I think starbound should have procedurally generated universes.

Title gives the main idea of the post, pretty much.

For a bit of context, I've played minecraft for quite a long time now. Every time I play it, I love to explore the world and build cool things within it. One of the biggest draws, for me, is that when I randomize that seed and generate a new world for myself, I can safely say that it is my world. The likelihood that anyone else uses it isn't excruciatingly slim, but the number of people who use it, if multiple, is most likely very small. It made me feel like this was MY world, and that any discovery I made was something uniquely mine.

In starbound, It's no longer about exploring one infinite world, but it's about exploring an infinite collection of many worlds. You jump from planet to planet, gathering resources under different conditions, discovering new peoples and creatures, new soils and materials, and exploration is limitless... but it's not my universe. When I find something neat, there's a part of me that knows that someone else could have found this thing, and if it was cool enough he could easily have just shared the coordinates to that very spot in everybody's universe, making it a public spectacle. Everything is the same. You're not exploring your own unique universe filled with unique finds, but rather a different part of the same old universe. I just feel that this aspect causes this kind of game to lose something important.

I suggest that instead of a static universe, generate a random seed for a universe. This seed would determine what coordinates have planets at them, and those coordinates can be used to generate a planet as normal. A player who really wants to check out something neat from another player can easily generate a universe with the same universe seed and fly to the coordinates.

Anybody feel the same, or have thoughts on the matter?

 

You can easily change your own universe seed in Celestials.config (if I recall correctly) and have your own unique experience, if you wish.

 

I think you're misunderstanding how planet generation works in Starbound. Each world has its own seed. Write down the coordinates of your homeworld. It is every bit as random as the world you built in MC. So is every world you visit. Just like MC, the likelihood that anyone has visited your planet is no greater than the likelihood that someone is using the same seed as you in MC.

 

Bleh, nevermind, I think I'm misunderstanding how this works.

 

really? this is the first I've heard of that.

No, I understand perfectly how it works. The coordinates are used as the seed for the generation of each world. However, everyone has the same set of working coordinates, and thus the same universe. My issue is that starbound isn't about an individual world, but rather about exploring the universe, so the uniqueness would need to be extended to the universe to maintain the experience.

 

Forum search is your friend. Took me 2 minutes.

 

Brilliant! Eleven billionty planets just got eleven billionty-er.

I didn't even think to search for it, as I didn't even know it was a thing. I wasn't quite sure how Starbound's seed system worked.

 

In that respect, wouldn't it still be the same as Minecraft? The only difference here is the framework. You can visit multiple "seeds" in one game rather than starting a whole new game. If you see each Minecraft world you generate as a planet (technically a solar system, I guess, since the coordinates describe a system, not a specific planet), wouldn't you still be in the same "universe" as other Minecraft players?

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think right now there is one MULTIVERSE seed that we're all starting in by default. Meaning we're all playing in the same universe, thus we can share coordinates with each other and check out the same planets. The coordinates of the planets are like seeds within the Multiverse seed. I believe within the Multiverse seed, all the planets are set, which means they are at the same coordinates for all of us. In this sense, we're all playing in the same Multiverse and can visually see the same planets everyone else is.

Not sure that's entirely true. I know quite a few people who go to y=0 x=0 and start exploring planets from there moving out. Those that do are all playing on the same planets. I could be wrong about this, but if we're all sharing planet coordinates, then obviously they are the same for all of us.

What I think the OP is saying is it'd be nice to be able to generate a unique Multiverse seed, thus none of the coordinates we share with people for planets will match up unless they are playing on our same Multiverse seed.

 

Right. I was just pointing out that all you gotta do is hit "Find Random" and the planet is as random as an MC world's seed. But sure--I get that OP is looking to not have coords match up with others.

 

I can definitely see where it's needed though, especially for Multiplayer Servers. Otherwise once these dedicated servers start up, you'll have people rushing to specific coordinates to get a leg up on items and loot. I'm cool playing in the same sector seeds as everyone, but I definitely want the multiplayer servers I'm on to be unique seeds.

 

Same Opinion as Vandrick

 

That changing the sector seed is an awesome trick, thank you.

 

Why do you care so much what other players do? Why do you have to control how other people play?

 

In a multiplayer server how others play can directly affect you if, for example, PvP is an option and turned on or you are hosting/participating in a race.

You may have a point in single player, but there are many reasons yu might want a non-standard generated universe on a server.

 

What Tanek said. I don't care what other players do in their own game, but I do care about a fair/even playing field when it comes to starting in a server with people. It's nice to start on a server where everyone is discovering everything from the beginning, not making a B-line to a specific planet because there are chests they want to grab before anyone else. And besides, what if I want to play on more than one multiplayer server and want a different experience on each one. It's no different from not wanting to play on 3 multiplayer servers using the exact same Minecraft seed.

PS: And by the way, giving us the option in the UI to generate a universe seed is the EXACT opposite of controlling how other people play. As it stands right now rolling us all in the same universe IS, in fact, controlling how we play. I'm all for not doing that.

 

Why does what you want take precedence over what the other people on those servers want?

 

If someone on the server don't agree with the person running it with regard to the sector seeds, then it is not the correct server for that player. This is talking about the option to change the universe if you want. Not forcing anyone to use it.

 

Umm...not sure how you got that out of anything I typed lol. To paraphrase, I'd like to play on a multiplayer server NOT using the same seed as the default single player Starbound. In fact, I'd like to play in a server using its own unique seed. And that personal preference has NOTHING at all to do with what the heck other people will do/want to do/would prefer. Just like if I were to say "I'd like Mexican food tonight". It's a preference completely unrelated to anyone else nor forcing my preference on them.

My friends and I run a dedicated server. We'll be rolling a brand new unique seed when the retail game goes live. So I'm all set for where I'll be playing. I don't care what other people do. If there are multiplayer servers out there that will be hosting the game with the default universe seed, I won't be playing there. But I'm pretty darn sure 90% of the dedicated servers will be rolling their own unique universe seed.

 

Because I pay for it. My server, my rules. If you want your own rules, make your own server or play by yourself. No one is forcing you to play on a server with a non-default sector seed. In fact, if they forced everyone to use the same world seed YOUR style of play would be forced on ME.