11-28-2019, 04:11 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2019, 04:13 AM by Ikkir Isth.)
The "rusty dagger" comparison is somewhat interesting: typically in games of these progression, there are a set of "in between upgrades" for progression that serve as catchup mechanisms (among other things), where a rusty dagger might get replaced with a finely polished steel dagger +2, a tarnished crumbly adamantite dagger might still be better than the +2 steel, and more readily available in a higher level zone (or, more commonly, as vendor trash, or weapons for pets/followers/summons, etc, with often the "uncommon" version of vendor trash being the real upgrades... aka, the "enchanted tarnished crumbly adamantite dagger" version. Basically, a very tiered, level based upgrade system for each progression step.)
In this game of material quality though, there appears to only be a direct route up: there is orphaned upgrade routes all along: you don't care about upgrading the quality of "useless patents". So, really, we have a weird tech tree thing then that has some things that continue to progress and others that stop. How it really looks
Q1 to Q255, but realistically <10Q Wormhole P drive. Options to convert to Q255? not useful.
This links to Q1 to Q255 Womrhole P+N-, also probably <15Q, with upgrade options negligible.
And then we have the P+N-N0 drive, lets say start it at Q15 for when you unlock it. This is the final drive to make, so you would research additional patents to upgrade here later.
The tech tree then looks like this:
Q? P+ -> Q? P+N- -> ~Q15 P+N-N0 -> Q16-20 P+N-N0 -> Q21-Q30.... 50.... 100... 200.... 255 P+N-N0 drive, for wormhole tech.
This is why I suggested the separate drives completely, so you end up with a branch like this instead:
P+Drive : Q1|-> - 2 .... 10 .... 30 .... 100 ... 200 ... 255
N-Drive:........|_>Q ? (above),|-> 5.....10....30....100....255
N0Drive: ...............................|_>Q?(above)->, 10...30...100...255
Of course, warp already has its own problems with its patent progression system too, in which the quality itself doesnt seem to make much difference, but thats a different subject anyway. In the end, of course, balance how you will, its your tech system, all the fun problems you get to solve :)
In this game of material quality though, there appears to only be a direct route up: there is orphaned upgrade routes all along: you don't care about upgrading the quality of "useless patents". So, really, we have a weird tech tree thing then that has some things that continue to progress and others that stop. How it really looks
Q1 to Q255, but realistically <10Q Wormhole P drive. Options to convert to Q255? not useful.
This links to Q1 to Q255 Womrhole P+N-, also probably <15Q, with upgrade options negligible.
And then we have the P+N-N0 drive, lets say start it at Q15 for when you unlock it. This is the final drive to make, so you would research additional patents to upgrade here later.
The tech tree then looks like this:
Q? P+ -> Q? P+N- -> ~Q15 P+N-N0 -> Q16-20 P+N-N0 -> Q21-Q30.... 50.... 100... 200.... 255 P+N-N0 drive, for wormhole tech.
This is why I suggested the separate drives completely, so you end up with a branch like this instead:
P+Drive : Q1|-> - 2 .... 10 .... 30 .... 100 ... 200 ... 255
N-Drive:........|_>Q ? (above),|-> 5.....10....30....100....255
N0Drive: ...............................|_>Q?(above)->, 10...30...100...255
Of course, warp already has its own problems with its patent progression system too, in which the quality itself doesnt seem to make much difference, but thats a different subject anyway. In the end, of course, balance how you will, its your tech system, all the fun problems you get to solve :)