The Skatera: Masters of Deception (Also Masters of Killing)

Disclaimer: Even if I do not win, I sincerely hope the developers will implement this idea. (Though I would like to win, considering I won't be able to play Starbound otherwise...nyeh!)



Pictured above: Four of the seven Skatera.
Skatera: Let the adventurers come. All the better!

A few things before the Skatera themselves...

1) Skatera appear ONLY on planets of a moderately high threat level; they are not easy little rats, but they are not insanely hard humanoid-aliens.

2) The Skatera' order is INCREASING in difficulty; the attacks, passives, defenses, health pools, etc. are probably completely wrong for Starbound, but I do hope that they give the developers an idea as to what the concept of the Skatera is! Also, the Skatera' attacks do have an indication of power; 'deal damage' equates to low, 'big damage' is moderate, 'massive damage' is quite a bit, and 'insane damage' is...an insane amount of damage.

3) The name 'Skatera' is pronounced 'skaht-A-rah'. Skatera. It is a portmanteau upon the words 'Skald' (which is basically a bard' and 'terra' or Earth. The bards of Earth call them Skatera, but they call themselves Shirnios (with marks above the i's) or "The Enraged Ones".

4) The Skatera or Shirnios are meant to be ancient elementals, and (if coding permits) should only spawn on planets with enough pollution/human interference. The story goes that the Spriggan, Mer, and other assorted elementals lived peacefully, coexisting, until the Starbound (humans) began to pollute and corrupt the galaxy. The elementals attempted to negotiate, but the Starbound simply killed them. They realized that, in order to save the galaxy from the Starbound, and the Starbound from themselves, they had to obtain power.

So, by an effort of their own will, they obtained power, at a price: They lost their classification as Non-Singularly Sentient beings, or beings capable of significant interaction with other species and life-forms, and became Monsters. So, they prayed to their god, whom the Starbound called Magnum Grande, but in their language has no name, and Magnum Grande began to appear to a few select humans, leading them along the path of conservation and helping the environment. It is by proving yourself that Magnum Grande selects you as its' champion.

5) These Skatera are only seven of many; I simply went with the kinds of environment that I knew would exist for the five main ones, there could be Jungle Skatera, Penguin Skatera, Deep Cave Skatera, Candy Skatera, etc. that could start spawning after the defeat of Magnum Grande, however I don't know if those environs will exist.

SO if the developers decide not to choose this because of its lack of variety: I have a good twenty or thirty pictures and other things for other Skatera all thought out (for example the above four), but I didn't want to make this post longer than it needs to be (would be a good 100,000 words or so with everything added in, and fifty-ish pictures, so...). So a lack of variety is no problem; and if the developers would like to see all of the other things, I will PM them the details.

List of skatera not in here:

Jungle
Penguin
Ocean
Fire
Acid
Mutant
Psionic
Candy cane
Penguin
Gold
Gem
Heavenly
Demented
Gentleman
Deep cave
Swamp
Desert
Dungeon
Spiky
Poke-
Globule
Cell

All of the above obviously have skatera after the first part of their names. They could spawn after mg's defeat and be tamed differently...? In any case their name mostly describes them and the only reason they are not in here is to take up less space.

The Forest Skatera: Concept Art (Sprite is coming)



The Forest Skatera: Concept Art Two

Logbook Details:



Tried my best. Couldn't make it authentic-ish. >.<

Size: (assuming player is 5 feet) 25 feet tall
Girth: 15 feet
Movement: Crawling
Environment: Trees
Attacks: Ranged, Melee

Appearance:

I've been searching for treasure for days now...My supplies are running low, and I've lost faith in humanity from all the constant attacks while I've been traveling. But now, the treasure is in sight, next to a (if buildings are generated) warm, cozy cottage! (If they are not) huge tree! I must have i-

*crunch*

You've just met the Forest Skatera, devourer of many unsuspecting heroes. A Forest Skatera generates when the following requirements are met:

a) If houses are randomly generated, a house is next to a randomly generated chest
b) If trees are randomly generated and not houses, a tree is next to a randomly generated chest

Once the requirements are met, there is a chance for the area fifteen blocks below the chest and everything between the chest and the tree/house to turn into a Forest Skatera. Once you attempt to open the chest or attempt to destroy a block that is part of a Forest Skatera or step upon the Forest Skatera, it will come to life, attacking you and jumping out of the ground.

Items:

Just like the others, the Forest Skatera has a chance to spawn regularly on the surface, taking over a tree, and then replacing the chest that is usually its head with a random item! That's right; instead of a chest, the Forest Skatera could spawn with...Say, a drill in its mouth! Now, these Skatera are unable to use 'Bite', but they will drop the item that they were generated with upon death. The Forest Skatera drops a variety of weapons.

Attacks:

Once the Forest Skatera begins attacking you, it has a few possible attacks:

Actives:

1) Bite: The Forest Skatera's Chest-Head will swoop, low to the ground, and bite you before quickly retracting, doing massive damage and ignoring most of the shield-block.

