Microsaur Ideas

Post ideas & suggestions you have pertaining to the game here.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

Prompted by the_shrike, I posted some ideas for Microsaur improvements:

https://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=5830

Please comment with your own ideas, either here or as comments on the record.

[No promises on when these ideas might get implemented.]
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Just what we need, an annoying mascot. Can easily become "The Scrappy" if it gets too much attention.

EDIT: Microsaur could have its own spinoff game, but I do not play Transcendence for Pokémon, especially if features are forced just by stumbling on one by chance.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
User avatar
Song
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2801
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:27 am

PM wrote:Just what we need, an annoying mascot. Can easily become "The Scrappy" if it gets too much attention.

EDIT: Microsaur could have its own spinoff game, but I do not play Transcendence for Pokémon, especially if features are forced just by stumbling on one by chance.
You are really, really not getting how minor this stuff is. Read ticket first. THEN comment.....this is mostly flavor-text stuff (although anything that annoys salvagers is fine by me).

Let me pitch it to you another way. This is another tool for you to use to munchkin your way through the game exploiting quirks in the game. Learn what little the item does (and this proposal does VERY little functionally), find ways to exploit, continue playing as you've always done. Or just sell them as you find them and you'll never notice a difference. But while your trope example is flawed, there's a good point there: feeding could be a bad mechanic.....you'd lose your nice trade goods over time, accidentally starve the thing.....it could very well be a problem. At least at first if this stuff does get in, I'd say leave feeding out. If feeding does get in....split the item. Standard item you find is the cryo'd microsaur (doesn't eat anything, but doesn't do anything special), then you have to actively thaw them out and thus opt-in to managing them.

(Also have you played pokemon? Because I'm really not seeing it in this proposal (and about half of this is new to me). In the worst case scenario it'd be more like Tamogotchi.)
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

Shrike wrote:In the worst case scenario it'd be more like Tamogotchi
I'm happy to acknowledge that I may have gone too far with care-and-feeding a Microsaur. These are just ideas.
User avatar
Song
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2801
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:27 am

But yeah. Back on topic (and after smashing my face on my desk to calm down. Ow.)....stopping salvagers would be seriously funny, but dubious as a security measure (buuuut I'm one of the few people who'd support a non-lethal salvager deterrent). I'd definitely support the little conduct and flavoury stuff. Because those are fun little easter-eggs. They'd also make nice little things for station flavor-text....just little edits for slums or whatever.
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.
User avatar
AssumedPseudonym
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1190
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:18 am
Location: On the other side of the screen.

PM wrote:… if features are forced just by stumbling on one by chance.
 This is a rogue-like. That’s bound to happen in some fashion regardless. I could use the same argument about not getting to use a cannon accelerator and a dual Flenser combo because I never found one or the other (or either) of them in the game.
 …I do think that feeding microsaurs is a step too far, though. Hell, you don’t even have to feed the pilot (and I sincerely hope you never need to).
Image

Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

@ Shrike: I read the ticket first, and it makes me want to genocide the critters if everything gets fully implemented. Yet another reason to join the Iocrym in their extermination plot if that becomes an option in part 2.

Pokémon is a franchise that encompasses more than the grindy roll-playing/battle simulator game. To answer your question, I played a few badly built mons on a SNES at a toy store long ago.
AssumedPseudonym wrote:This is a rogue-like. That’s bound to happen in some fashion regardless. I could use the same argument about not getting to use a cannon accelerator and a dual Flenser combo because I never found one or the other (or either) of them in the game.
Your conducts are not tarnished by stumbling or not, your accelerator and Flenser combo or whatever. If the ticket gets fully implemented, my conduct will be altered the moment I stumble on the cursed mascot in some random drop. No other item does this. The closest we have are slave coffins, and even those do not get tracked when the player finds them or feeds them to the fabricator (my favorite use of them when Domina powers are max).

EDIT: Microsaurs as anti-theft idea. I imagine the Salvagers would take the pet too, along with everything else. In the game, Salvagers act like filthy thieves who take everything, even if it is bolted down and on fire.

