I was asked in an email recently, about player self-expression, system's mastery, and content exploration in Wayward Terran Fronter. It's the core principles of game design, and it's a good start for a blog rant, so I want to talk about it. This isn't going to be a "what's coming in the next patch" post, so much as a view into the mindset of us, the developers, on what we think we are doing and where we want to take the game in the far future.
That being said, I'm only going to cover player self expression and content exploration here. I don't want to start any more debates over docking right now, I don't think I can handle that.
So here are some of the things we want to add in the future which fall into the above categories
Player self-expression
We want ships to be specialized at the top tier for specific roles based on how you like to play. Those roles were introduced and are taking shape in the previous two content releases, and they are: gun ships, missile ships, drone carriers, and beam weapon ships. Add into that mix some defensive build choices around evasion, armor, shields, or point defense, and you get a lot of potential build targets for players to choose from. The idea is not for one choice to be better or worse, but to be choices and optional alternatives. Choices should be based on preferred play style, and options are valuable when attempting to overcome specific challenges.
Up until now, we have still been implementing the base module types, with beam alchemy and drones making their first real appearance with the most recent patch and point defense AI being a fairly recent addition. Some of those systems feel like they are in a pretty good place, and others feel like they really need to be fleshed out more with some modules that offer interesting synergies.
Missiles, for instance, are really easy to add to any design, but if you want factories you need to optimize your entire design around them, often at the exclusion of other weapon systems. That puts missiles close to where we want them except then turrets require no supporting modules, so a player can have a missile build and then also add turrets with no drawbacks. That doesn't feel like designing for a target, or building a ship for a role, it just feels like throwing modules into a blob.
In order to improve the amount of player self-expression you can get out of the design system, we want to supplement existing modules with supporting modules and module synergies as well as module trade-offs in the future. We also have some future plans to rework the mastery system in a way which might make individual ships feel more customizable.
I can assure you that if tweaking and optimizing ship designs is your cup of tea, we want to diversify your options in the future. I'm also open to suggestions for creative module additions. Though the effort to make a module is much greater than the effort to suggest one, so I can't promise any individual suggestion will be implemented.
Content exploration
Zero Falls is supposed to be just that: a game about exploring content. The problem is the quantity and accesability of the content. Right now, I see 2 very large areas of potential improvement: features and improvements to the dynamic economy, and better use of procedural content and mods.
To start with the economy was sort of implemented and then ignored, but never really fleshed out. It seems like a great candidate for a future overhaul that could include a lot more player interaction. As it is right now you find a good trade route, run it one or two times, and you are done earning credits forever. That's way unbalanced, it prevents most players from even realizing that the economy is dynamic at all, and it provides no incentives to do the types of activities we originally envisioned when making an economy.
The entire idea behind the economy was supposed to be that players who were interested in economic manipulation would use piracy, blockades, and cargo hauling to turn things in their favor. I think there is still a lot of opportunity to make that into something that actually happens in Zero Falls, and I'm willing to dedicate a future content patch to looking into it. I don't have an ETA for when just yet.
On the topic of procedural generation, well we need more of it and I am currently doing some research into that very subject. I have lots of ideas, but I don't want to commit to them in writing just yet. However one thing I will say, is that I encourage the use of workshop mods even in a fresh play-through of the game. If people are having problems with workshop mods, or if the existing workshop mods are in need of new features, I'd like to hear about it. I would love to expand on any system that allows custom 3rd party content.
Misc
As a final note in this blog, we are in a stage right now where our effort is divided 2 ways. We are making a series of smaller improvements and refinements that we want to release as smaller updates, but we are also slowly slipping back into the territory of working on secret stuff that is big and exciting which we aren't ready to talk about yet. We don't know what will be in the next content update yet, but all of us are either starting work on something really cool, or working hard on a project that has been on the back burner for a while.
We decide our release schedule based on what we have finished, and what we are working on that might prevent pushing a patch. It's a form of controlled chaos which I think is necessary. There is some strategy to it to be sure, however I find that programmers program the fastest when they work on the thing they are currently most excited about.
I know I've personally found my next project.
-George