Celestial Objects and Other Things to Find!

So, after seeing the Star Navigation news, I started thinking about all of the different kinds of things we could discover in space. I know there has been clear mention that we will not just visit planets and moons, so I think it would be fun to discuss and even speculate on what those could be!

So, these are some celestial objects/bodies and other things that are not as typical as dominant planets or moons that I think would be awesome to be able to explore (or find and observe) and that I think would be cool to come across, and some thoughts on what they could feature:

• Space stations - potentially very large, some can be hostile or friendly, some can be totally abandoned or damaged; can be broken down into zones such as living quarters, markets/stores, plazas, entertainment; could even have slums or other sketchy areas on friendly stations that are hostile; some stations could be hiding behind a moon or close to a major planet in the system, or be very close to a sun to collect its energy, and could be a failed experiment resulting in a dead crew and requiring special gear for the heat; some stations could be operation or old mining stations, some even built upwards or downwards from a huge asteroid, or used for colonization
  
  Think...Death Star from Star Wars, or other stations or cities in fiction, such as those in Mass Effect
  Also, think Borg Cubes (the primary vessels of the Borg Collective in Star Trek) - could be tremendously hostile, dangerous and large and have a very distinct/unique appearance; not a space station or ship

• Space ships - some can be hostile or friendly/neutral, some even crashed, broken, abandoned, or in distress or set up as a trap for an unwary explorer; some that contain no life can still be explored for items and resources, and may contain dead crew members; each would be fairly small in size, but some can be very large, and some can even contain coordinates or active teleporters to a planet or other ships or a station for further exploration; there could even be huge space cruisers or docks or ships used solely for colonization

• Satellites - could be used to manipulate its signals or could be taken apart and used for your ship for new features such as scanning tech; minor or no actual exploration/visiting

• Miscellaneous debris - can be things like ejected or lost space shuttle/rocket parts that can be used to siphon fuel or resources from; could even be strictly from the menu and have no exploration due to having nowhere to walk or land, or be comprised of a large amount of destroyed ships that are now collected in a relatively small area

• Asteroids - would contain unique, precious minerals; can be found alone or perhaps as a belt; some can be very close to a planet or the sun, some remote, and some can be quite massive or even contain a space station (above)

• Dwarf planets - not a planet, says science (looking at you, Pluto) - small in size, enough that the screen wraps around and is not infinite in map size; some can be extremely far from their sun(s) and therefore would be so intensely cold that special equipment/suits are required in order to visit them

• Damocloids - not to be confused with a dwarf planet, they are minor planets (but are not 'planets') - nuclei of a comet that has long since lost its gasses and is now in a long-period orbit, albeit an eccentric one; think inactive or depleted comet, no tail - would have limited size and feature special or hard-to-find minerals; finding a damocloid would be highly uncommon and may or may not contain life

• Rogue planets - known as extrasolar plants or exoplanets in our Solar System; not part of a system's orbit, and would not follow even the closest system's naming scheme; would have no light, no heat whatsoever - so if you thought a dwarf planet was cold, go to a rogue planet (would require even more advanced gear); could have damage from other small celestial objects colliding, and perhaps not be able to sustain life, or the life it does sustain is terrifying

• Homeworld fragments - could be an integral part of the story and game progression, could be observed or even perhaps visited (only for minor resources, little exploration due to its nature)

• Organic anomalies - not celestial bodies, not made by man or humanoid; could be a explorable mass of tissue, or comprised of debris or a ship that has been assimilated; very hostile, potentially, but very rewarding; can spawn unique and strong enemies perhaps

This isn't necessarilya suggestion thread for the devs. I thought this would make for a fun conversation to get the creative juices flowing, so to speak. Also, what else? Is there anything else that fits and belongs on the list?

EDIT
Other people's thoughts that stood out to me that had either not crossed my mind or did not include (comets, black holes) - in the order posted (followed my my own thoughts in parentheses):

