Architect Archive
Thread: All Terain Harvesters ..
Voting done or not, the platform is the better idea in my opinion. It just seems more useful to place a low cost platform rather than a high cost harvester (assuming a lot about what resources would be used). You could sell the platforms to everyone that already has harvesters. People that already have harvesters may not want to incur the added costs fot he new proposed ones and just live with using their current ones. It seems like we are significantly increasing the cost of harvesting this way.
I'd also like to extend the idea to include building the platforms on water. Like an Oil Derrick on the ocean. A few times out of curiosity I drove out on the water and found decent concentrations out there. I think there would be a serious cool factor to that too.
One person suggested the platforms take up lots. I would really prefer they did not. Maybe you can only do one at time and it is big enough for say 4 heavies; a sort of specialized lot? It would be nice not to burn upone lot on these.
BTW - I would advocate that this powerup be useful on *any* harvester - I think if you exclude heavies then the idea is completely worthless. Personals are much easier to place in rugged terrain, so would rarely benifit from this. Most people serious about mining resources only carry heavies - I'd hate to have to carry a crate of these powerups AND a batch of mediums for the day when I need them. Frankly, I think that they make the most economic sense with heavies - using them with mediums might make sense for "godly" resources but we want the price to be high enough such that people actually need to choose to use them. If 99% of the people use them 99% of the time, then that may be great for architects but at that point why not just build the functionality into the harvester in the first place. I think what you want is for these to be used 20-40% of the time.
Bandola wrote:
1. Why not have NO MAINTENANCE requirement?
About the AT-harvester I'd like something like this:
- 1x1 footprint at ½ lot cost (please, think about architects with only 1 account with a meduim home -2 lots- a small warehouse -2 lots- and a structure factory -2 lots-).
- Max BER 10 (when experimentation results on effectiveness go beyond 75%). Using 1 Ore Minning Unit in the crafting process.
- No power mantenaince (I like the idea of using some sort of batteries in the crafting process)
- 1 week lifespan, with no possibilities of redeeding.
- Cost mantenaince of 5K for the whole week.
- Big hopper size (about 75K) that should need 2 small structure storage module in the crafting process.
With this components, I would sell it for 10-15K.
That would mean 15K (sales price) + 5K (cost manteinance) / 75K (total resource harvested)= 0.2 cred. per unit of mineral, more or less as it is now.
And regarding the attachments for the existing harvesters, wouldn't it require redoing the code so they have some kind of "sockets" like clothing?. If this problem can be solved then I have a new idea:
Ultra-deep core minning
This would be one attachment suitable for all types of harvesters which increases the % of the mineral vein in the terrain. It could be made from a Ore Minning Unit, a Manufacturing Mechanism and some metals and, when experimented to its maximum, it could increase the vein in, say, 10% (obviusly, if you are minning in a 92% spot you won't get a 102% using the attachment).
It could be sold for about 5K per unit, or in crates of 20 for 100K.
How about that?
Terrain leveling is hard because it makes changes to terrain that -- I believe -- have to be pre-loaded. So you can't just "put up" a structure on leveled terrain -- all the other players' terrain hasen't been leveled.
But there's an opportunity in that -- a terrain leveling kit that takes a full day to level terrain before it puts the harvester -- or any other building -- on it. Until the change can be propagated the "building" animation could reserve the spot. Perhaps existing game mechanics for terrain leveling could be leveraged to make the coding easier. And having to wait would keep it from being used frivolously.
So -- building on the ideas presented earlier -- the kits would look like this...
Resources: 1000 LGO for the base, 500 metal for the reinforcement
Specs: Unit Toughness for the size of the structure it will support, Malleability for the slope it will level.
Experimentation: Four steps of "squares": 1X1, 2X2, 3X3, 4X4 -- Four steps of slope beginning at the "natural" maximum slope of the structure. But since I don't know how slope is managed in the game I can't judge how to adjust the steps.
Any structure can be built on leveled ground -- the structure is "powered up" before being placed. On redeed, the powerup expires.
Similarly, watch what happens when an NPC "base" is spawned on uneven ground - exactly the same type of leveling occurs.
CPark, that's the normal Dev cop out for not wanting to add something beneficial to the game, that way they can eventually put it in the game to keep us happy while they overlook other bugs.
They can make these powerups/attachments what ever, act just like the tent code so you can actually place your harvester in an area, and voila' instant flat terrain. This I think and hope is viable enough that we can actually get this put into the game. I know I'd love it.
You're trying to envision a viable product, so think like your customers: When you are mining steel and ore for your own crafting,do you want a harvester that you have to emptyeverytwo days, andyou unavoidably loseafter a week?If the dev's give you this thing to make, will you use it yourself? If your answer is, "No," your customer's answer probably is, too.
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Plattform. Disposable. Once placed it cant be redeed'd. NOT a miner!
My 2 cents