Been working on a new planet and this has made me remember there's a lack of weather effects and a few missing terrain decorations that I think could really help different planets "pop" so to speak. Currently my only options for that all have flaws: Decals can be used, but they require a nearby POI and spawning lots of POIs in a biome is not the best. A custom entity can be added to the playfield, but this despawns if the player gets within 150m and then moves away. Custom terrain blocks are possible to add but break playfields on servers by causing ships to freeze in place, so would only be viable for single player and is absolutely not officially supported by the game so very risky. I have used this to add awesome aurora and meteor shower effects to planets but had to take them out due to the issues: All of those methods also would only work in a custom scenario with custom Unity assets. We should have something for the base game that everyone can enjoy without needing to create a custom scenario and Unity assets. Now whether each of these would work best as a new terrain deco block or a weather effect I will leave up to the developers. This is just a list of some cool things I'd love to be able to see on planets in Empyrion: New weather effects such as sandstorms, whiteout blizzards, firestorms, etc. Some versions of the existing "rain" effects which do not wash out the cloud colors. New local biome weather effects. New ambient effects like ground flames, underwater lights/creatures, aurora, fog, shooting stars. A few new types of bioluminescent plants. A couple more models of crystals, especially one that glows and supports easily changing its glow color via the new deco system. Geysers, volcanic eruptions, floating ice bergs. A better way of adding cave POIs as both existing methods have some drawbacks. Using AsteroidRock leaves an ugly gap along the outer edge of the POI and using filler blocks leaves the cave blocky and offset compared to other blocks. Bonus but would be nice: The ability for custom scenarios to add their own terrain stamps, weather and ambient effects, and terrain deco. Example of the volcanic planet I am working on. Would be amazing to have some kind of flames to add to the charred forest biome and volcanic eruptions that could be added to the mountains to really make it feel epic:
These are great ideas, and I have some suggestions that I'm going to wonder out loud (but have no idea how feasible they are). It would be really cool to have some extreme weather/natural disasters on certain planets. For example: Tornadoes: these could severely disrupt all types of vehicles by blowing them around, as well as characters, who would get thrown in random directions and eventually die from fall damage (unless they happen to have that amazing piece of technology, the jetpack). Hurricanes: massive rainstorms with huge vortex clouds could raise water levels which flood non-airtight spaces. Probably difficult to model block damage from the water, so it could be mostly visual, but could slow down movement by foot, as well as hover vehicles. Submerging non-airtight buildings would also limit access to them somewhat, since you'd have to be underwater to go into them. Snowstorms: already mentioned by the OP, but maybe extreme ones could add voxel layers of snow on top of the terrain and bases (and maybe vehicles, adding mass and affecting their handling) that could be removed by a snow removal tool that does not affect the ground voxels. They could melt away over time if the temperature becomes high enough. Earthquakes: could lower the structural integrity of all base structures in the affected area, causing less stable ones to collapse. Since structural integrity is already in the game, maybe this one wouldn't be too hard? Tsunamis: could be similar to the massive rainstorms from hurricanes, but in a fast and sudden way with large waves. Could sweep away all vehicles that aren't locked to a base with landing gears.
Another thing that would be nice for planet deco would be things like random salvage, junk, technology scrap, etc that could litter a biome.
One of the planet types I'd like to see is a "junk" planet. You see them a lot in the Star Wars and NMS universes. Planets littered with technology and junk. If you could add a terrain type that when mined digs up basics like plate, tubes, fibre etc along side crushed stone. Add into that terrain effects that look like trussing and other wreckage/ruin type effects to really give the impression its just covered in junk etc. deposits that cannot be automated but dig up more advanced components and toxic waste etc. You could have a lot of flexibility in what you can dredge up on a junk planet given enough time. I wonder if you could add little treasure troves in too with some ultra rare stuff that you have to scan for at close range. And of course some dangers like super radioactive areas, toxic clouds and acid rain etc. Have a colonist side mission where you have to dredge through a junk world to find a lost bitcoin hard drive XD, deliver it for a cash reward or keep it for a massive payout and suffer a reputation penalty.... I'm just having fun here..
