Brainstorming for slower technological progression

[moriarty]

Fair point, although I never really produce Alien Alloys anyway. There's just no need to.

exactly. there is just too much of that resource - which kind of defies the purpose of using this resource as a game mechanic at all...

I don't think we can make the Alien Alloys responsible for everything; they'd become a "kitchen sink" tech, and that's not right. I do not recall the Alloys to have any particular qualities beyond their durability, flexibility and conductivity. Honestly, I'd prefer a separate tech, even if it was empty.

true. well, we could always change the names and fluff texts, while the structure of the tree I started to sketch wouldn't change.

Hmm, this could work. the problem is that it would need coding, because either Alien Alloys are what you get from the UFO or they aren't. Unless someone like Falko has another ingenious idea how to go about it. We could of course force the player to make Alien Alloys from Alien Debris before they can be used for construction, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.

hmmm... if we still wanted to do it, we could leave "Alien Alloys" as the stuff that gets recovered, but you have to turn it into "Usable Alien Alloys" before using it

[Falko]

Hmm, this could work. the problem is that it would need coding, because either Alien Alloys are what you get from the UFO or they aren't. Unless someone like Falko has another ingenious idea how to go about it. We could of course force the player to make Alien Alloys from Alien Debris before they can be used for construction, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.

hmmm... if we still wanted to do it, we could leave "Alien Alloys" as the stuff that gets recovered, but you have to turn it into "Usable Alien Alloys" before using it

thats the way i would do it
disable the production of alien alloy
change alloy as manufacture requirement to
light alloys

• 2 alien alloy->1 light alloy
• manufacturable after alien alloy
• used for light weapons(rifle/pistol)

resistance alloys

• 1 elerium + 10 alien alloy->4 resistance alloy
• researchable after light alloy and one plasma weapon/requiremnt for personal armour
• used for armour,hwp and craft/heavy weapons, (new earthlike-crafts?)

alien control crystal

• 1 ufo navigation  -> 3  alien controlcrystal
• 1 mind probe  -> 1  alien controlcrystal
• researchable after ufo navigation and mindprobe

conductive alloys

• 20 alien alloy + alien control crystal ->10 conductive alloy
• researchable after laser weapons and ufo navigation
• used for flying armour, craft weapons, crafts (and advanced laserweapons?)

...

Edit:
ufopedia ufo navigation: "The system is based on optical processors arranged in network fashion. The control interface is relatively simple - the navigator controls the direction of gravity waves generated by the power source to move the craft in any direction."
so replace aien control crystal with alien optical processors controlled with mind commands

[Solarius Scorch]

Great ideas, Falko! XD

[Falko]

here an idea how a more complex tech tree could be
3 types:
- original
- with more dependencies/alien life forms needed [only existing items used]
- with some already existing or possible mods included

i added the source file (dia needed) in the zip file

sorry for the bad export quality in the pdf

[Human Ktulu]

Very interesting, I particularly like the idea of 3 alloys qualities and the technological tree for the vessels.

[Aldorn]

here an idea how a more complex tech tree could be
3 types:
- original
- with more dependencies/alien life forms needed [only existing items used]
- with some already existing or possible mods included

i added the source file (dia needed) in the zip file

sorry for the bad export quality in the pdf

For people who want to print it before working on it, I split your files in three parts


As it is brainstorming, I drop an idea : what about specifying next possible steps at end of research report ?

I mean, for example : if you succeed reasearching on UFO Navigation, given that we have "UFO Navigation + Mind Probe + Alien Navigator -> Hyperwave Decoder", UFO Navigation resulting report could mention :
   "Leads to : Hyperwave Decoder - Needs : Mind Probe, Alien Navigator"

I know some people will argue this is not plenty of sense, as we cannot know in advance such an information, but this could be intermediate between nothing and a complete tech tree, and this could add some strategic dimension.