TLDR: Empty space around origin is bad for newbies, fix it, here some suggestions.
Hello fellow Endos
Hello fellow Endos
As we all know SB has a persistent universe, meaning stuff stays where it is unless somebody decides to re/move it.
This is awesome. It gives your actions meaning, makes resources finite and gives certain locations significance.
This is vital for a healthy community and economy.
Now resources like astros are finite and are gone as soon somebody touches them.
This is because they mined it completely or the residue gets removed later on by the game to keep the database healthy.
Naturally that means where a lot of player traffic is happening, space gets empty rapidly.
This forces players to venture out to prospect new sites for harvesting.
So far all good, gameplay as intended.
Now here's the catch:
That obviously happens to the Origin Stations too,
which is real bad since this is where new players boot up for the first time.
When they get introduced to the game they get training via the tutorials and later on they are supposed to farm some astros.
Touch luck so, when virtually no astros are around anymore because they are gone.
This forced the devs already to refill the origin region multiple times.
This is a heavy handed and dangerous intervention into the games environment.
If you have to do something like that regularly, something is wrong with your gamedesign.
I've been thinking about that for quite a while now and I've a few ideas I'd like to discuss that could alleviate this problem:
Category I: "bring players to resources"
Scenario one:
Origin Cap ships not stations...
You get the gist, absolutely stupid idea.
Moving the origin stations is a no no noooo go.
Scenario two:
Warp/Fast travel gates to specific reserved "tutorial zones"
Basically unmined sections with a safezone where only new players with a laborer have permission to enter.
Less stupid but has to moved regularly too, if a section is exhausted.
Pro: gives newbies a taste of fast travel.
Category II: "bring resources to players"
Scenario three:
Create a tutorial zone between EOS and Origin Stations.
Basically like scenario two but localized without fast travel.
Scenario six: (Shado20/XenoCow)
Spawn asteroids at tutorial waypoint localized.
Those are not part of the world gen and get removed after the standard clean up period.
(I think that was about 2h could be wrong)
Scenario seven: (XenoCow/MrFaul)
Mining Job has the option to return ores.
Maybe in combination with a virtual station asteroid storage that needs to be player filled.
Category III: "make finite resources less apparent or change/improve environment"
Scenario four:
Belt pseudo rotation.
Ok this is a big one with a lot of work for the devs.
What do I mean with "pseudo rotation"
Basically you section of the entire belt like a hard drive or CD
Each section has a fixed amount of random resources and once that it is depleted no new astros spawn there.
Every week the sections wander "a section" clock wise.
This way it is ensured that resources don't run dry quickly.
I personally think this would be nice addition to the gameplay instead of the current "fly deeper, find better stuff"
Since it would make sense to actually prospect the different sections for the material you are after.
Category IV: "F! tutorials completely and outsource it to established players"
Scenario five:
Create a chaperone system and pay established players handsomely for bothering with new players.
(e.g. with premium currency and/or exclusive items/skins)
This gives new players a first contact with the community and a dedicated person to ask for help if problems occur.
They can take part in mining trips etc. from the get go without being bothered with a "one size fits none" automated tutorial.
These are my thoughts so far, and I personally think four and five have real merit for the future of the game.
But maybe you have a different idea, so lets have a civil discussion about it.
Also please take part in the poll.
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