Someone brought up "Lycronathropy" in another thread (let's assume he meant "Lycanthropy") and immediately jumped into "lol lets ripoff Terrraria nights shooting stars." Needless to say, we're in the darn beta, so we should be able to ask for cool things. Cool things, mind you, not... this. Definitely not ripping off people. First and foremost, with the ability to craft on the ship, there is little to no reason to build a base on a planet, unless you're really, really attached to it and want to come back over and over and... well, that's not for everyone. What I propose, however, plays off of the day-night cycle and the weather cycles. Now, this is going to require a few things; as of this moment, it appears that rain falls from thin air. I'm suggesting transparent blocks that move, wherein the weather is animated. Terraria did this, somewhat, when you'd walk into a snow biome while it was raining and suddenly there's falling snow instead of sheets of rain. This is... hard for me to explain in function, so let me go with the scenario I have in mind. You've just arrived on planet. Things are going good; you set up a few blocks to pinpoint your landing spot and you start heading off in one direction, uncaring of the many hostile (and passive) creatures you kill. Let's assume, though, that something nasty is barreling down on you. You run and start to do the one thing that Starbound lets you do that is so cheap and cheesy: you start clicking TELEPORT TO SHIP. There's one problem; cloud coverage. Unable to phase through the water molecules in the clouds (assuming normal light physics, the beam that you become would, essentially, be scattered by these particles; in other words, you might make it to your ship, but there wouldn't be a lot of you left). To counteract the grisly death that beaming you up would cause, your ship's teleportation device denies your request. Not enough visibility! Just great. But there, just up ahead, an opening; yes, light's getting through just fine, there. As the randomly-generated monster opens its maw to swallow you whole, you signal for a teleport as you jump into the clearing. All systems nominal, successful teleport at 99.9%! Cue that Megaman warp! Exhausted, you throw your ore into the furnaces and fall into your pillow to heal up for the next go-round with the beast. This is an example of a MINOR inconvenience; not being able to teleport whenever you want. What if there were more disturbing things that came with the weather? What about trying to outrun the shadow of a cloud precipitating acid rain? The burning ash from a magma vent? The poisonous blood that drops from the skies of those fleshy planets? What if the giant flower trees begin pollinating and the spores turn out to be deadly? Here's something that I like even better: What if hylotl are naturally resistant to the acid rain? Would burning ash be like rain to a novakid, while a gentle shower proves deadly to them? What if florans can soak up that crimson rain due to their carnivorous behavior? What if those spores really mess with a floran's brain, making this hazard less about taking little amounts of damage over time... but more about an inconvenience, a trial to overcome. That's what I want from Starbound. In the prologues I've read through thus far, you play as a character hellbent on going against everything and everyone, so that they can find their own way. Monsters are a trial. The apex deathtraps are a trial (as are all the other hostile alien territories). The overland stuff? It's you moving from one trial to the next. Scratch that crap. As soon as I touch foot on solid ground, I want to be in constant motion; not just from, "Holy crap, look at this place! Ah, cool! Lookit that! Ah, that's ugly, kill it!" Our planet, Earth, would kill us in mere minutes if you were to drop into someplace uninhabited. On one of my TL 3 or 4 planets I skipped across, I was constantly falling into poisonous lakes. I was scared to jump into any of the red waters of other planets for a long time because of that; I worried that it'd be even worse than green water! Blue is good, green is bad, but red is somehow okay? Sure. Why not. But after that planet, walking around other worlds was, frankly, boring. That's when I started thinking up this stuff. CHUCKLEFISH: CHALLENGE US. WHEN WE LOOK UP AND CRY FOR MERCY, LOOK DOWN AND ASK, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" OR BETTER YET: "WHAT'S THAT? YOU WANT US TO MAKE IT HARDER? OKAY!" It's late. I'm hoping this catches someone's attention. When I wake up later, I'll start writing up some ideas for nocturnal changes to environments while thinking up some other weather effects. If you've enjoyed this so far, remember; our goal here isn't just to make it "cooler." "Cooler" does not mean better. Whatever you want to add to this, try to remember how it should affect the base-level of play. In other words, think of weather and nocturnal effects as something that should, more often than not, provide the player with extra challenge. Feel free to comment, I'd really like some critique.
Alright; got some rest, refreshed the brain; I think I'm ready to talk the nocturnal stuff. Now, whether Avatar was your definition of a good or bad movie, the scenery had its own life. I love the bioluminescence idea. Now, I wouldn't want this to be that great a boon, as stated before; cooler is not better. Animals on such a planet would likely be at an advantage over creatures that don't naturally glow. Novakids, due to their nature, wouldn't have that big of a problem on such a planet; everyone else? Well, when everything glows except you, you become the thing that sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe you can increase the range that aliens will begin their attacks. Perhaps, if a form of stealth is ever introduced (I'm sure this has been brought up somewhere), daytime creatures gain access to this ability and use it to make your life a living Hell. What if the surface lava cooled on volcano planets? What if creatures were drawn to these pools (and were actually smart enough not to try and swim in it). Alternatively, the creatures inhabiting a planet with such dangers should be mostly immune to the pools of magma. (This brings me to another thought that I'll touch on in a bit.) What if the tentacles became an actual hindrance, randomly slapping you out of the air when you jump? What if those fleshy planets were to open up big mouths? The tentacles could be chopped down, the mouths found during the day and broken up, and so on. Basically, you should be able to adapt and render the planet to what you want. Getting to that point, however, should be more difficult. Okay, jumping around a bit here, so let me know; what would cause the biggest surprise to you at night? What horror would cause you to enclose yourself in a brick fort all night and pray for the light of a nearby star?
