StarControl Forums
The end of the year has come along with possibly the biggest Vault update yet!
Planet Exploration Ideas
- Puzzle solving prompts. Where you need to choose the right answer/dialog to get a reward or trigger a negative outcome.
- Lander artifacts, artifacts that give your lander temporary boosts like x10 weapon damage or a 5 sec impenetrable shield.
- Hidden trails. When a lander is close enough, the fog of war is removed from a hidden trail which can include resources or some concept art.
- Quirks, like landmarks such as F&P's likeness carved into the side of a mountain or discard-able Junk items like a broken ultron.
Oh... Wow! I REALLY love the idea of their being a planet with Fred and Paul's faces carved into the surface, like the "Face on Mars". That would be a tribute reference worthy of my own universe!
EDIT: You actually sent me running off to my own note file... in the PDU the "Face on Mars" will now be the face of Neil Peart;-)
Pirate and Bounty Hunter Ideas
A couple planets within the known galaxy map could have independent star bases (maybe even destroy-able star bases). Where you could:
- pay a bribe to explore the surface
- buy black market artifacts for your precursor vessel or fleet ships.
- buy otherwise unattainable alien ships that belong to hostile alien factions.
- defeat a pirate fleet for a quest... and other quest related things.
- pay rogue Measured to bungle the Scryve bureaucratic process to keep bounty hunters and Scryve from automatically attacking you for a small period of time. (or pay tribute so pirates don't attack you)
- spawn hostile pirate and bounty hunter ships within that star system
- recruit exceptional star ship captains that give that ship a buff (large crew quarters, bigger battery, 10% more dmg or negative buffs, stuff like that)
Cuorebrave, they aren't really a part of the game. They are a part of the map. Look at it from the other direction, if there were "background ships" that you couldn't interact with... wouldn't you be saying "if they are there I should be able to interact with them"? Forget about the terms "pirate and bounty hunter". Think of them as "civilians and police". If you, a "hero character" of the "Active Map" kills an "innocent civilian" of the "Passive Map" then a "police officer" will be spawn who is on the case, and looking for you for having done that.
Mech Warrior Online has been my FPS game for the last few years. It has destructible terrain, which is a form of what I call the "Passive Map". If you run over a tree, if gets knocked down. This is among the most basic examples of the concept of the "Passive Map". Lots of games have destructible terrain like this. Does the fact that you can knock over trees lead you to undertake that activity within the game? Do you ignore the game and focus on running over trees? That's the same thing as these "pirates and bounty hunters". They are rocks and trees in the background, not the game.
While traveling through hyperspace, the player sees a ship moving at Hyper 1 (0 to 5, player starts at 2). They manage to intersect the ship and find it piloted by a species that calls itself the Faz. They are traveling away from the galactic core but won’t explain why.
If you attack them, you engage in Super-Melee with a strange looking ship that is oddly powerful for its size. Upon victory, you get some ship parts (not modules but cosmetic parts). If you leave them alone, they continue on their way.
Triggered at the start of the game, they slowly move from one side of the map to the other and wrap when they reach the end.
While traveling through hyperspace, the player sees a ship traveling (at Hyper 1.5). Upon intersecting them they tell you about a planet that has a buried treasure on it.
When the player reaches that planet, they land and eventually find the treasure (which was always there) which gives them a bunch of valuable minerals.
Trigger: At the start of the game the ship is spawned at x1,y1 on the hyperspace map and is told to go to x2,y2, at speed 1.5 of type round trip (so it goes there and returns and repeats).
Trigger: When that ship is spawned, the buried treasure is spawned as well on the target planet at a specific location.
The player sees a freighter traveling slowly in hyperspace. Upon intersection, they see that it’s an automated freighter ship hauling goods. The player can choose to engage it in battle which opens up a super-melee battle with the large but not super tough ship.
Upon destroying it, the game spawns 4 bounty hunter ships in various nearby systems that have a speed of 2 and a pursuit level of 4 (0 to 5 with 5 being a b-line, a 4 would be they definitely are following you but they may not aim directly at you at all times).
Trigger: Using a ship I created in the Ship editor, I trigger this 10 minutes into the game and the ship travels between point A and B at speed C. Upon destruction it spawns a series of ships I also created in the ship editor using the solar system GUID to designate where it will be hanging out.
Upon rescuing the Tywom ship, you soon see a Scryve scout heading right for you. It is moving at Sublight 4 (your ship moves at Sublight 2 at the start of the game) and you cannot avoid it.
Upon intersecting, the Scryve introduce themselves and make various threats. Combat is unavoidable.
Upon destroying the ship the Tywom congratulates you and suggests you head back to Earth.
We already have this in the game but the Scryve scout is not given a speed or a pursuit aggressiveness. This would be the first thing we implement.
Upon entering a system, you see a ship not moving. Upon inspection, it turns out their ship has run out of fuel. They ask if you can spare some. If you give them fuel, they inform you that their son is a famous bounty hunter and in a show of appreciation, they will send out word of your good deed to have him meet you next time you are at a starbase.
