[Discussion] What should a non-linear progression system look like?

Ever since the Giraffe update people have been complaining about the direction Starbound has taken regarding progression and universe randomization. I've been contemplating making a mod to make progression in Starbound overall less linear and more exploration/survival based. After pondering how exactly such a system should look I decided to collect some ideas from the community. Hence this thread is meant as discussion on possible models for a non-linear progression system.

For a start, here is what I've come up with so far:

Initial progression remains largely unchanged. The player starts stranded on a Garden world and needs to collect Core fragments to leave. The addition of a hunger/thirst system would add additional steps to this. The player would need to create some sort of shelter with a farm and rain catcher to have a reliable source of food and water. The water need could be covered through (refillable) water bottles provided at the start. Before descending to the core the player would need to stockpile enough food and refill water at underground pools. Once the Core Fragments are obtained, in-system travel is unlocked.

At this point the player is presented with branching paths: Forest, Desert, Ocean, Savannah and Snow planets are available for exploration. Snow planets have low temperature and exploration without sitting down next to a campfire every 2 minutes requires crafting the Snow Infantry set using large amounts of fabric. To obtain the necessary plant fibre the player could go to either Garden or Forest biomes. Desert planets have high temperatures and hydration will be a major issue. To stock up on water the player can go to either Garden, Snow or Ocean planets. Gathering oil will allow access to steel equipment and advanced fabrics. Using these the player can craft a space suit which provides protection from the vacuum of space and a survival pack which provides a (limited?) amount of oxygen.

Exploration of moons is now possible and the player can mine up the Erchius necessary to repair the ship's FTL drive. It also allows crafting an RCS upgrade for the survival pack to allow for movement in asteroid fields (think the bubble tech of Koala but it doesn't cost energy and only works in a vacuum). Scorched planets are also accessible (think Mercury, a ball of rock with no atmosphere right next to the sun, temperatures ranging from -100°C at night to 400° during the day. Intense solar radiation means you need to stick to the underground or wait until nightfall. Monsters are either absent or don't come out during daylight).

Now the player enters the Titanium tier, which can be obtained from either asteroid fields or Scorched, Toxic, Alien or Jungle worlds. Jungle and Alien worlds have no particular environmental hazard but can contain poison water and there are a lot of strong monsters on the surface. Toxic worlds have poison pools and occasional acid rain which provide navigational hazards for players without a hazmat suit (crafted from oil and fabrics).

Radioactive worlds (aesthetically some kind of Fallout-style wasteland, with fewer monsters?) which have large Uranium deposits and high background radiation. This would work similar to hunger/temperature in that it slowly fills up the player's radiation meter leading to increasing penalties and death. Unprotected players would die within 2-3 minutes. To extend that time players can wear the hazmat suit (slows the rate at which radiation is accumulated) and/or use RadAway (consumable crafted from the biosamples obtained on Jungle planets) to reduce the current radiation level. Using the hazmat suit might also require an external air supply, greatly reducing radiation gain but it only has a limited air supply (15-20min?). After obtaining Uranium players get access to Durasteel.

Uranium also allows for construction of a fission-powered heater for the back slot, providing enough warmth to explore Ice and Arctic planets (very difficult to explore, even with Snow Infantry set). These in turn have liquid nitrogen deposits, allowing for construction of a cooling system for the back slot, allowing exploration of Volcanic, Arid and other extremely hot biomes (continuously consumes nitrogen?).

Instead of going to Radioactive worlds, players can also craft a heat suit from titanium and silver, which allows direct exploration of Volcanic planets. The suit would provide significantly less protection than Durasteel armor and only slow the rate of heating, putting exploration on a hard time limit. The reward would be Solarium ore, which would allow crafting an energy shield for the back slot that provides high (total?) radiation protection.

After obtaining all the back items player can craft an ultimate survival system, providing complete protection from all elements (essentially sandbox mode and to prevent players from having to constantly switch gear).

Additionally, some changes to the universe structure could be made. Level progression could be eased to make skipping tiers more viable. Biomes and sub-biomes could be more randomized. Instead of Fiery, etc. stars they could be ordered by tier, with each planet from a previous tier having a chance to show up (so you could have a tier 5 Forest planet, but not a tier 2 Arctic). I was also thinking dungeons could be made more specific to planet types, so players looking for a Sci-Fi dungeon would know to look on Scorched planets for example.

What I'm unsure about are the current nanosuits and boss quests and how they could fit into this system. The suits could provide either total protection, or high resistance without taking up an equipment slot, turning them from glorified keycards into actual rewards with tangible gameplay benefits. The no longer mandatory boss quests could be distributed across the universe, e.g. instead of hearing about the moon base from the Apex researcher you go out and find a USCM listening post which intercepted a distress signal with the coordinates. Even the Outpost itself could be something to be discovered, with Ancient Gateways appearing randomly on planets and/or underground.

TL;DR I think instead of hard-gating the player with nanosuits, progression should focus on soft-gates in the form of environmental hazards and players' ability to overcome them using resources and craftable items. At any point the player should have access to a variety of planet types and each type should have unique challenges and unique rewards (resources) to incentivize the player to explore many planets while allowing skilled players to skip planets if they so choose. The overall idea for hazards is to make them a) varied and b) something that the player overcomes through gradual increase in capability.

