(My Amazing Ideas for) Planet Life and Planet Variation

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

(This was originally posted in "Ideas for mods", because I am a nubcake)​

So, I know that life on planets will eventually be added to the Vanilla game, but when exploring a universe, shouldn't there be more "randomness"? In an infinite universe, not everything should be the same. so, these are my ideas: perhaps make it where a planet only has a 50/50 chance of having life, or a 50/50 of only certain types of life, while other types will always be present. Or make the chance of life on a planet smaller, or maybe smaller depending on the type of planet (the purple one for example). Maybe some organisms have a higher chance of being on a planet, while others have lower chances? Sometimes a planet will have hostile life, and others have friendly, but not necessarily where a red planet always has hostile and green always has friendly. Also, I think every planet should have a chance of having friendly or hostile life, but perhaps the green planet for example would have a higher chance of friendly, and the purple planet would be more likely to be hostile? Basically I want it to be random, and not: "The purple planet will always only have this one organism. The blue planet will always have these organisms, with no variation." Ok, I think you get my point xD

That being said, I feel as though there is also a too-small amount of planets. Yes there are a few, however in a game that promotes exploration through the limitless boundaries of space, seeing the same type of planet multiple times doesn't really feel right. That being said, more planets would definitely be nice, however if you think of the ideal version of a game that takes place in space (or just real life) every planet is different, right? I think this could be accomplished if you had a vast amount of "planet features", and the game created every planet by looking at this list, and putting random features together, effectively making every planet different. For example, there a list of atmosphere colors: blue, green, and red. Also, a list of biomes: grass, snow, and rock. The game randomly chooses and creates a grassy planet, that has a red atmosphere. However, some planets could also not be compatible with some atmospheres, etc.. Now of course this would be way more in-depth and not just a biome and an atmosphere. (For example, there may be a list of ground blocks that it may choose a primary block from, and a secondary block from, a list of plants that it may not only choose multiple of, but first it will randomly pick a number of how many plants it will choose, then randomly choose that many plants, a list of organisms that would give some life-forms a higher chance to be there while others would have a lower chance, depending on the previous choices picked [meaning if it was a purple biome, friendly life would be less likely to be picked, but still possible], and so on, and so on, etc.)

So yes, like I mentioned, I feel that in a space-oriented game that tries to promote a lawless, infinite universe, there shouldn't just be a "set amount" of everything. Instead, I think everything should have an air of randomness to it, which would make everything more risky, and add a whole new level of excitement and exploration to the game. Please consider these ideas, as I feel that if you were to get them right, it could vastly improve StarMade, and make it even better than it is now.

 

[Lecic]

Creatures are planned to be random.

 

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

Creatures are planned to be random.

lol I didn't do a whole lot of research before this, I just stated my ideas.
But of course creatures are going to be "random" as they are in all sandbox games. However there will still most likely be "purple planet creatures" and "green planet creatures" etc. Instead, I think that it should be more random than that. For the most part, I think most creatures should be able to spawn on any planet. Now, I do think some creatures should be reserved for certain planets, (for example: a poisonous snake creature should only spawn in purple planets or maybe rock planets, but not grass or ice planets) but it shouldn't be set where: "The purple planet will have only these kind of creatures that will "randomly" spawn on it, and the green planet will have only these ones", etc. At least this is my opinion lol. But what I mean is this: First, the game chooses whether the planet is hostile or friendly, and some planets will have a higher chance while others will have a lower one. Then it picks a random number of organisms that will spawn (between 3 and 5 maybe). Then it randomly picks that number of organisms (friendly if it picked friendly, hostile if it picked hostile). Therefore, every planet will have at least a slight difference in the organisms it spawns on it, and 2 green planets will not necessarily have the same type of life-forms.