EDIT #2: As for Microsaur feeding, just make the Microsaur usable and doing so starts a dockscreen minigame. (One possible idea I may try to implement in a mod is to make an item or quest that triggers a Space Invaders clone or other retrogame dockscreen minigame.)
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
User avatar
Song
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2801
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:27 am

If you're that opposed to items having unique messages we should also remove the star wars 3DV, since it's clearly destroying the game by having unique text when you give it to the sisters. And your "the thing you said is a massive thing besides the games which I have not played despite clearly indicating the games as an example" argument is......interesting. And you clearly didn't read that ticket, since you only actually started covering it after I called you out on it. But eh, that's not important anyway and we shouldn't let this get bogged down in crap. That happens enough here anyway. I'm annoyed about this and that's gonna show, but I'm limiting this to functional stuff...

So to start out,since when did conducts mean anything? As in, anything. Ok, permadeath has an actual purpose....but the rest? They're mostly a nicety to reward different playstyles and little quirks. They're things you do for fun. I didn't see people going "THIS GAME IS TERRIBLE" when the "never backtracked" conduct was introduced, even though it's one of the hardest ones in the game, you're locked into a conduct behaviour *from the start* (not by finding an item), and invariably gets lost unless you're actually trying to get it. And that's a conduct that actually indicates a playstyle. This one? It's easter-egg level stuff for the most part.

All you'd need to do is play normally, you wouldn't get the newer conducts because you 1: wouldn't have any in your hold when you ended the game and 2: would have sold them, thus removing the other proposed conduct, and the game would be exactly the same as before. Exactly the same. Calm down. This isn't a 'mascot' for the game. It isn't a game-changing super-feature. It's not replacing your favourite fabricator mechanics with 'pet microsaur to get stuff'. It's adding minor background details and flavor text to the game. If you hate flavor text and items having small eater eggs built in.....you're really playing the wrong genre. Anyway, you've made your point. You think it'll ruin the game and whatever. Cool. Then don't use the feature. This is what I do when I see mechanics I think are broken (I have yet to go insane over minor features, so I limit this to stuff that's actually a problem).....I didn't use the wolfen when was clear the starting shield was too powerful for it, and to this day I have never used a fabricator because I think it's a bad mechanic that is useless to anyone who doesn't read cheat sheets. Also it's generally unnecessary for my playstyle, but that mostly just made the choice easier.

No one forces you into a conduct. You can get them by accident....but that's a thing already. Don't like something? Don't use it. But don't stop the rest of us from having something nice, please.
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Shrike wrote:... No one forces you into a conduct. You can get them by accident....but that's a thing already. Don't like something? Don't use it. But don't stop the rest of us from having something nice, please.
That is the problem, I may not want to use it, but it might impact the game badly depending how its proposed features interact with the game. For example, I kill loot piñata #99, and I find this critter that messes with my stats the moment I lay eyes on it. Also, if the Microsaur ends up being shown prominently like a mascot, it could get obnoxious.

I voice my concerns. I cannot stop anything since George is the programmer and designer of his game.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
User avatar
Song
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2801
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:27 am

PM wrote:
Shrike wrote:... No one forces you into a conduct. You can get them by accident....but that's a thing already. Don't like something? Don't use it. But don't stop the rest of us from having something nice, please.
That is the problem, I may not want to use it, but it might impact the game badly depending how its proposed features interact with the game. For example, I kill loot piñata #99, and I find this critter that messes with my stats the moment I lay eyes on it.
Conduct for not selling requires (or should require) you to first own it. If you don't want to get the conduct for the 40 seconds it takes to sell it.....don't loot it.
Also, if the Microsaur ends up being shown prominently like a mascot, it could get obnoxious.
[/quote]

Not proposed. We joke about it in IRC, but Transcendence is never going to base itself around a single icon. Except the Sapphire/Gate thing that's everywhere. And that's just promo-shots.
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.
Arkheias
Commonwealth Pilot
Commonwealth Pilot
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:06 pm

There's an obvious solution to all this. Have separate activated/unactivated versions of Microsaurs. The unactivated version is the only one that spawns in the game and the activated version is obtained if and only if you open up the box that Microsaurs come in. The activated version would be the only one that gives you conducts/regrets and whatnot when you have it.

That said, I would be fine with having only one version of Microsaurs that forces itself into your conducts/regrets list upon merely seeing it. It would truly be great schadenfreude to know that this is out there ruining days for all the OCD Transcendence players.
Cabbage Corp, the only mod with cabbages!

