Desert 8M-17M

[primal shoal]

Problem description:
Upon reaching RS10, there are very few unlocks until RS11 at 17M. Reaching 10M grants many level 14 modules, and 16M grants a modest star harvester upgrade. This span seems to be the largest gap in exciting unlocks (like ship upgrades or major station improvements). I am finishing up this climb myself (at 16.9M right now), and it is quite the grind, especially if you calculate the amount of planet upgrades needed.
Edit: RS9-12 also see less new modules introduced compared to earlier stars, making the late game less satisfying than prior advancements

Thoughts:
Ideally, late-game would have interesting unlocks roughly every million credit-capacity unlocked. Despite reaching 16M capacity, the star harvester improvement does not seem necessary, though I may get it in the future (genesis seems better). I don't know how these frequent unlocks could be added to the current game, perhaps if new systems are introduced they could have unlocks every million credits or so.

-# Thank you for reading

[full patio]

I always thought the opposite. The long walk is part of the appeal.

[eternal reef]

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name

Another research mod slot might be good

You could also make the desert smaller

[prisma oriole]

i'm at 11M and don't see the point of upgrading planets endlessly

the next goal, rs11, is just too far

and it doesn't really matter much. but rs10 didn't either with just motion shield and CRT as viable techs from level 10 arts.

that's what missing content looks like, a desert.

[full patio]

I've met that horse.

[primal shoal]

Research slot could actually make sense, but I dont think itd make too much sense with the current mod roster

Maybe if each rs level added a new mod or two for every new rs level, more slots could be reasonable

Don't want pacing to become a joke though

[eternal reef]

It already is ...

So many memes of dying before rs12 or rs11

[primal shoal]

Agreed, it's been many many months of droning shipments daily to grind millions in credit cap. It may not be palatable for your average player

It was a bit bleak to look at the road ahead, but I grinded through it

[eternal reef]

Maybe some sort of station or something to make droning those excessive shipments

Easier

Aggressive hand holding

[primal shoal]

That's another thing with many suggestions, they recommend an exact solution, I think it's more helpful to detail the problem

I think many of my suggestions have requested specific solutions, but some are kinda dumb

[eternal reef]

I've heard trying to sort 120 shippies with a 40t trans is rough

[primal shoal]

The first that comes to mind is to give enough war planes for all locations. I don't love working with off lanes, but droning becomes a joke without any thought or effort required

If you give more war planes, next you have people suggesting to change it up cause drone is basically relay.

Yea, late game shippies before max transport capacity sound brutal as hell

Late game shippies just balloon in quantity without value following

[eternal reef]

What about a factory that merges shipments that you can send to less destinations

Or it could be a new feature of trade stations

Or built next to trade stations

The other suggestion is to increase shipment value instead of quantity

At least to match transport capacity limitations

[primal shoal]

I would like to see late game shipments become easier rather than more of a burden. Everyone that does shipment droning does so because of the credit return, I think shipments lack a gameplay appeal

[full patio]

Isn't late game like rs30

[sterile scroll]

Shipments become a routine

And for efficiency, the best is doing 2 shipment rounds a day

Credit walls are always a problem in games. There should exist some random expenses to be done. That might add some life beyond routine

[floral horizon]

Just keep expanding.. more.. hexagons.. I need.. more hexagons

[primal shoal]

Honestly, having late game scanning would add some excitement

[floral horizon]

Just reveals face snapshots of Andreas

[primal shoal]

Agreed, though the expenses shouldn't** feel random per se

[floral horizon]

Just very faintly in the space background you see

Upgradable sectors after your cred cap stuff you were saying in post. Not sure what that would entail but maybe movement speed of ships lol

I would say more hydro spawn rate per day but that seams overkill

I mean so does movement speed I guess? Maybe not with drone but it uses warp lanes

[primal shoal]

Eh, it feels kinda random and not an appealing point of progression. I think a new exciting unlock would make more sense, but that would likely involve larger novel game systems

By exciting, I mean some new scanner, or a specialized shipyard that creates one new type of ship, something that really makes people want to reach that specific credit capacity

[eternal reef]

Ship heroes, or academy to buff mods and ship stats

Engine upgrade for faster ships, or more hydro efficiency.

