Feedback Required Which additions would make the game world more vivid and lively

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Hummel-o-War, Jun 22, 2019.

  1. Hummel-o-War

    Hummel-o-War Administrator Staff Member Community Manager

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    Your turn! :)

    A. For planetary playfields I would like so see...
    B. For space playfields I would like to see..
     
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  2. SGP Corp

    SGP Corp Captain

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    Fishes in water. Something like the equivalent to the birds that occasionally fly around in the sky.
     
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  3. Fractalite

    Fractalite Rear Admiral

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    Planetary playfields:
    • More refinement and additions to base attack
    • More drone weapon types to base attack
    • More drone types/visuals to base attack
    • Ability to "clear" water from voxels
    • Add golems to deserts on starter temperate(Purdy please!)
    • More enemy/neutral buildings in general
    • Remove the lightning and thunder from "RainMedium" and related - should only be in "Storm."
    • Change radiated fog to a lighter blueish color more omni-present fog that eliminates all ambients except your footsteps and a slight windy rushing noise. Should be eerie.
    • Add a lava biome to temperate.
    • Add a much more challenging starter planet to the starting options. Maybe Alien, Lava? Figure alien.

    Space Playfields:
    • More content like Fractalites Smugglers asteroid bases:
    20190129010325_1.jpg 20190129010350_1.jpg 20190130164116_1.jpg (I hear that guy is awesome)

    Ravien uses bunches of "space content" in his scenario and they really spice things up.
    • Detector that is usable in space(cannot have liveliness or vividness if one cannot find anything)
    • More enemy weapon types in space
    • More asteroid types in space
    • More enemy/neutral buildings in general

    Overall:
    • More sound effects and maybe the ability to manipulate them might be fun.
    • Greatly alter the appearance of the enemy turrets. They are really boring and some are just copies with a different color.
    • Greatly alter the appearance of enemy alien weapons; Ion cannon turret maybe changed to "Plasma Mortar turret" that lobs blobs of green crackling lightning that creates a plasma boom on contact with the ground or the players ship. Give the Zirax plasma weapons. Remove shotgun and sniper.
    • Add different drone types with different drone missions. If you reach "Hostile" with the Zirax maybe they release "hunter-seeker" drones that zero in on you no matter where you are and shoot you with cannons. Maybe a Recon drone that disables your base(perhaps even CV.) Could also call it at thief drone but that could be considered a little on the nose.

    ...
    ...
    ...

    I just got a crazy idea...

    Is it possible to wrangle the code so that in multiplayer you can have some players play as the Zirax? They could build their bases and... no, no, that is distracting from the mission of finishing the game...

    I may think of more later. Vivid and lively...
     
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    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019
  4. Pyston

    Pyston Captain

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    Planetary:
    - I would like taller mountains to help dwarf the player and their creations. This gives a sense of being small, in a large world. It also helps to shield from seeing too far or what is around the next mountain, which also help make the worlds feel larger.
    - Little alien critters like an alien gopher, alien snake/worms. Not sure if you could get away with some kind of emitter vs a 3d model. They don't need to be interactable, although if computing resources/cost are available it might be neat to see them run from the player, or interact with the player.
    - Sounds. Sound goes a long way in creating immersion. Bugs buzzing, city sounds, generators humming.
    - Signs. Signs. Signs. I'd love to see more signage for POI's/cities/towns. I know we have the yellow caution symbols and all the white symbols, but does the game engine allow for full on graphics for symobls? Like a red and yellow warning sign, cautions signs, smaller caution tape symbols, scaled down to fit the blocks appropriately. Meaning the symbols would need to be smaller for CV/BA blocks, and scaled on the SV/HV block to be close to the CV size.
    - More varied terrain. I'd like to see rivers and waterfalls...although from what I have read implementing water effects is a late alpha type of thing. - Land Bridges, stacked stones etc.
    -NPC's piloting small ships from stations to space stations to maybe even their homes. But that would be a lot of scripting, almost need a mild story for them.
    - Homes. Random alien/human farms. They could be neutral, good or enemies. Make it random.
    - Fuel depots and restaurants. NPC's sitting at tables eating. Empty tables for you to sit and eat. Busy restaurant chatter/background noise. Think truck stop/lorry stops, but sci-fi for spaceships

    Space:
    - I think space is kinda tough. It should be kinda empty, lonely, vast. But I would like to see building on asteroids a thing. That might make it more desirable of a playfield to be in. Maybe create an asteroid player block that spawns an asteroid (maybe have 3 sizes, and 3-5 variants of each size).
    - I'd personally like to see space darker with deep black space and stars. Nebulas off in the distance, etc.
     