• Mining colonies - Katarone - i.e., a Budong mining colony (can be organic or mechanical, though 'colony' kind of implies organic to me, at least when referring to a Budong)
• Ringworlds - Caidoz - vast bands of material that encircle an entire star; the atmosphere is held to the inner surface of the band by centrifugal force, creating a massive habitable area (could contain massive colonies and would be infinite in size; could contain defenses, shops, and outposts as well)
• Dyson spheres - Caidoz - an artificial, hollow planet built around a sun in order to gather its energy (if found, can be used to gather your own energy or produce high-end tech; could be equipped with turrets (found this thread also which has good ideas; if you break past the shell with the wrong equipment, you could be evaporated/incinerated)
• Nebulae - Caidoz - interstellar clouds of dust, hydrogen, helium, and other ionized gases; are often star-forming regions (can at least be observed, perhaps even visited with high-end equipment in order to gather gases that can be used in equipment and technology)
• Ringed planets - Caidoz - (some could be gas giants, may or may not be able to be visited, but the rings of the planets could be visited physically with good equipment, and would contain strange creatures and be infinite in length if the planet is large enough)
• Pulsar - Caidoz - aka pulsating star, a possible result of a gravitational collapse of a massive star from a supernova, now a very magnetized neutron star that emits electromagnetic radiation (can contain extremely precious materials and would be very dangerous and require special equipment)
• Black holes - Caidoz - places where ordinary gravity has become so extreme that it overwhelms all other forces in the Universe; once inside, nothing can escape a black hole's gravity, not even light (you would be prevented from even approaching one until you had upgraded your ship to a certain point and have a massive amount of fuel reserved; if your ship is well-equipped, you could possibly survive entering, but time would slow to a stop for you, and you could end up in some undetermined, strange place) (I had thought of black holes, but did not originally include it because I thought it was so far-fetched haha)
• Binary systems - Caidoz - or, systems with one than two stars (one thought at the moment: awesome)
• Comets - Sir_Animus - Halley-type comets or no, tail always points away from the sun; can be mined even at the tail for rewarding materials, but would be extra dangerous (you could perhaps mine down to the "dirty snowball", or its nucleus which is comprised of rock, dust and frozen gases; could perhaps only be visited with increased ship and teleporting technology and better personal equipment since the comet is moving so fast and is so dangerous due to the volatile materials)
• Space hulks - Sir_Animus - massive decayed hulls of spaceships lost millennia ago (basically just a idea of ancient, grand-scaled space ships, if I'm correct
• Space-faring creatures - Anris - could be landed on, not able to me mined at all or built on (could really make for some cool or supermassive creatures, i.e., Budong - a very dangerous and horrible creature)
• Machine planets - Anris - different than space stations or dyson spheres; planets made entirely of metals and machinery, completely artificially built into a sun's orbit (could even be the planets of the Robot race; would have a completely different experience and gravitational rules than similarly-sized actual planets)
• Wormholes - Crimson - essentially a shortcut through spacetime itself, where objects that enter one end of it end up on the other; could allow jumping to totally different and undeterminable/unknown areas of the Universe or galaxy, saving fuel and time - blind sniper
• Pocket dimensions - Anris - (guessing this refers to those occurring in the Marvel Universe or in Runescape, containing totally different realms and greatly diverging rules of space and physics)
• Living planets - The O5 Director - possibly sentient with mustache forests (could be an actual creature that has collected minerals as its crust over millennia, or just lack minerals and be completely organic, much like the organic anomalies are in a way) (the idea of sentient forests reminded me of an awesome thought I had but forgot to express!)

(working - more to be added in time)

 

You forgot one thing... A Budong mining colony...

 

Tiy already said that they might add Asteroids for kinda PvP arena type things if I remember right. As for spaceships and satellites, I don't know, they might add them, it would indeed be interesting. As for the dwarf planets, ALL the planets are going to wrap around except some are going to be bigger then others. Don't quite know about much of he other ones.

 

Good list, but you mean rogue planets instead of exoplanets. Exoplanet just means it's not part of *Earths* solar system, and since the human home-world was apparently destroyed, technically all planets in Starbound are exoplanets.

I'd like to add Ring Worlds, Dyson Spheres, Nebulae, Planets with rings (hopefully visitable), Pulsars, Black Holes, and Binary or Triple star systems (or even more, we recently discovered the first planet in a four-star system).

 

I'm pretty sure that the devs mentioned something about some planets being infinite...
But I might just be going insane.

 

Nope, they did say that in one of the first interviews.

 

I'd be all for having a tissue mass planet lol. I thought they might have live comets as well. Working in the tail area would be extra dangerous. To expand on the spaceship I was thinking space hulks as well. Massive decayed hulls of spaceships lost millennia ago.

 

Why not put in gigantic space fearing animals, so you can land on them with your ship and hitch a ride to the unknown. Obviously you couldn't harm them or pierce their skin. And the screen would move with them. You also couldn't build any large structures on them.

And this has been discussed before: a machine planet, full with all the mandatory things.

Or regions of space where the laws of physics no longer apply, either due to natural events or screw ups with god-like tech. A place where weird and creepy things happen.

 

i'd love to long jump around a dwarf planet and not getting on the ground for like 30 seconds.

oh wait this isn't mario galaxy.

still i'd like to do something like that which makes me wonder about something...

how does gravity affects bullets?

 

Some new ideas and old ones as well, but nicely bundled

 

I'm pretty sure that they said they had the capability to be infinite. Not that they were going to be. Though they might add in a few infinite worlds, just it doesn't fit in with the planet theme, cause I can see a big planet seeming infinite cause of the size but yeah. Maybe massive ones are going to be infinite to make it seem like you can never go around it. *Shrugs* Either way.

 

Can't wait to play Starbound...

 

This is correct. The notion was that although the engine can handle virtually infinite planets, they are keeping them capped right now. The reasoning there is that they want the players to have reason to leave a planet and adventure elsewhere. If a planet gets too large (or certainly, if it was infinite), then a player could basically do anything and everything they wanted to do within the current tier on just that one world. Keeping them more finite in size encourages exploration... not that I think many people here need such encouragement. I want to visit a lot of different planets regardless of how big they are. But still, I understand the sentiment.

Also, as to the OP, of all the suggestions there I'm most excited about investigating derelict/abandoned space stations and ships. Even though beaming down to various planets, asteroids, and other celestial bodies will be extremely varied and certainly a lot of fun, space stations and ships would bring a completely different style of adventure to the table, and could be the source of some really interesting side quests.

 

Budong FTW ?

 

Among others...

 

If this would be in the game.... I would pay double for it. But I think I will buy a four-pack anyway

 

Would like to bazooka a dwarf planet until it's nothing :/

 

I'd love to see wormholes in the game that functioned like Spore's. Like, you go near it, and you get warped to another wormhole on the other side of the galaxy.

 

Mmm...Wormholes... My favorite way to travel.
| +|You're saving fuel.
| - |You don't have the slightest idea of what a goddamn hole you will be brought to.

 

Funny situation: you're almost out of fuel, you see a worm hole and use it.
And the damn thing brings you next to a black hole.