2) Vine-Whip: The Forest Skatera will go backwards and lash out at you repeatedly with vines, whose damage can be entirely blocked with a shield, but do lots of damage (as there are many vines) if not blocked

3) Venom Spit: The Forest Skatera will lean forward and spit venom at you, which ignores a lot of the shield-block but not all, and poisons you while also slowing you

4) Swipe: The Forest Skatera will simply swipe at you; the attack can be blocked regularly, but does massive damage if not blocked

5) Uproot: The Forest Skatera has to 'charge' this attack, and will not attack for a few seconds while it does so. However, after these few seconds, vines will burst from the ground (background-wise) and stay there, doing constant damage to you as well as burst damage on impact.

Passives:

1) Poison: All of the Forest Skatera' attacks have a chance to poison (except for Venom Spit, which flat-out poisons you) which does damage over time, but can be cured by healing yourself.

2) Thorns: Contact with the Skatera will either damage you slightly or bounce you back; you are not supposed to be able to move past it until you defeat it.

Defense:

While the Forest Skatera is an attack powerhouse, it can also defend well:

1) Shield-block: The Forest Skatera has a natural shield of dirt and bark, which is very large and blocks a large amount of damage. However, the shield will eventually break (8-10 hits)

2) Bark-skin: Because of the Forest Skatera's barky skin, it has a natural moderate defense; however just like the shield, the bark can and will break off, leaving it mostly defenseless.

3) Ground-head: When the shield disappears, the Forest Skatera will resort to using its head as a blocking apparatus, which shields it from most of the damage, but eventually decays (6-8 hits). When the ground-head breaks apart, the Skatera will die immediately

Health:

The Forest Skatera' health pool is (assuming the player has 1000 health and weapons do 80+ damage) 5x the player's health. However, it is more likely to lose its ground-head and die before the player can drain its health.

Movement:

Now, naturally, the Forest Skatera can move. But how?

Well, it moves rather slowly, but it moves constantly; for example when it is moving backwards to prepare for Vine-Whip or Uproot, it will slowly move backwards while you are attacking and it is defending, allowing you to figure out what the beast is doing. The 'roots' at the bottom of the Skatera plunge into the ground and then uproot again, kind of like a caterpillar moving its legs one at a time.

When the Forest Skatera is leaning forward to attack, it will root itself in the ground and rear back like a cobra, also allowing you to figure out what it will do next.

Typical Battle

Player comes up to Forest Skatera, activating it, and the battle begins.

(Health is assumed, but you get the idea)

Player Health: 1000
Forest Skatera Health: 5000

Forest Skatera attacks with Bite.
Player blocks with Shield of 75% block potency.

Player Health: 925

Player attacks with Sword.
Forest Skatera blocks with Bark-Shield of 80% block potency. (7 hits left)

Forest Skatera Health: 4950

Forest Skatera attacks with Vine Whip.
Player blocks with Shield.

Player Health: 900

Player attacks with Space-Gun twice.
Forest Skatera blocks with Bark-Shield. (5 hits left)

Forest Skatera Health: 4910

Forest Skatera attacks with Venom Spit.
Player blocks with Shield.

Player Health: 860

Player is poisoned!

Player Health: 850

Player attacks with Rocket Launcher once.
Forest Skatera blocks with Bark-Shield. (2 hits left due to power of Rocket Launcher)

Forest Skatera Health: 4850

Player is poisoned!
Forest Skatera attacks with Swipe.
Player does not block and attacks with Space-Gun twice.
Forest Skatera blocks with Bark-Shield. (breaks)

Player Health: 700
Forest Skatera Health: 4800

Player is poisoned!
Forest Skatera starts to charge Uproot.
Player attacks with Rocket-Launcher once.
Forest Skatera blocks with Tree-Head (4 hits left)

Forest Skatera Health: 4750
Player Health: 690

Player is poisoned!
Forest Skatera unleashes Uproot.
Player does not block and attacks with Space-Gun twice.
Forest Skatera blocks with Tree-Head (2 hits left)

Player Health: 550

Player is poisoned!
Player is poisoned!
Player takes damage from vines!
Player attacks with Rocket-Launcher.
Skatera does not block, and attacks with Bite.

Player Health: 250
Forest Skatera Health: 4500

Forest Skatera attacks with Swipe.
Player does not block, and attacks with Space-Gun twice.

Player Health: 150
Forest Skatera Health: 4400

Forest Skatera blocks, destroying its' ground-head and killing it.

(Battle end!)

Death:

Obviously, a beast of this proportion and difficulty has to drop some epic loots, right?
Well, assuming that monsters are randomly generated as in my suggestion in the Mechanics section, the difficulty level of the Forest Skatera directly relates to the loot in the chest that it will drop (after it is killed, it will decompose into a chest that is safe to open). So if you kill a really disabled Forest Skatera, you'll just get whatever was in the chest to begin with, but if you kill an epic one on for example a level 100 planet, you'll get some epics. Like...a rocket launcher.

The Forest Skatera also drops some tree-related materials and dirt in the chest, so that when you open the chest, you have materials as well as loot, as well as a Florus Essence.

Overview:

This is the first of the Skatera species, and also the weakest; however I feel it fits into the regular terrain of Starbound a great deal. It adds in an element of risk to opening a chest; players on a Level 1 planet wouldn't have much risk of finding a Forest Skatera, but players on a Level 100 planet would experience them close to all of the time when opening surface chests. Once you saw one, you would be thrilled; after all if you beat it, you're close to guaranteed exciting and epic loot!

