After running around the forum for a while, Lurking as lurkers do, I came across the Alien life thread:
http://starmadedock.net/threads/wha...d-other-life-forms-would-you-like-to-see.710/
I have devised a system for handing out relatively random powers to aliens with a focus on experimentation and the collection of samples(because who doesn't want to be a space scientist?).
The idea is as follows, The Core of the world produces Nutrients in the soil(Dirt) of its world. These Nutrients are little seed pods of potential, the more diverse a selection a creature has access to, the potentially more complex a creature can be.(The Core keeps track of all possible life that can spawn on it naturally, as well as a list of all the nutrients on the world, and what levels they reach. Should to core of the world be destroyed, those mobs/plants wont spawn anymore without being imprinted on a new world.)
Nutrients in the soil of your world help no one, no one can benefit from the secret to Cold Resistance 1 or High Jumping 1 inside a chunk of dirt. No one that is, except plants.
Plants absorb the Nutrients in the soil of a planet when planted on a piece of soil, plants that natural spawn on a world all have a need for one or more of the Nutrients present in the soil. Without those Nutrients, the plant will die.(This means nothing for naturally spawned plants, because they spawn only on a world were all their needs are met, for a lab however...)[The numbers are a abstract value, and simply mean its better then a lower number arguably.]
When a plant has the Nutrients it needs, it makes its own changes to them. It will either change a Nutrient, or improve a Nutrient. Changing a Nutrient will do that, Turn A to B. It might even turn something good like High Jumping 1 into something like Heat Weakness 1. When it improves a Nutrient it just raises its value, making it a more potent ability.
Every Fauna has abilities based off of what Nutrients it has access to. All Fauna have a nutrient that they need to survive, cut them off from it, and they die. Like plants, they change or improve every nutrient in their diet.
Bottom Feeders who live off of the dead and rotting stuff in the soil have access to the soil nutrients, as well as some of the nutrients of the more advanced life.
Herbivores have access to the nutrients of what ever plant life is in their diet. No all herbivores eat every kind of plant.
Omnivores have nutrients of the herbivores as well as any plants that are in their diet.
Predators have access to any of the Nutrients of any animal on the planet, guaranteeing that any dominate breed of meat eater will be a force to be reckoned with.(unless threw pure chance you get a cripple planet were every plant turned all the soil nutrients into weaknesses and the animals evolution made it worse ending up with Fire weakness 3 girly/nerdy slap beasts as the dominate life form.)
Each Natural life form will have a preprogrammed diet, based off of whats on its natural world. the Predators have the potential to have some of the best nutrients and possibilities( The Nutrient has been threw Soil --> Flora --> Fauna --> Predator. Meaning it could have Rank 4+ abilities.) While bottom feeders and Omnivores have the most diverse selection of nutrients, the bottom feeders because they Soil + Some random from the world(Might get a predator Nutrient and rank it up to 5). While Omnivores get a little bit of everything.
Each world would have its own soil, therefore its own nutrients, and ergo, its own life, possibilities, etc. Finding a world and examining its soil would be a job of a ships science officer, as they look threw a world for Fauna and Flora samples, to find all the possible nutrients hidden in the world.
Imagine finding a planet with life on it, landing and looking for different samples of plants and wildlife to capture for examination and experimentation, to help you better understand the world...and maybe gene modification. With a wide enough selection of Nutrients, no two worlds would be the same, some creatures could look similar but function completely differently.
Your lab would have tools to store samples of every creature(weather in compressed storage, or a cage) plant(and soil it sits on) and other sample you pick up. They would also let you experiment with them, and scan them for the nutrients inside.
Once you see a giant Tentacle armed hamster snake spit lightning at you a thought might enter your mind: "I wish I could shoot lightning out of my...What ever that is!"
With Gene modification, if you are able to collect enough samples of a nutrient from Different sources(can't just collect the same creature 50 times) you are able to collect that nutrient for yourself, known as a Gene. Gene's can be spliced with creatures to make custom monsters, or player super soldiers.
Genes however, are not as pure as Nutrients. Genes carry with them one or more Negative Nutrient qualities, along with the main trait. As you rank up the main Gene, the problems rank up as well(although at a lower rate.)
The world blew up, time to find a new home. But you don't want to live on a lifeless rock, especially sense you have all these samples from your travels. Time to implant the nutrients of your samples into the core of a world with a special device, to 'jump start' life on the world. You could implant the settings of a soil sample from a world you have been on, as well as any and all life you have that can survive totally off of the present nutrients alone. Then wait a bit as the dead soil becomes a living one, and the world starts spawning plants and animals, and life starts up. New home, species saved, maybe even a few added to boot.
I wanted a type of system were you couldn't play with it for 5 minutes and finish it. The 'types of dirt' idea came from the thought that 'what would make dirt purple?' And ran from there. The idea of this Nutrient system is to make things complicated enough that not all desert planets are the same, without micro managing the whole universe and creating lag. I didn't talk about how creatures would look because well, I am not an artist, and I don't think having all creatures with X limb have the same powers would be that original.
