An Open Letter to Coffee Stain Studios

[bsampson0330]

I love Satisfactory. Truly, I do. Don't stop making it better for everyone. Here's a short list of things I want to see added/changed to the game.

1: Player companies
The point of the game is to make an efficient factory with the tools given to you. Harvest resources to make things to do jobs for you to make more resources to get automation to make more resources ect, but what if there was competition? During a multiplayer game, you could set up different companies of players who all are trying to complete the same tasks as normal, but separate. This could make multiplayer experience more enjoyable for the competitive players who want to focus of efficiency of the factory rather than the cooperation of having to work with others.
This would let player advance at their own pace, rather than as a whole, with each company, not player, getting their own HUB and Space Elevators. Players could interact with any craft bench placed, but all other buildings would belong to companies, and could only be interacted with by the builders and their allies. Not only would this make for an excellent challenge for larger groups, but would be an integral part in...

2: Aggressive Playstyles
Yes, PVP, combat, raids, all that fun stuff. Companies working apart from each other are bound to run into conflicts, be it land ownership, resource monopolies, and general competitiveness. Player versus Player combat would be a large part of the non-cooperative side of the game, and could be further enhanced by additional weapons. However, as it is now, weapons are only for exploration and self defense. Sure, you can shoot other players now, but it's only for fun and wasting time while your manufacturer slowly turns out 1000 nuclear pastas for the space elevator.
A way to integrate raids would be to make storage containers (but not personal boxes) fair game to all who can reach it, forcing your priority to be to use resources as efficiently as possible, with little waste. In turn, adding a special raiding tool, such as a grabber for snagging items off of enemy conveyors or an EMP launcher to stall trucks and trains could make strategic strikes more dangerous for both sides, as it could cost either side (or both) resources, time, and energy. Either way, competitive modes would add a whole new level of depth to the game.

3: Natural raids
Mankind is not alone. This is an alien world. An alien planet, with ALIENS! Nature is not always kind to man, and man fights back. What if nature was aggressive though? A way to make tactical structures more useful and practical (even in singleplayer) would be to have wandering creatures roaming the world in packs, attacking structures in or near a set path. It would force players to think carefully about where they run conveyor belts, and could make it very dangerous to set up in some areas, as there would be constantly respawning creatures every few hours.
Structures would have durability, and the higher the structure tier is, the more durable it is. Structures could also be repaired, requiring a part of the resources used to craft them to fix. As there are now wandering raids, there must be a wandering solution: Patrol bots! Patrol bots would function similarly to trains, as they must be set on a track, however, the track can be integrated with tier 3 and up conveyor systems, meaning that high tier players can have track that are their entire lines. These bots wouldn't have super high health, but would be repaired at dedicated stations, patrolling until damaged, before returning to get fixed. If destroyed, a repair station would automatically rebuild a new bot, assuming it has the resources be input into it.

4: Increased exploration incentive
Exploration is encouraged. It's a major part of the game, and is the primary way of finding collectibles. However, late in the game, exploration, while easier, becomes less and less profitable. Hard drives and power slugs is the only reason to ever go out once you have a harvester of all resources, and even if you keep expanding, you only have to go out to find another node and set up a miner. On an alien planet, alone, would you really not have a reason to explore?
Various games have different incentives to get you out of your base, such as limited, but respawning resources, rare and powerful items in extremely dangerous areas, and other techniques. In Satisfactory, a way to encourage exploration could be to have random drop pods with rare and powerful items that spawn for a certain time around the map, with said drops being easier to find with maps and easier to get with equipment.

Okay, so maybe not a short list...

[GI Ged]

SF is a chill game, no deadlines no pressure, if you need 100 hours to finish or 1000, if your factory is streamlined or spagetti, no one cares, thats the beauty of this game and why it is so popular. we dont need another RTSG or PvP Game there are plenty out there.

[Tenzek]

It doesn't seem like it would resemble the game we have now at that point.

[Kats]

Originally posted by GI Ged:

SF is a chill game, no deadlines no pressure, if you need 100 hours to finish or 1000, if your factory is streamlined or spagetti, no one cares, thats the beauty of this game and why it is so popular. we dont need another RTSG or PvP Game there are plenty out there.

Doesn't mean they can't implement it, if you and the people you play with don't want to compete, you don't need to, that's something they can make an option before even starting the save. Same with everything else.

Just because you don't want to, doesn't mean others feel the same and having the option for things like this would not impact you in any way.

Personally find the company idea to be a really fun idea if fleshed out, even if I won't play it myself as nobody I know plays this game lul.
It would make for really great entertainment from streamers that's for sure.

I see tons of people disagreeing with ideas for this game simply because it doesn't belong in this chill, no threat game or various other reasons, but its always just how they see the game.
And despite all of these things that people suggest that get denied for -insert reason- could always have an option to opt out of any number of these things, people still don't want it.
If there's an option, why does it at all concern you? You would still be able to play as you do now, and others who do want whatever it is can enjoy their optional content.