The AvalaSkatera: Concept Art

Logbook Details:

Size: 40 feet tall
Girth: 30 feet
Movement: ???
Environment: Caves
Attacks: Ranged, Melee

Appearance:

You're spelunking down a small cave, and see a chest...Suddenly, the entire cave system shudders, and before you looms the AvalaSkatera: The Fury of the Earth!

The following must be present for an AvalaSkatera to generate:

a) A chest with it's back to a wall of rock, sitting on rock

If these conditions are met, the AvalaSkatera has a chance of generating. When it generates, the AvalaSkatera will take up all the space from the chest to empty space on all four directions, cutting off at 30 blocks up, 40 blocks down, and 50 blocks to the direction that the chest is not facing. Once you attempt to open the chest that is the head of the AvalaSkatera, it will come to life.

Items:

AvalaSkatera have a chance to spawn regularly, in large patches of stone, and their Item-Brain is always related to mining in some way.

Attacks:

The AvalaSkatera is one of the most powerful of the Skatera, combining brute strength with the power of the stone it was formed from.

Actives:

1) Avalanche: When the AvalaSkatera awakens, boulders rain down from the space it was taking up, hitting for massive damage. While they can be blocked, they knock the player back 5-10 blocks if they are blocked.

2) Rock Slide: The AvalaSkatera smashes the ground, causing Boulders to roll down from the space it was occupying and the surrounding area.

3) Rock Smash: The AvalaSkatera pounds you, hitting for insane damage. It can be blocked normally.

4) Swipe: The AvalaSkatera swipes you quickly, hitting for massive damage. Blocked normally.

5) Bite: The AvalaSkatera will lunge forward, causing a boulder to tumble down, and then move itself forward with its rock-arms and lunge backwards then forwards, doing damage.

Passives:

1) Rock-Hard: The AvalaSkatera prevents you from going past it

2) Boulders: All of the AvalaSkatera' attacks have a chance of a boulder falling from the space that it was occupying while in hiding. This Boulder follows regular physics, picking up speed and then smashing in to you.

Defense:

As a titan of the earth, the AvalaSkatera can defend extremely well.

1) Earthen Shield: The AvalaSkatera will block with its other massive shield, which is roughly 4 times the size of the player and blocks most of the damage coming its way. This shield crumbles in 3-4 hits, causing the AvalaSkatera to swipe quickly and then revert to the Rocky Shield.

2) Rocky Shield: The AvalaSkatera will block with its massive shield, which is roughly 3 times the size of the player and blocks almost all of the damage coming its way. This shield takes a very long time to crumble (20+ hits)

3) Rocky Skin: The AvalaSkatera naturally blocks a large amount of damage, but as it takes more damage, the dirt holding together its main body (of boulders) will begin crumbling (8 direct hits without any shield). When all of the dirt crumbles, the AvalaSkatera will move very sluggishly, and all of its attacks have a 1/5 chance of causing a boulder to detach from its body (which then rolls towards you). The AvalaSkatera' body is made of 10 of these parts.

Health:

The AvalaSkatera' health is 10x the player's health. As a result, it is more likely that it will die via boulders detaching. 4 hits for Earthen Shield, 20 for Rocky, 8 for Rocky Skin, and then at least 25 hits for it to decompose entirely, adds up to about 60 hits.

Movement:

The AvalaSkatera moves in a way different from the Laval Skatera and Forest Skatera; it digs its rock-arms into the ground and drags itself forward, leaving it vulnerable to attack. When it digs its arms into the ground, boulders will fall. However, it only moves forward when using Bite.

Death:

The death of the AvalaSkatera is calculated in a way just like all of the Skatera before, and it leaves rocks and stone in its chest, as well as a Gaian Essence.

Overview:

The AvalaSkatera is meant to be a type of Skatera different from the Forest and Laval Skatera, substantially harder.

The Laval Skatera: Concept Art (



The incredibly primitive sprite-Not good at spriting!



The Laval Skatera: Concept Art Two

Logbook Details:

Size: 20 feet
Girth: 10 feet
Movement: Sliding (?)
Environment: Lava layer
Attack: Ranged, melee

Appearance:

Assuming that there are "layers" (which according to the new gameplay video there will be) once you are at a layer that has lava, or anywhere near lava, a Laval Skatera can appear.

The following must be present for a Laval Skatera to spawn:

a) A chest in close proximity (within 15 blocks) to a pool of lava and ash

Once the requirements are met, the Laval Skatera will generate, taking up space just like all Skatera do, and will generate like such:

-One tile of lava must be present every 10 tiles of ash (at least)
-Once the lava is no longer present, 10 blocks of ash will end off the body

Thus, the average size of a Laval Skatera would be somewhere from 15 blocks wide to 10 blocks tall to 30 blocks wide to 50 blocks tall, making them much more dynamic than the Forest Skatera.

Items:

Any lava pool has a chance to spawn an AvalaSkatera, which will have a sort of fire-related item as its Brain.

