Planned Better Solar Systems (More Cool Stuff!)

[SomethingSlimy]

How are purely aesthetic things redundant? They serve the function of making the universe less boring to explore and look at, something I support regardless of it's gameplay function.

Having said that, planetary rings could be destructible for ore. After all - the rest of the planet is already destructible.

I don't think stellar objects should be dynamic, with the possible exception of comets. Unless you reallly stretch suspension of disbelief, our lifespans aren't nearly long enough to appreciate observing the full lifespans of stars. And if I see a neat stellar formation, I don't want it to be gone by the time all my friends come to take a look.

Supernovas could be static objects in space, but with a large gravity field like a black hole, to give the impression that it's exploding outward toward you. Perhaps it could suck you in without causing the speedometer to go up.

 

[Zaphord]

I like all of these ideas. In fact, nebuli would be incredible since it gives you places to hide for possible ambushes or to get away from attackers. You could even harvest gas from them if the devs ever want to add another resource to the game.

 

[hunterRAE]

How are purely aesthetic things redundant? They serve the function of making the universe less boring to explore and look at, something I support regardless of it's gameplay function.

I agree that their should be decorative/asethetic components in a game, but I believe that what the moderators/council and developers is more concerned on functionality, which at a point open up for decorative ideas to come about. Trust me, if their would be no decorative blocks, I would be hard pressed to figure out how to make interiors look good.

 

[Bench]

More stellar diversity is planned as listed in the roadmap here after first being hinted to here.

 

[EricBlank]

While I don't think the stellar life cycle part is going to be practical, I think nebuli systems or clusters of systems would make great additions to the game, full of asteroids, freaky alien space squid, rare resources like the dust and gas composing them... And nothing shows up on the galactic map; exploring and marking down coordinates will actually get you somewhere, because there's expensive resources in there you can't just warp right to. Things you might run into include planets, incomplete stars aka brown dwarves/supervised gas giants (hot enough to kill you in the same sector or inside them, too dim to shine outside the system/on the map, can't quite sustain fusion yet) mangled old space hulk spacecraft (not stations) of civilizations that inhabited the planets around the star that blew up in a supernova to form the nebula...

On planets, moons sound neat, rings sound like something you could exploit for resources. A capsule vacuum that slowly sucks up capsules when you're within a few degrees of the plane of the ring, for instance. Some asteroids can be hard to find (I'm looking at rammet) and playing with planets can kill servers and everyone on them. Rings you can access from space sound neat. If gas giants have that zone of buoyancy, and in that zone you have resource access, and maybe aliens, that would be hella cool.

On rocky bodies i think a little realism would go a long way though. One thing I really wish we had was more in-depth planetary features than "this is a purple planet, it has purple stuff." The geology we'd find on planets in our own solar system, for example. Having mixtures of natural phenomena, rather than exclusively gamey phenomena of a single brand per body, giving you only five things to expect, would make planets themselves more interesting. Not to say the purple vine stuff has to go, but why not have purple vine life on a rocky body with something other than purple vine stuff?

 

[The Judge]

We need more Planet Types that are less hospitable and harder to exploit.

 

[Jh]

I think that anything in a nebula you cannot pick up on your sensors. Basically you are essentially blind. This would be interesting as you could deliberately hide in a nebula and when a passing by ship comes jump out and attack.

 

[Valiant70]

Currently moons would seem a bit redundant, since planets are already pretty small. These are really good ideas though, something I would like though is something to do with planets beyond strip mining them.

Nah. Planets are just too small due to lack of an efficient loading mechanic. (WHY do we load the ENTIRE flipping thing at once when no one is anywhere near the surface???) Planets should be made more efficient so that 30 radius moons would look good orbiting them. I think it would be cool to claim both a planet and its moon(s) as a home base.

Woodz Gaming, I do enjoy the idea of many of these ideas, many which have been confirmed to be added as stated by a few, but I wish to talk about the viability of a few, because one thing that I don't see often on most conversations is the practicality of additions such as these.

Moons: easy enough to explain its viability, new form of resource pool and can be used as a staging ground for bases.

