Modding Discussion A possible modding idea

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by Vallahd, May 28, 2017.

  1. Vallahd

    Vallahd Yeah, You!

    I recently got back into Starbound, with mods of course, and began thinking about what might make it better. Mods give a lot to the game, and makes it a bigger, better sandbox. Though I've been thinking about the story itself. The story, and I mean no offense to the developers of this game, is very, very bare bones. Bad thing happens, collect X amount of items from a person who you've never met but somehow knows and trusts you, face smaller baddies to get the items, and then kill big baddy.

    Again, I mean no offense to the developers, but to me it seems pretty clear that there was more focus put on the universe generation and the sandbox element than the story. Which I have to say did work out, it's a great sandbox. Though I think I have a story to offer up for a full conversion mod or something similar. I'll lay it out, and if anyone wants to help me make this a reality I will be over joyed. (And before I continue I have no experience making mods but I really want to.)

    I want to provide the full story so this may go long, apologies for breaking any unspoken rules for that if so.

    The setting is many, many years before the events of Starbound, before The Ruin came about. The Precursors, the ancient race, is alive and well, and has been cultivating 6 races to succeed them. The Avian, Apex, Humans, Glitch, Floran, and Hylotl, each of which have their own sections of the galaxy that they control. Though there are nomadic races like the Avali and the Novakid who traverse the stars and grow on their own.
    -The thing I'm thinking of for the technical aspects is giving an over arching galaxy view with each race having a slice of that galaxy. In those slices are set worlds with cities and constructs on them, special places that are controlled by that race and have significance, even if it's just a large settlement village or a temple or something similar. Along side the randomized planets that can be explored, there will be set colonized worlds that make the universe seem alive rather than the post apocalypse that the universe suffered from Ruin. Or possibly we could have a 'Rift' sector that has randomized worlds infinitely ranging from gentle to fiery star status. Or if Frackin Universe wants to get involved, use his range of stars-

    The story itself:
    The player wakes up on a Precursor ship, along side beings of many other races. After a brief tutorial to get the player acquainted with the physics of the game, and with their mod bases already unlocked, the ship lands at a Precursor city, being one of many who have chosen to join the Guardians (Insert Guardians of the Galaxy theme). After a ceremony by the Precursors, you're given the tools to progress. An Omnitool, matter manipulator basically, a weapon of your choosing, and armor of your race.
    -My thoughts on the Precursors are, well, that they're a race that are a tier 3 civilization. They've mastered the universe and its secrets and are trying to spread their knowledge to races of their choosing. Physically speaking, I imagine they'd be, at their core, energy based beings that use pseudo-organic, cybernetically engineered bodies the same way we use clothes or armor. Switching out a body whenever they need to do something task specific, which would allow them a versatility that is unfounded in real life and a longevity of nearly infinity assuming they didn't go diving into a black hole. It would also make the statue in the temple able to be legitimate because they can use non light based senses for their understanding, like energy based or sonar, or everything. Those are my thoughts on the Precursors themselves.-

    After the ceremony, the player is given their ship. A sparrow class ship to start, since they'll likely fill things up quickly, and are tasked firstly to meet each of the races. And so they start, going out to meet the races. At this point they can find whoever they want first in whatever order, or put it off for awhile if they want. Though I'll start with the ideas I have for the races I have first.

