Quite a few people are a little flustered with how lack-luster the Matter Manipulator (MM) is. Most often, I myself, find using a pick is most often times better, thus resulting in the MM going un-touched. With Starbound being the Sci-Fi game that it is, I'd like to use my MM more. Allot more. That leads me to my idea that I posted in another thread. That original thread can be found here. Give the player the ability to inject/re-program/re-train/re-calibrate our MM's to better deal with the unforeseen minerals and items found in the universe. My thoughts? Do this by taking the same items that are required to make picks, or other tools, be used to create blue-prints or schematics that then upgrade the MM to work as if it's respected level of blue print or schematic. With such a system, we can run around like the star adventures we are, and use our fancy equipment to its fullest potential! Would love to hear every one's thoughts.
I agree, though I'd rather the MM be upgraded through research rather than just pumping ores into it. Upgrading the MM should feel like a technological achievement rather than the "shinier rock" progression of pickaxes. We are space cadets, we need tools fitting of our advanced intelligence!
Here is what I think, I think there should be different upgrades for each function of the manipulator(mining, tree cutting, range, etc.). Also i think it should change aesthetically . Not sure how it would upgrade, I suppose ores would work, but maybe each part should have a chance to spawn in dungeons and such.
The matter manipulator is weak on purpose. Otherwise, why would you ever use a pickaxe? The MM doesn't have durability and way better range. The ONLY advantage of the pick is the 9 square block mining surface.
Who says the pickaxes have to be useful? They can be scrapped or kept as novelty items. An all-in-one tool would be cool, fun to use, convenient, and generally more awesome than having most of your quickbar space dedicated to various tools, and it better fits the sci-fi theme.
I like the idea, though I would combine some of the ideas mentioned in this thread. Make the pickaxes easy to craft (which they are) but upgrading the matter manipulator difficult. Another option is somehow making the pickaxe/axe/etc a requirement to upgrade the matter manipulator. I do like the overall idea, but I also think the pickaxes should remain relevant somehow.
By a story aspect, if you are on the run and you didn’t bring any of your belongings with you and your ship was dead in space, you would need to create tools from found objects to survive. Thing is our ship isn’t dead (just out of fuel) and we did bring our matter manipulator with us and it seems to be working, so why give us a Swiss army knife if you’re going to tell us to beat two rocks together to do everything. Just get rid of the standard terrestrial tools and work with what we have. Matter Manipulator- if you wanted to add an aspect to the story say that it was damaged in our adventure and that is why it works, but at a diminished capacity. How do we restore it to its original functionality? Well as an example, this part is broken and we need copper wires, so we find copper ore, take to the ships (functioning) tech computer and 3D printer to form the parts we need and then combines it with the matter manipulator and thus having brought back some of its functionality and speed, now we just need the iron casing, then the silver socket and the gold coupler, etc. With this though, you would get to a point where the manipulator would be completely fixed and what then? Upgrades and Modifications- So in the first part of the game you are just trying to repair your device to its normal speed and functionality but then you could find new parts and ores to create new upgrades and modifications for the device so you could increase speed, range, cut size, build size and shape, etc. These are just some ideas that I was thinking of today and I am glad to see others are thinking along the same lines. This game does make me ask a lot of questions about space survival like, why in the world do we have a crafting bench and smelter made out of wood and stone when we have a perfectly good space ship in orbit that can do about million things?
