I've been thinking, and I think a way to "link" your tech slots, or have the ability to have 2, 3 and even 4 techs active at once, could be a viable option. The item doing this would be progressivly difficult to create. Maybe each sector? Once you reach Beta, you unlock the ability to craft the dual-tech, and then Gamma would be tri-tech, and so on. Thoughts? EDIT: Due to some positive feedback, I've decided to elaborate on it. For starters, I can see three types of tech. Movement, Utility, and Attack. While I don't think there are any attack techs yet, I can easily foresee these being a thing in the future. Movement: This would use the four slots we currently have. Any movement techs can be linked to any movement techs. You cannot link at the start, of course, but gain the ability to craft an upgrade as you progress. Attack and Utility techs could not be placed in these slots (Small exception, see the paragraph about "Modifier Chips" below) Utility: This would use a new set of slots. It could be a single slot, or 2+ unlinkable slots. Techs like the Mechs currently in the game would be used here. These slots would be unlinkable. Attack: These would use the last set of tech slots. Linking these would be different than the rest. Instead of being able to use both, linking attack techs modify the base tech. For example, I have a theoretical tech called "Plasma Wave", which releases a short range blast of electricity in a cone in front of me. If I linked it to a "Fireball" tech, this would increase the range of the electricity, and change it to fire instead. If I used Fireball as the base tech and linked it to Plasma Wave, it could possibly be different than the other way around, such as possibly adding two more fireballs, shooting one in the middle and the other two like a cone. As you can tell, I put a bit more thought into the attack techs, but this is partially because the other two types don't require as much explanation. The rest of the cause is that I really like the idea of upgradeable and modifiable attack techs. And you know, maybe we could have "modifier chips" or something. Say, I link double jump and blink together, but I put a Flame modifier chip into Movement and link it, it could add effects. When you double jump, a short range flame burst, shotgun-style arc and reach, shoots below you, and when you blink, you release a short range 360 burst of flame. Or maybe, each modifier chip modifies only one tech, which you apply it to, instead of affecting all linked techs. EDIT: A friend misunderstood me about this, and I guess I wasn't very clear. These modifiers would not be only attack modifiers. Rather, they wouldn't only add damaging effects. Things like increasing the power (higher double jump, longer blink range, longer dash, or less energy used with that tech) would also be there. EDIT: I came up with a simple tech system, and a few examples. Static Burst: You overcharge your tech, releasing an AoE burst of electricity shot all around you. low damage, medium range. Example combinations: Secondary: Firewall - Static Burst now knocks enemies back, has a larger range, and has its element changed from electric to fire. (Yes, this tech name is in fact somewhat of a pun) Seismic Wave: Special leg robotics allow you to slam your foot down with earthshaking force, stunning enemies. Varied damage and range: Enemies closer take more damage and stun time. Can jump and activate in air to slam down, slightly increasing range, damage and stun time. Landing on enemy does maximum damage/stun time. Example combinations: Secondary: Fireball - Seismic Wave now releases a plume of flame on impact, increasing damage. Secondary: Firewall - Seismic Wave now releases two walls of flame that spread outwards, replacing the ground smash and knocking enemies back instead of stunning them. Firewall: You toss down a special piece of tech which releases a towering wall of flame in front of you. Medium damage, can toss down at a small range, slows enemies who pass in it for a short time (Possible minor damage increase against the Glitch race, for puns sake? >.> ) Example Combinations: Secondary: Static Burst - Firewall's element changes to electricity. Enemies that touch wall are Electrocuted, which can leap to nearby foes. Now, I did not just choose these three techs for fun. There is a purpose I wanted to demonstrate here. Three, actually: First: You can now see how the Secondary slot effects the techs. Second: You can see how switching primary and secondary has a different effect (Firewall and Static Burst, or visa versa). Third: You can see how some tech combinations change more than just the appearance/damage/element/range, in the case of Seismic Wave/Firewall. With this system, they would not need a massive array of attack techs. They could make a small amount and have the combinations be there to fit your play style.
