Hello, Starbounders. I've been playing a lot of Star bound recently (one hundred hours in 5 days), and I really love the lore. The back stories are great, the cities look amazing, structures are fantastic; But one thing I've noticed is that with all this lore and backstory, there isn't a single racial home world. The only one mentioned is the Humans' Earth, and it's not even a planet that can be traveled to (I don't care if its been over run by the tentacle planet, I wanna go!). So, I propose a sort-of Racial Empire Home World (or Star System for a bigger scale). A racial home world is where the whole story began; Where each race started before space travel became a thing. First off, the planets would be much bigger than most, and each 'host biome' (as I call them) would differ for each home world. There would be lots of homes/shops scattered everywhere on the surface of the planet, full of citizens, race flags, race-specific regalia; like a race-specific city, but on a far larger scale. There would also be a large tower where an "empiric leader" would reside (explained below). Not only would there be cities, there would be large tracts of farmland and forests, giving the planet life. Wild animals that spawn would be the same as on other worlds (some aggressive, some not, blah blah blah). The loot found in chests varies. Plan apex or avian). The city guards would wear race-specific armor scattered anywhere between level 1 through level 5. They also carry race-specific weapons of the same level as their armor. They will also 'threaten' anyone who carries a weapon in their hand in the city limits. Dotted through out these cities would be small families or merchants of other races, selling goods. These empire home worlds also have a "command center", so to speak. It would be a large tower, full of guards that have level 6 through level 9 armor, with matching weapons. There would also be a few with mech suits as well (a tech upgrade obtainable in game) that patrol the outside of the tower. These guards function differently than city guards, as they shoot upon seeing a player with a weapon. At the top of the tower would be the "galactic leader", the head honcho of the empire (a human president/queen, a glitch king, avian pope, etc). They wear level 10 race-specific armor and weapon, and are usually quite friendly to the player, regardless of race, unless provoked. The loot found in the tower would be quite high-end (plutonium/solarium, rhubium, high end tech). Planet systems (those groups of planets that orbit each other, I call them planet systems), could function in the same way, but on a larger scale. Multiple planets would become "home world planets", albeit, only one would contain the "command center". Asteroid fields and moons could also be part of this "home world planetary system", with citizens/guards wearing oxygen tanks. Finally, on an even larger scale, an entire star system could be claimed by the Racial Empire, with each planet being owned by the racial empire. ----------- While these home worlds are nearly identical in structure, they do have vast differences in plant-life and biomes (as well as few structures). Each race home-world difference will be listed below: Humans: The humans' home world planet's base biome is tentacle, due to Earth being overrun by a creature from beyond the stars (tentacle biome), with smaller grassland-like sub-biomes. The buildings would be similar to a human city/village, except taking the appearance of old, wrecked skyscrapers, 'ghetto-ly' rebuilt. The occasional abandoned USCM Prison and Base would be destroyed and ruined, with possible non-humans exploring the ruins for loot. Apex: The apex's home world would have a base biome of barren, with occasional sandstone sub-biomes. The buildings would consist of mostly Apex apartments and facilities, as well as many Apex statues and surveillance cameras. There would also be almost no non-apex on the planet. Avian: The avian home world's base biome is desert, with occasional arid and jungle. The planet features avian villages and cities, as well as avian tombs and temples, as well as airships. Avaians are also scattered through the entire planet, not just mainly in cities. Glitch: The glitch's home world is grassland based, with occasional rust forests and crystals. There are fewer cities and towns, consisting of farms, cities, and castles. There is also an increased amount of non-glitch merchants. Floran: The floran's home world is a jungle, with occasional giant flowers and giant mushrooms. The planet is covered with floran dungeons and cities, as well as "overgrown non-floran facilities", which feature many non-floran items and wares. There are nearly zero non-floran merchants on the planet. Hylotl: The hylotl home world is ocean, with small chunks of tundra biomes. The is very little land, as most of the planet is water. The water itself is filled hylotl cities and villages (hylotl structures aren't in game yet, but are in the code). The civilizations are very high-tech and Japan-like. The people are also very friendly, and the hylotl merchants' prices are slightly lower than most other merchants. Novakid: Not much is known about them, but the home world would be desert, with occasional sandstone biomes. The structures I assume would be modeled after American western cities and towns. Not much else is known. Overall, this idea gives a stronger boost to the 'galactic empire' feel of the game's races, and ties them down in a central hub-planet (or planet system, or star system. It's the same idea, just a whole lot bigger). This could also lead into intergalactic fights/trading, and can lead to the visual upgrading (possibly) of the star map with Empiracle Boundaries. Feedback is appreciated, and thank you for reading!
