Star Control: Planet Brainstorming Thread!

Wow, I hadn't really considered that you might be thinking of things along those lines, but sure, a variation on the fleet battles over a planet could be quite cool. The arena would be the orb rather than a plane of space around the planet. I'd consider a separate set of combat vessels than the fleet battles, though.

City invasions is something I have trouble picturing, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be fun.

As for a third idea, what about rescues? A planet is undergoing some catastrophe and you need to get people off-planet, kind of classic "Defender" but using the Star Control planets? I dunno.

And if we're talking planetary catastrophes, what about taking part in stopping volcanoes or other adverse conditions? Or bracing for incoming meteors? I'm thinking along the lines of some Next Generation planetary disaster interventions.

Are those along the lines you're thinking of?

Invading planets sounds like the most exciting thing aside from finding anomalies.  To balance planet combat I think you need both your lander weapon and the troop transports (allies to protect) to matter in the fight, not just do one or the other (I don't know if air combat really adds anything to this).  Also planets of different difficulties should exist, e.g. colony, developed planet, ecumenopolis.  I would be most excited to invade an ecumenopolis once I get end-game tech.  The ecumenopolis would have a lot of separate objectives to accomplish (e.g. turbolasers that shoot spaceships or aircraft/drones supporting you, barracks that spawn enemies, civilian buildings to not shoot, shields that prevent you from entering or bombing certain areas until you shoot the power generator).  You NEED destructible buildings to do in depth ground combat, however (especially trying not to blow up the civilian buildings).

The problem with invading planets is if you are trying to be the white knight then you need a reason to still invade a planet instead of the peaceful option.  Maybe there is a Dynarri empire and you are liberating planets from their control.

Making planets have "elemental nodes".  The Elements you pick up spawn on the nodes at a slow rate, initially there is a package of elements corresponding to some value (like accumulated X years of growth), this represents the elements you pick up.  You then get slow respawn of elements (very slow), but you can place an extractor (which either costs RU to buy, or if we add some sort of light crafting system you could craft one from elements).  And these cause the elements to be respawned much faster.  This way you can have light passive income from planets.  Now of course the planet needs to be free of baddies.  And maybe limit it to planets within Earth's area of influence, and possibly allies with whom you have alliance.

In addition to these, there should be a spawner for the wildlife.  Allowing the wildlife to regrow, and giving you the ability to place auto-ranchers (enclosed area with ranch bots) that replenish livestock at a faster rate, and package it for transport or maybe process into meat .

You can add missions that get you to help establish Human colonies via setting up extractors of key elemetns and ranches for some wildlife.

(My above suggestions are heavily influenced by the game Nomad)

Of course also would love to see more wildlife, ocean planets requiring submarine landers. And possibly some sort of atmospheric lander that can visit gas giants.

More Animals.  I would like there to be more biodiversity in the galaxy than the same 5 animals.  

More enemies than robots and angry rhino things; tanks, planes, armies, Godzilla, giant robots

Planets with civilizations on them that you can land on.  City planets are missing.  I saw a few with a building or a mushroom shaped outpost, but I want cities.  Even planets with Post Apocalypse landscape, so we can pick thru the bones of all the shiny new aliens that came before us the Scryve blew up or just nuked themselves.  (take that Kzanti)  A version of Earth with an abandoned Disney World comes to mind, just leave the egg behind.

Water planets, the Mukay need me to bring them fish meat.

Caves, underwater, big buildings; things you can explore besides the planet surface.  Those could assist with more expansive story telling, by you guys or mods.  Think Mass Effect when you explore that cave with the computer at the end.

A race or chase mini-game, to again add for story ideas, that might go with above.

While Space Ranges 2 had a cool RTS system for planets - I take your point Brad that SC:O is not a strategy game

Similar ideas to those already mentioned above, here are my ideas for the brainstorm.

One of the ideas I had with planets was more to do with the reviews that SC:O has received (ie the grind complaint).  Introduce an early game module where you can re-purpose the robots you have captured to collect resources from planets.  (gains bonuses from lander modules) - However it will only retrieve resources and biological.  It can not investigate unknown entities.  

