Add a "Service Elevator" to the Resonance Archive Library (Spoilers)

[Professor Dragon]

ISSUE
There is a lot of loot worth having in the Resonance Archive Library - and from the Resonance Archive in general.
The walk is long and the climb tedious to get back out.

SUGGESTION
Add a "Service Elevator" to the Resonance Archive, which takes you back to the top level.

It could be a wooden platform with a fixed trunk, attached by ropes like the winch first encountered.
Or a fancier elevator with brass details, befitting the rest of the Library decor. 

Perhaps it exits to a corridor with a door that can only be opened from the inside to your original entry point to the Resonance Archive. Once this door is opened, it either stays opened, or can be opened from both sides from that point on. (Perhaps with a key, to allow multi-player so that the door is not always open once one player clears it.)

BACKGROUND

There is an existing winch there, so the technology exists.
We have the Boiler powered up.
There is a lot of nice loot in the whole place.

Having cleared the horrors, let us take our fancy finery out in style!

Professor Dragon.

[LadyWYT]

I wouldn't mind this, provided that it's something the player unlocks the use of only after having completed at least a portion of the Archive's puzzles. Perhaps the player could find the required key and/or parts within the Bell Workshop, which is both a reasonable place to find such, as well as early enough in the puzzles that it would feel useful.

16 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

There is an existing winch there, so the technology exists.

I will note though, that the winch in question seems designed to be operated by a surface crew, and not the workers deeper within. I could be wrong, but I've always presumed that's the reason it's non-functional.

[Professor Dragon]

I've just played the Story Chapter 2 location - and there is a perfectly servicable lift there!

It is already in game! And it looks very nice too. (Add a storage trunk to it and would be even better.)

So if this could also be implemented into the Story 1 location, that would be grand.
 

QUESTION: Does the lift in the Chapter 2 location work for anyone in v1.21.5? 
It no longer has the four levers on the floor as per the Wiki - that is now out of date: 

Spoiler

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Devastation

This image is of the old setup. New setup just has one lever on the ground, and an up/down on the lift.
I didn't take a screenshot though.

And although I could CALL the lift, the up and down levers did not work.

Thanks.

 

[Facethief]

I had a similar issue when I “played through” (read: /player s[] gm creative, fly to the top, hit the boss a couple times, die, repeat) that story location (I have a low tolerance for personal failure, despite the nearly unlimited time I have to spend in game). There were two elevators, one of which did not work, and the other which did. The trick is to get on at the second floor, I found.

[Professor Dragon]

I've just completed another Resonance Archive run, and experienced a similar feeling to that when I created the original post.

There is just So Much Loot that is begging to be transported back up to the top, that I resort to Creative and Spectator modes just to carry the loot after completing the story fairly.

Anyway, I had another idea. 

SUGGESTION (VARIATION)

Place a two-way Translocator linked  to the surface.
Link it FROM an alcove in the Resonance Library.
Connecting TO a (secret) door at the top of the existing shaft entrance, WHICH only opens once the Resonance Archive device in the Library has been interacted with. 

I've filled roughly this many trunks after doing a run, and I haven't even finished looting.
 

Spoiler

Have nearly filled six trunks with loot, and not all secret rooms are complete.
A lot of books, but I like the books. And the collectible are neat.

Professor Dragon.

 

[LadyWYT]

I completed the Resonance Archive earlier and was thinking about this. Not so much that it would be more convenient to have an elevator for hauling loot out, but rather how both of the current story chapters have roughly the same general completion time, as well as the general outlook Vintage Story seems to have on loot. 

Regarding the loot factor, the game has plenty of goodies to find, some of them junk, some of them valuable, and some of them simply interesting oddities to collect. However, the player's limited inventory means that they might need to be careful what they choose to take with them if they are pressed for time, and/or that they may need to plan for another trip or two if they insist on hauling away absolutely everything(pack animals would make this easier). It's an interesting balance, in my opinion, since it places more importance on the player's choices, and makes it possible for a player to get too greedy and suffer the consequences. In contrast, many games tend to end up giving the player some gold and a treasure item or two--never more than the player can really carry--or give the player a convenient way to scour the location of anything valuable and quickly sell it all in the nearest town.

As far as the completion time, I think each story chapter is probably going to end up taking the player several in-game days, on average, to complete. The Resonance Archive doesn't feel like it takes that long, partly due to the fact that it's entirely underground so it's very easy for the player to lose track of how much time has actually passed. It's also rather compact, with lots of lore to read, details to study, and secrets to find. And of course, loot to haul out, if the player is so inclined, which will end up chewing through quite a lot of time on top of whatever time the player spent exploring the location and reading all the lore involved. Chapter Two ends up feeling longer than it actually is, I think, mainly because it takes place above ground and thus allows the player a better sense of time's passing. There's also the fact that the really impressive ruins(dungeons) have only begun to be added, so there's not all that much for the player to really see while traveling. Chapter Three, when it arrives, I'm guessing will probably take a similar amount of time to complete as the first two--about an in-game week, and if it involves some travel I'm also guess that part will feel better than the travel did at Chapter Two's launch, since the game will have been more fleshed out since.

[Professor Dragon]

I've just completed the Resonance Archive again - it took me from 11th August to 6th September, on a 12 day/month world. 
So . . . eight days. That included a pretty efficient main clear, but then a full loot of all of the Library, regular rooms and secret rooms.

The clear was done in Survival, but for a lot of looting I would wander around in Survival until my inventory was full (4 x Sturdy Leather Backpacks - so maximum carry capacity), and then use /gm Creative or /gm Spectator to fly back to the surface and back again. As above, about six trunks worth, give or take. A lot of trash with the treasure, as you say. However, I'm sure that I'm not alone in being a pack rat  - I mean, a student of archeology. My Very Long Term Goal is to make a display mansion of every single block in the game. So for that, I need a full loot clear of the Resonance Archives. Makes sense, doesn't it?

I take your point about inventory management. Some days you're in the mood to spend several weeks lugging stuff back and forth, and other times not. The Resonance Archive does push this boundary though. It first throws off a fair amount of decent loot. Next, it is probably nowhere near your main base (unless you planned for it), as it spawns relative to the world spawn and not relative to the player location. You may remember that in my first forever world, I journed faaaaaar south before tackling the Archive. (I was cleverer this time.)

I just timed it . . . and it takes 47 game minutes to run from the inside door of the Library, round the ramp, and up the ladder to the exit doors! Even in real time, this just feels too much. You've already gone up and down this route many times, just to get more food and dump off loot. It's a part which drags a bit for me.

Just to be clear, I LOVE the Resonance Archive. It is a magnificent story location, and one of the best in any video game. The build-up is fantastic, and the big reveal when you finally open those doors is amazing. 

I'm hoping your right about Chapter 3. I agree that with the new structures in place that it should help even with the Chapter 2 travel. Although my experience of the C2 travel was that as it was so far (big map, long story location distance really did haunt me) that I just barrelled past most things. I might pause for a moment to admire one of the rare large cathedrals, but there didn't seem to be the time or resources to spend there when you're focused on the journey.

One thing that I think the game is missing in vanilla is player defined translocators. Given how spread out the world is, even being able to nip back and forth between at least the main story locations (a-la Tobias, but better) would be very handy.  It's not really possible to nip between jungle and temperate now, without mods or save-scumming the existing translocators. I've been playing this game for years now, and have yet to make it to a jungle (that is the goal for this run), just because of how much the progression system ties you down to one place.

Anyway, lovely discussion - we basically agree on a lot of things. But let's not have anything distract Tyrion from giving me a Library elevator or Translocator to the surface

Professor Dragon.