Aliens/Cloning

[FlyingDebris]

So I did a thought, and here's what stuck.

With the talk about all the creatures, we need to have a way to effectively use them as minions-- err, I mean valued and trained soldiers, ehehe...

But seriously, we have one heck of an opportunity here for player interaction and to make the game feel more alive. Put simply, it is a cloning system that utilizes the procedural generation that is planned to be introduced. Players could take organisms, stick them in the cloning machine, and watch as they are ripped apart for science! -- err, I mean watch their DNA get analyzed. You could then store the DNA for traits on recipie like books, which are then inserted into a cloning bay, where players could place their selected traits for the creature.

*boop* creature. Flip a switch, and a monster falls out the back, your loyal servant. Well, In our case a mindless slave, but hey. Along with the cloning bay, you could have an armament bay for weapons, armor, other things that will probably be included in future updates.

You could then tell your minion--err, valued servant-- to do things for you.

 

[Visitor]

On one hand, it does seem interesting but on the other, I'd like actual bigger conflict, even ground conflict not just space battles, to be resolved by adequate numbers of well-equipped players rather than have two guys spawn crapload of NPC groups rushing each other.

Wouldn't mind it though if there'd be certain limits, dependant on size/mass for NPCs that can be spawned on a ship or a station - they could be regular part of the crew in case of bigger units or, say, security force. When one NPC dies, after certain time player is able to spawn another. That way your idea is used, stuff like abordage or NPC guards are possible but flood-creating of lagging armies doing fighting for the player is not.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

i always thought that the creatures could serve as an advanced form of farming. say you have a critter that has lays hulls or something and you want to increase the amount of hulls it lays as well as upgrade them. so you breed them with another critter who can do the same and there you go. you now have a creature that will periodically lay armored hulls.

that or they will lay advanced components for item crafting. its just the idea that i was thinking of since i heard that they will possibly allow creature breeding

 

[Visitor]

I am not sure that's a good idea then. Given we already have quite a mess with people strip-mining planets and leaving plenty of junk around, single players on even-somewhat-fixed-economy servers building easily dreadnoughts on their own etc I'd rather be for limiting farming rather than encouraging it.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I am not sure that's a good idea then. Given we already have quite a mess with people strip-mining planets and leaving plenty of junk around, single players on even-somewhat-fixed-economy servers building easily dreadnoughts on their own etc I'd rather be for limiting farming rather than encouraging it.

planet strip mining will be nerfed so that point is moot. what i mean is there has to be a more practical use for creatures other than for atmosphere. they don't have to lay hulls or blocks. they could lay components like red paint or some other synthetic component for creating advanced weapons or systems.

besides the idea of herding creatures from other worlds will add to the exploration aspect of the game. say you land on a planet where you find a herd of creatures that produce the various proteins or they eat said proteins and crap out Awesomite or some other ore block. I would really want to herd some of those creatures into a ship and take them back to my home base to start breeding them as another source of materials.

 

[Visitor]

I am quite sure then it won't be exploration aspect but simple farming, still. You yourself said - get the creatures once and then just breed them so they can make plenty of resources - instead of actually exploring planets, looking for resource deposits. This feature will decrease need for exploration long-term.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I am quite sure then it won't be exploration aspect but simple farming, still. You yourself said - get the creatures once and then just breed them so they can make plenty of resources - instead of actually exploring planets, looking for resource deposits. This feature will decrease need for exploration long-term.

the thing that i didnt correctly convey was that the breeding aspect would be cross breeding. breed 2 different species to create a new one with the abilities of both parent species.

for example, Creature A drops protein 1000B when killed, but Creature B naturally lays sand or some other block. so lets say you cross breed these creatures together can get Creature C who naturally lays Protein 1000B or perhaps a drops sand when killed. there will be a level of randomness to the way creatures are born. or take the OPs example and you want to breed troops. you have Creature A who has a head that explodes when enough damage is taken but has tiny legs that make it very slow, while Creature B has centipede legs that make it extremely fast but has very low health. Breed them and Creature C could be a Creeper like monster or a creature that is very slow and has low health.

the devs idea for modular creature parts opens up a wide array of possibilities. instead of creatures procedurally generated from a host of body parts being just for looks why not add a level of depth to this system and have it play a part in the games economy. Besides i like the idea of creating a zoo in space

 

[FlyingDebris]

I agree with Crimson. All we learned is that the creatures would be different from each other. But that is just a little thing to add to the description of the game. What we really need is a way to give all that work implementing the system a purpose. And that porpoise is cute. I mean, that purpose is cloning.