This would be nice. A lot of the excitement of finding my second piece of tech turned to disappointment that I couldn't actually use it with the first one. Tech already costs energy to use, and is limited to 4 equipped. Would it be that unreasonable to be able to double-jump and dash without having to fiddle in your inventory between them?
God yes! This Tech system got a lot of potential to be a sort of Metroidvania fast paced epic battle. Imagine, boss fight with dual pistol. Having a rough time, low hp... but energy is back at full capacity. No time to eat a bandage, he's too fast. You double jump to dodge the attack, dash over his head while shooting, land, switch to melee and landing a good blow. You see that the boss only have one bar of health left. You only have one chance or you end up a Floran's breakfast. You blink behind, avoid a powerfull punch and land the finishing blow. Thats how i imagined how Starbound combat system was.... Now i'm very disapointed to know that i can equip 4 tech and have to open menu, click to activate double jump press escape or close inventory, then continue fighting... Hey i need swift! open menu select tech 2 ...Oh wait am i dead... Seriously? Game design or we just dont know yet how to use tech properly? I would like to hear the devs about Tech.
However nice it sounds to be able to link 2-3 techs together sounds i think it would be way over powered.
Don't forget that Tech rely on Energy and this can easily be tweaked. If it's OP, the game and monster AI are not well balanced. Why? Games like Metroid, Castlevania, MegaMan X series, even Terraria have done it several time in the past and proved that it's possible (this is a solid and fun combat system). If it's well done it could be great. Right now it feel clumsy opening menu to select active Tech. I think it's dumb and unappealing to have more than one Tech.
I must say, I do like the way you described that. It would obviously need some balancing, but this would, in my opinion, be worth the time it would take to balance it.
There could also be a mixture of passive and active tech, with passive tech being automatically "active" (like double tapping for dash or double jumping normally) but instead of other techs create an "item" that allows its use when equipped, it would still require the tech to be equipped, thus not allowing more abuse, but could be put on the hot-bar similarly to skills in MMOs. This way techs don't need to be mixed (although i LOVE that idea), and can still be usable. Maybe combination versions can eventually be made, but have them be higher level techs, either requiring them to be made via table, or even just be better variants on higher difficulty planets. Either way, just my thoughts, love the idea though. Edit: I thought i should elaborate on the roles Passive: would be enabled by something basic (key movements such as double tap or natural double jump, or morph suit on 2x tapdown). This could as cm97878 stated, be used as a percentage also, which could be fun but would require a ton more balancing. I still like your difference in passive and active though. Actives: would be the ones more akin to an MMO skill (as listed above), things that you wouldn't necessarily have a preset button to do, like a blink or a fire burst, or even the Mech. I.e. many games have double jumps and dashes on major character movement buttons like jump or directional inputs, but most games don't let you summon a robot suit or blink, by having some abilities on toolbar and some on keys, you can make orgiinization and uses of abilities more player freindly.
When I think of passive and active, dash or double jump would both be active, with something like a 10% speed increase being passive, but that's just me. With my version of passive, the modifier chips would be passive effects, while tech would be active. Thanks for the support!
Funny i posted something similar yesterday on another thread. http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/active-tech-ability-keybindings.40642/ I really like the active/passive idea. With the microchips upgrade it could be nice. Ex: Active: dash with a electric field chips: electric blast at the end of dash animation doing X damage. Passive: HP + X with a poison resist chip +10. Of course the linking Tech upgrades and microchips should be hard to find/craft, but worth the exploration on differents worlds and sectors. I think it might even encourage the player to out in the deep space and mine on different planet for ore and stuffs. Edit: dont forget that Tech uses energy bar so you have to think whats best in a situation and whats not.
-Give us 1-3 passive tech slots -If they must be used 1 at a time at least give us the option to quick select them. -add way more techs than 10. -the combining idea is great, could be used with all non-passive techs.