Attacks:

Once you open the chest, trod on the Laval Skatera, or attempt to break part of it, it will burst from the ground, scattering lava. Afterwards, it has a variety of attacks.

Actives:

1) Bite: The Laval Skatera will lunge forward, scattering lava, and bite you before quickly retracting, doing massive damage and ignoring most of the shield-block

2) Fiery Blood: The Laval Skatera will go backwards and damage itself by launching arcs of spattering lava, whose damage can be blocked with a shield, but spatter into lava on contact with a shield. Deal burning damage

3) Magma Spit: The Laval Skatera will lunge forward and spit lava at you, which does burst burning damage on impact, and can be blocked with a shield, but spatters into lava on contact with a shield.

4) Flame Lash: The Laval Skatera will back up and swipe at you, doing huge damage and burning you. Most of the damage can be blocked with a shield, but if it is blocked, lava will be spattered about.

5) Obsidian Edge: The Laval Skatera quickly swipes at you with its' obsidian knife, dealing massive damage.

Passives:

1) Spattered Lava: The lava that the Laval Skatera spatters in most of its attacks forms into pools of lava on the ground. Contact with lava does flat damage and also burns you.

2) Burn: All of the Laval Skatera' attacks have a chance to burn, which does constant damage, but cannot be taken off by healing yourself. You must immerse yourself in water.

3) Lava: Flame Lash, Magma Spit, and Fiery Blood all use up lava. The Laval Skatera will attempt to regain lava as explained in Movement.

Defense:

The Laval Skatera is mostly a dynamic attacker, and thus, while initially being very hard to damage, will quickly disintegrate if the fight goes on for too long.

1) Obsidian Edge: The Laval Skatera will block with its' obsidian knife, which blocks very little damage. The obsidian knife will shatter after 6-7 blocks, dealing damage to both you and the Laval Skatera.

2) Fossilized Skin: The Laval Skatera' skin is fossilized lava, and is incredibly hard. The Laval Skatera' skin can only begin taking hits after the Obsidian Edge is destroyed, and will eventually crumble (20+ hits) and when it does, the Laval Skatera will simply melt into lava.

Health:

The Laval Skatera's health is 3.5x the player's health.

Movement:

The Laval Skatera is made mostly out of liquid, and thus moves quickly, leaving lava where it walks and moving extremely fast in lava and sucking up lava to use. Note that if the Laval Skatera finds a pool of lava big enough for it, it will submerge itself and become near-impossible to defeat.

Otherwise, the patterns of the Laval Skatera follow those of the Forest Skatera.

Death:

When the Laval Skatera dies, it will melt into lava, leaving a chest that again, correlates to the difficulty of the Skatera as well as its size. The chest will contain ash and lava, as well as the Fiery Essence.

Overview:

The Laval Skatera is the third of the Skatera species, but its' dynamic nature (such as size and leaving parts of it everywhere) make for a more different fight; if you get a small Laval Skatera it will be about as difficult as a regular Forest Skatera, but an enormous Laval Skatera would be one of the hardest Skatera you could face.

AquoSkatera: Unfinished concept art



AquoSkatera: Finished Concept Art, with blue that is hardly see-able. >.<

Logbook Details:

Height: 15 feet
Girth: 10 feet
Movement: Crawling/Swimming
Environment: Penguin-land (?)
Attacks: Ranged, melee

Appearance:

The following requirements must be met for an AquoSkatera to spawn:

a) A chest must be next to a large amount of ice
b) Water needs to be within 20 blocks of the AquoSkatera

When these requirements are met, the AquoSkatera has a chance to generate.

The AquoSkatera will take up all of the ice around the chest, going one layer out (one block of ice in each direction) at a time, and stopping when it hits water. When you trod on the AquoSkatera, attempt to break it, or open the chest, it will come to life.

Items:

The AquoSkatera has a chance to spawn in any large patch of ice close to water, and will spawn with some sort of ice, fire, or penguin-related item as its Brain.

Attacks:
The AquoSkatera' attacks are unique; all of them are ranged, and involve using the ice and water around it for attacks.

Actives:

1) Ice Shard: The AquoSkatera sucks up 1 block of ice and shoots it at the player for normal damage, doing this over and over again until the player takes damage.

2) Ice Flail: The AquoSkatera sucks up 5 blocks of ice and sends several small shards of ice at the player very quickly for normal damage, and then shoots a large snowball at the player, which ignores most of the shield's block. If the snowball hits a shield, it will surround them in ice from the back.

3) Ice Scythe: The AquoSkatera sucks of 10 blocks of ice and 5 blocks of water and detaches its' scythe-arm to throw at the player, which does massive damage but can be entirely blocked. However, if the arm is blocked, then it surrounds the player in ice from the back. The arm will then regrow.

4) Icy Spit: The AquoSkatera sucks up 5 blocks of ice and 5 blocks of water and spits a large snowball at the player, which ignores shield damage and, if block, surrounds the player in ice from the back.

5) Blizzard: The AquoSkatera sucks up 15 blocks of ice and 15 blocks of water and creates a mobile blizzard, which starts out 3x the height of the player and travels towards them, sucking up all of the ice around them and then dealing damage equivalent to the amount of ice it sucked up.