    The first idea I have mission wise is for the Avian's. Firstly, I love the architecture and theme of the Avians, and their devotion to their faith without being murderous hethans is great. But anyway, the player's ship lands on the city's landing tower, a large tower made in the Avian architecture. The person they need to meet is the head of the temple, the Star Seer or something like that. Going through the city, the player gets to see housing buildings, markets, and pass by the embassy. And one person in there, depending on the race, will have an exclamation mark of their head. If they go to them, they'll talk. That's one thing I want to add in, dialogue options with branching paths with in game reactions. Either way, they talk, and the embassy will state that they think there's something unusual going on. There's been a few disappearances and the guards have been noticeably dismissive about the concerned citizens. After the meeting with the Star Seer, the player will be given directions into the sewer, and a special mod, cloaking. And the objective will be simple: Sneak into the structure and investigate whatever you find that is suspicious.
    -Something I want to propose is the ability to stealth things, which stealth will be S + D/A for sneaking. And while in sneaking, props like Boxes, Chests, Furniture, and so on will over lay onto the player to conceal them, putting them on a layer behind them but in front of the wall. NPC's will have a cone of vision, similar to the flashlight cone, that will see them if the player isn't in Cloaked mode or behind cover and attack. It could make for some interesting sections, particularly when the player is supposed to be fresh out of the academy and already going into dangerous situations.-
    Once inside the hide out and observing, the player finds that it's a cult that is sacrificing unwilling victims underground to try to gain a dark power or wake up a dark force to over throw Kluex, and with that knowledge the player goes to the Star Seer, or alternatively they can find explosives and detonate them. Both of which have consequences. If they go to the Star Seer, they don't get that much loot but they do get a reward, and the captured citizens are freed without too much incident. If they detonate the explosives, the player can loot what they want, but the player becomes disliked and prices in the market go up, on top of the captured citizens being trapped, and by the time they're excavated, the majority of them are dead by lack of oxygen, food, and water. A bit of a good conscience versus greed morality battle. Or, if the player is in NG+, they can simply shoot them all up, loot all the bodies, and still free the captured citizens, but that goes without saying.

    The second race idea is for the Apex, where the player meets a speaker for Big Ape, who is a real ape in this one and not a digitized avatar. The speaker will pull the player aside to speak in private, and will ask them to help find and dispose of some radical terrorists, which you may side with, but Apex only planets will treat you as a terrorist if you side with them. Once you go to confront them, they'll ask you to either join them or let them go and tell the speaker that you got rid of them, or you can simply kill them outrite. If you do the let them go or kill them, the speaker will give you a rather large pixel reward.

    I don't have much for the other 4 races, but you see what I'm getting at, right? After all that, the player is then able to access some Precursor worlds, and with how helpful the player has been, one of the Precursor scientists will ask the player to help them out. There will be a few fetch quests into dungeons, find artifact A at dungeon z, rare material 7 at planet B21, etc. Once that's done, the scientist will then commence the experiment, one he says will secure the future of all the races in the galaxy. He is going to bring Ruin into a physical form and seal it away forever.

    The experiment begins, and already there's something wrong. The scientist begins to act oddly, getting both angry and over joyed at random things, and then it appears. The scientist becomes Ruin, the head splitting open into a giant eye, and tentacles coming out of it randomly. The player escapes, and upon reaching the galaxy's Commanding Guardian, finds that it wasn't just the Scientist that became Ruin, but almost every Precursor that there was. In a single instant, the most advanced race in the galaxy was corrupted into the embodiment of chaos and destruction. Almost all of them. With the galaxy in jeopardy, though the main races not knowing yet, the player goes to find more Guardians. The remaining Guardians and Precursors meet within the race's main planets, both informing the heads of those races what happened, and regrouping. There, a plan forms. With Ruin so new, it's susceptible to attacks and hasn't gotten a grasp of the galaxy yet. Strike before it can.

    From here, it's the player's job to convince the races to unify, and not just going to the speakers or the priests. They need to go to the over arching rulers. Kluex, Big Ape, the President, the Overlord (Glitch), the Shogun (Hylotl), and the Chieftan (Floran). The ones who have so much power and respect that those who would stand against them may as well shun themselves from the worlds. Once gotten, after doing tasks to bring order to certain worlds, it's time to strike Ruin, on the same world that he was born on. By now, the aspects of Ruin have been gathered, the Precursor bodies tossed aside, and has borough deep within the world. There, it's a full frontal assault. The player can ride with Glitch Calvary, traverse though buildings to clear out spawns of Ruin minions and mark safe points for more troops to land for reinforcement, and so on. Once at the temple, and discovering that there's nothing there, scans show that there's a being deep in the planet's core, and that the core has been rapidly cooled to absolute zero. Since that's where it's likely at, time to go to the core.

