Lots of interesting ideas being thrown about here. I'd also like (although I'm certain I've seen this brought up before) more visual change on planets depending on their level of development and anomalies. I'm a sucker for little flavour things like that, they really enhance my experience.

Century wrote:
that was one thing that i found a bit disappointing as i progressed in my first game, that there was not really much different between the various planet that all ready exist, all the terren planets looks the same as do all the ice & lava. having unique art for even the mundane planets would improve immersion... yes- it's a volcanic planet but it has green and purple larva, a terren planet with red plant life.



also seeing the impact of colonization and development of a planet and the effect of its exploitation. in industrial terren planet gradually becomes affected by pollution, a commercially focused planet develops a high level of low orbit traffic. vast farm belts on developted desert planets.

I third this

I'm not sure what you mean. Yes, you had to researche to be able to colonize some Planets (Ice and Vulcanoids for example), but this was all managable - and plausible. Credits and resources weren't a Problem for me either - it was pretty good balanced, and even if the market broke down form to much selling - there where allways other possibilitys. So Sins could be a good example for a even more complex game.

safaia wrote:


Even given the wide array of planet types the game already has, they don't really feel very different from each other, which is kind of disappointing to me and I suspect the more I play, the worse this feeling is going to get. I mean, what's the difference between a desert planet and a terran one? One has a very slight bonus to commerce while the other has a very slight bonus to food, and one has a population cap, but otherwise they're basically identical? It seems to me that on different planet types, everything would change. Natural resources, life, weather, atmosphere, everything.

that was one thing that i found a bit disappointing as i progressed in my first game, that there was not really much different between the various planet that all ready exist, all the terren planets looks the same as do all the ice & lava. having unique art for even the mundane planets would improve immersion... yes- it's a volcanic planet but it has green and purple larva, a terren planet with red plant life.



also seeing the impact of colonization and development of a planet and the effect of its exploitation. in industrial terren planet gradually becomes affected by pollution, a commercially focused planet develops a high level of low orbit traffic. vast farm belts on developted desert planets.

Space Zombies can be done right :P

http://store.steampowered.com/app/107200/

Jsnuk wrote:
It struck me while I was playing that some strange and wholly outlandish planet types that occur rarely might make exploration and the game in general a bit more interesting. Of course it all depends how far 'Douglas Adams' you want to go, you may want to stop short of planets inhabited by nothing but lost pens and sentient mattresses, but perhaps planets inhabited by Lovecraftian, eldritch gods or perhaps vast, odd worlds with metallic flora and mercury seas? I'm not quite sure what effect this could have, but as I'm far less interesting than any of you, I thought I'd open up this thread for a discussion of some more planet types/ anomalies if anyone has any interesting ideas?

The idea in itself is good, but please, no silly comedy hitchhicker-like elements. The space squirrels of GalCiv killed any possibile suspension of disbelief. Even the Horatio race in Endless Space seems a bit too wacky for my tastes. On the other hand, a Solaris-like or somewhat sentient world would make for very interesting gameplay.

When it comes to zombies.. I agree, please, NO. more. zombies.

Okay I have to expand on this since I'm feeling a bit ranty and ravey now.



Even given the wide array of planet types the game already has, they don't really feel very different from each other, which is kind of disappointing to me and I suspect the more I play, the worse this feeling is going to get. I mean, what's the difference between a desert planet and a terran one? One has a very slight bonus to commerce while the other has a very slight bonus to food, and one has a population cap, but otherwise they're basically identical? It seems to me that on different planet types, everything would change. Natural resources, life, weather, atmosphere, everything.



What about unique buildings? Events, dynamic stories? Maybe bigger stat bonuses, so different planet types could at least feel more unique from a pure gameplay standpoint.



Also, going back to the unique planets idea; take Civ V for example. Now, I'm not a fan of the game overall, but it did innovate in some ways, like the natural wonders of the world. In Civ V, worlds are generated with exactly one Old Faithful mega geyser (among other wonders of the world), and whoever expands their empire to include it within their borders gets some really nice bonuses.



In addition, what if planets held onto their all their secrets a little longer? I like how we have to do moon surveys to see if there's a temple or not, but why don't we have similar planetary surveys and scans? Planets are much, much bigger and could hide a lot more from us. I mean, even now we're discovering new species of animals here on Earth that no one has ever seen before, in the deepest, darkest jungles of Borneo where humans have never set foot. Take Sins of a Solar Empire for example. You have to do multiple surveys of planets once you've colonized them to unlock their fullest potential and discover some cool bonus stuff they might contain.