The next time you are at a starbase and go to the recruit screen, you will see “Orpho the bounty hunter” there with his weird looking ship ready to join you (there’s no chatting with Orpho, he’s just a ship there).
Trigger: Upon entering the system it triggers the spawning of the refugee ship.
Trigger: Upon helping them, it adds a ship to your inventory (not your fleet) where the ship is one I designed.
While traveling in hyperspace you see a weird looking…thing. Upon inspection, you see it’s a gigantic version of the Greegrox. It is related to the Greegrox but much much bigger and is heading towards an asteroid to a specific moon to lay its eggs. If you could guide it there, it would greatly appreciate it.
Upon agreeing to do this (the screen goes dark for a second and then comes back) it tells you that you have nearly reached the system but it is being attacked by pirates.
You find yourself in Defensive mode with the giant space thing in the middle with you defending it from 3 space pirate ships. The pirates are trying to destroy the giant egg sacks around the creature in order to collect the jewel-like yoke inside. There are 3 of them on this ship.
If you are successful in defending the creature it rewards you with one of its hatchlings which will join your fleet.
Trigger: 60 minutes into the game, we trigger this creature that goes back and forth across a large swath of the map.
Trigger: Upon intersection we have the conversation. If you say yes, we play a cut-scene or whatever to indicate that time has passed (we aren’t escorting it through hyperspace). After we play the in-game cut scene we have the battle.
Trigger: If you win the battle, we add the hatchling ship to our fleet. These are all ships that were designed with the ship editor.
While exploring the planet Pif, I encounter the hideout for a notorious band of Menkmack outlaws. They offer me a job: Go to the Yirlon system and you will find that the Measured are in the process of relocating one of their treasury vaults from the third planet of Pythos to the 8th planet’s moon of Isoz. The Menkmack are interested in a rare jewel that is on the ship. If we bring them the jewel, they have a piece of equipment they found that might fit our ship.
If the player accepts the quest, a Measured freighter is spawned in the Yirlon system with a route between Pythos and Isoz that it goes back and forth to slowly. When the player arrives there and engages the Measured freighter they get a dialog with the Measured who warn us that if we insist on attacking them that we will be hunted down.
If we attack, we are taking on an Assault mission which has 3 Measured defenders (simultaneously) with a big Measured freighter in the middle that is shooting a blaster our way occasionally. We must disable the 4 Power Modules on the ship along with the 3 Measured Defenders.
Upon destroying the defenders and the 4 power modules we are brought back to the dialog screen with a pissed off Measured Captain who offers to either Bribe us, appeal to our better nature or give us the Starlance jewel.
If we take the bribe, we get some RUs and go on our way but a Measured Enforcer ship is spawned that gradually looks for us. If we just let them go, nothing happens. If we take the jewel, 3 measured enforcer ships are spawned in measured space that look for us a bit more aggressively.
When we return to the Menkmack hideout with our lander, we show them the sapphire and they give us a Precursor lander stabilizer which will allow our ships to land more easily on planets (mitigation factor 2 on a scale from 0 to 5 planet landing defiance mitigation). However, upon taking it, they send out several planetary hunter-killer drones that fly in the air and shoot relatively slow moving balls of energy at us. The player must make it back to their landing zone which enables the launch button to get off the planet without being destroyed (if they are destroyed, they lose the component).
Once you return to your ship, the piece (and any minerals you collected) are added to your ship’s inventory.
In Adventure Studio:
1. Trigger: Upon visiting Pif (guid = 228-104569610) I spawn a stamp (Menkmack_Base.stamp_xml) at location x,y,z on the planet) and give it an ID of MenkMackBase.
2. Trigger: Upon encountering Menkmackbase it starts the dialog.
3. Trigger: If I choose to go on the mission it spawns the ship I created “MeasuredFreigher_A23423234” in solar system “228-86e58ac50” at x1,y1, with a route between x2,y2 and x3,y3 at a speed of 1 where it just goes back and forth.
4. Trigger: Upon intersecting with that ship it creates another dialog. If I choose to fight it, a script is alunched which inserts a scene with a particular battle arena in it with a the ship (which is defined in the ship designer as being a non-melee ship with a particular size). And adds 3 measured guardian ships which are ships we also created the the designer that are similar to the existing Measured ships.
5. Trigger: Upon returning to the planet it should spawn HunterKillerDrones which automatically fire upon the player. They’re basically just a type of critter.
For a whole new category of variety you can also have "space monsters" (or, "organic life").
As a point of interest, I think you can have a "Crystalline Entity" if you want one for the Star Trek reference. You would have the lawyers to answer this for you if you don't already know the answer. I think it is a generic enough term that they can't lay claim too it, the BBS door game Trade Wars had one. "Nefarious activities";-)
Some more ideas for quests and events
Tywom pirates
A group or Tywom after their offer of friendship has been rejected one too many times have decided to obtain "friends" by more aggressive methods. They will engage the player and unless a member of the crew is offered as payment they will attack.
Rogue Pinthi
While most Pinthi are ashamed of the atrocities they have caused, this group is not. Fully accepting of the fact that they are weapons and nothing more, they desire the complete destruction of all other lifeforms, Scryve, Tywom, etc., and even the main Pinthi group who they view as denying their true nature. The main Pinthi have reached the conclusion that this rogue colony must be destroyed, but they do not want to engage their own kind, so they have enlisted the player to take care of the problem.
