Modules, Assemble!

Now that we’ve had a chance to get a ton of great feedback (…and friends!) on the visual style of our race creation and various menus and screens, we’ve turned our attention to solving the mechanics of module construction.

Modules need to be built by your crew and, like any other game system your crew members interact with in Astrobase Command, we want to give them opportunities for great success and catastrophic failure. Here are some of the factors that we thought up to make it the most destruct- FUN! I mean fun.

Construction Time

Module construction can be a lengthy process. Luckily, crew members are more or less proficient in the Construction skill and, when assigned to construction, reduce that time based on their proficiency level.

We also thought it would be interesting to simulate a common phenomenon in game development (and many other team-based professions), which is the diminished returns you get out of assigning people to a project later in the process. So, in Astrobase Command, the longer you wait to assign someone, the less they affect the overall build time.

Construction Quality

When thinking of points of failure that an Astrobase can have and the jobs that crew members will fill to prevent those disasters from happening, we decided to factor in the quality of the construction of the module in how likely it is to fail. These may include:

  • Faulty wiring causing the doors to seal shut (ever been stuck in an elevator?)
  • Power fluctuations
  • Environmental system failures
  • Hull breach
  • Module-specific failures (Power plant meltdowns, Science Lab contaminant releases)

Over the course of construction, the module ‘accumulates’ quality based on the Construction skills of your workers. Also, oversight from a specialist can make a big difference, because if one of your workers has any skills that are relevant to the module type itself, that grants a significant bonus.

The higher the quality, the less likely the above scenarios are. But, in Astrobase Command, nothing is ever unbreakable *my best evil grin*.

Accidents

Didn’t your mother ever tell you construction sites are dangerous? There’s a small chance that your crew can be injured or killed while building a module. So, be careful about trying to rally half your crew to build a module quickly. It may have that perfect shine and new module smell but no crew left to operate in it!

What do you think about our approach to modules? Dangerous enough for you? Tell us what you think in our forums and join the other ongoing discussions as well!

Also, if you haven’t already done so, make sure to ‘Like’ us on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter! We’re more serious than ever about making this game and we need your help to get the word out!

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