Greetings~ This is my second post here and the first was just to uh...request server access with Sound of Violence...*cough* So this is going to come out of nowhere. I was talking to a friend and it got me thinking about Starbound and I had some ideas... Hmm, well the first thing I am thinking of is probably best described as Galactic Law. Since there are space pirates and pirates in general within Starbound...and villages can be happened upon in all sorts of places. A player is currently able to attack a village and destroy it with no consequence to themselves even if that is a peaceful village. I think this classifies as piracy. There should some way of implementing galactic law to place bounties on the heads of the committers of such heinous crimes. A system as it were to track this information and a suitable enforcement to discourage this kind of behaviour. Galactic police forces which could be a general force for all races or it could be race specific. Galactic law can also include other things, but I believe the galaxy should seem more...alive. This would be a part of it. To expound more upon Galactic Law...there can be what I can only describe as uh Claimed/Owned Space also Known and Unknown Space which would be unexplored entirely. Lets say that the Apex have claimed certain solar systems and sections of space, within Apex space you are subject to their laws, perhaps they say that you are not allowed to land on certain planets without permission or to harvest certain things, to not harm the civilians, to pay a tax. All kinds of race specific laws can be in place. If you try to land on a planet where it is prohibited or you disobey laws of theirs you may be apprehended by the Apex forces if they detect you have committed any crimes. If caught you can pay a fine, serve a sentence in prison,escape prison etc. There may also be restrictions on goods you are allowed to sell or buy within their systems. Regarding the world being more alive. Consider the following hypothetical scenario. Imagine for a moment that you could go down onto an uninhabited planet and harvest materials, you then fly to a space station and you trade with docked ships or visit the merchant there. You then use the proceeds to get some enhancements for your ship, perhaps a larger cargo hold or you prefer battle enhancements. On the same station there may be diplomats or emissaries from the various races from which you can acquire quests or to report to. Perhaps you report finding a planet rich in a certain mineral, you are then tasked to harvest this mineral for your race. Afterwards you must transport it to a certain planet with the risk of being way-layed by pirates. If you have a mining vessel, you might be a prime target for them. So perhaps at this space station you hire an escort in the form of mercenaries. After you have made it to the planet and delivered the cargo you may be eligible for a reward...or perhaps promotion in your race Faction. The idea of factions too would contribute quite a lot to making a living world. This could be in the form of a merchants guild, a mercenary faction, racial military factions. Perhaps you are part of a science faction and need to research various life forms or planets. Perhaps you need to develop technology. There are boundless possibilities. :whistle: Even Politics can be added. You may build a village and get people to live there, perhaps this can be the beginnings of a nation or simply an organisation. Perhaps you don't wish to build something like this, instead you are promoted within your faction and get yourself into the political game, you become elected mayor of a town, from there development of the town ensues, you help expand the borders of the faction or race and build onwards from there or maybe you take another path and become a general, directing forces to wage war on other factions or races. I feel to make this world alive there needs to be more interaction with the peoples of the universe. So within this scenario many possible things can be incorporated. Just a few of them are politics (both racial and player based),Galactic Law, Mercenary work(bounty hunting which is already mentioned in another suggestion), Mercenaries, Trade, Factions... A lot can be added or detracted from this, some of it is probably not even viable. I realize that will be an immense undertaking on its own with much writing involved, tons of script, lots of strange mechanics added to the game, balancing as well...and I realize this is probably already a huge amount of work and development, but this is an idea and I thought it good to share. Starbound is already an amazing game but it has so much potential and in my opinion, it can become an epic.
