Random Encounters during Space Travel

Discussion in 'Side Quests' started by Everdred, Jun 30, 2013.

  1. Everdred

    Everdred Master Chief

    From what I've seen most of the game is focused on exploring the planets themselves. It seems like a waste to be able to design a unique ship and it never become anymore than a hub between adventures.

    My idea is that when you pull up your map and set off towards a new destination, there could be a chance that your travel would be interrupted by a random event of some kind. It seems like something that could add a lot of adventure to the space travel and make it less mechanical. You could decide to check out an interesting planet, but on the way there space pirates attack your ship en route. Your ship gets caught in the gravity of a random planet/blackhole. Your ship is suddenly covered in some strange alien parasites and systems are offline. An alien ship signals you, maybe selling stolen weapons.

    You could possibly even expand it further by being able to take direct control of your ship during firefights and defend yourself. Maybe if party members are able to ride along in one ship the captain could even divert control of certain systems to let party members assist. Extra gunner positions, shield maintenance, etc. Maybe a hit causes a hull breach and someone(s) in your party could rush to repair it. You could fail and have your ship destroyed, launch in escape pods to a nearby planet or be recovered and taken to a nearby space station/etc.

    The latter might be a bit too much, but at the very least it seems like some encounters added into the travel aspect would make being in Space that much more of an adventure. Even if it is a rare occasion that something does happen and most of your flights will be routine point A->point B trips, every once in awhile something does happen, and catches you by surprise.
     
  2. SuggestionsBot

    SuggestionsBot Autonomous Posting Device

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  3. Xarlos

    Xarlos Void-Bound Voyager

    i'm definitely hoping for something like this as well. One of the neat things about Fallout 2 was the random events while traversing the map - random vaults, the pariah dog, slavers, etc...
     
  4. bluealpha

    bluealpha Void-Bound Voyager

    I think a FTL combat system might be in order. We do recruit NPCs and whatnot, after all.
     
  5. Baku Vicen

    Baku Vicen Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Nice thinking. Voting!
     
  6. Farathil

    Farathil Spaceman Spiff

    I want to show some space pirates what for.
    Speaking of which I am all for it! :DD
     
  7. Ruban Crusade

    Ruban Crusade Pangalactic Porcupine

    Between all the posts about space pirates and FTL combat and such, I'm sure this is already under heavy consideration, but I'm voting up anyway...and trying to breath further life into this thread/idea...
     
  8. BluPixelz

    BluPixelz Aquatic Astronaut

    this idea is cool, makes every voyage unique and exciting!
     
  9. jonasfull123

    jonasfull123 Pangalactic Porcupine

    umm
    how will we quickly travel from one planet to another in multiplayer then?
    what if we aint got time for such bullshit
     
  10. Va1iD

    Va1iD Void-Bound Voyager

    Oh yes, definitely. An FTL styled space travel is the icing that this game needs. It might be a bit boring after a while though, so maybe there could be other things in space that could spice it up a little, like recruiting crew (basically what BlueAlpha said).
     
  11. JMD

    JMD Space Hobo

    Brilliant idea, but it sounds difficult to design. I think it's worth the effort though. I can see a scenario in which your ship is damaged and it can't take flight again until you find the resources to repair it. As much as I find the Assassin's Creed games to be stupid, the idea of the latest game treating the ship like a second character could really work here.
     
  12. Cinuic

    Cinuic Seal Broken

    The party feature seems a lot like Guns of Icarus. :monkey:
     
  13. Voltaire

    Voltaire Astral Cartographer

    As long as it didn't happen too frequently, I'd hate for such an event to become tedious to the point I wish it wasn't there.
     
  14. Pseudoboss

    Pseudoboss Spaceman Spiff

    It would also be awesome to encounter a dungeon that's a pirate ship that's latched onto or abducted yours. Perhaps some structural damage has occurred as your ship gets hijacked. that would be awesome.
    Other encounters could be things such as various quest hooks, (you find a ship raided by pirates with its distress beacon cut out, just so they could be particulary to the crew, you stumble across the floater, and get some coordinates and a bounty.)
    Certain celestial bodies might also be discovered along the way, comets aren't always easily visible, and if intentionally hidden or in particularly interesting areas, entire planets or even systems might be off the map. Finding intentionally-hidden bodies means that something interesting is going on down there, and something very powerful.
     
