In the last blog post RPB#1 I talked a lot about how the underlying fluids-as-circuits simulation works under the hood, but not a lot about what it’s actually like to play Rocket Plumber. That’s partially because in the current public release from April the core gameloop is pretty bare. That’s something I’ve been working on fleshing out a lot since then, in fact recently I have even added a way to finish and “win” the game. Let’s take a sneak peek at what you will do in the game when you get to play the next release!
Assemble and Plumb Engines!#
Of course, one of the main things you do will be assembling rocket engines. Take the parts you have available, move them around, connect them with pipes, and assemble them into the rocket engines you need to propel your ship. Start simple, connecting tanks of pressurised gas straight to nozzles. As you start to find higher-performance fuels, you will need to build more complex engines in order to use them. Your ships will be powered by a gas-generator cycle turbopump driven bi-propellant engine in no time!
Navigate and Manoeuvre to Other Ships#
To put your engines to use, you will have to use the “space map” to navigate. Select targets based on their class, fuel type, and what you need. Ensure you have enough fuel to match your target’s velocity. Plan an intercept trajectory with them, trading off fuel consumption and trip time. Once you have planned your encounter, use your ship’s engines to complete the required burn precisely. Use your larger engines for the bulk of your thrust, and fine-tune with smaller manoeuvring thrusters.
Salvage Parts and Fuel#
There’s no crafting in Rocket Plumber so anything you want you’ll have to find. Repair the engine on a ship you find and use it as your own. Drain fuel caches into your own tanks, or plumb your engines directly to them. Salvage rare and powerful parts from scrap heaps, but don’t expect to find any fuel left on them. Anything you can reach floating through space is yours to take and use, there’s nobody to stop you. For now…
This is a time-lapse of how your ship might evolve through a whole playthrough. Watch the other ships you encounter come and go, fuel and parts get moved around, and eventually watch a ship capable of completing the final objective come together!
Escape the Galaxy#
The goal of Rocket Plumber is to perform one final massive burn to escape from the crowded and scrap-riddled galactic plane. There is nothing out there to refuel from once you start this, you will have to have built a ship capable of doing it all on its own. That much delta-V will require high-performance fuels, and a lot of them! Collect as much fuel as you can in preparation. Start your escape attempt and light your engines. Discard empty tanks as dead weight as you go. When you have burned your last drop of fuel you will have to hope you have accelerated enough to reach escape velocity and achieve victory, otherwise you will be doomed to float in space forever!
Now to break character for a minute, a large delta-V manoeuvre seemed like a good starting point as a goal for Rocket Plumber. It makes you feel the tyranny of the rocket equation first hand, naturally incentivising the use of the late-game fuels with higher exhaust velocities without making it a strict requirement. It also encourages optimisation and things like staging that might not normally make sense. I’ve created 3 “star ratings” for the escape with different delta-V thresholds. This means on your first playthrough the minimum escape is not too challenging, but there is still something harder for more experienced players to strive for. I’d definitely still like to add some more depth to this, and might still end up changing the victory condition completely, but for now this is enough to close the gameloop and give you something to aim for while playing!