This would fix what I think are the biggest problems of the current progression model: hard-gates constraining players, forcing them on a linear path through what should be a sandbox, lack of incentive to explore (you can visit Snow and Forest planets, but why would you want to? Only Desert planets have the resources you need to progress) and lack of variety (soft-gates allow for more biome randomization and non-linear progression, environmental hazards make planets more unique).

So what do you guys think? Any critique, suggestions, additional ideas or alternate proposals are welcome.

 

I think it's a good thing you took the time to write this post, and I'm surprised it has gone unnoticed for... over a month.

I just wanted to quickly comment this is a strong feeling I get as well. I understand the current progression, but it doesn't feel quite right. Since I've restarted playing, me and my brother on occasion comment to each other how the game seems to have such a stupid amount of progression gates.

I cannot think of a more in-depth reply to your already deep reflections about the game, as I have something of a headache and can't quite address every point you've made, for the moment.

 

Something tells me the OP is no longer interested in this, but what the heck.


At the start, you're an explorer/entrepreneur. You want to get out and see all the universe has to offer and/or settle a planet and make it your own and/or start a business and make big bucks!
You've got a small ship with fully functional ftl engines, a cheap but serviceable matter manipulator, a flashlight, one or two simple weapons, and an outmoded space-suit that's very clumsy but lets you make those necessary fuel stops on airless moons.

In general, progression would come either from
1. Exploring: finding new blueprints or protective gear in dungeons, or crafting useful things from sub-biome special resources (as an example, maybe you could craft slime armor from slime blobs that would protect you from radiation). Sometimes folks at the outpost will reward you for providing them with especially rare objects you might find, too.
2. Adventuring: Taking on quests and missions at the Outpost, getting rewarded with new technology, protective gear, or blueprints.
3. Purchasing: For those who make large amounts of pixels farming and/or collecting rent, they could simply purchase tier-advancing items from the Outpost. These would be very high in price, to generally deny this option to those who aren't operating a business, and to provide a goal and pixel-sink to those who do.

Basic progression limitations:

-At first, nothing is stopping you from geting copper, silver, gold, platinum, diamonds and iron (although some of those are quite rare on low-threat planets of course). Basic crafting is available.
-Steel requires a higher quality furnace. These can rarely be found in settlements on higher threat-level planets, but the blueprints can be obtained from the Outpost (see below), rarely found in chests, or purchased from npc settlements.
-Titanium also requires the steel-grade furnace. Additionally, titanium ore is only found on planets where iron gear isn't quite up to par, but you can risk it if you're willing.
-Uranium ore emits harmful radiation. If you're within 10 or so blocks of a chunk of uranium ore, you'll be afflicted with a damage-over-time debuff. It's minor, but it lasts a good while, and as you spend time near uranium, the debuff will intensify, eventually becoming too severe to out-heal. You can cope with this either by getting your hands on some radiation-proof gear, or by frequently dosing yourself with anti-radiation medicine to keep the debuff at manageable levels. (Your inventory is fully radiation-proof and any uranium you're carrying won't harm you at all.) Protection/medicine can be acquired at the Outpost, or you can find it in threat-appropriate dungeons.
-Durasteel requires the magnetic crucible to make. Outpost>>purchase or mission. Exploration>> blueprints rarely in equal-tier high-tech dungeons, the item itself rarely in higher-tier dungeons.
-Aegisalt, rubidium, and violium, can be refined with the magnetic crucible, but making gear with it requires a Replicator, which will replace the anvil. Purchase, mission, or exploration.
-Solarium periodically emits dangerous electrical discharges to nearby metal objects, including your armor. These zaps are damaging and frequent enough that, without protection, you'll be tearing through healing items very rapidly. A Lightning-Rod back item can protect you, or the use of non-metallic armors. Solarium generates this energy from the planet's magnetic field and motion. It soon becomes harmless once dislodged from the stone.

Environmental Perils: These generally don't impact progression directly, but simply make it difficult to explore certain areas until you can overcome them.

-Some planets and moons have little to no atmosphere. Your spacesuit works, but it's an old piece of junk and moving around in it is sluggish and awkward. The new spacesuits are hardly more restrictive than a business suit, and then there are those state-of-the-art atmo-backpacks that generate an aura of breathable, pressurized air around you.
-Spacesuits don't work underwater, and neither do those atmo-backpacks. If you want to breathe under-liquid, you can wear an scuba-tank on your back. They last quite a while, but eventually you'll need to bring them back into the air, where they automatically replenish their supply. A higher-tech option is the oxy-filter diving helmet which actually pulls oxygen from the water itself and never runs out. There's even a type of suit that allows for full-speed motion and breathing underwater, but it's very high-tech and not easy to come by.
-Cold planets tend to have higher concentrations of ore, due to being inhospitable to star-hopping miners. If you can craft yourself some warm gear or keep a source of heat nearby, you can gather lots of ore without having to scour as deep.
-Some planets have acid rain and/or pools of acid. This green liquid can seep through the cracks in your armor and deal damage rapidly until you can get out of it. Of course, there are water-tight suits that can keep you safe and dry.
-Some planets are very hot. Lava is always dangerously hot just to be near. Your armor provides some protection, but you'll need specialty gear to be able to ignore it. Otherwise, keep drinking/eating cool treats, or try setting up some fans/AC units.

