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Original: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2011/12/power-coding-spring-is-over-so-whats.html
Enchants
The whole idea of enchants is something that we've revised a lot from our original plans. Emit Light is the first example of an enchant that is already in the game, actually, but at the moment it's all very freeform and nonstructured. You put on emit light and it lasts a certain amount of time, then you put it on again. Yawn.
What we'll actually be doing once we add some more enchants, is making it so that each enchant can only go into a certain Enchant Slot on your character. You'll have a finite number of enchant slots, and each one would have a certain type. So you might have a movement enchant type, which would let you run faster or jump higher, etc.
And you might have a couple of body enchant slots, which could hold a light source or some sort of defensive modifiers. Suddenly ball of light and the other light sources actually have some attractiveness, versus emit light beating them all out, right? Emit light would mean only one defensive enchant rather than two, potentially.
Please don't do this. Having to choose between a logistical nicety and a gameplay boost always sucks, because it means you need to choose to be annoyed by having to diddle with logistical trifles, or be annoyed by knowing you're playing a suboptimal game. Indeed, I'd call that a good universal game design rule: playing better should never be a matter of willingness to engage in annoyance.
If you really want to force that kind of choice, consider something along the lines of WoW's glyph system, where you get multiple categories: One set of slots for cosmetic/logistical effects, other sets for combat effects.
But why do you make the player deal with light? I'd hardly say that AVWW sticks to a gritty sort of realism where you do it because it's accurate, nor is there a set of atmospheric limitations and constraints like there are in Minecraft (monsters spawning in the dark, torches/lamps determining the ultimate extent of your expansion and are thus an essential part of your personal economy). Light just seems like a hurdle you jump over. If light is really important, consider making it into a real choice. Maybe light becomes a tradeoff with stealth; if you deactivate your lights, enemies can't track you as effectively.
Once your ships are on the planet, you might get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there, take a good look around and make priorities : The bigger the ship, the higher up the list, Hit Guard posts last, and ignore the AI command or the Warp Gates
