Replicators

[Ivan2006]

What i mean: Food synthesizers, Industrial replicators and/or mass fabricators
What I don´t mean: those bots from SG which happen to be too annoying to be properly wiped out

Now that that´s settled, I would like replies on the idea of havibng replicators in FC.
They would, of course, be pretty near to the upper end of the tech tree, but would allow one to produce material indefinetly (like with the massfabs from IC²) if provided a very, very big ammount of energy.

[fr0stbyte124]

I don't like the mass fabricators. Even if they're expensive, eventually you get to a point where your energy output is sufficient that you never have to mine, and once that happens there's nothing left to do.
In single player that's a disappointment, but in multiplayer, it's a disaster. The whole idea of an economy revolves around the fact that people need things, and never stop needing things. If players can become self-sufficient, then that entire social aspect is dead.

[hyperlite]

Have you ever played with equivalent exchange? It makes it so easy to get high level stuff, diamonds, even stacks of diamonds become chump change. Even with IC2's mass fabricator which sucks up a huge amount of energy, you can make almost anything with uu matter, and big factions become self sufficient. I Would like to see trade between empires.

[fr0stbyte124]

This brings up another interesting point: how do we balance resources to encourage trade and teamwork, but not make solo play prohibitively expensive? I think the primary thing is to make sure players can readily interract with strangers without a lot of red tape. But in futurecraft, there are services, as well as goods. I've never seen that sort of interface in other games.

[Ivan2006]

I see the point of massfabs discouraging trade...
Well, you do know how much energy is required to make that stuff? I was planning about 100 times as much as IC², energy in relation to the output of a nuclear reactor and with a much slower speed (try making yourself a spaceship out of replicated matter and it will drain an entire ZPM while taking ~1RL week to get the resources.

[Prototype]

I see the point of massfabs discouraging trade...
Well, you do know how much energy is required to make that stuff? I was planning about 100 times as much as IC², energy in relation to the output of a nuclear reactor and with a much slower speed (try making yourself a spaceship out of replicated matter and it will drain an entire ZPM while taking ~1RL week to get the resources.

So your saying they would be for last ditch attempts to gain unobtainable resources

[Ivan2006]

I see the point of massfabs discouraging trade...
Well, you do know how much energy is required to make that stuff? I was planning about 100 times as much as IC², energy in relation to the output of a nuclear reactor and with a much slower speed (try making yourself a spaceship out of replicated matter and it will drain an entire ZPM while taking ~1RL week to get the resources.

So your saying they would be for last ditch attempts to gain unobtainable resources

Exactly.
e.g. the last bit of [insert random rare material here] in your system has been mined, you can´t find anyone who sells it to you, but you need 3 more for. [insert random piece of highly advanced machinery here]
That´s like the only situation I envision it to be a truly effective alternative to mining.
Also, the replicator might be a bit... likely to fail (and explode in a thermonuke-sized explosion)

[cats]

Call it a Heavy Fusion Reactor or something and turn it into a large building.

[Tunnelthunder]

Call it a Heavy Fusion Reactor or something and turn it into a large building.

Enjoying yourself?

[Prototype]

Call it a Heavy Fusion Reactor or something and turn it into a large building.

Oopsies looks like you hit quote instead of edit.

[Ivan2006]

Call it a Heavy Fusion Reactor or something and turn it into a large building.

Well, unless you actually got a ZPM, you´ll need quite the big generator for the replicator alone.
I would honestly think that the replicator-energy could be better used otherwise.
(on the other hand, advanced replicators could most likely make antimatter- but try containing it in something that appears like a large microwave oven)

[fr0stbyte124]

I'd rather not even provide the option. If you do you'll end up doing one of two things: you'll make matter generation prohibitively expensive for practically everyone not interested in breaking the game, or it will be cheap enough that someone will spam a whole server with the cheapest no-fuel power plants they can get and then flood the market. We're already giving them the tool to do so with the manufacturing system; the only thing that would stop it is if you can't do anything with that much power.

Everyone is sharing this galaxy, so we need to be really careful with what mechanics we allow.

[Shadowcatbot]

I think I know of one way to help balance this idea somewhat, If I am getting it correctly your converting energy>matter so why not make it to where it requires energy AND the equivalent amount of matter also, which could be required in some manufactured Matter-Packets which would also cost a ton of energy to produce.

[Dr. Mackeroth]

No fabricators. I agree with Fr0stbyte, they're a bad idea, even if made hard-to-build.

[Ivan2006]

No fabricators. I agree with Fr0stbyte, they're a bad idea, even if made hard-to-build.

Got your point.
They´re just too OP for FC, no matter how balanced we try to make them.
I gues this thread can be left to derailment now...