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  5. Fractalite

    Fractalite Rear Admiral

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    Not sure I need fishes as I rarely go in the water, but flying enemies might be interesting. There is a flying scary enemy in this unity package: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/creatures/monsters-pack-vol-1-54192 and I believe you already use the arachnid from that.

    Here are some intensely unpleasant worms and leeches: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/worms-complete-pack-137299 You could set it so that they burst up out of the ground and eat the player. THAT would be vivid. :)

    Part of the challenge here is that "vividness" and "liveliness" really die down once the player gets their hands on a SV/CV combo. As then they are in cockpit most of the time and not even on the ground to see things(critters and such.)

    Also, tie the survival aspect to the clone chamber and the medic station - to respawn, a player must have one and be "set" to it. Outside of the criticisms of "lack of end game content" there is very little incentive for players to stay alive. Take Spanj's recent multiplayer videos:



    They just die and die. There is no "Game over." Granted, that is multiplayer, and I am pleased to see they are enjoying the abandoned stuff, but this is food for thought - maybe death wipes the planet or something? I have no idea, but single player would mean starting a new game. That WOULD increase liveliness. :)
     
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    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019
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  6. Pyston

    Pyston Captain

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    Sound effects that are player placed. YES PLEASE. I often listen to a 10 hour "spaceship back ground" sound (white noise) when building to give me that sense of being on a ship. The Star Trek Next Generation used a mild low hum/white noise in the background whenever they were on the enterprise to give a sense of life to the ship. Man, if I could put a sound on my ship and set the volume and area of effect, that would just be amazing (especially if we could tailor the sound or choose from a variety).

    Also, computers crunching sounds, random creaks, would be cool. Fluids rushing through pipes, or electrical buzz like a transformer. /drool
     
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  7. elmo

    elmo Captain

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    The ability to take away trees we don't want and replace them with others that we would like and plants for planting outside would be good too. As @Pyston said rivers would be great. Haze removed from vehicle lights would be good then we would see any goodies that you added and I would be able to play more instead of spending half my time sitting in my vehicle waiting for daylight.
     
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  8. Pyston

    Pyston Captain

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    I like the haze on planets, it makes sense, but I dislike it in space. I have never been to space but I don't think there is that much dust/debris floating around for the light to reflect off of.
     
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  9. elmo

    elmo Captain

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    The haze from the vehicle I use to get around the planet ( tank HV ) is terrible and result is I cannot see what is looming up in front of me.. Should be able to toggle it off or on.
     
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  10. jlego

    jlego Captain

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    It does make sense, but it seems far too strong in clear conditions. It does look good in foggy/rainy conditions, though, but right now there's no in-between.
     
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  11. Pyston

    Pyston Captain

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    Ya, I would like to see it tamed down some more, but not to the point of disappearing. It's a cool effect, but does make it harder to see no doubt.
     
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  12. Siege Inc.

    Siege Inc. Rear Admiral

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    A. For planetary playfields I would like so see...
    1. More critters running around. Fish, birds, herbivores, etc. Maybe have some of the predatory animals stalk and hunt them sometimes.
    2. More variety in types of creatures and aliens.
    3. Background noises. Pyston had some good ideas. Noises can really help to make a more immersive environment. Wind blowing, the gurgling of stream, the sound of waves lapping against the shore, bird song, frogs croaking, machinery sounds, etc.
    4. Farms, homes, settlements with npcs. Science outposts. Trade outposts.
    5. NPCs eating or conducting trade/walking around, tending fields, hunting, fishing, etc.
    6. More biome variety. @ravien_ff has been doing some really interesting stuff with planetary biomes. I'd like to see rivers and waterfalls, canyons and gorges, weird rock formations, volcanoes, caves, more types of plants.
    7. Giant flora and fauna. Would add to the alien nature of the landscape.


    B. For space playfields I would like to see..

    1. Asteroid bases. More space stations in general. Some could be mining outposts, others trade stations, refineries, shipyards, heavily defended military outposts. etc. Abandoned facilities and junked ships that can be explored. Maybe some junked ships are traps and when you get close pirates appear.
    2. More types of asteroids. Not just grey rocks. Maybe some crystalline ones. Maybe chunks of ice. More variety of shapes.More disparity in sizing. Some smaller, some larger, some large enough to build a base out of.
    3. Other cosmic phenomena like nebula or gas clouds, comets, black holes, neutron stars. Planets with ring formations.
    4. Space critters! Giant worms that make their home in asteroids, swarms of smaller critters that live in space, larger predatory things that live out there.
    5. More ships flying around visiting space stations, running trade routes, or prowling around asteroid belts. Maybe some are mining. Maybe some are pirates.
     
