I was thinking about all the planet types being suggested and i had an idea. What if, instead of there being a certain type for each planet, what if there were 4 layers to each planet. Maybe they could be Surface, Shallow Caves, Deep Caves, and Core. When you moused over a planet in whatever planet selection menu they make, it would show you the surface biome and then the rest of the layers would be represented by question marks. So something like this. Planet Vechtralavus Surface: Jungle Shallow Caves:? Deep Caves:? Core:? Then, as you explored those regions, the game would make those areas visible to you. So after I made my way to the core on Vachtralavus, the info on it would look like this. Planet Vechtravalus Surface:Jungle Shallow Caves: Green Cove Deep caves: Hidden Jungle Core: Karkatta's Lair (Thanks to Mr.Tasty for coming up with these names) This brings me to my next idea. Some planet layers would be more likely to go together, such as you are more likely to get a Shallow Jungle if you surface is a Jungle. Some planets would also have bosses at the core, and the bosses would somehow be randomly generated depending on the layers. So Karkatta is most likely some kind of jungle monster. If anyone has any more ideas for layer types, post them! Layer Ideas (Feel free to post your own!) Generic Layers (These can fit at all levels. They can appear at Surface, Shallow, Deep and Core) Jungle (My personal favorite) Desert Forest Ocean/Islands Lava Islands Bare rock Inhabited/ City Layer (Imagine underground civilizations!) Ruined Civilization Living (This goes along with a lot of suggestions i have seen. The walls are composed of a fleshy, meat like material and somewhere within is a heart which attacks you. More on this at a later date.) Layer Specific (These are specific to a certain level, like you can't have a cave surface.) Shallow and Deep Layers Cave Mushroom Caves Lava Caves (More Likely to have Lava Chasms under it) Flooded Caves Ore-body ( A large amount of a specific, normally low-level, ore. Has the same structure as Caves) Chasms (These are like caves, but almost all the way straight down. Very dangerous.) Flooded Chasms ( These are chasms, but are flooded with water, lava, or whatever is the most predominant liquid on the layer above. The reason i say this is because there was some acid stuff in one of the dev screen shots) Core (Note: I do not like the idea of pure lava cores. While they are realistic, they seem like a poor reward for fighting your way down there. Unless there was some way to pump the lava out and solidify it into metals...) Boss (This would not be very common and would contain a powerful, proceduraly generated entity that you could fight and kill for great reward.) Grand Master (Like a boss, it would contain a labyrinth of unbreakable substance that, once conquered, would lead you to an ancient elder who would either give you a lot of EXP or a powerful "named" item.) Tranquil Garden ( This would be a calming reward for the hard won battle for this planet. It would have a lot of useful and pretty plants, which you could either loot and take back to your ship or leave there for another day.) Ore Mother-lode ( A solid core made of the planets primary stone, it would contain a larger percentage of a selct ore. At the very center would be a solid mass of this ore.) High Security Prison ( This is a prison containing the worlds most vicious criminals. While it may not seem to be a good reward, releasing them will make them join you as team-mates. Or they will just attack you.) Now, about bosses and anything a mentioned to be proceduraly generated. What i mean by this is that there will be a set of attributes that the game will randomly put together a boss or labyrinth from. This could also be done for NPCs and "named" items. The Devs could make a set of NPC faces, hats, hair, torso, legs, shoes and so on. Then the game could pick from any number of these and make a different NPC every time. The same for "named" items. A template like The (Random) (Weapon Type) of (Random) could be made, and a list if words for each of them. So i could find the Corkscrewing Blade of Karkatta (My boss from above's beloved sword) or the Slicing Rifle of Paradise. Of course, when you forge your own weapons you get to name them too. Well, I'm out of ideas. Feel Free to post yours! EDIT: Doomfire had an idea. Maybe the planet size could vary, and larger planets could have more and harder layers! This sounds great to me
Cool idea. I like it. As for names. Shallow Caves - Green Cove Deep Caves - The Hidden Jungle The Core - Karkatta's Lair
Sweet, so having some sort of biomes by layer. That gives planets even more random designs, thus more exploration. And when you choose a planet to be your homeland, you'll have a big variety of choices!
If i could figure out how, I would edit the poll just for you. ( The edit option doesn't seem to include polls.)
This could make for a lot more pre-generated randomness in the game! Sure wish I could vote twice! wait a minute...