 

[Lecic]

lol I didn't do a whole lot of research before this, I just stated my ideas.
But of course creatures are going to be "random" as they are in all sandbox games. However there will still most likely be "purple planet creatures" and "green planet creatures" etc. Instead, I think that it should be more random than that. For the most part, I think most creatures should be able to spawn on any planet. Now, I do think some creatures should be reserved for certain planets, (for example: a poisonous snake creature should only spawn in purple planets or maybe rock planets, but not grass or ice planets) but it shouldn't be set where: "The purple planet will have only these kind of creatures that will "randomly" spawn on it, and the green planet will have only these ones", etc. At least this is my opinion lol. But what I mean is this: First, the game chooses whether the planet is hostile or friendly, and some planets will have a higher chance while others will have a lower one. Then it picks a random number of organisms that will spawn (between 3 and 5 maybe). Then it randomly picks that number of organisms (friendly if it picked friendly, hostile if it picked hostile). Therefore, every planet will have at least a slight difference in the organisms it spawns on it, and 2 green planets will not necessarily have the same type of life-forms.

No, I mean, creatures are going to be built out of randomly generated parts, like in Starbound. Omni is the guy working on the creatures, I believe. Ask him about it.

 

[ResonKinetic]

Creatures are planned to be random.

Aw SICK!

Oh, and OP, when you say "more planets" do you mean "more planet TYPES"? because there are already tons of planets, if your sector size is default/low.

 

[kupu]

lol I didn't do a whole lot of research before this, I just stated my ideas.

Here; lots of material to use as research to answer potential questions!

Official Starmade Q&A's with the dev team.




Creatures will be procedurally generated. Truly random.

Check the post backlog of Omni (the guy making them) for plenty of info on potential creatures, or alternatively read this (rather extensive) thread.
http://starmadedock.net/threads/wha...d-other-life-forms-would-you-like-to-see.710/

Hope that helps a little.

 

[CyberTao]

The Planets are have are basically "Types" of planets. There is the Green ones, in the habitable zone and full of life similar to our own. Desert planets have too little atmospehere, heat and cooling too much for most life. Some planets will have some kinds of Creatures, simply because it makes sense.

And there are "Biomes" of Sorts, Green planets have Mountain or sometimes a Ravine, plus a chance at spawning a city. Though there will hopefully be more 'biomes' and more 'types' of planets.

But I recall hearing that Creatures aren't gonna be -completely- random o -o The Ones on a desert planet will try to look like they belong there (Evolution and all), but I could just be remembering things wrong. Regardless, I expect a pool of Traits to be pulled from when creating the critters, so Hostile or Friendly could be random, same as maybe flight and wall crawling.

 

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

Here; lots of material to use as research to answer potential questions!

Official Starmade Q&A's with the dev team.




Creatures will be procedurally generated. Truly random.

Check the post backlog of Omni (the guy making them) for plenty of info on potential creatures, or alternatively read this (rather extensive) thread.
http://starmadedock.net/threads/wha...d-other-life-forms-would-you-like-to-see.710/

Hope that helps a little.

As much as I would love to watch over 8 hours of commentary, I think I'll pass xD. But thanks, I think I understand how alien life will work now, I should have looked into it more before I posted this. However, my ideas regarding planets still have meaning. I would really like it if every planet was completely random and different, as this would add whole new levels of depth and exploration as previously mentioned lol. It would feel much more you're really in space, and currently, no matter where you go in space it all looks the same, because there are only a few types of planets that all look identical. If every planet was random, then every sector would have a defining feature. As in: "My sector is the one with the _____ planet that looks like _____. Currently, space all looks the same and planets all look the same, meaning there are no defining features lol and you couldn't say: "I am near the red-rock planet" because there are tons of similar-looking red-rock planets. If every planet was different, and you had no idea what it would be like until you actually entered the atmosphere, wouldn't it be much more exciting? Except it's more than just some excitement, it's excitement that would never end, because there are infinite planets, and you could keep on exploring planets, over and over, and every single one would be unique and different.

 

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

The Planets are have are basically "Types" of planets. There is the Green ones, in the habitable zone and full of life similar to our own. Desert planets have too little atmospehere, heat and cooling too much for most life. Some planets will have some kinds of Creatures, simply because it makes sense.

