Determine items spaceships need for repairs

[straker]

I would say 10 total crafting components is good enough for the size. So that could be something like 3 raw resources that get turned into 3 refined resources, which then combine into different combinations of 10 crafting components (for a grand total of 16)

For comparison, Factorio has: 6 raw + 8 fluids, 9 refined, ~17 crafting components (40)

Some items to start

• power system
• navigation system
• communication system
• drive system (e.g. engine)
• environmental system
• hull
• shielding
• ammunition
• fuel

[dllndv]

I was thinking we could also have each ship to be repaired have say, 3 of those problems randomly. This might help keep to our time limit, as well as add variety in multiple play throughs.

[dllndv]

We could also let the player set the number of issues to fix per ship as a difficulty level

[dllndv]

Been thinking about it, maybe there's a few things that every playthrough needs, like fuel and ammunition, then there could be a few additional "problems" to be fixed with those components you mentioned there. We could also split the "drive system" component into "engines" and "hyper-drive", then we have the 10

[straker]

So if we want a 30 minute game, we may need less than 10 final products. A normal progression would look something like this:

copper -> copper ignot -> copper wire -> computer chip -> computer -> final component (drive system, communications, etc.)

And if each of these parts takes 5 minutes, that's the whole game to get to 1 final component. Not to mention usually there's other items in that tree (computer chip needs iron, etc.).

So with 30 minutes in mind, maybe the ships need all parts (including intermediate), and then they increase in amount and type as they come in.

[straker]

If we want to be a repair station inside the asteroid belt (thus minable resources in space), asteroids contain a lot of precious metals, and even water. So we could make our resources 100% minable from asteroids and then extract those to make our parts.

Information:

An asteroid's composition is mainly determined by how close it is to the sun. The asteroids that are nearest the sun are mostly made of carbon, with smaller amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, while the ones further away are made up of silicate rock. Silicates are the are very common on Earth and in the solar system. They are made up of oxygen and silicon, the number one and number two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust. The metallic asteroids are composed of up to 80% iron and 20% a mixture of nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and other precious metals such as osmium, ruthenium and rhodium. There are a few that are made up of half silicate and half metallic. https://phys.org/news/2015-09-asteroids_1.html

The metallic asteroids are composed of up to 80% iron and 20% a mixture of nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and other precious metals such as osmium, ruthenium and rhodium. There are a few that are made up of half silicate and half metallic. In addition to the metals, the elements to create water—and water itself—are present in asteroids. There are indications that asteroids contain water or ice in their interiors, and there's even evidence that water may have flowed on the surface of at least one asteroid https://phys.org/news/2015-09-asteroids_1.html

So we can mine mostly iron from an asteroid to make belts, then use nickle to make some computer parts. Mine out some water, hydrogen, and oxygen, which can be used in various ways as well. Throw copper in there for wiring, and this gives us a list of a few raw parts:

• copper
• iron
• nickle
• water
• hydrogen
• oxygen

From there we can make refined metals:

• iron plates / ingots
• nickle plates / ingots

And that could give us everything we need to make the rest of the parts

• computer chip
• wires
• computer
• fuel
• etc.

[dllndv]

One thing we could do for the sake of a shorter game is skip a couple of the steps. Maybe we don't need to refine the copper, we just mine "copper", then that's what we have, then combine with iron to directly make the computer chips, which can be applied to communication systems, nav systems, shields, etc.

[straker]

That's a good point. I want the focus of the game to be on how to optimize space to output the most production, but refining metals isn't anything more than "just put as many buildings in a room as possible that all do the same thing." It just adds a step that isn't interesting.

[dllndv]

Whimsical chart for planning and managing our resource flow:

https://whimsical.com/space-repair-resource-map-S3b9dyYKM3YaSbQeEomdPe

password: zephr

[dllndv]

I thought we could use that to map out the flow of resources. For me at least, things make much more sense in my head when I see them mapped out. I did put a simple example of iron and copper > comms and nav system, but I think a good way to do this might be to put all the base raw resources on one side, the final components on the other, then fill in the middle with the steps the player needs to take to get from one side to the other.

[straker]

Going to try to capture my notes thus far.

Currently the game can fit 8 rooms (4x2) on the screen, which each room being 14x14 (12x12 interior). If one room is dedicated to mining, and another to repairing spaceships, that leaves 6 rooms for making everything needed to repair ships.

With that in mind, I did a lot of research and thinking and here's what I have so far:

Taking from the Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual [Online PDF], the initial list of systems is pretty good. So we can use those.

Researching about impulse drive systems showed that Fusion Drives are popular and used a lot in science fiction, which is great because a Fusion Reactor takes Hydrogen as a fuel source to create fusion energy.

source: https://futurism.com/images/these-theoretical-propulsion-systems-might-make-interstellar-travel-a-reality

From that we have a basic blueprint for creating fuel and impulse drive systems.

Each of the systems need a computer to run them, so we need circuits to run everything. Circuits will probably be the main thing to produce since everything needs them, buildings included. This probably means at least one room is dedicated to making circuits.

I really liked trying to optimize this Factorio circuit build for a 15x15 room, and wanted to try to replicate it in this game. That means that 1 circuit needs 2 copper wires and 1 iron to achieve a similar result (since our buildings are 2x2 rather than 3x3). That also means a copper wire will need 1 copper.

For Hulls Dyson Sphere Program uses Titanium Alloy, so we can use that instead of Nickle from the list of asteroid resources to get a strong metal to use to build other systems as well (like the Impulse Drive System).

The Environmental System needs Oxygen and Water. Water we can make from Hydrogen and Oxygen, both found in asteroids.

List So Far

Basic

• Iron
• Copper
• Titanium
• Oxygen
• Hydrogen

Composite

• Copper Wire: 1 Copper -> 1 Copper Wire
• Circuit: 2 Copper Wire, 1 Iron -> 1 Circuit
• Water: 2 Hydrogen, 1 Oxygen -> 1 Water
• Hydrogen Fuel: (?) Hydrogen
• Hull: (?) Titanium

Systems

• Impulse Drive System: (?) Hydrogen Fuel, (?) Circuit, (?) Titanium
• Environmental System: (?) Water, (?) Oxygen, (?) Circuit
• Communications System: (?) Circuit
• Computer / Navigation System: (?) Circuit

Final Notes

• With the notes so far, 1 room would be dedicated to circuits, 1 room for building the systems, 1 room for making fuel and oxygen, which leaves 3 rooms to make everything else.
• I think it'd be interesting if each of the systems required 3 or 4 resources to make.
• Every resource can be used to repair a ship.
• I think we can skip a computer resource since space is limited
• It'd be nice if everything basic and composite resource was needed at least twice for things (one of things I dislike about Dyson Sphere Program are 1 use items that have no other purpose other than to be used as a stepping stone)