A space academy for ship crews to buff stats

[floral horizon]

They said no new "game modes" which would mean scanner type no?

[eternal reef]

Or ways to specialize yellow star planets

Maybe factories research engineering to buff arts

Or even use some of the assets from BA as the basis for ship captain buffs

[floral horizon]

Could do an ort cloud/ kelpler ring which means more hexagons probably just 1 more outer ring of them. It is on the outer edge of our solar system in rl apparently

Idk how it would just appear though at 16M cap it would just have to cost that much and why would you wanna spend that much to scan them lol

[eternal reef]

Maybe at rs10 some new unlockables would be cool

[primal shoal]

precisely, but obviously that would be the best option in my opinion 😂

but there isnt a huge studio behind hades

and specifically, i doubt late game features would be prioiritized over features across all player levels, keeping newer players is important

so i dont imagine therell be huge game systems hidden in the 10 million + range, though that would be very rewarding for players that grind to that

[eternal reef]

2nd cargo bay extension slot 😂

I miss those long transports with big cargos

Fat miners with hydro extension

Double shield battleships

[primal shoal]

i would much prefer introduction of novel mechanics than iterations

A new thing late game like unlocking DRS (obviously an insane amount of work to add) vs another mod research slot

i remember someone said once, it would be cool if the last sector you scan had a special station in it, kinda like finding the anomaly early game

[sterile scroll]

Actually they had a couple of stations

[hybrid coral]

The desert starts as early as RS7 and we can declare the low content density with direct comparison to other games. Ships, skins, new maps, new gear, abilities, modes and mechanics are all unlockable at similar time durations at a much larger scale.

Even in other time consuming games, OSRS, Eve, etc. Or if you think those are unfair comparisons, you can even take those incremental mobile tycoon games or the same genre on steam.

Content density is low and there are many solutions.
Its worth noting that, despite the restructuring of the early game, the trend of higher upgrade times starts at the very beginning, scaling from upgrades taking minutes, to hours and then to days. It cannot ne hidden from the early game being a distinctive aspect of HS, and I know many players who just saw this and correlated monetization with progression and the game does not even do a good job of explaining itself as intentionally incremental, instead offering crystal usage as a way to bypass time.

-# also thank you for reading lol

[floral horizon]

Station that spawns red star level cerbs in your yellow star only in empty sectors 😂

Or like scans for bases

Use the outer most hexagons to spawn them or something

[primal shoal]

I would disagree, there is sector scanning and module upgrade threshold and ship upgrades fairly common up to 8M, then the next ship upgrade is in the 20Ms

[eternal reef]

Then there is the artifact research gap between 12-13-14-15

I remember getting mb to have 6 targets 😋 it felt worth it

Though competitive play exists in hs, hs is way more of an RPG

Each level should provide milestones and micro growth that feels pivotal something new and powerful that makes the player feel like they just received the trisword ot Excalibur

[hybrid coral]

well I don't disagree that from RS10 onwards, the gap is absoulute ridicule compared to whats lower than that. However, from RS8 to 9, its ~6-4 months for whats basically some eye candy and incremental module upgrades. From 9 to 10, its ridiculously long, like 8 months? and thats for one module for on your ships and some more eye candy.

Below, it is better but still horrible and I wont get to details. I just want to reference these two levels as a reference to compare to. Most Idle and rpg games I've played so far were completed in less time than those entire levels. This is one of the main reasons why I quit trying to progress . The only reason I play now is for the co-op which is distinctive about the game but why do I care if its not even tied to progression? Its not even that hs takes too long, its that other games are just more rewarding

[hybrid coral]

RPG? I refrenced two mmorpgs for direct comparison in the original comment. RPGs are packed to the brim with lore, story, cutscenes and unlocks. although I understand you're being more of a bit.. "metaphorical" in your comment.

