The enormous, noisy, desperately inefficient colony ship is a staple of science fiction. It's inevitably large - rarely planet sized, but often several miles across - and just as inevitably, it's stuffed full of refrigerated colonists, waiting to be defrosted at their destination. Wherever they're heading, it's a long way away from where they've come - not, perhaps, for our lovely protagonists with their FTL ships, but certainly for the species that sent them out, who were probably making their first forays into space travel. I think it would be really cool if we could discover ships like this in Starbound. Maybe our space station picks up a foreign signal, or the ships themselves appear on whatever the space-age version of a radar is - (I don't really know how the game's handling areas like this, so a lot of this post is speculation). Anyway, we would zip over, land in the docking bay, and start to explore. I've put this in 'Planets and Environments' for a reason - the ships are large enough to merit it; they're carrying maybe the last hope of a species, and are going to have to support the colonists when they arrive as well. Gameplay-wise, it would be a little like exploring an enormous mechanical cave. Flickering lights, enormous rooms full of machinery, hundreds of dormant screens; some of the ships, maybe, are patrolled by robotic guards, and others by a skeleton organic staff, defrosted in shifts for the length of the journey. They needn't be aggressive, but it would be interesting if some of them were. After all, they've got a lot to protect. The sleeping colonists are a pretty important part of this. If the ship's still active, perhaps you could upgrade it; spend a little time and resources installing a superior transport system - (probably a Herculean task, given the size of the ships) - and punch a set of coordinates into the ship's computer. The ship, after a while, would arrive wherever you've sent them, and you'll have a new, struggling colony to visit. If it's not active, though - has anybody here seen Pandorum? Dying colony ships could provide a wonderfully scary, atmospheric gameplay experience. Banks of failed life support machines, robots gone berserk, dangerous areas where the ship itself is falling apart; walking through the wreckage, you might be able to find out just what went wrong. Hey, maybe there's still a couple of schizophrenic crew members wandering around! Slower-than-light ships would, I think, make really fun environments to explore. There's optimism, in the form of sleeping (dreaming?) colonists speeding (or creeping) towards the future; there's a slice of horror, decaying ships that are more like graveyards than the seeds of a colony. I know this idea's not very well developed - at least in terms of gameplay - but hopefully you'll get the idea I'm trying to convey, which is one of atmosphere. Something like this would also, I feel, add a lot to the different levels of technology present in the game - it's a natural bridge between our own, human levels of technological advancement, and the sci-fi magic possessed by species like the Apex. Anyway, thanks for reading, and feel absolutely free to criticise (or contribute to) the idea! TL;DR - this or this.
Since I'm not too sure in this area either, what if you were shooting one of the colonists with something like a rocket launcher and hit the wall? Would you get flung into space and die? Or would you just go about your business as if nothing had happened? I love this idea though, and it would be amazing to explore them.
I seriously hope this gets into the game, because you, sir, have painted a pretty picture. The hopes for the game is high if they could accomplish a horror theme like this too! And if this doesn't get in the actual game, perhaps it could become an adventure map, which would be cool
@ Moplok, that's a good question! I guess it depends on what the game can handle. That feeling of fragility and imminent vacuum-death might be really cool; I'm imagining a load of cartoonishly careful fire-fights. If it's not something that could be implemented, it could be explained as particularly thick walls - think about what they're holding off! - or something similar. That way immersion wouldn't be broken. @ everybody else, I'm glad people like this! It's a pretty small step from the game's setting; maybe Chucklefish have already implemented something similar
Someone should make a mod of this, if it doesn't come out. Modified dungeon generator could be used for this, quite well. Either that, or an awesome adventure map.
I approve of this. Especially how the ships could be either in good condition and functioning as intended or dying, in disrepair and frightening.
I like this idea especially considering all the other things one could work in other than exploration and extermination. One could scout out a planet for the ship to land on, help repair a wounded vessel, or exploit the poor sods in interesting ways.
I think this idea is awesome. Think about coming on a colony ship and xenomorphs have came in and killed the crew. Then they setup and wait for some unsuspecting explorer to come on board. Just think of the horror and pet collection possibilities. You could bring them back to your space station and train them to work for you. Then they could get loose on your space station and create havoc. Or you could control them and use them as a powerful tool that occasional gets loose.
This is a great idea, but even better, it's one that could be altered for different scenarios; Take, for instance, a research vessel carrying different creatures, and something went wrong on board, distress calls, or a pirate hulk, filled with loot and things to shoot. c: Procedurally generated quests galore~!
That's... nearly the same thing... Unless you're referring to the whole genre in general. I thought the OP covered any kind of disaster situation very well.