The main goal of this was to make Alien life complex, have a naturalish progression to it, and give your science officer something to do, up until he could afford to make Frankenstein's monsters. The different powers need not be complex, a dozen different beam weapons(Fire beam, cold beam, gravity beam etc) could fill the roster of Nutrients quickly, and most of them should be fairly simple. you would want as few super wacky aliens around as possible lagging up the place, I would imagine.
Rare Nutrients
Nutrients that only show up when two or more common Nutrients are there already. So if a creature has a Advanced Brain, and Heightened Senses, it could unlock Psychic Vision or Telekinesis inside creatures on that planet, making some abilities harder to find, and even harder to reproduce in a lab. Some Nutrients could make you revive on death at the same spot with half HP(needs a cooldown and a cost obviously) or some other crazy thing. They would need to have a lot of weaknesses when turned to Genes, but with the right balancing, it could be fun to make a psychic research station. Also a Zombie Nutrient would be cool, land on a planet covered in walking alien zombies. Take it home...
Hazard Worlds
If 1 in a 100 worlds have life on them, then 1 in a 100 life worlds are Hazard Worlds. You all have heard of them, worlds wear everything is giant, there are tiers of mega Fauna that walk the land, and you even with your ship, are nothing but a small fish in this pond. Raise the Nutrients in the soil to astronomical levels and make negative effects spawn half as often. Now add in tiers of flora and fauna and you have your Hazard World, a hellish world were only the strongest would dare to venture, and even they would fear what beasts lived here. This place would be a gold mine of Rare , high rank samples and what not. The flip side is the things here would have such high rank abilities they might be able to take your ship out from orbit. Proceed with caution.
Terra forming
Mentioned above, just giving a planet a atmosphere and planting life on it can be cool, with a real Terra forming system in place the above system could be very cool way of seeding planets with random nutrients and making 'lab worlds' to harvest traits form the species that develop their.
Like my idea? Hate it? I wrote it with a cold, so sorry about and spelling errors and what not.
Thank you for reading!
http://starmadedock.net/threads/wha...d-other-life-forms-would-you-like-to-see.710/
I have devised a system for handing out relatively random powers to aliens with a focus on experimentation and the collection of samples(because who doesn't want to be a space scientist?).
The idea is as follows, The Core of the world produces Nutrients in the soil(Dirt) of its world. These Nutrients are little seed pods of potential, the more diverse a selection a creature has access to, the potentially more complex a creature can be.(The Core keeps track of all possible life that can spawn on it naturally, as well as a list of all the nutrients on the world, and what levels they reach. Should to core of the world be destroyed, those mobs/plants wont spawn anymore without being imprinted on a new world.)
Nutrients in the soil of your world help no one, no one can benefit from the secret to Cold Resistance 1 or High Jumping 1 inside a chunk of dirt. No one that is, except plants.
Plants absorb the Nutrients in the soil of a planet when planted on a piece of soil, plants that natural spawn on a world all have a need for one or more of the Nutrients present in the soil. Without those Nutrients, the plant will die.(This means nothing for naturally spawned plants, because they spawn only on a world were all their needs are met, for a lab however...)[The numbers are a abstract value, and simply mean its better then a lower number arguably.]
Example Time! Planet Turkey 1 is an ice world with the Nutrients Cold Resistance 1, Dash 1, and Ice Blasts 1.
When a plant has the Nutrients it needs, it makes its own changes to them. It will either change a Nutrient, or improve a Nutrient. Changing a Nutrient will do that, Turn A to B. It might even turn something good like High Jumping 1 into something like Heat Weakness 1. When it improves a Nutrient it just raises its value, making it a more potent ability.
There are three(3) different types of Flora on Planet Turkey, the Ice Tree that needs Cold Resistance(any #), and turns it into Cold Resistance 2(+1). The Spike Bush that needs Cold Resistance and Dash and makes Poison Weakness 1 and Size Up 1. Lastly, is the rare Blue Fruit bush, that needs all three Nutrients, and makes Cold Resistance 2, Ice Blast 2, Fire Weakness 1.
Every Fauna has abilities based off of what Nutrients it has access to. All Fauna have a nutrient that they need to survive, cut them off from it, and they die. Like plants, they change or improve every nutrient in their diet.
Bottom Feeders who live off of the dead and rotting stuff in the soil have access to the soil nutrients, as well as some of the nutrients of the more advanced life.
Herbivores have access to the nutrients of what ever plant life is in their diet. No all herbivores eat every kind of plant.
Omnivores have nutrients of the herbivores as well as any plants that are in their diet.
Predators have access to any of the Nutrients of any animal on the planet, guaranteeing that any dominate breed of meat eater will be a force to be reckoned with.(unless threw pure chance you get a cripple planet were every plant turned all the soil nutrients into weaknesses and the animals evolution made it worse ending up with Fire weakness 3 girly/nerdy slap beasts as the dominate life form.)