For planet battles, you could have various missions types where you have to:
- Exterminate everything on the surface:- Pest removal to make room for a <<Insert alien here>> colony
- Defend the Dome from a:-  Industrial experiment gone wrong / singularity event that went sideways / Invading planet pirates
- War on a World:- Pick a side and eliminate the oppressors / rebels or both and claim the planet for yourself.

In each of these options there is the opportunity to include a minor and or major boss fight as a final battle rather than hunt down the last target on a large planet.  To assist with these type of missions please include modules to make the lander more weaponized / tanky and maybe bring a few drones to provide fire support (like ships, drones have different weapons sizes etc).  Also as mentioned above - structures would need to be destructible.

For race against time options.  You have <X> minutes before an event is about to occur that will turn the planet into a shattered one.  You need to race around and pick up as many biological before the meteorite hits / the ancient one  appears / anti-mater reactor goes critical etc.  In this case the biological are happy to hop in the lander, you just have to chase them down because they are to busy running around panicking. (Going to need a lander module that shows biological on radar).  From there transport them to new planet (which you probably have to find) to start a new colony.  Or if your feeling so inclined, sell the populace off to the highest bidder.

When i have been racing around the planet harvesting I have often wondered how cool it would be to have a reason to race across the planet surface but I have little in the way of "plausible ideas".  Race for a precursor artefact - a planet with deep canyons and you have to race to the end / through a maze for a precursor artefact / component / new command ship.  To stop you from cutting across the race course, the canyons are the best place to be. (For example the planet surface is too bumpy / covered in environmental hazards etc)

From there you can create combo missions using various tropes:
- Race against time / Race on planet surface:
<<Insert alien race>> Colony is about to be annihilated by a Volcanic Planetoid.  In a race against time you send a lander to find a geological weak point to plant a nuke and destroy the Planetoid before its too late.

- Fleet Battle / Planet Battle:
In the fleet battle you have taken out the defensive fleet and boss, but the <<Insert Planet Killer Object>> is just to big for conventional weapons.  Launch a planet offensive to destroy the <Mission Objectives>> on the surface to create a chain reaction to destroy the Battle Station.

Quoting Darkstar076, reply 5

While Space Ranges 2 had a cool RTS system for planets - I take your point Brad that SC:O is not a strategy game  

Now that you mention Space Rangers 2 the game had some really good planetary quests that involve choose your adventure style gameplay that would fit very well in Star Control. Here's an example: https://youtu.be/g0W7EeciDbw?t=17m47s

There could be text adventures on planets and in space like the King Arthur the Roleplaying Wargame.

Well the game already has the dialogue tree.  Add in several buildings on the planet where dialog can take place and there you go.

Another blast from the bast - Death track.  Can we do that but with planet landers ?
The competition could be held over several planets.  Need to trick out your lander to help improve your odds.  Question is, can we get the AI to also race landers at the same time ?

I could imagine some shady Menkmack offering you some extra RU if you ice one of the other races

Thanks guys.  Please keep adding your thoughts.

We're looking at what we will (and won't) be adding to the expansion.

I'd like to see some planet scaled puzzles.

• Did anyone play those games where you rotated a 3D pixel cloud to see an image? Use the orbital view to discern information on the planet, you need to line it up roughly right before the 1st Officer tells you more (pins a place of interest on the planet)
• Orbital bombardment to blow up a mountain, opens up a new area or something you couldn't see before
• Terraform planets - warm a frozen planet up to a water planet, new things/areas become available. Cool down a volcanic planet to make it safer to land. Could boil a water planet too (Mu'kay might get upset).
• Time based puzzles where you have to reach/shoot certain places on the planet (in order) to open up a reward.
• Good old phase shifting to another dimension/time. See other things on the planet, even if it is just for lore of extinct species.
• Precursor Planetary Super Glue - fix shattered worlds.
• Actually I want to land on a shattered world - now you have a platform game built in. You're welcome  

Other idea - other aliens mining planets. We shouldn't be the only ones interested in resources - setup alarm/protection systems on planets to notify if someone is getting your resources. Go there and have a lander fight.

I'd also like terraforming, via placing of buildings on mineral nodes maybe?  Make it a bit more like spore end-game

Very minor but why don't any other gas giants have rings like saturn?

