[suggestion] Ideas to reduce "that RNG hurdle"
Obsidian Ant mentioned this in another post...
The problem with RNG:
Personally, I don't mind having some RNG in a game, but often times it seems like ED heaps RNG upon RNG. For example, the grade 5 FSD upgrade requires 3 hard-to-gather materials (due to RNG) followed by several more RNG rolls, once for each attribute and for bonuses. That requires a huge time investment by a player, to receive a good outcome. The net result is that a player begins to feel like that FD does not value his time and worse, it's not fun.
Another issue is that (due to the RNG) the game seems antagonize players. It seems to assume people will "just play the game" and when the RNG is favorable, something cool happens. That's fine, until players intentionally want to trigger a particular outcome. That is, they have a goal, but the RNG prevents them from achieving their goal, in a reasonable amount of time, and they wind up disappointed and bitter. A recent example is trying to experience an alien encounter. The forums are full of suggestions as to what might increase a player's chance of encountering a random event.
Here are some suggestions for reducing the RNG:
Increase ways for a player to apply strategy to reduce RNG. A high-grade Detailed Discovery Scanner should display something like a heat-map to allow a player to locate areas on a planet which have high concentrations of specific substances, like arsenic. Those areas can still have RNG materials, but the chance of finding what you're looking for should be much higher. When mining, (1) a scanner might list the top 2 or 3 minerals/elements that a targeted asteroid contains beside the reticle or (2) you could set the scanner to search for silver and (a) highlight asteroids containing silver or (b) when an asteroid is targeted, the reticle could change color and say "Silver Detected", etc.
Avoid multiple levels of RNG. Don't require multiple very rare materials for an engineers blueprint. Instead, maybe have 1 very rare material and have the others be something common or purchasable. Increased material quantities are OK, but the randomness shouldn't accumulate to yield an infinitesimal chance of getting the desired result.
Let the player direct the RNG. In D&D, when creating a new character, a player makes a number of die-rolls and then assigns those rolls to particular traits. Rolling an engineered upgrade could be similar. Do the rolls upfront and then allow the player to assign the rolls to each effect. If all the rolls suck, just let the user roll again (requiring new materials, but not forcing the player to do a lot of needless UI interaction). Another option would be to allow a player to invest more materials for an upgrade with guaranteed better stats.
Completely omit the RNG. Low level engineer blueprints could have a guaranteed outcome. Instead of needing 1 sulphur for a RNG roll, for example, require 5 sulphur and 2 carbon for a known-good upgrade. Another blueprint for the same upgrade with a better outcome (higher stats) might require 10 sulpher, 5 carbon, and 3 arsenic. Basically, get rid of the RNG and replace it by something deterministic.
Recognize that players will often have a particular goal they want to achieve and don't make it insurmountable within a reasonable timeframe. For example, players might always be hyperdicted the first time they fly to Maia (and they might need to have an alien artifact in the hold). Subsequent trips might still have a low probability of triggering a hyperdiction. For events that don't affect gameplay, those event flags could be stored locally (so it doesn't affect FD's server storage).
Don't let the RNG obliterate the player's immersion. The local comm messages will often repeat. (1) Use local client filtering to omit (or replace) repetitive chatter. (2) Remember the most recent NPC interactions (locally, to avoid server synching): Don't let the same NPC act in immersion-breaking ways (NPC reappears in a fully-repaired ship when a few seconds earlier he was in a heavily damaged ship; NPC reappears in a different type of ship; NPC jumps an improbable distance to follow you (Vultures should not be able to jump 50 lys), etc.). An easy fix would be to have the same RNG mechanics, but make sure it's a "new" NPC name each time or ensure that the NPC respawns with consistent attributes based on the previous encounter.
Obsidian Ant mentioned this in another post...
The problem with RNG:
Personally, I don't mind having some RNG in a game, but often times it seems like ED heaps RNG upon RNG. For example, the grade 5 FSD upgrade requires 3 hard-to-gather materials (due to RNG) followed by several more RNG rolls, once for each attribute and for bonuses. That requires a huge time investment by a player, to receive a good outcome. The net result is that a player begins to feel like that FD does not value his time and worse, it's not fun.
Another issue is that (due to the RNG) the game seems antagonize players. It seems to assume people will "just play the game" and when the RNG is favorable, something cool happens. That's fine, until players intentionally want to trigger a particular outcome. That is, they have a goal, but the RNG prevents them from achieving their goal, in a reasonable amount of time, and they wind up disappointed and bitter. A recent example is trying to experience an alien encounter. The forums are full of suggestions as to what might increase a player's chance of encountering a random event.
Here are some suggestions for reducing the RNG:
Increase ways for a player to apply strategy to reduce RNG. A high-grade Detailed Discovery Scanner should display something like a heat-map to allow a player to locate areas on a planet which have high concentrations of specific substances, like arsenic. Those areas can still have RNG materials, but the chance of finding what you're looking for should be much higher. When mining, (1) a scanner might list the top 2 or 3 minerals/elements that a targeted asteroid contains beside the reticle or (2) you could set the scanner to search for silver and (a) highlight asteroids containing silver or (b) when an asteroid is targeted, the reticle could change color and say "Silver Detected", etc.
Avoid multiple levels of RNG. Don't require multiple very rare materials for an engineers blueprint. Instead, maybe have 1 very rare material and have the others be something common or purchasable. Increased material quantities are OK, but the randomness shouldn't accumulate to yield an infinitesimal chance of getting the desired result.
Let the player direct the RNG. In D&D, when creating a new character, a player makes a number of die-rolls and then assigns those rolls to particular traits. Rolling an engineered upgrade could be similar. Do the rolls upfront and then allow the player to assign the rolls to each effect. If all the rolls suck, just let the user roll again (requiring new materials, but not forcing the player to do a lot of needless UI interaction). Another option would be to allow a player to invest more materials for an upgrade with guaranteed better stats.
Completely omit the RNG. Low level engineer blueprints could have a guaranteed outcome. Instead of needing 1 sulphur for a RNG roll, for example, require 5 sulphur and 2 carbon for a known-good upgrade. Another blueprint for the same upgrade with a better outcome (higher stats) might require 10 sulpher, 5 carbon, and 3 arsenic. Basically, get rid of the RNG and replace it by something deterministic.
Recognize that players will often have a particular goal they want to achieve and don't make it insurmountable within a reasonable timeframe. For example, players might always be hyperdicted the first time they fly to Maia (and they might need to have an alien artifact in the hold). Subsequent trips might still have a low probability of triggering a hyperdiction. For events that don't affect gameplay, those event flags could be stored locally (so it doesn't affect FD's server storage).
Don't let the RNG obliterate the player's immersion. The local comm messages will often repeat. (1) Use local client filtering to omit (or replace) repetitive chatter. (2) Remember the most recent NPC interactions (locally, to avoid server synching): Don't let the same NPC act in immersion-breaking ways (NPC reappears in a fully-repaired ship when a few seconds earlier he was in a heavily damaged ship; NPC reappears in a different type of ship; NPC jumps an improbable distance to follow you (Vultures should not be able to jump 50 lys), etc.). An easy fix would be to have the same RNG mechanics, but make sure it's a "new" NPC name each time or ensure that the NPC respawns with consistent attributes based on the previous encounter.
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