This is a summary of my current thoughts about wires! It contains a lot of smaller surveys, which you can then vote in the #surveys channel for!
For example, if there is an [A]
then you can click the A reaction in discord to vote for it!
Vote in the #surveys
channel of the Official Discord.
All this content will be available from level 18 only to make sure it doesn't complicate the current gameplay. The requirements for reaching level 18 will be lowered though so you can reach it faster.
First idea is to split this whole topic into Wires and Energy.
Energy will be required to power advanced shape processors or maybe even secondary hubs. You will also be able to speed up existing buildings with it. (Details below).
Wires will be used to be able to build logical components. For example, filtering inputs, enabling / disabling buildings or building circuits. (Details below).
[A]
I like the idea of power[B]
I like the idea of wires[C]
I don't like any of both
(You can select [A]
and [B]
here if you want)
Energy will be used for multiple purposes. It will be a integer value, that means, there can only be multiple of 1 Energy
. There can't be things like 0.5 Energy
.
You will be able to place a new Energy Generator
on the regular building layer. It will require shapes to generate energy which it propagates to the wires
layer.
This is how the generator would look on the regular layer (draft!):
And this is how it would look once you switch to the wires layer (draft!):
You could then connect wires (see below) to those 4 ports. I can also imagine having upgrades later which unlock more ports.
[D]
It should require one specific (very complex) shape to generate energy[E]
It accepts all shapes, and generates energy based on the shape complexity[F]
I don't like this idea at all
There will be energy wires
which allow you to transport the energy. There will be a straight version and a crossing (which distributes energy evenly to all outputs in order).
The energy wires will have a capacity (Like, 10 energy / second).
I can now imagine multiple options:
[G]
You have upgrades which increase the capacity of the wires[H]
You unlockstrong energy wires
later which have a higher capacity and look bigger.[I]
There are no upgrades for the wires.
I think the cool idea with the strong energy wires
would be that you could use them near to the energy generator, and then switch to regular ones further away. For example (ugly draft):
There will be advanced shape processors which require energy to modify shapes. For example, I could imagine shape welding
which welds a given shape by using 1 energy / shape.
The welding itself would simply modify the border color of the shape.
And this is how it would look on the wires layer, where you have to supply the energy:
[J]
I like the whole idea[K]
I like the idea of having to supply energy, but I don't like the welding idea[L]
I don't like the idea at all
Another use case are such called powerup pins
. Every item processor will have slots which you can fill with pins. There will be several different pins:
Boost Tier I
: Boosts production rate by 50%. Requires 1 energy / 10 itemsBoost Tier II
: Boosts production rate by 100%. Requires 3 energy / 10 itemsFilter Pin
: Allows to block the input / output slots of balancers. Those will be controlled with different wires and don't require energy, but need to retrieve signals via logic wires (see below).
Example on how it could look:
[M]
I like the idea of pins[N]
I like the idea of the boost pins[O]
I like the idea of the filter pins[P]
I don't like any of the ideas
(You can select multiple here)
I can also imagine having secondary hubs. You could place a limited amount of them, and they would require 1 energy / accepted item or so.
[Q]
I like this idea, and there should be an unlimited amount of secondary hubs[R]
I like this idea, and there should be a limited amount of secondary hubs[S]
I don't like this idea
I will write more about logic wires in the next pitch! I haven't finalized all the ideas and I'm also running out of letters for the survey! :P
The key question is: What would Energy bring to the game?
The way it's described here, the Energy Generator would practically act as a hub you deliver shapes to. That's fine so far.
From there, you get underground wires to 'transport' Energy with limited capacity per wire. However, those wires are nothing but inferior belts. They do practically the same thing, except you transport only one thing, without nice visuals, you place them on a seperate layer where you don't have to worry to block space you need for something else, and it seems they can feed into the machines above from any direction. That seems incredibly boring in comparison to the game as is, a bit like the sewage pipes in old simcity/cities skylines.
For energy to be successfully integrated, I think it needs to be entwined with what's going on above ground a lot more.
Here my suggestion:
A] Don't connect energy to machines directly, but with a seperate machine orthogonally next to it. Let's call it an "Electric Feeder" as it feeds electricity to machines, and it can just be 1x1. Many designs won't have a space for that additional machine included, such that they need to be reworked - that's intentional, since coming up with designs is what makes the game interesting. Could even be a better Feeder providing more boost could be larger, just to shake things up again.
B] Start out with a shape-powered Electric Feeder. A comparatively simple shape could represent low-tier electricity, and for the first Feeders, you won't need wires, they just consume those shapes. Those could even be more efficient than later Feeders getting their electricity from wires in overall shape consumption. Mind - this is at a stage where they'd be used to boost production, before they are a requirement for "welders" and the like.
C] Allow only small wires underground/in the "wire layer" - those that connect to individual Feeders. Larger wires, like the ones that connect to generators, should be above ground to have interaction with the rest of the game.
D] Perhaps small wires could be done gridless. Essentially, place a transformer at the end of larger overground wires, and in the "underground mode" you just draw straight lines between Transformer and Electric Feeder. It could even be an option that upon placement, a Transformer connects to all Electric Feeders in reach, and an Electric Feeder connects to a Transformer in reach. Just show the connections on mouseoever, and the player practically never needs to enter a wire layer.
Of course, none of this applies if the "wire layer" can be made as engaging as belts. But on a seperate layer, just think like this: If belts would work like wires, would the game still be fun? If not, then it's probably not the best implementation.