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Crazy Science Idea


Jager14

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(Scroll to bottom for tl;dr, but I insist you read this if you're interested. It's a bit complex and hard to explain)

This might not be a good idea, but I was thinking: maybe we make tech trees and planet/ore types invisible and unpresented to players in the beginning. Make it so players only start with the basics (electronics, basic hydrogen/solar power, etc.) and canmt necessarily see what the next level of materials is. Now WAIT, hear me out, I'll explain lol

 

In human society, since its very root beginnings, knowledge has been one of the most effective tools and deadliest of weapons. Groups with superior technology and knowledge, when they use it with proper economy, will have a distinct advantage. We should have a dynamic like this in DU where, to an extent, science and technology aren't an on rails "kill deer to gain XP to build laser turrets".

 

We could make specific devices focused on research and skills/specializations where players focus on science (like weapons/armor research, ship systems, material: keep it relatively simple, but also seperate). As players explore the universe, digging up strange ore, testing weapons in combat, maybe mixing material, they unlock tech and knowledge specifically related to what they are testing or researching.

 

An example: Let's say you're a small exploration team. You have your marine, your captain, your engineer (maybe a doctor), and a research specialist. You set down on an alien planet after parking your ship in orbit and begin scanning the surface for composition of the ground and atmosphere, while your marine maybe scouts around for ruins or something (probably later in the development time). Your scanner gives you the location of a deposit of unknown material nearby, so you and your research spec. Go over there and dig some up. After you return to the ship, he takes that sample you dug up and puts it into an atomic scanner or something, and then that's how you figure out what the Spice (just a random example) is. You then go back down and dig up some more to take back with you to sell to a material institute for study, and a few days later, maybe it's being used as a more efficient ship fuel or something, idk lol.

 

Now why do I think this should be a thing? Because it simply, encourages emergent roles in research, exploration, and prospecting. When everybody knows what planets hold for them or what they look like, less people will be inclined to spend resources in getting to them. Empires stagnate because they go for a specific thing (like the top tier resource) and then that's it. Technology when it's on rails loses it's sense of discovery. When everybody is able to know everything, it lessens the need for cooperation. When the universe is, to an extent, a big question mark, big groups will be more inclined to continue exploring, colonizing, and whatnot.

 

I have dozens of examples of how this would add a lot of depth to this type of game, things like keeping what you know a secret, research business that make money on doing research and experiments for the highest bidder, having people who specialize in SCIENCE tm being a type of role that is sought after, etc. etc. it also offer upward mobility (you have a monoploy in steel in a system, suddenly somebody discovers, idk, adamantite in another. There a california gold rush type run to colonize the source and suddenly, you're ebing run out of business because admantite is the new rage. A new monopoly takes your place...unless you capitalize on the step forward in tech).

 

Tl;DR make us do science and earn tech, actually having to go out and seek it/research it.

 

Thanks guys, sorry this was a long one :)

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I mean you could do alien archaeology as a skill too. Somebody who can go into a ruin and pick up different bits and bobs, reverse engineer it, and bring back maybe planet coordinates, or the location of a secret base, or a new weapon (balanced of course)

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I mean you could do alien archaeology as a skill too. Somebody who can go into a ruin and pick up different bits and bobs, reverse engineer it, and bring back maybe planet coordinates, or the location of a secret base, or a new weapon (balanced of course)

That's exactly what I suggested as a PvE thing. Let adventurers go out there and recover lost tech through difficult dungeons, possibly puzzle games or something , I don't know. Make them some sort of uneditable moons that become editable when the PvE situation is dealt with and "respawn" the moon in a procedural way in another system far away as a new discovery, with "random loot" tech. Could be amazing.

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That's exactly what I suggested as a PvE thing. Let adventurers go out there and recover lost tech through difficult dungeons, possibly puzzle games or something , I don't know. Make them some sort of uneditable moons that become editable when the PvE situation is dealt with and "respawn" the moon in a procedural way in another system far away as a new discovery, with "random loot" tech. Could be amazing.

I mean I like the idea, but the reason I'm not so sure is that the planets are kinda random. I mean perhaps you could do it Minecraft style and make it a rare seed ir some such (derelict space stations or ships could just spawn in the odd sector too). I mean, it could just be a structure defended maybe by NPC mobs or turrets or something. It be a generated construct. I mean, if you could even involve some lore in it to get players really involved in these places, like a lomg extinct alien race and that finding their tech or such is a big deal and super rare. Of course, balance, balance, balance. I don't think you should get a planet destroyer out of it or anything lol

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I mean I like the idea, but the reason I'm not so sure is that the planets are kinda random. I mean perhaps you could do it Minecraft style and make it a rare seed ir some such (derelict space stations or ships could just spawn in the odd sector too). I mean, it could just be a structure defended maybe by NPC mobs or turrets or something. It be a generated construct. I mean, if you could even involve some lore in it to get players really involved in these places, like a lomg extinct alien race and that finding their tech or such is a big deal and super rare. Of course, balance, balance, balance. I don't think you should get a planet destroyer out of it or anything lol

That was my idea as well. Make it Souls like in nature, with written text entries you got to decode with a "hacking" skill or something. Make the players want to keep going towards a specific star system where the next base lays. The devs could keep on adding as they go, it's only a text entry thing, some automated turrets and all that. It wouldn't be about the PvE combat and super powerful bosses, but exploration and immersion with rewards.

