Matter Converter

I'd like to see some form of matter converter device that you can build that will be able to change one material for another with a cost.

For balance purposes it would have a number of rules:
- The material you want to create has to have a sample first fed into the machine. That way if you want to convert to a rare ore, you first need to find a chunk and then feed it into the machine.
- Each material has a cost/value, to convert to that the cost has to be met with interest. e.g. if you want to convert dirt<>rock you have to put it a few chunks of dirt for 1x rock. For a rarer material many chunks.
- The machine has durability and wears out, it would have to be regularly repaired if used a lot
- Due to the risk of the process using the machine chugs out radiation, not fatal amounts...but dangerous. Using the machine puts a long debuff on you (say 30 minutes) and stacks (lets say 5 times). The first 3 stacks debuff your stats, hp, jump height, speed. 4th and 5th stack drain hp slowly...
- The radiation takes the physical form of a field/cloud that eminates from the machine and it slowly spreads but quite far, at least 3 screens. This should linger for about 5 minutes.
- Not to be too cruel though, there are items to mitigate or cure the radiation
- To be even less cruel, you can operate the machine using the wiring system in game. (I envisaged setting up a sealed shielded room for the converter and then operating it from outside.

Re-Read:
Feeding the machine samples doesn't irradiate you
The machine will have quite rare materials to create, these are the ones that you would use to repair.

The matter conversion 'cost' cannot jump orders of magnitude - i'll explain:
Lets say the costs are: Dirt = 1, Rock = 5, Iron = 10, Silver = 100, Gold = 1000
Dirt & Rock can convert into Iron, but not Silver or Gold
Iron can convert into Silver but not Gold
Silver can convert into Gold
Gold can convert down into Silver but not Iron

As conversion also carries an 'interest' every conversion process looses some matter. So if you want to convert dirt to a high tiered material, you have to use a lot of dirt; and go through several conversion steps.

 

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That's another approach.
The nice thing about suggestions is that they can be tweaked, changed, chopped up and put back together again.

As long as they consider it and put it into the game we can then mod the hell out of it to our own content.

 

This sounds a lot like the current 3D printing mechanic.

 

Ten tier 1 makes one tier 2.
Ten tier 2 make one tier 3.
Wouldn't it follow that one hundred tier one makes a tier 3, not twenty..?

This sounds to me like a shop, basically.

 

I suppose. The 3D printer uses pixels to make items OR use the recipe (and possibly a combination of both for some recipes). But I would class that for complex items
I was thinking of something more fundamental, that only deals with raw materials. The idea of the matter converter would be to work both ways; upgrading and downgrading. Opening up the option to convert high level ores into say...building materials en mass.

The idea I had for it would be more granular than tiers. Each block would have a cost value to it, and to convert 'to' it that cost would have to be met + a percentage.
So here's a math example:
1x Iron Ore Cost = 50
To make it it would cost 50 + 20% = 60

Here are the costs of some other blocks that we're going to feed into the machine to make 1x Iron Ore
Wood Cost = 1
Dirt Cost = 5
Rock Cost = 10

So to make 1 iron it would cost
Wood = x60
Dirt = x12
Rock = x6

The down conversion would be simply to subtract the percentage (smaller percentage)...we'll be kind and round up
So iron would be 50 - 10% = 45
Using the above 1x Iron Ore will make:
Wood = x45
Dirt = x9
Rock = x5

 

It's a good idea, and I would certainly use it when I start playing. My only problem is that, assuming you make it, you could simply build it up to replace all the materials you needed to make or repair it, thus making a profit, and more or less giving you infinite resources. There would have to be a low enough cap to ensure that using up the full durability of the machine gets at maximum the same resources back, otherwise it is an endless loop. There is something in minecraft tekkit which did this, and basically provided infinite materials. To negate this, it is good there are large debuffs, but I would suggest that there is a chance it will overheat from too much successive use, or simply work less efficiently, e.g. giving 1 stone block for 11-12 dirt.
Anyway, if balanced well it would be very good, but possibly hard to build, or even only work at a specific place like under a volcano or in sunlight.

 

I don't know...the Pixel currency is in place to make up for a lack of resources atm. Sure, you could fill your machine with useless junk and get good stuff out of it, but I'm not too sure if it fits. To make it work within Starbound, you'd have to make it a lot more complex I'd think, ex, instead of radiation spewing out of the machine, you have to make a reactor which is expensive, and maintain cool temperatures and also find Uranium or another material perhaps even to perform Fusion. Plus, you wouldn't be able to create energy sources such as Uranium, though I'm mostly stealing this from a Minecraft mod, but only because they did it right lol.

 

time to join the fun and say this reminded me of minecraft ftb.
Lucky for you, i like that mod, and it helped alot as a recycling tool that didnt make harvesting the dirt to make my house flat completely useless.
Ores are naturally formed by nature, so why can't we form them with science?
I think as long as its expensive, there doesn't need to be any debuffs like over-heating or repair, iron through gold is low tier anyways, so anything higher, which would be the only thing worth making, would take alot of time and materials, aka, the random stuff in your inventory, thus its expensive enough as is, and shouldnt needed to have any more debuffs than radiation, which as in the OP you even said can build around it.
Verdict : I like

 

It sounds a lot like Equivalent Exchange mod for Minecraft. I suppose it can be done in a science-y sort of way.
Its called transmutation. If there were some way to break down heavy elements such as uranium in a controlled fashion, you could get any elements that are lighter than it. Or maybe slap them together and make heavier elements.
The two processes are called nuclear fission and nuclear fusion respectively and are quite dangerous. But maybe in the distant future they have mastered the art of matter manipulation and they can get exactly what they want from these processes without so much risk?

 

J'aime il. I like it.

 

I can't really contribute to that minecraft mod discussion, I haven't played it.

But what you are saying is exactly the idea, and definitely dangerous. However my idea has been 'gamified' so the danger is a clearly visible cloud which dissipates in only a few minutes.

The fuel will be the excess material you have to feed into the machine to carry out the conversion process.
And the limit imposed on converting 'orders of magnitude' will prevent game breaking.

 

Well, I do think the radioactive cloud thing is a bit excessive. It should be a little more expensive than going to a shop to simply buying the items and yet more convenient such as if you are based in a remote star system with no shops nearby. So that it is a viable alternative to going shopping or maybe if you are poor.

 

Not to mention it kind of prevents you from venturing out and exploring after using it...

 

The point of the debuff cloud appears to have been missed.
The debuff cloud can be stopped by blocks. The matter converter can be activated via the wiring system from afar. So thus, it introduces a roleplay/design element...in that you have to build a room to use it safely.

However, since the votes have gone into the negatives at this point; the odds of it getting in game legitimately are negligible. I'll have to poke around the modding resources (when they come out) and make it myself.