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Question about Planets

Started by Xander, November 13, 2013, 06:30:41 AM

Xander

Can you land or send a party down to the planets surface? Is so what are the plans for planet gameplay?

Xander


Lurler

Quote from: Xander on November 13, 2013, 06:30:41 AM
Can you land or send a party down to the planets surface? Is so what are the plans for planet gameplay?
Firstly, welcome to forums Xander :)
Now this is actually a very interesting question. We have several possible ideas for this particular feature and this is certainly gonna be a big part of the game regardless of which one we decide to go with. But on the other hand we want to get the game out for people to play as soon as possible, so before we even start thinking of implementing it, we would like to start open beta first.
Then, based on feedback we can decide on a particular implementation. It is also likely that we will share our ideas for people to decide which one they like more.
But maybe you have some good ideas how you would like this to be implemented?

PepperJ

How about colonization of various planets that you come across ? Will there be native inhabitants to wage war with ? I think it would be pretty cool if you can colonize planets that you encounter.
Он слишком уродлив, чтобы быть чемпионом. Чемпион должен быть красивым, как я!

Lurler

Quote from: PepperJ on November 15, 2013, 12:13:09 AM
How about colonization of various planets that you come across ? Will there be native inhabitants to wage war with ? I think it would be pretty cool if you can colonize planets that you encounter.
Well, you are flying a small vessel that can only take several people on board. I think it would be stretching it a bit if you want to colonize other planets with this :)
We had other ideas in mind such as planetary battles, landing on the planed with drop pods and so forth. We will certainly do something interesting! Still, if you have any ideas please let us know!

TanC

I'd like to be able to trade with planets. Maybe buy certain commodities that are unavailable on space stations...agricultural products like meat, fruits, veggies? Or if the planet is in an area where anarchy is rampant...maybe illegal agricultural goods too?

Lurler

Quote from: TanC on December 10, 2013, 03:18:02 AM
I'd like to be able to trade with planets. Maybe buy certain commodities that are unavailable on space stations...agricultural products like meat, fruits, veggies? Or if the planet is in an area where anarchy is rampant...maybe illegal agricultural goods too?
This is an interesting idea. But in regards to trading we were actually thinking that a space station would "represent" one of the planets in a star system. So, you can buy things like you mentioned, but on the station, not on the planet. But if you have a particular implementation in mind please share it with us!

carch

well, there are two things I've seen before that you might want to look at/consider.
I can't remember where, but another game allowed you to put a sattelite in orbit around planets to scan for crashed ships and such to salvage stuff from, and yet another had a planet exploration mechanic, where you went down and slowly uncovered the terrain, also with possible loot and such.

notsure if they'd be the right style for this game, but it might be something to consider.

Ophidios

In my thoughts, it would depend on whether it makes sense according to the game lore for the planets to be mostly colonized/civilized, or if most of them are barren balls of rock.

If it's the latter, then a simple mining/exploration menu like the mobile game Out There could work fine, or even better, a miniature exploration/resource gathering top-down like in Star Control 2 would also be pretty great.  Particularly if there were scanning elements involved as well.  Maybe something like a key-press to initiate a sort of "radar blip" that would reveal any resources hidden in it's range, which could then be extracted with a mining device.

Just a thought.

Jax43

Great idea Ophidios, especially this part... "Maybe something like a key-press to initiate a sort of "radar blip" that would reveal any resources hidden in it's range, which could then be extracted with a mining device". :)
I'm a very strong advocate for Indie Developers and providing marketing that is needed
http://steamcommunity.com/id/jax3

Ophidios

Thanks!  This could be particularly scalable as well, as elements could be defined by rarity classes.

That would require specific hardware in order to be able to detect the classes at all (a basic scanner could only detect common elements, an advanced scanner could detect uncommon elements, and a "full spectrum scanner", or whatever, could detect rare elements), with an appropriate skill tree that increases the percentage chance that a particular resource deposit would become visible when pinged.  This would allow for it to not only be skill-based, but also to place the emphasis on the hardware as well.  It would encompass both ends of the game dynamics (and, more importantly, add to the bulk of skills for us to spend these hundreds of extra points on).

In fact, just thinking about it makes me wish I was good enough at JavaScript that I could just start assembling a mod for it myself.

daselk266

Quote from: Jax43 on April 06, 2014, 08:08:28 AM
...or even better, a miniature exploration/resource gathering top-down like in Star Control 2 would also be pretty great.
Considering that is one of my all time favourite games and obvious source of Mass Effect, i support any similarities to Star Control. The exploration was dangerous yet rewarding and the amount of genuinely interesting quests was phenomenal.

