When I first discovered the fuel scoop years back, I thought "Awesome! Never pay for fuel again!" I immediately went to circle a nearby star and watch my fuel gauge rise while keeping an eye on my heat and maintaining a steady speed so I didn't fall out of the corona or take heat damage. That was a fun gameplay loop.
Then I made a few more discoveries:
1: You can scoop while sitting still (relative to supercruise speed, I mean.)
2: Fuel is cheap. DIRT cheap.
3: Bigger scoops let you get fuel faster and from a MUCH safer distance.
4: Fuel can't be sold. Hydrogen fuel--the commodity--can, but, inexplicably, fresh-from-the-sun fuel, perfectly usable for all our spaceship needs, cannot. The two are also not interchangeable, for reasons beyond my imagination.
I haven't revisited this notion for a while, but these design choices perplex me. A potential player career path, albeit a fairly simple one; a reasonably simple, yet still engaging gameplay loop and a way to not only close the economy a bit, but get players directly involved in it--all wasted.
Now, since we know Fdev's stance on redesigning things (they don't wanna!) I propose an obvious solution: Engineered fuel scoops. The mechanics are in place, the engineers are primed, the UI design work is 90% done, all we'd need is to pick an engineer or two (or add one) to apply engineering recipes and tune the numbers. Workshop pending, example recipes could include:
Pneumatic scoop: Increases fuel scooped based on FSD momentum, but collection drops off quickly with deceleration. Good for a "skimmer" pattern where you keep a steady orbit at high speed while keeping your heat below the danger zone.
Hot scoop: Increases fuel scooping dramatically as distance to the star decreases, but creates additional heat generation while scooping. Encourages a "dipper" strategy where you dive in close, scoop a big chunk, then back off to cool.
Vacuum scoop: increases general scoop speed, but adds power draw. For those who like it vanilla but are willing to give up some power for a bit faster scooping. Naturally, it should be nowhere NEAR the extra speed of the other two options when flown as intended; otherwise this whole proposition is self-defeated.
Of course, we could include some obligatory experimental effects like double bracing or efficient, etc etc, but these ARE still just fuel scoops; I don't imagine a ton of experimentals off the top of my head, but I could be wrong! Surprise me!
As a complementary change, I would allow us to set our fuel percentage like we do with limpets, letting us buy or sell as much fuel as we need, possibly encouraging the generation of hyrdgoen fuel on the commodity market. I have a hard time believing it's not the same "fuel" so I don't see the harm in opening up a little design space. I'd also suggest slightly to moderately decreasing the ranges at which fuel can be scooped; otherwise, again, this whole solution is pointless.
The whole proposition adds an element of reward versus a risk, albeit a manageable one, to fuel scooping, while adding variety in styles and methods. There's likely a possibility for emergent tactics with this too, as I'm sure some among the community will likely discover. I'm sure the Fuel Rats would love this new functionality.
Any gaps in the logic? Any ideas for other recipes or experimental effects? Sick of engineers and just hate the whole idea? Discuss.
Then I made a few more discoveries:
1: You can scoop while sitting still (relative to supercruise speed, I mean.)
2: Fuel is cheap. DIRT cheap.
3: Bigger scoops let you get fuel faster and from a MUCH safer distance.
4: Fuel can't be sold. Hydrogen fuel--the commodity--can, but, inexplicably, fresh-from-the-sun fuel, perfectly usable for all our spaceship needs, cannot. The two are also not interchangeable, for reasons beyond my imagination.
I haven't revisited this notion for a while, but these design choices perplex me. A potential player career path, albeit a fairly simple one; a reasonably simple, yet still engaging gameplay loop and a way to not only close the economy a bit, but get players directly involved in it--all wasted.
Now, since we know Fdev's stance on redesigning things (they don't wanna!) I propose an obvious solution: Engineered fuel scoops. The mechanics are in place, the engineers are primed, the UI design work is 90% done, all we'd need is to pick an engineer or two (or add one) to apply engineering recipes and tune the numbers. Workshop pending, example recipes could include:
Pneumatic scoop: Increases fuel scooped based on FSD momentum, but collection drops off quickly with deceleration. Good for a "skimmer" pattern where you keep a steady orbit at high speed while keeping your heat below the danger zone.
Hot scoop: Increases fuel scooping dramatically as distance to the star decreases, but creates additional heat generation while scooping. Encourages a "dipper" strategy where you dive in close, scoop a big chunk, then back off to cool.
Vacuum scoop: increases general scoop speed, but adds power draw. For those who like it vanilla but are willing to give up some power for a bit faster scooping. Naturally, it should be nowhere NEAR the extra speed of the other two options when flown as intended; otherwise this whole proposition is self-defeated.
Of course, we could include some obligatory experimental effects like double bracing or efficient, etc etc, but these ARE still just fuel scoops; I don't imagine a ton of experimentals off the top of my head, but I could be wrong! Surprise me!
As a complementary change, I would allow us to set our fuel percentage like we do with limpets, letting us buy or sell as much fuel as we need, possibly encouraging the generation of hyrdgoen fuel on the commodity market. I have a hard time believing it's not the same "fuel" so I don't see the harm in opening up a little design space. I'd also suggest slightly to moderately decreasing the ranges at which fuel can be scooped; otherwise, again, this whole solution is pointless.
The whole proposition adds an element of reward versus a risk, albeit a manageable one, to fuel scooping, while adding variety in styles and methods. There's likely a possibility for emergent tactics with this too, as I'm sure some among the community will likely discover. I'm sure the Fuel Rats would love this new functionality.
Any gaps in the logic? Any ideas for other recipes or experimental effects? Sick of engineers and just hate the whole idea? Discuss.