Comets: I had this idea at one point in my first thread, and as someone pointed out, you could just make an asteroid spawn with a velocity component. Like the moon, new resource pool and is a more interesting form of mining (needs to be valuable though, no one will chase something that is one worth a penny)

Nebulas & Super Novas: I agree that a dynamic universe would be great, but this server wide would lag the heck out of everyone (it at points would be continuous change). This would be neat as a game component, but only as something in a mod. People would absolutely love this, but it would be taxing on new players who don't have a large resource build up and is able to be dealt a blow if their supplies were destroyed.

Rings: This would be nice, but as you stated, it is merely cosmetic. I would agree with this for planets if it would be actual blocks that would serve a purpose, but adding something cosmetic without a defined purpose is redundant.

Gas Giants: Same with gas giants, if it does not have a defined purpose, it is pointless to add. This was similar to my sun surface idea, it really in the end did not boil up to something that would serve game-play measures. I would agree if something was to gather at such formations, but the only thing that comes to mind is something like vespin gas from star wars, and I know how an idea like that stirs way too much problem in the community and is overall not in the spirit of the current game.

Overall, I do love the idea of all of these, because I'm a true advocate of all galactic formations (it adds depth to the game), but all of this has to have a purpose in the end to worth the developers time and effort to add in. Many of these have potential to be something worthwhile in-game, but it has to be fleshed out and things tied to it like materials must have a end goal in mind and is fleshed out as well before it would be something someone at Schine would even begin trying to work on. Again, the ideas are great, but they need to have purpose that is not just cosmetic.

Oh, go back to Vulcan. If it's pretty, it has an inherent function.

We need more Planet Types that are less hospitable and harder to exploit.

Funky atmospheres, ion storms, dimension-altered "twin" planets... oh the possibilities! We also need actual atmosphere/oxygen mechanics for astronauts. Even if oxygen is not a limited resource on ships, it would add immersion.

 

[Jh]

I think nebuli systems or clusters of systems would make great additions to the game, full of asteroids, freaky alien space squid, rare resources like the dust and gas composing them... And nothing shows up on the galactic map; exploring and marking down coordinates will actually get you somewhere, because there's expensive resources in there you can't just warp right to. Things you might run into include planets, incomplete stars aka brown dwarves/supervised gas giants (hot enough to kill you in the same sector or inside them, too dim to shine outside the system/on the map, can't quite sustain fusion yet) mangled old space hulk spacecraft (not stations) of civilizations that inhabited the planets around the star that blew up in a supernova to form the nebula...

+1
+2
+3
That would be awesome (and again if nebula's are added it would be a shame for them not to make your sensors blind)

 

[EricBlank]

Funky atmospheres, ion storms, dimension-altered "twin" planets... oh the possibilities! We also need actual atmosphere/oxygen mechanics for astronauts. Even if oxygen is not a limited resource on ships, it would add immersion.

Don't forget dead rocks. Dead rocks are a thing, too.

 

[Jh]

As in asteroids without any ores in?

 

[EricBlank]

That would work too, but I was meaning planets with no life, atmosphere, hydrosphere, or obvious geologic activity, but would still have mineral resources. Think our moon, set in its own planetary orbit; its still dead.

Or no resources/only one Would be no fun to find nothing to exploit, but sometimes that's what you get; a ball of meh.

Would be interesting though if asteroid composition/mineral content wasn't predetermined, though. See minerals occurring at the same distances from a star and usually in the same associations with one another, but on the surface asteroids might all resemble one another, having collected rock and dust around the exterior. And have varying internal mineral densities; one might be literally a mineral melon of glorious varat, the next have a handful of specimens of a few different minerals. But you could, for instance, see one that includes both larimar and dolom, with a little parseen mixed in despite the lack of chabaz.

The rainbow asteroids do look kind of silly, in my opinion >_>

 

[Jh]

And if they make it so your sensors are blind in a nebula (if they even have nebulas) then you would not know what was in the asteroids until you go have a look. In other words you could fly past a asteroid made almost entirely of ramment. That would be fun.
[DOUBLEPOST=1435563825,1435562785][/DOUBLEPOST]Also I have thought of a use for the helmet (although not a very big one) have nebulas be inhospitable to Dave life. Therefore to go into a nebula without being in a ship you must wear a helmet.

