So I created a suggestion called "cave-ins" quite recently. It made me think of how the difficulty could increase in depth. In Terraria, there are different layers. The order of them is something like: Surface, dirt layer, rock layer, rock layer with lava, hell. Personally, I always mined in the upper rock layer, even if it was the first day. Because why shouldn't I? Even as a noob with no armor, you are still safe in the lava layer, you just need to surround yourself with stone/dirt or any other material. It is the perfect protection. So before hardmode, you have only two real differences in casual mining: Anything above hell, and hell. That's just because the enemies in the layers vary. So Starbound can't do it much different, right? Because the only way to really affect mining by mobs, is to make them either noclip, or give them the abilitly to dig trough wall, or destroy them. And because we don't want our whole planet destroyed and infested with no-clip monsters, we have to make the mining harder, and set limitations. Realism helps us. So I put in a list with possible things that could mining in deeper regions harder than near the surface: 1. Air. While it seems like a unreasonable thing, mining very deep leaves you with almost no, or completely no air. So from a certain depth on, you will need a machine that supplies air, or a air tank that you have to carry arround, or you will suffer damage. 2. Rock hardness. If you dig deep, rocks are going to be more pressurized, and thus harder to mine. Harder stone requires higher tiers of tools. This sets a tier based barricade. 3. Pressurized magma and magma stone. Basically, small pools of magma, that shoot out magma when opened, and can even breach trough walls, if the pressure is high enough. Magma stone would be a mix of unstable stone, that contains magma in possible gaps. This can not be seen, instead, the look like normal rocks, altough they create small puddles of magma. (Very rare, and only very deep) 4. Gas and oil explosions. Most gases are invisible, and burn if ignited. If you are digging deep, you will find natural occuring holes filled with gas. But if you happen to mine with lazers, or anything that can ignite this, you are most likely going to start an explosion. Same for oil, though only very hard to ignite, and can be seen. 5. Possible toxic or radiated areas. If you dig deep enough, you may find radioactive ores, that may have radiated a certain area. Beware, and wear anti-radiation suits. Also naturally ocurring toxic gases or substances. Just avoid contact. Finally, leave suggestions and I will add them to the list, if they are appropriate. Thanks for reading
I was under the impression that better materials were going to be on harder planets, rather than deeper in the easier planets, so i don't think this is necessary.
Either way, most of that sounds too complicated/irritating for the game... and if the main focus is going to be on planet difficulty rather than depth anyway, I think the terraria style 'enemies get harder the deeper you go' is fine. I don't see your point in going deep on the first day in Terraria anyway. From my experiences, you can find the ores you need at higher depths easily anyway, so there's really no point in going deeper until youre better prepared for the harder enemies... as otherwise it just becomes more of a bother rather than a threat.
With deeper on the first day, I mean into upper rock layer, because statistically there are the most ores. But there are also enemies that you can't really handle too good with a wooden sword. And why shouldn't Starbound be a lill' bit more difficult? I thought Starbound was all about exploring, not about hit spamming to mine ores. Don't ya' think?
I hate having to correct you over and over again. So let's start: 1. We never dug as deep as we can get in Starbound, thus we won't really know what happends. Also it's a game. And both ways, we have to get some oxygen down there. It's as simple as that. 2. I was not thinking of a "it takes longer to mine" but a "it needs a higher tier tool to mine" thingy. This servs gameplay purposes. It doesn not really have to be realistic. It's as simple as that, again. 3. No, not like hellstone. Hellstone is lava "in" stone, and that can not work. My suggestion was that the lava was in open, but very small spaces between the rocks. It's as simple as that, again. 4. Two words: ---scripted event---. How would it not work well? The game tells you that there was some gas, and it just exploded in your face. It's as simple as that, again, and again. 5. It take you by your words: "although for the gameplay, it would work fine" So what do you want? You already answered your question. It's as simple as that, I love that frase.