Scryve freighters
The Scryve take tributes from their ward species, this is delivered via automated freighters. No one has been dumb enough to challenge the might of the Scryve navy, enter humanity. After a Scryve freighter is attacked ships will be spawned that would search for the attacker, at first these would be just Scouts. If attacks persist the freighters would start to get escorts and more ships would be spawned, eventually fleets would be sent to search for the player.
Freighter under attack (trap)
After rescuing a number of freighters, there is chance that the next time a player goes to answer a distress call in reality it is a trap set by pirates in revenge. Or other enemies of the player.
Phamysht traders
A small group of Phamysht want to get away from the hustle and bustle of Phamysht society, so they've set up a small enclave in an otherwise unremarkable system and are willing to trade with those that would bring them creatures to have for dinner.
Last of its kind
While exploring space the player stumbles upon a ship that is orbiting a star, upon inspection it is an explorer type vessel without hyperdrive with one sole occupant in suspended animation.
In order to awaken the being you must take the ship to someone who has more knowledge about technology, the Tywom. They succeed, however attempts at communication aren't going that smoothly because there is not have enough information to create a translator for its language, the ships computer was damaged and data was corrupted.
What they could find out is that the unknown alien was on a exploration mission to find intelligent alien lifeforms, its kind was a little impatient and sent out ships with sub light speed. Also they managed to reduce the location of the homeworld to a group of stars and give the player the coordinates.
Upon location the planet it is discovered that the rest of its kind perished due to a cataclysm, planetary structures bear damage marks similar to those caused by Scryve weaponry, tests show that the destruction happened about 25 years ago.
The alien, whose name and that of its species is still unknown, is in obvious distress at the revelation that they well may be the last member of its kinds. Nevertheless it fetches something from its spaceship and offers it to the landing party. The object is similar to the Voyager Golden Record.
While to offer was made to the alien to come on the spaceship to explore, it has chosen to remain on its homeworld to die of old age. If the artifact is returned to the Star Control space station it would be taken and put in a museum so this species is not forgotten.
In Monkey Island 2 there is a wanted poster that gets updated with exploits of the player character. I thought it would be funny if something similar happened when Scryve captains assaulted the player.
"Attention inferior lifeform. You and those under your command have been trialled and found guilty of the following crimes against the Scryve Empire: being a member of a species not apart of the Scryve Empire, operating a hyperdrive equipped spaceship without a license, harvesting resources without a permit, impersonating an officer of the Scryve Navy, inciting rebellion in ward species, theft of property belonging to the Scryve Empire, unauthorized use of Precursor artifacts, masquerading as a god and violations of the Scryve Empire spaceship safety regulations. The penalty for your transgressions is death, which the task force under my command will now carry out."
"Space monsters" might be anything from "ship like" for fighting a normal fight, up to some kind of boss fight. Some large ones, like any boss fight type things, might have destructible components. They might also do strategic level "big things", like SFB's "Sun Snake" that can decide to dive into a star which makes the star explode.
I think this would be a great replacement for classic achievement system.
Rhonin you could push this arc further with the alien providing information on the direction the other ships travelled in the hope you could return more of its people home. You then have the choice to look for more ships, learning more about their culture. Upon returning a number home, you will have learned the reason they sent vessels out was due to the discovery of an ancient Precursor artifact that was found within a vast subsea crater. As a thank you, you are gifted the artifact and depart.
Zoo Planets
Through various conversations at starbases you learn of odd star systems that have planets with lifeforms from vastly different origins, a sort of 'Galactic Zoo Planet'. It is unclear who were the original curators of the planets.
Upon approaching the planet which is surrounded by a force field you are greeted by an autonomous drone which requests a 40 RU 'donation' to contribute to the upkeep of the park. In return you are granted access to the planet via lander but are requested to keep your distance from the creatures. You have a choice to explore the planet and discover potential treasures or harvest lifeforms. If you have attacked creatures upon departure the drone will engage you to return the creatures or face combat. If you fight and destroy the drone it will trigger an immediate ban for Humans to all Zoo planets and spawn a 'Park Ranger' ship to hunt you down.
Groundhog Day
You meet a trader who has a number of artifacts for sale. You strike a deal and the trader throws in a 'cultural artifact' (a trident) as a thank you (glad to be rid of it). Turns out it is a Temporal Anchor that allows your ship to detect and ride out timeline disturbances. Triggers a new star system to become detectable when you come within range. Exploration finds a planet with aliens that are really annoyed at seeing you again (its your 437th visit). They realise you have an item which is stopping their Precursor Alternate Timeline SYnchroniser (PATSY) Device from resetting you back to an earlier time. They offer to trade the trident for a large number of RUs, refuse and they attack (ships with temporal weapons). If you defeat enough in combat, dialog recommences with the offer to supply you with some ships in return for keeping their star system a secret.
I decided against such a direction, because I believe that not every story should have a happy ending and that not all quests should give as a reward a precursor weapon.
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