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[ZeroGravitas]

so is radiation literally just a time clock?

or does it increase with trips to the surface and objects returned?

[Gabeux]

From what I've read, it really is a time limit, in which frequent visits to the medbay gives you more time.
Once you get very used to the game, you are able to do a lot in very little time. At the moment I think the limit is okay. Maybe unlocking a "no rads"/"less rads" mode after reaching a certain score or whatever would be neat.

[HoroArch]

The medbay can cure a portion of your exposure since your last visit.  It's a sliding scale - the longer you leave it untreated, the lower the percentage of that dose it can fix.

Cool that you've got a thread here - man, I played a bunch of DF back right before the multiple Z levels came out.  Suppose it makes sense there'd be some crossover.  Losing Is Fun.

[forsaken1111]

so is radiation literally just a time clock?

or does it increase with trips to the surface and objects returned?

Radiation is the 'hunger clock' equivalent of this roguelike. It forces you to leave eventually, or else, and affects your final scoring.

The medbay can cure a portion of your exposure since your last visit.  It's a sliding scale - the longer you leave it untreated, the lower the percentage of that dose it can fix.

Cool that you've got a thread here - man, I played a bunch of DF back right before the multiple Z levels came out.  Suppose it makes sense there'd be some crossover.  Losing Is Fun.

It's remarkable how often the devs show up soon after we start discussing games here. Hello and welcome.

[ZeroGravitas]

so is radiation literally just a time clock?

or does it increase with trips to the surface and objects returned?

Radiation is the 'hunger clock' equivalent of this roguelike. It forces you to leave eventually, or else, and affects your final scoring.

Yeah, I got that part. What I'm asking is if other things affect it like bringing back objects or spending time in the garage with the rover (or even spending time in the science lab with radioactive items).

By analogy, in many roguelikes, casting spells increases hunger. My question is what else affects the "hunger clock" in this game. ie do I need to worry about excessive item swapping causing radiation exposure beyond just the time required.

[forsaken1111]

Ahh, no I don't think anything affects it right now other than the already mentioned medbay usage.

[HoroArch]

The only other thing I can think of that has an effect on it is spending time outside the ship - that's a higher dose rate.

[forsaken1111]

Have you considered adding a way to reduce the radiation? Like finding something from the surface that requires the player to install it inside the ship. Shielding or additional armor plating?

I feel like just staying in the medbay should help to, since it is centrally located and I'd imagine being inside the autodock would help. If we could change what the terminals boot to, like rerouting the bridge terminal to the medbay, I could run a rover from the autodock!

[Gabeux]

Cool that you've got a thread here - man, I played a bunch of DF back right before the multiple Z levels came out.  Suppose it makes sense there'd be some crossover.  Losing Is Fun.

Welcome! Glad to see you here.  DF is love and life.

Have you considered adding a way to reduce the radiation? Like finding something from the surface that requires the player to install it inside the ship. Shielding or additional armor plating?

I feel like just staying in the medbay should help to, since it is centrally located and I'd imagine being inside the autodock would help. If we could change what the terminals boot to, like rerouting the bridge terminal to the medbay, I could run a rover from the autodock!

I agree. Let's say that currently, out there, there's a rather rare artifact that can mess with.....time. Not to the point of being a feature or gamechanging (I think), but such a nice detail. Adding some artifact along those lines that could help lower the exposure could be fun, but should be really rare.

Still, a bigger part of me wants to see the original game intact. My 54k score run took an hour or two and the rads isn't an issue after you get used to things. You don't need a Status Display, Compass or Microphone, for instance. This allows your first (and second) landing to bring back 6 artifacts each, while keeping a decent exploration loadout. And if you're lucky, with those 12 items you could be all set.

For an expansion or a new game, the ability to install artifacts on the ship would be an amazing addition. Even simply being able to install Data Containers in the ship and be able to open/see/check them on the bridge/lab computer instead of doing it on the drone seems like a natural thing to have.

HoroArch, do you plan on making more games? 

[forsaken1111]

Generally with roguelikes like this you'd wipe high scores with each release if the release has game-changing updates with the old scores archived under whatever release they were achieved. That way you preserve that history but can see how your runs stack up under the new release's rules. Like Cogmind has regular updates that alter the way the game plays and adds content and new scores might be different from old because of those changes, but only scores under the current release are compared

[forsaken1111]

btw what are you guys using as your starting config?  I have mine set in the config tool to not even bring the microphone, compass, power control, status display or radio receiver. I start with the video camera, arms, survey map, aux generator and reserve battery in the rover. This gives me seven slots to bring stuff up the first run.

[Gabeux]

True, archiving scores by version is a good idea.

I've been using the Controller/Battery/Camera/Map/Receiver/Arms. I'm never sure if Controller is really necessary, and if I can't find a better generator to feed new tech from the first two landings I add the aux generator.
I really like Radio Receivers, but non-directional ones are creepy as hell and not super-useful. 

[forsaken1111]

Damn damn damn. I was having such a great run but I ruined it with a misclick. Had a lot of great tech, my rover had a fission generator and an active heatsink which basically removed any power or heat concerns. I had two layers of awesome armor. I had a spine mounted gauss weapon in the rover that one-shotted most things.

On the very last trip down to get some final valuables, I accidentally clicked which fired the gauss weapon. This happened during landing and the recoil flipped the rover upside down. It landed on its head and detonated immediately. I guess they just don't build them very tough,

[ZeroGravitas]

btw what are you guys using as your starting config?  I have mine set in the config tool to not even bring the microphone, compass, power control, status display or radio receiver. I start with the video camera, arms, survey map, aux generator and reserve battery in the rover. This gives me seven slots to bring stuff up the first run.

yeah, similar, although i do power controller, and no battery or generator. camera, arms, map. usually try to get 8 artifacts before returning, although i'm starting to think fewer is more efficient to decrease time between medical treatments and to cycle research faster.

although i didn't check how weight and excess power affect rover speed. i felt very fast with no generator nor battery.

[forsaken1111]

I keep the battery just for the power cushion but I might put the generator in storage. I use it if I find power hungry equipment but no good solar generators or something. That last run was the first time I have found a fission generator and it was awesome. I did find a fusion generator once but I wasn't able to get it started, even with two single-use cells dumping power into it. I wish it was clearer how much power was needed to start it.

I did find a field emitter once but couldn't power it.