And there are "Biomes" of Sorts, Green planets have Mountain or sometimes a Ravine, plus a chance at spawning a city. Though there will hopefully be more 'biomes' and more 'types' of planets.

But I recall hearing that Creatures aren't gonna be -completely- random o -o The Ones on a desert planet will try to look like they belong there (Evolution and all), but I could just be remembering things wrong. Regardless, I expect a pool of Traits to be pulled from when creating the critters, so Hostile or Friendly could be random, same as maybe flight and wall crawling.

"Some planets will have some kinds of Creatures, simply because it makes sense."
Yes, I mentioned this, it's what I meant when I said "poisonous snakes would spawn on purple planets, but not grass planets for example."
Also I know this about planets already, however if there were several lists in diferent categories of tons of features to choose from, that the game randomly picked from when it generated a planet, every planet would be unique :D

 

[kupu]

Haha, yea. It's a lot, i certainly didn't expect you to spend a whole day watching it all in one go. :D

They're referenced quite a lot here on the forums, so it's good to know where they are incase you wanted "further reading".
There are also text transcribes of the questions / answers you can skim through here; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q9sWP1RhtTLLsIw-3j1uHqf9GeAcwF_OB4jer28qFjA/edit#
CTRL + F is your friend.

Planets too could be in for a new generation system.

Spoiler: Off topic

Oh, you can quote multiple posts in a reply by using the +Quote button on the bottom right of posts.
Find your desired posts and click the +Quote button. It will say "Added to multi-quote". Then in the text editor press the "insert quotes" button (bottom left).

A line break or paragraphs might be a little easier on the eyes too

 

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

Haha, yea. It's a lot, i certainly didn't expect you to spend a whole day watching it all in one go. :D

They're referenced quite a lot here on the forums, so it's good to know where they are incase you wanted "further reading".
There are also text transcribes of the questions / answers you can skim through here; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q9sWP1RhtTLLsIw-3j1uHqf9GeAcwF_OB4jer28qFjA/edit#
CTRL + F is your friend.

Planets too could be in for a new generation system.

Spoiler: Off topic

Oh, you can quote multiple posts in a reply by using the +Quote button on the bottom right of posts.
Find your desired posts and click the +Quote button. It will say "Added to multi-quote". Then in the text editor press the "insert quotes" button (bottom left).

A line break or paragraphs might be a little easier on the eyes too

Thanks for the help :D
I will get around to watching them, but definitely not all at once. Maybe half an hour every now and then... xD
Also, I knew about the quote thing, I had just forgotten about it, and I usually try to keep things separate rather than replying to several people in one reply lol but I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Planr]

Hey, I see my Enterprise ship in the thumbnail for the 2nd video, kupu! that's really awesome

Anyways, I agree that a great variety in planet variations and creatures would be absolutely wonderful. My hope though, is that we can also see some order behind the randomness as well. So, for example of this "orderly fashion" of variety, you'd have a wide variety of humanoid creatures, and also another variety of different creatures. Each would inherently share some similarities amongst their similar kinds, though there would be some "anomalous" and "unnatural" aliens you could find, but they would be quite rare.

So, an example of this... You would have many of the planets you go to in a specific region of the galaxy populated primarily by humanoid aliens, that all share some basic characteristics, like using tools and walking. And, every once in a blue moon (that's a figure of speech), you would come across a very strange humanoid creature that had unusual non-humanoid characteristics, like a concealment ability, or extremely fast movement ability. Then you'd have the 'creepy' areas of the universe that are mostly populated by strange multi-legged aliens, robots, and what have you. These creatures would have very special characteristics about them that separate them from humanoid aliens, such as the ability to shoot lasers or spit poisonous "fluids" (they could be projectiles but with particle effects that make them look like fluids) at the player. The robots could have laser arms or eyes that can do damage to blocks, or instead use them for salvaging purposes. They could have strong armors and exoskeletons to make combat against them even more interesting.