[twin bone]

endgame content should be different than midgame content

[eternal reef]

Not metaphorically, mechanically. hades has you develop different pieces of equipment, little by little, you can specialize in different styles, the story is more of on the community, you even go on raids in groups

[restive current]

@primal shoal sometimes I wonder if we can have Trade stations levels Upgraded to Lv. 12 instead of 10

[hybrid coral]

I think Role Playing and story is somewhat important in RPGs

[eternal reef]

All you need is rocket propelled grenades and you're solid

Pokemon Didn't have much story 😂

[primal shoal]

There are a lot of options for ways to add more upgrades. I dont see a downside for adding more trade station upgrades, though that wouldnt add content between rs levels if it worked the way it currently does

[restive current]

Yeah I am agree

[primal shoal]

There are arbitrary ways to spread out content (ie. genesis 14 unlocks costs 11M, Hydro Rep 14 costs 12M, and so on), but I think it would be more satisfying to have new credit caps met with big, visual changes

[restive current]

RS10 to RS11 is filled with deserts

Keep that non shipment Lv. 14 mods at 10m. Higher than that taking forever to upgrade certain mods for sure

Hmmm

[primal shoal]

The best for the game is when you are buying new sector scanners very often, upgrading ship modules, etc. With so many things getting locked, r10 to past r11 is light on content

i see people active on this discord saying they have kind of given up on rs11, its probably a year or more of constant max income shipping

[primal shoal]

i agree, but spreading out upgrade thresholds would at least give some incentive behind crossing the 9M credit cap gap to arrive at r11

it would be a poor way to do it, but its like a bread crumb trail to maybe make people interested in reaching for the next million checkpoint

[restive current]

Upgrading 20 Planets for 1m credit increase takes forever

Especially when you are in mid progression

[primal shoal]

Later RS level artifact also have less new modules, so while there are new things to invest in later, its undeniably less dense than early game

[restive current]

RS9 is much much better

RS10 and RS11 arts should gets more Base BP really

[primal shoal]

you can get a planet level every two days or less with really good econ, but thats still a long time of hard grinding

[restive current]

Yup

Without econ mods and with econ mods both takes forever

[primal shoal]

RS12 artifacts give two new modules, so 1/3 of artifacts have a notable improvement over r11

But R12 transport & miner artifacts are basically the same as R9...
I really think the late game just needs some more content

But I'm still going to keep grinding regardless, so...

It would be awesome to see that R3-R8 module density for the later stars, even just one module per artifact for a new rs level would make a lot of sense

[eternal reef]

2x would match the weught limitations

[oak vine]

Currenrly researching all techs with 2 slots takes 8 years, adding the 3rd or even the 4th research slot later makes sense

[full patio]

8y goes by quickly, then what?

[oak vine]

Haha

New content maybe, plenty of time to make up something

[full patio]

Everybody wants this game to be over as soon as possible. I think the intention when developing was the opposite.

[twin bone]

Man, a third upgrade slot with major content update would be great

[floral horizon]

Ok how about at RS10+ they should add diplo objectives for those players only available at or above RS10 gives some community meaning while giving you something else to do. I mean your not building and all that but at least it is something haha

[twin bone]

Tax the rich

[floral horizon]

Well diplo objectives would probably give some kind of cred reward I'd say have to keep them interested

[primal shoal]

The late game could definitely use more of the same unlocks, like making each new artifact have at least a new mod.

But branching progression is also neat, like the introduction of Drs at rs7

[floral horizon]

Seeing more drones would be cool but idk what they could add haha

That's not like op or fs worthy. I mean I'm sure like suppress drone might work, or even time warp drone due to you having to deploy it correctly or else no one is in the tiny radius and you miss this drone speeding at light speed away from everyone 😂

I said that just because seeing a drone fly away would be funny not that it wouldn't have a million issues

[twin bone]

Drs exclusive art mod?

[primal shoal]

Drone mods are added at rs5, maybe a new artifact type could be added at 10

But the late game mod roster is already light in my opinion, I think the current artifacts should be "filled out" before a new type is added

New artifact could be like a 1/20 spawn chance, and the mod type could be applied in any mod slot on any ship. 🧪🔬🧬

[eternal reef]

Dark yellow star

Or Dark Blue stars

Dark white stars 😂

[primal shoal]

All of the above 🙏

[full patio]

Now you're speaking my language.

[primal shoal]

The end game certainly has a lot of stuff to work toward, but the new module density is lower and you forget about reaching those cool novel achievements

[full patio]

Black hole star

[primal shoal]

Like once you finish scanning your system at 4M, you don't get to experience that again 🥲

[full patio]

This whole game is a tutorial for what's to come.