My overal vision would be that you as the Captain of a single ship can contribute to existing efforts of Star Control but not dictate it.

For planets this would mean the following for example:

• Scouting a planet for suitable colonization (limited presence in current game)
• Running supplies to start colonization (limited presence in current game)
• Help contruct initial habitation
• Deliver specific component or resources to upgrade the colony (here you might be able to add a little choice for the player. The type of component or resource determines what will be built)
• Protect planet from ground and space based attacks
• Help build/upgrade the local starbase
• Support the defense by transferring ships to the local fleet or donate RUs to help them construct ships

Any missions on planets would fall into these categories. So for example you would need to first scout certain landing sites on the target planet. Make sure to clear any immediate dangers from local wildlife or weather. Deliver equipment to start harvesting certain materials on nodes (unrelated to surface nodes you can pick up). 

To add to this you can add certain events like

• Archaeology site that unleashes a danger upon the colony
• Virus outbreak (call Pinthi to help)
• A particularly dangerous predator has been spotted
• Travelling merchant has arrived
• Dimensional event has occured
• Sudden loss of a vital component or resource

I do not consider assaulting other planets to be in line with the Star Control setting. The combat should be in space, not on the ground so I would severely limit those options.

PS. We would need more planets with large bodies of surface water for colonization. Making it look like all the planets have only underground water supplies isn't very "realistic" 

Would be interesting if you could stun a critter on one planet and take it and introduce it to another planet. Bring a few and can maybe have them populate. Would make for some interesting quests where you can scare a race into giving you something you want. (think Tribbles from Star Trek)

Have a few planets where the surface is covered in ruins, like driving through a wrecked city.

More along the line of how you do things in Spore, which I REALLY like.  I wish they polished up the end game in that game (though I have not tried galactic adventures).  We could stand ot have some of these elements in Star Control.  It was really fun.

I'd like to see the landers have its own module slots, more lander types (perhaps some air and some ground) with various slot layouts and more types of utilities/weapons for landers.  Hacking module, have data sites on some planets data sets you have to collect to get a reward of some kind.  Engineering mod, repair the ships we find instead of just instantly fixing them.  Use your imagination with different types mods. Need to work on the creatures and entities.  More variety and combat capabilities to have them even be a thing people don't just avoid. Outposts to destroy for rewards.  Lastly, I'd like to have a reason to go back to a previously visited planet.  There is no reason to ever return once it’s been mined.  Respawning resources and perhaps have the rarity dictate the spawn rates.

PS How it currently plays ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd0senayYsw

The planets should be significantly larger.    with hazards more easily identified...   oh lava planet with lake of lava.. don't drive there etc.

Give the player the option of having additional landing zones, or picking their landing zone and have the difficulty of the landing change based on where the player picked.

Add water and perhaps the ability to submerge.

calm down the topography...  or make the lander climb better...  Jump as a something the lander starts with.

add more types of buildings...  and more common...

Add some aliens that swarm the lander and worship/attack it  on planets with primitive civilizations.

Give the player the chance to salvage for parts downed ships.    Make the downed ships more rare


Make more systems with mini-quests...  or dead civilizations that have things found on many planets....

Minerals should be somewhat randomized with each play-through, so that once you complete a quest, the minerals or items you need are not always at X, but now might be at Y.

Also, I don't think the on-planet scenes make the planet seem too small. It is the initial landing cut-scenes that make the planet feel like a ping-pong ball. Make the lander,and maybe the lander site, smaller on the landing screen, and that would solve most of the "planet seems like a tiny ball issue". Or increase the size of the planet in the lander scene, so that only the area around the lander is onscreen.

More critters always good, especially giraffes.

Obvious by now, but allow control of amount of goods sold, and allow you to jettison lesser minerals to load more valuable. SC2 already did this.

It would be fun if the initial and departing Star Control dialogue box mentioned you by name. SC2 did this, at least for a first name--"Good to see you survived Captain Booger". " Be careful out there Captain Booger".

The Maelnir need a purple background.

