Originally posted by
TheMonkeyshoewalker
My favorite part of the game not having to research new systems and “workbenches”. The game really felt like Terraria in space; go collect resources, make stuff, and fight guys.
Adding a hardened tech tree really takes away from that freedom of progression because now players have pay ANOTHER up front cost to building a new system or workbench through research cost and time. It feels like the devs are trying to make the game artificially longer by making the players wait around more. The players are only going to feel like they are paying taxes in space.
Open world games such as Minecraft and Terraria have been enormously successful because there isn’t a hardened research tree; there is just a world to go crazy in. This is a sand box in space, I don’t want my hand held by a tech tree.
Furthermore, player progression through tech trees feels really lazy from a design standpoint. I want to find new resources to mine and blocks to make, not a hard path to win the game.
Tl;dr: please rethink adding a tech tree and make player progression a function of resources collection rather than checking the right boxes.
It feels like the devs are trying to make the game artificially longer by making the players wait around more.
That is not what the research tree was intended for at all. Our goal is to make the game better overall, not only by offering more meaningful choices and paths to survive but also improve player onboarding. Alpha 10 tackles these with the research tree but also stations with services, which are capable of providing something for the player so that they don't have to have everything available on their own ships.
The research tree comes in really handy when new players launch up the game and are not faced with one bazillion different facilities to choose from. Rather, there are basic facilities needed from the start, and more are introduced by the player choosing for themselves what to research next.
The above is what we thought was one of the real upsides to a research tree, and keep in mind the amount of facilities and items will only grow with time. Also, a research tree enables us to add these new facilities and items in a manner where it makes more sense, with something else to limit their availability besides tech blocks.
And the research tree modules have been added to the game customization screen so it is also possible to create your own custom game and have them all open from the start. =)
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