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A Bunch of Ideas/Fixes

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 9:22 am
by BlanketPI
Firstly, this is a really fun game, and I really appreciate the effort y'all have put into it. That being said, there are a few things I noticed that might benefit from improvement. (For the record, I'm using "Quantums" as an abbreviation for "Quantum Slimes," so I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be "Quanta.")

Meat Eaters
So as y'all might be aware, Meat is a less efficient resource than Fruits and Veggies, and it requires you to devote a lot more time to tending. This is especially notable in Five Day Rush, where the comparison between Hunters (which are hard to get) and Crystals (which are easy to get) is extremely one-sided (though the rarity of Honeys versus Rads is also important there). I have a few ideas of how that might be fixed:
  • Allow more Hens/Roostros in a Coop before they stop producing stuff. 12 is actually very small, especially considering it takes so long to produce the Chickadoos (who still aren't food) and the other resources provide 15-20 pieces of food. I'd guess something like 20-25 might be good?
  • When you feed Meat-eaters a Hen/Roostro, have them produce more Plorts, probably double. Maybe to compensate, have them eat less often? (say Largos eat once every 15 in-game hours instead of 12; that'd make it 1.6 times as many Plorts per hour)

Five Day Rush
This has the potential to be a pretty great mode, but it's hampered by having an easy-to-find best strategy: Mix Crystals with Rads and feed them lots of Oca Oca. Now, I've noticed that Oca Oca seems to take longer to either grow or regrow than most Fruits and Veggies (not sure which, since I haven't done a side-by-side comparison while using the Remove Crop trick) but that really just means you need more Gardens, which isn't a huge sacrifice. The Moss Blanket has Puddles, Booms, Honeys, and Hunters instead of Puddles, Booms, Rads, and Crystals, but Puddles are too slow and require too much space, Booms require Meat (though that might be ameliorated, as seen above), Honeys are substantially less common than Rads and Crystals, and Hunters are both hard to feed (especially given their favorite food is abnormally rare, even among Meat) and hard to Vac up (though their Plorts are easier to Vac up). Do remember that Hunters and Crystals are the only ones that give 60 Newbucks before the Ancient Ruins. Of course, the Ancient Ruins aren't worth unlocking, because Quantum Slimes don't net you anything better than Crystals and it requires three Slime Keys and six different types of Plorts. So here's what I've thought of:
  • Change the prices the Plorts fetch in Five Day Rush, only. Phosphors are harder to raise than a lot of the others, so maybe bump them up to 30 or 35. Puddles should be bumped up to 60 or higher. Quantums should probably go up to 75, but the ones in the Glass Desert should probably not change, because at that point, you're probably abusing glitches and exploits. Well, aside from Fire Slimes, going up to 60 as well, just to match Puddle Slimes.
  • Make Honeys more common, or fix it so Booms are as good a choice as Rads. Maybe make Hunters a touch more common, too.
  • This is a problem in the main game, too (until you get the fourth Tank Booster), but for speed purposes, being able to have multiple tanks with the same item would be nice. It shouldn't eliminate the need for the first tank upgrade, but being able to carry more than 20 or 30 of the same type of Plort would be very useful, even if it cost an extra slot.

Supply and Demand
I've come to a point in my Adventure Mode file that I simply do not have enough space in the Refinery to store my Rock Plorts as I wait for the prices to go back up (and I can't produce enough gadgets to free up space due to limitations on Pink Plorts and Resources), and it's tedious to keep having to go to a Silo. Also, when I sell only some types of Plorts en masse, why are the other types going down in value? While I recognize that these may just be a consequence of me not playing optimally, I still have a few ideas.
  • Just like there's a Refinery Link and a Market Link, have a Silo Link. If you don't press the button to select a specific Silo, shooting into it will first fill up any parts which have the item you shot in (starting from most-full to least, and if that's not enough, have it go in a particular order around the Ranch), and then will fill the first unfilled port (based on position again). The button would allow you to select which Silo port you fill or take from by bringing up the map.
  • Maybe make a way to consolidate the Plorts into something like a jelly or puree which is a little more stable in price in exchange for being potentially less valuable per Plort. (e.g. Pink Jelly would give between 40 and 60 Newbucks per 10 Plorts?) You could show the current price in the upper-right-hand corner of the box at the Market or just have it all done in the Lab. With the latter you might even be able to create extra recipes, such as 3 Rad + 7 Phosphor for Power Jelly or whatever you'd call it.
  • Have all of the Plort prices mutually independent. Or maybe have it somewhat realistic and have a fall in some Plort prices cause a slight increase in others. Of course, if you sold every type of Plort in one day, they'd still all fall.