 

[whooplaah]

I want to link to some old forums on this idea so that they aren't forgotten.

Link: http://starmadedock.net/threads/super-rare-resources-and-exceptional-equipment.6527/
http://starmadedock.net/threads/une...ing-the-wheels-turning.6425/page-2#post-93487
Summary:

Spoiler

If you want to make some sectors more valuable to players than others, then you can tie them to in-game resources. Some sectors have more of one particular resource than another sector rather than all sectors having all resources. Would a faction horde their ores, or trade the excess, or have specialized ships?

You could also introduce rare ores that can be used to make rare blocks (decorative or functional) or 'trade goods' whose only purpose is to be traded for credits.

This could easily be tied into the hud by letting the color of the star indicate what type of ores you are likely to find. Red star? Lots of red ores, very few blue. Dual system with a red star and blue star? Lots of purple, very little orange.

Link:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/asteroid-fields-nebulas-etc.2075/page-2#post-90215
Summary:

Spoiler

Energy fields that affect ship stats (shield capacity/regen, max speed, acceleration, energy capacity/regen, scanner/HUD markers, etc.). A nebulae may interfere with ship components and cause energy capacity to double, or regen to half, or both, or the opposite. Maybe it makes all weapon cooldowns twice as fast, or maybe it makes weapons half as powerful. Maybe your navigation doesn't function, so you can't track enemy ships (but they can't track you either). These types of effects mean that larger ships are more vulnerable than smaller ships, and that there are military advantages to living in certain sectors, and that there are incentives for specialized ships when living in certain sectors.

Fauna hotspots (after creatures are implemented). Some sectors may have more alien species than others, or those species may be more or less aggressive, or bigger or smaller, etc.

NPC Faction Owned Systems (after NPC Factions get overhauled). If a system is owned by pirates, then near-by systems will constantly be under assault. If a system is owned by the Horizon Heralds, maybe they just have a lot of explorers traveling about randomly. Having neighbors means potential allies should you be attacked, it also means you have to keep your allies happy and help them out when they are attacked.

Is the goal to make space more space-like, or to make space more fun to explore (less redundant), or to make parts of space more desirable than others? A couple other ideas:
You could change the rate that structures are generated. Maybe a sectors has more or less pirates, more or less shops, more or less derilict stations. This makes a military/war zone sector, a civilized/trade zone sector, and a post-war-zone sector. You can change how the stations are spread out - do they form a ring around the star, or a cluster, or are they (as current) randomly spread out?

You could dynamically alter the pirate/NPC difficulty by sector. Is it harder or easier? Are the enemy ships bigger or smaller? Are the waves of ships more often, less often, larger, or smaller?

You could set a sector to alter all shops. A sector that updates shops more/less often, that has more/less credits, that has more/less of particular items.

You could have different types of man-made structures, like mine-fields or ship graveyards. These would be better as a sector formation, rather than a system formation.

Space dust - fog/clouds that damage a ship if it moves too fast.

You could have stellar events. Stars give off radiation, and sometimes there are 'flares.' How often does this happen, and what does it do? Is it a pulse that immediately wipes out all shields for all structures/ships, or is it an ion wind that causes all ships to tumble about randomly for a few seconds? Is it random every time, or is it always the same? Or a comet (filled with some precious ore) might spawn in the system and barrel towards the sun to despawn - how often, what ores, how fast are the comets, etc? Does the comet have any special effects upon ship components?

These types of things would make a sector 'feel' different than another sector, even if they don't look different.

 

[stealthyninja235]

Moons are already confirmed! In the mean time, with a bit of rail trickery, you can put things like satellites and small moons in orbit. I haven't tried this myself, but I think with a bit of logic and rails, you could even make something with plates and gravity. Of course, gravity applied by area triggers can be buggy at times, and only applies to players.



