Belar
commented
10 years ago Good to see another soul concerned about G-S-M holding. Personally I think it has really nice potential when lacking long-term engagement (UX issue).
I mean it's cool to be able to execute mechanic to gather, mine or scavenge as it can help to fill a downtime when you don't have enough resources or actions to perform; at least at the beginning of a game. However, we already can see development of mechanisms that will occupy player's attention in the late-game, like:
- trading
- exploring
- fighting
- developing
and all of this holding GSM in a mean time?
Another factor worth mentioning is the obvious fact of MM being a browser game and we can assume it's being played when performing other activities.
Complaining without solution is worthless, so I came up with an idea/compromise. Instead of making X digs when holding a key, there could a research-like mechanism that will indicate process. For example:
- Click to start mining/gathering/scavenging (only 1 simultaneous activity from the core 3).
- Mining initiated and estimated time is 1 min (it can vary based on level, higher level means better resources and increase of time which could be reduced with proper technology upgrades later.). Countdown starts.
- After mining is done (time reached 0), user is rewarded with resources from mining, gathering or scavenging. There is no chance to get nothing, but output is determined by XP, tools, upgrades etc.
This way user's manual activity can be preserved, but it's not exhausting or boring when still encouraging exploring other aspects to get upgrades.
Right now, the core gameplay mechanic seems to be "hold down G, S or M for an eternity."
I've set a goal for myself of simply creating a space ship and seeing how long it'd take.
I'm not even close to complete- the power system is still far off as I was only able to create 12 power cells. While some of this can be blamed on balancing issues, it cuts to a more important point- what is the core gameplay?
If it's resource collection, we should look at the competition: Starbound and Minecraft provide exploration and building around resource collecting. Starcraft involves resource scarcity, enemy targets, and expanding your forces to gather more.