How I would change the Sea Moth
Sojo
Florida, USA Join Date: 2015-09-20 Member: 208061Members
Florida, USA Join Date: 2015-09-20 Member: 208061Members
1) First off, it's too easy to build and it's components, or rather lack there of, don't make sense. Currently it only takes 3 titanium, 2 glass, 1 lubricant, and 1 power cell. That is less titanium than you get from 1 salvage, so I think given its size it should require 5-6 titanium. Given how few things require lubricant and how much we can easily make, I think more of it should be used in recipes, so it should require 2-3, but maybe 1 lubricant is actually a large amount, so that one is of the least concern. Naturally it should require a wiring kit, perhaps even an advanced one.
The bigger missing thing though is a or maybe some computer chips! Where is all of its on-board advanced computers coming from? If a computer chip in this game stands in for a computer, it should require 1, but if it really is only meant to be a microprocessor, which seems to be the case based on what uses it as an ingredient, we should have to first build a computer (say from 1 titanium, a number of computer chips, and 1 wiring kit). After all we need something that uses all the silver and gold we end up swimming in and its not like table coral (for the computer chips) is rare. I know that an advanced wiring kit includes one computer chip, but if we had separate computers, it could just be 2 gold, as the regular one is just 2 silver and then anything that requires an advanced one would also require at least one computer. If it did use an advanced wiring kit, which requires gold, its fragment should be in the Grassy Plateaus where gold is present. Yes I know that means we wouldn't have a Sea Moth for the first few biomes, and given how small the map is, I think that might be the best part of these changes! The first phase of the game should feel more desperate and it should be more meaningful once you get your first sub, given how powerful it is.
2) I love that we can upgrade and spec it out, but I wish all of its upgrades were visible, such as form-fitting solar panels appearing on it once we give it that upgrade, armor plating, etc. But what it really needs is for these upgrades to be applied and changed only while docked in a Moonpool. It is too easy and nonsensical that you can just pop a canister in a slot in the field and totally alter the nature of the vehicle, plus it would make Moonpools more useful. Arguably you only need one to make all the upgrades, especially since with the solar power one you never need to charge it in a Moonpool again, if you don't want to. So I think the upgrade panel should be removed from the sub's side and its interface can be used at the upgrade console to both build and install the upgrades, which by the way should take up more space than just 1 in your inventory, perhaps 2x2 or 3x3 (solar panels, armor plating, depth plating, etc are somewhat big).
3) It is nice that it gets scratched up as it takes damage, but actual breaches that start filling our cabin with water once we are seriously damaged would be awesome! As should be done with breaches to the Cyclops, they should be visible inside and out of the sub and the "water pouring in" animation should stop once the sub is full of water. This would obviously cause us to start drowning and slow the Sea Moth's speed, while we try to escape to a safe depth
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4) We should be able to access our Sea Moth's storage compartments and torpedo launchers while it is docked in both the Cyclops and Moonpool, currently you have to undock it and jump out to do this, then jump back in. This is particularly silly and potentially dangerous depending on where we are.
The bigger missing thing though is a or maybe some computer chips! Where is all of its on-board advanced computers coming from? If a computer chip in this game stands in for a computer, it should require 1, but if it really is only meant to be a microprocessor, which seems to be the case based on what uses it as an ingredient, we should have to first build a computer (say from 1 titanium, a number of computer chips, and 1 wiring kit). After all we need something that uses all the silver and gold we end up swimming in and its not like table coral (for the computer chips) is rare. I know that an advanced wiring kit includes one computer chip, but if we had separate computers, it could just be 2 gold, as the regular one is just 2 silver and then anything that requires an advanced one would also require at least one computer. If it did use an advanced wiring kit, which requires gold, its fragment should be in the Grassy Plateaus where gold is present. Yes I know that means we wouldn't have a Sea Moth for the first few biomes, and given how small the map is, I think that might be the best part of these changes! The first phase of the game should feel more desperate and it should be more meaningful once you get your first sub, given how powerful it is.
2) I love that we can upgrade and spec it out, but I wish all of its upgrades were visible, such as form-fitting solar panels appearing on it once we give it that upgrade, armor plating, etc. But what it really needs is for these upgrades to be applied and changed only while docked in a Moonpool. It is too easy and nonsensical that you can just pop a canister in a slot in the field and totally alter the nature of the vehicle, plus it would make Moonpools more useful. Arguably you only need one to make all the upgrades, especially since with the solar power one you never need to charge it in a Moonpool again, if you don't want to. So I think the upgrade panel should be removed from the sub's side and its interface can be used at the upgrade console to both build and install the upgrades, which by the way should take up more space than just 1 in your inventory, perhaps 2x2 or 3x3 (solar panels, armor plating, depth plating, etc are somewhat big).
3) It is nice that it gets scratched up as it takes damage, but actual breaches that start filling our cabin with water once we are seriously damaged would be awesome! As should be done with breaches to the Cyclops, they should be visible inside and out of the sub and the "water pouring in" animation should stop once the sub is full of water. This would obviously cause us to start drowning and slow the Sea Moth's speed, while we try to escape to a safe depth
.4) We should be able to access our Sea Moth's storage compartments and torpedo launchers while it is docked in both the Cyclops and Moonpool, currently you have to undock it and jump out to do this, then jump back in. This is particularly silly and potentially dangerous depending on where we are.
Comments
3 Salvage chunks and you're there.
No fabricators, then.
I realized something I missed: We should be able to access our Sea Moth's storage compartments and torpedo launchers while it is docked in both the Cyclops and Moonpool, currently you have to undock it and jump out to do this, then jump back in. This is particularly silly and potentially dangerous depending on where we are.
So if you got 2 torpedo system upgrades, and 2 storage pod upgrades, you'd have two reloading torpedo pods on each side, with a total of 10 torpedoes, and 5 shots per side.
Sorry, emphasis was on the "and". I meant it would be nice if the platform allowed us to reach the torp launchers too, but honestly that was just a minor point of the post. I could live with them never bothering to do that; I'm just OCD about details
Good to know, but I was talking about being able to access the launchers in the moonpool and cyclops directly. Currently we have to undock it and do that in the water, whether that interaction is direct or indirect through the storage compartments, as you suggest.