END GAME THOUGHTS?
SCARASS
Srbija Join Date: 2015-03-07 Member: 201812Members
Srbija Join Date: 2015-03-07 Member: 201812Members
Secondary objective to investigate the planet and gather resources for the main goal.What are your ideas about the end game?
Comments
How would you even fly it?
I think the end game should be discovering the secret to why your mother ship was shot down in the first place, be it some ancient alien civilization or whatever, would be very cool and creepy
- You come across a large pit at the bottom of the ocean (similar to the Mariana Trench) that has a massive hole blocked off by boulders and other materials. You have to construct a fairly large base and must install a large drilling rig on top of it to gradually drill through the rocks.
- Once broken through, you can only descend in the exo suit, since its the only thing that can handle the pressure. Down down down even further in the darkness. Lots of bioluminescent nasties about.
- The goal is to get to the bottom of this area to build a base to establish a foothold as you collect exotic materials to build the most advanced upgrades. Eventually after collecting the needed things in this area, you can upgrade the cyclops/seamoth to also handle the pressure and descend to your base.
- Eventually you come to a plateau that has mysterious lights coming from far below. You're at the highest level of depth resistance now, and can take your cyclops in to investigate. It's an alien city and you end up having to fight or do something with that big sea emperor guy in the trailer. He is capable of (literally) tearing your cyclops in half and ejecting you outside the ship into the water. He kills you and then you respawn at your base.
- Research becomes available to fit countermeasures to the cyclops to hurt or distract him after this, giving you time to kill or subdue him.
- You're free to go to the alien city now since he was a 'guardian' of sorts, and collect the highly rare materials needed to build a spaceship to rocket up to the surface and off the planet, or some big terraformer machine to transform the planet.
The Reaper itself looks far scarier and powerful than the Emperor, hell, even the Cave Crawlers look like they could do quite an injury-- the Sea Emperor, if it is meant to be the boss so to speak, really shouldn't be used as a combat boss unless he can do magic or something of the sort-- it doesn't look like it has anything that would suggest eating other animals or endangering them, unless the crown on its head or lights are meant to shoot fireballs or whatever ...
Basically,
I would rather the "end creature" look like something the player should be wary of, and unfortunately, I'm not wary of the Sea Emperor in any way as it really looks like a docile herbivore
I really think a good pretense for the game in general, your "goal" if you will, would be to discover and catalog every creature on the planet (this could include land dwelling and flying creatures) like a pokedex essentially. But there would be maybe a hundred or a couple hundred types of each type of creature (ocean,land and flying) and some would be harder to find/harder to study than others.
The "end" if the game could be that you constantly hear some sort of deep roar echoing through the ocean and the end goal is to discover this massive creature making the sound, or something like that.
I was thinking about that bit last night, because while exploring the deep ocean I kept hearing this deep, low groaning sound and I was thinking how creepy it'd be if it was this massive thing just lurking in the depths.
I had mentioned in some other feedback data that I would certainly like to see some form of a story and while I do think that the ship should be considered a part of it I don't think the goal should be about building it back up and then flying away back into space. The whole point of the mission for the aurora was to colonize the planet. I would rather see something surrounding the idea of doing exactly that which of course we wouldn't be able to do if no one can successfully land a ship on the surface to do so.
Naturally this energy burst would likely be a new phenomenon since the humans would have likely already landed once before in order to establish that the planet was even worth terra-forming. Just thinking from a project management perspective there, why would I spend thousands upon thousands of resources on sending people into an area I was not positive I could even colonize/terraform?
Another individual somewhere had mentioned possibly finding other destroyed ruins of ship that had tried and also failed...that could be a thing. Anyway, that's my two cents. hope you enjoyed.
Super Organism concept doesn't necessarily have to stay in for the "extended play, sandbox within a sandbox" concept to work...but it is my favorite end game scenario
*Edit* In combination I like the idea of depth gating and biome/zone gating. Example: the lava zone and arctic zone may have temperature extremes too hard to handle without tech upgrades. You can still obtain the hull/suit upgrades because there is a small outer layer within those zones where you can manage some limited exploration to find the creature dna you need for the upgrade. For instance, Lava Worms on the fringe of the zone are what you need for dna samples to then take back to your base for research in order to develop heat shielding upgrades on your subs and enter the zone fully.