Passives:

1) Snow-drift: All of the AquoSkatera' attacks have a chance to build up snow around you; this snow looks like this:


As you can see, the player is basically trapped in his icy cage, unable to escape, at the mercy of the IceSkatera, which of course has another ability if you attempt to attack it head-on:

2) Icy Wind: The IceSkatera cannot be attacked from the front; if you attempt to do so, the IceSkatera will simply suck up the attack in its icy scythe and not be damaged. You must attack it from the behind, requiring you to switch repeatedly. But if you do get a few attacks in...

3) Permafrost: If the IceSkatera takes enough direct hits, its body parts will begin falling off (4-5 direct hits). If they do, the IceSkatera will collapse into a Blizzard.

Health:

As a beast made mrostly of water, the IceSkatera's health pool is 2x the player's health. Thus, it is more likely that it will die due to Permafrost.

Defense:

The AquoSkatera is extremely weak at defending.

1) Fragile Edge: If you manage to hit the AquaSkatera, it will block with its' ice-scythe, blocking very little of the damage.


Movement:

While in water, the AquoSkatera moves extremely quickly, submerging and then re-forming quickly. However, when it sucks up all of the water around it, it will move to land, where it will leave behind a trail of ice and move quickly.

Death:

The AquoSkatera will die just as before, leaving behind a chest that contains Ice, Water, and the Aqua Essence.

Overview:

The AquoSkatera' fight is meant to be a quick and action-packed one, full of dodging and complicated maneuvers to avoid being trapped. It is extremely easy for a quick player, but nigh-impossible for a slow one.

Unfinished Concept Art for AeroSkatera, the Storm Alive



Finished concept art for AeroSkatera. The Storm Shield should be blue-

Logbook Details:

Size: 40 feet tall
Girth: 25 feet
Movement: Flying
Environment: Air
Attacks: Ranged, melee

Appearance:

Now, AeroSkatera is unique; it will only spawn when a chest is above a certain elevation (high up, since I don't know how high the Starbound planets will be) and open to the air on all sides for at least one screen except for the blocks that hold it up. When these requirements are met, the AeroSkatera has a chance to generate.

Due to its hard-to-meet spawning requirements, the AeroSkatera is easily the rarest of the Skatera.

When you land on an AeroSkatera, try to break part of it, or open the chest, it will awaken.

Items:

The AeroSkatera can spawn randomly in the air, and will contain some sort of flight-related item.

Health:

The AeroSkatera has 2x the health of the player.

Attacks:

The AeroSkatera is far and away the strongest of the five main Skatera, boasting attacks that can easily one-shot unprepared players.

Actives:

1) Lightning Strike: This is the powerhouse of the AeroSkatera, a (er, lightning-fast? cheesy.) very fast, small bolt that forks out, doing insane damage and ignoring most of the block.

2) Cyclone: The AeroSkatera calls upon the winds, and a small cyclone (2.5x height of player) appears from its body and starts following the player; if it hits you it does big damage, and it stays until the duration of the battle. Multiple Cyclones can exist at once, and they ignore all of the block.

3) Gust: The AeroSkatera buffets you if you get too close to it, knocking you back and dealing big damage that ignores all of your block.

4) Bite: The AeroSkatera lunges towards you and bites you for massive damage that ignores some of the block.

Passives:

Unlike the other Skatera, the AeroSkatera boasts as many passives as it does actives.

1) Harsh Wind: Getting within 10 blocks of the AeroSkatera tosses you around and damages you slightly

2) Shockwave: All of the AeroSkatera' attacks have a chance to paralyze you for a second

3) Eye of the Storm: Getting within 5 blocks of the AeroSkatera shocks you for massive damage and paralyzes you

4) Hurricane: All of the AeroSkatera' attacks have a chance to summon a cyclone.

Defense:

The AeroSkatera has a variety of ways to defend itself.

1) Ethereal: The AeroSkatera takes very little melee damage or ranged damage.

2) Storm Shield: The AeroSkatera quickly blocks with its Storm Shield, sucking up the attack and then attacking you with a Lightning Bolt. However, it cannot do this right after an attack.

3) Mane of Wind: The AeroSkatera spins, ignoring all damage. It does this right before an attack that is not Bite.

Movement:

As a spirit of the wind, the AeroSkatera moves extremely quickly, and circles the player before darting in for a bite or spinning for another attack. As such, it is extremely hard to hit.

Death:

When the AeroSkatera dies, it will leave behind a chest full of amazing loot, as it has only one set size, as well as flight-related items and materials. (if those exist.) It will also leave behind an Airy Essence.

Overview:

The AeroSkatera is meant to be an extremely challenging 'gateway boss' as it is almost definitely the last Skatera you will face before summoning Magnum Grande, the Skatera Essence.

Concept Art for Spacera: The Rage of the Heavens

(Note: Spacera is on an entirely different level from the rest of the Skatera, and will only be available after defeating Magnum Grande. Defeating Spacera will stop Skatera spawns on the planet you are currently inhabiting.)

