With Sol Prime, we are trying to do something different. The main focus we are approaching it with is leaving it completely up to the player how he or she wants to go about doing things, or even what things are to be considered objectives. In this sense, Sol Prime is a sandbox game. Each planet will be generated and have different resources, resources that have not actually been discovered by mankind yet. It will be driven by a "resource properties" system, which assigns property values to each resource based on an algorithm. These properties include things like boiling point, freezing point, tensile strength, and many more. With this kind of system, the player can discover new elements to use in his or her designs.
There will be no statically defined "recipes" for crafting items. Ie, you will not see something like "You need 4 iron for this". It is up to the player which resource to use, requiring him or her to think about which properties would work in what situations. For example, transporting liquid around a factory chain would necessitate use of pipes. Making pipes out of a resource with a very low melting/freezing point means that you cannot transport hot liquids, because your pipes would melt and therefore be destroyed.
We are shooting for a Q3 2016 early access release date.
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I know I enjoy watching people make progress on their projects; here's hoping you do as well. If you're interested in watching people faff about in Unreal until something works, check us out on Twitch! We'll be streaming every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Here's the time and streamer schedule:
Tuesday - Soggy Piggy - 5PM CST
Wednesday - Apophix - 3PM CST
Thursday - Soggy Piggy - 5PM CST
Friday - Apophix - 3PM CST
Saturday - Monatrox - 1PM CST
A good feature would be to have the player be apart of a fleet and their character is either a soldier, doctor, researcher, scavenger, or an engineer with each role being different from the others. The player could play those role in way they wish, but the game would be different as curtain planets would be not accessible to certain roles and it would force a multiple play through.