Just some ideas i'm throwing out there

 

[MatthewOfJadethSpeareth]

Hey, I see my Enterprise ship in the thumbnail for the 2nd video, kupu! that's really awesome

Anyways, I agree that a great variety in planet variations and creatures would be absolutely wonderful. My hope though, is that we can also see some order behind the randomness as well. So, for example of this "orderly fashion" of variety, you'd have a wide variety of humanoid creatures, and also another variety of different creatures. Each would inherently share some similarities amongst their similar kinds, though there would be some "anomalous" and "unnatural" aliens you could find, but they would be quite rare.

So, an example of this... You would have many of the planets you go to in a specific region of the galaxy populated primarily by humanoid aliens, that all share some basic characteristics, like using tools and walking. And, every once in a blue moon (that's a figure of speech), you would come across a very strange humanoid creature that had unusual non-humanoid characteristics, like a concealment ability, or extremely fast movement ability. Then you'd have the 'creepy' areas of the universe that are mostly populated by strange multi-legged aliens, robots, and what have you. These creatures would have very special characteristics about them that separate them from humanoid aliens, such as the ability to shoot lasers or spit poisonous "fluids" (they could be projectiles but with particle effects that make them look like fluids) at the player. The robots could have laser arms or eyes that can do damage to blocks, or instead use them for salvaging purposes. They could have strong armors and exoskeletons to make combat against them even more interesting.

Just some ideas i'm throwing out there

Some very... intereseting ideas... xD
Really though, thank you. You just summed up half my life with one phrase: "Orderly fashion of variety" xD Basically, this is the idea that I have been trying to express. My overall idea is this: I want it to appear random, I want it to feel random, and I want it to be semi-random, but I want it to be orderly enough so it makes sense, and things don't happen where you get a grassy planet with a red atmosphere (like I mentioned) xD It took me several paragraphs to say that lol, but you summed it up pretty well.

btw, I'm stealing that phrase

 

[Planr]

Haha, glad you like it :D

and yes, it is a good phrase, and also, blue moon is my favorite flavor of ice cream at Kilwin's :p

 

[Malacodor]

Schema could make the game compatible with the file format Spore uses for creatures (in addition to the random system, of course).

 

[Omni]

(...) I would really like it if every planet was completely random and different, as this would add whole new levels of depth and exploration as previously mentioned lol. It would feel much more you're really in space, and currently, no matter where you go in space it all looks the same, because there are only a few types of planets that all look identical. If every planet was random, then every sector would have a defining feature. As in: "My sector is the one with the _____ planet that looks like _____. Currently, space all looks the same and planets all look the same, meaning there are no defining features lol and you couldn't say: "I am near the red-rock planet" because there are tons of similar-looking red-rock planets. If every planet was different, and you had no idea what it would be like until you actually entered the atmosphere, wouldn't it be much more exciting? Except it's more than just some excitement, it's excitement that would never end, because there are infinite planets, and you could keep on exploring planets, over and over, and every single one would be unique and different.

While I can't make any promises on details and I'm not certain on the exact future mechanics, I believe you can expect much greater variety in planets in the future, less "there are x numbers of types of planets" and more each planet having unique characteristics.

Mix that with Fauna that generate to match the characteristics of the planet they live on but are different every time and you'll never know what to expect when you're approaching or landing on a planet. But for exactly how that will all work, you'll have to wait and see.

(...) Anyways, I agree that a great variety in planet variations and creatures would be absolutely wonderful. My hope though, is that we can also see some order behind the randomness as well. So, for example of this "orderly fashion" of variety, you'd have a wide variety of humanoid creatures, and also another variety of different creatures. Each would inherently share some similarities amongst their similar kinds, though there would be some "anomalous" and "unnatural" aliens you could find, but they would be quite rare.

So, an example of this... You would have many of the planets you go to in a specific region of the galaxy populated primarily by humanoid aliens, that all share some basic characteristics, like using tools and walking. And, every once in a blue moon (that's a figure of speech), you would come across a very strange humanoid creature that had unusual non-humanoid characteristics, like a concealment ability, or extremely fast movement ability. (...)