    Getting picked up from the temple, the field marshal says that they're mining down to the core using a combat laser, a big orbital one, and since oxygen is being burned up, that the player and a team of specialists will be going down in mechs. The mech of choice will be up to the player, and once done, they descend into the hole at the player's pace. At the bottom, they find that the core has been indeed frozen, and the orbital laser is having no effect on it. The energy was being deflected. Seeing this, the player needs to shoot the spot where the laser hits to make a big enough crack that the laser's energy will get a hold on the material and peel it away, while defending from large tentacles, mutated beings, and so on. Once done, the player and team get up to a safe spot, the laser blasts it open, and the player and team go down to deliver a payload of a few tons of nukes that can't be taken apart quickly or dissolved in acid. Going back up to the surface, everyone evacuates, with a precursor staying in the temple and at that gate, ready for when Ruin takes him over to seal it inside. The nukes blow up, the planet gets destroyed inequilly, because of the core being solid, and the temple, along with a lot of shards of the former planet, being shot into space at near light speeds.

    The final scenes will be of the rulers, Kluex, Big Ape and the like, finding the temple some time later, with the rest of the Guardians and the player. There, the Precursor is sitting against the now sealed gateway, with a large chest near by. He gives a final apology and goodbye to the rulers and the galaxy, pushes the chest towards them, and explains that inside the chest is 6 artifacts of power, and that they are to be guarded carefully. They are aspects of how the Precursors became so strong, aspects that each of the 6 races embodies almost perfectly. Faith in the beyond, scientific domination, manipulation over the environment, racial unification by tradition, and mastery over nature. He further explains that these combined locked Ruin inside its own realm, and it's with those alone that could set it free. After that, he dies, his body torn up and face plate cracked. Each of the leaders takes one that clearly symbolizes them, take the Precursor to give him a burial ceremony, and humans declaring that they will host a new Guardian program. One that will take up the mantle of unified protection. The Protectorate. The President then goes on to say that they will give any Guardian their original ranking of they wish to join, or will allow them to leave without any issues. And from there, the player is free to do what they want.

    I already have a working title: Starbound - Rise of Ruin.

    So, what do you all think?
     
    XMeteor likes this.
  2. Cyel

    Cyel Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    >does not like the "help person who you've never met but somehow knows and trusts you" trope
    >use it anyway


    I find that you take a lot of liberties toward the "original" lore and things in general, but it's pretty nice regardless! Good luck doing all that tho, that's be pretty massive
     
  3. Vallahd

    Vallahd Yeah, You!

    To be fair, the origin of the Precursors and Ruin are vague at best, and I imagine that they existed long before the events of Starbound itself. I'm just thinking what could have been. Thank you though.
     
  4. Cyel

    Cyel Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Yeah, I'm more talking about the fact that the relics are what's supposed to have helped the species get to where they are (a DNA strand for the apexes to do genetics, the Master Manipulator, etc), and I don't think there's any proof that Kluex actually exists (and wouldn't it be weird to have a god next to a dictator?)
    The "everyone goes down in mechs to rekt the ruin" also colides with the "giant cultivator bro fought the ruin by itself but it was rough and died in the process" thing

    But then again, nothing forces you to follow Starbound's shallow lore at 100%, I'm just throwing my two cents ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
  5. Vallahd

    Vallahd Yeah, You!

    Honestly, the lore of Starbound details plenty about the races themselves, but tells next to nothing about the Ruin and Precursors/Cultivators. And while, yes, I do think it'd be weird having a god next to a dictator, I think it's also a bit weird that the ending of Starbound is you going into a literally living planet to kill the brain which has an eye inside it that sees all inside the galaxy and lasers you.
    While I do want to abide by the lore and canon story of Starbound as much as possible, this story in and of itself is not canon. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a rather elaborate and strung out theory about how the Ruin appeared and what happened during its creation. I'm just wanting to work towards something rather big for awhile while I learn modding and get used to it.

    Also, thank you for putting in your two cents.
     

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