Sectors of the galaxy are somewhat serving as a game stage separator. You hang around one sector, beat the boss when hanged enough, then you move to another sector, repeat. Today I came up with another idea of how to stage the game. What if all the planets were located in one big sector, but completely inaccessable without proper equipment? Of corse, that proper equipment is only obtainable after defeating a boss. For example, shortly after the game start you can only land on planets with normal atmosphere and moderate temperature. After you defeat the first boss, you can craft a suit to land on moons to obtain from there some higher-tier stuff to defeat a another boss. After all, you'll be landing on gas giants' cores in an ancient civilisation mech or something (this game isn't about realism anyway). That concept would be less plain than current sector-division system and also would stimulate players' progression (you see all these planets unaccessable, but if you try to land on them, you die).
Your suggestion is quite similar to the current layout of sector X, as these star systems have a myriad of planets ranging from threat level 5 to 10. When you hit this sector, you typically stay on planets within your tier range. Thus if you are working on tier 5 , you can explore threat 5-6 planets, with the threat level 6 planets being on the high/hard end of your current tier. Currently, there are quite good reasons to explore the lower tier sectors, even after defeating a particular boss. For example, Sector A and Sector B are the only places to mine iron ore, and Sector Gamma and Delta are the only places to mine titanium. Thus, if you want to craft these items, you will need to return to these sectors to mine the requisite ore. On top of just ore collection, earlier tiers are good places to find easy dungeons to gather dungeon specific decorative items, like glitch banners or avian temple blocks.
the developers thought about that, only with a fog of war that is cleared on reaching a new tier. that being said, i HATE the tier system in general, why do i have to beat 3 bosses in order to play with wires, or build somthing to let me breath in space. or wait till you almost beat the game in order to get a pet?
Over all, it sounds very similar to the developer's in-mind goal for space travel. You would start in one infinite expanse, but with a massive fog of war preventing you from traveling outside of the current sector, in order to ensure proper gear levels and what not. You would create space maps to explore new sectors. But you don't need to move on to another sector or stick around on one in particular. As Kenata explained, there are generation-specific reasons for revisiting old sectors.
not really, it forces the player to kill a boss. not explore. besides, why would I not explore? I play this game to explore. I do not see how limiting access to a paint gun makes me want to explore. in fact, it dose the opposite, I want to rush through the game to be able to paint my walls blue.
We could make it a lot simpler if all sectors had every threat level, but they were limited by resources instead. Make it so that whatever you can find in a higher threat level in earlier sectors doesn't actually give you broken things if you somehow manage to cheese it, but allow it to be more rewarding in other ways, especially if you have to return to older sectors.