Please feel free to submit bug reports or issues related to the Cabbage Corp mod on the GitHub page, the forum thread, in a private message or even on the Xelerus page. Suggestions are fine too.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

If I pick up a microsaur, fine. I do not want to be slapped with a conduct for merely opening the loot screen and the loot happens to contain a microsaur. It would be like if you open the loot screen and it contained Explosive Runes that explodes and kills you as soon as you open the loot screen. (Microsaur would not kill, but you get the idea.) Player has no way of knowing what loot is for the taking until he opens the loot screen. Also, if I do not want to loot the microsaur, I should be able to blast the wreck with the little demon in it without affecting my stats.

Buying or selling a microsaur is not a problem. Bad things already happen if player sells slaves (more than one at a time, that is).

I agree that the Sapphire and stargate is iconic of Transcendence.

I suppose the Microsaur could be yet another way for George to merch his game or budding franchise. Sell microsaur plush dolls to kids.

I do not want the Microsaur in the game to be like Microsoft's Clippy.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Arkheias
Commonwealth Pilot
Commonwealth Pilot
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:06 pm

PM wrote:If I pick up a microsaur, fine. I do not want to be slapped with a conduct for merely opening the loot screen and the loot happens to contain a microsaur. It would be like if you open the loot screen and it contained Explosive Runes that explodes and kills you as soon as you open the loot screen. (Microsaur would not kill, but you get the idea.) Player has no way of knowing what loot is for the taking until he opens the loot screen. Also, if I do not want to loot the microsaur, I should be able to blast the wreck with the little demon in it without affecting my stats.

Buying or selling a microsaur is not a problem. Bad things already happen if player sells slaves (more than one at a time, that is).

I agree that the Sapphire and stargate is iconic of Transcendence.

I suppose the Microsaur could be yet another way for George to merch his game or budding franchise. Sell microsaur plush dolls to kids.

I do not want the Microsaur in the game to be like Microsoft's Clippy.
I was worrying about how I could ripoff the scanning pods and excavation pods for my Cabbage Corp mod, but you have provided me with the perfect solution.

The next version of Cabbage Corp will include Microsaur condemnation pods that scan a designated area for wrecks that contain Microsaurs and automatically blow them up if they contain them. There will of course be a few false positives, but I think the tradeoff will be worth it. I will also include scanning howitzers to go alongside my scanning mining lasers. These howitzers will highlight any nearby space objects that contain Microsaurs so that you can safely blow them up. There will of course be a few false positives, but I think the tradeoff will be worth it.
Cabbage Corp, the only mod with cabbages!

Please feel free to submit bug reports or issues related to the Cabbage Corp mod on the GitHub page, the forum thread, in a private message or even on the Xelerus page. Suggestions are fine too.
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

Shrike wrote: Standard item you find is the cryo'd microsaur (doesn't eat anything, but doesn't do anything special), then you have to actively thaw them out and thus opt-in to managing them.
I like it. Add it to the feeding suggestion I made on the Ministry post, and it'd be a perfect feature.

I think the salvager deterrent wouldn't be *entirely* non - lethal. It would function similar to a guard dog on a junkyard, as I see it, mauling a few of the trespassers to death so that the rest scurry off.

It might also be useful in preventing muggings by Teratons, and the like, similar to the rifles I suggested a while back.
User avatar
Atarlost
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2391
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:02 am

I like the idea but I don't think microsaurs should be special. I would suggest a live cargo itemtype that microsaur can inherit that carries the base functionality. There are a number of reasonable or traditional space pet types and human passengers and prisoners are also possible. Even crew could be implemented who perform a function and stay with you for a while or are fellow pilgrims who lost or could not afford ships of their own.

The base type would handle things like increased life support expenditures, hunger if implemented, and leaving (passengers and non-pilgrim crew would leave in a certain station or system and get you fined if you went past, freed slaves would leave at the next valid station, and cats might leave randomly while microsaurs, fellow pilgrims, and dogs would stay with you forever). Ideally, live cargo would also keep its special messages in a string table on the type rather than being in the dockscreen switch statements since it would be expected to have special messages.

The guarding would be microsaur specific, though some others would probably do so as well.

I'd suggest sphynx cats (because they don't have hair to clog the air filters), Laika brand Russian Space Dogs, giant space hamsters, and miniature giant space hamsters. Microsaurs, dogs, and giant space hamsters would guard while cats and miniature giant space hamsters would not.
Literally is the new Figuratively
Post Reply