I have no idea really, some sort of material counter seems fitting, otherwise it is sort of stuff bubbling up from nowhere. On the other hand, if you are willing to scavenge parts from the ship then there are probably a lot of parts that are not necessary. Fixed light emitters that can be replaced with carried light emitters, compartments to keep wiring out of the way that can be replaced with walking carefully, all manner of furniture, walls, plumbing... We could basically completely remove the living quarters and retain mobility. The spinal gun would be nice but at the moment it is just so many spare parts...
Perhaps there could be technology-level ratings. We can harvest raw materials from a barren planet, that can basically be moulded into shapes and that is it, so low-specification mechanical devices. Then you have more sophisticated stuff from a living wilderness with all those lovely long-chain chemicals that life likes to make. You could get supplies for slightly more sophisticated chemistry, along with materials of similar performance but significantly lower weight and other materials which are far more flexible. A basic civilisation could be harvested for refined metals and maybe plastics and ceramics and such, useful for a wide range of products but of low quality so do not fare well amidst the high energy flows and miniaturisation of futuretech. Then you have you contemporary stuff, which can build a wide range of stuff and could comprise a fully functional space vessel. Then you have elite components that are required for a few key energy conversion processes in advanced weaponry, the extreme miniaturisation required for A.I., and the extreme resilience required to manipulate the energy flows of a high-performance reactor. Then there would be ultratech which would be unreproducible by us primitives but some of the components can have their functions analysed and be incorporated into otherwise impossible designs. And there could be devices to refine parts from one category to another, so you could have a machine that converts energy into raw material, or a refinery that converts raw materials into pure metals and such, or a particle threader that converts pure materials into complex chemicals to produce long-chain organic compounds or high performance parts. Or you could have a friendly military manufacturing facility that can convert materials into elite materials if given enough time.
Hrmm, that all sounds like a lot of complexity and resource tracking that would slow things down with no real benefit. Perhaps just track what is available at the moment and modify the options accordingly. We could dismantle the spinal gun to produce a handful of full combat drones. We could strip down functional sections of the ship for clunky old combat drones from a few decades back. They can fight, but lack the finesse that one would like when dealing with a battle amidst sensitive ship components, a hostile void outside, and a cramped interior. Or we could just strip down spare panelling and not really lose anything that we care about but not be able to produce much more than basic mechanical devices. And perhaps we could do better with more time, but converting spare panelling into complex electronics is not practical in the midst of a boarding exercise...
Or maybe, just maybe, I am talking too much and not thinking enough, perhaps "You can build it, it will take this long" Would make for a really quick, easy game that everyone would enjoy more. Although, honestly, the real message of this is that I talk too much...
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Topic: Overseer AI [SG] - Processing Cycle 18 (Read 12005 times)