- Joined
- Aug 5, 2015
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 42
What a wonderful game this already is in this functioning alpha state. The breadth of features and functionality at this relatively early stage shows great promise.
I missed the Disc World (Planets 1.0) era of the game, but I've now spent several weeks with the current dodecahedron planets (Planets 2.0). A great foundation, but I think more could be done to make exploring planet after planet more exciting and enticing. And much of it from a design and programming standpoint may very well be low hanging fruit.
I'll lump all these suggestions under the heading...
Planet 2.0 Diversification
The goal: robust uniqueness of each and every planet.
The strategy: random variants that leads to nearly infinite combinations for terrestrial planets. From a design perspective, think of planets like one might a good character customization tool. You have options for headwear, shirts, pants, shoes, accessories. But in the case of planets, replace these features with things like terrain, atmosphere, life (with sub-categories of flora, fauna), etc.
The Elements in Detail:
Atmosphere: Sky color on each planet should be procedurally generated and not limited to any one terrain type. Period. Pink. Blue. Green. Purple. Mustard. Even with random RGB values (or RGB+A?) should be easy to limit within an acceptable range. But keep us searching for that perfect oddball aesthetic combination. Maybe that purple alien world with the unique pink sky is the compelling element that drives one player to call that planet home and develop it.
Gameplay mechanic related to varied atmospheric colors: I've seen many requests for gas giants. I agree with and support these sentiments. If and when implemented, I believe that a system for gasses as another category of resource should be implemented. Unlike crystals, ores, and rocky minerals, this resource would not be directly mineable but instead would require placing atmospheric vapor collector blocks. To keep symmetry with the other resources, collectable gasses would be broken up into 8 colors, the ROYGBP spectrum plus B&W. Terrestrial planets would provide only 1 color of 6 from the ROYGBP resource spectrum determined by the random RGB value of the atmospheric color. In other words, a blue-ish sky would yield blue gas capsules in your harvester, an orange sky yields orange gas, etc. To motivate players to build cloud city type outposts in the upper levels of gas giants, those in turn would provide 3 different gas resources, from the full spectrum of 8, including B&W.
There should also be the random chance of no atmosphere on most terrestrial terrain types (all except verdant green worlds). If this occurs, all life variables should then default to no life at all.
Procedural height for atmosphere. (credit: Parameter) Values for atmospheric height and density procedurally determined and assigned to each planet uniquely upon generation. If a system of drag or atmospheric entry heat/damage is ever added, these values would become more than aesthetic differences between planets, affecting the degree to any particular planet heats up or slows down a vehicle upon atmospheric insertion.
Terrain: Terrain is well on its way for this stage of development. The terrain types are simple but robust enough, with one possible exception: think the moon or Mercury. There is no simple dull grey cratered terrain covered in circles to give a strong sense of geological inactivity and countless craters. In my opinion, in the world of voxel art, the physical dimensionality of all those craters (larger exceptions aside) is not as important as capturing the feel of multiple overlapping rings of various dimensions.
Aqueous Terrain Variants: I realize that there is no engine yet for any sort of fluids in game yet. But the lack of oceans and lakes is pretty glaring. If a physics mechanic to handle fluids in game is implemented, each terrain type suite should have the option of generating an aqueous variant. Verdant terrain islands and mostly blue water. Red planets of stony floes separated by vast cracks of lava with vast lakes of the stuff. Sandy planets with ice deposits and frozen subterranean lakes. Ice worlds with rocky islands separate by with liquid oceans below the ice. Toxic seas on purple planets. But to reiterate, not all planets would see these formations. Keep the terrain generator working as is, just add these as variant generations of terrain on a planet wide scale. (There is also of course the option of making liquid color on any given planet be random from spectrum of 6 corresponding ROYGBP colors, and introducing it as a resource as well.)
Weather: Some weather effects simply need to be implemented.
