I have some thoughts on what could be improved in terms of the survival mode experience. I suppose this would apply to multiplayer as well, but this is as good a place as any to start. I will endeavor to put my feature suggestions in point form to keep this as brief as possible: 1. Spawn rate & ratios of ores need to be addressed to increase challenge and reason for mining. I believe this can be handled in one of two ways; either make the ores spawn with decreasing quantity and frequency depending on the rarity, or create an "ore" voxel that will give the player resources based on a probability table. I prefer the second method, as it reduces the need to search all over a landscape or through multiple asteroids looking for the one resource your need to complete some components. Instead, it lets you focus on building which I believe the game should lead everything towards. It also has the added benefit of creating "value" on resources since rarer elements will take a finite time to obtain, and can then be traded (or stolen) between players. 2. Engineers need a way to build from nothing. This may be considered a tad unrealistic, but I believe it to be absolutely necessary. If you crash onto a planet in survival, (which is super fun!) you may be in a situation where the only thing to survive is your medbay and some random blocks of debris - none of which have the components needed to create a full refinery and assembler set-up, let alone power them. I suggest engineers have a micro mining laser, refinery and assembler built into their suit. These should be limited so they can only produce basic components that are needed for assembling larger and more powerful production equipment. This way a player will always have options even if everything else is lost. 3. Tiers of ores, components and blocks. It doesn't matter precisely how this is implemented, but there needs to be a system where low-value easy to obtain tools can be made easily, but provide less features; while going up the maximum-value tool means that it will provide many additional benefits. For instance, say you start out with a "level1" welder. It can weld iron blocks at 1x rate, but nothing else. Next, you build the more expensive "level2" welder out of materials that were obtained with the help of the first one, and it can weld blocks at 1.5x rate and weld iron as well as steel blocks. The process would continue to the top tier which can weld anything and do it very quickly. 5. Suit batteries. In line with my previous suggestions, these should be able to be crafted with the built-in suit tools and some basic elements (copper, zinc, carbon, etc). This will allow players to exist if there isn't a power source available - at least long enough to build a proper power source such as a solar charging station or wind generator. If the previously mentioned built-in suit equipment is to be balanced, it should use a fair amount of suit power. Having these batteries will force the player to manage their power levels and make choices between building or recharging - at least until they can build proper power systems. 6. Proper power systems. There should be a number of ways to make power, and use them to advantage in the progression system. I'll point form some suggestions along with the advantages and disadvantages I see: - Solar Panel: Free energy, easy to build / low output, only works in sunlight - Radioisotope Generator: Requires uranium, easy to build / low output - Wind Generator: Free energy, medium to build / medium output, only works on planets with atmosphere - Combustion Generator: Requires carbon-based fuel, medium to build / medium output, only works with O2 - Chemical Battery: Rechargeable, easy to build / medium output, cannot be harvested without destroying cells - Hydrogen Fuel Cell: Requires Hydrogen and Oxygen, medium to build / medium output, requires platinum metal - Fission Reactor: Requires uranium, difficult to build / high output, can melt-down if damaged or operated beyond limits - Fusion Reactor: Requires hydrogen, very difficult to build / very high output, fragile but safe if damaged or destroyed - Antimatter Reactor: Requires antimatter, extraordinarily difficult to build / extraordinary output, huge detonation if not properly shut-down or destroyed during operation Those are my main thoughts. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute suggestions to this game.
Didn't realize the formatting would disappear. Sorry if its hard to read.