Tiered Sectors or one Galaxy?

Sup guys, just another feedback thread about something I don't think has been discussed so much.

As most of you know, in the current beta, tiers are broken up into sectors... first Alpha, then Beta, then Gamma, then "X". The progression involves beating the boss of the current sector, then crafting a Starmap Upgrade that allows you to advance to the next one...

I was thinking though - does this really make sense? The system irked me when I discovered it, seems to break immersion or maybe it's just me. Are we really to believe that each sector of the galaxy continuously scales in harshness? By the very nature of chance and the fact each planet would've had independent evolution cycles, there doesn't seem likely to be the case... why shouldn't the game world exist in a single universe?

Of course, as a game, Starbound requires progression and needs to somehow keep players from accessing higher-tier content too early. My idea is simply this... keep the starmap system, but move everything to a single grid. Create some kind of science fiction reason why your ship can't travel to higher-tiered planets like "planet interference" that an upgrade will solve... or make each system tiered and say that your ship cannot safely penetrate the sun radiation (and due to this radiation, the planets' monsters are stronger!) The only "downside" I can see is you'd have to put many more systems on a single map, but one could easily add some kind of "filter" to find systems/planets of a single tier.

Maybe I'm just nitpicking on something small but I felt the need to mention it as feedback. Let me know what you think.

 

While you are right as you said in your closing statement if we were able to go to level 40 planets right away as there would not be not much room for progression.

Anyways the way I see it is the "sector" is in another galaxy that has harsher conditions.

 

My proposal is in the previous paragraph though. Players still wouldn't be able to access planets/systems that are of a higher tier. I don't see why a particular sector would have life much stronger than any other sector... seems unlikely to me but I don't know, maybe its just me. xD

I'm just trying to come up with a way that would still allow tiered progression but wouldn't kill immersion.

 

Originally I had the same problem as you when I imagined them as a grid within a galaxy, but now I imagine the sectors as sectors of a universe, i.e., a galaxy for each tier. Not too accurate, but it helps. Thus the starmaps show how to get access that galaxy.

 

Chucklefish should have kept threat levels and gotten rid of sectors instead of the other way around.

 

The only problem with your proposed system would be "dead weight" and trouble finding what exactly you want. In a sector you know what levels a planet will probably be.

The "Dead weight" is basically all the low level planets on the galaxy map.

 

Yea I agree with you it doesn't make any sense... I think if the story explained it like this:

When you were escaping your plent and fleeing on your ship, one of the main navigation components was damaged. A hyper relay that allows travel among different galaxies. Currently your ship is only able to travel and navigate through one galaxy . However, once you beat the first boss you're able to get parts an access to repair your hyper relay a bit, however not fully, and each boss or something that allows you to access the next galaxy or sector gives you a bit and pieces of the hyper relay.

 

I agree with the spirit of the OP's thought. I had the exact same thought when I discovered the sectors were tiered in difficulty. It would probably make more intuitive sense to simply have a scattering of planetary systems in ONE galaxy, and all of them clearly marked with difficulty level. In theory, you could even let people land anywhere they wanted. Want to land on a level 100 planet right away? Go ahead, just don't expect to live longer than a second or two. Alternatively, you could have something guarding higher tiered planets that you have to have a quest item to progress past. Say, a planetary defense system, and you need a RF key to not get blasted out of orbit.

 

I really like the concept of one complete sector, and refusing entry into higher-tiered suns would work. But even with only 10 levels, the starmap would get pretty bogged down with stuff that isn't relevant to you at the time.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Unless the "sectors" were tabs, so only certain stars are highlighted and selectable?

EDIT: Landing on any planet is a bad idea. If you happen to find a chest without dying, weapons could last all game. Tiering the suns sounds sweet, so that you can't go to, say, a Neutron Star until you have better radiation shielding.

 

This would be a pretty interesting idea.

 

100% agree, Sectors system seems to me a lazy way to make the tier progression.

