Thanks, Bench for the insights.
Wow. In my absence, this thread certainly blew up a little! Some great ideas and inspirations throughout.
To the folks talking about the >pew pew< solution vs. a hypothetical bio-inhibitor block, I totally get that approach in terms of gameplay and within the context of a military ship flying missions.
To clarify where I'm coming from, voxel sandboxes such as this one and Minecraft really bring out my inner dungeon master. What I enjoy most is making environments for others to explore, experience, and inhabit.
Currently, I'm working on some experiments for a fully urbanized planet. I'm attempting to capture the classic bifurcated sci-fi society portrayed by a fully fleshed out upper and lower city. From a design perspective, the upper city should be safe and secure. But the lower city, especially in its depths, would be a great place to have the occasional critter appearing.
I guess what I'm asking for is some means of control when creating these environments that can create zones of danger and infestation versus zones of absolute security that over time repopulate themselves. I'd like to create designed worlds that feel alive and are fun to visit but don't require an admin coming through regularly to spawn spiders in the sewers.
On a side note, is there a means of exporting entire planets and importing them into servers? If not, is there a chance we could ever get this capacity? I would love to spend time creating a few very rich, one of a kind, hand-developed planets and then making them available to the community.
Wow. In my absence, this thread certainly blew up a little! Some great ideas and inspirations throughout.
To the folks talking about the >pew pew< solution vs. a hypothetical bio-inhibitor block, I totally get that approach in terms of gameplay and within the context of a military ship flying missions.
To clarify where I'm coming from, voxel sandboxes such as this one and Minecraft really bring out my inner dungeon master. What I enjoy most is making environments for others to explore, experience, and inhabit.
Currently, I'm working on some experiments for a fully urbanized planet. I'm attempting to capture the classic bifurcated sci-fi society portrayed by a fully fleshed out upper and lower city. From a design perspective, the upper city should be safe and secure. But the lower city, especially in its depths, would be a great place to have the occasional critter appearing.
I guess what I'm asking for is some means of control when creating these environments that can create zones of danger and infestation versus zones of absolute security that over time repopulate themselves. I'd like to create designed worlds that feel alive and are fun to visit but don't require an admin coming through regularly to spawn spiders in the sewers.
On a side note, is there a means of exporting entire planets and importing them into servers? If not, is there a chance we could ever get this capacity? I would love to spend time creating a few very rich, one of a kind, hand-developed planets and then making them available to the community.