Win Condition and Overall Theme

[Sonata26]

What should the overall theme and win condition be? (copying some discussion and ideas over from Discord)

Themes

• We have sparkly conveyors and everyone seemed to agree on robots, so maybe leaning more towards hi-tech and robotic/cyborg theme.

Win Conditions

• Maybe something like Factorio and Rimworld combined 🤔 you have to build a factory to ultimately create some item (that can only be built using factories) that unlocks an area with the win condition (a crashed ship or a transmitter?) and the area would show up every game for that keeper like the mysterious dungeon does
• Factory progressively makes other factions more aggressive, to win you just have to survive. (factory-themed tower defense?)

Keeper Things

• Has an assembler for recreating themself and upgrading with cyborg parts (immortal as long as his reconstructing device isn't destroyed), maybe this can be on the tech tree or from the start depending on how it'd be implemented.
• Can upgrade themselves with robotic parts via disassembling/assembling like an automaton (see above), upgrading similar to the dwarves faction, or the parts can be equipment and the keeper changes in appearance as they level up (how most keepers work)
• Abilities
  • Projectile shield (ranged resistance), heat shield (magic resistance), only one active at a time?
  • Spacial displacement (teleporting of self and others)
  • Place Turret, Throw EMP Grenade (for hostile robots / player keepers),
  • Overdrive - boosts stats but slows/debuffs after it wears off, requires at least one cyborg upgrade
• Mechanite Abilities - available only from mechanite gear
  • Reconstruct the dead - can be used on a corpse to make an undead cyborg dragon for example (dunno if it's possible judging by how the necromancer's summons are just piles of meat)
  • Permanent regeneration
  • Skin Hardening (melee resistance?)

Overall, I think we shouldn't spread too much for now... let's get a nice framework for a factory, everything you'd expect a factory game/mod to have, and a light theme that won't take years to implement.

[giovinazzo-kevin]

Factory progressively makes other factions more aggressive, to win you just have to survive. (factory-themed tower defense?)

Sounds very Factorio-ish. It could scale off of some secondary global resource, like pollution. We could also have very polluted areas constitute their own biome of sorts that spawn dangerous poison-themed enemies. I don't see this as an alternative to the Rimworld win, but rather as a complement.

you have to build a factory to ultimately create some item (that can only be built using factories) that unlocks an area with the win condition

This seems like the most reasonable progression curve to me because we'd have complete control over the McGuffin, and because designing a "final area" is simply too cool to pass on.

[giovinazzo-kevin]

As far as themes go, I'll elaborate a bit on your mechanite idea. With some awful made-up lore to back it up, because why not.

Deep underground, at about Z-level 30 or so, if not deeper, we could add small veins of a precious ore - mechanite.
Relics of an extremely advanced civilization that is long gone, mechanite crystals are clusters of intelligent nanobots that can be manipulated into rearranging their lattice structure, add more technobabble to taste. Their secrets are unraveled at the hands of an expert technomancer, though learning the craft takes a lot of dedication (which justifies it having its own skill tree).

Mechanite smithing

All body armor made from mechanite exhibits basic self-repairing properties, granting the user stacking passive regeneration but rating slightly below adamantine in terms of raw defense. It comes with two rune slots per piece.

Weapons made from mechanite have a chance to destroy/corrode the enemy's equipment, but their damage, once again, rates below that of adamantine. They also have two rune slots.

Mechanite crafting

A new crafting station lets you create special runes out of mechanite and fabricated ingredients. These runes are orthogonal to those that spawn normally, and their effects are more in line with the themes of the mod. I picture them as electronic chips.

A second crafting station lets you create jewelry out of mechanite and fabricated ingredients. I picture these as body augmentations or implants.

Mechanite fabrication

Lets you create advanced components out of mechanite. Possibly a requirement for the win condition. Must elaborate further when more context is available.