I prefer things like advanced equipment which allow you to mine through more deep layers in planets. Maybe and advanced armor to not melt in lava planets. Some unbreakable big complex which not allow you get in without defeating the guardian. Maybe an advanced scanner so you can see asteroids and comets in your map.
Maybe ultrahardcore biomes where you can enter for free but the monsters will kill you in seconds.
Things that make you think: "ok, I CAN'T enter here because I'm weak, I have to make me stronger to progress on this" And that make you have objetives and that.

Now is a little.. boring way to progress just "you cant go to beta sector because I said that... ok", and not seems very "beta testing" seems like deep in the game. I really hope they change the way you progress with this.

 

It's a good thing because it allows you to find planets around your level easier. I don't know about you but I have to search a good ~10 minutes to find a planet I want to go too. They are all either too low, too high, planet size isn't ideal, or the wrong biome. That's with only 10 planets in a sector too. Now imagine if there was all 100 planets in a sector, it'd be a nightmare to find good planets for your character. The new system only has 1 planet level per sector, so all planets can be traveled too, making it easy to just say "Oh I want a large forest planet", and go to the first one you find.

I think the sector system should stay the way it is. The filter system seems nice on the surface but I don't feel it would be ideal, it would make the planets seem much more spread out.

 

Yeah, that is what I meant when I said one could perhaps add a filter.

Ideally you could also add a planet search system that only highlights systems with planets of a certain biome/difficulty/size etc. you are looking for as well.

 

I think that's basically how it works now. The higher level sector maps simply allow you to navigate to the more difficult to reach stars.

 

Yeah, honestly the change would be purely cosmetic. Show all the sectors on the same map, but dull (and make unselectable) everything but the one you're in. Might even be moddable if the Starmap has a background.

It's not a big deal, just a personal preference. They could just give a good story for why different sectors have different difficulties as it stands now. Like radiation saturation, or gravitational anomalies. (But no black holes ... those things always get misunderstood )

 

It's all the same galaxy. You are warping between planetary systems. "sector" refers to the division of the single galaxy we are exploring.

 

Oh I know this. I just like to think about these things.

 

At the moment you can travel any distance with just 200 fuel. Simply make a distance between stars and a need of more fuel, better fuel and bigger engines to travel longer distances.

Imo i would break the whole stepped tier lvling system. It's typical way of balancing mmorpgs simply because it's easiest way of creating the progression.

We start from a small area where we can't exit before we achieve certain things. After achieving those, the previous areas becomes pointless nooblands. Then we go to the next narrow area where we need to achieve the next goal. This goes on and on till the max lvl. It spoils the immersion of huge rich open world.

It would be much more interesting if all difficulties would exist in a single sector imo. It would be even better if a single planet could have wide range of difficulties where we can't survive with our currently available equipment. We would have to explore other planets for different biomes to find right materials for specialized hazard gear.

Now every planet has same core material. Only thing that makes difference is the lvl of the planet and maybe some random variables.

To break the linear progression more, there shouldn't be a single solution equipments for every environment(like at the moment each gear works the same everywhere except the snow infantry armor) but we would need a heat reflecting fabrics for volcanic biomes, Winter gear for cold places and anti corrosive materials against acid fumes in some biomes. Heavy armors would be bad idea against heavy damage slow moving monsters but light gear with movement bonuses would help with kiting. Heavy armor would be ideal against fast moving low damage monsters. there could be fire elemental that has to be killed with water. (this game mixes fantasy elements already so why not).

This system would create some hilarious situations where you actually have run in fear after exploring some unknown dungeon. For hardcore players the game just should be balanced into much more forgiving way that you can make mistakes without dying and then run.

This whole game is about interesting weird biomes. Why not make that the major part of the gameplay.

Ship could scan only the environment, life and material composition of the planets surface but nothing too deep beneath the surface. Maybe the ships scanner could be upgraded later to give deeper data. To scan a planet you should actually fly next to it and hit scan button.

This kind of mechanic wouldn't mean that there isn't progression at all. It would be branched and chaotic which is much more interesting imo. Certain branch of equipment development just opens up different environments to explore. It wouldn't make every other part of the sector walk in a park at the sametime.

Maybe the very endgame goal would be some godlike all purpose equipment but the progress getting there should be as unpredictable and rich experience as possible. No one likes predictable films either, why games then?

It would mean much more work to balance the game this way but it would be worth it.