  15. warriorexhibition

    warriorexhibition Space Spelunker

    Voting up!
    For other ideas, perhaps you encounter other members of your species who are NPCs and recruit them, or are even found by an emerging race, or the survivors of a dying one.
    My best idea is that if online, you could possibly encounter another players ship, and have real life bartering/trading/threatening/battling, or even find a larger space station possibly housing an trade outpost, which you could also trade with or pillage.
     
  16. Everdred

    Everdred Master Chief

    Suddenly getting votes on this after months of silence, lol. After reading the last comments by the developers it sounds like stuff like this could be in the works. It would be awesome to see the ship able to operate at FTL complexity but who knows. Imagine if you could have PvP between two player-controlled ships in multiplayer, even.

    I just want things to go wrong, really. An asteroid cloud, a huge nebula with crazy gravity, blackholes, parasites that could stick to your ship. Space battle would be awesome, but you could still be caught in a tractor beam or something by a larger ship and then exit your ship onto a mothership 'dungeon'. I mean, to me, Starbound is great in its randomness. No two horizons look the same. I am more afraid that the game will end up too constrained by the linear advancement through sectors, and instead of being a game of adventure/exploration, it will turn into a constant grind for the next ore, craft the next armor, fight the next boss loop, which to me is much more tedious. I think that potential for anything to happen every time you jump would only add to the experience.
     
  17. matilda-max

    matilda-max Space Hobo

    Traveling is the part of our life but we should make special. I am agree with other but at the end just i say we should make our vacation good and go out of county and city.
     
  18. voiditect

    voiditect Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    dude yes. amazing. here's a few ideas:

    foe types:
    pirates- the standard type of enemy. they can use any weapons or boarding parties. their ships are breathable.
    apex- they use electrical weapons. they can pierce shields and are resisted by AE (anti-electric) plating (bought off merchants).
    florans- they fight SOLELY with boarding parties. make sure you have a good crew and shoot them quick!
    avians-their weapons are melt beams and pulse blasters. pulse blasters are like normal lasers, but melt beams will do a number on your hull.
    apex drones- weak ships that come in numbers. large apex ships often have them.
    tentacle- VERY strong ships, I don't even know what weapons they use. if you see one. RUN LIKE H---OH GOD! THERE THEY ARE!
    *static*

    uh... that was close.
    merchants- sells weapons for ships and crew, as well as armor and general useful items.

    (note: tentacle could be rare post-ruin encounters, as well as one during the tentacle mission.
     
  19. voiditect

    voiditect Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    alright guys, i got more ideas!

    glitch- possess heavy anti-hull weapons. boarding parties are ineffective because they don't need air.
    hylotl- they disable your ships systems, they will regretfully open fire if you piss them off.

    and now, ship classes.

    fighter- weak ships with weak weapons, often come in numbers. but they have high evade and are unboardable
    dropship- slightly stronger ships with slightly stronger weapons. basically the equivalent of a tier 1 ship.
    cruiser- the basic enemy type, medium stats with boarding parties at medium effectiveness.
    destroyer- the tier above cruiser. kinda ordinary.
    battleship- heavy weapons, lotsa crew, high armor, stay out of the way or get some big guns!
    flagship- oh boy, these are basically boss ships. they're super rare and have unique weapons, luckily you can negotiate.
    station- large, strong, immobile ships. also, boarding parties can be pretty good. FIRE AWAY!!

    boarding party mechanics are this:
    your party is either a bunch of crew (you can view the other ship at any time) or a bunch of crew and you (your ship is on auto pilot while you're gone.)
    if the party dies, they appear after the fight. if 80% of the other ship dies, they're down! and you get to loot the ship!
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
  20. bk3k

    bk3k Oxygen Tank

    Noticing this thread(even if old)... yeah I could add some things to happen, triggered by FTL. For my Shipyard Rebuilt mod anyhow.
     

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