Forums » Suggestions

Space Dust/Gas Accumulation/Harvesting

May 10, 2022 theratt10 link
tl;dr: Add gas accumulator addons, essentially mining beams that don’t need to be targeted and slowly ‘catch’ stuff as you fly

Gameplay summary
* Add another passive-ish income & material generating source, but still requires movement. Could also be a source of rare materials.
* Gas accumulators would be mining beams that would target ‘the sector’, generate zero heat, and have a slowish gather rate. There could be small and large port versions. They can be turned on and off like mining beams as well. Gather rate could be dependent on ship speed, to encourage pilots to stay mobile (though this might encourage people to turbolock off into the distance until their hold is full, then go to a station)
* They would mostly gather new ‘ore’ types ‘Light Molecular Gas’ (hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen), ‘Reactive Molecular Gas’ (flourine & chlorine), and ‘Non-reactive Molecular Gas’ (the noble gases), but also the occasional ferric ore and carbonic ore from micrometeorite accumulation. Sectors that have gas effects present (Dau K-10, Latos M-7) could allow accumulators to gather Xith or Apicene or Lanthanic or something new, depending on the gas. Ion storms could provide the timed opportunity to gather a much more valuable “Ionized Gas” or “Ionized Plasma” ore that sells for a bunch or is used in manufacturing.
* Lore explanation: Space is mostly empty, but there is a surprising amount of random gas and micrometeorites floating around. Some entrepreneurial trading pilots decided that they could increase their profits by harvesting the detritus while flying between dropoffs.

Pros/Cons/Thoughts
* Is it fun? Maybe. Some people would probably enjoy cruising around the galaxy, gathering gas, while chatting on 100. Others would probably afk it like mining.
* It’s another activity to do, and could be an alternate source of materials
* It could add value to Ion Storms and make players congregate towards them
* It’s not really a new activity.
* It could be a stepping stone to nebula or smaller, localized gas clouds (ie part of an asteroid belt is covered in gas, so pilots would have to move in and out of it to harvest some material).
May 10, 2022 We all float link
That sounds like a interesting idea. Especially if the items were super rare (like more rare than sammic).
May 10, 2022 Whistler link
Perhaps an ion storm would be a particularly rich source of dust/gas?
May 10, 2022 Sid123 link
I like the idea, but I don't think it's good enough to justify the sheer amount of work needed to make this possible and non-exploitable. +0.5 I guess.
May 10, 2022 We all float link
i'm not exactly sure how this would be exploitable, especially if it introduces new items to the game that might be needed for manu and/or station requests. I imagine that there could be special scanners that could detect certain particles and pilots engaging in this kind of collecting would need a new skill set. This wouldn't be something one could simple afk in place, but instead would need to actively follow where the scanner says the stuff is. The particle veins (so to speak) would just pass by a stationary pilot.
May 10, 2022 Luxen link
In my head, i'm thinking of gas collection like some kind of cheap 3d perlin noise that creates nonvisible blobs, and have that fall off as you wandar farther from a sector's center. That way, you could use some kind of scanner that identifies and displays areas of dense "gas" by way of shaders.

You can't AFK, as you need to be moving to collect the gas, but you can't just turbo out, because there'd be diminishing and eventually no returns.

If this generated mapping would have in-game physical objects that affect the generation, then you can make unique objects as points of interest and the "gas scanner" as a way to guide a player to these special points. I'm thinking things like asteroids that have some kind of anomalous venting, or derelict craft/stations (of known or unknown origin) leaking volatile chemicals. THAT, I'd like to expand on even more, but would go outside the scope of this discussion...

Anyways, yes, +1, i'm always for new things that can add more benefits to an explorative playstyle.
May 11, 2022 theratt10 link
This feels somewhat obvious, but if there is interest in turning this into a skill, there's room for different types of scanners and different types of accumulators.

Going off the idea of Astronomical_spectroscopy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy) scanners could emit or be attuned to different wavelengths of light that only reveal certain gases. Those scanners in turn could be non-functional/jammed/overwhelmed by ion storms so you'd need special scanners for ion storms.

Similarly, you can have basic accumulators that just grab everything, and others that are tuned for gathering specific gases or micrometeors or plasma.
May 11, 2022 Sid123 link
I think something like this should come with the proposed version 2.0 with a conquerable greyspace and buildable stations and stuff. With these gases found only in the 'outer ring' and used in manufacturing stations and bigger capships. Till then, I don't think it's gonna be worth it.
May 11, 2022 We all float link
This is what I don't get sid. You say it's not worth it, but something like this adds depth to VO. It might not be something you or I would do, but it adds some level of wonder to the game. I don't know where your comments about 2.0 are coming from. There has been zero mention of it from the devs.

Imagine if you will, groups of pilots doing this because the collected product is required for things and is quiet valuable. And also imagine if certain hive bots also like to collect this stuff and are highly protective of clouds. So people would have to have combat escorts to collect it. This means people would have to do this in groups. Anything that adds group activities to VO is a net positive and I would like to see sooner rather than later.
May 11, 2022 haxmeister link
This is a really neat idea!

It comes with risks... such sectors are unmonitored.
It is an additional style of play

I like this!