[Suggestion] Silo Redesign / Repurpose

[kinkade1]

As of Version 0.2.3b

A little about where i'm at in the game:
All ranch expansions bought, all plots filled.
8 plots filled with 6 Hybrid Largo slime, each cage plot fully equipped with auto feeders and plort collectors.
All areas of the current map explored.

I believe that the Silo ground plot could be made to be a large piece in this game, rather than its semi limited current function.

Here is my suggestion.
Instead of having the silo as a plotted piece have it as a stationary piece like the house. it would be up-gradable to allow more storage of different items (much like the way the silo is currently) and larger quantity storage instead of limiting it to a quantity of 100 pieces per item.

Silo network
You could make the silo a main multi function piece, it would have a control panel on it that would let you fill your auto feeders that are around your ranch with the items you that stored in the silo. It could also take the place of the store front by putting that same board you currently have, at the foot of the silo and instead of having to run around collecting each kind of plort from the pen auto collectors, use the silo network to sell the plort that have been collected in the collectors.
[Additionally as a near final upgrade] you could have the silo auto collect the crops from your farm pieces.

This would solve quite a few issues that some people are having with the feed, collect, run around and feed and collect again, issue. With the way my ranch is currently set up, by the time i've ran around feeding all of the slime it's time to collect all the plort. It seems to get you stuck in an auto loop of feed collect repeat.
Having a tool like this would certainly alleviate that issue.

With the expansion of the ranch and the more plot pieces you are expanding to, this almost seems like a necessary tool.

{addition} allow it to clear out auto feeders to be put back into the silo. this is handy when you had put the wrong food in an auto feeder by accident.

[Urby]

I am always a little wary of full automization in a game - even if you make it very late game, after a while, it cheapens the entire idea of managing the ranch.

I think the whole issue of "getting stuck in a loop of feed collect repeat" means you're paying the price for keeping so many slimes - your upkeep is right at the point where you can't do anything else. If you want to explore (and potentially find better slimes, advance the story, whatever is available in the final game) you either need to skip a feeding cycle, or reduce the amount of slimes you keep. It's a question of optimization, and I would venture to say that the answer is not "give more ways to raise the optimization ceiling", it is "give players meaningful choices about how to optimize their time".

(Of course, right now there are no meaningful choices about time - there's not much to explore and no story. This will probably change in the future.)

Personally, I would much rather have storage upgrades on autofeeders and the silo, but I do think the silo should be a permanant fixture of the ranch you unlock, like a real farm silo.

[glinkBobby]

Something that always bothered me about the silos is that the suckers are on all four sides rather than one side. If I had forgotten and wanted to see what I had stored in one of the silos in the back, I have to go to and and go behind it and look at the screen. I'd like it if all 4 suckers were on all one side, like a big soft serve ice cream machine. I'm sure there's room.

Not only this, but the ability to rotate structures needs to be implemented. for directional convenience.

[kinkade1]

I am always a little wary of full automization in a game - even if you make it very late game, after a while, it cheapens the entire idea of managing the ranch.

I think the whole issue of "getting stuck in a loop of feed collect repeat" means you're paying the price for keeping so many slimes - your upkeep is right at the point where you can't do anything else. If you want to explore (and potentially find better slimes, advance the story, whatever is available in the final game) you either need to skip a feeding cycle, or reduce the amount of slimes you keep. It's a question of optimization, and I would venture to say that the answer is not "give more ways to raise the optimization ceiling", it is "give players meaningful choices about how to optimize their time".

(Of course, right now there are no meaningful choices about time - there's not much to explore and no story. This will probably change in the future.)

Personally, I would much rather have storage upgrades on autofeeders and the silo, but I do think the silo should be a permanant fixture of the ranch you unlock, like a real farm silo.