Completely immersion breaking
This is not a combative response, just curious. If the world is not going to be based on "endless" procedural generation, how else do you propose reasonable limits outside of walls (which imo are way worse than looping)? If the map is big enough, and that is key, then I think it works ok. Not sure how you're going to maintain immersion at the level you're asking within the constraints they chose for quality and artistic reasons...but I am totally open to the discussion and hearing a different take on it!
It's a really cool concept. The planet has a nervous system, and all of the
living things are part of that nervous system.
You live in -relative- harmony with the environment, the planet leaves
you alone. You start massive terraforming, polluting, mining, and building
operations and the planet sends creatures in to try and stop you.
I'm not sure how it ties into the endgame, but maybe the planet decided
to shoot down the ship because it perceived it as a threat. This is for you to
discover by convening with the planet consciousness near the planet core
or something.
Ugh I mean instead of lava on either side, just have that lava in a different place, or not have the biomes go around in a circle like a Bullseye , just seems unnatural to me
More randomized, basically
Robots automatically collecting raw materials.
The land on which to grow food.
The ability to search for raw materials under the ground using a suitable scanner.
Battery charging generators (solar on shore and underwater on ocean currents)
It may also creating a laboratory where you can study the flora and fauna, discover new technologies such as anti-radiation suit that will allow
exploration ship that burns in the distance and the subsequent acquisition of technology, seeds and equipment.
In the laboratory study of the DNA of seeds from the ship and adaptation to the new environment.
Ultrasonic/microvave guns mountable on submarines.
Alien lifeform on the land aggressive relative to player.
Still wait as the game develops and probably buy this title because it looks interesting.
End of the game - Repair of the ship and sending people from the ship capable of stasis back to earth.
Google translator. Sorry for mistakes
Robots automatically Collecting raw materials-- good idea, provided it's balanced
The land on which to grow food -- Eh, I'd rather this not become minecraft
The ability to search for raw materials underground using a suitable scanner -- pretty cool, I suppose
Recharging batteries-- great idea
The lab is probably going to be created, so, yes, that's in the works apparently
Ultrasonic Microwave guns-- why?
Alien lifeforms on land, sure we should make sure that islands aren't 100% safe
End game-- well I'll say again, I don't like the idea of focusing on the ship itself too much, but I think that's ok for a side activity of sorts
You start off choosing your main character as either male or female. (Just add female pain sound files for injuries et cetra).
And maybe the ending is a mission with a timer on the ship to find the stasis pods.
Once there you find someone of the opposite gender.
You now have to exit the ship to your (invented) escape craft/route/animal ride?
And now 4 player Co-op (two male, two female) is unlocked with a new mission. Find Land.
Upon finding land, now you must find a way to determine what is edible/harvest-able, and avoid a whole new set of predators.
Design a home/garden with traps that revolve around island like choices. (think King Kong/Land of the Lost/Lost in Space)
The ending cinematic is based on multiple choices/consequences of the habitats you have disturbed/interrupted/influenced through the game. (save certain species, regrow this plant, rescue these alien things)
The Ending credits/scene pans out to show a small colony of people in search of new plots of land on ships/subs. (a la waterworld)
Agreed.
Thanks Aero. It's fun to throw ideas around...never know when one might tickle a dev's fancy.
Another general thought on the topic...
In open world games I like side "goals" but I think player driven stories are best where the main fun is having a wide array of ways to manipulate the simulation and interact with it. Some "like end game" scenarios are fine and can give a greater sense of progression, but a well made and involved ecosystem simulation doesn't need an ending. I also wonder if randomized world, or biome specific, events that can happen throughout any given play session would be an interesting addition. (Examples: A pod of stalkers tries to take down a reefback - do you help it? A plant variety is dying off in a region for an unknown reason, affecting the creatures that use it as a food source - do you quickly harvest a remaining specimen and take it back to base for research? Do you re-seed the area using collected seeds or do you keep them and watch the simulation morph due to the loss?) Not sure how far a smaller team and whatever amount of resources they have can go with it, but there is lots of potential for very unique and interesting gameplay here. Hopefully a large enough market of alien ocean explorers will develop to support it being fleshed out as much as possible.