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That was my idea as well. Make it Souls like in nature, with written text entries you got to decode with a "hacking" skill or something. Make the players want to keep going towards a specific star system where the next base lays. The devs could keep on adding as they go, it's only a text entry thing, some automated turrets and all that. It wouldn't be about the PvE combat and super powerful bosses, but exploration and immersion with rewards.

A bit like a prometheus discovery, but less violent lol. I mean that would come later though, what I really want is for this system to be implemented early on. You have access to the basics and essentials for survival and getting into space (so that small groups and the occasional solo player can still play the game with some comfort -note I didn't say it would be easy for them) but if you want to get anything more than the basics, you have to get off your butt and look around.

 

One of my biggest disappointments with a lot of space sims today is that, when you go exploring, you already kinda know what you're gonna find. I mean I mostly find myself just going to planets more to say,"I've been there" than real discovery or adventure.

 

When you make these things accessible to know without actually going and exploring, you take away the significance of exploration and the also potential abilty to really profit from a well done expedition.

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Note: I mean sure, most historical discoveries have been accidents while searching for something specific. Most people go into the unknown with something somewhat specific in mind and a plan (not wandering around until you bump into something). But I want there to be a system that makes thise accidents a thing and makes them significant, you know? It gives the idea of a large universe life and meaning

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A bit like a prometheus discovery, but less violent lol. I mean that would come later though, what I really want is for this system to be implemented early on. You have access to the basics and essentials for survival and getting into space (so that small groups and the occasional solo player can still play the game with some comfort -note I didn't say it would be easy for them) but if you want to get anything more than the basics, you have to get off your butt and look around.

 

One of my biggest disappointments with a lot of space sims today is that, when you go exploring, you already kinda know what you're gonna find. I mean I mostly find myself just going to planets more to say,"I've been there" than real discovery or adventure.

 

When you make these things inaccessible to know without actually going and exploring, you take away the significance of exploration and the also potential abilty to really profit from a well done expedition.

This is why I suggested the procedural discovery system with SOME hard spawn into it. You unlock the tech as an explorer and after a while, everyone that gets to build the tech sees your name as the discoverer of the artifact. I mean, it would be epic, as your name echoes in legends when people look up the tooltip of a cool tech piece you found and see your name tagged on its description.

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Or being able to name planets or systems you discover (within reason lol). But also think of the stories that would be generated. Like that one time Adventurer Bob went to go find Iron on Planet Y and stumbled into a huge vein of gold or something, causing a literal gold rush lol (as an example). Or when Explorer Jane accidently discovered anti-matter while flying through a nebula or something lol. Being a good explorer should be dangerous and arduous, yes, but it should pay off, and have some mystery, like it did for our ancestors and today and probably in the future.

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Or being able to name planets or systems you discover (within reason lol). But also think of the stories that would be generated. Like that one time Adventurer Bob went to go find Iron on Planet Y and stumbled into a huge vein of gold or something, causing a literal gold rush lol (as an example). Or when Explorer Jane accidently discovered anti-matter while flying through a nebula or something lol. Being a good explorer should be dangerous and arduous, yes, but it should pay off, and have some mystery, like it did for our ancestors and today and probably in the future.

This is EXACTLY why I proposed the in-game currency to be tied to a mineral with no use for crafting or construction of any kind but can be converted to money in-game, so there is a check on the inflation of it and to make worlds contested as they are money pits having , let's say, Cashium-1337, as the material's name. A literal gold rush. It would make the discoverer rich beyond imagination if he kept it on the low low as well.

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Lol a bit off topic though, the tech tree and info should br limited until we start exploring was my

point

Indeed. Make the tech into categories, but give those categories "flavours" so to speak through the exploration of alien ruins or abandoned outposts.

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I was saying that alien ruins should be a bit rare to make them important, but not be a cornerstone of everything lol. Groups should still be able to do research without them lol they just provide a nice boost

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Well not tied to aliens either. I mean, if you're like a weapons researcher, using and testing your weapons specifically should help you research new stuff for example

Hmm, kind of clanky imo. And a bit grindy. The devs could go for a quality of item kind of crafting. Like, you could make a rifle made out of traditional materials, sure, but you could also make a rifle made out of industrial grade steel. It would be heavy, hence less accurate, but if a soldier was specialised in powered armor, he would be able to lift it and be effective with it. 

 

Armors could work with the same quality of materials. Make an armor's pieces made out of different material to make the user more agile or more tanky, if such a term could be used here. Each armor would be meant for differnt situations, like in traditional MMOs, BUT, giving the crafter the ability to get better at the whole crafting system organically, instead of "reaching level 150" on armorsmithing. I don't know, I'm not in the dev team, I'm just brainstorming here.

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Sure? That was just a hypothetical example, my first post pretty much sums it up though. It shouldn't be linear

We agree on that. I think it shouldn't be linear, but branching in varieties as science fields go. Sure, anyone can make the default powered armor, but if a guy finds the "recipe" for a different model, with different applications, he can then sell that armor "recipe". Then, a guy can find another random spawn with the same armor design as a reward, or possibly a new blueprint for a plasma rifle, with different stats that allows it to be used for a different role. Who knows? Well... the devs do, but it was a rhetorical question :V .

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That's kinda what I was thinking, but tbh, I focused a lot more on ore and planet exploration when I was thinking about it lol maybe alien npc life (simple stuff like space deer)

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