[eternal reef]

Rescanning your whole system except everything is 2x value and 2x cerbier

[primal shoal]

Its like adventure capitalist or cookie clicker

after 8 years you can restart, but this time. you get +5% on shipments 😃

I kinda hate to say it, but an RTS mixed with one of those games could be sick.

[hybrid coral]

no, dont compare, its worse than even that!

[eternal reef]

HS kindof is that

[hybrid coral]

If I just do a google search, the highest estimated time for cookie clicker seems to 700 hours

[eternal reef]

RTS mixed with rpg elements and clicking capitalism

[hybrid coral]

if we say the avg hs player does 1h/day, then it takes longer to get to rs11 ( or maybe even 10 )

[eternal reef]

I do roughly 1hr per day

It's worse when I try to bls

Maybe at rs10 you get a 2nd ys

[full patio]

At rs12 you get the Remington Steele box set

[eternal reef]

A golden sombrero for your bs

🤠

With the achievement "You made it... Now go outside."

[full patio]

We're all gonna make it.

[eternal reef]

Once my sd15 unlocks probably

[full patio]

You can just relay and relax

[primal shoal]

Maybe it's a game trope at this point, but unlocking a colony star system later game would inject some of the exploration fun that is lost after scanning your system

It's also another driver for people to push for late game, instead of people giving up on r11

[prisma oriole]

It's just like creating an alt out of boredom.

[primal shoal]

the idea would be that it has several new mechanics that make it unique of course, not just an alt :P

[full patio]

just
Give them some credit

[sterile scroll]

Yes
Yes
Give me some credit
How about 2400M?

I have calculated my time to reach 32M. It would take me about 15 months at my rate

[full patio]

That's pretty quick good 👍 👌

[primal shoal]

What's your current cap?

[sterile scroll]

23.6M
But I was wrong. It would take me less than 1.5 years

[full patio]

That's even quicker

Gooder

But they said it's a super long desert

[sterile scroll]

It is long. There would be some modules to make it livelier

[prisma oriole]

back in my day we walked 2 years across the desert and up the dunes both ways just to get to school. with NO CRYSTALS.

[full patio]

And we got beat up in school

[eternal reef]

Competitive rs

[floral horizon]

I think Dark yellow star would imply that your entire game is now DRS. No matter the game mode lol

[full patio]

Always has been.

[primal shoal]

I edited this thought into the header, I think its another point why the late game isnt as exciting as the early-mid game

[proven basin]

As someone who soft quit (ie. for the last 6+ months I only log in to keep upgrades going but have no WS/RS/BLS activity) because of how bleak the progression from RS10 onwards, I just wanted to bump this thread.

[left cove]

Months of a single redstar and all for blueprints on modules that will be 'stronger' in another month

[floral horizon]

Now that I've thought about it. Dark yellow star is the best option. Even if its not like yellow star exactly. You can just make a scanner like red star. But its only dark yellow star, it scans for a dark yellow. Once scanned its a smaller version of yellow star loaded with cerb bases, and has a portal cycle (no reseting cooldowns is allowed) You have to do shipments there and that brings some income/also do small crystal shipments like OG hs.. Have it a 5 day cycle. Could be corp related but you'd have to be rs 10+. (Could be ws speed). Would be neat if it was the opposite of ys and we had to eliminate Cerberus transports (but this would be completely new and Andreas dont wanna do that) so shipping our own shippies would make more sense. Almost like a clash of clans builder base but dark yellow star edition. With re scans and different layouts per. I guess like red star/ ws. The dys could become unstable after 5 days and you'd need to leave and re scan.

With daily shipments or so many per week limit so its not a constant problem and doesn't take away to much time for people to complete.

[twin bone]

can't wait to scan a light red star in dark yellow star

[floral horizon]

No builds just combat & dark shipments

[twin bone]

imagine the reason for dark shipments to be worth more is because tax evasion

[primal shoal]

Why is there no moderate level brightness red star?

[full patio]

Dark shipments are worth 2x (with multiplying bonuses) but they have to be delivered 1h after generated otherwise YOU pay for it and you get bad reviews on trust pilot.