The Labs (Formerly known as [SECRET PROJECT]) - Roadmap

I have very mixed feelings about making the game fully persistent. On one hand, persistence is probably responsible for what little success the game has achieved. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of bad decisions were baked into the design of the game early on, which are now extremely difficult to change. It's hard to introduce new content when I have to think about how it interacts with an economy and disrupts the existing meta.

The obvious answer is to preview things on test and leave them on test for a longer period of time, which is fine for new items but doesn't help with more comprehensive changes. This was part of the rationale for the Test Battle Zone, but what I find is I'd like a more controlled environment for tests which is fun to play.

So, my big idea is to build an isolated, non-persistent, round-based zone, along with a framework for toggling big gameplay changes in that zone only. Players would get an option to join the lab from the main menu, and from there they'd spawn into a new ship that exists until they leave, it is destroyed, or the game ends. I'm open to making it more team-based later, but for the sake of simplicity, fairness, and technical complexity it will be a solo-only experience to start out.

Gameplay

Gameplay wise, I'm not entirely sure how this will work. I want the Labs to be a fun experience in and of itself, with some kind of goal and competitive aspect. I'd also like it to be more interesting than the "King's AFK Square". One option is to jump on the Battle Royale bandwagon a few years too late. It's something to try but probably not the best option.

Another option is to have some "hot potato" device which needs to be fueled and will blow up your ship when it runs out. The idea is to limit the amount of time any ship can exist.

It's possible that I won't do anything special at first and it will just be a free-for-all with a hard reset when the server restarts every day. It might include a safe zone, but if it does there will be pressure to stay out of it.

I support the 'hot potato' idea

-Yeah, that concept seems nice.

that great idea

I think for [Secret Project], now known as "The Labs", it could just be a long corridor with all the new mechanics you want to test in specific small areas to the sides (Small bots, etc.), either singleplayer or multiplayer with prebuilt ships.

for the "resets" thing, you could make it so that you have to pay a certain fee every day for your ship to keep it. When a ship dies it just dies, no more getting it back to limit ship numbers

idk. I feel like we already have test. If you want to test big gameplay changes but fairly, you could make a similar thing to "revert ships" in real dred, but for the labs, just for testing new changes

Only X amount of ships in the labs at once, you have a limited time frame to stay in, with a cooldown after where you can't join if people are in queue.

As an previous Asia player, I enjoyed playing as most of everyone started at the with nothing and it was a fun race.I still think the game should reward progressing fast with risk.Though it can be boring alone, something to consider.

I'm also intrested if you have considered other types of game genres and what are you more leaning to atm.

Some examples

dungeon Adventure Survival

Like what are we evolving from trench coat rat people inside a breathable atmosphere enclosed in a box in space with portals.Hit me with more of that dredark lore.

why this game looks like "growtopia"

Yeh not bad

sounds good

good idea

I have mixed feelings on this too. On one hand, we have so many resources (Like flux) that just don't disappear. On the other hand, you have people who worked hard for what they have. Another problem, is how much would this shake up the meta? Making this too much like an arena game isn't going to do much good. It might attract new players, but I feel like the existing playerbase would be lost. Is there a way we can do this, while keeping it similar to what we already have? Part of the genius of this game is way it works. People can go out and farm resources, which is all fair and well until they get their ship killed by another person. You stay in freeport, you loose that risk. But if you go trade, guess what? You can get scammed. You cap someone on your storage? you can get greifed.

One of the suggestions I have, is why not make stuff in your ship decay if it hasn't been used in a long time, requiring components to be either replaced or repaired.

I like the idea of a more non persistent mode. It gives players a more challenging experience somewhat seperate from the main game. This could bring online some older players. Personally i think this is a great idea, good job!

This is a cool idea! i hope you work hard to make the game better and more fun! it gives players a more challenging experience at the gameplay!

When is this happening? Is it at all? Otherwise sounds fun.

There's a bare-bones version live on https://test.drednot.io/

I'll work to make it less bare-bones over the next week or so.

good lab

I think a normal update

cant save bro

Yeah I like the idea Cogg, not too late to try anything. Here's something I've been wanting you to add since I found out about the teat website-

Ships we build in test dred, you can have a button in the lobby that says,"Test Store" and we can purchase the ships we made in test drednot and have them in the real game.

Of course rares and such will not be allowed, but thing we can easily get in the game, like loaders and blocks and doors and all that should be able to be purchased with flux so we can have it in the real game. This will be a really op thing to be able to do, but at the same time, it will help with the need of autos for people who dont know how to build but have a nice amount of flux.

I accidentally reloaded my webpage and went to get my lab ship back and could not find it. maybe you could make lab ships available for 5 minutes after leaving the ship, or save it so that if you accidentally did it you can get back into the ship.

That might just be me, but if others have the same issue let me know so i know I'm not stupid

i realize now that if i had just tried to rejoin the ship buy clicking on the make ship button with nothing in the name slot, it would have joined the ship. maybe make this more clear though

I found a glitch on the labs, The ⚛ emoji is clipping out to the ships. Fix it, cogg.

cool

what do you do with void orbs ???

WHATS VOID ORBS?? New Item

I like the idea

What if you can eat orb

what happens if you eat the orb

Hot potato is an amazing idea no need to hop onto the battle royale idea

I don't think anybody would judge you for any type of change too hardly, cogg. Something new to the game would be cool and anybody know da hecc a void orb do?

but is nocheatlab but good server

good game 10/10

A suggestion I have to fix a concern or two would be the ability to make items rust, which can be repaired at once in the ship management by a separate repair storage-type item buffer. this creates a timer of how long the life of objects last and could burn through materials. the rusted machinery and/or items would not be usable until repaired (with the exception of expando boxed, because storages would be a mess. It's not a very good suggestion, it's just a thought...my bad for wasting your time guys...ah well.

I Like this idea,but what the void orb use?

This is a great idea

I like the battle royal idea actually, and also, I suggest a new block shape where it leaves one quarter or the block missing but the rest s filled in kind of like an L shape. Maybe not super vital to the games development, but an idea nonetheless

No potato, please! I work really hard to avoid the enemy ships, and I have actually become succesful! Battle royal would be annoying, i use the seekers on purpose to attack the richer people than me. I steal their loot. I agree with @Not Ranboo (the shape part)

Also, can we please have a one-time name-changing oppurtunity? My name is horrible and I wish to change it.

I feel like you could implement quite a few of the CS-style gamemodes (tag, team deathmatch, bomb, etc) that could be rather fun to play (but somehow dragged out into a longer game)

This is a great idea and the features that have been added in it are worth it (eg: chatting on helm appears in comms, not being able to leave when critted) all in all it's a great idea and may bring a higher flow of players.

what about private test many people wanna test another thing but this it will be hard in public test because another people like interfere private test can be host on pc people

this game idea is nice. but i think maybe ON labs add way more zones cuz ive gotten to the last one. add new items / bots maybe? and maybe a boss per 5 levels!

sincerely G0N3

Great idea, maybe get an award for making it all the way to Zone 3 though? Such as like a void orb on a ship... In real dred or something is what i mean.

Closing this thread. Will make a new post for future adjustments.