I had my own thread for this as it was different than any other MM improvement ideas I had found so far, but I'll post a version of it in here as it is in line with what egatnom said. General tiered speed and range increases The first thing I would like to see is the ability to upgrade the speed that it breaks down materials. This could be done at the cost of pixels and tiered materials (Copper, Gold, etc). The increase in speed would always leave it slower than that tool tier (as it currently exists, still hoping they are removed), so upgrading the Matter Manipulator to Diamond tier would put it above Platinum but below Diamond in terms of speed. It could also potentially increase the range as it is upgraded. Changing the grid size for destroying and placing blocks Another useful addition would be a way to change the size of the grid for breaking down and placing materials, at the cost of speed in doing so. The 2x2 grid would remain the default, but it could be "dialed in" to different grid sizes based on the tier system I proposed above. So it could work something like this: Standard: 2x2 Copper: 3x 3 (darn auto emoticon replacement) Gold: 4x4 Platinum: 5x5 Diamond: 6x6 I'm aware that the tool tiers may not be in the correct order or I may be missing some, but I am basing it off my current experience and the Wiki. For example, lets say that the Diamond Tier Matter Manipulator breaks a 2x2 grid of Cobblestone in 1 second. That puts it at a rate of 4 Cobblestone per second. If you held Shift to make it the 1x1 grid, it would remain at the speed of 4 Cobblestone per second, so each individual block would take 0.25 seconds to break. In addition to that, you could dial it up to the 3x 3 grid (9 total), and it would take 2.25 seconds to break the Cobblestone, because it is still breaking 4 Cobblestone per second, and there is 9 Cobblestone total. It can be dialed all the way up to the 6x6 grid (36 total) and take 9 seconds to break that much Cobblestone. While it doesn't actually save any time, it can be useful for clearing simple large squares with ease. It can also be useful for clearing materials that roll down slopes like Gravel, as it can be pretty easy to get yourself trapped in that if you aren't careful. It can also be used to quickly extract individual Ore without breaking the surrounding material. That large grid can also be used in placing material. So if you wanted to make a quick shack out of wood, you can place a 6x6 block of wood, dial backwards to a 4x4 grid, and use that to clear out the inside of the large wooden block you just placed. Then all it needs is a door and you have a quick temporary house. Ideally this would all be done by crafting upgraded components rather than just applying tiered ore directly to the MM, but each component could have different tiers. Perks for additional effects and features Another idea is to have different perks attached to it that give direct effects to the tool. For example, there could be a perk called "Ore Extractor" that can mine Ore without breaking the block beneath it, which would allow you to cleanly dig out the ore without having to leave a bunch of little holes in the ground or waste time repairing them. Another potential upgrade could increase the light radius that appears when using the MM to break or place objects, so you can have a decent idea of where you are placing something in low light conditions. Perhaps another upgrade that allows you to re-position objects that have been placed by aiming the MM at it, left clicking to begin the breaking process, then holding E to pick it up and move it.
Badprenup- I like all those ideas especially the size change, only thing I would say is that the upgrade would have to be spaced out between tiers of ore or cut off after the first tier set of ore so you couldn’t get like a 500x500 cut with all the other ores that we have not seen or heard about yet. It would also be nice if you got the higher tier cut if you could just click shift or another key to change and lock the size for what you needed for at that time, so higher level tool could do 1, 2x2, 4x4, etc. locking to each with each click of the set key. Other then that, I would also really like to attach the flashlight to it.
I agree with this idea. To be honest I am sick of different ore-tiered tools.. its old and doesn't fit at all with the sci-fi feel of Starbound in my opinion. To solve the durability issue you could add the need for batteries. Once the battery runs out you will be on reserve power (basic functionality).
To be honest, there's no real need to replicate how pickaxes work 1-for-1. Pickaxes are trivial to maintain, why not just opt for the convience of the MM as it is? So long the mining speed isn't faster, convenience won't make the game too easy.
I think the matter manipulator shouldn't be an item at all. It should be something that's on the player's person at all times, considering how you need it to place items, and there's no way for you to get another one if you happen to accidentally drop it and lose it. Maybe having a special slot reserved for it on the hotbar, in between the left hand and right hand slots. In this way, you could modify/upgrade with mods and extensions for the tool that you'd make (like, for instance, a crystal refractor to concentrate the beam and make it mine quicker). You'd be able to equip these in a limited number (2-3 in my opinion) of slots for those items granted in your inventory. This would help prevent the device from becoming too overpowered through constant upgrades.