Lightning: Would not occur on all planets. At generation of a planet, whether or not it ever sees lightning is defined. Lightning would be essential for stormy gas giants. Could have EMP style effects temporarily draining portions of power from blocks if it strikes. The color absolutely should be procedurally determined and random for each planet. And this color should follow a gaussian distribution, meaning a planet with mostly green lightning would occasionally have both aqua and yellowish lightning.
Precipitation: All terrain types (except the dead crater worlds proposed above) should check upon generation as to whether they precipitation ever. If so, one of the following precipitation types should be randomly (where appropriate) assigned to that planet along with a random frequency of precipitation for that planet.
Fog: Not sure if simple draw distance fog as done in other voxel games would be able to be implemented, but the possibility of foggy worlds could add excellent ambiance and variety to worlds.
Life: The presence or not of life on any given world, and the degree of its complexity, could add tremendous diversity and motivation to explore the galaxy. I am aware that both Flora and Fauna systems are currently in some stage of planning or development. This is great! But please, please consider making life a little rarer in the universe. Many planets should be dead (with the exception of all green worlds). And some planets with life should have only simple fungal or lichen life... perhaps in the form of decals like ore and crystals currently work. Some planets should teem with life while others find it thriving only in caves. And when life does occur on a planet, it should ideally come from a robust library of options, very rarely repeating. I could see this going many different ways, but refrain from saying much more as I'm eager to see what the developers have in the works for both Flora and Fauna.
In Conclusion...
There are other categories I could suggest, more ideas I have for gas giants, rings (including the rare ring around terrestrial planets), planet classes such as dwarf planets, standard planets, and gas giants that then affect the likelihood of any of the above variants. But it's getting late here and I hope the general idea is pretty clear in this post:
Planets should have multiple independent procedurally determined traits and features, making each and every planet that is generated in our galaxies much more distinct from each other.
I missed the Disc World (Planets 1.0) era of the game, but I've now spent several weeks with the current dodecahedron planets (Planets 2.0). A great foundation, but I think more could be done to make exploring planet after planet more exciting and enticing. And much of it from a design and programming standpoint may very well be low hanging fruit.
I'll lump all these suggestions under the heading...
Planet 2.0 Diversification
The goal: robust uniqueness of each and every planet.
The strategy: random variants that leads to nearly infinite combinations for terrestrial planets. From a design perspective, think of planets like one might a good character customization tool. You have options for headwear, shirts, pants, shoes, accessories. But in the case of planets, replace these features with things like terrain, atmosphere, life (with sub-categories of flora, fauna), etc.
The Elements in Detail:
Atmosphere: Sky color on each planet should be procedurally generated and not limited to any one terrain type. Period. Pink. Blue. Green. Purple. Mustard. Even with random RGB values (or RGB+A?) should be easy to limit within an acceptable range. But keep us searching for that perfect oddball aesthetic combination. Maybe that purple alien world with the unique pink sky is the compelling element that drives one player to call that planet home and develop it.
Gameplay mechanic related to varied atmospheric colors: I've seen many requests for gas giants. I agree with and support these sentiments. If and when implemented, I believe that a system for gasses as another category of resource should be implemented. Unlike crystals, ores, and rocky minerals, this resource would not be directly mineable but instead would require placing atmospheric vapor collector blocks. To keep symmetry with the other resources, collectable gasses would be broken up into 8 colors, the ROYGBP spectrum plus B&W. Terrestrial planets would provide only 1 color of 6 from the ROYGBP resource spectrum determined by the random RGB value of the atmospheric color. In other words, a blue-ish sky would yield blue gas capsules in your harvester, an orange sky yields orange gas, etc. To motivate players to build cloud city type outposts in the upper levels of gas giants, those in turn would provide 3 different gas resources, from the full spectrum of 8, including B&W.
There should also be the random chance of no atmosphere on most terrestrial terrain types (all except verdant green worlds). If this occurs, all life variables should then default to no life at all.
