Planetary Interaction QOL: More Nodes Less Pins

[StaticViolence]

So some general improvements to PI, Id like to remove a few redundant tasks, by switching facilities from Pins, (like individual factories) to nodes (like on extractors).

Summary:

• Factories use nodes similar to an extractor to increase production capacity
• Warehouse/launch pads use nodes to increase storage
• Swap the function of nodes/area on extractors, so nodes increase duration, slider increases total output with extra fittings cost

So instead of having to set up 7 basic factories with the same schematic, input, and output routes, instead create 1 factory, add 7 nodes (which would each have the same fitting requirements as an individual factory), and then only requiring 1 set of input/output routes (although like the current system multiple routes with different quantities are still possible)

Similarly adding nodes to warehouses and launchpads to increase storage is an easy time saver as well

For excavators it’s a bit more complicated. I think the area slider giving time granularity down to 15 minute intervals is a bit silly, where as having the option of 1-10 nodes for fitting/output requirements isn’t granular enough, so why not swap them?

Each node would give you an extra set amount of time, say for example 1 node 12 hours, 2/24, 3/36,4/48,
5/96(4d), 6/120(5d), 7/144(6d), 8/168(7d),9/188(12d),10/336(14d)
Where as increasing the slider would increase the node output while also increasing the fitting requirement up to 100% of your command centers. This has two benefits, one it lets you fully max out your command center fitting, and two, shorter cycles will now not have as much nodes to readjust (longer cycles will have more nodes to adjust but you have to adjust them less frequently, so it still balances out).

Next I think we should change how launch pads work. Command centers should function identically to launch pads, same storage and new added storage from pins. However I think for each level of command center you should get 1 additional launchpad to use (so including the command center itself 6 launch pads). The fitting should be similar to the existing exctractors, with each additional storage node making up the bulk of the cost. Warehouses would still remain unlimited in qty, but also have similar fitting requirements on additional storage nodes.

Finally a little more radical idea I had not related to the other suggestions. How about removing cycle duration from excavators entirely. Instead just increase the rate a particular area gets depleted and then once an extractor node’s covered area is fully depleted the extractor shuts off, and the planet starts to regenerate. That way you could still get the same yield out of less material dense planets, it would just require more frequent node shuffling by the user. Conversely a more abundant planet would require less maintenance, the trade off being you’d probably have to travel farther away from populated areas to find them.

Anyways regardless of what happens, theres alot of repetitiveness in PI that could be removed for the benefit of everyone who does it, this is just one possible solution that uses existing pi structure mechanics on more structures to do so.

[Giddy_McFee]

I think you’re flogging a dead horse when it comes to PI changes, the current system is old, unwieldy and a pain in the ar*e but no changes are ever made to PI.

[Corraidhin_Farsaidh]

I think they are just waiting until they get time to look at it and someone works out a workable way to redesign the whole thing.

Planetside citadels, it’s the way forward

[Old_Pervert]

Fantastic idea, among the best fixes I’ve seen for PI’s clickiness to date.

I’d rather just see a slider rather than nodes… you slide it up or down, with corresponding increases in requirements. Adding and placing nodes just seems like a half-measure in reducing the clicks. Nothing says you can’t just build a bigger factory or warehouse.

Factory slider: "Consumes X material to make Y product"
Storage/Launch Slider: “X m3 of storage”

I do believe however that extractors with their nodes and areas are not a problem.

[StaticViolence]

@Old_Pervert

I’d rather just see a slider rather than nodes… you slide it up or down, with corresponding increases in requirements. Adding and placing nodes just seems like a half-measure in reducing the clicks. Nothing says you can’t just build a bigger factory or warehouse.

Factory slider: “Consumes X material to make Y product”
Storage/Launch Slider: “X m3 of storage”

I hadn’t considered sliders for everything, but you’re right there’s no need for the predefined granularity of the schematics either. As for storage there’s no question sliders are easiest, you could even map it to connected routes, so you could see exactly how long a particular storage volume would take to fill with input minus output routes. Essentially it would give a similar time scale to extractors, but it would be a ‘time until storage full’ meter.

[Legion_Reaver]

Since the topic is PI and I just got done hating myself for doing it so much I decided to bother getting on the forums and searching for a recent discussion on it i’ll add my two cents.

I feel that they should just rip the guts out of it, start over and make it a semi active thing you can actually pursue as an aside from mining in space. Basically there should be 3 structures that people can buy off the market or manufacture from bpo’s seeded in empire space and use minerals mined in space to build.

Planet side structures:

• Extraction Command Center : Mining component of PI (ECC for short)
• Processing & Refinement Command Center : Handles Production of Processed & Refined commodities. (PRCC for short)
• Specialized & Advanced Production Command Center : Handles Specialized and Advanced commodities. (SAPCC for short)

Each Command center does a specific task that people pretty much already do with the more complicated system that is i place.

Mechanics :
All command centers are simply deployed anywhere on a planet.

ECC Mechanics :
After being deployed it brings up a 2D heat map of the surface of the planet where you need to select which resource you want and adjust to the best resolution aided by your relative skill level.

Once your satisfied with the resolution of the image you deploy a single extractor with an area of influence determined by a skill which increases the range per level. A second skill can be added to increase yield.

Once the extractor is in place your given a read out of the resources you’ll acquire over the course of 1 week in 15 min deposits to the ECC.

When satisfied with the results start the extractor head and the resources are deposited into the ECC where you can ship them any time up to the hub in space.

To clarify deposits are made to the ECC every 15 mins with the full mining period lasting a week.

Deposits are reduced by a loss in the resolution of the resource heat map over time. The player can pull it up daily or every few days to readjust and sharpen the image to maintain full yield.

After the weekly cycle ends you re-scan with the heat map and repeat with any of the other resources you haven’t already depleted so that the one you just depleted can recover.

PRCC & SAPCC Mechanics :
Once the PRCC or SAPCC is deployed to the surface you can send resources down to them and they are stored in the CC.

Taking the same idea from reactions you purchase blueprints from the market for the conversions you want to make and drop them into the CC as well.

Open the industry window any where in space or in station just like you do now and there should be an added tab called Command Centers in addition to the blueprints, facilities, jobs tabs that are already in game.

Proceed as you do now with producing other things.

Essentially the ECC allows for a mini game which determines the yield and degrades over time but can be fixed by the player to give them a reason to tend to it. Meanwhile planets are used to house the resources and commodities while you process them into different things. The reason you have both a PRCC and a SAPCC is so that it gives you a reason to fly to one planet and pick up goods then move them to another for further processing. Just like we do now only with out going through the massive pain in the ass interface.

I tried to use ideas that could possibly make use of existing features. So can we just implement my method and move along with our lives?

[Old_Pervert]

Congratulations, your idea is in almost no way related to the OP’s idea. This is commonly known as a thread hijack.

Keep the piracy ingame, start your own thread for such a broadly different idea, as the purpose of this thread is to discuss the OP, not do a 180 with your own completely different idea.

[StaticViolence]

It’s not a bad idea, but it seems like it would make more sense if the PRCC & SAPCC were just citadel modules. If they want to move the PI system into a wing of the citadel system, where Customs Offices just become the small/medium planetary citadel, this would be a good way to do it. At this point the system is now nearly identical to the moon mining/reaction changes coming out soon.

What differentiates PI from moon mining has been the planetary customization of a single command center, and yes your system still has this for mining, probably in a better way than it currently does, but the processing mechanics are very lackluster in comparison.