Logbook Details:

Size: 60 feet tall
Girth: 30 feet
Movement: Flying (?)
Environment: N/A
Attacks: Ranged, melee

Appearance:

After defeating Magnum Grande and taming Skatera and all that, Spacera will begin spawning on planets with prolonged exposure to you (i.e. your home planet, and any other planets with significant time spent on them). Now, Spacera are not of the same species as Skatera, nor are they a frankenstein'd monster like Magnum Grande. They are enigmatic forces, and will spawn on the following requirements:

a) A chest (manmade) exists in a world with significant exposure to you after Magnum Grande has been defeated
b) That chest is near a large amount of (something that indicates human presence? IDK how this would work)
c) The chest is surrounding by at least 400 square blocks of air (so a 20x20 area)

If all these requirements are met, the Spacera has a chance of generating; the chest will disappear, as will all nearby sources of light if the Skatera does generate.

Items:

The Spacera does not spawn with items in its mouth.

Health:

The Spacera has 5x the health of the player, as it is mostly empty space.

Attacks:

The Spacera's attacks are unique, in that they mostly revolve around destroying blocks and attempting to suck you into itself, so that it can use its Black Hole passive to quickly kill you.

Actives:

1) Spectrum Slash: The Spacera slashes its' rainbow-arm towards you, destroying any blocks in its way and turning those blocks into Skatera; deals massive damage and is unblockable.

2) Bite: The Spacera bites wherever it is; the bite follows you and deals massive damage. Unblockable.

3) Anti-Matter Slash: The Spacera slashes its white-arm towards you, removing any blocks in its way from existence, spawning an Aero-Skatera, and dealing big damage. Unblockable.

4) Vacuum: The Spacera pauses, opens its mouth, and destroys all blocks in a frontal cone. If you are in the cone, you are sucked towards the Spacera quickly. Unblockable.

5) Collapse: The Spacera teleports to a location 20 blocks away, destroying all blocks within a 10-block radius of where it was. If you are in the collapse or the teleport, you take massive damage. Unblockable.

6) Vortex: The Spacera shoots out dark matter in a frontal cone, destroying anything in its path and dealing massive damage. Unblockable.

Passives:

1) Black Hole: Coming within a 5-block radius of the Spacera sucks you into it, doing insane damage and is unblockable.

2) Empty Space: Ranged and melee attacks do close to zero damage to the Spacera.

3) Spawn Skatera: All of Spacera' attacks have a chance of spawning a random Skatera when it destroys blocks; Spectrum Slash does. Dirt/wood/other forest-y substances that are destroyed turns into a Forest Skatera (obviously only if there is enough to fill up the area that a Forest Skatera would take), Stone into an AvalaSkatera, lava/fire into a Laval Skatera, water/ice into a AquoSkatera. Any other materials have a small chance of spawning an AeroSkatera.

Movement:

As empty space, Spacera moves very quickly.

Death:

When the Spacera dies, it will leave behind the chest that it spawned from, and everything in it will be increased. For example, 27 dirt blocks turn into 1000, etc. Weapons/armor/tools get the best possible enchant/reforge/condition (maybe.) It will also stop the spawning of any Skatera on the planet it was defeated on (or it could drop an item to do that, I have not decided.) It could drop an item that would repair all the damage it did, though how that would be coded I have no idea.

Overview:

Not much to say here. It's hard, and it doesn't like humans. ^_^

Magnum Grande's concept art is not finished. Those of you who only clicked on the spoilers for pretty pictures are currently out of luck!

Logbook Details:

Size: 80 feet tall
Girth: 50 feet wide
Movement: Flying, Walking
Environment: N/A (boss)
Attacks: Ranged, Melee

Appearance:



Magnum Grande (Fury Mode) - No idea when Savior Mode will be out - Concept Art

Now, if bosses are summoned via items:

By combining the Airy Essence, Aqua Essence, Gaian Essence, Fiery Essence, and Florus Essence with some sort of technological or human-related item (basically something that would spoil the purity of their essences) you will get:

A World's Fury

Which summons Magnum Grande, Fury of the World, in his Fury Mode.

By combining the 5 essences with some sort of pure or holy thing (something that would make them more pure or combine them) you will get:

A World's Salvation

Which summons Magnum Grande, Savior of the World, in his Test Mode.

Now, if bosses are summoned via some sort of mission:

Once you have all five essences (or something like that, maybe you have to combine them?) you will be able to go on a mission, one from each of two people, one some sort of conservationist, another an industrialist.

The conservation route will require you to basically do earth-friendly stuff and generally help Mother Nature in one way or another.

The industrialist route will make you essentially clear out ground for factories.

Completing the conservation mission gives you a message from Magnum Grande, Savior of the World, who has to test your skill before he declares you the Champion of Conservation (or something like that).

Completing the industrialist mission awakens Magnum Grande, Fury of the World, who flies into a fit of rage and attempts to kill you for defiling the earth (or something).

But, essentially, both of them bring about Magnum Grande. However, the Savior mission is harder and the savior boss is harder, but it also allows you to tame Skatera for completing it. The Fury mission does the opposite.

Health:

Magnum Grande has a large amount of health. Like, boss-like amounts of health.

Attacks (Savior Mode):

In Savior Mode, Magnum Grande can use all of the attacks of every Skatera other than Spacera. He also has a few unique attacks:

Actives:

1) Shining Halo: Magnum Grande' head becomes encircled with a ring of light that spins out, damaging the player massively.

