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
Linear Mode
