Ideas for crews-discussion

[Snk]

Like most Star made players, I am a fan of interiors. I love walking around my ship, doing ship things, on a long voyage. Being in the middle of space with your friends is the best feeling ever, in my opinion. I love role playing as a captain or deckhand, and I like running around making sure everything is working.


The thing is, there isnt a real need for this. I've invented my own system for crewing, but it isn't perfect. (Please see The Figurehead-Captains log if interested.) What I want, and many other star made players want, is an OPTIONAL crewing system that allows for fun, fast or slow paced crewing that has an effect on your ship. It would allow you to bring aboard AI and players alike, and it wouldn't be under or over powered.

I have created this thread in an effort to get people to share ideas on how they think crewing should work. Let the ideas flow

 

[jayman38]

I think "decoration" blocks, of which we now have a lot, should have more purpose.

Specifically, I think they should have a tiny bit (1 or 2) energy storage on average.

For this topic, I think they should have more purpose, such as creating useless, but visual objects.

A game I saw recently that I thought looked hilariously fun was "Viscera Cleanup Detail". Don't look that game up unless you don't mind seeing copious quantities of gore spattered about. That made me think it would be fun if random dirt appeared and you had to clean it up as a deckhand. (Or leave it there for a roguish, devil-may-care look.) If you want to spend a lot of money/energy/blocks, you can get your ship a robo-vacuum "pet". I'm a big fan of the Space Quest series, where the main protagonist is a space janitor. I wouldn't mind seeing astronauts with mops. Ha!

Another idea for decoration blocks: Make them interactive in a way that doesn't do much. Make it so you can "activate" them and they change textures slightly, so it looks like things are moving, lights are blinking, etc.

Have "diagnostic" interactions with ship-board computers, so they blink in different ways, display a brief "OK" and then return to normal.

Give astronauts a wrench that they can bang on blocks with. Maybe make it so that damaged blocks get 1 or 2 points healthier with each swing, a la the Engineer from Team Fortress 2.

 

[Snk]

That was beautiful, my friend. I loved everything you said.

 

[jayman38]

Tribbles from Star Trek! With the introduction of more flora and fauna in the game, make it so that they can grow exponentially if left out and unattended. Someone needs to go around, pruning the little devils or otherwise herding/farming.

That leads to me think about on-board farming at hydroponic gardens. Stuff needs to be gathered/salvaged off trees and bushes, plants need to be planted, infestations need to be destroyed, mutated specimens need to be gathered, isolated, and studied in a lab.

Large-scale fauna invasions. Defend the ship from aliens when landing on a planet! Maybe they can "sneak" onto a hidden corner of the ship and start multiplying, and then "activate" on first contact with or sight of a crewmember, at which point, they start attacking the rest of the ship.

 

[TNA]

An optional setting for roleplayelements is good idea, then you can choose how you like to play the game.
Extra rooms on a ship are now quite useless, because you are just armouring a bit of useless space.
I would disagree on cleaning the ship, because this is isnt something i imagine sci-fi crews doing so often.
Things like eating, sleeping could be more important. The idea of a handheld repairtool and farming/processing on ships is nice.
I think i heard somewhere that farming is planed (cant say it for sure, but it would be while until this is added i guess).
In reviews i saw some ships where the creator added a sickbay for the look, i would be nice if these would have a use, but the handheld healing beam is more practical (it could maybe have a use if you change this with the roleplay-option, maybe).
Dangerous alien flora and fauna on planets is a good idea, this could make exploring/settling a bit more interesting.

 

[Snk]

Instead of dirt, maybe asteroid particles that collect on the exterior?

And an option to increase ship efficency, but you have random damage to all exposed parts? And players could fix it with inter dimensional sentient gel based repair tools?

It would be optional, you could turn it on and off at will. Also, the amount of exposed parts is equal to the boost you get.

 

[jayman38]

Yep, all of it is optional.

I think having decoration blocks react to being "activated" should be turned on in the default game, but everything else should be off by default, configurable on the server, so the server admin can make his game as crew-interactive as desired. I'm on the fence regarding default activation of computer diagnostics. I like it but people might not want it in the default game.

Hostile Fauna Invasion, continued: Different types
1. Multiple regular aliens that attack living organisms: simple stuff, your ship turns into FPS gameplay until the infestation is eradicated
2. Single or few massive/high-hit-point aliens: "Boss" alien that will probably need multiple astronauts to take down - or ejected from the ship and blown up by ship weapons. (Now we need ideas on how to "eject" objects, astronauts, and aliens from ships. Push beams behind an airlock?)
3. Multiple block-eater aliens that attack ship blocks but not aliens: Astronauts will be harmed if close to the alien. Otherwise, the alien is only interested in slowly eating ship blocks. Gotta take that beast down before it chews on the power cables! Then there is repair work after the deed is done.
4. Single or few block-eater aliens: "Boss" block-eater with massive hit points that can eat blocks faster. You'll probably need at least one astronaut on maintenance duty while attacking, to clean up ship systems as the beast eats blocks from one side of the ship to the other.
5. Remora aliens: do not eat blocks, but drain energy and/or shields from the ship. Take 'em out before pirates or other hostiles take advantage of your ship!
6. Shark Remora aliens: "Boss" Remora with massive hit points that drains your systems almost instantly. Hungry, hungry hippo!

Boss aliens will probably be the one to "sneak" on board the ship and start spawning smaller aliens (maybe from a coding perspective, just spawn it in a large open space within the ship overall dimensions, with the hope that it will be inside the ship, not outside.)