ThePiachu
commented
4 years ago I would really love to see more storage options. Here are some Suggestions made on this topic:
Open keegan-o opened 4 years ago
ThePiachu
commented
4 years ago I would really love to see more storage options. Here are some Suggestions made on this topic:
Infrastructure Content Update (Storage Containers, Truck Module, Etc):
In Eco right now players advance through lots of technology but continue to store things in staked out piles and by default in 'crates' in these stockpiles. Having block materials retain physicality in some sense is a good thing to keep for large extractive processes like carpentry and mining, but for many types of items a more robust and advanced place to keep them safe would make more sense.
More silly than this are storage chests, which should be eventually replaced (for industrial/manufacturing needs, anyways) with much higher capacity warehouse shelving. Eventually it would be good to require manufactured products to be stored indoors, or degrade into garbage+recyclables if not.
A bigger suite of options and laying the groundwork for storage for things that need an upkeep of electricity to store, such as refrigerated goods, should be added.
Eventually we will want to investigate block-built structures for storage of mass quantities of particular goods like grain in grain bins, oil in tanks, etc-- but for now we can get most of the way there with some good storage world objects for different mid and end game materials that will significantly improve the look of farms, industrial areas, and cities. We will add liquid and solid storage tanks for many products that can continue to be used after the block-building system is made later, so that for small to medium sized operations you can just use the objects and get up and running more quickly.
Given that boats are approaching and it makes little sense to have open stockpiles of things on boats (but also on trucks), shipping containers will become a nice standardized advanced stockpile for materials and especially for items and world objects (and vehicles) in Eco. Eventually we might want to specify more strictly which kinds of things can go in which container (adding things like industrial storage hoppers and containers for block materials), to get the right balance of limitation and physical preservation of blocks. For now, advanced shipping container stockpiles should be very handy as a way to further compact storage for players and to significantly upgrade the look of end-game warehouses, all while also assisting performance since shipping containers won't need to update visually every time their contents are changed.
Eventually we will want some unique mechanics for shipping containers-- specifically, that a truck can be equipped with a fully loaded shipping container with ideally one click and drag of the mouse. For now, what we want to do is add a module to trucks that replaces the bed with a shipping container, that upgrades the truck storage to be able to store the same amount as a shipping container.
A similar mechanic will exist for the barges once they are implemented, with the large barge being able to hold many shipping containers at once.
Shipping containers should store perhaps double what one of the old 5x5x5 stockpiles could hold. Note that this will still be less than the new largest physical stockpile, which is as intended, because those are cheap and perfect for large extractive operations. Shipping containers are more expensive and more about compaction/min-maxing your storage, and the more we implement with trucks and boats, ease of transportation and protection.
The Elevator world object in Eco is currently a useful object for mine-shafts and large buildings, and we want to add a big one that can be capable of lifting vehicles up and down for larger mining operations using the larger vehicles. This will also be a potentially cool way to build roads and give players more options than just ramps.