Feature requests

[plugger]

Hi,

Here are a few more Planetary events.

What's up with Smith?
Warning: Ensign Smith has a bad twitch
Effect: The stress, the stress. Ensign Smith loses the plot and kills half the away team (rounded up) before finishing himself off.

There is something Big out there
Warning: The Away Team notice unusual tracks. Bigfoot?
Effect: A big, scary monster (way overpowered for the level) spawns behind the Away Team (between them and their landing shuttle). No warning is given of the monster spawning.

Who said we are lost?
Warning: Magnetic anomalies have been detected
Effect: The Away Team have become navigationally challenged. The landing shuttle is randomly relocated and it's position isn't shown (unless within LOS) for a number of turns to reflect the Away Team having to reorientate and find their bearings.

The sensor is on the blink
Warning: Sensors are detecting a lot of movement
Effect: A whole bunch of new monsters suddenly spawn on the map (say the standard spawn repeated twice). They may have been camouflaged or have been hidden. Who knows? But now they are here and they look hungry.


I'd second the inclusion of hot keys for the items listed by Dubious.

Cheers,

Plugger

[Chris Steadman]

Once in a while perhaps an adversaries ship might not blow up and disappear, when defeated, but become a wreck instead that can be boarded and explored.

[David E. Gervais]

Originally Posted by Chris Steadman

Once in a while perhaps an adversaries ship might not blow up and disappear, when defeated, but become a wreck instead that can be boarded and explored.

I think this is a great idea, yuppers I sure do!

Cheers!

[phanatic62]

Originally Posted by Chris Steadman

Once in a while perhaps an adversaries ship might not blow up and disappear, when defeated, but become a wreck instead that can be boarded and explored.

I really like this idea as well.

Also, I would love to see a "Hall of Fame" for victorious captains, and perhaps "Shame" for those killed in action. If you really want to make it awesome you could include a link to all of the end game pages that pop up. If you've ever played Dungeons of Dredmore, it has a HoF list that boils everything down to score. Since there's so much information in AI I think it would be difficult to give a "score" to summarize how well a particular game went, hence why a link to the end game screens would be helpful.

[ibol]

Here's the development reason why ships don't blow up and leave a shipwreck:
because I don't "individuals" from each race, like pirates, gruff, tentaculons, etc.

Shipwrecks should be populated, and you would expect them to be crewed by the appropriate race.

So, David,
wanna talk about making some new enemy sprites? Sounds like fun!

[EDIT:]
Here's what David did within an hour of hearing this, so I guess you better look out!

[Waltorious]

I like the ideas for zoology and planetary events. Glad to know I'm not the only one who tries to leave those poor creatures alone!

Regarding planetary events, however, I'd love to see some positive ones too, that might benefit the player. Or maybe some that are risk-reward, so there's a chance of great danger but also of nicer loot, or something. Otherwise I worry that players will simply want to skip planets that have events, if all they are is a chance for disaster.

Actually, anything that differentiates the planet types more would be cool. Right now most of them feel the same, just with a better spacesuit needed to access them. I think it would be cool to include things that are akin to "vaults" in traditional roguelikes that can appear, but only on certain planet types. Chances for extra treasure or other benefits, but with some risk involved. I know there are some things in the game like this already (a bunch of equipment on a planet surface that indicates a wreck / dead landing party that had been here before me, or certain special levels in caves, for example), but more would be cool. Also planet types could perhaps have different kinds of wildlife to go along with different types of resources or treasure.

One way to do this might be to make different types of caves for different types of planets. Frozen caves might have different dangers and treasures than molten caves, for example.

I don't know how much work this stuff would be to implement, however, so some of the ideas are probably out of scope.

EDIT: Just remembered... I initially found it odd that all planets have life on them. Maybe some planet types wouldn't have any wildlife but would be filled with more environmental hazards? Or at least would have a chance for this to be the case?

[plugger]

Hi,

Regarding planetary events, however, I'd love to see some positive ones too, that might benefit the player. Or maybe some that are risk-reward, so there's a chance of great danger but also of nicer loot, or something. Otherwise I worry that players will simply want to skip planets that have events, if all they are is a chance for disaster.

That's a good point.

Perhaps, once an event has triggered, and once the honeymoon period is over, any officer in the Away Team has a strong chance (75%) of gaining an extra experience point per turn (or something similar as I'm not sure how the XP algo works - perhaps the % chance of XP gain could be proportional to the severity of the coming event).

It kind of makes sense that you learn the most in times of crisis and a looming event would require strong leadership skills.

Now you'd have an incentive to stick around for a while - rapid experience gain. Off course you are still planetside and things might go pear shaped but it'd make for a some tense exploration.

If the event occurred you'd could also benefit from increased scientific knowledge and XP, depending on the event and subject to the Away Team making it back alive.

Cheers,
Plugger

[David E. Gervais]

You know what I like about ibol? his sense of humor,.. it amuses me LOL

Cheers!

P.S. now if ships blow up and don't (occasionally) turn into shipwrecks,.. [Han Solo voice] "It's not my fault!" :P

[Waltorious]

Originally Posted by plugger

Hi,
Perhaps, once an event has triggered, and once the honeymoon period is over, any officer in the Away Team has a strong chance (75%) of gaining an extra experience point per turn (or something similar as I'm not sure how the XP algo works - perhaps the % chance of XP gain could be proportional to the severity of the coming event).

It kind of makes sense that you learn the most in times of crisis and a looming event would require strong leadership skills.

Now you'd have an incentive to stick around for a while - rapid experience gain. Off course you are still planetside and things might go pear shaped but it'd make for a some tense exploration.

If the event occurred you'd could also benefit from increased scientific knowledge and XP, depending on the event and subject to the Away Team making it back alive.

More XP and more data during events could work. But I think it would be interesting if different events had different benefits. So let's say the earthquake event means more resources spawn, since the ground is breaking up. Or the events that spawn a powerful creature (or swarm of creatures) also mean that those creatures are carrying some cool treasure, so it might be worth the risk to try and fight them.

Alternatively, there could be some events that are only bad but other events that are only good, to balance things out. These could even be corollaries to the ideas already mentioned in this thread: suits use less oxygen (1 point per 2 moves), fewer monsters spawn, etc.

Also I came up with one idea for an event: Acid Rain. This increases the planet's ambient damage level (which means if you have a really awesome spacesuit you can still resist it) but also makes the wildlife go hide, so there are fewer creatures to fight. And maybe the away team could take shelter in a cave, but there are more creatures in the cave because they are hiding from the rain?

[zircher]

New 'terrain' type: crashed ship. Mix regular terrain with broken-up ship wreck layouts with an extra helping of electrical and radiation trouble. Maybe even a sporadically operating laser fence. Also an extra chance of rescuing a crew member.