2) Radial Sphere: Magnum Grande' arms encircle him, and then spit out beams of light that alternate among the arms for a few seconds

3) Piercing Light: Magnum Grande' wings spit out beams of light that spawn Skatera depending on what blocks they go through, just like Spacera. They also damage the player.
Attacks (Fury Mode):

Unlike Savior Mode, Magnum Grande cannot use all of the attacks of previous Skatera in this form, overcome by rage as he is. However, he comes close to making that up, however before I get into this, let me explain Fury Mode's unique mechanic, called 'Hive Mind' (a passive); essentially, other than occasionally using Bite or Hydral Bite, Magnum Grande will only attack you when you attack one head (which is, BTW, the only way you can attack it; all other parts of it are invincible and AOE attacks should not be bigger than one head); otherwise it will simply stay in the background (if that is how bosses work) and follow you.

However, when you attack one head, the heads adjacent to it will attack. So say you attack the central head, the one that holds the Diminisher Mirror and Focused Lens; the heads adjacent to it will attack, so that would be the Call to Nature, Hadron Cannon, and Supremacy attacks going at you. They will continue attacking until you attack a different head, at which point they will go silent. This leads to a very interesting and strategic fight.

Actives:

1) Particle Accelerator Laser: Magnum Grande fires a laser from the laser on the top-right towards you which is straight, and destroys all materials in his path, converting them to Skatera in the same way that Spacera does. Does huge damage.

2) Hadron Cannon: Magnum Grande fires an orb at you from the cables of the head left of the central head, which will follow you and explode, dealing massive damage and destroying all the blocks around it and converting them. Unblockable.

3) Focused Lens: Magnum Grande concentrates the three mirrors on the bottom-right on you; they elongate and three lasers come from them, focusing on you and dealing more damage when the BEAMS CROSS! (Magicka reference, I had to do it.) Destroys and converts materials.

4) Sanguine Scythe: Magnum Grande swings the scythe on the middle-left, which does insane damage and inflicts random debuffs on you.

5) Spatial Scissors: Magnum Grande snips at you with the scissors on the absolute bottom, which inflict random debuffs on you and deal damage.

6) Supremacy: Magnum Grande fires a frontal-cone from the mouth of the head left to the mouth in the middle, destroying and dealing damage.

7) Particle Accelerator Beam: Magnum Grande fires a laser from the mouth on the top-left which goes slightly outward, destroys.

8) Stark Hadron Cannon: Magnum Grande fires an enormous beam at you from the mouth on the middle-right, which simply destroys.

9) Call to Nature: Awakens random Skatera, from the mouth with a snake coiled around it.

10) Hydral Bite: All mouths bite you simultaneously; Magnum Grande' heads converge to your location and chomp you, doing insane amounts of damage.

11) Bite: A mouth bites you, dealing large damage.

Passives:

1) Strangle: Coming close to Magnum Grande (not when Magnum Grande goes close to you!) causes the cables to strangle you for massive damage.

2) Hive Mind: Attacking one head stops it from attacking you, but causes the heads nearest to it to attack (explained further above)

Defense:

1) (Savior Mode only) Champion's Insight: The player's attacks do 90% of their base damage, flat-out.

2) (Fury Mode only) Will to Die: The player's attacks do 110% of their base damage, but damage the player for 10% of their base damage.

3) (All modes): Iron-Plated: Melee attacks do half damage.

4) (Fury Mode only) Mirror's Edge: The Mirror has a chance to suck in your attack, canceling all damage.

Death:

Upon death, if you were on Savior Mode, Magnum Grande will not 'die' but instead simply disappear, and the conservationist will give you the Skatera Embryo. Skatera will constantly be neutral towards you, and you will be able to tame/mount them (will be elaborated on in another section). Spacera will not spawn.

Upon death on Fury Mode, Spacera will spawn after M.G.'s death, and the industrialist will give you Pixels.

Overview:

He's a boss.

Now, after defeating Magnum Grande and obtaining the Skatera Embryo (If you were on Savior Mode, if you were on Fury Mode...well too bad ), any Skatera that you will see are going to be neutral. However, that's a problem, because they're still generating from random chests, which is problematic considering that you'd rather not attack them.

So, you tame them: Now, first you will need to 'create' a Skatera. You can do this by (in a genetics lab if there is one, in normal crafting if there is not) combining a Skatera Embryo with any kind of Essence. This will spawn a Skatera (or give you an item to spawn a Skatera, one or the other); to be specific, a Baby <type> Skatera. It will, however, not have a chest-mouth, and look mostly like a little sack of feelers with a head.

The Baby Skatera will immediately go require nutrition in some way, possibly specific to its Essence (give a Baby Laval Skatera fire, etc.). It will eat the nutrition until it becomes an adolescent and then it will be ready to turn into an adult. How does this occur? By eating a chest, of course!

The Adolescent <type> Skatera will attempt to eat the nearest chest and its contents; now, the items that are inside of the chest could directly correlate to how strong the Skatera is. For example, you put nothing but a dirt block inside the chest, and your Skatera will suck completely. You put in end-game items, and it will be a complete BEAST. Alternatively if this is impossible to code, it could just turn into a regular <type> Skatera.

