Imagine running around and having the most glorious of times, skipping across the lush scenery until... *THUD* You wake up to pitch black. Must've fallen into an unseen pit of some sort. *heavy heath* Wh... What was that? You fumble around for your flashlight in panic as the heathing loudens and transforms into a demonic growl. Aha! You finally find your flashlight and illuminate the location of the beas... Wait a minute, nothings there? Guess it must've just been my head getting to me. You begin looking for a way out of this cave. After a few minutes, You check your energypack and find that your flashlight has been draining all of the energy. Your flashlight flickers and suddenly, the heathing starts emanating from behind you. You run away, shining in the direction of the evil presence but it always seems to pervade your light and keep you on your toes. *sputter* *click* The flashlight is dead! Youre in some deep trouble now as the creature approaches you and you finally meet your demise at the claws of the demon known as the grue. The grue is an evil beast that has never been seen before due to its faster than lightning reaction to light. It only comes out in pure darkness and causes devastating, if not fatal damage . the grue cannot be evaded, only deterred. This could potentially add a challenge to the game on some planets, and possibly force players to strategize with their light source to survive on some planets. The idea is essentially that with a directional light the grue will Follow but not harm the player until the light is extinguished, and with an area light the grue will not appear until all light is extinguished. Note that the grue is not a new idea. It is simply an interesting system that can be molded to games with light mechanics P.s. I wrote this on my phone. Sorry for the grammar errors.
Just seems like some unnecessary difficulty, though it worked well in Don't Starve it seems out of place here and like Vesuvia said, it could be a cool mod idea for those who want more of a challenge from Starbound.
Give it / them a ranged attack that knocks off wall lights when you're not nearby, or on occasions even if you are close to one for the spooks, and you won't even be able to fill a whole area with lights and breathe easier. Perhaps on harder planets, there could be whole packs of them hunting together; unseen horrors that wiped out an entire colony when the moon was eclipsed by the gas giant it orbits, oh right.. Pitch Black? Only viable method for exposing them could be with wires, switches and wall lights set up, so you could lure one right behind you, flip the switch and surround it with light. Only bright enough a light source, like a dozen flash bulbs fired off simultaneously could actually burn one to death instead of simply trapping it for a moment before it could escape again?
Not a bad idea, although I think it would be better as a mod. Oh, and for those interested, the Grue is originally from Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, and was later on used in the game Zork. After many years, the concept was once again used in Don't Starve. One of the only pictures of a Grue (or several, in this case).
