I like the ramscoop part and the ability to refuel my ships. However the part sometimes strikes me as a bit OP for the point at which you get it in the game. So I would like to propose two alternate fuel parts that would become available before the ramscoop.
Asteroid Harvester:
First available refueling part
Refuels at systems with an asteroid belt
Fluff: Many asteroids contain ices and rare isotopes that can serve as fuel for starships. By equipping them with asteroid harvesters they can refuel whenever they encounter an asteroid belt.
Fuel Shark:
Second available refueling part
Refuels at systems with a gas giant
Fluff: The atmospheres of gas giants are rich in hydrogen gas, and a good source of fusion isotopes. By equipping starships with probes designed to dive into the atmospheres of gas giants called fuel sharks, they can be refueled whenever they find a gas giant.
This I think works out nicely in that not every system will have an asteroid belt or a gas giant, and in the game gas giants are more common than asteroid belts. Thus as you progress through the game you go from having to be lucky enough to find and asteroid belt, to being able to refuel anywhere there is a gas giant, to being able to refuel at any star system.
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Oberlus wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 7:18 pm
I like this ideas. Great for the future tech tree.
Yes, they should each probably go in separate themes.
All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.
Names could be clearer... Perhaps "Asteroid Fuel Extractor" and "Gas Giant Fuel Siphon".
However, having multiple such parts might be annoying. Instead, tech refinements or policies could unlock additional ways to extract fuel using a single part.
Names could be clearer... Perhaps "Asteroid Fuel Extractor" and "Gas Giant Fuel Siphon".
I like the suggestions. Maybe just Fuel Siphon, for the Gas Giant part?
However, having multiple such parts might be annoying. Instead, tech refinements or policies could unlock additional ways to extract fuel using a single part.
I was also anticipating the major proposed changes to the tech tree, and with these the parts would be going into different themes. That way depending on which theme/themes you spec into you can get the refueling at different points.
Namely something like this:
Asteroid Fuel Extractor: Crystalline at Tier 2
Fuel Siphon: Mechanical at Tier 3
Ramscoop: either Energy or Void at Tier 4
Zero-Point Energy Core: either Energy or Void (different from Ramscoop) at Tier 6
All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.