Artificial Planets - DANGER! (Revamped!)

"That's no moon..."



-Artificial Planets-

Artificial Planets, or rather Metal Planets, are mysterious celestial bodies found deep in space, with dark rumors surrounding them. Travelers leave for them and never come back. People are abducted and taken to these planets, never to be seen again. Even stories of people of returning from these planets exist, but they say that they are never quite the same, having an almost "brainwashed" demeanor.

So what draws adventurers, pirates, and hot-shot pilots to these forbidden husks of death? Well, stories also persist about great treasure found deep below the cold, hard surface of these planets. Some say riches. Others say weapons. And some say these planets hold technology eons ahead of anything anyone has ever seen. These stories seem to hold some truth: the MiniKnog often send research teams out to these planets, only to lose contact during the mission.

And now YOU have stumbled upon one of these planets. What will you do? Pass it by, or risk everything to find the greatest loot anyone has ever seen?

-Planetary Technical Details-

Artificial planets are composed almost entirely of different metals, save for some force-fields and other types of energy. They would not have an atmosphere, or oxygen, and are extremely cold. Special equipment is required to even beam down, such as a space suit and a portable heat source.

Digging around is not recommended; the planet's surface and underground are composed of a mix of Hi-Tech, Steel, Light Metal, and Titanium Plating blocks. Instead, the surface is dotted with small buildings, or "Rooms," and Service Tunnels. The Service Tunnels lead deep into the planet, where most of the valuable equipment is kept and stored.

These planets are ALWAYS threat level 10 and above, and can only be encountered in Sector X. Full Impervium Gear is recommended before exploring the surface.
-The Denizens of Metal Planets-



Unsurprisingly, the inhabitants of these planets are not biological. They are robotic and droid-like in nature, but have an interesting quirk: they, like the Gltich, are sentient AND self-aware, but unlike the Glitch, are extremely hostile. Most of these droids view biological life as "inferior," and an "infestation," and will attempt to kill you not long after you've set foot on the planet.

The surface of the planet houses the less dangerous of these Bots: simple Repair Drones, Scouts, and Light Patrol Bots will move about the surface, and with the exception of the Patrol Bot, will not bother you. It isn't until you begin descending into the planet's Service Tunnels that the more dangerous of these Bots will move to intercept you. The farther down you go, the more powerful and aggressive they get.

Most bots are bipedal and are slightly taller than the player, depending on it's role and rank. Scouts would probably be small, hovering, and spherical in nature.

-The Service Tunnels and Below the Service-

Ideally, this will be where you will be spending most of your time. Service Tunnels would begin at the surface, with large steel doors blocking the entrance. After moving through the lightly guarded entrance, you'd set foot into the labyrinth of tunnels, elevators, and rooms, with only one objective: GO DEEPER.

Some points of interest underground:

-Prison Chambers: These chambers would be fairly small, with only 3-4 cells, and would have Oxygen and a heating system. Random people of different species would be held here most of the time, and setting them free would make them available as merchants. On rare occasions, however, you might find a Bot in prison. These bots would generally be Light Patrols or Guards (basically, anything that's a decent fighter.) The other Bots call these imprisoned ones the "Sympathetics;" these are bots that are friendly to biologicals and only want to co-exist with them. These would also act as merchants, but would sell you more valuable gear, such as exclusive techs, weapons, or armor. Prison Chambers would be heavily guarded.

-Storage Rooms: The name says it all: Large rooms filled to the brim with crates, packed as densely and efficiently as possible. Searching around here might get you some nice gear, but it's no guarantee. On the bright side, these rooms are guarded the lightest.

-Assembly Lines: Constantly churning out new Bots, these rooms (besides the Core) are the most heavily guarded in the Underground. They do, however, have some special rewards. Special Capture pods, called Abduction Pods, would be obtainable here. The Abduction Pods allow you to capture NPCs and guards the same way you would normal creatures. Filled Pods can also be found here, and they contain a Guard Bot, who is ready to serve and protect the person who summons it. The Bots summoned from these pods tend to be chatty, and are highly protective of their master: walking into a town with the Guard with you would cause the guard to watch any armed individual until they are out of sight. ("STAY AWAY FROM THE MASTER, OR THERE WILL BE... TROUBLE.")

-Biological Research Stations: Bots perform experiments on Biological life here, from plants, to animals, to sentient beings. Animals and people freed from here would riot, and would rampage about the tunnels, destroying every bot in sight. Many fancy decorative items can be found here as well.

And last, but certainly not least...

-The Core-



Found in the deepest layers of the planet, the core is only safe to approach from a specified room: Digging into it's chamber would send electric shocks at the player, which could kill them in 2-3 shocks.

