Question of the Week #6: Colony Customization

[PT]

We've decided not to do questions every week; they'll now be every 2-3 weeks. So they're not really a "question of the week" any more but we're gonna keep the name because it has a nice ring to it

For #6, we're asking:

What sort of tools would you like to be able to customize the look of your colony in the future?

What new objects or decorations would you like to see in your colony related to that, and how would you like to interact with any sort of system that lets you drive the visual style of your colony?

[Keeden]

add a pump objects so we add water to land and objects add trees and have more

[The Chairman]

I havea great idea involving tunnels. Make it so there will be a tunnle tab in the building menu. The tab will contian regular tunnles and decorated tunnles. Decorated tunnles will be more expensive than regular tunnles, but they will provide a moral boost.

[Paraleo]

Cover the big (worm) holes in the ground with something,like observation posts if there is fish in there.

Also please can we cover the areas where you can see the ground near tunnels, it looks out of place on desert maps specifically.

[Paraleo]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Mineolf:

I havea great idea involving tunnels. Make it so there will be a tunnle tab in the building menu. The tab will contian regular tunnles and decorated tunnles. Decorated tunnles will be more expensive than regular tunnles, but they will provide a moral boost.

also as a quality of life improvement please let us build more automatically, like the generic ones.

[mecklenberg]

I'll cover various things in this post, which I hope is not a problem!

Some things that could be added:

A slider to increase the definition of the fog of war on the expedition map. At the moment it can be very difficult to tell which parts have been explored.

The same for the air quality map. There's very little difference between 87% and 97% at the moment, but the 87% could mean the onset of a major problem.

A separate main tag for the graphs, preferably using the icon that confusingly looks like a graph but actually means 'overlay modes'. I've lost count of the number of times I've clicked that in error.

The current graphs tag buried in the colony control panel actually has something I was going to ask for, namely the ability to keep an eye on resources etc on the mainmap, but it is buggy. Sometimes the graphs/ summaries can't be dismissed as the red X doesn't work properly. It also misses digits over 9999,e.g. 46057 appears as 6057.

Level 3 solar is too much like level 2 solar. This leads to a general comment. If I CTRL to see all items of the same type, I would in this case just get all solar panels which doesn't help. How about CTRL+Alt to see all items of the same type and level?

More things for peeps to do. When population starts to grow, unemployment can be a real problem. One idea is a 'Fitness Centre' (= treadmill, muahaha) which uses say 20 people and produces a limited amout of power. Then there are pubs and bistros and retail centres. More varied skins would be nice, coffee-shop, Chinese restaurant, etc. Even if it's just the colour and banner that changes. The current retail centre is 'outfitters'. What about consumer electronics, furniture store etc?

More generally from the last point, If you are going to rely for example on nanites from kelko, then there are going to be dedicated chemical plants doing nothing but producing sludge. It would be nice to have a choice of skins so that they can be seen on the main map. I know there is a very good tool for going through all the plants, but wouldn't it be so much easier if your one chemical plant set to produce Plague vaccine/nanomedicines actually looks a bit different?

Nanites again. There should be a third level nanite plant employing a lot more people and producing a lot faster.

Permanent trade contracts. I've addressed this before, but there should be a more useful variety, bigger contracts, and a bigger class of trade ship, carrying say 5 times as much. Or the ability to service 'permanent'contracts with more than 1 ship.

Water storage tanks. They would look so cool, and the current solution of sending tens of thousands of tons of water into space simply doesn't make economic sense.

All of these things could be researched, which would give the research people something to do after the initial rush.

And I should add that the maps in this game are wonderful, quite breathtaking actually.. The artwork is as good as I've seen anywhere. More maps, please!


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1202278744

[PT]

Lots of great ideas in this thread! We're reading all of them and considering them carefully. Keep 'em coming!

[LadyAquanine735]

I know! Different types of environments in the parks! We could choose a park with pine trees, or a park with lots of pretty ponds, or a park with flowering orchard trees, or a tropical park with palms. Either that, or the parks could have different colors of flowers and different little setups for the colonists to walk around in.

[StyxAnnihilator]

I do not care much of the details on buildings or terrain, rather how the game is to play,
possibilities and functions.

The building menues could be redesigned to have as few "clicks" as possible. Also mouse movements could be reduced by let them pop up close to the building, even have some more keyboard keys to do stuff. Example: Changing worker priority for a structure. Why do I have to click on the "change" symbol and then set, it could easily be a bar to click on straight away, even a key to "swap to next" (highest goes to lowest). Also could easily put Recycle/Implode on the first (Info) tab.

All that can go into "storage" should be able to be traded, both ways. Maybe you have to do side missions to unlock, but not too slow progression. Of course for Campaigns you put in restrictions.

More "enemies" and things that could go wrong, with a few more defence systems.

Scrubber Drones could get a second function, cleaning up trash (Trash Overlay ?). If you put up defences right, you rarely need SDH's.

Some more morale(+aircleaning ?) buildings in mid-range, 2x2 and 3x3. Theme park, waterland, circus/tivoli, (mini)golf, skiresort, rollercoaster, nightclub/dancing, music/theater/opera, Zoo, market (maybe able to do some trades ?), etc. A big (4x4) one could be motorsport (often takes a bit space). Maybe even bonus if build several side by side.

[PT]

Opprinnelig skrevet av StyxAnnihilator:

All that can go into "storage" should be able to be traded, both ways. Maybe you have to do side missions to unlock, but not too slow progression. Of course for Campaigns you put in restrictions.

The new custom trade contract system now supports this!

[The Great Gazoo]

Water storage tanks is a good idea. For esthetics, you could give a choice to use a tank or a tower.

[Unisol]

Two words: custom flags. Flags on lightning rods, antennae, spires, standalone flags, etc. Bonus points if we can design our own flags and add them to the game(via mods, custom folder with images, or any other way).

[Unisol]

I'd like to see permanent, visible building damage from hazards: burns from lightning strikes, cracks left by falling ice shards, corrosion caused by spores.

[LadyAquanine735]

I like the flag idea. You could also do the various flags of the countries of Earth...though that might not work. The nations we know today wouldn't be the same 500 years from now, plus the Earth History Center mentioned some severe world-wide shakeups from stuff.

[Keeden]

I have a idea put magnetic levitation trains in for long distance travel to colony to colony and you send passengers and goods to them

[Sticky Wicket]

In general: much larger maps with options to spread out in different directions in unique ways; for example being able to use the water on appropriate maps to build floating or subaqauatic structures, being able to build into the sides or tops of the hills/mountainsunique geo-features. Such things would instantly add a lot of replayability to the maps since every time you could do something very different.

Being able to build up and down, and add in a more modular way:
1] Vertical tunnels in addition to the existing horizontal ones, and thus being able to build out in all directions; making towers and tunnels.
2] Modular Arcologies.

Customisable themes and colours with variations in basic shapes for most buildings, in particular some circular options.

An in-game editor where buildings could be custom made (using all the existing parts and pieces) and instantly added to any game in progress. ~ and saved as templates for retrieval in other maps

Being able to add *outposts* that do not have to be physically connected to the main colony complex (purely *linked* by hovercar or docks etc).