One of the most amazing and important aspects of games like Starbound is expolarion. Beautiful, near-infinite planets each with unique biomes, creatures and cities, leads to always something new to find. Remembering and cherishing past discoveries and achievements can be as rewarding as conquering new heights. However, I did not find many *direct* suggestions for an in-game mechanic supporting the memorization of your past adventures. While players can of course take screenshots and share them on forums, this is disruptive to the gameplay and breaks immersion. Players want to be able to see, and show to other players, their visits and discoveries, all within the game. There are of course plenty of *indirect* ways - showing off trophies, collected weapons, etc. - but those only tell a second-hand story. A picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, I propose the following mechanic: Cameras: Have an in-game Photo Camera which can be equipped as an item for photos taken on the surface. Your spaceship will have an on-board equivalent Camera/Telescope device, for photos taken in space. For starters, let's assume the cameras just takes a verbatim screenshot of your current screen, minus interface stuff. Again, everyone is welcome for suggesting extra modes such as special filters, image enhancements, etc. Photos: Screenshots taken by the camera are stored in the screenshots folder just like normal screenshots, but this is only the beginning. Much more relevant to the game, is that that they are also stored as some in-game medium. Whether on Polaroid-style cards, or as film, or as digital media within the in-game camera/ship's computer, doesn't matter that much. The point is that they are stored somewhere that can be accessed later in-game. Past taken photos can be printed/manufactured (in some relevat in-game device, such as printer/fabricator/replicator/whatever), given whatever materials required, into a picture that can be hanged on the wall and enjoyed by all the players (below screenshots borrowed from Starboard Media and photoshopped for demo purposes): When the player, or other players, clicks the image, they see an expanded version, as well as a signature describing the painting location and author (alternatively, the signature info can be shown on hover as an item description): Over time, players can use this means to build and house an entire Painting Gallery, eternally memorizing their adventures, for reliving and sharing. Being like any other item, the paintings can be transported, destroyed, or even traded to other players! Further Ideas: I left this post as a high-level topic, which leaves many further details and customizations to player debate. Things like camera upgrades (e.g. water resistance for underwater shots), picture size, portrait/landscape orientation, frame shape, custom cropping or special filters, etc. are all subject to further discussion, which is more than welcome! Challenges: There may be technical challenges in sharing images between different players, as the network protocol will need to be able to send custom images between players, rather than a limited set of in-game tiles information. It may be difficult to deal with some rogue players manipulating screenshots to upload and share inappropriate content via in-game pictures (spam, p0rn, etc). Perhaps allow other players an in-game setting to "turn off viewing screenshots uploaded by other players). An alternative (but possibly technically difficult) implementation to storing and transmitting normal screenshots, would be to store and re-generate the painting procedurally each time it is opened based on some saved game-based background and tile data and compression/expansion protocol, similarly to how planets themselves are generated. This will limit the type of manipulations players can do with their paintings, but may solve the arbitrary image problem from both the network transmission side and the appropriate content side, effectively addressing both of the above points. An open question would be whether one player's screenshot data can be faithfully reconstructed on another player's machine using this approach. Summary: Allowing players to capture, store, and share their past experiences as in-game images will, in my humble opinion, greatly increase the reward from exploration and discovery, give an extra sense of achievements, allow re-living of good (and bad) past memories, and improve player socialization. Feedback welcome! Related posts, giving all credit where due: Display Cases? Picture Frames? Maps? Overall Customization in Starbound! Wall decoration : Maps of planets, "photo" of fauna.
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