The Botanical Analysis Machine. Let's Speculate Wildly!

Jackalope

A new bit of modeling popped up on Fox3D's (one of the game dev's) sketchfab accounts last week. It's a glass tube supported by some highly technical bits of machinery called the botanical analysis machine. Take a look its pretty cool.

https://sketchfab.com/models/b9f056e02f134ef5bab67877c0f30650

I haven't seen any official information or comments on it yet, so let's speculate wildly about what might be and its possible uses!

My theory is that it will be a piece of tech that can be salvaged from the wreckage of the crashed drop ship thats being implemented in the next build. Seems like the name implies that the machine will be used to identify the genetic make up of the planet's plant life. My guess is that different genes could be swapped between plants in the tanks. They could be cloned to grow a renewable and improved source of plant material for food or resources. The machine looks pretty large so it may be designed to fit in a bigger room in the seabase and require a power generator to keep the system operational.

What do you think?

Seldkam

Poison Ivy, nuff said

xerxys

Judging solely by the rivets on the panels (the only discernible thing I could see to indicate scale), my guess is it stands a little over 2 metres or so, no more than 3 (I just found this image which pretty much corroborates my estimate). I really hope that it adds another layer to the game, in that you have to first of all analyse the various plant life in the game to discern what materials and elements they contain.

So, instead of just randomly knowing you need coral for bleach and jewelled discs for computer chips, you analyse them first, they show up as containing ammonia and crystalline silicone (or some similar material) respectively. I know that they have only just reworked the loot system to make finding materials a little easier, rather than just specifying random materials without any indication as to where they can be found, but if this is the first time anyone has set been to this planet, then it surely follows that in the spirit of exploration you should first analyse the plants and animals to discover which resources they yield.

Another thing I would like to see is to be able to name the plants yourself. Once you analyse a plant, it is given a standard scientific classification (to show that different coloured jewelled discs are, for example, the same species but different sub-species), but you can then give it a common name, or stick with the one suggested by the game. To be able to do this with animals too would be great!

HexManiac

I'm curious how this'll work with the larger plants like the mushrooms in the caves and such. Does the player just use the knife to collect a sample or do they build a portable gun version to scan the larger plants?

Also isn't Coral an animal and not a plant? And mushrooms are their own kingdom. I think the only actual plants in the game are the Kelp.

LeahJ

HexManiac wrote: »

I'm curious how this'll work with the larger plants like the mushrooms in the caves and such. Does the player just use the knife to collect a sample or do they build a portable gun version to scan the larger plants?

Also isn't Coral an animal and not a plant? And mushrooms are their own kingdom. I think the only actual plants in the game are the Kelp.

Coral is an animal, yes and mushrooms are in the Fungi kingdom. I fear however, that when you're lightyears from Earth taxonomy as a system starts to break down.

On a geekier note I would love to see a full system of classification of the various species (kingdom, phylum, genus etc) in an in-game encyclopedia, but I think that might be asking a bit much.

HexManiac

LeahJ wrote: »

Coral is an animal, yes and mushrooms are in the Fungi kingdom. I fear however, that when you're lightyears from Earth taxonomy as a system starts to break down.

On a geekier note I would love to see a full system of classification of the various species (kingdom, phylum, genus etc) in an in-game encyclopedia, but I think that might be asking a bit much.

Oh goodness, I would love if there were something like the Pokedex from Pokemon, or Piklopedia from Pikmin added later to the game. Maybe everytime you collect DNA from different specimens of the same species, you get more and more information the creature or plant. And maybe when you complete an entry you get a bonus like being able to track the animal/plant down on a radar or something.

Jackalope

Good find Xerxys, looks like the devs don't really know what the analyzer will be used for yet. I think you've got an interesting idea about requiring the machine to identify materials before they can be used in crafting. I think that could feel a little limiting. It would basically require the machine to be the first bit of tech unlocked. I think it could be really inconvenient if you couldn't build batteries before finding it. I think it would be too big to fit in a life pod. Meaning it would still need to be found and salvaged from the crashed ship and placed in a sea base. This would require building the tech to survive the radioactive area and the reapers first. I am making a lot of assumptions here, so correct me if I'm not understanding your proposal correctly. I just don't see that as logical game play.

It's analytical capacity could be used to unlock advanced tech recipes towards the end game, but using it to gate basic organic crafting might not be wise.

HexManiac wrote: »

Oh goodness, I would love if there were something like the Pokedex from Pokemon, or Piklopedia from Pikmin added later to the game. Maybe everytime you collect DNA from different specimens of the same species, you get more and more information the creature or plant. And maybe when you complete an entry you get a bonus like being able to track the animal/plant down on a radar or something.

I could definitely see it fitting into a pokedex type of technology. That would be pretty cool if it was used in conjunction with the transfuser. That would be way cooler than just checking the wiki to look up creatures.

xerxys

Finding the balance between immersion, realism and playability is always tricky, even more so in games that want to give you the freedom to go off and do whatever. Some people want to be held by the hand whilst others want to rough it out from the very first minute. Having a more defined opening story arc would address some of these issues; rather than just having the initial cut-scene followed by various arrows pointing at stuff, a more developed and structured opening could serve as introduction, exposition and tutorial for those that want it.

Another idea would be that the fabricator can analyse some samples initially to identify more common elements, ie. you can identify that quartz is a good source of silicone and acid mushrooms contain the a compound that can make batteries, but more complex life requires more dedicated machinery.

Zourin

Space Whales.

Obraxis

Wow, you guys find everything

Seldkam

Its by far one of the most interesting things to find