It would be very unrealistic for the majority of Fauna to be humanoid. This isn't the kind of sci-fi where "aliens" are people with latex on their faces or strange habits. Not saying humanoid aliens aren't possible, and with modding you could likely make it so the majority of aliens are humanoid if you wanted, but the aliens/Fauna should be expected to be more like animals. (Hence the term Fauna.)

Schema could make the game compatible with the file format Spore uses for creatures (in addition to the random system, of course).

Uhhh... doing that would be enormously complex. Not sure if you realize how extremely difficult that would be, haha. (Could be legal issues as well.) I sincerely doubt that feature will ever be feasible. Would be intriguing, though. (And hey, you never know what modders might accomplish.)

 

[Lecic]

While I can't make any promises on details and I'm not certain on the exact future mechanics, I believe you can expect much greater variety in planets in the future, less "there are x numbers of types of planets" and more each planet having unique characteristics.

Mix that with Fauna that generate to match the characteristics of the planet they live on but are different every time and you'll never know what to expect when you're approaching or landing on a planet. But for exactly how that will all work, you'll have to wait and see.

It would be very unrealistic for the majority of Fauna to be humanoid. This isn't the kind of sci-fi where "aliens" are people with latex on their faces or strange habits. Not saying humanoid aliens aren't possible, and with modding you could likely make it so the majority of aliens are humanoid if you wanted, but the aliens/Fauna should be expected to be more like animals. (Hence the term Fauna.)

Uhhh... doing that would be enormously complex. Not sure if you realize how extremely difficult that would be, haha. (Could be legal issues as well.) I sincerely doubt that feature will ever be feasible. Would be intriguing, though. (And hey, you never know what modders might accomplish.)

Will there be a chance for aliens to be intelligent, and possibly have space ships, a faction, or even be able to have them join your crew?

 

[AtraUnam]

While I can't make any promises on details and I'm not certain on the exact future mechanics, I believe you can expect much greater variety in planets in the future, less "there are x numbers of types of planets" and more each planet having unique characteristics.

Mix that with Fauna that generate to match the characteristics of the planet they live on but are different every time and you'll never know what to expect when you're approaching or landing on a planet. But for exactly how that will all work, you'll have to wait and see.

What about Flora? I like Flora. You could have it working in tandem with the Fauna; X creature eats Y plant, If you take that plant species to a planet where nothing happens to eat it then it will spread over the entire planet killing off the other plants. You could also have poisonous or carnivorous plants, maybe even plants that 'infect' ships and eat the hulls.

 

[Omni]

Will there be a chance for aliens to be intelligent, and possibly have space ships, a faction, or even be able to have them join your crew?

Hopefully, haha. I can't make any promises, and I don't know exactly how it would be implemented, but I would hope it would be possible, or at least an optional feature. If nothing else, something that can be modded in.

Many things that are currently hard-coded will likely become moddable in the future. Once they do, and once things like factions are further implemented, such things will likely become a possibility. (As always, no promises, nor do I have any idea when such things would be implemented.)

What about Flora? I like Flora. You could have it working in tandem with the Fauna; X creature eats Y plant, If you take that plant species to a planet where nothing happens to eat it then it will spread over the entire planet killing off the other plants. You could also have poisonous or carnivorous plants, maybe even plants that 'infect' ships and eat the hulls.

A lot of details about Flora are uncertain and still being worked out. But believe me, I'd like to make the Flora as awesome and variable as possible if given the opportunity. I would LIKE to basically give the Flora as much attention as the Fauna (though the Fauna will require more attention than the Flora no matter what due to being fundamentally more complex), but that's just my personal hope. We'll see.

 

[Starlight Walker]

speaking on this matter, I was thinking it would be cool to implement a system to make your own creatures, basically there would be some Animal Transport Ships (ATS) floating around that you could find the creatures on that you made, it could be a buying system where you buy each creature or maybe you have to liberate the creatures from the ship, also you might be able to find them on ruined ships or something,I imagen the creation system would most likely work using a lot of different parts, and the ability to designate different parts as Arms,legs,head,body and give it different types like Flying,Swimming,intelligent, or perhaps you could just use some external modeling software and import it into the game.