The core contains the most valuable loot: full sets of Legendary Performance Enhancing Cyborg Armor and Legendary Cyborg Weaponry are guaranteed to appear here. These sets have slightly higher stats than Impervium Gear, and would give passive bonuses to the wearer (such as the All Seeing Cape's farther zoom, water breathing, and Heat.)

Another piece of valuable loot acquired here would be the Encrypted Distress Signal. An advanced version of the Distress Signal used by Bots, this would call in a Dropship to wherever it was used, that would deploy high-level bots, as well as fire on the player with laser cannons (Essentially, a tougher version of the UFO boss.) Upon death, it drops the Sentient Core, which allows you to upgrade your Robotics Crafting Table to a Self-Aware Crafting table. It would allow the crafting of Abduction Pods, as well as Sympathetic Spawners and Sympathetic Guard Spawners. The Self-Aware Crafting Table would also be chatty and talk to you while using it. ("Welcome back, sir! What can I make today?")

Naturally, the most dangerous of enemies appear at the Core: many of them are powerful, high ranking bots, most of which are Mini-Bosses. Due to the extreme danger of being down here, players would probably spend no more than 2 minutes at the Core, before having to retreat. Thankfully, next to the Core is a Transporter Room, which would allow you to beam back to you ship without having to navigate the Tunnels again.

And... that's it! If you have a question, comment, or concern, post below, and I'll be sure to answer you to the best of my ability. Thanks for reading!

 

Would be nice, but what would the "Core" be like? am I to dig down indefinitely?

what would I do there? when I dig with my drill/Axe(lol) or M2 what will come up as a block?

no "caves" right? so the world would be specifically tied to generating "logical" Rooms?

 

The core would probably some massive generator room, which gives off electric shocks that would heavily damage the player. You can dig down to it, but that's extremely unsafe. The safe way to approach would be to navigate the "service tunnels" (expanded upon below) and work your way through the maze to find the core.

Blocks would probably a mix of Steel, Light Metal, Titanium Plating, and Hi-Tech Blocks.

Yes, rooms would be a thing. Caves would take the form of service tunnels and elevators that lead deeper and deeper into the planet. The further down you go, the better and more unique loot you get, such as special weapons with a Robot/Cyborg theme, or even a bipedal/hovering robot companion.

How's that for ya?

 

Nice idea, how about artificial rings too? They could be more common and a bit less threatening.

 

Sounds like a Big ass dungeon lol, so effectively a more epic version of "Space station dungeons" in the pipleline right?

is good, is very good.

 

this in addition to abandoned space-stations would be great.

 

@Ciurrioc: Yes. Big dungeon, scary dungeon, epic dungeon.

@ T.Y.M: How do you mean? Like artificial planet rings or asteroid belts? That could be neat, possibly the remnants of an Artificial Planet after some space-faring spelunker decided he/she would try to take the core home.

 

I like this. A bit of polish and this could be implemented in game easily.

 

Like artificial ring around the planet. You would select it the same way you select planets/moons or asteroid clumps.

Here is some examples from another game. The ring wouldn't necesary be connected to the planet and it could be spinning around it.

 

cat approves : something like a deathstar , elysium planet , abandoned space ships from dead space

 

I like it but what if there was a way to make your on planet if you have a ton of ore? I just think it would be fun to design your own planet from scratch and you could make one on a server for your friends to share

 

I think it would be cool when space battles get added, to have to fight one to land on the planet with heavy resistance. agree?

 

you sir are a genuise ( pretty sure I misspelled that)

 

something like the big gete star from DBZ ?

 

Ah, okay. That would be neat. I'd imagine it as one celestial body, but the planet shows heavy signs of industrialization, or even assimilation.

 

I'd imagine that'd be implemented sometime after ship upgrades. You could modify your ship with terraforming tech, which would allow you to design your own planet/metal planet/moon/whatever.

 

I love it. It sounds like a fun challenge.

 

I'd totally be down for this.

What if there's various "prison cells" in the depths of that world that hold friendly NPCs who will sell things to you? Like they managed to take the prison as their own through rioting and somehow manage to fend off robots from taking the prison cells back?

 

OOOOH why not have survivors on the planet like the glitch. When you talk to them they will explain that AA turrets manufactured by the droids shot their ship out of the air causing them to crash into the planet. They then will agree to make an alliance with you as they have been cast out by the droids that have inhabited the planet. you could then trade with the glitch and fight off the droids gaining more materials to make a ship for the glitch so he could get home! They could then reward you with parts for your ship like upgrades or tech items.

 

Another possibility is the deep down into the planet, you could hit a prison chamber. The Prison had an atmosphere and heating, and the prisoners were pilots who flew too close to the Metal Planet. You could release them, and like you said, they'd act as merchants who'd sell things to you.