What Do We Want From Planets?

[Amadeus]

Ive always toyed with this idea but I dont think I ever officially commented about it.

But I always liked the idea of instead of strip mining, build a small station in orbit that has "Some System" (EG a salvage computer and modules) that will slowly generate materials from the planet core that can be collected (Or plundered). For those playing Minecraft at some point, like a MFR's Laser Drill that generates trickle resources from the void and consuming a lot of power.

Kind of like an oil drill or something!

 

[Napther]

Kind of like an oil drill or something!

Not quite, since an Oil Drill is tapping a finite resource. Much better to leave planets as a small trickle source otherwise people will just Rush-harvest its core, then destroy the planet, and mimne the plates anyway. Leaving a trickle source to mine means infrastructure that isnt a warpgate and provides incentive for people to build stations that are not jsut their Homebase

 

[Amadeus]

Not quite, since an Oil Drill is tapping a finite resource. Much better to leave planets as a small trickle source otherwise people will just Rush-harvest its core, then destroy the planet, and mimne the plates anyway. Leaving a trickle source to mine means infrastructure that isnt a warpgate and provides incentive for people to build stations that are not jsut their Homebase

#spaceoilisrenewable

 

[jayman38]

Cookies.

Like I've said elsewhere... the only useful and productive fix for planets at this point is to go back to cookie planets instead of dodecahedrons. The experiment didn't work out, as predicted.

I agree. Planets don't need to be Minecraft big (32k on a side), but we need a continent that is more than 200 blocks on a side on average, to be able to build anything worthy of being called a planet-based structure. The devs think they can improve and optimize dodecahedron planets, but can they make the minimum average side of a continent about 400 blocks? That is probably asking too much.

Meanwhile, cookie planets can easily be that wide, and can be optimized to be thicker, so that you can have a nice, large underground complex, or deep mining.

For anyone who wants to try out cookie planets in the new game, you might still be able to make the following cookie planet templates work.

City Planet
Salvaged Purple Vine Planet
Pyro Industries Planet Plate 1

 

[Aesthetics]

I would like planets to be useful, diverse, strategically valuable to possess, and of course, very pretty.

Some concept art I draw for what Starmade planets could look like in the future (Above).

Currently, Starmade planets are useless dodecahedrons in space. In order for them to be useful, they must be large enough for battle to take place upon them, of which requires an outpost of sorts upon them, of which requires a reason for that outpost to exist. Fuels or other resources in a trickling source (as Napther had stated) would give at least one reason to possess one; but that can reason can only exist if that trickling source of resources can only be obtained on that planet, which is highly likely it won't, at least not for a while.

One reason I go to planets is to explore. I find planets to be dull, despite there being four different types. If planets are going to be worthwhile to at least leisurely explore, then they must be larger, less laggy, be so much more diverse, and some of the more temperate, terran planets with water should be teeming with life. Other planets could be cold, icy worlds similar to Hoth or Csilla of the Star Wars Universe, some could be as volcanic and as choking as our own Venus, some could be barren, red deserts like Mars, some might be waterworlds, some as cold, rocky selenas and some could be huge, fuel-rich gas giants of various colours, perhaps with a small moon or two to explore. The atmospheres of the planets could use some touching up, too. Diversity and appearance of planets would make each and every one of them seem more unique, therefore giving the player more reason to go out and explore them, and perhaps even settle upon one that suits them.

Of course, I'm just throwing ideas out there. Whether they should or even could be implemented into the game is another thing entirely. But assuming it could, I'd love to see planets like this; Beautiful, unique worlds of strategic value.​