    #12
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019
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  13. RazzleWin

    RazzleWin Rear Admiral

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    I would like to see the haze as a slider in the video controls so we can adjust it our self to match our own game play. And if not the haze then at least able to control it when the lights are on. The haze really is fine it's just the lights that turn it to a wall of white fog.
     
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  14. Pyston

    Pyston Captain

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    "canyons and gorges"....This!

    Man it would be cool to fly through some canyons. In no mans sky I would fly low to the ground and try go fly through rivers to kind of simulate this.

    I would be crazy cool to find some hangar buried into the side of a canyon with some underground base either occupied or abandoned.

    Damn you Siege, DAMN YOU and your ideas!!! :p
     
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  15. Na_Palm

    Na_Palm Captain

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    Planetside:
    - Scary and lovely ambient sounds as other wrote

    - a few shuttle's flying between pois. Something simple like placing a marker on landing pads and let a kind of ship fly and land between allied ones. Incl. a simple check if the pad is free to land.

    Space:
    - more backgrounds

    - bigger asteroids with bases in and on them.

    - nebulas with speziell effects like lightning, dark creepy ones, erosives

    -also traffic like descripted for planetside

    - are spacecreatures to fantasy?!
    Maybe even dead ones as resource points like asteroids

    That's the first thoughts I would think off
     
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  16. jlego

    jlego Captain

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    Are you thinking of something along the lines of The Long Dark, where you find frozen corpses that you can loot? If so, I can get behind that idea. Maybe the occasional unfortunate Talon sitting against a tree with battle wounds, or a Zirax lying in the open with a spear through them. Would really play into the idea that these are warring factions. Right now, you don't see Talon and Zirax fighting each other.
     
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  17. Na_Palm

    Na_Palm Captain

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    Cool idea!
    Havnt played the long dark...
    Thought more about bigger ones, maybe even something as the idea behind the base inside a dead gods head in guardians of the galaxy. Or the buried dead God under the Vulcan in morrowind
     
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  18. jlego

    jlego Captain

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    I haven't played either of those, but I know what you mean. I've seen similar things in other games, and that seems like a good idea as well (though it's something that probably should be a rare spawn).
     
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  19. Bigfeet

    Bigfeet Captain

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    A. For planetary playfields I would like to see :

    - NPC wildlife acting in "peckingorder" amongst themselves (eat or be eaten)
    - addition in wildlife species (water,land,air)
    - seasonal changes that influence the environment by natural elemental forces (winter,spring,summer,autumn)
    - swamps or deserts could have quicksand area's...
    - Player avatar that can lean (can be used with roll keys) and crouch (new key)!!!
    - NPC factions that can conquer planet sections, increase territory or loose territory via territory grid
    - NPC faction attacks incrementally becoming stronger according to their overall planet presence
    - NPC land based vehicles
    - so far my thoughts ...

    B. For space playfields I would like to see :

    - scan/detector system for space
    - temporal occuring wormholes to unusual destinations (not nearby planets)
    - non linear layout warp routes
    - NPC faction trade routes ( trade CV + accompaning protection vessels)
    - NPC faction SV-drone patrols in formation patterns (scoutpattern + attackpattern)
    - electro magnetic anomalies that may influence Vessel behaviour ...
    - the option i posed here : https://empyriononline.com/threads/alpha-experimental-10-part-iv.49696/page-12#post-312889
    - so far my thoughts ...

    C. For both I would like to see :

    - NPC faction that is able to cross the playfield barrier (space <=> atmosphere)
    - Addition or expansion of the death mechanic i posed here : https://empyriononline.com/threads/death-mechanic-too-soft.49057/page-2#post-313694
    - quality improvements in animations (NPC / player avatar / flow between environmental & weather changes)
    - background music loops that are not contineous (pauzes)
    - trigger backgound music that accompanies events (discovery, danger, biome related, ...)
    - so far my thoughts ...
     