That's not to say there shouldn't be a story, but a more open ended ending wouldn't be out of the question I think
- find some parts of alien artifact? (for a stargate?, a special tool?...)
- activate a SOS signal on the starship ( with a lot of steps, each step need different ressource or dna )
- find all Species 's Dna (animal and vegetable), because thay are needed on own planet.
etc...
Maybe our species extincted most life on our home planet and our expedition is sent to gather species to increase biodiversity .
Also, there should be many secrets and awesome tools, equipment, etc., to find and unique creatures too
that last part sort of conflicts with the premise of the game introduction when you start the game/new game. You are part of a group of people on the ship sent to the planet to terraform it into a habitable world for humans. That means they are staying there, by this point in the timeline (it being the turn of the 22 century) humans have outlived the Earth in terms of resources, environmental impact, population and food production. If we all were to abandon the Earth by migrating to another world or worlds, the planet it self would recover from the amount of abuse we subjected it to, although it would take hundreds or thousands of years to do so.
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that last part sort of conflicts with the premise of the game introduction when you start the game/new game. You are part of a group of people on the ship sent to the planet to terraform it into a habitable world for humans. That means they are staying there, by this point in the timeline (it being the turn of the 22 century) humans have outlived the Earth in terms of resources, environmental impact, population and food production. If we all were to abandon the Earth by migrating to another world or worlds, the planet it self would recover from the amount of abuse we subjected it to, although it would take hundreds or thousands of years to do so.[/quote]
Yes, you're right, I agree with you, I forgot the introduction, perhaps a signal to say something else...
Anyway, like I said before, adding a lot of additionnal missions should be better than one "end", because, when the goal is reached, you can try to do something else and stay playing this game.
should be :
collect all alien's dna, deploy an antenna in the top of islands biome, rescue someone or something from starship, activate a transmeter, terraform 1% of the map, create a sub base this all available modules...
For exemple activate a transmetter...this is a little storyboard to give some ideas:
Once seamoth is done :
- find Exosuit fragment in Forest biome.
Once Cyclops is Done :
- create the Exosuit with fragment analyser and some additional materials.
(this exosuit may protect us from radiation and so permit us to explore near Starship)
- find "superwelder" fragment near the starship
(the superwelder may permit us to create a gate to go on board)
into the ship (no light, fire , underwater corridors etc...) :
- with the thermal sensor HUD, and the flashlight : find a safe way to a generator.
- replace empty cellpower with new ones to activate light and restore power into ship
(with the power on, new doors can be opened)
- find the signal transmeter to send a message to our civ.
- the signal transmeter is just a fragment, modules are needed into a sub base to create it, and also materials from deeper biomes.
- Once done, a message can be sent : "Hey bodies, come here, this planet is awesome, don't forget beers and girls...." (sorry, french touch
same thing can be made for an another mission, deploying an antenna in top of islands, etc...
I like the idea of unlocking tech with the ship exploration.
do you have another ideas for missions?
I started playing this game a while ago and it is the kind of game I have been searching for for a long time.
I agree that having an endgame does not sound good but having some kind of optional global objective seems legit.
I spent some time thinking over some possible avenues that would generate motivation for some other technologies and for exploring more harsh environments. This includes dealing with larger hostile creatures. My concept is as follows.
The crashed ship is the first objective. I realize that the starship is not encouraged as an objective but it hard to ignore something like that. the player will want to investigate and the hazards will motivate the player to tech up. The starship is surrounded by larger hostile creatures and dangerous waters, significant exploration and tech will be required to get to it. After making your way onto the ship the player can start a distress beacon after some repairs.