Also, could more fluff on the planet information screen hurt? Weather phenomena, average temperatures, core composition, some randomized info about native flora and fauna...this could all be added fairly simply, but would give planets more character too.



Okay this time I'm really done.

+1 for unique and exotic planets, anomalies, and other stuff in space. I searched for this topic to see if someone else had started it, else I was going to. Playing through the game, some of the anomalies are truly strange and interesting - like hollow planets - but they're such small passive benefits that it's easy to overlook them. I'd love to see the more bizarre anomalies like that one get more love somehow.



In addition I wouldn't mind seeing some exotic planet types, like crystalline planets for example. Or more alien versions of terran, ocean and jungle worlds. Some xenobiologists have speculated that plant life on other planets might be dark blue, purple or even black, because it would allow them to absorb more light from their suns. There's something more exciting about an earth-like planet that's purple and red instead of green and blue, isn't there?



There could also be stories and events on certain planets - I think this would contribute to a feeling of uniqueness more than anything. For example, take the planet Chiron (aka "Planet") from Alpha Centauri. There, a red fungus and some simple alien worm creatures cover the entire planet, but seem to pose little threat to colonists at first. Later it's discovered that the planet itself seems to be alive and has a sort of massive hive-mind that has lie dormant until the colonists awaken it with their pollution and growing presence. The players can join forces with the hive mind or fight it, and the game has many endings, but you get the point.



It'd also be cool to encounter space anomalies like others have said; magnetars, black holes, etc. but this post is dragging on a bit so I'll stop typing now.

Jsnuk wrote:
but perhaps planets inhabited by Lovecraftian, eldritch gods or...

And they would right away pack their suitcases and hit the nearest airport to take a vacation in your blood

Jsnuk wrote:
Lots of interesting ideas being thrown about here. I'd also like (although I'm certain I've seen this brought up before) more visual change on planets depending on their level of development and anomalies. I'm a sucker for little flavour things like that, they really enhance my experience.

It has already been suggested.



/#/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13167-suggestion-graphics-for-anomalies

Century wrote:
i have a image in my head- that somewhere there's a dev looking at a white board, sighing slightly, then putting a black line though "space zombies"

LOL



But seriously, i agree with having unique planets or space anomalies. It would add another level of oooo to the game, could also add more techs to research(Neutron Star Mining? LOL).



So no space zombies... lol. How about a similar idea(i like the whole "Pandora's Box" thing, could add some late-game complication that would ease some of the late-game boredom i seem to get), like a retarded powerful crystal entity, long forgotten race, sentient machines(rouge drones for you eve players), something like that. Maybe an interstellar vortex...? Slowly expands and starts consuming worlds? Effectively adding a time-limit? Perhaps a diplomacy-required effort to research a means to defeat said terrible thing? (naturally would be an option that you could disable, like a victory condition).

It struck me while I was playing that some strange and wholly outlandish planet types that occur rarely might make exploration and the game in general a bit more interesting. Of course it all depends how far 'Douglas Adams' you want to go, you may want to stop short of planets inhabited by nothing but lost pens and sentient mattresses, but perhaps planets inhabited by Lovecraftian, eldritch gods or perhaps vast, odd worlds with metallic flora and mercury seas? I'm not quite sure what effect this could have, but as I'm far less interesting than any of you, I thought I'd open up this thread for a discussion of some more planet types/ anomalies if anyone has any interesting ideas?

Kimarous wrote:




*clears throat* Sorry. I'm just REALLY sick of zombies in modern media.

I agree with you here. No zombies in space please thank you.



On topic:



I am sure there are already rare planets around.

Kimarous wrote:


*clears throat* Sorry. I'm just REALLY sick of zombies in modern media.

I'm with you... Please no more zombies... Say no to braaaainss!

Codename_Veers wrote:
Things like Dyson sphere and artifact worlds are a really good Idea. One fail of "Sins of a solar Empire" was, that there where just a few types of Planets (Earthlike, Desert, Vulcanoid, Ice and Gasgiant). Modding the game to more Planets helped a lot.There are enough "possible" Planets that would be interessting, that allready exist, like for example Desert-Metall-Planet (Aluminum, Magnesium...), or deep Sea Ocean Moons. One of the more interessting things was, that many Planets had some "extra Traits" (positiv or negativ), like for example an Asteroid with a "Pirate Market", which increased the Trade in the System, or an Iceworld with a "magnetic Storms"-Trait, whitch affected the civilisation negatively or "Asteroid bombed World". That also brought in some change - yes, you have two almost identical Iceworlds - but with diffrent Traits.

