Resource Limiting Design

In my next release I’m changing something that might feel pretty limiting for those who have played the previous version so I want to take some time to talk about why I want to do that. The change will affect the acquisition of gas and minerals resource:

• There is a cap to the amount of resources you can hold at once. Starting at 25 as you start the game.
• You can increase this by selecting a “Expand Cargo” upgrade whenever you find an upgrade. Unlike other upgrades this one will show up every time you find an upgrade.

This change comes form two main design constraints: 1. An unlimited time to explore after a system is complete and 2. Balancing resources as the game’s difficulty increases.

An unlimited amount of time to explore after a system is complete

This is important to me as I want the game’s pace to relax after the player has successfully “completed” the system. There’s a fair amount you could do in the system after you’ve completed it (trade, find new ships, explore, gather resources) and I hope to add even more you can do in the future. I don’t want the player to feel  a lot of pressure to move on immediately.
The problem comes when I realized that the most “efficient” way of playing is likely to use this down time to gather as many resources as possible before moving on to the next system. That way you can quickly power up as many of the next system’s shield generators.

This constraint trickled down to a lot of other design decisions. I felt apprehensive about making too many asteroids in a system so it prevented me from making things like asteroid belts. I couldn’t have enemies drop too many resources because it would encourage players to allowing enemies to continue spawning and farming then until they had enough resources to complete the region.
A limit on how many resources you can carry at once makes it much easier to provide many sources of those resources. I’ve made debris that enemies leave that can be destroyed for resources. I have plans for non planet events that give rewards of all forms.

Balancing resources as the game’s difficulty increases

Resource needs of the planets are the primary way the game is being balanced right now. I may eventually do some slight scaling of enemy health but I want to avoid doing that too much as you won’t feel more powerful as you gain upgrades, weapons and ammo.
As resources needs increase it takes longer to find those resources which means more enemies will spawn, which means you might take more damage or lose more citizens during that time that you are rushing to bring up shields.

Obviously the problems I brought up in the other constraint come into play here as well. If you have a wealth of resources you’ve stockpiled it negates the need to find them during the time when the system is under attack thus nullifying a lot of the difficulty that should feel natural.

My hopes for this iteration

I want to gather feedback on this change to see if it’s playing out how I hope. I want players to feel like that have an interesting choice between a quality of life upgrade with the resource increase and a more combat oriented upgrade. There should be some thought put into how much time it’ll take you to go back and forth between resource rich areas and the planets and if you can afford that time for a combat upgrade.

So please please please, after you play this next version (Should be 0.5) let me know what your impressions are.