A simple solution to make it so that you have a reason to settle on a planet.

http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1stqgw/make_your_home_planet_free_to_travel_to/


How to make it so you have a reason to settle on a planet:

• Step 1) Make whatever planet people set as their home free to travel to.
• Step 2) Make it cost X, where X is suitably prohibitive, to change your home planet.
• Step 3) ???
• Step 4) Profit.

Making that more ace:

• Step 1) Add a second point to point teleporter to the ship.
• Step 2) Make it such that you can only teleport between a location on your home planet and your ship with the second teleporter.
• Step 3) ???
• Step 4) Profit

Edit: Awesome devs are awesome; http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1sxnhx/does_this_help/

 

I was thinking, you could make the cost to reset your home planet depend upon the furthest sector you've gotten to, but they all cost 200 fuel to go to... as long as it's inter-star systems... so, it doesn't make much sense... but just making it cost 200 fuel (or the same as it would maximally cost to travel to the planet from anywhere) would discourage people from moving their home planet just to get a better fuel economy to go somewhere...

 

That's true, I was gunna just leave the numbers vague for the devs to decide (they will anyway) and just pop the concept on the forums.

 

I like the idea. Super-easy access to a planetside base is necessary for permanent bases to be useful in the first place.

 

Isn't having tiny ship sort of a reason to settle on a planet? Regardless though, I can get behind at least that first part.

 

This is also probably useful for "clans" or "guilds" or "server spawn points", though I dunno how all that stuff will end up working eventually.

 

So for people who liked the idea / similar ideas; Tiy has tweeted, well, this, as a solution:

http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1sxnhx/does_this_help/

 

Yay =D

This is probably the easiest way to handle it. Easy, quick, and free access to your base at any time pretty much solves the problem.

 

That's awesome!

 

I don't think that'd make a home planet all that appealing. A home planet should have more to it than just free travel costs, and it shouldn't ever be free. Your ship uses fuel to travel, it doesn't make sense that you are traveling 1 billion light years on 0 fuel just because OH well it's my home planet!...

 

The ship isn't traveling. You just beam back to your home planet. You could justify it by saying the ship keeps those coordinates locked-on so it's easy to beam over, but it does not have the exact coordinates for every planet.

 

Yea, beaming over 10 billion light years in a single second with light speed transportation. Still not logical.

 

I proposed a way to claim planets for your empire/faction/whatever. Then you have the option to develop these planets. Ie, explore 10% of the surface and have 3 NPC's spawned to upgrade your planet development level. The higher the level the lower the fuel costs to travel there and also the more beam down spots you'd get. Also it would give the option to have planets already claimed by NPC's or other players and then you could try and conquer it!

I don't like the option of being able to teleport to your home planet from lightyears away. It just seems like an exploit. Why even bother having a ship if you can just beam anywhere? Just build teleport stations between planets. Stargates if you will (this would actually be awesome). It's a terribly idea being able to teleport home though.

 

Stop suggesting lower traveling fuel costs. We already have INFINITE fuel issues because people get to mid and high levels and have literally infinite fuel supplies. It also does not make sense to have free travel anywhere, or even lower cost. Your engines do not change their fuel intake just because you're going back to a home planet. 1AU is 1AU, just because you set a home planet does not make 1AU into 0.2AU. (Astronomical Unit)

 

Yes, 1AU=1AU, but you're not always going to travel in a straight line in space. You have to worry about gravity wells (or use them to build velocity slingshotting) and also with orbital movements planets may not always be in the same location when you visit them. The reason I suggested reduced fuel costs is that as a planet gets more established (ie development rating) there will be more people charting these routes and being able to increase precision. I personally agree fuel costs are too low. Only 200 fuel to jump from sector to sector? Imo it should be much higher than 20% of your tank. I'd say maybe 600 fuel from sector to sector, then 200 from star to star, 75 from planet to planet, and then 10 from planet to moon. As you said, there comes a point where you're swimming in fuel and it would improve some of the earlier stages of the game where it is all too easy to load up with fuel and leave your home planet fairly quickly.

 

Sounds great, I think a reason to settle is needed, I have little reason to ever leave my ship, it is packed with crafting supply and chests

 

Even if you don't travel in a straight line, you're line isn't changing just because the planet becomes established. You don't pave a path over a gravity well just because the planet is now a home planet.

 

Well, that's definitely an awesome start!

 

The line changes if you find a more efficient path. In fact it's even possible that a longer route would be faster if you can build up a greater velocity from slingshotting. Remember, negligible resistance in space so an object in motion will maintain its velocity without continued force. But I think it makes plenty of sense that you just discover a planet, it takes 100 fuel to get there. After exploring it and having it settled by some NPCs others start taking interest in the planet and a more efficient route is discovered, it now only costs 75 fuel to travel there with this newly found route. Because of this, you decide to really put some effort into developing the planet, more NPCs come and the galaxy takes an increased interest in it. An even more efficient route is discovered and now you only need 50 fuel to travel there. And bam, summed up my proposal just like that. It fits with lore, it fits with science, and it works as a gameplay system.

 

1. By default your engines always find the most optimal route.
2. Your route is NEVER the same even if you warp between the same 2 places, because planets are always in motion. The less the distance, the less things change.
3. Your FTL has to charge for a distance of that far, once in FTL, you go in a straight line. You don't weave in and out of asteroids while in FTL. Think of it as warp, you go through objects because you are on a different plane of existence. Straight line. Or you could think of it as wormhole jumping. Do not pass anything, instead, touch time and space together at both locations to skip flying the distance. All the fuel goes into charging the wormhole drive to connect both distances.