[Dev Asks] Player Equipement

[tsunamayo]

One of the direction I am considering to spice up the early game (that would also add a bit of depth for the late game) is having the player being able to equip a variety of item to get some boost or unlock capacity. It is similar to minecraft and plenty of rpg, so nothing really new, but it would gives us:

• have the player to work some goal in the early game,
• get a natural "research tree" like by unlocking some capacity with a given item (ie can only mine gold with a multi-tool level II for example)
• experiment with different loadout and their resulting combo
• Have some stuff to sell in store or some nice reward to give to the player.

The piece of equipment I am considering:

• Helmet
• Backpack / jetpack
• Suit
• Boot
• Multitool x2 slots

Ideally all these pieces of equipment would be visible and different. I could then add a "stand" block, which would shows a given loadout, so the player could simply press F and swap its loadout (I think minecraft does that). So you guys can create some nice locker room with various suit depending on which job you want to do (assault, mine, explore). And also paint/decal your suit.

Now I am looking for idea of interesting piece of equipment. Here are a few of the basic one:

Helmet:

• Light (or more powerful light)
• Better scanner
• tactical HUD (shows enemy HP-lvl, when we have that)

Boot:

• Faster speed
• no fall damage
• higher jump (not jetpack)
• walk on water (so I could have a Jesus achievement)
• mag-boot: lock on entity and walk on ceiling (could make a spiderman achievement, ie walk on the ceiling of a space-station)
• roller-blade: no friction boot.

jetpack;

• various jetpack modes
• more inventory
• personal shield
• added oxygen reserve

Suit

• More armor
• Resistance to condition: heat, cold, corrosion, radiation (when we have that)

Multitool

• can mine gold / crystal
• faster mining
• better dps against bio
• Better yield for mining / scrapping

In order to give more depth for the med-late game easily I could make many of those equipment Tier based, so the player keeps grinding up through better equipment.

Tell me what you guys think and if you have any ideas of equipment to add please shoot!

[Crimson-Artist]

it all depends on how much RPG elements you want to put in.

Personally I favor players having Attribute points (Strength, dexterity, ect.), A skill tree (most likely going to be the research tree), and RPG loot (items have base stats and the game randomizes their values based on certain factors).

Personally I would make the 2 multitool slots be accessory slots. This would allow players to buff other aspects other than just their multitool which we still don't know how useful it will be by mid-late game since we have ship versions of the repair and mining beams which are objectively more powerful.

The research tree should have separate branches for player abilities (unlocking/upgrading the ore scanner) and Block recipes. Our equipment would be in the block recipe branch and each one would be the base version of it. Players should only be able to get higher tier versions of the same equipment from looting and buying from NPC shops. For example, we unlock the "Prospector Helmet" which when crafted only gives us a better light however we can loot/buy a better version of the Prospector Helmet that not only gives us the better light source but increases our O2 supply and Ore Scanner range.

At max level players shouldn't be able to unlock everything. This way you can have extra research points be a reward for certain things like exploring more of the galaxy or reaching higher reputations for factions.

[Timtee]

I would also like to add onto this by saying that, having the option to also make use of these things proper in creative too for at least the stuff that would be helpful to have as optional upgrades to use in creative mode, whereas anything that would be tailored primarily for survival mode such as the no fall damage thing, would likely stay to such and whatnot. Generally though, the customization for appearance of things would be nice to have, especially if it gets made to be pretty decently customizable too so people can be unique in both the ships they make, and also to an extent, what their player character looks like kind of thing, which could be cool and also a potentially fairly easy~ish way for people, once multiplayer eventually comes, to not get confused for one another depending on how the appearance stuff is done. As for well... the rest of the stuff, I feel like most of it is pretty solid ideas for a current list of potential upgrades, though I can expect more to eventually be added to said list of potential upgrades that will be had. Also the thought of both a spider-man related achievement, and a jesus achievement, is funny to me.

[Tackietacktack]

Ohh, that's make me happy!

Equipments are very cool. I think you don't need stats. In starfield you don't have stats all equitment make the player resistent for something( energy damage, physic damage, heat, cold, radiation) or Enlarge the inventory and some special things. I found this system nice because you can update all equitments.

