This is not a mod project, although if anyone wants to eventually build it, I'll do all I can to help with it (I've always wanted to do a collab mod). There's a chance I may eventually make something based off this, but ultimately, this is an experiment in design, not code. I'll be working on this slowly over some weeks/months, expanding and researching stuff as required.
Elemental Shift
Mission: To redesign the materials present in the early game, add more elements, and build a plausible topography and sector design for an area based off these redesigns.
Design plan (This is gonna change and have stuff added to it):
Part one ("Elements"):
-Determine which of the elements on the periodic table would be most useful or essential to a space based society
-Determine exactly WHAT these would be useful for
Part two "Shift"
-Using these new elements, and changing "fantasy" materials to be alloys or composites of real elements/materials, what can and cannot be made, and what equipment needs to be redesigned to fit with these? (Eg: Adding Aluminium as a new super-light-but-can-be-weak material, and buffing titanium.)
-What new weaknesses and benefits exist as a result of these new materials?
-Design a branching system-network for the purposes of later parts, based somewhere before Charon and St. Katherine's Star, but after Rigel. This allows logistics to be looked at in greater detail, using some rules to force some distances into the equation.
Part three "Primary Industry & Logistics":
-Where can these materials be found in space, and what is the most practical way of getting them?
-What sort of facilities are needed to mine, refine and transport these materials to secondary industries?
-What facilities and transport services are required to support these primary industries?
-What level of security is essential for the operation to work as planned, and what factors might change things, and how?
-What sort of freighter is used for each type of hauling, and what level of escort is needed (this ties into the point on security)?
Part four 'Secondary & Tertiary Industry & Logistics":
-Where would the secondary industries (eg: armor and weapons manufacture) be located? Would they be in-system, or would they be in a safer or more central location one or more systems away?
-Likewise, what about shipyards and repair facilities, that both rely on end products, and service the primary industry?
-Where do the security forces and legally-challenged busniness operators come into it? And which side has the upper hand?
-Why are things getting routed through Charon, rather than anywhere else? Is something happening in the wider picture?
Part five 'Diabolus Ex Machina':
-How many ways can the player affect this set of affairs?
-What missions might the player recieve, and from whom, for what end?
-What evils can we throw the player at and see what happens?
(There's gonna be more planning, and a little bit of writing-up later. I need to get to the lab now, so I'll grab a few posts after this...)
Design Experiment 1: Elemental Shift
Part Three working:
For primary extraction, there are two obvious philosophies that come to mind. Mobile extraction, based from ships, and fixed extraction from a station base. Both of these actually appear in the game, although mobile extraction is limited to small-scale operations by illegal miners during missions.
For larger scale (legal) operations, a ship capable of grabbing smaller asteroids and taking vast quantities of bulky, hard to store ores is essential as a "Mothership". Even if it does not do the mining itself, it carries all the ore collected, provides a store of essential supplies for smaller craft such as Borers, and co-ordinates responses to accidents or new finds. Such a ship must:
-Be fairly large, if not downright huge.
-Not rely on smaller cargo holds like the Antares design.
-Be capable of shifting a lot of cargo at once, which means large areas where hatches/openings might be.
Looking through the game, the best VANILLA ship for this purpose appears to be the Mikeno. Fitting it with rock-slingers for cheap defense, and possibly an ICX or back-up mining laser, and lowering the speed down turns the "destroyer" into a pretty decent mining ship.
For smaller craft, the choice is fairly obvious in the Borer and Borer II "gunships". They're designed for mining and transporting minerals, and so make excellent choices to recover materials for storage on the Mikeno mothership.
For scouting and prospecting, the choice falls between the Borer II and the two types of Hammerhead. They need to be able to safely operate alone, and at least have some way of checking what's in an asteroid (Firing a projectile or laser at a asteroid can tell you what's in it if you have the right sensors nearby, even if you don't carve a chunk off it).
However, Mikeno and Borer class vessels on their own are quite vulnerable, so some form of defense would be hired by more successful mining operations to guard these insanely valuable groups of ships. This might take the form of autons, hammerheads not being used for scouting, or in-house or contracted security vessels. In some cases, militia might get involved if there are spare pilots and a definite need to support a troubled formation of miners.
(More to follow)
For primary extraction, there are two obvious philosophies that come to mind. Mobile extraction, based from ships, and fixed extraction from a station base. Both of these actually appear in the game, although mobile extraction is limited to small-scale operations by illegal miners during missions.
For larger scale (legal) operations, a ship capable of grabbing smaller asteroids and taking vast quantities of bulky, hard to store ores is essential as a "Mothership". Even if it does not do the mining itself, it carries all the ore collected, provides a store of essential supplies for smaller craft such as Borers, and co-ordinates responses to accidents or new finds. Such a ship must:
-Be fairly large, if not downright huge.
-Not rely on smaller cargo holds like the Antares design.
-Be capable of shifting a lot of cargo at once, which means large areas where hatches/openings might be.
Looking through the game, the best VANILLA ship for this purpose appears to be the Mikeno. Fitting it with rock-slingers for cheap defense, and possibly an ICX or back-up mining laser, and lowering the speed down turns the "destroyer" into a pretty decent mining ship.
For smaller craft, the choice is fairly obvious in the Borer and Borer II "gunships". They're designed for mining and transporting minerals, and so make excellent choices to recover materials for storage on the Mikeno mothership.
For scouting and prospecting, the choice falls between the Borer II and the two types of Hammerhead. They need to be able to safely operate alone, and at least have some way of checking what's in an asteroid (Firing a projectile or laser at a asteroid can tell you what's in it if you have the right sensors nearby, even if you don't carve a chunk off it).
However, Mikeno and Borer class vessels on their own are quite vulnerable, so some form of defense would be hired by more successful mining operations to guard these insanely valuable groups of ships. This might take the form of autons, hammerheads not being used for scouting, or in-house or contracted security vessels. In some cases, militia might get involved if there are spare pilots and a definite need to support a troubled formation of miners.
(More to follow)
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.