Reactor is bad game design

[>//The_FALCON]

People pick focused fixing specifically because they don't want to deal with a 10 second fuse while they're trying to figure out the new thing. In focused fixing mode, it should be extra sensitive to mistakes instead of being a timebomb.

Also bad game design is kicking the player aaaaaaaaaall the way back to the beginning if they didn't manage to stabilize it. A hallmark of roguelikes is that the player can immediately go back and start again. Maybe the first time the player encounters a reactor, the game should stop time or something.

I'm at the point where I actively avoid any contract with a reactor in it, so I can actually play the game. At least the time bombs have a fair and balanced 100 seconds time limit and a single venn diagram to look at.

Also, please add a first rent skip upgrade. It's tedious to go through the first few days of low paying contracts again and again. I feel like at this point I can do these blind...

[Daff]

Just remove the core, it takes 5 seconds and gives you all the time you need.

[>//The_FALCON]

Originally posted by Daff:

Just remove the core, it takes 5 seconds and gives you all the time you need.

0 thoughts spent about the new player experience. how typical.

everything in this game is easy when you have prior experience and knowledge... this game is about discovery

[Chaos_cake]

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

Originally posted by Daff:

Just remove the core, it takes 5 seconds and gives you all the time you need.

0 thoughts spent about the new player experience. how typical.

everything in this game is easy when you have prior experience and knowledge... this game is about discovery

This honestly describes the whole entire game. It's the same thing over and over again so eventually you just know the whole book by heart and it's just a mental checklist. But when you start, it's just nonstop failure and "well, you should do this one *obvious* thing" that is all but obvious.

[Daff]

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

Originally posted by Daff:

Just remove the core, it takes 5 seconds and gives you all the time you need.

0 thoughts spent about the new player experience. how typical.

everything in this game is easy when you have prior experience and knowledge... this game is about discovery

the game is about dying repeatedly and learning from each failure and improving over time. its a roguelike.

[>//The_FALCON]

Originally posted by Daff:

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

0 thoughts spent about the new player experience. how typical.

everything in this game is easy when you have prior experience and knowledge... this game is about discovery

the game is about dying repeatedly and learning from each failure and improving over time. its a roguelike.

how are you supposed to learn and practice it when it explodes in 10 seconds and doesn't appear until 1 hour in a run

[Daff]

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

Originally posted by Daff:

the game is about dying repeatedly and learning from each failure and improving over time. its a roguelike.

how are you supposed to learn and practice it when it explodes in 10 seconds and doesn't appear until 1 hour in a run

you could read the manual. the reactor is one of the simplest modules in the game even if you count the coolant module as part of it. the only part of it thats remotely problematic is remembering that the fuel switch being down means its on.

[>//The_FALCON]

Originally posted by Daff:

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

how are you supposed to learn and practice it when it explodes in 10 seconds and doesn't appear until 1 hour in a run

you could read the manual. the reactor is one of the simplest modules in the game even if you count the coolant module as part of it. the only part of it thats remotely problematic is remembering that the fuel switch being down means its on.

one of the simplest? i could name 90% of the modules as being simpler than the reactor

[Daff]

Originally posted by >//The_FALCON:

Originally posted by Daff:

you could read the manual. the reactor is one of the simplest modules in the game even if you count the coolant module as part of it. the only part of it thats remotely problematic is remembering that the fuel switch being down means its on.

one of the simplest? i could name 90% of the modules as being simpler than the reactor

it has two parts that can be replaced, one of which is a pump. The coolant section requires an incredibly simple minigame and the main reactor requires you just slide the fader on the coolant to the level of the fuel. the hardest thing about it is the time limit which is something you can extremely easily nullify as a threat by undoing three bolts, flipping one switch and sliding a fader. It doesnt even have a pancake module or wiring.

[shanaqui]

I basically have a decision flow with reactors. I start out with a pump in my inventory just in case, for the cooler.

