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Ancient Structures


DragonEngineer

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I know the devs have said that they wont have anything that is not player built, but an Idea that I had when I first started looking into the game was the possibility of huge structures that were built by something unknown. Think forerunner structures from halo. These structure could be on the surface of the planet or underground, big or small. 

 

This could not only add a sense of mystery or wonder to the galaxy that we are placed into, but a player or group could be rewarded once they have discovered one of these sites. They could gain new technology or information on the history of the galaxy, and this could be an incentive for players to explore things more completely. An Ancient technology found could be the vary tipping point in a conflict between two rival societies, and would give smaller groups a way to get started and not be dominated by huge groups with seemingly limitless resources.

 

Ideas, criticisms, or additions, I want to know what you think.

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Yes, indeed, they could be tied to rare "scrolls" that can be turned into schematics in the game, sorta alien tech, which would require "Reverse Engineering" as a skill for an engineer to decipher said schematics and create the Elements they provide. Could be interesting.

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At-least to me it does seem a little out of context, I mean it could be done, but then again what would be the point? 

 

It gives players another reason to explore. Along with the extra resources and space that comes with finding a planet to colonize, you might find the schematics for a fancy new thruster and you can attach em to your ships. It'll give you an edge, and, as the OP states, it could potentially give smaller organizations that have less funding the edge they need to stay relevant amongst the larger, better known corporations. 

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I know the devs have said that they wont have anything that is not player built, but an Idea that I had when I first started looking into the game was the possibility of huge structures that were built by something unknown. 

 

I actually don't think that's true. I don't have a link for you but I'm pretty sure that the devs have mentioned and are open to having alien artifacts spread through the universe. In his latest interview, JC also hinted that there will be a larger 'story' that will be gradually uncovered by players over the years. I can only assume this means that there will be something out there for us to discover. It could be ancient structures, anomalies, fossils, historical records or alien technologies... We just don't know yet.

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I know the devs have said that they wont have anything that is not player built, but an Idea that I had when I first started looking into the game was the possibility of huge structures that were built by something unknown. Think forerunner structures from halo. These structure could be on the surface of the planet or underground, big or small. 

 

This could not only add a sense of mystery or wonder to the galaxy that we are placed into, but a player or group could be rewarded once they have discovered one of these sites. They could gain new technology or information on the history of the galaxy, and this could be an incentive for players to explore things more completely. An Ancient technology found could be the vary tipping point in a conflict between two rival societies, and would give smaller groups a way to get started and not be dominated by huge groups with seemingly limitless resources.

 

Ideas, criticisms, or additions, I want to know what you think.

"The very tipping point, you say? It could be wonderful, but not too wonderful. Typically, larger organisations will be able to field a larger number of explorers at any given time. If you make these Alien Structures too powerful, you've just thrown away any chance to match or hold off larger organisations. Something could be found in those structures, I suppose but making those items so strong that they are the "tipping points" is quite overdone, don't you think?"

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"The very tipping point, you say? It could be wonderful, but not too wonderful. Typically, larger organisations will be able to field a larger number of explorers at any given time. If you make these Alien Structures too powerful, you've just thrown away any chance to match or hold off larger organisations. Something could be found in those structures, I suppose but making those items so strong that they are the "tipping points" is quite overdone, don't you think?"

I agree with the end but if the largest organizations have already the technology, why would they spend time and resources in an useless exploration ? And for the smallest ones, finding alien ruins would be something epic and very interesting :)

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ancient ruins would be a great way to expand ark zones on planets beside the starter world. 

 

basically once the players find these ruins they could have the option of repairing them, once repaired they would activate an ark zone generator which would create a new ark zone like the one around the ark ship where we all will start our DU lives. but instead of it being an asset for a particular organization it would be a public space, i think this would be a great way to foster the construction of public trade hubs outside of the initial starting area.

 

also it would be neat if the group that brings the thing back online could give it a name and be recorded as the founders of that safe zone. as i envision it taking a large amount of work and resources to bring one of these facilities back online.

 

this would also serve to keep these type of sites something players would always be on the look out for, as even years down the road it would still be desirable to add a safe zone on the front lines of the spread of civilization. and if you can find these places periodically it would alleviate the need for players to be able to setup private ark fields that would more than likely just end up abandoned as players move on from an area or the game itself.

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ancient ruins would be a great way to expand ark zones on planets beside the starter world. 

 

basically once the players find these ruins they could have the option of repairing them, once repaired they would activate an ark zone generator which would create a new ark zone like the one around the ark ship where we all will start our DU lives. but instead of it being an asset for a particular organization it would be a public space, i think this would be a great way to foster the construction of public trade hubs outside of the initial starting area.

 

also it would be neat if the group that brings the thing back online could give it a name and be recorded as the founders of that safe zone. as i envision it taking a large amount of work and resources to bring one of these facilities back online.

 

this would also serve to keep these type of sites something players would always be on the look out for, as even years down the road it would still be desirable to add a safe zone on the front lines of the spread of civilization. and if you can find these places periodically it would alleviate the need for players to be able to setup private ark fields that would more than likely just end up abandoned as players move on from an area or the game itself.

 

Yeah keeping all ark zones neural could be a good idea. Having orgs control their own arkzone would give them a distinct adavantage over those who orgs who don't have one, Your idea would also make it so that the amount of ark-zones would grow proportionately to the distance that players had expanded outwards.

 

The thing about alien ark tokens I never liked is that they don't fit into the lore. We know that the humanity has discovered the ark tech because it is on the Novark, so it seems a stretch that aliens would have left the exact same technology laying around. I would certainly favor it as a game mechanic though.

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There is a few ways to do ancient ruins without aliens. Spoiler warning and definitely not official. 
Assume that the first prototype ark ship attempted some kind of blind FTL jump. No target gate, No STL. It went horribly wrong but some survived, built even managed to get to other systems using the unsafe drive but eventually they died out. Their genetics was damaged badly in each jump. The result it ruins, unsafe ancient derelicts, that are hundreds if not thousands of years old because you took the slower but safe STL solution. Some ruins may even contain barely human NPC's. 

A second idea is that the defective ship jumped back in time tens of millions of years and Built normally but eventually they fell to a civil war that destroyed everything including their stargates. Only their tech, their stone and a few genetic clues in the plants and animals remain. Their language was a mix and a mess when they left and has gone haywire since.  

These two could allow a lower technology gameplay as individual players use some kind of found memory tech switch to an alternate thousands of years ago and build what will be ruins (creative mode). These special ruins materials and stuff then decay. So all but the first ruins is player built with each alternate seeing how much he can entice the other players with a story, gift them a smattering of higher technology bits or troll low tech puzzles and traps. This can work with real extinct alien memory technology.  

The third is a secret society (alpha player guild) with a few secret technology tools that allow them to go out and build fake ruins to manipulate the others into adopting their political goals. I.E. the structures are built propaganda. 
 

In the third case someone is handing out a slightly suspicious mission to drop off a robotic gadget and a lot of stone somewhere which unbeknown to them builds an ancient looking ruin as part of a plot. A random secret society member 'controls' the robot and builds. Funny how the ruins are found near these drop offs and never before! 

In all three cases the player building the runs is 'teleported' there and not told where. IE the star, planet, etc data is turned off. Your ruin may not be found for months real time and because they are player built templates the GM can move them to newly spawned worlds.

A game within a game.   
 

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