As the title says, is there any chance at all we will get an actual random start "selection" to survival again? I really do HATE the current starter worlds with a passion and really miss the random aspect of the world type you could select pre 10.0 As is, I either play a player created scenario or I dont play at all and I can only play RE so many times. Please bring back the random starter world generation as a selection.
Because I have a basic understanding about how custom scenarios work and what can be modded, I must tell you that there is no way to make the player start in a random point in the galaxy, you can make the player start on a certain type of planet but this would not be random. A random start would also not be appropriate for everyone because if the random results puts you on a extreme planet you would hardly be able to leave it by finding all needed ressources or survive the local conditions for very long, although I'm not quite sure about this. All sun systems outside of Ellyon are random as for the seed nr. you chose when starting, some story-driven systems excepted. Therefore I use this method with the console commands to start me on a more or less random location (a copy-paste from my notes): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The console commands you need are: gm >> god mode to avoid any teleport damage sd debug >> allows you to double-click any system to get orbital info teleport [planet name] >> gets you to the surface of any planet in the galaxy. For a random start, start a normal game, pick-up what's outside of your landing capsule, then insert the 2 first commands above... Browse randomly through the big galaxy map (use CTRL/SHIFT-WASD keys to move faster or CTRL-Mousewheel to zoom/unzoom), open a orbital system and chose a random planet (throw a dice to know which one...). Then Input the command teleport [planet name] which will bring you to the surface of said planet. Good luck. Note: If you don't use a ship when teleporting then be in god mode before you do, or you will likely fall down to the surface and die. Also planet names with multi words like 'xxx xxxx I' must be put under brackets like teleport 'xxx xxxx I'. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My hope would be that the game could pick a "random" starting planet / moon based on various criteria. I.e. said environment must have a degree of survivability based on starting equipment. The Snow starter is survivable, but a lot depends on luck. I love the snow starter, but the difficulty can range from trivial to impossible not to die repeatedly due to conditions. So, several factors would need to be considered: Temperature range Radiation levels Breathable atmosphere / the ability to craft O2 (water content) Availability of key resources The first three factors can be countered by better starting gear of course. I.e. if a planet isn't breathable, then starting with a suit is a must. If temperatures are extreme then a heater/cooler might be added - or indeed, a better suit with different boosts. Nothing to totally negate an environmental factor from the start (suit does for O2, but top-ups needed) but to give the player time to play and get a basic BA/HV operational. Planets could be "scanned" by the game and various candidates picked based on a difficulty setting. I.e. "Easy" might find some nice Temperate planets to start on, some distance from the regular starting systems. Medium would perhaps find a harsher environment and Hard would be something pretty nasty. Perhaps the player could be able to refine things further? Say I'd like the game to find me an out of the way Ocean planet, with low radiation and breathable air - it could do that. A proper "custom" start. Once the game universe is created from the selected seed, the game knows what exists out there. It knows a planet's stats and what resources are available, could this not lead to different start options? I personally, several times, have used the console to pick a distant planet that's suitable (usually pretty hard) with my first "quest" being to find the starting systems. Great fun. It's a game-start that's pure sandbox survival at this stage, no mission, just survive and escape the planet. Love it. Having a formalised version of this would be great. I think this would be a really interesting thing to explore further. When I start a new game, I almost exclusively do my own thing, perhaps picking up missions later, but often not. Having a much greater variety of starting options would be fantastic. Having quite a deep selection of options to pick the perfect Paradise / Hell scape starting planet/moon would be dead cool. As mentioned, I do this manually myself from time to time and have had a blast doing so.
Would it be possible to sort of "fake it"? For example, have a large-ish number of starting locations categorized by their difficulty, and then based on the player's difficulty level choice, have him start on one of those starting locations by random? That way you wouldn't initially know where you are except the obvious planet type. If the "large-ish number" is sufficiently large then it ought to even be indistinguishable from a true randomized location. The starting locations would not need to have anything special made on them, like on the actual current starting locations. A procedurally generated planet with whatever POIs it happened to get would be fine. The estimated difficulty for the start would not need even to account for those POIs i.e. just using the planet type would be quite enough for that.
Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I seem to recall you used to select the starting planet type in a new survival game. You'd start next to basic resource deposits and a wreck POI for shelter. Enough cobalt and pentaxid would always be available on the moon to get a warp SV going. It was never really random. If people are truly willing to tolerate their starting sector/system turning out to be nonviable after spending several hours on it, it'd probably be quite possible to implement a full on Randy Random start for Default Survival. I don't think they would be so willing, but who knows?
At one time, you started in a SV like the one you start with on one of the starter planets now, (I looked forever trying to find how to restore that start). then there was the basic POI start that they had for a while, then it was the escape pod. Now it seems to be different based on the starter planet you pick. I'm trying to remember ever having a random start to the game where you didn't choose a starting planet... I don't recall that ever being the case, but 2015 was just a few years back and I've played a lot of games sense then, it gets hard to remember what games used to be what ways when they first came out.
The problem here are your 2 last words 'by random'. Yes it would be possible to create a large nr. of scenarios where you can even start on a POI in orbit like in the 'Ashon II Orbit' start, plus a large number of different planet types to start from (all these would appear in the scenario section of the game menu), but it would not be random because everytime you start the same starting conditions and sector content will apply, except that the cargo contents of containers and other loot can be set to random. But I must add that I'm not that proficient in modding to really exclude what you say, for example the Ashon II start is a really shining one IMO and before it was released I didn't think this was possible to achieve for a start. So other good surprises can still come, but maybe not in the sense of total randomness.
Ah, I see. If the startup can not place you at a random location, are there any ways for a scenario setup that would allow random location change, or at least something that would look random enough from the players point-of-view? For example, what if the scenario starts in a pre-made base that would have, like, 100 teleporters that link to the "random" start locations? Any technical way to somehow shuffle those teleporters so that the player wouldn't know which leads to which planet even if he starts the scenario again? The shuffling doesn't necessarily have to modify the teleporters. Would be ok if the player can be confused in some other way, too. I don't know... Can you generate random messages in LCD panels or have a random pre-made datapad appear in a cargo container? If possible, maybe you could have lock codes for the teleporters and the randomized message would then give you the lock code and position of a teleporter?
I bet it's possible for to begin a player in an empty playfield they never see, pick a random star somewhere in the galaxy, generate one of its planets, and teleport the player to it with a smack on the bum for luck.
Our just, you know, fix the POI placement issue so we can go back to random seeds for starter planets instead of fixed seeds. That is the whole reason it is making people upset. We don't need "truly random", people just want it not to ALWAYS be exactly the same..... The whole reason they went to fixed seeds for starter planets/moons is because a bug was preventing all the necessary POIs from spawning on random occasions. So it stands to reason if the devs just fixed that bug then there is ZERO reason we can't go back to random seeds at that point. They just need to fix it.....
The current setup is NEW. The game used to allow a totally random start with only the "Type" of planet being set. Everything else was random including the planets placement in the galaxy and its star system. There is no need at all for set POIs because the main story shouldnt even be in a random start. The story, should be in the current forced locations.
Yes, agreed, this was well before the moon starts, before v. 1.8. If you look in the scenario folder there are some 'hidden' scenarios, among them the old starter scenario. You can activate it, but I think you better do not because it will probably break a lot of new mechanics in the game.