I'm thinking of coming up with some random techs and, in attack tech chips' case, their combinations, along with some mod chips. If there's a bit of interest, I'll do it. EDIT: Or at least I would, except stupid Norton continually blocks Krita, so I can't sketch it out. >:I EDIT 2: I frigging give up. I guess I am not making a diagram of what I was thinking of, nor will I sketch any of the skills out. All text from here. I truly loathe Norton. (It deleted a necessary file while I was sketching it, and crashed the whole thing, erasing everything.)
Having a ton of techs would be too overpowered, unless they were made even more rare than they are already. Other than that I agree, I'm glad someone else thinks there should be more than just movement techs in the game.
Im thinking the passive ones could be the utilities and movement, and im thinking 2 slots for those ONLY, both being active at all times. At this point you can keep basically most of the ones you have and just change them to passives, I.E. Bubbles, Jumps, Tele. (just increase energy consumption) So now you can just go crazy with the 4 slots you have for, thats right; attacks. Add Hot keys. And eventually, add a secondary hot key (being able to choose 2 out of the 4, and combine techs for extra damage or better use. Because honestly, the monster health thing and the lvl 1-10 wont last long, were testing waters right now. we cant really say much on balance because it can just be changed. i am just letting you know what i want as a player. and i loved the cloud in a jar and rocket boots in terraria, i still died and troubles with boss's, i agree the techs need to be balanced, mainly the mobility ones. Im going to come up with a list of techs that could be used ( trying to stay away from magic as much as possible)
I'd rather have let's say two or three passive slots and then the other (four or more) tech slots for movement, utility, what have you with at least a hotkey to switch between them.
While I like the idea of linking techs, I think that just a keyboard shortcut to switch between the 4 equipped techs quickly would be enough. What you're doing here, is inventing tech menu from the scratch... That would take months to implement an balance.
I believe you're overestimating the complexity of a UI, and it's a worthy change even if it were to take that long.
It wouldnt take that long. not with a team as big as chucklefish, not to mention its not like were changing the game or were working on a super intense game in the graphics department. also i may point out the game isnt even 80% done yet and we dont even have 40% of it in the beta yet. I do believe they have a lot of surprises wait for us, they do read these polls you know.
I'll post the techs here as well as edit them into the main post. Static Burst: You overcharge your tech, releasing an AoE burst of electricity shot all around you. low damage, medium range. Example combinations: Secondary: Firewall - Static Burst now knocks enemies back, has a larger range, and has its element changed from electric to fire. (Yes, this tech name is in fact somewhat of a pun) Seismic Wave: Special leg robotics allow you to slam your foot down with earthshaking force, stunning enemies. Varied damage and range: Enemies closer take more damage and stun time. Can jump and activate in air to slam down, slightly increasing range, damage and stun time. Landing on enemy does maximum damage/stun time. Example combinations: Secondary: Fireball - Seismic Wave now releases a plume of flame on impact, increasing damage. Secondary: Firewall - Seismic Wave now releases two walls of flame that spread outwards, replacing the ground smash and knocking enemies back instead of stunning them. Firewall: You toss down a special piece of tech which releases a towering wall of flame in front of you. Medium damage, can toss down at a small range, slows enemies who pass in it for a short time (Possible minor damage increase against the Glitch race, for puns sake? >.> ) Example Combinations: Secondary: Static Burst - Firewall's element changes to electricity. Enemies that touch wall are Electrocuted, which can leap to nearby foes. Now, I did not just choose these three techs for fun. There is a purpose I wanted to demonstrate here. Three, actually: First: You can now see how the Secondary slot effects the techs. Second: You can see how switching primary and secondary has a different effect (Firewall and Static Burst, or visa versa). Third: You can see how some tech combinations change more than just the appearance/damage/element/range, in the case of Seismic Wave/Firewall. With this system, they would not need a massive array of attack techs. They could make a small amount and have the combinations be there to fit your play style.
Well, the thread was first about how hard it is to change techs during fight, now it is about combining them... I'm very, very okay with that. But we would need a lot of techs, just to make sure that we won't see whole servers using one combination all the time because it's the only one worth using. Not that I think nobody can be original, it's just that users of, for example, firewall would be forced by stomp users to change their playstyle or die. I'm looking at you, Loadout, you damn mines and tesla beams.
