Howdy CH forums, I'm Isaak, and I want to bring my thoughts to the table as far how the player's ship teleportation system works. I also want to share my thoughts on some explanations, and alternative suggestions that I've observes so far, and make my case as to why I'd like to see my suggestion implemented. : ) When I formulate my suggestions I always ask myself, "Does this make the game easier?" As players it is our job to try to win, and if we can make winning easier we usually will, even through suggestions in a forum. If I feel my suggestion would make the game easier just for the sake of winning, then it is not a good suggestion and I would not have typed it out for you all today. Right now I am not pleased with the current system as it causes a few problems, some of which have already been expressed in these forums and on Steam multiple times, one of which is the inconvenience to easily relocate to a home or base on the planet's surface, and to a lesser extent, the ability for players to easily abandon a fight. Personally I also feel that the current system makes exploration of the planet surface too safe and without consequence, I will elaborate on this last point more further below. **How I would like to see it work: - When you first teleport down to a new planet this is your 'default' tele location. - When you teleport back to your ship from the surface, your ship remembers this spot as your 'current' location. - When you teleport back down, you automatically go to your last location (what your ship remembers as your 'current' location.) - When you die, you spawn in your ship, and when you first teleport down you go to the 'default' location. New 'current' created. - You can craft and place an item to change the 'default' tele location for that planet. - Teleporting back to the ship requires the ship to "lock-on" to you, requiring the player to stand still for a very short time. - Item can be crafted (like a pad, or the item listed above) that the player can stand on to remove "lock on" time. This may seem complicated at first glance to some, but I have thought it out this way to try and provide both convenience and challenge for the early game, with cons that can be negated or removed in late-game play. (Note that I'm not looking to change how the players ship functions as a base, or the players ability to access it, nor am I speaking against ideas such as target-able surface teleport pads or some such, I'm only going for the basic teleport system that everything else is built upon.) Firstly, my logic on this system stems from my reaction to some reasoning another player expressed on how the current system functions. This person stated that the default location was because of the ship being in orbit of the planet, always over the top of that specific location, and then suggested the ability to move the ship to move the teleportation location. I decided that this wasn't a reasonable explanation, because if the ship can bring you back from any spot on the planet (including the furthest point you can be from the default tele point) then I cannot see why your ship shouldn't be able to send you back to that same spot as well. Secondly I wanted to tackle the ability for players to run from a fight with the click of a single button, versus using their other abilities from running and jumping to using knock-back inducing weapons or other exit strategies. Having a plan for a losing fight is just as important to the game as having a plan to start a fight, and being able to almost instantly leave a battle hurts combat in my opinion. (Also, I am aware that you can still be killed while teleporting, but it is still a very short window.) The reason I did not choose the alternative of locking the teleport system while combat is engaged (combat music is playing) is because it is not actually a well thought out idea and would cause other issues (such as a bird trying to attack you through one or two walls, and you want to go to your ship and are in no danger at all.) This is why I decided to go with a lock-on feature instead, as I think teleporting out of a fight should be possible, but just not as easy to do with someone hot on your tail. For combat, lock-on means that the player now needs to be able to outrun, outmaneuver, distract or push back the enemy so that they can stand still long enough for their ship to grab them, and cannot be done while moving, both making some enemies more dangerous, and also increasing the tension of combat. (Who doesn't like the hero teleporting with only seconds to spare? ) And lastly, I feel that this system would improve the players interaction and exploration of the environment by increasing it's challenge and getting players to literally "think before they leap". As I have been playing I've noticed that I don't feel any need to worry about my surroundings as far as cliffs or holes that you cannot climb out of, because as long as I can see the sky I can teleport myself out. To some degree, certain land formations do not feel threatening, imposing, or as a challenge to overcome. With my system, not only would it be much more convenient for players to explore and set up homes and bases in the early game (provided they don't die), but would also mean that players need to be prepared for certain obstacles (such as rope or platforms) as teleporting out and back would leave you in the same spot. Leapt haphazardly into a hole? Your gonna need to climb or dig yourself out now. Wanna go down a huge cliff? Better think about how your gonna get back up it too. . . see what I mean? Now I have seen some people so far say that teleporting away from a far off location to put the player at a disadvantage, and I do agree that it does, but I don't feel it is a necessary disadvantage as it mostly costs time and convenience for the player. But the other side of that coin means that a player can get back to their base (if they set it near the tele location) with ease. Personally I'm of the opinion that the trip out to a location is just as important as the trip back, and neither should have more importance than the other. Players shouldn't find far away locations so easy to lose progress on, and also shouldn't feel like a surface home base is figuratively two steps away at all times. I could keep elaborating on this final point, but my post is already long as it is. To draw my suggestion to a close, I feel that this system would be much more flexible for the player, but still provide some of it's own limitations and challenges, and is accessible to players in the early game and upgradeable with late-game tech. tl;dr - There isn't one, be a man and read the whole thing.
Decided to give it about a week before bumping, still looking for comments, feedback and criticisms. . .
There is no real challenge to "huge cliff" drops, etc, and it stems from the nature of the game. You can always build yourself a set of blocks, a bridge, a staircase. You're stuck at the bottom of a valley with steep cliffs on both sides? No worries, just use dirt to build yourself a way out. Don't have dirt? What have you been doing lately besides digging for those ores and coal? I mean, really. Actually, I'd welcome a ship upgrade that would let you manage one custom (the default, as it is now) teleport location on a planet, aside from proposed "last/current" location. You know, I'd like to build a base somewhere else, not at the default spawn point, and set it as the new default location. And when I'm even further from the base, I'd like to be able to teleport back to my ship, then to my on-planet base, do stuff, get back to ship and get to the last location I was, so I could get back to exploring. Maybe that should be done as a late-game, costly items? Like homing beacons or something like that. Of course that goes somewhat against your points, but hey, I'm just a new guy, don't mind me. I'm actually on the fence if this "go 20 mins to the left/right for the tenth time to see this special thing" is actually a part of the challenge or just an annoyance that should have some in-game means to counter it. I'm not sure if revised teleportation is the right means to counter it either. So, there it is.
I find myself not building bridges or platforms or ways out, and I end up digging the bare minimum necessary to be able to climb a cliff. I carry huge stacks of dirt on myself, but it just ends up getting used in decorative landscaping, because wild terrain has no challenge when I can TP out of most potential pitfalls. That is why I suggested the default/current system, so that building things like bridges and platforms becomes more of a necessity. In my opinion it's more of an annoyance because of the aforementioned lack of difficulty in world terrain. I'm mostly glad that you posted, and I hope others join in, as I would really like to see this topic (not just my idea) discussed more.
If you die inside lava, your "last" spot will always kill you when teleporting back to the planet, even if you have an item to change your location, you'll be able to select a safe spot? or you'll need to type several coordinates to find one where you don't teleport inside a solid wall, or acid pool, etc? While doing an item where you place over the ground and always when you teleport back to that planet, the ship send you to that "item" location would be nice, but what should happen when the player place 2 of them? In any way, implementing it will need several changes to work properly, but still a nice idea.
Negative. I believe he said that if you die, teleport is returned to default. If someone set blocks in your teleport zone, you will just spawn on top of them. And how about if you place a second teleport pad, the first one disappears? Either that, or you can name the pads and select them from your ship.
