Drox components part 2 news

Today I'm going to talk a little bit more about ship components in our upcoming space action RPG, Drox Operative.

Components are your skills:

I mentioned this in my last component blog, but components really are your skills. There isn't a tractor beam skill. You either have a tractor beam component installed or you don't. This actually changes things quite a bit.

You can't just add a skill point to get a better tractor beam. You need to actually find and obtain a better tractor beam. You also need to make sure your ship is capable of using the higher tech tractor beam (power and crew requirements). Since you rely on finding your "skills", your tactics constantly evolve based on what components you find. This is especially true since not all component types are available at all levels. Another interesting thing is that getting a new "skill" is no longer tied to leveling up and can be obtained at any time. A new awesome component might drop during the next fight. And the last nice thing about components as skills is that you can easily remove any component and add a new one any time you want with no penalty. On the flip side though you only have a limited space to install components, although this grows as you gain bigger ships.

Types:

Like many fantasy games there are different basic types of components: passive, active, and consumable.

Passive components are ones that are always working and require no input from the player. Some examples of these are Plasma Drive, Deflectors, Composite Armor, Stabilized Weapon Mounts, and Beam Amplification.

Active components are ones that the player has to initiate the usage each time but you can use them as many times as needed (there are reuse times though). Some examples are Ion Cannon, Helical Railgun, Anti-Matter Torpedo, Nanomite Bomb, Fighter Bay, Flares, Magnetar, Emergency Power, and Jamming Spike.

Consumable components are ones that the player has to purposely use, but unlike active items you only get one use per component. The nice part about consumable items is that they don't need to be equipped to use; you can use them straight from your cargo hold. Some examples are Emergency Nanite Repair and Energy Spike.

There is also a special category of consumable items that I would like to mention because they are fun: Doomsday Weapons. You only get one use from a Doomsday Weapon just like normal consumable components, but they have a much bigger impact. There are several different Doomsday Weapons that work in various ways but they all have one thing in common: they are by far the most powerful weapons at their technology level. They are so powerful and dangerous they can destroy your allies or even your own ship. Using them also pisses off all of the races. In other words, handle with care! Some examples are Grey Goo, Planet Killer, and Temporal Rip.