Item Fusion workaround?

Ships: 8 slots 

Planets: 6 slots

Both hardcoded.

Mods that add items & ships clutter the UI Further beyond reason

Especially when primary resources are already limited to

1. Commerce
2. Metal
3. Mineral

Special or Secondary Resources that functionally, create a time buffer to unit/item production & research. 

Items seem to upgrade after researching technology for it, instead of requiring further capital to upgrade said items. 

 

WC3 (warcraft III) worked around its 6 slots hardcap

by Fusing items (albeit you could drop the items and pick them up to fuse specific items together. )

crafting was sometimes slot order dependent OR

items in inventory will automatically fuse/combine to the next stage. (keep it simple, items that add health, have 2, get a better version) 

Example, to keep it simple

Tier 0 or trash item 200hp

200hp + purchase of a 200hp --> 400hp :1item Tier 1

400hp +200hp + a purchase of 200hp item --> 800hp :1item Tier 2 ,required 2-3 slots depending if the purchase can be seen as valid while all slots are filled. 

800hp+400hp+(200+200) --> 1600hp Tier 3, 3 slots require if a purchase is valid while full.  

n+1 problem for item slots. As in  Every tier requires another slot to upgrade further. 

Tier 0 200hp -> 400 ->800->1,600->3,200->6,400->12,800->25,600hp Tier 8

Slot restriction could be gotten around  to get to higher tier by having shops. restricint shop access by using some modifier in the tech tree or a building for the spesific gravity well. Or have a diffrent work around entirely. 

constrain of only buying HP items... 

https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/combining-items-of-the-same-type.291844/ 

 

Four abilities. Leveling. items. with none of the shops and item interations to make it a core part of the game. Items that nerf production rate, or the steal a percentage of the planet economy when in the gravity well would do wonders for rewarding aggresive gameplay in rich important systems. items that slow down incoming enemy phase jumps for a set time in the gravity well. consumables that can phase jump though 3 friendly lanes away in one go for the fleet in the grav well. It would do wonders for the pacing of the game. on the bigger maps.