    #19
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019
  20. Vermillion

    Vermillion Rear Admiral

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    A: For planetary playfields I would like to see
    • Proper matching names for creatures and plants
      Currently everything has a generic stock name taken from the unity store. Most of which make no sense or conflict with other unrelated creatures (e.g. "Alien Bug" is shared by the green noob bugs, a spider and the big acid-spitting bug).
      This also causes some problems when reporting issues with these creatures, not only because they share the same name, but because they have a second name which the devs use which doesn't match either name. (e.g. TotalHorror = Nightmare)

    • Variable foliage coloring
      A minor change with huge impact on repeated planets. Currently, all grass is green and so are all trees. Why not planets with trees that have pale trunks and red leaves on red/maroon grass? How about autumn colors? Blue trees?
      Screenshot20190417-13113700000.png

    • More alien-looking planets
      This isn't earth. We should be seeing massive super trees, petrified forests, floating rocks, huge crystal formations, planets with a surface of glass, hothouse planets like venus (NO GREEN FOG), toxic acid oceans, etc...
      Screenshot20190417-13443500000.png

    • Lose the blatantly common earth-sourced sounds
      I hear people complaining about the wolf sound regularly, but while annoying I don't find it as annoying as the goddamn WOODPECKER! Heard on temperate planets, the last thing we should hear is the iconic sound of a woodpecker slamming its faceknife into a tree. Even assuming you've never heard a woodpecker, surely the sound of what sounds like an old lawnmower being started raises an eyebrow.
      There are hundreds of exotic jungle sounds available that most people aren't going to recognize to choose from. Sometimes all you need to do is adjust the pitch or whatever to render it unrecognizable and creepy.

    • Hostile wildlife attacking zirax/talon troops
      Why in the name of zeus's butthole do big, angry raptors not attack the zirax standing near to them but will walk 2km to attack the player? They're not the same faction and according to the RP gain from killing the raptors they're a problem to the zirax too, so they should act like it. A helping hand during a base attack from an accidentally-hit pangolin by a zirax trooper would also be appreciated.

    • Dead body deco
      This one's more for putting in wrecked POIs and derelict ships for atmosphere (e.g. The Titan). Dead bodies with saveable inventories when saved (for scenario builders); it's own loot table if left empty (ammo, tools, oxygen, etc...).
      No, you can't revive or clone these dead bodies, they're dead Jim. It's also a stupid idea.


    B: For space playfields I would like to see

    • Replace the giant psychadelic nebulae in the space skybox with actual space sometimes
      This one's popped up in the suggestions section over and over. The space nebula are unrealistic and a kaleidoscope of ugly at the rate they're used. If you stand on Akua's moon at night and look up, do you see those gay pride symbols in the sky? No, you see a regular night sky. So a normal space skybox is already available.
      They don't need to be removed from everywhere, just from most orbital playfields. Keep it on orbital playfields near the outer rings of the solar system, put it around the aforementioned alien-looking planets. Hell, you could make it so they're visible at night from those planets (which isn't the case now), because currently the nebula skybox only appears when you're in space, but aren't visible from any planet or moon (no atmosphere).

    • Larger Asteroid Fields
      This pertains specifically to the asteroid playfields that are nothing more than a small disc of rocks that more or less apruptly ends, with a single trade station in the middle. These playfields are largely regarded as irrelevant by all players. No one goes there, no one builds there, no one lives there. There are no resources and the total area available is smaller than what a planet occupies inside an orbital playfield. The only time anyone visits these fields is to get to an adjacent planet.
      Make the field bigger. Absolutely massive. Bigger asteroids and a much higher density of resource asteroids. After all, this is a planet without a planet and should be treated as having the combined resources of both the planet that should be there, the moon that isn't and the asteroid ring around it.

    • More moons
      Take this both ways. By "more moons" I mean more moons around planets as well as more types of moon. As far as I know, there are only 2 types of moon: Volcanic and Regolith. Volcanic ones appear to be rare, so all moons i've encountered are plain regolith ones.
      How about some different colored moons, or ones more like the barren or metal (which i've still never seen either) planets. How about an ice moon? Just... some more variety in lunar playfields.

    • Gas Giants
      These don't need to be real visitable planets. At this point they can be just large, very visible planets without their own playfield or orbit. Instead, moons around them are treated like orbital playfields. With the moon-planet behaving like any regular planet, with irregular day/night cycles (day's gonna be a bit weird when a gas giant takes up half your sky and eclipses the sun).
      In future, sure. Visitable gas giants.
      20190514015857_1.jpg 20190426215101_1.jpg
     
    #20

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