Cosmoteer Official Forum

Walt It's possible my opinion will change after launch, but for now, any discussion about the new PvE mode's balance is purely speculative and I don't think warrants the creation of a whole new forum section.

Walt The current balance is already being thrown out of whack, resource costs is just one of many reasons for that.

If you believe you can predict how your changes will effect the balance you should be soliciting feedback now. If you don't believe you can predict how your changes will effect the balance you shouldn't make them coincide with the Steam release.

What I expect to happen is that the content creators that have covered Cosmoteer in the past will cover the Steam release. And they will play the new PvE content not PvP. And they will approach this as basically new players because your "novel game concept" coverage was years ago.

If the balance is bad when the Steam release related coverage spike occurs it will hurt growth.

Walt Even a single thread soliciting feedback to inform your changes before you get too attached to them would be useful.

I suspect for instance that the gameplay loop will be less fun with resource replenishment runs in between combats and the most efficient "just enough" ammo builds will be the most frustrating. "The punishment for farming slimes is farming slimes," is no longer held to be good design if it ever was.

I am quite certain that the values of parts will vary substantially between PvP players, PvE players, and PvE NPC designers if resources for replenishment are tracked and limited to a degree that gives that tracking any purpose.

Atarlost I agree the "just enough ammo" builds are really quite frustrating, I think some thought needs to go into how to avoid those types of meta, if that indeed does become the case.

Dibs Will resource requirements for ammo and missile factories be able to be toggled on/off for pvp?

No.

Dibs How large are the resource stacks?

Depends on the resource. Bullets are 20/tile and missile parts 10/tile. Raw resources are usually 5/tile but each raw resource can generally create a full stack of bullets/missiles.

Dibs How much mass does a full resource stack contribute to the ships mass?

Zero.

Dibs How long can a single resource stack feed a single continuously operating ammo factory or a continuously operating missile factory?

According to my calculations, a single stack of sulfur can supply an ammo factory for 50 seconds (producing 100 ammo).

Dibs Will resources dropped from PvE enemies be a randomized amount, or what is actually left in the PvE ships inventory?

Destroyed parts drop a small amount of resources. Salvaged parts drop more. Resources in storage drop at 50% when destroyed or 100% when salvaged.

Dibs Will killing PvE enemies alone be enough to replenish resources for player ships heavily invested in cannons and or missiles?

Probably not, at least not reliably so.

Dibs Can excess resources be sold for profit?

Yes.

Dibs Will cannon or missile focused ships need to supplement resource replenishment via mining or purchasing more resources?

Probably. (It's cheap, especially if the raw resources are purchased at stations and then manufactured by the player.)

Dibs Will resources be infinitely available at market for purchase?

They're not infinite at any given point in time but stations will restock after some time as trade ships drop off resupplies.

Dibs Will asteroid fields/mining locations respawn/reset, are they infinite or finite for mining?

Currently finite, but not 100% sure yet. (NPC mining ships could create balance issues if finite, which is why I'm not sure.)

Dibs Will the buy/sale cost of resources change from location to location? Will those values fluctuate over time?

Currently no but ideally yes, just not sure if dynamic resource prices will make it in time for launch, it's a lower-priority feature.

Dibs Will crew require access to inventories?

For what purpose?

Dibs Will inventories be a set base size like ammo or missile storage, or will it be single tile so they can be hidden in a ships nooks and crannies?

Smallest generic storage is 2x2 (i.e. no closet, sorry). Any room that uses resources will also have some amount of its own local storage built-in.

Walt Dibs Will crew require access to inventories?

For what purpose?

I just wasn't sure if resources needed to be hiked over by crew to the utilizing part in the same way that ammo is hiked from factory to cannon.

Walt Dibs Will resource requirements for ammo and missile factories be able to be toggled on/off for pvp?

No.

How do you intend to manage this? Will resources be able to be purchased and placed into ships inventory when designing a ship? or will it be through some other method such as spawning a set amount of resources for a team through the PvP settings?

Dibs I just wasn't sure if resources needed to be hiked over by crew to the utilizing part in the same way that ammo is hiked from factory to cannon.

They do.

Dibs How do you intend to manage this? Will resources be able to be purchased and placed into ships inventory when designing a ship? or will it be through some other method such as spawning a set amount

Resources have a cost associated with them that is included in the total ship cost.

Thank you very much for responding