Open the reactor module, hit the button so you can see the core. Is there fuel and coolant?
- Fuel, but no coolant: fix the cooler, including turning the pump on/replacing it, adding ice, and then going back to pull the slider along
- No fuel, coolant's fine: not seen this happen, would probably pull the reactor since fixing fuel tanks requires a bit more time
- No fuel, no coolant: pull the reactor

On one occasion, I saw a reactor that was faulty itself, IIRC? I just pulled that straight away and replaced it with a new one.

To pull the reactor, mental checklist:
- Undo the bolts
- Flip fuel switch off, slide coolant slider down to nothing
- Undo the clips
- Grab the reactor and put it in your inventory

Once the reactor's been pulled, you have infinite time (in focused mode) to fix the coolant and fuel. Once those are fixed, you can put the reactor back, reversing the checklist.

If you work a bit slower and you're not confident to fix coolant in time, just pull the reactor.

It's punishing when you get it wrong (e.g. accidentally pull it out without turning off the fuel feed). If you're quick, you can pause the game and quit to main menu (or alt-F4) so you can just start the day over. Not quite in the spirit of roguelites, but a good way to get your second chance at the reactor sooner rather than later.

[Ultimoron]

the biggest problem with this is that for the reactor you have to understand it before you even start the job, you dont have time to read in the book what the reactor is about to do....

the first reactor is a preset kill switch so the player has to do over a second time...

this is not realy that much fun... ( just ecountered my first reactor)

you basically have to stop the game, und go in the forum or on youtube to learn what this mess is about. to. Thats why i agree that the reactor is a bad concept....

[shanaqui]

I guess for me, because it's a roguelite and I expected to die for stupid reasons as part of the gameplay loop while I learned to do everything, I find it OK (though I understand the frustration). The game does give you a head's up that you're entering trickier territory with the fatal tag, so it's not like people don't know something tricky's coming up.

Mostly I'm reminded of my mechanic dad's #1 piece of advice: always, always read the whole manual first. You'd never catch him accepting a job for that one guy...!

Oddly enough he has advice to give about filling doughnuts as well, since he's done that job, too...

[illegal legos]

You can get a rough idea of how dangerous a reactor will be before you even pick the job. Look at the module icons on the bottom, underneath the pilot's portrait. If the fuel module needs repairs, you'll know you need to pull the reactor core immediately, because replacing damaged fuel tanks takes too long. If the cooler is there, you'll need to run and get a pump but it might be safe to fix the cooler and leave the core where it's at.

[Xaviar]

I've only taken one reactor, I read the manual first, and I'm still stuck before even getting to the core. How do you know what button to push on the captcha? I read the manual before taking the job, and then when I went to the reactor I didn't know what to do to avoid locking it out, so I took the book back out and then died.

It doesn't help that I don't have sound -- the book seems to indicate that there is a beeping countdown timer, but I couldn't hear that, so it was just: Oh, I remember this screen from the book. If I do it wrong it will lock out. What was the right thing? *open book, look for answer, die*

And then looking again later it seems that the book doesn't actually have the answer, so I've just been avoiding them so far since trial and error means losing a couple hours of progress when I can just ignore it and am still seeing other new things.

[illegal legos]

The grimoire has weirdly terrible instructions for reactors, the one thing that can instantly kill you. It goes like this:

-press green button
-shut off fuel pump by flipping top-left switch to UP position
-shut off cooler by turning top-right fader all the way down
-unscrew 2 bottom bolts
-unbolt top screw
-open 3 tabs
-take core
-unclench

[Daff]

Originally posted by Xaviar:

I've only taken one reactor, I read the manual first, and I'm still stuck before even getting to the core. How do you know what button to push on the captcha? I read the manual before taking the job, and then when I went to the reactor I didn't know what to do to avoid locking it out, so I took the book back out and then died.

It doesn't help that I don't have sound -- the book seems to indicate that there is a beeping countdown timer, but I couldn't hear that, so it was just: Oh, I remember this screen from the book. If I do it wrong it will lock out. What was the right thing? *open book, look for answer, die*

And then looking again later it seems that the book doesn't actually have the answer, so I've just been avoiding them so far since trial and error means losing a couple hours of progress when I can just ignore it and am still seeing other new things.

its always the green button. its effectively just a question asking you if youre certified to work on reactors with green being yes and yellow being no.