I get why Eleon changed the starting planets and it honestly makes sense .... for some play styles. But that change has pretty much destroyed one of my favorite styles of play; the Nomad/Raider that does not mine (well, after getting a small starter HV). I like getting a HV then after that, everything thing I build must come from loot or salvage. So I basically roam the planet looking for targets of opportunity then take on bigger stuff later as the resources allow. But with the current build I run across a few ancient sites, a ton of Talon settlements, multiple traders, and very little Zirax presence. So I find myself making weapons and selling them for everything I need (since I wont mine anymore), which gets boring pretty quickly. I looked at a few tutorial videos from Spanj so I "think" I have an idea of how to create planets and solar systems. But I'm not sure if I can populate the starting planet the way I want. What I'd like to do is make a large desert planet (so it's HV "friendly"), have very few resources to mine (which I believe I can simply do in settings), almost no Talon or Polaris presence, have random Zirax POIs and territories scattered around the planet like in the past builds, and some other POIs other than burial chambers and such. Is this something that can be easily done in 1.5? If so, can it be done with the Empyrion Playfield Designer or would I need other tools? Or maybe I'm looking for Project Eden and don't even realize it? PE seems to have a lot of what I want, but having watched a few YouTube videos PE seems to be almost suicidal in its difficulty. But in retrospect it's possible the uploaders had difficulty maxed out and were using Reforged Eden. Thanks,
Project Eden offers about 10(?) different Starter Planets from Baby Mode to Ultra Hard. Killer is the REFORGED Eden - that may be a Death Trap. What you criticize on the New start is easy to stop: When the IDA start to talk you into the first mission HIT Escape. Every time you approach a POI which is couppled to a Mission the IDA will pop up - Hit Escape - just quit it. I start always on the ARID Planet. Nothing forces me to do anything. If I want to start I open the PDA and click on Prelude. Done Not before.
Yeah, I also start on the Arid planet as well and pretty much ignore IDA's missions until I feel like doing them, if ever. What I'm talking about is that there is pretty much nothing on the planet. Mostly tons of Talon settlements, a half dozen POIs to loot, and a Polaris trader. I'm not looking for a game with tons of crashed vessels to loot for an easy CV, just more POIs to loot or attack. In the past you could stumble across some lone POIs to take on. I don't know, maybe I just got a bad seed. I'll load up a few more and use the map cheat to see if it was just an isolated incident. I'll probably check out Project Eden as well or maybe I'll just go rogue and attack everyone.
I think the "survival" part of the game start has pretty much disappeared. There is absolutely no feeling of being "stranded" on a foreign world when there are tons of people and structures on the starter planet. The starter items and tools only last less than an hour, up to the point the player has jumped a few levels, and IMO it's a missed opportunity to introduce the player slowly into the game universe. There are many missing tooltips but the editor still works ok for the most part. The main problem might be to fix the PDA if you want to remove mission-related POIs.
Yeah, I was being nice tbh. A starter craft for me is now a tier 3 since it only takes an hour or two to buy 2 small optronic bridges and the other materials you wont be able to mine on the starting world as long as you don't go too crazy with your design. There are no dangerous areas on well over 90% of the planet and fully 25% or more of the planet is owned by neutral factions you can trade with. "Survival" is a joke, and I'm not even a hard core survival junkie. I'll give the editor a shot, thanks. Other options I've explored haven't panned out and I'd hate to give this game up over sheer boredom.
You can change almost anything about a planet. EPD is outdated, but I believe should still work to create a usable playfield file. Or you can handwrite the yaml file using notepad++. Easiest to just copy an existing planet type and then edit that as you wish. You can use the config scenario in my signature for a template to use to create your own scenario so your changes don't get overwritten.