I do not mean that people shouldn't disagree with ideas of course. But its every single time if someone suggests something that even remotely would introduce a feature that adds some optional content that, either changes an existing feature or adds a feature that would at all change the game from being the "chill factory game", despite these things usually being easy to make entirely optional.

[Mogges]

But you must decide, which direction to go; and the devs decided to make it peaceful and chilly, that´s it. Peaceful mode / agressive mode has to be programmed, active animals have to be programmed, deadlines and time pressure, their mechanics have to be programmed....it is all time and costs money.
Ever played a shooter in peaceful stealthmode? No....because you purchased the game to shoot. Chilly factory building, buy Satisfactory. If you want an agressive combat factory builder, program one or wait for a company doing it for you. if they see potential and sales in it, it will be done. ;-)

[Kats]

Originally posted by Mogges:

But you must decide, which direction to go; and the devs decided to make it peaceful and chilly, that´s it. Peaceful mode / agressive mode has to be programmed, active animals have to be programmed, deadlines and time pressure, their mechanics have to be programmed....it is all time and costs money.
Ever played a shooter in peaceful stealthmode? No....because you purchased the game to shoot. Chilly factory building, buy Satisfactory. If you want an agressive combat factory builder, program one or wait for a company doing it for you. if they see potential and sales in it, it will be done. ;-)

A game can be made with it being chill as main focus, but add options like the Company option for the people that want it.
Would this take a while to implement? Of course it would, when I say "easy" or "simple", its in relative terms, as there's far more difficult features to implement (AI lul).
But it would also be a nice addition that I would bet many would enjoy, be it watching streamers compete which is always a lot of fun, like the somewhat recent RUST craze (which brings in money), or players competing with friends of course

On the hostile mobs/raid idea I agree with you here as that's AI that needs to be coded, which by the sounds of the idea, they'd want something more advanced than "wander around" and "attack on sight" so this post is not about that suggestion at all.

However, the company and PvP ideas are, for the most part, UI.
PvP damage is a toggle.
The company idea would of course be harder to implement though a lot of it is UI. Main concern would be performance but I would say its likely not a problem, considering some of the bases I've seen, and based on my understanding of the idea, people wouldn't reach the levels of mega bases.
Raids (PvP raids I assume since its in the PvP paragraph) I assume are like in RUST so, again mostly just a PvP toggle, depends on what exactly "raids" means here. Structure damage for example would be a bit of work to work out how much damage the weapons do and how much health buildings have.

All the weapons and other equipment suggested would also be a lot to implement, but are all cool ideas that would fit in with a feature like this and so it would be worth the time it takes.

[CursedPanther]

Originally posted by Kats:

despite it being entirely optional

Can't care less if the devs decide to add all those features mentioned as an expansion or whatever after the 1.0 release. However as of this stage in the development, I also think that they should not take priority and divert resources and manpower away from achieving the developers' original goals first. OP's no. 4 will be covered in the near future obviously since the purposes of the weird glowing artifacts and SAM ores dotted around the world have yet to be implemented in the game, not to mention a campaign story is also already being worked on.

Meanwhile in case someone needs something to scratch that 'competing companies on an alien world' itch, try Offworld Trading Company.

[Kats]

Originally posted by CursedPanther:

Originally posted by Kats:

despite it being entirely optional

Can't care less if the devs decide to add all those features mentioned as an expansion or whatever after the 1.0 release. However as of this stage in the development, I also think that they should not take priority and divert resources and manpower away from achieving the developers' original goals first. OP's no. 4 will be covered in the near future obviously since the purposes of the weird glowing artifacts and SAM ores dotted around the world have yet to be implemented in the game, not to mention a campaign story is also already being worked on.

Meanwhile in case someone needs something to scratch that 'competing companies on an alien world' itch, try Offworld Trading Company.

I mean, I agree something like this should wait until after 1.0 lul.

[©.VorteX]

PvP? Yeah no. When i want to deal with petty pieces of s—t i go to sea of thieves.

Animals attacking conveyor belts? Thus forcing you to randomly have to go defend/fix a particular point of the KILOMETERS you set up across mountains and valleys?
You have a weird idea of fun.

[Kats]

Originally posted by VorteX:

PvP? Yeah no. When i want to deal with petty pieces of s—t i go to sea of thieves.

Animals attacking conveyor belts? Thus forcing you to randomly have to go defend/fix a particular point of the KILOMETERS you set up across mountains and valleys?
You have a weird idea of fun.

