[suggestion] uniform scrap breakdown + Lanius ability

[rhaining]

It's odd that, rarely, an extra augment is automatically broken down for scrap, when in most cases you must simply discard extra equipment. Why can the crew do it one situation but not another?

It would be nice if there was a scrap breakdown option always available, outside of stores. This would allow for some interesting strategic possibilities, e.g., you need just a few more scrap for that upgrade, so you're willing to take a steep loss breaking down some of your equipment to get it.

One specific suggestion about how this might work. When you select equipment, there's another button that says scrap. If you use this button, you gain X% of the purchase price of the item. I suggest X should be 10% or possibly 25%. For example, if you could buy item Y for 100 and sell it for 50, you could break it down for either 10 or 25 scrap, at any safe location.

Having 1+ Lanius crew members should also increase the scrap breakdown percentage. E.g., maybe it goes up to 25% or even up to 50%, allowing players a viable option to play the game without ever visiting a store (which could be an achievement).

In addition, I suggest that Lanius crew must be fed 1 scrap every jump/wait cycle. If you can't feed them, they die without the possibility of being recloned. Ideally, the game might warn the player before jump/waiting that they have insufficient scrap to feed their Lanius crew members. Players may face the real possibility of needing to scrap useful equipment or lose valuable crew!

[stylesrj]

I like the "Break to Scrap" idea. Why can't I break down those useless augments... or get rid of that Repair Arm outside of Sector 8?

By the way there's already an achievement for not using a store (hull repairs are OK!).

In addition, I suggest that Lanius crew must be fed 1 scrap every jump/wait cycle. If you can't feed them, they die without the possibility of being recloned. Ideally, the game might warn the player before jump/waiting that they have insufficient scrap to feed their Lanius crew members. Players may face the real possibility of needing to scrap useful equipment or lose valuable crew!

If you think about it, each beacon is a slice-of-life type thing. You jump into an empty beacon, and tell everyone to relax for a bite. So everyone goes to the bathroom, has a couple of snacks, maybe a quick nap. Your Lanius steps outside and does a spacewalk for their meal...

Then you jump to another encounter. You can't take on the ship because it has a 15 second cloak, 4 layers of shield and high evasion and is going to jump in a minute. So you decide to jump and suddenly wait "You don't have enough scrap to feed your Lanius?"

What the hell? You were only there for a few seconds and your Lanius will starve? They couldn't find a nice meteorite or old wreck to eat at the last beacon? Why couldn't they just eat the plates/trays of your crew member's food?

Then you wonder why the Mantis isn't killing your Human crew members every jump for food. Maybe they should at least kill one person each or they'll kill someone in your crew. If they're the only ones left, next jump will kill them.

Also, if Lanius had to eat scrap at each jump, Lanius A and B will lose their primary advantage at the first jump in Hard Mode.

[Ray Robertson]

By the way there's already an achievement for not using a store (hull repairs are OK!).

The achievement isn't for not using a store, it is for not buying from a store. You may still sell equipment.

[rhaining]

Good points, stylesrj. It would definitely be bad to have crew die on their first jump! I really like the idea of adding both the Lanius ability and the Lanius limitation, so perhaps each Lanius crew member could start with X (say, 5-10) scrap. Not enough to take them through the final battle, but enough that you could at least find them a 2nd meal. :^) I'm less concerned about needing to jump in a hurry without scrap. It seems that FTL jumps are not instantaneous; the sectors change significantly only when you jump, as does your ship, so needing to consume some metal during that time seems about right. But your point is well taken that it may not be fun to deal with the minutia of all crew consumables, and why is it fair to require a consumable for one species and not the others?

As the other poster mentioned, the achievement I had in mind was "win without interacting with stores at all". Very challenging. I rely heavily on stores as a means of converting spare equipment into scrap, if nothing else, so having the equipment breakdown option would be nice.

Tangent: Then again, it might be nice to have a set of super hard achievements in general. I mean, it makes perfect sense why winning without shields isn't one of the official achievements, as it's really fricking hard, way harder than the hard achievements that are tracked. But it sure would be nice if the game would track stuff like that as well.

[stylesrj]

It seems that FTL jumps are not instantaneous; the sectors change significantly only when you jump, as does your ship, so needing to consume some metal during that time seems about right.

If it's not instant, why are boarders not dead by the time you've jumped to the next beacon? Why is everything still on fire and leaking air?

But your point is well taken that it may not be fun to deal with the minutia of all crew consumables, and why is it fair to require a consumable for one species and not the others?

Exactly. A Lanius can always just eat your hull. Or they have takeout dinner. They don't have to eat your scrap or give you a scrap penalty. The Repair Arm is bad enough to encounter

Besides, why pick on Lanius? Sure they're OP but they only turn up in one sector. You know who also turns up in one sector?

Crystals! Ok it's harder to find Crystals than it is to encounter many Abandoned Sectors, but Crystals are way more OP. They can lock down rooms and stop crews from getting reinforcements, from getting healed and they can stop those pesky missiles if they smash Weapons fast enough.

But it sure would be nice if the game would track stuff like that as well.

Then people will be striving hard to try and grab those achievements and it'll sit there in the list, mocking them. "Come on! You know you want to get a shieldless run! Why not try a run without using a store at all. Don't touch anything on it!"