Dynamic star growth would be interesting, but I'm not sure if it's really valid within our time scales.

It would be cool if you could artificially produce a star with a massive amount of fuel, though. It'd have to take a while, be very costly, and be destroyable during the growth stages, though, to prevent people from spawning a second sun in their enemy's system. If you wanted to settle a void sector, though, you could do it.

If you were super rich you would be able to build a star shield around your base which would be bad-ass but very overpowered.
[DOUBLEPOST=1439344340,1439344008][/DOUBLEPOST]They should also implement a scenario where a stars radiation would make your systems go haywire, but only on some stars, like superman gets hurt by red stars and healed by blue. Then maybe a ultra power-draining weapon that does the same thing. If all of the planned updates are going to happen the radiation could divert ALL power to thrusters or something. Speaking of diverting power, though this is off topic they should make it so that you can divert power to different systems.

 

[Gladstone]

I always thought it would be interesting to have geologically active planets. Not only would it be a further way of diversifying planets (planets either would or would not be geologically active), but it could also add an element of danger and opportunity. Danger coming from volcanic eruptions that can destroy structures or objects, and possibly having these planets have more ores or crystals.

 

[jayman38]

Has anyone thrown around the idea of a new biome element: rail-driven natural elements? (E.g. whirlpools, ice floes, rivers of lava, landslides, etc.) The rail systems could be buried deep and only supply scrap, but could create interesting natural phenomena that Minecraft could only dream of.

 

[SilverAgeFan]

Gas Giants: Same with gas giants, if it does not have a defined purpose, it is pointless to add. This was similar to my sun surface idea, it really in the end did not boil up to something that would serve game-play measures. I would agree if something was to gather at such formations, but the only thing that comes to mind is something like vespin gas from star wars, and I know how an idea like that stirs way too much problem in the community and is overall not in the spirit of the current game.

In another thread, I propose gasses as another class of resources—a class that is not harvested via salvage beams but instead by blocks designed specifically for this purpose. For now, call them vapor condensers.

Gas giants could have up to 3 of the 8 possible gasses available on them, at either different depths or different longitude and latitude. (By contrast, terrestrial planets with atmospheres should supply only 1 via their atmosphere.)

In order to build on these planets, some sort of fairly expensive to manufacture "anti gravity" block. The first of which is placed similar to a ship core. This block IMO, should only allow construction out to a certain distance. To expand your "cloud city," you would need to place additional antigrav blocks. As an alternative balance system, antigravity could work off of a form of mass calculation, similar to the way ship scores work—requiring a nonlinear increase in antigrav blocks to keep building. (How rail docking would work in this context, I'm not sure)

Gas giants also should have issues of gravity and atmospheric pressure. Even "non dense" gas giants like Neptune are incredibly dense and heavy by our terrestrial standards. Did you know it is hypothesized that it rains diamonds on Neptune as one approaches the core? That's a LOT of pressure. So reaching the solid condensed core of a gas giant should be nearly impossible!! Perhaps that third gas on the planet requires you to place vapor condensers closer to the border of that safe zone before your ship and structures start taking damage. It gives reason and motivation for those deep antenna descending down into the lower atmospheres in paintings of fantastical sci-fi floating cities.

Another thing that should IMO be added along with gas giants is the possibility for some planets, gas giants in particular, to have lightning. This should be both aesthetic (with random color ranges for lightning on any given planet that this property = True)—imagine purple, blue, or pink lightning! It should also have gameplay effects. It could either drain power or randomly restore or overload power to ship systems if struck. Flying solo, this is an annoyance. Leading a battle into such an environment though could become a calculated risk. Setting up this sort of variety allows us to begin thinking about terrain as a strategic element within this game.

 

[Valck]

antigravity block

Doesn't the Stop Effect already fill that role?

 

[Nickizzy]

No, because the stop offensive effect slows the aimed at ship, and the defensive effect is antigravity... Oh yeah! They do sorta do that. Maybe they would only slow your ship's fall in gas planets, while antigravity blocks completely stop it. That way you would need a jump every once and a while, or you couldn't just sit there with stop on.