Something that would make the game more challenging and deep would be limited power. If a player were to begin a settlement on a planet or a moon, at first he would be limited to basic items such as crafting benches and core building materials. Before he could use certain items requiring electricity, such as a mech an electric oven, electric lights, etc. he would have to construct a generator. This could also apply to items that would require electricity, such as energy weapon or an electric torch. Before the player could use the laser rifle be just created, he would first need to charge it. If the the player were mining and used electric torches, they would give off more light but would eventually run out of power. I understand that this entire mechanic would be difficult to implement at this point in development as well as being difficult to find a good balance between challenging and frustrating , but I just felt like this would be a really cool way to add some extra depth to the game. This is basically how I would see this working-When you start the game, depending on if you have the space craft from square one or have to earn it somehow, you would have to power it somehow. But even when you do create a power source, your ship would have limitations and would require a newer and more powerful power source before you could use it for certain tasks. Another example would be items providing light. The default and lowest level light would probably be a standard torch or something, just something to work with until the player has more resources, but as he begins to acquire better equipment he could create electric lights. These lights would be brighter, but would require some form of power. Is the player is mining, for example, and needs a light, he could throw down an electric light, but it would require a battery and would only last say fifteen minutes, then start to dim. The torch might last forever, but might have a seven unit lighting distance, opposed to the electric lights fifteen units. If the player used some form of electric mining tool or weapon, as it ran out of power out would become less effective. IE: an electric mining tool would gradually become slower and energy weapons would do less damage. Also, generators could require resources to run, like coal or gasoline. PLEASE COMMENT AND GIVE YOUR OWN INPUT ABOUT THIS CONCEPT!!!
Some form of this is probably already implemented. Just like crafting ultimate items require lots of materials and pixels, powering terraforming requires lots of prerequisite work. I'm excited to see exactly how they've done it though.
It would be certainly interesting a system that works with limitation and progression. In my opinion this should encourage co-op and eventually a role specialization in the group (mining team, building, development, ect.). A more basic and easy crafting might be a little boring in a long term play: reaching the top "level" gear/base too quickly might turn the game into a simple pvp showdown or a classic rpg, while it seems that the idea is to give a great value to the creative side. As Brutor said, I think limitations will certainly be implemented.
Absolutely! I remember having the problem that minecraft base building got very, very boring after you got the crafting stations you needed. Give us something else to put into our base that we have to actually manage, not just put down and forget about.
Just to clarify, I'm not saying that electronic items should require a power source in crafting, but would require a power source to use once crafted.
As long as it's optional in Single Player, I'm fine with it. That's too much of a bother for me. I like exploring and RPG elements, not Sims elements.
While I find this an interesting concept, such a thing could get very complicated, to the point of tekkit (for all you minecraft fans out there). Especially with the latest tekkit update, one literately has hundreds of options as far as what to do. It just seems sort of daunting as far as where to begin. Plus, theirs practicably no possible way to fully complete everything in tekkit. Just my opinion.
Minecraft has the minus of not having proper fast travel utilities, which are way more common in a game like Starbound. I play the ftb mod and it's affordable to attain every machine/item. It may take a while, but that's the idea in a creation related sandbox game. Certainly not everyone enjoys a challenging crafting system, but making it too easy to attain top level gear would turn the game a bit boring. I think that there must be a balanced system, maybe by making most of the items easy to build but with difficult recipes for the advanced stuff.
This is a step in the right direction, but maybe more elaborated electrical system would suit my tastes. Something similar to Minecraft's Redstone which was very complex if you wanted and were able, or could be used in a very simple manner like opening and closing doors automatically. Or not used at all, if you didn't understand it, or are the type to do things manually. I like the video that showed the team connecting the PC to the doors for control and think that is how electricity should be handled as well instead of placing "electrical" blocks. Just drag and drop connections. It would definitely add to the games longevity, and landing on a new planet you'd definitely feel like you have your work cut out for you, which I think is what you were going for.