At this point, you will be able to turn the Skatera into a mount; now I have no idea how mounts work, but all I know is this: If they can fight, Skatera should be stronger in their environment/against monster-types they are "super effective" against (i.e. Laval Skatera pwns Forest Skatera but dies to AquoSkatera). They should also be faster in their own environment, and the AeroSkatera will be able to fly, but also will not get any environment-advantages.

However, this poses a problem: How on <planet name> are you supposed to get another Embryo aside of beating Magnum Grande again?! (Which I doubt you would want to do except for video purposes or somefink) Well, by finding a Skatera of the same type as your Skatera, you will get an Embryo! (I have no idea whether or not monsters can mate, how taming works, etc. so I won't go into detail) The type of Skatera that you contacted with will also forever be tamed.

And you use this Embryo to create a Skatera of a different type to tame, and so on and so forth.

Now, why do I think Skatera Mounts are a good idea? Well, for the simple reason that I think they could be a good sort of end-game semi-situational mount; if Mounts can level up, then you're constantly faced with the choice of getting a really good Skatera and putting in end-game stuff or starting off with a bad 'un (if you don't have end-game gear) and then having to later ditch it; if they don't then it's just "do I give it good stuff or not? :/". Since they could also be better in their own environment, you could perhaps keep a Skatera in each environment, and then an AeroSkatera for other environments!

To-Do List: Add in picture for Savior Mode Magnum Grande.

 

I like the concept art, can't wait for the sprites! You should probably make it easier to defeat though.

 

I tried to make it hard, to provide a unique and rewarding experience.
(Also, I want to point out, we have no idea how the combat works at this point except for that there are shields, which I implemented. Lawl.)

 

Yeah, the Skatera shield mechanics seem really good, as you can't block everything, so there will be some dodging involved.

 

Thanks. I hated for example, Skyrim where you could block fire.
That's impossible. You're blocking fire. Wat.

 

Well.. It's Skyrim, and anything is possible.

OT: What happens if you just walk away? Will it stay there forever or will it move somewhere else?

 

@LemonRobot: It will stay there. ^_^

~Update~

Added the AvalaSkatera, a ferocious titan of the earth! (not happy how he turned out )
Added the Laval Skatera, a molten menace! (happy how he turned out )
Added health pools!
Added dynamic deaths!
Added drops!
Added backstory!
Added one sprite! (judging from the way things turned out, I'm not doing any more)

Still to go:
-AquoSkatera
-AeroSkatera
-Grand Skatera
-Spacera (?)

 

Amazing stuff man, looking forward to seeing the updates
ESPECIALLY wanna see that adventurer being chewed 'n' stuff aww yeaa xD

 

Still on To-Do List:

-Taming
-Magnum Grande (all)
-Mounts
-Baby Skatera/Skatera in phases of adult-hood.

 

Very interesting idea. Like the concept and originality.

Good luck with the contest

 

Is it your personal goal to make extremely generic comments on all the entries that are semi-good? :/
(No offense meant, a legitimate question.)

 

I could just be like some of the people here and go.. "I love this entry, this is my favorite! This should win over everything!" and then they post it on all the ones they can find. I'm just going through when I can and giving people encouragement on ideas based upon what I think is good about them. Like yours, originality and the concept. I could sit here and nitpick through every single entry, saying that their concept really isn't possible, and then rip them apart. If I see any constructive criticism, I say it. Else wise, I give them a friendly push in the right direction. It would be one thing if I said the same exact thing for every single post, but if you notice, I don't post on everyone's thread and I point out the keynotes that I enjoy. Generic? Maybe to some people, but they are legitimate.

 

Hm. I see.
(Personally, I value constructive criticism, as in 'nitpick and ripping apart' so that I can at least try to fix that.)

 

And you will see that from me a lot when this contest is over in the Suggestions area. In a contest however, I go more for the enlightening approach, and to help them get recognized more. If I had more time, I would go every finite detail and comment on the littlest quirks, but the devs are going to choose something based upon what they like, not popularity, artistic ability or plethora of ideas. (At least one would hope so)... So once the general idea is conceived through with the OP, I merely make comments applauding what I feel they have accomplished with their creation

 

Hm.
Well, since all of the devs are judging, I'm pretty sure that they will base it (somewhat) on popularity, originality, creativity, how thought-out the idea is, and at least a little bit, artistic ability.

Added in all of Magnum Grande but concept art (which is still being worked on) and started 'Taming the Skatera'.

 

Wow, you realy do have some solid ideas. I'm glad I'm not a dev, having to read all of this, but I should say that it's all very detailled and the artwork isn't bad.
Good luck on the competition, you have a good chance of winning as this is something the devs wouldn't forget soon ; )

 

Thanks; I tried my best to create something that would fit into Starbound.

 

Added in everything for Fury Mode, working on details of Savior Mode and the Magnum Grande mission.​

EDIT: Snap, crackle, and pop. Don't think I'll be able to add in the concept art for Savior Mode, since the contest will end right before I'll be able to. >-<​

 

Added in Taming Skatera and making them Mounts; should be a fun end-game-ish feature.

(repost due to random deletion glitch?)

 

Some backstory added.