Each Natural life form will have a preprogrammed diet, based off of whats on its natural world. the Predators have the potential to have some of the best nutrients and possibilities( The Nutrient has been threw Soil --> Flora --> Fauna --> Predator. Meaning it could have Rank 4+ abilities.) While bottom feeders and Omnivores have the most diverse selection of nutrients, the bottom feeders because they Soil + Some random from the world(Might get a predator Nutrient and rank it up to 5). While Omnivores get a little bit of everything.
So, How dos all this relate to experimentation / exploration?
Each world would have its own soil, therefore its own nutrients, and ergo, its own life, possibilities, etc. Finding a world and examining its soil would be a job of a ships science officer, as they look threw a world for Fauna and Flora samples, to find all the possible nutrients hidden in the world.
Imagine finding a planet with life on it, landing and looking for different samples of plants and wildlife to capture for examination and experimentation, to help you better understand the world...and maybe gene modification. With a wide enough selection of Nutrients, no two worlds would be the same, some creatures could look similar but function completely differently.
Your lab would have tools to store samples of every creature(weather in compressed storage, or a cage) plant(and soil it sits on) and other sample you pick up. They would also let you experiment with them, and scan them for the nutrients inside.
Gene Modification
Once you see a giant Tentacle armed hamster snake spit lightning at you a thought might enter your mind: "I wish I could shoot lightning out of my...What ever that is!"
With Gene modification, if you are able to collect enough samples of a nutrient from Different sources(can't just collect the same creature 50 times) you are able to collect that nutrient for yourself, known as a Gene. Gene's can be spliced with creatures to make custom monsters, or player super soldiers.
Genes however, are not as pure as Nutrients. Genes carry with them one or more Negative Nutrient qualities, along with the main trait. As you rank up the main Gene, the problems rank up as well(although at a lower rate.)
Example Time! JJ has collected enough locals, uh I mean evil monsters! To make a Gene. The Gene he made was of High Jump mostly because he noticed everything could jump twice as high as him on this planet, and that simply would not do. However, it also had Cold Weakness attached to it. Should he want to give himself ranks of High jump, he would at the same time be making himself weaker and weaker to the cold.
Advanced Genetics would allow the splicing of Genes together to lower or even remove Nutrient weaknesses, but would require lots of experimentation / effort.
Ecological Preservation
The world blew up, time to find a new home. But you don't want to live on a lifeless rock, especially sense you have all these samples from your travels. Time to implant the nutrients of your samples into the core of a world with a special device, to 'jump start' life on the world. You could implant the settings of a soil sample from a world you have been on, as well as any and all life you have that can survive totally off of the present nutrients alone. Then wait a bit as the dead soil becomes a living one, and the world starts spawning plants and animals, and life starts up. New home, species saved, maybe even a few added to boot.
Closing thoughts.
I wanted a type of system were you couldn't play with it for 5 minutes and finish it. The 'types of dirt' idea came from the thought that 'what would make dirt purple?' And ran from there. The idea of this Nutrient system is to make things complicated enough that not all desert planets are the same, without micro managing the whole universe and creating lag. I didn't talk about how creatures would look because well, I am not an artist, and I don't think having all creatures with X limb have the same powers would be that original.
The main goal of this was to make Alien life complex, have a naturalish progression to it, and give your science officer something to do, up until he could afford to make Frankenstein's monsters. The different powers need not be complex, a dozen different beam weapons(Fire beam, cold beam, gravity beam etc) could fill the roster of Nutrients quickly, and most of them should be fairly simple. you would want as few super wacky aliens around as possible lagging up the place, I would imagine.
Spin off ideas
Rare Nutrients
Nutrients that only show up when two or more common Nutrients are there already. So if a creature has a Advanced Brain, and Heightened Senses, it could unlock Psychic Vision or Telekinesis inside creatures on that planet, making some abilities harder to find, and even harder to reproduce in a lab. Some Nutrients could make you revive on death at the same spot with half HP(needs a cooldown and a cost obviously) or some other crazy thing. They would need to have a lot of weaknesses when turned to Genes, but with the right balancing, it could be fun to make a psychic research station. Also a Zombie Nutrient would be cool, land on a planet covered in walking alien zombies. Take it home...
Hazard Worlds
If 1 in a 100 worlds have life on them, then 1 in a 100 life worlds are Hazard Worlds. You all have heard of them, worlds wear everything is giant, there are tiers of mega Fauna that walk the land, and you even with your ship, are nothing but a small fish in this pond. Raise the Nutrients in the soil to astronomical levels and make negative effects spawn half as often. Now add in tiers of flora and fauna and you have your Hazard World, a hellish world were only the strongest would dare to venture, and even they would fear what beasts lived here. This place would be a gold mine of Rare , high rank samples and what not. The flip side is the things here would have such high rank abilities they might be able to take your ship out from orbit. Proceed with caution.
Terra forming
Mentioned above, just giving a planet a atmosphere and planting life on it can be cool, with a real Terra forming system in place the above system could be very cool way of seeding planets with random nutrients and making 'lab worlds' to harvest traits form the species that develop their.
Like my idea? Hate it? I wrote it with a cold, so sorry about and spelling errors and what not.
Thank you for reading!
