Re: Feature requests
 

It would be nice if when you are on fire entering a water space would put it out or wash the burning chemicals off.

Re: Feature requests
 

ok, but what if you stepped on liquid ethane/methane? (ok, I suppose those don't occur on oxy-atmo planets, so you might noy explode... would sure be a funny YASD though!)

Which brings to mind the fact: should you be able to burn on non-terran planets?! That never occurred to me before.

Re: Feature requests
 

If by burn you mean with flame (oxidation) I guess not but if you mean burn by a transfer of heat then I would suppose you could do that on any kind of planet.

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi,

It would be nice to be able to explore the Galaxy and not exterminate all forms of native life in the process.

If there was a 'stun gun' you could zap creatures, on planets, and they would turn into an icon, just like a commodity or item. You could then collect them in the same way and take them back to your landing shuttle.

They'd, just like a commodity, take up a cargo slot on your spaceship but as a living creature (in a force cage) they'd consume, say, 1 supply per turn while onboard. If you ran out of supplies on your spaceship you could, at a last resort, gobble up the critters but at a high risk of disease.

You could sell your biological specimens at Banker Stations. Perhaps only some of them accept biologicals, not all.

Prices would be randomly determined based on the level of the creature. But...the price you received would increase exponentially if you were selling a 'Set' of like creatures (eg. same sprite but different description, even if it's only a different name tag). The bigger the set the more the reward.

So now, in my ideal world, you could have a career as a collector of living biological specimens. You'd have an incentive to hunt down particular creature types and build up your sets. Kind of like a butterfly or big game collector of old who used to roam the wilds of Africa.

I'd imagine that this would be pretty straightforward to implement (unlike my previous idea of robots although I wasn't intending them to be autonomous) as it piggy backs off existing game mechanics.

You could finesse it by having an officer specialty ('Zoologist') who'd get you a better price for your critters and m-a-y-b-e having the occasional 'creature got loose onboard and killed some crew' situations unless you had a special 'secure Cage Containment' device onboard.

Not sure about the bunnies though. Zillions of different types. Would it be ethical to go bunny hunting? Maybe only evil bunnies. Perhaps if you took them to a certain embassy you'd get a great price 'cause they consider them a delicacy?

Or would that just be really bad karma.

Cheers,
Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

Hi plugger.

Interesting how your mind works. I like it!

Cheers,

Re: Feature requests
 

Cyberis, thanks for the burning justification!

Plugger, wow! now that is an interesting idea. You are not the first to suggest non-violent means of survival (meaning that it is something players want)... And you even outlined in terms of things the game already does.
Nice!

Re: Feature requests
 

Got another idea. Been down to the cargo hold and cracked open the box of Narcotics marked 'Red Wine'. I think. Or it might have been 'Red Pills'. Red Something.

Planetary Events

A lot of the fun from tromping around unknown planets is managing your oxygen. Once you get a suit that negates the need to worry about this the challenge appears to drop off somewhat. You also spend a lot of time planet side so anything that serves to spice it up would be a plus, hence the idea of random planetary events.

I could think up bucket loads of these as could, I'm sure, anyone else. But I'll restrict mine to ones that meet the following criteria;

• Easy to implement (easy being a relative term given that I don't have to do it)
• Have a meaningful impact, eg. they're interesting
• Avoid randomly killing, or penalising, the player
• Gives the player scope to make a tough decision

The events would all follow a standard format. If the random gods decide that there was to be an event on this particular planet at this point in time then the player would receive a warning using the games existing pop-up message functionality, eg. 'The Away Team notices Earth Tremors'

The warning would be specific to the event and would give the player a heads up that something is, or could be, about to happen.

Mechanically once the pop-up warning is shown there would be a set time period of 'x' number of turns that would elapse where nothing is guaranteed to happen, eg. 5 turns.

After this, each turn there is a % probability of the event kicking in, eg. 2%.

The player, having received the warning, is effectively given a grace period to get out of dodge, if they want. After that the event is in the lap of the gods. A 5 turn grace period gives you enough time to make an immediate start back to the landing shuttle and, most likely make it safely. The low % chance of the event happening also gives the player scope to keep on keeping on gambling that it is unlikely to occur anyway, or that they'll finish what they came for before worrying about it. Push your luck stuff, that cranks up the tension.

Here's what I came up with for events. The Duration for all of them would be continuous until the Away team lifted off from the planet.

Meteorological Meltdown
Warning: 'The Landing Party have been contacted by their ship warning of an impending Storm'
Effect: Visibility drops to one or two squares regardless of scanners, suits etc. Fog of War over all map, even area's already traversed. Position of landing shuttle no longer marked on map (telemetry interference).

Radiation Roast
Warning: Ship warns of an impending stellar event that'll shower planet with radiation
Effect: All equipment has their tiny electronic brains fried to a crisp. Weapons (melee and ranged) and Devices stop working (auto repaired once back on the ship). Suits are considered shielded and will hold it together long enough to get to safety.

Shake and Bake
Warning: Away Team shaken by Earth Tremors
Effect: Earthquake! Landing shuttle damaged. Away Team will have to repair it in order to leave planet. Once they move onto the square with the Shuttle there is a % chance it'll be repaired each turn, say 10%. Got enough oxygen? There's also a 5% chance that Shuttle can't be repaired.

Shake and Bake if Away Team in a Cave
Effect: Fog of War throughout. Rockfalls, darkness, badness. Randomise location of entrance and exit from what they were before.

Exo Eclipse
Warning: A moon is moving to obscure the Sun
Effect: Nightfall! The landing map screen is shown in grayscale (Away team have switched to Infra-Red vision). Nocturnal creatures come out to play (All lifeforms on the map go up a notch in capability and lethality)

What's that Rattle?
Warning: Something appears to be wrong with your suits.
Effect: The Away Team suits start malfunctioning. Double oxygen use (2 units per turn, instead of 1)

If the idea was a goer you could even turn it into one of your modular text files where you could specify an event applying only to certain planet types.

+1 Persistence effect for reading this far.

Cheers,
Plugger

Re: Feature requests
 

When I'm over {this}, I would like to see {that screen} displayed by default as follows:
* Bank Station: Cargo, alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.
* Planet/Ship Wreck: "Away Team Gear", alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.
* Anything else: "Installed Ship Components" (primarily for various CD status), alternating with "Ship Devices" every X seconds.

Note: where "X" is "User Defined" and should include the option to choose a default screen with no alternation.

Additionally I would like to see the ability of assigning my own hot-keys to all "buttons" that do not already have one. Most especially for "Installed Ship Components", Cargo, "Ship Devices", and "Away Team Gear".

-Dubious-

Re: Feature requests
 

Plugger,
I put "zoologist" and "planetary events" in my notebook, meaning big ideas that I think would make the game better, and are within scope and possibility.

Zoology will most likely end up as a quest type (go get me X different kinds of Y species, and possibly requiring melee attacks)

Planetary events will be planned basically as you have outlined, and of course, modified by me.

If anyone has ideas for planetary events, I'd love to see them. I've added "flood" and "lava eruption".

Re: Feature requests
 

Geomagnetic storm during which your ranged attacks don't work
Gravity fluctuations on High Grav or dying planets which caused per move status damage
Meteor strike that obliterate areas of the planet, hopefully not where you are at.
Heavy lightning storms with possible damage to a square or two at a time obliterating loot or monsters, causing away party damage and if the shuttle is hit, disabling it for a few turns (no OX, no takeoff)