The Game We Want

Please add this in the OPs as everybody seems to like it too and will mix well with the ideas in this thread! (comes from http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/star-map-tiers-are-lame.48688/):

Also I believe the situation of this planets should be totally random, like in a real universe. But not senless random like now... i don't ask for a super realistic game, but come on, it is not so hard to make cold planets the ones that are far from the start and hotter the ones that are close to it, and earth like the ones that are somewhere in the middle and have a earth (or superearth) kind of size... and taking into account the size of the star too! So you can guess how hot a planet is just looking at how far is from the star and how big the star is, and you can guess the gravity of the planet by its size and you can even get a clue of what kind of planet it is with the color of it without having to clic in the planet. I can't avoid feeling bad when i find a snow planet that is really really close to a very big star!! or a very cold planet that is very far from the start but with satellites that are really hot!

This is for me there real experience of exploration: next to my planet there is a very cold planet and with toxic air, I can extract some data about the surface of this planet from my current planet, enough to know if the gravity/temperature/air are ok for surviving (only if i have the right technology, but this one is easy to get at the beginning), if I go there with my spaceship then i can get some more interesting data (maybe about what resources can I get or even a very simple map with some important points of the planet), and with all this i can make a bookmark and some annotations, so the trip was worth it and i can leave it for when i get stronger / the right technology.

Then if even knowing that this planet is cold and toxic i want to go there and beam down without the right technology, I CAN, and i will last for a few seconds before dying either of cold or of unbreathable air!. Or I can leave it for when I am ready (with the right technologies and weapons). This is how in real life will work, its more fun, and you have the progression and the "tiers" anyway.

Also with this system, wonderful things can be added once we go from beta to realease, planets should grow and grow on variety: planets without a living thing, too hot, where you can survie a minute or two but you can get an unknown mineral from its surface, not present in any other planet; a planet with giant monters that drop amazing things but you can't even try to kill them now, so you beam down and think "what the heck..." and make your annotation and 2 months later you come back with a crazy powerful weapon or some mech; a planet with a gravity so strong that you walk really really slow and suffere damage so you can only go down with the right mech...

The first planet should be easy of course, and they can make it that the moon/moons of this first planet are quite habitable too, and maybe this first solar system has 2 - 3 planets in the "habitable zone"... and then, for the rest of space, randomness as I described before.

And of course in the future diferent races should have more/less tolerance to some kind of environments.... I could go on like that forever, this game have too much potential, and possibilities, but its my opinion that they are choosing the wrong aproach and wasting this chance of feeling like you are really lost out there, in space as it is, and having a natural progression in a "real" agressive universe.

 

This is bloody brilliant.

Count me in for removing the ridiculous contrived 'tier' system and sectors, and instead making things like Hostile Environment Suits and Toxic Air Filters fill the "tiers" that allow you access to more dangerous and hostile planets as the game goes on.

 

Only one thing that should be added to his list.... Avians should be able to fly on minimal gravity planets

 

Or at least glide.

 

Oh see now this is the game I want.

 

+1 for this

 

I think the Raven armor for avian lets you glide once you have the full set but I don't think it is implemented yet.

 

+1 for this idea.

I'm slightly concerned by some of the posts on other suggestions where it seems people are looking for Starbound to become a game that holds your hand through the universe. The game universe should really not be "aware" of the player and so the player should be given no special advantage over the universe other than their ability to process and act on information as a human.

The threat level x system does not allow the player to do this. It assumes the player agrees with what the in-game character has decided to classify each planet as.

 

now this is what i want in starbound, couldn't agree more
this will probably encourage a person to make a nice house in a peaceful planet
and a living hellhole planet for the person who likes challenges

 

Waaaay too long for me to read...Because I have to post my ideas too!

But the few that I read convinced me that you should use this guy's ideas.

 

THIS! Wow, now that I read this, I really want this to be in the game now.

 

Agreed. One of the biggest selling points of SB is the variety of explorable planets, but a procedurally generated universe doesn't necessarily need to be this jumble of randomness. There's no point exploring if you can simply get all your materials on one or two planets.

Exploration and gathering of materials rewards no sense of accomplishment in an environment without natural barriers. I think most of our current available planet types -- arid, desert, forest, jungle, snow -- are those that should reside in the thin habitable zones around stars, and even they should be at least a bit flawed and harmful. Optimal planets don't exist. The rest of the universe should kill a starting player instantly. Progression would be the players adapting to new environments and therefore increasing their access to new materials by building new equipment, using new tech.

 

All very good points.

 

Honestly, I even expected some of these ideas before I started to play Starbound.
I really hope they will implement them in the final game.

 

Aaand again, here's some news:

Edit: Click the blue arrow for the source or scroll down at http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/tier-system-has-got-to-go.52596/page-14

 

source please?

 

What if I land on a planet that requires a suit just to survive, BUT I don't have one plus I've ran out of fuel? Wouldn't you be stuck?

I know you have to be pretty dumb to do travel to a planet without proper gear, but still...

 

Star Control 2 solved this problem with a distress call option. Once you depleted your fuel reserve, the Melnorme soon appeared to do some emergency trade. Perhaps the frog merchants could do the same.

Also it seems there'll be an option at the teleporter platform to teleport to your home planet instead the current one.

 

I remember that in the Escape Velocity games they had something similar. You could always hail a passing ship and beg for fuel if you were stranded. Grant you, there's no perfect solution for human error, but you can usually cover a lot of basses. Plus, it's not like a hazardous planet would be instant death, as I understood it. So you could go down to the planet in short trips, if you really needed to. It would be difficult, but in theory it would be recoverable.

 

Well take instant death as my personal suggestion. I don't know why any game should favor people who think it's okay to go down on planet with absolute zero temperature in a nicely knitted sweater. The game is IMO better when it makes stupid people learn from their mistakes by forcing a debt on them for fuel purchases or emergency tows. Survival shouldn't be downplayed by eliminating the severity of natural boundaries.