The next key event is a crash landing of a rescue crew. After some time another ship will be spotted on the sky by the HUD computer. The ship will crash shortly after the player actually sees the ship in the sky. The crash landing will bring the player into further exploration to find the wreckage. Taking the player through much larger and newer biomes of increased depth. depending on the time taken to track down the crash site their may be a barely alive survivor with Intel on the disaster. If not a similar recording will be there for the players to see. Their will not be any NPC after the event as everyone dies in the crash.
The intel tells of a larger alien creature that disrupted the rescue's controls during the descent much like the original ship you came in. This will lead to a moby dick like chase for a larger sea monster within the ocean. Using some clues from the intel the player can have their first encounter with the larger sea creature. This encounter is intended to scare the player after finding the monster and will motivate the player to further tech up in order to chase down and defeat the monster. This is once again optional
This monster should have a travel pattern among the larger deeper biomes that will require the player to follow and track the monster in order to defeat it if they choose to. otherwise the monster is just a larger hostile creature that can be avoided with the knowledge of the signs it leaves in its wake and as it approaches. close encounters will give the player more reason to care for their equipment and add some more fear at a stage where the player has tech-ed up and is likely feeling little fear from the hazards they have become accustomed to.
This concept is intended to give the players some objective's during their exploration if they tech up significantly and manage to reach the starship that has become a hazardous location due to the crash and a nesting ground for more dangerous creatures. A player that is willing to engage in some form of combat with the more dangerous creatures will likely be of the kind that would enjoy the monster and the advanced tech required to defeat it that otherwise would be for show.
I am probably not alone in this regard but I am sure there are quite a few people out there that are interested in defeating some of the more dangerous creatures like the bone shark rather than dazing them with a stasis rifle. Combat is something that people with advanced tech will become interested in at some point. I can't even count the number of times I wanted to harpoon or trap those bone sharks to get rid of them while I harvest or purely for the accomplishment.
Anyway that's just one idea, I hope that it at least sparks some thought.
P.S. I would really enjoy some larger deeper biomes so I could have some fun swimming with some alien whales >.<
I hope this becomes a reality too though
In comparison what we have now should look like a clash of clans base when you are lvl 10 and by the end our base, equipment and ships should look like a base of lvl 120
You should be able to upgrade everything so you feel stronger and cooler
Then you'll find that there's small cities over a 1000m deep that you first have to get friendly with no to be attacked (you'll need translators and such). Over there you should be able to trade goods for their goods and alien technology. Maybe missions too.
Then you'd have to choose where to go from there.. Having DNA mutation 'upgrades' to be less hungry or swim faster etc would also be nice. I assume multiplayer is going to be limited to a number of people so faction building doesn't make much sense.
I'd say you find out it's not the aliens that are shooting the ships down, but a big organism that lives inside the planet that has its breeding ground there, the end game would be to, in one way or the other, get rid of that organism.
But at some point you ought to find blueprints for mining equipment which take a lot of effort to build, and you stick them on the sea bed and they generate materials for you automatically, then you have to combine them to make essentially a rocket (smaller than the mother ship, but itself very large) and build a sea platform for it to launch from and basically mine all the fuel and stuff you need.
Once you've built everything and finished construction you can choose to use it to leave the world and finish the current game or simply ignore it and stay in sandbox/survival mode.
Maybe the fist map should be a fixed experience like it is now but the rocket takes off and fails at the last moment crashing you back to another part of the planet and that's how you trigger a map reset with a randomly generated world.
Some additional possible thoughts it would be good to essentially be able to custom build a rocket in the exact same way you can build bases, so you start by building a floating platform that's the launch pad first. The nose area where you climb in to control it will basically just stick out the ocean slightly, then you can choose to build 2 other sections, fuel sections which you simply add below the main rocket and make the whole thing longer (and hence can hold more fuel) so you can build your rocket to any arbitrary length (depth), it also means you have to build in deeper waters so the rocket as you build underwater doesn't reach the sea bed, then when you've decided how long you want to build it you simply add the engines at the bottom as the last piece. If you build it too short you don't make it off the planet and splash back down, if you make it long enough you can take off successfully.