A simple variant is like old Zelda games. By Zelda are every equitment legendary, blue or red armor, metal shoes,.. You can found one item with special Characteristics don't more.

The question is, how runs the story line? Runs it linear or full open or other. And it will be a MMORPG or single player storyline.

[Timtee]

My thought is that if there will be any kind of story line for Sevo, it's probably gonna start off with saying how we got into the galaxy we are in, and how we crash landed on a random planet or something akin to that anyways. As for full on story if any... dunno. Far too early for that kind of thing to be truly thought of.

[asanagisae]

If this is intended as your research tree, I vote that your equipment should persist with you when you die and respawn.

I also love the idea of having so many functionally-different equipment options to choose from.

Some interactions with the various factions would be neat. For example, if you walk into a commerce faction's base with a full FPS loadout, they won't be willing to talk to you. If you instead walk in with a tuxedo suit plus top hat and monocle helmet, they might give you some good deals.

I do enjoy equipment that makes sacrifices. For example, a backpack with lots of inventory but no jet pack capability, to encourage use of hovercraft bikes.

Tiers can be good if they encourage players to find things in other galaxies, or complete missions with factions, or hunt space pirates.

---

Other ideas:

Helmet:

• Thermal vision: changes the game shader to display sources of heat, including dangerous heat vents from lava or damaged ship equipment that could damage players - replaces the helmet's light, use the light toggle button to turn on/off

Boot:

• Lead shoes: allows you to walk in water as if the water wasn't there, but slows your walking speed drastically and disables your jetpack's thrust - useful for constructing (or visiting) underwater bases

Backpack:

• Glider: no propulsion and low inventory, but pressing the jump button while falling allows you to slow your descent and gain a lot of horizontal distance (affected by the weight of your inventory) - encourages building towers or jump pads
• Weapon battery: low propulsion and inventory, but your energy weapons are buffed (more damage, more range, more fire rate, or more total energy)
• Offense field: nearby teammates deal more damage with energy weapons, does not stack with identical effects
• Defense field: nearby teammates take less damage from energy weapons, does not stack with identical effects
• Deployable shield kit: removes personal jetpack propulsion ability, but you can place a device on the ground that generates a shield with 5m radius - press the jetpack mode button to use, can only place one shield at a time

Suit:

• Rambo: increases the amount of ammunition you can carry (once ballistic weapons are added 🙏)
• Weapon integration suit: your energy weapon's heat dissipation capacity improves
• Nanotech suit: your health recovers slowly if you haven't taken damage for at least 30 seconds

Multitool:

• Gravity beam: enables the push/pull tool for flipping ships over, or provides a stronger version of it?
• Grapple hook: enables the grapple hook tool, which pulls the player towards blocks or planet/moon surfaces that you shoot
• Magnet: increase the automatic item pickup range (for when mined ore is created, or you right-click a block you own to unbuild it)

---

Note: The top hat and monocle is a reference to Star Citizen. Only players who spent over $1000 usd on the game get to wear them. 😆

[Gallt]

lower priority: cosmetics as well. Getting to style on people, or having faction "outfits" is always something fun. Bandit helmets with skulls, formal military jackets with rank studs/epaulets/ect, artsy sneaker style boots, so on. Make some craftable, make some of the coolest ones rare drops of specific things (that will inspire player trade). Just dont have them provide stats, leave that just for base equipment0.

I worked hard to get certain suit cosmetics in space engineers and even in star citizen there are cosmetic armors that people gravitate towards and look for specifically.

Again its low low priority, get function first, but keep it in mind. Might even be monetization people wont complain much about down the way with it.

[Timtee]

lower priority: cosmetics as well. Getting to style on people, or having faction "outfits" is always something fun. Bandit helmets with skulls, formal military jackets with rank studs/epaulets/ect, artsy sneaker style boots, so on. Make some craftable, make some of the coolest ones rare drops of specific things (that will inspire player trade). Just dont have them provide stats, leave that just for base equipment0.

I worked hard to get certain suit cosmetics in space engineers and even in star citizen there are cosmetic armors that people gravitate towards and look for specifically.

Again its low low priority, get function first, but keep it in mind. Might even be monetization people wont complain much about down the way with it.