Procedural height for atmosphere. (credit: Parameter) Values for atmospheric height and density procedurally determined and assigned to each planet uniquely upon generation. If a system of drag or atmospheric entry heat/damage is ever added, these values would become more than aesthetic differences between planets, affecting the degree to any particular planet heats up or slows down a vehicle upon atmospheric insertion.
Terrain: Terrain is well on its way for this stage of development. The terrain types are simple but robust enough, with one possible exception: think the moon or Mercury. There is no simple dull grey cratered terrain covered in circles to give a strong sense of geological inactivity and countless craters. In my opinion, in the world of voxel art, the physical dimensionality of all those craters (larger exceptions aside) is not as important as capturing the feel of multiple overlapping rings of various dimensions.
Aqueous Terrain Variants: I realize that there is no engine yet for any sort of fluids in game yet. But the lack of oceans and lakes is pretty glaring. If a physics mechanic to handle fluids in game is implemented, each terrain type suite should have the option of generating an aqueous variant. Verdant terrain islands and mostly blue water. Red planets of stony floes separated by vast cracks of lava with vast lakes of the stuff. Sandy planets with ice deposits and frozen subterranean lakes. Ice worlds with rocky islands separate by with liquid oceans below the ice. Toxic seas on purple planets. But to reiterate, not all planets would see these formations. Keep the terrain generator working as is, just add these as variant generations of terrain on a planet wide scale. (There is also of course the option of making liquid color on any given planet be random from spectrum of 6 corresponding ROYGBP colors, and introducing it as a resource as well.)
Weather: Some weather effects simply need to be implemented.
Lightning: Would not occur on all planets. At generation of a planet, whether or not it ever sees lightning is defined. Lightning would be essential for stormy gas giants. Could have EMP style effects temporarily draining portions of power from blocks if it strikes. The color absolutely should be procedurally determined and random for each planet. And this color should follow a gaussian distribution, meaning a planet with mostly green lightning would occasionally have both aqua and yellowish lightning.
Precipitation: All terrain types (except the dead crater worlds proposed above) should check upon generation as to whether they precipitation ever. If so, one of the following precipitation types should be randomly (where appropriate) assigned to that planet along with a random frequency of precipitation for that planet.
- Rain: All terrain types should be able to be assigned rain as their form of precipitation. Be it acid rains on Venus, methane on Titan, or water here on Earth. If this is on an aqueous planet, the rain should correspond in color to the existing surface water. If there is no surface water, the color of the rain should be assigned a random value.
- Ash: Any planet that sees volcanic activity and has a true value for precipitation should have a chance of raining volcanic ash. Perhaps the chance of this should correspond to terrain type, with both red and purple planets having a higher chance?
- Snow: Similar thinking, from flurries on green worlds to snow on ice worlds.
- Dust: Sandstorms, especially possible on dessert worlds.
Fog: Not sure if simple draw distance fog as done in other voxel games would be able to be implemented, but the possibility of foggy worlds could add excellent ambiance and variety to worlds.
Life: The presence or not of life on any given world, and the degree of its complexity, could add tremendous diversity and motivation to explore the galaxy. I am aware that both Flora and Fauna systems are currently in some stage of planning or development. This is great! But please, please consider making life a little rarer in the universe. Many planets should be dead (with the exception of all green worlds). And some planets with life should have only simple fungal or lichen life... perhaps in the form of decals like ore and crystals currently work. Some planets should teem with life while others find it thriving only in caves. And when life does occur on a planet, it should ideally come from a robust library of options, very rarely repeating. I could see this going many different ways, but refrain from saying much more as I'm eager to see what the developers have in the works for both Flora and Fauna.
In Conclusion...
There are other categories I could suggest, more ideas I have for gas giants, rings (including the rare ring around terrestrial planets), planet classes such as dwarf planets, standard planets, and gas giants that then affect the likelihood of any of the above variants. But it's getting late here and I hope the general idea is pretty clear in this post:
Planets should have multiple independent procedurally determined traits and features, making each and every planet that is generated in our galaxies much more distinct from each other.
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