I wouldn't have it as full automation. You would still have to go back to your ranch and go visit the central hub to refill your auto feeders and sell your poo.. err plort.. so if your feeders empty while your out exploring that's just something you're going to deal with (meaningful choice). I would agree with you if the ranch was going to stay at it's current limited size. If you read what they intend to do with the game, there is supposed to be a significant amount more space added to the ranch section. so if now people are using the number of corals i am for slime, think what would happen with that much expansion space. i also imagine new upgrades are in the mix and more expensive items, having a significant amount of slime would be essential to the progression of the game. using the central hub idea would allow the player a significant place to manage basic functions of the ranch. Don't get me wrong i don't believe that all the functionality of the central hub should be unlocked right off the bat. Make the player struggle first. Then once the player has managed to figure out the workings of the ranch and made enough money then allow them to use the network capabilities so the player can focus more on deeper exploration and getting more premium slime goodness. I agree the player has to be able to make good decisions on how to spend their time. But if you make it a constant battle between managing the slime you have to make money to get the new upgrade to explore, and the actual exploration of the game you then lose the players interest. its a fine balance. And who knows having a central hub may not be the best way to help the games progression. But to me and several other people on the forum it definitely seems like it would allow for a better game play experience.

[kinkade1]

Something that always bothered me about the silos is that the suckers are on all four sides rather than one side. If I had forgotten and wanted to see what I had stored in one of the silos in the back, I have to go to and and go behind it and look at the screen. I'd like it if all 4 suckers were on all one side, like a big soft serve ice cream machine. I'm sure there's room.

Not only this, but the ability to rotate structures needs to be implemented. for directional convenience.

I agree all of the suckers would be good to have on the same side. And considering the game is built like a first person shooter, where you have the ability to aim. You could have the expansion of the silo like a wall of icons with suckers underneath the icon allowing you to fill that particular item.

Rotation of corals and built expansions would be really nice

[clmurphy74]

I think the whole issue of "getting stuck in a loop of feed collect repeat" means you're paying the price for keeping so many slimes - your upkeep is right at the point where you can't do anything else. If you want to explore (and potentially find better slimes, advance the story, whatever is available in the final game) you either need to skip a feeding cycle, or reduce the amount of slimes you keep. It's a question of optimization, and I would venture to say that the answer is not "give more ways to raise the optimization ceiling", it is "give players meaningful choices about how to optimize their time".

I totally disagree with this. Yes I had all the available slimes as largos, but also had both expansions. It is a chore to run into the Grotto, suck up both of the Cuberry gardens, then deposit 1/2 into the Phosphor/Tabby and Phosphor/Boom corrals; run out into the main ranch area, harvest carrots, mint mangos and hen hens/elder chickens & roostoros, then go deposit them into the auto feeders of the correct Largo breed (Honey/Tabby; Rock/Tabby and Pink/Tabby {notice the theme yet?}) then run over to the Overgrowth, suck up carrots, hen hens, and the fruits, then deposit them into the Pink/Rock feeder.

By the way, that is only 6 corrals, 5 gardens, and 2 coops and I only keep no more than 5 or 6 of the Largo's.

Then its time to collect the plorts. So more running around and the vac pac was upgraded to hold 50 of each. Sometimes it took me 2 to 3 game days to do all that. No exploring, just havest, feed and collect plorts. If I went more than a day in between collecting, and with auto feeder shootin' out food every so often, I'd have 70 or more plorts of one kind to gather (remember if you feed a favorite food to a largo, then you get 4 plorts). Which meant that I have to make two or more trips for each corral.

Boring.

By the way, if the collectors aren't emptied, it won't pick up more plorts and they do despawn. Which is Newbucks down the drain.

[kinkade1]

I like the idea of having the silo network this way because i was, and still am under the impression that one of the biggest key elements of this game was to go explore and find cool slime as a first priority. Then second to use innocent slime in your diabolical genetic experiments while getting paid for the plort samples used for analysis of your freakish genetic cross-mutations....... *cough cough* or something... but mostly that adventure, exploration, and wonderment of exploring the world finding new creatures... thing. This silo design kinda allows for people who have already figured out the whole catch, build, feed, plort, sell, mutate, feed, plort, sell, rinse, wash, & repeat system to spend more time in that key element.

[blinkinn]

Not only this, but the ability to rotate structures needs to be implemented. for directional convenience.

yes, yes, YES!!!

my boom largos are a giant pain to feed and harvest just because of how the pens are all oriented. i like the pens for some of the slimes being dangerous to approach, but allow intelligent ranchers to feed and harvest safely as long as they are very careful.