How would resources be randomized?  Different planet types have different resource amounts and types, so the planet types would have to be randomized as well.  I prefer no randomization, just like Star Control 2, so subsequent playthroughs can be much shorter because you know where everything is so you can skip the boring stuff.

The minerals required for most quests are common or, if rare, within a class that is not.

Randomizing those to nearby stars would not affect the planet classes at all, it would require a bit more looking than going to one's notes and seeing that a stash of X and Y is at Planet Z in the Blank system. Marking planets in notes would make that even simpler. Don't think the game is so complex that one will be re-starting over and over like in SC2. I have just been tootling around. You are not racing the clock.

I would think that slightly altering the quests would increase re-playability.

Perhaps expansions will take care of that.

Not really Planet... but I do hope we get to find a major species that is all Giraffes sorta like Dolphins from HGttG...


The Maelnir need to be more than just one quirky conversation and an easily findable sales location....    they should move after you've found them once....    they seem to have far too many easily find-able ships...    makes exploration a bit too easy...

No one wants to chase them around...in SC2, they would stay in a solar system, but you could call them once you found a certain item later. I'm ok with the system they have here.

I like the idea to rescue people from a planet due to environmental catastrophes or xeno virus.

It also can be cool to be trap on a planet and find a way to repair the lander in order to returnto the main spaceship.

We can also reshape/terraform an area in order to help aliens to set up base/colony.

We can clean a polluted/infested area by driving around the planet

It can be also fun to tow other vehicles/object/space ship to a building

The main thing is that we are a captain of a space ship (not a whole fleet), so we can't conquer the planet...

Here's what we can do:

1. raid the planet and get rid of angry robots(or destroying a specific building).
- terraform planet by installing a specific module purchased on starbase

2. We can settle a battle station (smth like a garrison, starbase gives us a module and we install it on planet and share our crew members with it)

3. Then we can supply newly installed garrison with needed minerals for it to grow/expand

4. Gather needed minerals and bring them to starbase so it can build supply ships and populate garrisoned planet, those supply ships fly automaticly and here we can have missions to defend that supply route.

other option include minor undeveloped worlds into sol empire (via talks, or sharing techs, supplying minerals, killing monsters or even bribing authorities). The main thing here is that we don't have to eliminate all inhabitants, we need to assimulate them into our empire.

Another thing: evil option enslave inhabited world, make them pay you... or gather resources for you.... (enslavement might be done through setting garrison or defeating all robots on planet or defeating some ships ... 


 

If I put myself in the Captain's place and we don't have engines to create colony ships, what I would do is make use of the long abandoned colonies that I find on world that are compatible with Human life or the lives of my allies.  It would give the player places to re-fuel and he could trade for minerals with the different colonies so that they could get everything they need.   

In the current game as it is now, there's one planet we find that has entire empty cities that were emptied because they though the Sun was about to go Nova right away.   That could be a place that could be re-used.    Create colonies where there are ruins to study to improve current technology.    The Lexite bases are fairly recent and created by humans why not leave some humans there to make a colony ?

The whole thing about invading cities sounds a lot more war-like than the Historical Star Control although SC1 did have a Space battle game where colonies would produce ships to fight ships created by those of your opponent.   There was something like that in Sid Meier's Pirates of the Carribeans and Galactic Civ III already does something like this and it's made by Stardock.  It doesn't fit with the humorous aspect of the game like a species being manipulated in attacking species that have less than three ears.   

I've mentioned in another post that the Tywon have been listening to Human TV/Radio transmissions that are hundreds of years old.  Humans exploring the galaxy could obtain information on the Scyve by listening to the old TV/Radio transmissions of the species they conquered.  Ancient libraries found on dead worlds and libraries of allied races could provide necessary information to translate the information.   The further away you are from the source of the transmission, the older the transmissions that you receive.

Borrowing on some ideas from Fringe, why not have a way to contact species from the other Universe such as the Androsynth or someone else if legalities prevent this.   Why not hint at a mirror universe where the male counterpart of the crew members have beards ?  Communicate via a freaky typewriter like in Fringe.  The Star Control 2 Game hinted that there was danger to found by poking in other dimensions.    Maybe find a way to interact with the vanquished species in the past or find a way to de-extinguish the species wiped out by the Scryve.