Today we are going to discuss various ship systems, the parts they use as well as resources that you are constantly running out of. More specifically, we are going to talk about what we plan to do with them in preparation for the new content update.
Functional systems are essential for surviving in the world of Hellion, as without them you will inevitably die of asphyxiation and other things, but mostly from asphyxiation. As such, maintaining them represents an important part of the core gameplay experience and should be one of the main reasons that drives players to explore and raid others. This is one of the main reasons why we want to do a full systems rebalance prior to releasing 0.2 content update.
One of the problems at the moment is that most systems are something that you just switch on and then forget about, with the exception of Life Support. Once your power supply is working, capacitor is charging and the FTL drive is online, there is little or no need to ever check back on them. We aim to change this in a meaningful way. We want players to feel the difference between a ‘fully working’ and a ‘barely operational’ system, as well as how multiple systems function together and how problems with one system can cause a cascade that affects multiple parts of the ships and stations. To do this we plan to rebalance their resource consumption and the speed of part degradation (along with degradation conditions). Idea is to make them more dynamic without turning maintenance into a chore. By doing this the resources that these systems rely on for proper operation become more important, as damaged systems tend to consume resources rather inefficiently, adding to the value of those resources and parts. So based on the state of ship’s systems some players may find deuterium more valuable than oxygen.
The second on the list are changes to the current spawning mechanics. Having some random stuff is cool, but having too much randomness can hinder gameplay. Our goal here is to make certain regions more appealing based on what you are currently looking for. Rifles and ammo won’t spawn randomly any more. The same goes for hacking tools, mining equipment and system parts. We want players to have a general idea where they should be looking for specific parts and equipment, rather than just relying on “blind chance”. This is also true for resources. All of them will no longer be readily available at your nearest space rock, but will actually require some effort on the player’s side.
The third step is rebalancing station modules. As several players have noticed expanding your base doesn’t really bring many benefits aside from added spawn points. The changes that are in store will make each and every module feel important. Having a Power Supply or Command module attached to your base will expand its functionality with options that you otherwise wouldn’t have. The same goes for Cargo bay and Life Support. This means that some functions currently found aboard the lifeboat and starting ship will be transferred over to specific modules.
Final part of this process is reworking the UI according to the above changes so it can show all the relevant information to the players and alert them when a malfunction is imminent.
Fly safe,
Zero Gravity team