Some interaction with planets would be cool, possibly setting up farms or factories for the freighters to actually have a purpose of moving around resources/products

Ophidios

Speaking of factories, I hope to all that is holy that a long-term goal involves using minerals to construct stations or to manufacture weapons/ammo.  I don't think I'm alone in saying that some X3 elements would be mighty welcome in this beautiful game.

Gavinhawk

Quote from: Lurler on November 15, 2013, 01:27:40 AM
Well, you are flying a small vessel that can only take several people on board. I think it would be stretching it a bit if you want to colonize other planets with this :)
We had other ideas in mind such as planetary battles, landing on the planed with drop pods and so forth. We will certainly do something interesting! Still, if you have any ideas please let us know!
One way to work colonization into the game would be to carry beacons that once launched onto the planet or perhaps in its orbit would let people know the planet is yours and is open to colonization of your faction. Once colonized you could even work in quests to help stabilize the planet against famine, lack of materials or even raids. I realize that its a lot of extra work but it sounds like a cool idea.

Hammish

Quote from: Lurler on December 10, 2013, 03:24:52 AM
This is an interesting idea. But in regards to trading we were actually thinking that a space station would "represent" one of the planets in a star system. So, you can buy things like you mentioned, but on the station, not on the planet. But if you have a particular implementation in mind please share it with us!

I have no idea how the system generator works or anything, but maybe it'd be possible to just have it either put stations over planets or at least small planets under stations.  Functionally the same as it is right now, but it'd look pretty nice and would be high on the realism scale (not that such is really all that important).  It'd have the added effect that if you ever did introduce ground aspects to the game, you now have a nice linking 'portal' mechanic; from a station you could relaunch in your ship or land on the planetary surface.

Of course, that'd also open up options like finding unoccupied planets and building new stations over them, and I think that might work pretty well with the existing systems you have.  Just make a station module or consumable that is super-expensive, and create a planet 'anchor' object since I assume right now the planets are just part of the background layer.  Use a station-in-a-box on a planet anchor and boom, it builds a station there and destroys the anchor so no further stations can be built!

And from there the sky is the limit in terms of what you want to do. :)

RavenFellBlade

Topic Necro!
Considering that planets in the real universe are incredibly diverse, I don't see why planets in VoidExpanse shouldn't be. I would think that how you can interact with planets would be dependent on a few things: 1)They "type" of planet that it is, whether or not it is inhabitable, mineral-rich, a gas-giant, or some kind of super-massive space-diamond 2)Your character's skills 3)Your ship's equipment.
As an example, planets and planetary development could be a means to encourage players to develop the engineering tree. Say you add a "terraforming" set of skills in the engineering branch. A player who comes across an uninhabitable planet, and who has the proper terraforming engineering skills, and who has a ship that is outfitted with adequate equipment (plus, perhaps, some terraforming-specific consumables), can then terraform that planet, and will be payed for the results. Terraformed planets or habitable planets could be catalogued and their positions sold to the various factions for a price. You could then perhaps implement these changes into the local economy, where planets you have "sold" to factions will influence the local tech level, availability of particular resources, etc. Perhaps each faction will provide different "types" of colonies, such as Order creating military bases, Freedom makes industrial or commercial-oriented colonies, etc. This could then add to a player's overall strategy, as they try to influence the placement of various resources and manipulate the in-game economy. Perhaps players could then land on faction-specific planets only if they are a member in good standing with them (even if the did "sell" that faction the planet), and faction planets could offer items, ships, etc that either aren't available any other way, or at very good values, or they would buy normally cheap resources at exorbitant prices. Additionally, you could add story elements involving landing parties in a "Starflight"-esque sequence where you land on a planet and have to move about with some kind of rover, to retrieve specific items or even to mine for especially rare minerals. Who knows? There are literally countless ways to use planets in the grand scheme of things. I do know that implementing them well will add a significant level of depth to the game, and offer players a real sense of "grand strategy" as they literally bend the VoidExpanse to their will.
A second example might be this: Perhaps you add a skill tree under the social branch for "archaeology", and this skill gives players an increasing likelihood of finding Ergrek (or any other race's) artifacts on uninhabited planets, which could then either be sold for a lot of cash or used in the crafting system. You could even add species-specific sub-branches that would then allow you to specifically identify the purpose of artifacts in order to use them in crafting or to use them on your own ship.
The funny thing about space is that there's actually quite a lot of it.