A interessting "Place" in the Mod was also the "Deep Space Sector". It was perfect for outpost bases and could be very interessting for secrert researche facilitys.

How did this mod in sins solve the research problem then? Because you have to research your way to be able to colonize different planets. And the pirate market didn't work well for me because I, playing as an economist, always crashed it by selling my resources or it made some resource I really need go up in price far too much!

Things like Dyson sphere and artifact worlds are a really good Idea. One fail of "Sins of a solar Empire" was, that there where just a few types of Planets (Earthlike, Desert, Vulcanoid, Ice and Gasgiant). Modding the game to more Planets helped a lot.There are enough "possible" Planets that would be interessting, that allready exist, like for example Desert-Metall-Planet (Aluminum, Magnesium...), or deep Sea Ocean Moons. One of the more interessting things was, that many Planets had some "extra Traits" (positiv or negativ), like for example an Asteroid with a "Pirate Market", which increased the Trade in the System, or an Iceworld with a "magnetic Storms"-Trait, whitch affected the civilisation negatively or "Asteroid bombed World". That also brought in some change - yes, you have two almost identical Iceworlds - but with diffrent Traits.

A interessting "Place" in the Mod was also the "Deep Space Sector". It was perfect for outpost bases and could be very interessting for secrert researche facilitys.



Another oportunity could be an Asteroidbelt, which can only be populated by Space-Habitats like O'neill cylinder or Stanford torus. That would mix the opportunitys up and also provide a realistic few of populatimng Space.



There are dozens of possibilitys and modding should make it happen, if the Designers cannot integrate these ideas in the game.

There are already lots of interesting world types, garden of edens, metallic oceans, laughing gas atmosphere... all those types already exist. That said just how I can find ancient ruins or any of the other aforementioned ones on a gas giant does evade my understanding...



But having worlds that are more unique, to a major extent would be nice. Maybe there is a planet with a giant single plant that covers the whole surface and tries to kill everything that gets near it. Make it so if you "colonize" a world like this one, you only have one population max on it, need lots of research, and will suck up lots of dust, industry, and food from your system in exchange for something interesting. That system can now build a new preset ship type, a scuicidal bomber if you will that you can use to attack another players system, if they don't stop it the ship crashes into one of that systems planets and releases an imprisoned bit of the plant. Make it start to take over that world, over time lowering what the other player can get from it. The only way to clear this from a world is to bombard it, requiring a fleet to invade your own system if you will. After this the planet is barren or crust broken lava everywhere, or back to what it originally was.



The idea here is to add something that adds a unique twist to the game. Sure, you might lose one planet to this thing, but then you could wait for it to take over the planet altogether and then use that to build your own seed ships to use against your foe. It spices things up, and depending on just how it's implemented won't be massively overpowered, but will be an interesting point of contention between you and your foes.



As for having a Dyson sphere... I don't see that being balanced in the least bit...



The best I can think of for that is to make the Systems Sun listed along with it's planets (the barren and dark places they will be with their suns energy being stolen) as colonization, like the aforementioned plant, it causes lot's of problems do to an automated defense system that requires a large and continual investment to keep studying the thing. In other words, this one system could become a massive source of research, but to do so would be costing your empire as a whole a lot of dust to maintain.



As for the old gods... my best guess is it's just a system inhabited by a non playable entity that must be defeated before the system can be colonized, to make it more interesting, said entity might also "harvest" the populaces from the surrounding systems, making it so you can't just ignore the one system until you have a giant military and steamroll it like everything else.

There are also some rare Helium and Methane worlds from what i understand.

Extremely rare ring worlds that are the only thing in a system to colonise, but are treated as 'garden of eden' and have the highest possible native food out and total population support, would be pretty nifty if you ask me.

i have a image in my head- that somewhere there's a dev looking at a white board, sighing slightly, then putting a black line though "space zombies"

Century wrote:
(Homeworld: Cataclysm- essentially zombie space virus)

*clears throat* Sorry. I'm just REALLY sick of zombies in modern media.

Ring Worlds, Dyson Spheres, i suppose Black Holes might be a bit dull, White Holes could be better, Rouge Planets (ones that have been ejected from their home system so drift alone in deep space- only findable if your sensors are good enough), Black Dwarfs (dead cold stars- good for mining) and of course the possibility that the planet you survey could harbor terrible creatures that could devourer the galaxy (Homeworld: Cataclysm- essentially zombie space virus)

Rainbow worlds, SC2 style!

Jsnuk wrote:
Lovecraftian, eldritch gods

Now THAT would be fun