General Stuff
  • I'm not sure whether this is actually implemented or not, but just in case, I think that there should be a potential advantage to having the smaller Slimes, so my idea is to make them eat more frequently (say once every 9 in-game hours or 10 for Meat, making them give Plorts 4/3 times as often, or 1.5 times with Meat, but obviously not giving as many). This might influence Five Day Rush, too, though I doubt it.
  • I cannot tell you how many times in Adventure Mode I have come across a Treasure Pod I couldn't open, and then forgot where it was by the time I got the upgrade. My request is that if you get close enough to one that you get the text about not having an advanced enough Treasure Cracker (or "Press X to Open"), it should be marked on the map, sort of like Gordos. I understand if y'all disagree on this one, though.
  • Is it intentional that you often can't place Taming Bells near Feral Slimes outside of the Glass Desert? I know there are a few spots elsewhere, but those are normally at the boundary....

Edit: I forgot something! I'm using the Xbox version, and scrolling through the Achievements is extremely slow. That's a problem because that's the only way I can see how much of something I have completed.

Re: A Bunch of Ideas/Fixes

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:54 am
by TheGreciansHousehold
I'm only going to comment on your bullet points, as my fingers already ache from writing up the first draft of my latest Fanon-Lore thread.
Here we go!

1. I do agree with you; though this would be useless for me as I really have no dependence on meat, the speed at which they breed (and the stability of said rate) is far too slow. 20-25 seems like a little too much though; perhaps around 18 would be more balanced.
2. This would make fruit/veggie slimes redundant, as everyone would just make meat largoes to mass produce plorts. Reducing the speed or amount of plort production of slimes drifts the sense of unity between the different slime types, and unless specifically targeting a slime type as its main risk I do not approve of.
3. The point of 5-Day Rush is that the plort prices remain the same, so this idea is a bit.. hmm.
4a. Honey slimes are quite common. Perhaps you haven't explored all of the Moss Blanket; the lake-tube part that leads to the teleporter to the Ranch tends to be stuffed full of them, as with the area by the honey gordo.
4b. Boom and Rad plorts both start at ₦30, as they're the same "class"/"level" of slimes. If you're talking about danger, Booms are fine as long as they're well-fed and Rads serve basically no danger as long as you're fast enough.
4c. Hunters, again, are very common as long as you grab them quick enough that they don't become largoes.
5. This is a commonly requested feature, and it is not in the game for one reason; management. If I could carry 200 plorts at Tank Booster MkIII, I wouldn't have bothered starting the 7Zee Rewards Club in the first place.
Slime Rancher is mean to be a somewhat chaotic game to mimic the way an actual rancher would have to deal with situations like this; you go to clear up and find your arms are too small to carry everything.
6. The difference between the Market/Refinery (by the way, why would you store plorts in the Refinery? You can't get them back out again) and the Silo is that the Market does not need to store anything but plort values and the Refinery is always loaded, whereas the Silo stores data in the Plot (hence why deleting a Silo deletes its contents). Silo links would require waaaay too much processing power.
Alongside this, this gadget would make the Warp Depot literally useless and make it easy to move resources quickly and easily, just like with 5.
7. I don't really understand this one. If you could explain in greater detail, that would be great.
8. Absolutely. I really don't understand why other plorts should be affected by one, as they are all used for different purposes.
9. Smaller slimes can be ranched in larger quantities without fear of breaking corral air nets, which means higher plort production.
10. Treasure Pods are meant to be hidden, so, as you predicted, I rather disagree. After all, you can always write it down (or be boring and use the Wiki page for their locations).
11. Yes. Very. They're intended mainly for the Ranch and the Hunter Slime zone, and placing them in Feral areas would make the game effectively dangerless except for Tarr, which are more deterrents than obstacles.

