This is more of a discussion thread, not some definite idea. Definition 1: passive environmental hazard — something you always / almost always encounter in natural environment on some hostile planets. Add your own, by the way, although this is not really the point of the thread. Extreme cold; Extreme heat; Lack of oxygen; Extreme atmospheric pressure; Toxic gases or microbiological contamination Definition 2: active environmental hazard — anything you don't experience all the time. Not the point of this thread. Aggressive fauna; Hostile sentient life; Rough landscape with plenty of cliffs to fall from; Lava or other hazardous substance pools; Really bad weather, including both thunderstorms and tornadoes; Tectonics with volcano eruptions (lava again, but it's good), earthquakes breaking everything and tsunami Again, add your own. And again, this is completely not the point of the thread. I should make repost of this part of this post in planets' subforum. I will, tomorrow. Still, it had to be said here, because I needed to define some things. So, to the point. Assuming we have passive environmental hazards, we will have to get some sort of protection. I can see these styles of protection: Equipment modifiers. Your basic "Chainmail of Fire Protection" goes here. You can find some equipment with hazard resistance in the world, sure, but I think that some sort of item crafting and/or reforging (more controllable maybe) will be welcome addition. Pro: Easy to understand, streamlined. No extra slots are eaten. Possibly most self-balancing way. Contra: May be annoying to get what you need. Player may feel necessity to switch "Power Armor of Awesomeness" to "Ugly Asbestos Suit", and it always leaves an unpleasant feeling. Accessories. "Amulet of Ammonia Breathing", which you should equip in your accessories slot. Pro: again, easy to understand. Easy to balance: more dangerous planets require more special protective accessories, which makes them naturally harder to traverse with less "useful" accessories. In my opinion this feels easier than armor changing. Contra: My opinion may be wrong, people may hate it. May feel artificial: why can I wear top hat and be able to breathe air? Oh, it's this "amulet", right. Special equipment. Probably most hardcore way to do it: if you want to go to a very cold planet, you *need* to have special protection suit. This may seem somewhat similar to "equipment modifiers", but actually it's completely different. In EM style any cowboy suit can have "pressurized" modifier, providing you with possibility to use it on airless planets. In this, SE style, it's the other way around: there is specific group of items, called pressurized suits, and you have to use one of these. They may or may not have cool combat stats. This style of environmental protection is most demanding, and it is probably hardest one on player. Pro: hardcore. Contra: hardcore. Protection slots. You know how we have real and social armor slots in Terraria? Well, we can also have additional row of "protection" slots. This is easiest (for player) way to dwell in Starbound, because he does not really has to choose what to trade for necessary protection. He is always able to use his best equipment and accesories. Pro: easymode. Contra: easymode. You are welcome to add your own ideas on how to implement environmental protection. Also, please vote, but remember that this voting and basic participation in this thread probably requires some meta-level of thought: think not as a player, who generally (not always, but generally) wants to have easiest ways to beat the game available to him, but as a game designer.
Really bad weather on the planet idea would be pretty cool if implemented, maybe the ship would get damaged because of thunderstorm, tornadoes, etc. and would need material to be repaired
Also radiation!! Which would make you mutate! Well, aside from that, I casted my vote for special equipment, because I feel that if you needed a special "armor" like a presurised suit or others, you'd be obliged to have certain versatility in your equipment, not just your +20 epic armor. You'd be forced to switch from time to time and explore planets in a REAL way, with special suits. It would add a lot to the exploration side of the game.
I really like the idea of harmful environments on planets. It would give a lot more diversity of the planets you explore, and gives players something to prepare for, other than just taking damage from enemies. Suggestions I would like to add to this would be different "tiers" of hazards e.g. a mildly cold place would only need something like a scarf to avoid dying, but an "ice age" planet would require really warm clothing or a special heat suit. Tiers would also fit well with a tolerance level for the player, in a mildly cold environment players should be able to tolerate the cold for a good while before needing to seek shelter, but on a really cold planet you'll die within a minute or two without any kind of warmth. Another suggestion would be hazardous "biomes" on planets, e.g. volcano, mountaintops, toxic swamp gas, etc. My vote goes to the special equipment, for several reasons; the need to equip special items on certain planets gives this vibe that you truly are a space explorer, preparing your equipment for the planet would make the experience feel a lot more adventurous. Also, this would fit well for planets with a high threat levels, as being unable to equip "super ultra-chaos armour" would give the high threat level planets the hard difficulty needed for the end game players. Sorry for the long post.