Updated the OP with some more information for larger scale Racial Empires. I do want feedback to make this better, please give it a look.
I support this, but this would require a heavy revamp of the current starmap to something more zoomable and understandable like a galaxy, instead of a bunch, specifically a quadrillion and a half stars, randomly scattered around. This way, boundaries could be more identifiable, and i'd make it such as the central command tower is litereally impenetrable, with heavy mechs everywhere, an absurd amount of level 10 guards, and the leader rollin' in a special impervium mech, especially the apex one. I tend to think of the apex as interstellars North Koreans.
It also bares note that the Humans would have started creating a new "capital planet" from one of their early settlements. Otherwise all of the planets would have to be named, so that it is easy to tell a major settlement from a colony. For the new planet for the humans I suggest Eden. It follows the mentality of our race to a T
Actually the star map system doesn't need a complete rework because the home worlds can simply be in a totally different dimension like the world that is accessible by the gateway that will come in the new patch.
I always find that games like starbound to lack depth, even though there is back story. Addition of empires and major large scale cities would be definitely something to alleviate this problem. However, a city is not made by an abundance of structures, it is made by people, and I do not think that you could get enough depth out of the current NPC program. So we need something like a story, which can not be told in a game where you make your character. It would have to be an adaptable program able to change itself to be personalized to your character, or you could create your own character's backstory.
If four massive planets were to be added - one for each race - and each race would simply dominate the star system in which their massive planet was located... then the map wouldn't have to be expanded that much. I would also suggest that the nations be peaceful to all other players except those from the same race. You are a fugitive after all. (Except for the fishies) It might be interesting for the humans to lack an Eden or capital planet, but instead to have several smaller planets scattered around all vying for power (also would fit humans to a tee). I love your idea though. If you made the command centre even more hardened it would be nearly impossible to breach it yourself - a great idea for multiplayer. PS... Remember that big bright thing in the sky? It's called the sun. It misses you. And no, I'm not talking about travelling to a new star in-game.
I would prefer for capital worlds to be located on the actual star map. It would . . . feel more realistic in the game world. Also it would tie in well with my race-controlled sectors of space suggestion, which merely expands the idea of logical racial expansion to a larger scale than individual home systems. Personally I would like to see homeworlds be implemented more with regard to the quest system than essentially as a large scale NPC village with command-centre like dungeon / trial thing. Race-specific quest types and quest lines and whatnot would be cool, and add greater variability to any playthrough assuming they fulfill roughly the same kind of purpose as the faction quest lines do in TES games. However, as dictated by the lore and story, assuming the main quest each player does is dictated by race, then even if each race (faction) quest line were relatively static (at least for the larger points, though I imagine home worlds would also offer side quests that are probably procedurally generated), doing certain quest lines could bar you from doing others in that playthrough of the game. E.g. Hylotl vs Floran or whatever. But really, for the homeworlds to work using procedural generation of buildings and shops and stuff but on a larger scale, it would need to be vastly improved in what it is capable of producing as far as variety goes for that race, as well as for the depth of the content therewithin. That is something I feel quests will help out with, as I've mentioned on a few threads (perhaps those about developing settlements or colonies over time via the quest system?), but it may not be enough to make up for an entire world.
