I was thinking, how about if your space station can't just land on the planet, but you have to choose a way how to descend down there? Like using a drop Pod if you want it to be quick and cheap (automatic and fast! you receive a little bit of damage), or a little rocket if it should be reliable (you fly it manually! with enough skill, you wont receive any damage), or a teleporter if you are willing to spend some money (instant teleporting, no damage, like a boss!) Like always: please leave your opinions, suggestions, Ideas!
I like this idea, such as (forgive my obscure references) the Leviathan is the primary transport for the crew in Farscape, but usually when they plan on investigating a planet they send out a smaller ship, or Prowler, keeping the Leviathan in orbit. It makes sense to only go in with a small ship in case you run into trouble, that way you can always retreat back into orbit. The smaller ship could even carry a hoverbike to make up ground and travel the planet!
I assume your space station CAN'T just land on there, but there should be no risk for geting on the planet. it would just suck for lowlevel players
I can agree with the whole "Too much risk for low level", although the general concept sounds splendid! I wonder if we could sneak a bunch of references into drop ships... Like an S.S. Dolphin lookalike... Heheheh...
Hmm, I guess that's right. How about making the damage you can receive percentual? So low low-level players can withstand it, and high-tier players can just upgrade their ship to use the aforementioned teleporter. I dunno, I like upgrading things. And sorry for Bumping.
Well, in one of the screenshots released, we see that there is some kind of aircraft capable of infantry transport. Whether or not if we can equip it with weaponry or transport vehicles is yet to be known, but I'm pretty sure that it will be a transport option. I'm all for a heavily armored dropship loaded with marines and an APC (see: Aliens) diving through a hostile atmosphere and landing in an ideal location for an outpost!
Hmm, something like Awesomenauts drop pods? I want to fly over the planet, jump out off my spaceship and then deploy a parachute.
I think space stations are being overestimated. A station is like a base, which you all already know. However, like bases, they tend to be stationary (E.G. they don't move). Thus, we can assume that more than one station can be founded by players in multiple parts of the galaxy (and some may, presumably, already exist). We can also assume that a player will be more reliant on his/her/its SHIP. Smaller ships could outright land on planets (think the Millennium Falcon). Larger ships may need a proper dock or be too large to land (the Normandy for example one, the Imperial Star Destroyers for example two). These would have some sort of Landing craft, likely something like a Pelican. Personally I think all this is presumable. Of course these will exist at some point, likely sooner than later. Variety is the focus, as well as customization. I think we can assume that you will be able to purchase weapons and shielding, as well as cargo room, auxiliary gear like scanners and mining pods... etc, up to the ship's 'gear capacity.' In other words, a small ship might have 10 'GP' points to work with, and may be able to equip 'Small Laser' (2 GP), a 'Small Shield Modulator' (4 GP) and a 'Small Cargo Hold' (6 GP). Ships may have to choose between these sorts of things as well as interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic (trans-dimensional?) drives- but I'm getting carried away. Someone will figure out a system, I just saw that one used in "Starport: Galactic Empires," and thought it made sense. After all, a drop pod with 73 'Large Plasma Cannon' items, 2k+ shields and more cargo room than an old lady's purse might be pushing things a bit. Even for a video game. I'm rambling. Yes, dropships will likely be featured, and would be pretty cool, given some variety.
I'm great at quadratic formula, I like finding the range of projectiles fired in vacuum, and I'm not too shabby at computing inequalities of unnamed variables, but I ALWAYS screw up addition and subtraction!
I think that some planet types (or biome areas) should be free to "beam down" onto, and the player's homeworld should be picked from one of these. Later on, however, on other planets that might be high-wind/magnetic interference such as desert or molten planets, the player might be required to play a game of Lunar Lander to get to the planet surface.
Your space station would probably be able to orbit around a planet instead of being stranded in the middle of space. It would be really cool (but a little frusterating) if you had to wait for the space station to be over head to beam up, teleport, etc. However having a sort of landing ship would be a little over powered. One of the things I like most about Terraria and Minecraft is being required to look around an area for a biome or area you are looking for. Would it be fun if you just flew to the rarest part of an planet with out an trouble? I certainly think not. I like the idea of drop pods and teleporters better.
I think I definitively agree with the person who pointed out that this is a Space Station... emphasis on the Station bit because stations are usually stationary. And, being that stations are usually stationary, the most logical presumption to make would be that some sort of spacecraft will be required if we are to go gallivanting about the universe. And if that is the case, then it seems logical to presume that we would have SOME kind of vehicle capable of landing/flying while on the surface. Especially considering that picture up there of the open-sided aircraft-looking thing. And that's awesome. Because I love the idea of going down and flying around on planets looking for an ideal landing zone... having different kinds of craft for different kinds of missions, even! Imagine if your science vessel could give you an accurate scan of the planet's surface and atmosphere: telling you if you could breath, telling you what kinds of life exist on it, telling you if there are phenomena or anomalies which might pose a hazard to your mission. Maybe you discover that there's a very hostile indigenous population right near where you were hoping to land, so you make a note of the coordinates and head back to the station to get a ship with some combat capabilities. Shuttles, Cargo Ships, Drones... there's all kinds of opportunities to make the process interesting and engaging, inspiring us to play around with them when it comes to landing on new worlds. But here's what -I- want to know: Will it be possible to get marooned?
Not really. You could theoretically fly anywhere, but landing places would be limited to relatively flat stretches. Also, your dropship would probably be pretty basic.
I also seriously doubt that you're going to be able to figure out what the most valuable places are simply by looking at the ground. Sure, there might be some cool places to start, but I doubt that it would be a matter of some magical signpost rock that equates to "Dig Here and Get Rich!"