See what I mean

[GI Ged]

well i say that games like 7days2die or CoH also fun and good games and i play them as well, but it was refreshing that Satisfactory's developers set "lets chill" at the first place.
Games like SF are rare to find and they inspire young and old, so why change what is allready good. If they implement a nice and funny story, this game will become my alltime favorit.

[Kats]

Originally posted by GI Ged:

well i say that games like 7days2die or CoH also fun and good games and i play them as well, but it was refreshing that Satisfactory's developers set "lets chill" at the first place.
Games like SF are rare to find and they inspire young and old, so why change what is allready good. If they implement a nice and funny story, this game will become my alltime favorit.

If its made into an optional mode there would be no change for you unless you decide to enable it.

[Mykepatch]

Didn't Coffee Stain already state that all this won't be in the game more than once I think??? If I remember well...
So I guess asking for them repeatedly won't change anything.
I love the game as it is, but don't have any appreciation about pvp or whatever else... Just remind that as far as I understood, Coffee Stain doens't lead this way!

[©.VorteX]

Originally posted by Kats:

If its made into an optional mode there would be no change for you unless you decide to enable it.

It may come as an alien concept for you, but introducing such elements requires a MASSIVE amount of additional work and it would take the game in directions it was not intended to take.

You yourself, after apparently giving it a bit of thought, have admitted that implementing "rust-like" raid mechanics would be more than "just UI". You have any idea how much balancing work would structure health and weapon damage take? Apparently not. It's like you're living in a fairy tale.

Satisfactory is supposed to be a chill game. Not made with PvP in mind as a major element, and that's what makes it famous and appreciated, ERGO it would be a pointless waste of time and energy to create a whole major PvP aspect, regardless if it comes before or after 1.0. The "it would be optional anyway" is a flimsy defense and could be applied to literally any other pointless and frankly stupid idea.

It's not about "how we see the game". It's about how the game IS. If you want PvP as a primary aspect go somewhere else.

[Mogges]

Do you know "The long dark"? Fantastic survival game with georgous graphics.
Just imagine, somebody in a forum asks the developers to implement a city building aspect ( huts, hunting lodge, skyscraper made of wood and such ), develop the possibility to craft spaceships and explore the galaxy ( don´t know, mabye found a ship somewhere in the snow...), meet other survivers in multiplayer, which are infected by a virus and he has to kill them..........this is not "The long dark".
And a factory logistics game with PvP, weapons and attacking animals in the dozends is no longer Satisfactory.
Little exaggerated, sorry.

[Dark Phoenix]

Originally posted by Kats:

Originally posted by GI Ged:

well i say that games like 7days2die or CoH also fun and good games and i play them as well, but it was refreshing that Satisfactory's developers set "lets chill" at the first place.
Games like SF are rare to find and they inspire young and old, so why change what is allready good. If they implement a nice and funny story, this game will become my alltime favorit.

If its made into an optional mode there would be no change for you unless you decide to enable it.

Sorry, this always grinds my gears...and im so sorry for whats about to come as a result...

So....there is no such this as optional. Lets look at how much work away from the core game style that you want the devs to do for an optional feature that not everyone will play.

1. Player companies.
So this probably isn't huge, barring the need for an overhaul of the netcode, which still needs to be done. The challenge will be creating a faction system, which people can join, as well as support for more than 4 players. In games like minecraft, this can work well, the map is procedural, so resources arn't hugely scarce, though players can be pushed out of an area by the expanse of larger factions.
Though this leads into the fact that the map isn't built for multiple corperations. If a corperation is pushed off the map, well, thats game over for them. Evetything they have built is lost, and they cannot make progress. In minecraft, this isn't an issue, they can set up elsewhere; starting from scratch. Basically- you are suggesting a system where players can force other players off the server because they don't play as much, or don't have the strength to hold an oil node.

2 and 3. You split them out but its the same problem.

In order to have meaningful combat, you need base destruction. You also need improved ai, and a way to deal with the skybases.

So, lets talk about the general additions that would be needed.

Base physics - unsupported sections would collapse, unsupported buildings would be destroyed. Remember, physics calculations for all this could really stress the cpu
Flying aggressive ai, or ground ai that will attack supports as well as buildings.
Turrets (requires anim, model, code)
Structures would now need 3 model types, intact, damaged, destroyed.
The gamemode would be need to be rebalenced.

4. Limited resources on a set map.

Just...no. You even more severly impact the effect of camping resources, by then makign those camped resources vanish after a while.

Essentially, i know what all this is for.

When you introduce scarcity, you create conflict. Human trait unfortuantly. In some games, you can encorage this. Think how fortnite does its vaults. People want the special weapons, so you encorage firefights in these areas.

Basically, you want this to be the next combat factory game...its not built with that in mind, and your "jsut make it optional" game would cause the actual game to suffer as a result.

I hope you get the point. If not, somewhere theres a fair sized chunk of a list that i wrote out for what would be needed just for base defence.