Re: A Bunch of Ideas/Fixes

PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:20 pm
by BlanketPI
TheGreciansHousehold wrote:2. This would make fruit/veggie slimes redundant, as everyone would just make meat largoes to mass produce plorts. Reducing the speed or amount of plort production of slimes drifts the sense of unity between the different slime types, and unless specifically targeting a slime type as its main risk I do not approve of.
Well I was thinking that the Coops would still be slower to produce resources than the Gardens.... Perhaps just make them produce twice as much but they would only eat half as frequently? (Assuming you fed them Meat) That'd at least reduce the burden on Coops.
3. The point of 5-Day Rush is that the plort prices remain the same, so this idea is a bit.. hmm.
Right. The Plort prices wouldn't change within the Five-Day Rush, just compared to Adventure Mode. Or am I misunderstanding your objection?
4a. Honey slimes are quite common. Perhaps you haven't explored all of the Moss Blanket; the lake-tube part that leads to the teleporter to the Ranch tends to be stuffed full of them, as with the area by the honey gordo.
Honeys aren't actually rare, but rather comparatively rare. I just did a Five-Day Rush where I was able to get 5-9 of them each go around, but that pales in comparison to the number one can get with Rads + Crystals, which can often exceed 20. Also, I normally found them right after the part with the Feral Pink Boom Largos and on the island you have to Jetpack too. I admit I didn't get all the way to where the Honey Gordo is, but the lake is pretty sparse in them, at least in my experience.
4b. Boom and Rad plorts both start at ₦30, as they're the same "class"/"level" of slimes. If you're talking about danger, Booms are fine as long as they're well-fed and Rads serve basically no danger as long as you're fast enough.
Aren't they 45 Newbucks? Anyway, I was referring to the fact that Booms eat Meat, while Rads eat Veggies. The latter is much more preferable, at least in the current state. If Meat becomes more viable, then this whole problem is solved.
4c. Hunters, again, are very common as long as you grab them quick enough that they don't become largoes.
Maybe I'm either bad at searching for them or just unlucky, but I can seldom find more than one or two. Which is weird, because I was so sure that they were more common from my experience in Adventure Mode, but then when I tried in Adventure Mode I also had trouble.
5. This is a commonly requested feature, and it is not in the game for one reason; management. If I could carry 200 plorts at Tank Booster MkIII, I wouldn't have bothered starting the 7Zee Rewards Club in the first place.
Slime Rancher is mean to be a somewhat chaotic game to mimic the way an actual rancher would have to deal with situations like this; you go to clear up and find your arms are too small to carry everything.
Well, I can see that, but I think I'd still want Tank Booster MkIV. Aside from trying to handle two Corrals with each pick-up rather than one (when the Plorts exceed 50, I wouldn't have space for a second), there have been plenty of times I find myself with four items and not being able to pick up all of a Resource because I capped out. But still, I can appreciate that logic.
6. The difference between the Market/Refinery (by the way, why would you store plorts in the Refinery? You can't get them back out again) and the Silo is that the Market does not need to store anything but plort values and the Refinery is always loaded, whereas the Silo stores data in the Plot (hence why deleting a Silo deletes its contents). Silo links would require waaaay too much processing power.
Alongside this, this gadget would make the Warp Depot literally useless and make it easy to move resources quickly and easily, just like with 5.
Ah. I didn't think of those.... That being said, I wasn't storing the Plorts in the Refinery to sell. I was just trying to not waste them by throwing them at the sea nor Incinerator.
7. I don't really understand this one. If you could explain in greater detail, that would be great.
I'm not sure how much you'd like it, given your response for 5, but....
Say I have ten Pink Plorts. I could go to a place (I'm guessing either the Lab or a new thing you can place on plots, much like Corrals, Gardens, &c.) and throw those ten Pink Plorts into the port to get one unit of something else that I'm calling Pink Jelly. I can then sell that Pink Jelly. The price it would fetch would vary, much like that of Pink Plorts, but the value would vary less per Plort than the normal price of Pink Plorts. So when the price Pink Plorts sell for is 2, I might still be able to get 4 per Plort by making the Pink Jelly. On the other hand, if the price Pink Plorts fetch is 5 per Plort, the Pink Jelly might only get 4.4 per Plort, making it less valuable. And if Pink Plorts fetch 25, the Pink Jelly would still only fetch 6 per Plort.

Basically, it'd be a way of both compressing the number of Plorts you have (100 Pink Plorts versus 10 Pink Jellies) and reducing the effect of (low) prices at the Market. Mind you, I'm not sure where the selling prices should be, but I doubt they should ever so much as straddle the default prices.
9. Smaller slimes can be ranched in larger quantities without fear of breaking corral air nets, which means higher plort production.
Fair enough.
11. Yes. Very. They're intended mainly for the Ranch and the Hunter Slime zone, and placing them in Feral areas would make the game effectively dangerless except for Tarr, which are more deterrents than obstacles.
Well, I guess that makes sense, but both considering the insignificant threat Feral Slimes pose and the very limited use of the Taming Bell, it seems to me to marginalize an already situational gadget. Though to be fair, there's plenty of even more useless gadgets available, so I could just consider it decorative for the most part.

Re: A Bunch of Ideas/Fixes

PostPosted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:29 am
by TheGreciansHousehold
Fair enough.