To be honest, while such is understandable Gallt, I... personally wanna say that, while such an idea is... reasonable, it's... also one that likely will not be suitable for Sevo in my eyes anyways, not sure about what Tsuna's point of view on it is, but... Personally I feel like, in terms of purely cosmetic stuff... the option to customize like one's outfit for like armoring or otherwise, would likely have to be something either done per save besides having the base model chosen in the options menu or whatever like normal, but also the fact that... truthfully, the way you suggested it has also been done plenty of times before, and... truthfully doesn't need to be done again really.

[surajnairpv]

I was wondering if your adding survival elements like hunger to the game, that would open up new equipment challenges as well. Like if your in a scenario where your low on food and the enemy base has some food available, you are on a deadline. This forces you to equip yourself with the quickest and cheapest equipment possible to raid the enemy to only steal the food resources.

If it's a friendly base then you can build some equipment to trade for food.

This would unlock possibilities of quality difference in equipments as well.

[Horkas]

Here's my feedback on this:

Player equipment should be as follows: Helmet, chest, legs, boots, gloves, back slot, belt slot 1, 2, and 3, Primary weapon, secondary weapon, and tools. (The belt slots would be stat sticks to give players/npcs more ability to customize their stats like hp, accuracy, hunger rate, base player speed, etc. They would just appear as little devices strapped the the players waist. Don't worry if they float, perfection is not needed if it sacrifices fun to look good.)

• Making the armor one piece like how it is in fallout/starfield games is a bad idea. And here's why: Not only is it bad for player freedom of customization. But it limits your ability to make npc variations from it. (For example: You have a group of bandits spawn in a bandit den. You COULD model 2-3 full entire outfits for them to randomly wear.... OR.... Or... You could model those same 2-3 outfits, but as pants, chest, head, hands, feet etc. And then have them able to mix and match pieces of those outfits to make ALLOT more bandit variations from the exact same amount of modeling work.) More npc variations for less work, more player customization freedom, its a win win to make the pieces all separate. (Yes I know draw calls are a thing. No, they don't matter that much if they are done properly.)

  • (Also, having separate pieces will allow for more interesting item effects/stats to be made. Having a pair of cargo pants would increase carry capacity, and plated legs would reduce damage taken etc.)

• Having the backpack be the big "Power" slot such as a shield, jetpack or other cool gameplay changing thing is a good move.

• Item progression through crafting/acquiring higher tier tools/weapons/armor is always a good idea. Especially with the gun crafting you have in the game. Letting players find/mine higher and higher grade resources to make stronger ships/player armor/weapons is a huge appeal to most people. (Rng stats on items however...... Thats VERY hit or miss. If there is any, there must be a way to counter it through force, if a bit costly to do so.)

• Armor stand to quick-swap your outfits is a VERY good idea if the above suggestions are taken to heart. (Needs to have a button to take all without swapping, and one for swapping worn items with the stand.) ((Be weary: Almost every game that has armor stands, use the default player skeleton/model as the base for the stands to work. They just rig the stand into the player skeleton and pose it. But this almost always causes issues with the skeletons moving on their own, especially if they are given an npc status for some reason.))

[Majikmonster]

I'm loving all these suggestions, but there are a few types of tools I haven't seen mentioned.

For survival; health packs and anti-radiation medication for recovery and limited-time immunity.

For combat; consumables like grenades or mines, or equipment that can generate them with the right materials.

For stealth; some kind of equipment that can counter the scanner, conceal you from radar, visually hide you, or mask your heat signature. Also, something to draw attention like a decoy or flares.

For hacking; a handheld device that lets you temporarily lock/unlock or disable/enable nearby or selected bricks like weapon barrels, cameras, computer cores, buttons/switches, sensors, and teleporters. Maybe an additional consumable form like a soldering kit or single-use decoder chip. Potentially, this can include stealing credits from a shop interface at the risk of being caught or triggering a security check that alerts the shop owner or authorities.

Just a random assortment of ideas. There are so many possibilities...

[ZachZent]

My recommendation is to have something similar to Subnautica's inventory, except expand this to multiple aspects. Limited space, you can only have so many items. Armor has its own inventory space as does the multi-tool.

As for armor itself, I refer back to an old discussion two years ago. https://github.com/tsunamayo/Starship-EVO/issues/3854