipulator instead of introducing diversity.
    Stupidity is not an excuse to remove diversity and further simplify progression to the point where it's non-existent.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2015
  18. lordbociek

    lordbociek Pangalactic Porcupine

    trully - it`s a nonsense - no progress - take a shit , and be happy with it !!!!
     
  19. greenman

    greenman Spaceman Spiff

    It's way easier, and way more fun to slurp it up though. And why are you even arguing about this lol?

    man, people aren't stupid just because they didn't know you can mine with the MM. You may remember that in the first release of the beta the MM was completely irrelevant and pickaxes were repairable - this is when lot of people first started playing then put the game down.
     
  20. joaorafaelrr

    joaorafaelrr Subatomic Cosmonaut

    I like Matter manipulator, but wish i need to fight to pick up it. When we are thrown on a basic planet, i feel strange to use such powerfull technology to make rustic wood tools. Wish i need to dig up a little to win with honour.
    Another thing. The game is awesome and i still expecting to see the Guide of my spaceship.
     

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