"A dangerous and volatile isotope commonly used as starship fuel." No, it's not. If you're like me, you have probably explored a Moon and found Liquid Erchius Fuel under its surface. Going on a refueling trip, I have found tons of it, with absolutely zero barrier past the initial lack of atmosphere. My current total is 2041 fuel, but I am still collecting more and more. From the description, I expected something deadly. Something toxic. Instead, the liquid does not even cause me to drown. I don't like that. If it's a dangerous isotope, it should be giving off massive doses of radiation. Unshielded, this should cause radiation poisoning quite quickly. Radiation poisoning would be a quick-killing status effect that starts off dealing minor damage but quickly ramps up to become a toxic threat. Would be negated by tech that reduces radiation and any outfit that reduces radiation. And since its fuel, it should catch fire and burn if near a source of fire or if shot at by a gun. Please work on fixing this, CF. The Upbeat Koala update was fantastic! ... Also, moon torches. What Oxygen is undergoing combustion? There is not an atmosphere... totally ruins the immersion.
It doesn't have to be radioactive (although this would make sense), as this is already a game mechanic elsewhere and giving Erchius radiation would upset that balance. Explosive would be fun though... It would also fit the game play. There are two types of fuel to my understanding. The higher tier fuel is radioactive, meaning the lower tier would be combustible - right? I propose that the fuel would not just burn, but explode: causing a chain reaction to any other fuel blocks it was touching. I'm imagining a reaction similar to nitroglycerine in that if the pool were touched too quickly, if any creature or blocks fell into it, or if it were shot in any way then there could be a sizable and damaging explosion inside the chamber. As a side note this might call for a specific script limiting creatures' ability to trigger the reaction. For example a monster could only cause the reaction if they had taken damage from the player in the previous ten seconds. It would prevent entire moons exploding and give the player more pause before engaging a monster inside a moon. This would make fuelling a dangerous and delicate process, which could add a fun dynamic to the game. I agree that we shouldn't be able to take a bath inside our starship fuel without any consequence. Edit: I also propose that Erchius' explosion have a mild block destruction component. It could give mining an interesting dynamic: it would be faster but you could destroy what you wanted to harvest, and it could give the game trap potential if you layed pools of it by your castle.
Would it, really? After completing the first mission, you have all you need to safety excavate a moon. I walked away from my moon mining with 5000+ Erchius fuel, which would have cost me 125,000+ Pixels at the Outpost, and adding a bit of danger to that massive benefit would probably make things a bit more balanced. The only damage I took while on that moon was from my own carelessness (fall damage, touching stalagmites/stalactites...)... There is no reason to fire a gun on a moon, considering that there aren't any enemies (I believe), so just flammability will not exactly add a danger factor to balance out the benefit. Radiation, on the other hand? Would be a real threat. Even if it is a mechanic elsewhere, it would ensure that players would not have easy fuel stocks until they get to the point where they can resist radiation too.