1 you hit the earth's mantle before the caves magically start having no oxygen 2 I think most games are unrealistic in that you can't mine high tiered materials with lower pickaxes, it would just take longer. its not like the stone at depth 100m is mineable but at 101 it is more pressurized so that you can't mine it, I was saying that if pressure actually does make a difference then they should increase the time instead of tier. making different types of rock instead of the same rock under pressure to limit how deep you can mine is a better solution. 3 tiny bits of lava in the stone that comes pouring out would be part of the terrain generation, in that they make single tiles of lava in holes in the rock. also, it still doesn't exist, since such a small amount of lava would quickly cool into rock. 4 having the game tell me that i blew up because I ran into some gas is dumb, it should just blow up. okay, it could work in the 2d tile based game but it would be more complicated than its worth. it would have to work like the fake liquids shown in the water trailer (in that you can compress them to a stupid level) that fall up but explodes/lights everything on fire if you do anything in it. (fire weapon, place torch, sparking machinery...) not fun to have to deal with such annoyances all the time. no hate on the oil because it would be much simpler and more practical to the game. 5 now that I pay closer attention to your paragraph, I will answer each part since that other response was just to the availability of rare ores being deeper, you don't need to tell me that I agree with myself. I don't think toxic gases would work or any gas that isn't just the planet's atmosphere would work because of the 2d and physics, radiation in a game is difficult because it has no immediate effects, only long term permanent weakness/cancer. toxic areas in that it poisons you without protection might work, it all depends on the presentation. interesting how I always get into arguments with the same person throughout multiple threads, it must be some personality thing
About the gas explosions, i have an idea, you know how you can make sparks with stones right? (the way cavemen discovered the fire) So, this came to my mind, in an area with too much gas, sometimes, with a drill or a pickaxe or something like that, it could start an explosion, because it would have a chance to make a spark wich could ignite the gas.
That's what I wrote down. 1. You said before: "there is air in caves, the only problem is in wet caves where bacteria uses up the oxygen and makes carbon dioxide to below a breathable level". The air down there is not breathable in my or you theory. Either way you need to get some frsh air down there. Also, we would not know how deep we have to go to reach a point where we have only UNBREATHABLE air. We know already that we can hit a depth where we can no longer breath without pumping down fresh air or somewhat. Almost all mining caves have a vent system. Guess for what it is being used? 2. You said some true words, I have to give you that. BUT it is actually realistic. Do you think that you can destroy a very hard stone with a pickaxe that would break if it hits the stone. There is one rule in mining that is always important, and always true. If the thing you mine is harder than your pickaxe, your pickaxe will break. That's it. 3. This point is where it gets very theoretical. We don't know how hot it is in depths almost above the core of a planet. Maybe hot enough to keep the lava in liquid state. 4. -.- 5. -.-
I really like the part about gas pockets underground, though you should be able to upgrade/research to be able to spot gas pockets, to avoid or even use them for power, or traps. I really hope there's going to be "realistic" gas ignition, small program called Powder has impressive simulations of various materials, gasses, and so forth.
Good idea. So I just wrote an essay, and wanted to submit my post, before hitting the key to go back one page. I just screwed up my post, and I am to aggresive to write the long version down again. So here's the short one: 1. Point for you. 2. Solution for both. The deeper you are, the slower the mining. But! The mining speed would probably decrease per block depth ba a small ammount, until you reach the point of mining 1 hour on a single block. And that would force you to get better gear. Sounds good doesn't it? 3. Point for me. 4. I wrote about 300 words on this before I screwed up the post. Let's just say we forget this point. But I want to see gases implemented. 5. This is not very necessary. Altought acid/poison could work. And yes, it has to be something personal indeed.
so 3 is a point for you because you meant it would be connected to a larger pool of lava, and we argued because you were unclear about it? hmmmm... on what rekalty said, in powder game each pixel is a separate object, and if you wanted that kind of gas it would take a ridiculous amount of processing power, especially after puting wind in. yes, I agree that acids and a poison status for going through toxic liquids would work. damn italians, eh? I wonder if every time I get into an argument its with an italian
That I mentioned it, as it had very good gas/liquid effects, even though, as Karoo said, its all done on a pixel-scale, so having that run real-time in a large game like Starbound, may be overkill And also, take up too many resources.
It would be better if you made something like "methan holes". You can spot these with scanner, and if you are not careful enough, they can blow up. If it was just a "hole" where methan comes out, we ouldn't even have to implement physics for gases.
