Gathering Formulas

Suggestions
1

When I saw one specific symbol in a navigation bar dev’s introduced lately, I wonder what’s the concept behind it and what the community thinks:

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It seems we have different categories within our navigation / user interface.
2 of them (the marked “chimney” and the “pencil”) made me think of a collection of formulas discovered ingame - one way of indicating progress of a player)

Will we be able to store our explored formulas for craftings there? Or do I need to remember them or write them on a piece of paper to put them on my desk?

And how will we be able to learn them?

I have 2 thoughts in mind:

  1. if a player is able to find out every formula for items by himself just by trying several combinations, everyone is able to create everything right from the beginning of the game (if he has the ressources). Also you can look it up in tons of wikis that will appear, what makes developement even faster for a newcomer to catch up with veterans.
  2. What if, player can just produce certain items after they found out about them themselves, via hidden wall ornaments in oort language or simply quest rewards? Then they at least would have to make the way of progress themselves through the game, without skipping all that content by reading wikis.
    (of course you could differe here between some basic formulas every player has right from the start - axe, shovel, hammer and the ones you have to learn. You could also say some can be found out by trying or reading off wikis and some not).

For learning formulas via quest messages / wall ornaments / npc messages of any kind, I suggest a special way to reward a new formula for your “collection” mentioned above.

I like ways that force you to use your brain and discover a lot. In a sandbox game I expect players to find out as much as possible and win as less as possible for free. This is consuming more time to play through an amount of content provided by a game. I believe Boundless could support this.

Deeper into this thought: always when you read an npc message (no matter if on a wall or a quest dialogue), you are able to open a “write down a formula interface”. In this interface you can type in what you think you read. If you read right, the formula appears in your collection.

2 examples:

  1. you start a quest series in which someone teaches you to build a chest.
    Quest 1.1: the quest giver wants you to collect 4 timber to create 8 planks. So while you read this message, you open your interface type in 1 timber = 2 planks. This makes you recieve the first formula of this quest.
    Quest 1.2: Use one 1 iron ingot to create 4 frame joints. Do as in 1.1 and recieve the formula for frame joints.
    Quest 1.3: build the chest (in the way above)

  2. you find ornaments in a temple on a wall. it gives you in oort language an explanation how to create a mighty lance. While watching at it, you are able to open your “write down a formula interface” and enter the formula.

The npc messages can also be stories in which the formula is implented but harder to see. Like this you could hide kind of Easter Eggs or rare items.

The only question in my mind is, how to select the ingredients and result to the formula. If you put in some letters and receive a scroll down list, where you can switch to possible items?

What do you think of point 1) and 2) and the suggestion? Should B< stay the usual way or go a new way?
My preference is the formula interface.

2 Likes
2

I think both me and @Zouls have been speaking for special recipes discovered through other means like exploration and such.

Though you should be aware that neither NPC’s nor quests is a thing, really, so using them in ideas isn’t really very helpful :wink:

2 Likes
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I’m aware dev’s didn’t really gave statement about npc’s or quest. At least I have non in mind at the moment. But you can teach me better by a quoting a statement if you have time.

Anyway, npc in this case is a placeholder for non player created information. So information dev’s set somewhere. An ornament on walls is also a “npc-message” in this case. Or a book set somewhere in a temple.

Back to the questions:
What do is your prefered way to explore? Wiki or selfengagement?
And do you think something like a formula collection ingame would be nice?

4

Ingame information before all :smiley:

1 Like
5

I believe many (if not most) items should be able to be built at all times. But perhaps we could imbue wood or paper with a magical essence to gain a scroll that will teach us one new crafting recipe. These should be rare, and powerful, but not necessarily game-changing. Maybe items that give specific bonuses against Titans.
For the magical essence, I think Oort Shards might be an option because they don’t sound particularly common, and a player would have to choose between building a portal or fighting a Titan.

6

Which thread did you get that image? Haven’t seen it before…I want to add it to the collection :yum: