Exploration

[Barlone]

Hi,

reading through suggestion forum I see that vast suggestions focus on tweaking game mechanics used mainly for PvP. Nothing against it and I feel that problems with docking and problems with shilds trusters and you-name-it are important. What I feel is lack of challenges in PvE side. Dont forget PvE/Construction/Eploration/survival part, because if you end up tweaking PvP you will not have time to do more creative stuff and you can do it as a full time job. Every major mmorpg is constantly tweeaking pvP system.

I started game quite recently and after finding first harvestable station I achieved almost everything I can get in the game. I have enough money to build ship that withstands pirates I can start planet wide factory and I can travers universe there and back without any fear or challenge. Yey. And unless I want to get blown to boxes by some dude with 1000 amcs what else can I do?

Sorry for sarcasm - no offense ment. What I lack here is no technical gimmicks but PvE/Construction content and constrains in fact. I play this game with my children (4-5 years old) and they love to build nice looking ships, go to planets and explore space. Search for hidden and rare minerals/and treasuse, fear from unknown thats all motor for imagination. Take for example minecraft. There are monsters, some common, some rare. Deeper you go more strange things you meet - lava, bedrock, nether fortresses dungeons etc. Game should have two modes. PvE and PvP. Give bit more love to PvE sometimes.

Game is good - here are some ideas what would make it great in my eyes.

Make some stuff rare, some crucial minerals available only if you go deep in the ground if you scout a lot or you are in some sort of danger. Make planet more resistant to ships (eg. through planetary shields that has to be turned off manually) so you sometimes have to risk your skin on surface. Make mobs on/under surface - mob explorers, space gremlins, aliens, whatever. Make more variation in planet types. We would love to scout universe to find alien planed where unobtabilium can be found to build stronger hull, better engines, stronger shields. Make some minerals tied with types of planets and it makes it automatically rare.

Make galaxy more wild and diverse. Let start on the edge, more you go to the center more wild things can happen (or other way round). Deeper you go, less shops and more danger. Add space weather for some sectors so you have to traverse around to avoid space dust that electrocuts your batery, space mists that corode your hull, black holes that can (if you really not carefull) suck your ship, dangerous space anomalys that hamper your navigation and so on. Add some random boons and dangers to empty space. Starting with derelict ships, aliens, diversity of pirates and stations, minefields, worm holes that are one or two ways and can move you ship over hundreds of secors away and you can end up with space monsters such as space dragons or alien automated planetary bases that can be challenge for even capital ships. Sci fi literature is full on inspiration. And make them drop some nice loot.

To make game really enjoyable for exploration you must allow some crude visualisation of space you have seen. Even crude things like minecraft maps will give you idea of the areas you are moving. Can be special computer that has to be made or something but you cant really aim for exploration game if you lack any ability above numeric coordinates that distinguish sectors.

Make ships movement more apparent from inside. So I dont have to answer question - are we moving? Yes see here is 49.9 speed .... Space debries would probably burden graphic but some speed distortionor fake animation of debris while in cockpit based on speed if you looking from cockpit would be nice.

Anyway great game guys, very creative and its glass that needs to be filled with water.

 

[Springy150]

This ideas i like it

 

[dwwojcik]

However, I think these features should be somewhat more passive.

• I don\'t like the idea of corrosive space mists, but what would be cool are nebulas that disable radar and missile locking and short out shields and cloaking.
• Instead of naturally generated junk (or maybe in addition to it) when a core overheats after being shot the core could be deleted and the ship would turn into an inert man-made asteroid sort of thing.
• A 3D map that shows you what was in each sector last time you were there would be fantastic.
• Coming across neutral NPC colonies on planets or space stations would add some challenge to setting up a base or farming PlexGlass. (Also, abandoned space stations should look more dilapidated imo)

Oh, also, I think minerals should be rarer, but should be found in large quantities on asteroids. So when the crafting system is expanded and you need a certain metal, you\'d have to jump in your salvage ship and go exploring to find a node of insanium or whatever.

 

[Legolas170]

Mobs are being added, but I like planetary shields. I think it would be cool if when a ship has its core destroyed, it slowly drifts and aligns to an axis over time. That way, after a large battle, things are flying around, but after a while, they settle down as evidence of a battle.

 

[dwwojcik]

A generated colony should have some structures, maybe including a shield generator station. (It would vary, of course. The generator would first build the planet, then look for and clear flat spots to spawn buildings, then populate it with a few villagers and maybe a docked isanth or two)

 

[NeonSturm]

Let the players build these bases.



Each player can choose a planet-prototype in some creative-modus or holodeck, build a pyramid or such and upload/publish it on the server.

If it gets some minimum (2-3) likes/support-votes for it\'s purpose (tags: alienX, pirates,...), it gets included in some favorite list and can be made available on all servers by devs/admins.

 

[Ithirahad]

I definitely agree with this. This also ties into a research system I was thinking about - There could be various types of space and ground alien enemies from which you might obtain different \"unknown circutry fragment\", \"unknown biotechnological fragment\", \"unknown mechanical fragment\", \"unknown biological trace sample\", \"unknown armor fragment\", \"unknown component\", \"unknown tool\", etc.

You then bring these to your research lab system (Station or ship, multiple blocks, requires a certain amount of power (something like 100k)) for the chance to get recipes for either new, \"tweaked,\" or enhanced blocks and items, or some other type of special fragment or item, related to the type of fragment. An Unknown Mechanical Fragment, for instance, might let you learn how to produce pistons or higher-capacity storage blocks, while an Unknown Biotechnological Fragment might give you a recipe for some kind of ground virus grenade or semi-biological ship parts. The stats on the special recipes might be slightly different from person to person, so once two people know the same recipe, one person might be able to train another in a slightly more powerful or efficient version of the recipe.



...I need to make this into another topic.

 

[ghostrider2539]

Mabye there should be ruined civilazation, abandoned shipyards, old warehouses, abandoned ship wreckage, and you should be able to join the traders guild

 

[jzimmerman4]

Adding on to being able to join the traders guild, you should be able to join any civilization you encounter and help them defeat their enemies and expand.

 

[Barlone]

Hi,

thanks for positive feedback. I was just throwing sort of pool ideas expanding game in different directions that are aiming to give game more appeal if you are not pvp fan but you would like to enjoy spacecraftting and going where man havent gone before. I would difinitely suggest.

None of them are deeply thought or fits in to current setting well. For example planetary shields is probably nonsense - but for example make atmosphere to damage ships from certain mass could do same trick (forcing you to jump to your small ship and explore in smaller scale)

As I said just a ideas to make game appealing for PvE/Crafting

And and if you adopt some dont forge space dragons please ... you know - some planets are their eggs and they eat stars, and they have skin so tough that even biggest AMCcs can barely scratch them ... ) And giant space squids with tentacles from pure plasma than can suck ship shields in blink of an eye ... and and ... and ...

Btw noone likes to play simcity if there is no godzilla who can trample it to dust

 

[jzimmerman4]

Something that relates to this topic is that all resources used to build ships should be able to be collected from the universe. The game would be a ton better if shops weren\'t the only way to gain most items.

 

[Izikiel]

I do like most of these ideas, but not the space mists and dust. It would just kind of make things over-complicated. The nebula would be cool, though. Add in better pirate A.I. and more complex planets and stations, and you get a massive improvement to the single player game.