OK first off I want to acknowledge that I understand (or at least from what I think I understand) that there are not going to be any potential ship based space exploration type things in the initial launch. The purpose of this thread is two fold: To detail an understanding of how you, the developers, could implement a space layer into this game and make it managable Try to gather a focus of how the individual layers of mechanics currently existing would play into that layer, and maybe veer the design now in a way that would make it more compatible for that later - if space travel via ship is in the books. So first, in order to do this I will first present one of the many dozen absolutely batshit insane whiteboard sketches that I do on a daily basis. I have been theorizing on mechanics in the realms of generation, mission architecture, and other bullet points since I first saw starbound. So here is the image: I will try to make a little bit of sense out of this image and its very doc brown style of design. First we will address the elements of this design as layers. Each layer would be based off of seed generation just like anything else. The maps the player will be presented with in order to travel from planet to planet via click-and-go would become an overall system map within the Space Layer. The player is presented with an overhead view of their ship moving very much in the same fashion as space rangers 2. An example of that game is located here: So we see a few things happening in this image. The entire map would essentially be an "Overhead" view of the ship, with the movement being isometric. This is important i believe because it keeps in theme and aesthetic with the sidescroll mechanic that exists already within the game. Like with the ground game (or what we assume the ground game will be like), the player moves around within the space layer using the WASD or Arrow keys, and orients himself to aim and shoot using the mouse cursor. We will get more in tune with the interface in just a second.... Now, down to planets... PLANET TRAVEL Like with the rest of the game, the player can move freely within his limitations in this space layer. He may leave and return to a planet by going to his ship... that would mean that somewhere on the space station, planet, ect, he would have a room sorta like this that he would enter: So when you get to your ship you travel to the space layer from it. When you enter a planet you would be in a room like this, with your ship once more. Generation of star port type areas can be handled pretty easily, but starports dont all have to be randomly generated. TRAVEL TIME As you are travelling throughout the galaxy, you have some mechanics layers running underneath you in the background of the engine: Event Layer: Which is seeking out events like pirate attacks, asteroids, price changes (assuming theres a well implemented market system), or planetary events like weather. Event Timers: Which are tracking your status of events, how much time is left, and whether or not some events which can only occur ever so often can trigger right now. This is more or less a type of IF statement for the engine to determine what events are possible... Meanwhile the event layer is handling the processing of events and activating them. Real-Time Clock: As you are travelling throughout space, time is being simulated on the planets all around. This is more or less like a turn system or countdown. This means every second or minute you travel is naturally effecting whats happening on planets you know of. This is important because it can be used to underline the mechanics of both synchronous and asynchronous events on multiple planets if done right. The basic premise of travelling to a planet would be to cross your ship over into the graphic of a planet, A transition takes place as you do so which then loads the planet below. Every planet graphic would essentially be tagged with some kind of hash seed which is used for planet generation currently, so the game is keeping track of what planet is which. The systems mentioned above can also be useful here if you want to tie the actual physical locations of planets to the seeds as far as events. Maybe while in the space layer you see a huge asteroid crash into a planet. That planet is effected by changing the seed and, theoretically, somewhere on that planet youll see the huge asteroid collapse. What do we have here? Emergent life, and opportunities! This is why in the first image you see i have arrows going across that are feeding to and from the space layer, to represent the data being pushed back and forth between the on planet and in space layers of gameplay. Meanwhile, the coordinate system that has already been talked about underlines the basic mechanics for laying out the design of the space layer. INTERFACE FOR SPACE TRAVEL As mentioned above, the general interface for space travel would be quite simple. A small, unobtrusive hot bar located in the bottom center or bottom corner of the screen would dictate weapons which can be readied as well as buttons like inventory ect al, should you choose to move those to a clickable interface as opposed to a hotkey. Life for the ship will be represented with a picture of the ship in the center of a shield circle, that circle shrinks and expands depending on how your shields are holding up, and the ship at the center goes from Green to Yellow to Orange to Red, and finally Black to display a general idea of where its health is (Based on basic HP). Should you choose to implement an energy system here, a bar to the side of the ship "Shield bubble" would be present and indicate the energy level (like magic?) of the ship. STORYLINE AND THE SPACE LAYER I dont really think I have to tell anyone that this layer of gameplay can work wonders for extending the gameplay and story. Ship based missions and the opportunity to cross write in space missions with on the ground missions increases the variety of gameplay possibilities on an exponential scale. Underneath the service layers above (Event, Event Timer, Real Time Clock) you basically would underline the usual system for tracking what is going on within the primary storyline here. Storyline may lead to the requirement to travel in space, and thus encounter the types of emergent encounters that can happen at this layer. Also - it allows you the opportunity to track the event layer and only allow certain events to fall-off of storyline events. This means that certain things, Like an uprising on a specific planet perhaps, may only actually occur if youve performed a storyline mission essentially freeing those people and allowing them to rise up. THE END RESULT The end result is a loop of gameplay dynamics between ground and space which will, ultimately, allow the possibility of expansion (in terms of gameplay, story, and other things) into ways that break the mold even further than what is being done today. Is it ambitious? Sure. The point is that you keep the rules simple and you tie the system in to the layers that are already built for the game. At some point during this process, the change from ground to space becomes obvious and fluid, and the player is rewarded with a richer experience of space travel.
Love it Phoenix, I can tell you've put a LOT of thought into this. I hope the developers will have a discussion about this suggestion!
I'm thinking about a fuel resource thing for space exploration using your idea Phoenix.. can't give it too much thought right now, but maybe you can. It would limit the length of your space travel and it could be like a hard-mode of the game too "out of fuel but landed on a planet... must acquire fuel source" and...stuff. c:
Awesome! That is noice. Now, going in Groups.....All the people going to the same place would get on the same ship? Like, there's a lift-off time. You get there before, and you launch. That'd be noice.
We have so many charts like this hanging around our house that I feel like I'm living with Ross Perot.
If other planets are visible from where you are, I propose that stuff like large asteroids hitting, or battles in space be visible if you happen to be in viewing range of those events, the details of which varying depending on the distance from that planet.