The Outpost(s):
Often, in reasonably high-tech shelters/dwellings/labs (dungeons/mini dungeons) you can find a certain codex. It speaks of an outpost where free-thinkers gather, talk, and trade. It's got coordinates and everything. Why not check it out?

The Outpost has lots of npcs looking to sell, buy, barter, and hire mercenaries. Here you can potentially buy tier-advancing technology, trade for it (I.E. bring me a rare golden ducky and I'll give you a better matter manipulator), or acquire it by doing missions (I.E. "We know of a Miniknog research station. If you help us raid it and free our prisoners, we will share any blueprints recovered, and you will have your fair share of whatever else of value we can take!")
The Outpost tends to be the hub of "story" content, and certainly would have a lot to offer, but if a player decides to refuse to get involved in any of that, they'd still be able to progress just through exploration.

 

I actually started implementing the concept I outlined when another game I'm modding released a new update, so my time has been spent updating that. Since that is done now I've been meaning to put some time aside for this project again.

 

I think it's awesome you all are putting well-thought out intelligent thought into options.

One thing I do know is that it is HARD to make progression not seem linear, as progression is almost linear by definition. The only thing to really take away the linear feel is to have as many options/routes as possible. In the case of gaming it's "how many possible ways can you provide for a player to experience the game's entirety".

I honestly think what's causing a lot of confusion right now is separating what is tutorial VS what is the "game". The only thing linear right now seems to be a forced tutorial. Some may not call it that, but that's essentially what it is; using quests as a linear way for them to introduce the game's features. Quest A introduces a player to craft, Quest B introduces them to something else, Quest C introduces them to "Missions", so on and so forth.

To me the solution is not as complicated as a lot of people are making it out to be. Simple solution? Pixels. Allow every progression item to be purchased via pixels. Keep all the quest, add a ton more quest, add a ton more missions and make some harder than others. And reward the players with pixels for doing them. When you link the progression rewards to pixels this allows players to progress (meaning make money) however they wish; be it hunting, doing quests, doing missions, collecting, building/renting, selling items, etc.

Don't make the quest rewards something a player needs...make them something a player wants. Like unique vanity items or decoration that can only be got through said quest. That way players can do them if they wish but not have to do them in order to move on in the game.

Bottom line...Just show me what I need to buy to move along in the game, fix me ship, etc and let me worry about how I make the money to get it. Then I can skip the redundancy of quests I've done 10 times already just to fix my ship. And it'll allow me to progress with any given character in a multitude of ways.

 

I think a big part of a good open progression system is that any placed road blocks aren't hard blocks that stop all progression in the game until it's passed. The main mission plot could be more separated from your character's capability and strength. Some capability might be required to progress the plot, but the plot is not required to progress capability. A tutorial period could be an acceptable exception to this.

How this relates to starbound could be making titanium armor a requirement for the first major plot mission, but without limiting it to that titanium. Allow the player to advance his capability if he feels titanium isn't enough. You can make it more difficult to progress until the block is passed, but don't cut it completely off. You can have a road block designed for a set difficulty, but in an open sandboxy game, I believe it's unreasonable to expect every player to play it the same way. Some players enjoy the challenge of completing missions with their character at the minimum required strength, others will feel more rewarded by putting in the effort to improve above the minimum requirements to become stronger and make the mission that much more survivable. Let players have that choice.

I'm reminded of the X space games. Plot missions could award you ships, but you were never limited to using those ships. If you didn't like it, or wanted something stronger or different, you could fight pirates (or be a pirate,) or get odd jobs on stations, or build your own economy stations and trade until you could buy or upgrade your ships to something better.

I believe survival features can be a big part of this. Instead of nano suits just allowing you to not instantly die on it's related planet type, make that planet type just difficult to survive on, and let the nano suits make the planet more survivable, I would prefer nano suits not be a survival off option, but I could understand if some people would prefer that. I'd like to see nano suits just make things easier. Cold planets should be survivable without a suit if you spend enough time near heat sources,, but the nano suit could hold heat better to allow more time away from heat. Volcanic planets could dehydrate you quickly, but an appropriate suit could hold a fair amount of water, rehydrating you automatically until it runs out. Maybe radiation planets only do damage while exposed to the sun (making night the time to explore the surface unprotected,) and while exposed to radioactive ores. The player could still explore these planets without nano suits, but with great difficulty.

Nano suits themselves could have progressions too. Instead of just having the right suit or not, if you have the suit and aren't happy with what it's providing you, there could be a way to improve it to give better benefits. Along with improving protective abilities, maybe other features could be used, like the radioactive suit somehow alerting the player when they're getting near a large source of radiation that might overwhelm it's protective ability, being upgraded to providing some sort of visual cue showing the player the source of radiation, causing them to glow on screen, or something like that.