Metadata - why is it one-time use only?

[Ext3h]

I actually had not played the game again since the dark fog release, so I was quite surprised to see that Metadata mechanic. Thought to myself - what a nice deal, the more maps you play, the faster you can get up to the previously unlocked tech levels.

Except it didn't work like that. Played my first system up to a point where progression stalled, started a second system, used the Metadata to buy out technology, all fine up to that point.

Except when I wanted to started yet another system. And was confronted with all the Metadata having been CONSUMED by the second system already.

What's up with that nonesense? I would be all means have expected for the Metadata to be usable from then on in EVERY system I start. At least that's also somewhat what the ingame description of Metadata hints to. Everywhere it's eplained as "Metadata is equivalent to the sum of each best savegame per seed you have".

And going by some redit posts, you can actually easily get this by some simple save scumming - just delete the Properties folder (which isn't cloud synced in any case, that's where your Metadata is being marked as "used up"), reload your old systems and your Metadata is back again, as it should, available for use in other systems.

Except even that system is broken as well - as the Properties folder is also saving your Metada USED per world - so having it re-calculated will also make Metadata available for spending in systems you have already used it in.

[Dragonmaster]

Would mean if it wasn’t used that every game you could unlock the whole tree each time. Mainly it more used to jump start you next game or grab an early tech easier

[phillip_lynx_flinx]

it's not at all intuitive that metadata is permanently used up. Especially considering there are now additional sinks for it in the form of respawning Icarus and converting the metadata into Dark Fog materials. I'm hoping the game is eventually updated so that each save has access to the total accumulated metadata.

[Wilhelm]

1. make your game hard af
2. build big dyson things
3. let metadata rain
repeat

[aimozg]

It would made more sense to me that your "best" game would control how many metadata would you be able to spend in every other seed independently.

E.g.
get 1500 metadata in game A
get 2000 in game B
=>
can spend up to 2000 in each other game.

[Dragonmaster]

Originally posted by aimozg:

It would made more sense to me that your "best" game would control how many metadata would you be able to spend in every other seed independently.

E.g.
get 1500 metadata in game A
get 2000 in game B
=>
can spend up to 2000 in each other game.

It actually is best game from the same cluster id not all saves. If you started in a new cluster you would accumulate more metadata thus my post above where you could just get the entire tree in every game after only a few different cluster saves.

Metadata isn’t from your best game only the best game on a cluster. Sure if you used the same seed then you wouldn’t get much data but if you played different seeds then each gives metadata to you.

Example
Game 1-seed 1= 500 meta
Game 2-seed 2= 400 meta
Game 3-seed 1= 1200 meta

You would have 1600 meta data to spend. The first games 500 got improved to 1200 and your second game of 400 from a different seed is added to it

[aimozg]

Originally posted by Dragonmaster:

It actually is best game from the same cluster id not all saves. If you started in a new cluster you would accumulate more metadata thus my post above where you could just get the entire tree in every game after only a few different cluster saves.

My message was a wish/proposal, not an explanation of game mechanics as they are implemented now.

[Ext3h]

Originally posted by Dragonmaster:

You would have 1600 meta data to spend. The first games 500 got improved to 1200 and your second game of 400 from a different seed is added to it

Still, that 1600 Metadata is not exactly much. And if you have already used the 500 metadata from seed 1 as a boost for Game 2, then the second run will only give you 700 new Metadata instead. And that 700 is all you have then available IN TOTAL.

That whole buyout-mechanic doesn't exactly work. You get a poor single-use 30 minutes boost out of a 10 hour savegame.

That mechanic is actively punishing you for starting new clusters which you don't plan on "finishing" as Metadata spent is already lost. INSTEAD of rewarding your for continued playing, by giving you that necessary headstart to actually get new cluster up to the point where you get a reasonable boost to your current Metadata level.

E.g. when you have went to purple cubes for the 10th time, you should expect that the game will let you skip the whole blue/red/yellow progression at least? At this point you should already have blueprints for everything that stage has to offer, so it's just boring repetition. Except without getting to buy-out at least the blueprint tech, you can't even use your blueprints.


And still: The way the mechanic currently works is absolutely not was mentioned in the original FAQ / release notes, nor in the ingame help texts. So I can't help but to think that this mis-design is a a result of mis-communication somewhere, and a different feature got implemented from what the game designer had actually intended. Looks like Metadata spent should had been recorded per save-file, and not account-wide while only Metadata earned should had been an account-wide thing.