Dev Blog 20th June - Some Indescribable Horror

Erchius fuel is sold at a bit of a premium at the Outpost! While it's not too costly to buy a little bit of fuel at a time, if you travel often to distant star systems it can really add up.

Most are content to grumble about the cost and give up their hard-earned pixels out of necessity, but an increasing number of adventurers have taken to mining their own fuel from moons. Many of them haven't returned.

Those who have survived the trip have come back with chilling stories of... creatures... who emerge from pools of liquid erchius, draining the life out of any poor sap who's come to mine fuel.



Are these indescribable horrors real, or a myth that's been perpetuated by those who benefit from the sale of erchius fuel?

Is it worth finding out?

 

Who you gonna call? Not the ghostbusters!

You should be able to kill them with some sort of super space suction device. Or a vacuum cleaner.

 

In my opinion, I don't really like these Erchius ghosts or whatever they are. Sure, they look spooky and they finally make mining on airless worlds a risk but I would have preferred if these airless worlds had other risks like microdungeons with the enemies from the Erchius facility mission, meteor showers, and possibly even running out of oxygen when using it. These ghosts just don't make as much sense to me, and feel like they were just thrown into airless worlds so fuel is suddenly less aquire-able without making airless worlds more interesting.

 

I love this idea!

 

I get the feeling I should just wait for 1.0

 

yay more to the moon. I don't mind the ghosts. Just need to find an ectoplasm sucking machine... Better than having to only worry about falls. So at least adds a bit more threat while gathering resources.

 

Just need to call the famous bounty hunter!!

 

A: still annoyed at the lack in dev input regarding the the action bar debate...
B: As cool as they are, I hope you plan to implement more hazards to moons than solely these floating worms... MOAR CORRUPTED ERCHIUS ABOMINATIONS! (Also, exploding gas pockets would be a neat touch... And making liquid erchius a hazard would also be really cool...)

 

They're not that indescribable. "A worm with a bum for a face and proper spindly arms" - see? And I for one welcome our new spindly-bumworm overlords.

 

Agreed. : \ seems kinda like instead of making more unique hazards or soOomething to make them stand out more as their own unique planets, they just were like "Lets add the Spelunky Ghost!" I mean, I like the ghost, but I think he'd be cooler on the dark planets.

-edit- You know, if they really wanted to make it scary, which they could, they could have gone with a simpler approach than a generic mob I think. Imagine shadows, like the shadow people, but see through, silent with the lack of air - just watching as you mine. One will show up here, disappear, get a little closer, fade away when you look at it. Slowly, more appear, slowly they stop fading. You can hear them now, not on the wind but in your head. Like it appears to do with the ghost, color fades as they draw near. Give us something half herobrine half SA-X. Now that'd make mining fuel creepy.

 

Meh....just get some solid armor going and kill them. It'll be alright. Though with 1.0 fast approaching you guys should be putting more time and effort into sorting out mechs and vehicles and player built space stations.....not adding more enemies the players will just kill.

 

All hail wiener ghost.

 

Agent Frostwing Reporting from Avalon, I know not if these, things are natural or otherwise. But I do know that they are real and they are attack miners... I will continue to investigate these things from orbit so I do not fall victim myself.

I really like the idea of having hazards to mine fuel, as this makes it more interesting.....

 

Personally I do like the Erchius ghosts. There's something in their design that... "works", for me. Ironically it might be the fact they are such immortal ability, but combined with their ability to go through walls AND slow movement. You -can- outrun them, but you can't get rid of them as they will still relentlessly chase you. In a degree this almost make them the "Terminators" of Starbound; an invulnerable enemy you can try slowing down or running away from, but you can't escape them forever as they'll still continue chasing you

This said, stuff like actual microdungeons(the Erchius mines can't be the only facility of their kind out there) on moons, potentially with moontants and the likes could make some of the moon out there feels even more interesting. Whether or not they would be used in stead or -alongside- the likes of Erchius Ghosts.

"Immature" versions of the Erchius Horror might also make for interesting encounters(though otoh that might exactly be what the "Ghosts" are).

 

They already have that Oggler monster, all they have to do is make it climb walls and turn invisible... Slap on a new sprite and baboosh, you've got yourself one creepy f*cker...

 

Doesn't seem very scary...perhaps if I was underground in the pitch black...but looks like there's surface fuel so I won't have to worry about it. /shrug

 

You do know all that fuel you are gathering is ghost feces made of victims who were drained... Soylent Fuel. That makes you all ghouls! I pay for mine to erase the guilt.

 

I really think that the game should have a Erchius biome added that has a small chance of spawning on planets that contain life, Also it should be made so that any creatures exposed to the fuel for long enough would transform into the Erchius monsters, Either permanently or temporary, If it's temporary though maybe could make it so that if the player is exposed to it they change and gained temporary abilities like the creatures uses for the time they are under the transformation effect of the Erchius fuel.

 

1 I hope there's some way to take them out or repel them, such as a furniture item that instantly kills all Erchius Ghosts which are close enough to it.
2 I also hope that Erchius becomes more useful, such as using it in some vehicles (Which still need a lot of improvement because they have a lot of potential, such as aircraft and specialized enemies and vehicles themselves. Also shameless slef-advertising)
3 I don't play Nightly, but what is that purple ore?
4 Will Airless worlds get more content than just the Ghosts?

 

I heard mention that a late game weapon would let you kill them. THe purple ore is Eruchius crystals