Self Upgrading Loot

In the next updates the way progression elements are delivered is changing fairly drastically. Here’s a very high level run down of what’s happening:

• There are now four tiers of item containers (From worst to best: Brown < Red < Green < Teal ).

• When item containers are created they immediately start upgrading themselves over a period of time. So if a Brown container is created after a little over a minute it’ll (likely) change into a Red box. Each time the upgrade happens it takes a bit longer for the next upgrade (Upgrading from Brown all the way to Teal will likely take about 7-8 minutes in total)

• You can open a container at any time which will destroy it and give you rewards for it’s current tier.

• Containers will always have Credits, and a chance at Armor, Weapons and some might have Upgrades.

• Containers will be found through saving civilian planets OR you may come across misplaced containers around other planets OR from system secondary events

Using time as currency

There should be some pressure on players to “waste” time. Playing super efficiently right now means not straying very far from habitable planets, mining planets that are close by only and almost never back tacking. I want to throw a wrench in this…

When you decide to “risk” it and travel to that planet that’s very far away you should, very often, be rewarded with a container and because it might take a while to get to that planet it may have upgraded itself a considerable amount. Or maybe you come across a container at a nearby planet early on and decide to leave it and come back later. That patience is likely to be rewarded heavily with much better progression than if you’d opened it up immediately.

What I hope to accomplish with this change

Exploration should be a strong pull in this game. While I’m fairly happy with the core game play loop from Gather>Fight>Reward I want to, occasionally, interrupt that loop to reward general curiosity. Curiosity should lead to so many things in this game. Maybe you decide to approach that planet that’s far away and you also find a ship with citizens… Or perhaps you stumble across an enemy fleet in transit to another system. The possibilities for weaving a rich cause-and-effect personal narrative are huge if the design of the game can “break” the most efficient way of playing.

Additionally I hope this adds a level of strategic decision making around the risk/reward of leaving item containers to be upgraded. For example: one play through I took some unnecessary damage and was sitting one armor left when a large carrier spawned in the system. Thinking quickly about this I recalled I’d left some containers to upgrade at a planet which I quickly warped to and found some upgraded containers to open which gave me two armor for my wait. I want to see how this factors into how players play the game.

As always I need need need your feedback on how this works once it’s in the game. Please consider joining Discord so we can chat about what’s working and what’s not working.