Starwright

Basic Stuff

Yet another version of this.

Complex text-based space game essentially, same as the previous versions. Very management-heavy.

Transit time takes minutes rather than days but you do have plenty to do while you wait.

Way more of a focus on engineering on this version, pulling in from the 2d space game and astero a bit more, as well as general automation chains I've explored in other games.

Shipbuilding/Vehiclebuilding Mechanics

The Shipbuilding Mechanics are very in-depth and pull from the full cloud of these ideas:

Rooms are arranged on a 3D grid. There are volume restrictions based on the class of the vehicle -- this can be upgraded but there's downsides in the matryoshka system.

Fixtures take up Volume. Room Volume is dictated by ship class. Fixtures might also have edge placement requirements. The magicsel function is used to make sure edges are actually edges and you're not doing something crazy like creating a blank space surrounded by rooms on six sides.

Fixtures have to be piped/wired to whatever their inputs/outputs are. This goes into a lot of depth, but storage is universal at least and doesn't require piping, and wiring only worries about successive rooms, not walls.

Fixtures are built from crafted components. Thankfully storage of everything is universal with the Volumes system so you don't have to worry about inventory management to build a fixture. Components can be swapped out space monkey style and be built using alt resources shatterloop style. There's more complexity as well -- a lot to play around with to really eke performance out while you're waiting for a transit.

The Subroom system is in play for subdividing Rooms into specialized smaller ones (such as Crew quarters). This shouldn't come up for anything outside of that kind of thing -- fixtures for example just get placed in rooms or subrooms interchangeably.

The Hangar concept borrows from the 2D space game. In this variant it takes up some amount of area on the bottom level of the ship.

Hangar / Minification Mechanics

To simplify things a bit from several UX angles, a technology known as Minification is in play. It's basically shrinking tech -- but it targets the volume, not the mass and also prevents functionality. This is also how the cargo space works -- cargo modules don't take up a whole lot of volume because they store things in smaller forms. Much simpler all around.

In any case, while you still need a bigger ship to matryoshka a smaller one, you can also store multiple ships in the same hangar. The caveat is that you can only have one ready to deploy at a time and swapping the loadout takes time. The deployable ship or vehicle does at least take up less volume than it would normally and deployment is relatively painless -- takes a bit of time but it's not a huge deal.

Ground and water vehicles have a useful feature that allows them to swap their relationship, assuming both have Vehicle Bays. This makes planetside/moonside exploration much much easier. Granted you still need a 2-tier vehicle bay if you want to easily deploy a Salamant.

Hangars and vehicle bays can be upgraded via components like everything else. Starting out they have limited storage slots, slower deploy times, more power draw for all functions, etc.

Vehicle Mechanics

Vehicles allow you to harvest resources more easily, and also allow you to travel to POIs over land/water. Obviously you also can't Mine resources in deep water or magma without one. They also tie into the Colonies mechanic.

There are two main considerations with a vehicle beyond the obvious stuff:

Power -- Vehicles use batteries. They do recharge once docked, but the capacity here is limited. Different environments may drain batteries as well without protection.

Corrosion -- without protection, certain environments can degrade a vehicle. This can be repaired once docked but corrosion will lead to movement speed loss and maybe other nasty things.

Resources

Resources are all exotic and procedural, with a couple exceptions like water and oxygen. Categories of resources are also handcrafted. The resource system is Shatterloopian -- there's a web of properties within a resource type that the different resources affect. Things like alloys/catalysts are in play accordingly.

There's a Metroidvania approach to collecting resources. You need certain ones to build the necessary vehicles or tools to get the next set, and so on. I'll probably cover a first draft of that in the next post.

Like shatterloop and other similar systems, resource refinement is specialized and probably largely procedural.

Cargo Mechanics

Cargo modules take up entire rooms, have quite a lot of power draw (like everything else this *is* upgradeable) and have minification limits. On the plus side, ship fixtures and functions can interact with them directly, preventing the need for complex inventory management. That only comes into play outside your ship.

Cargo modules are automatically combined together into a single cargo space. You can't remove a cargo module if its contents would overflow the rest.

The cargo space can be subdivided into Volumes. Volumes of a limited size can optionally expand into unvolumed space via their priority weight or other limits (like expansion caps). This serves largely to make Automation have better UX -- you can pull from volumes rather than cargo as a while, keeping you from dipping into reserves or other automation chains.

Automation

Both Ships and Colonies make use of a robust Automation system. Automation isn't automatic because resource alteration isn't -- different steps will be time-locked, particularly transport.

I've detailed out Automation systems to death so there isn't really a need to document them yet again.

Ship automation pulls inputs from cargo volumes, while Colonies have a similar local system or can transport things to and from Freighters assuming you can afford them / afford to build them. Colonies are how resource farming works, but can also support larger regular farms.

Automation requires CPUs to be piped in via Ethernet wires.

Resources

Resources are spread in the following areas:

Asteroids surface -- starting out this is all you have access to.

Moons -- exposed silicates and things of a similar nature. Dead and low on resources. Moons are easier to access because of the lack of atmosphere, which you need ship modules to contend with.

Moon caves -- A good source of certain types of minerals. You need a lunar rover to explore these.

Planet surface -- Dead planets contain buildups of whatever killed them, while living planets are a source of plants and animals (they are rare however).

Planetary caves -- a different class of minerals. Requires a planetary rover.

Water -- A source of water (obviously), electrolytes and (if living), marine animals like fish. Requires an Aquatic vehicle.

Deep water -- marine animals, marine flora, things like pearls, coral, hydrothermic stuff. Dead planets have a different spread. Requires a Submersible vehicle, which in turn requires at the very least an Aquatic vehicle with a tier-1 vehicle bay.

Planetary cave magma -- precious metals. Requires a Salamant, which in turn requires a planetary rover with a tier-1 vehicle bay.

Oceanic magma -- gemstones. Requires a Salamant, which in turn requires a Submersible with a tier-1 vehicle bay, which in turn requires an Aquatic vehicle with a tier-2 vehicle bay.

Gas Giants -- a source of gases that aren't found on hazardous planets (and some that are). Requires a Gaseoplane.