After reading this thread, I got an idea for a new starting scenario to address two issues: filtering players and bugs affecting the asteroid.
A number of bugs are causing the asteroid catastrophe to be unavoidable. Between the "yeet bug" and the rest, a lot of players are losing their home world before they can mount an extra-solar expedition and establish a new HQ. It seems everyone agrees that some kind of filter needs to be present to gate gameplay and force players to learn the skills necessary to master space flight and competent city building, else lose their home planet and be forced to retry in another sector.
The largest volcano on your home world is going to erupt (same timescale mechanics as asteroid). On the first day of the eruption the atmosphere is still standard. After a set period of time (not sure if Hazeron can trigger events based on # of orbits, would be ideal) the atmosphere becomes tainted, then exotic and finally corrosive whereupon the planet becomes totally uninhabitable with a reasonable amount of time in between stages. Whether or not the atmosphere goes full insidious would be up to Haxus.
In the end the planet is unusable just as with the asteroid except that it would not rely on asteroid mechanics or any of the bugs that are encountered with that type of disaster. Seeing a planet gradually become a blasted wasteland could also be a fun way to die and opens the door to allow more time between commencement of the disaster and the planet's destruction, possibly giving a visceral motivation for a player to go that extra mile to escape before the surface of their planet corrodes away entirely. I would think that this catastrophe would also take longer from beginning to end than the asteroid to give totally new players time to react, ask for help, etc. I also like the idea of other empires coming to bail players out of environmental catastrophes.
Edit: Pollution / global warming mechanic???
Edit x2: Check out these other ideas.
A number of bugs are causing the asteroid catastrophe to be unavoidable. Between the "yeet bug" and the rest, a lot of players are losing their home world before they can mount an extra-solar expedition and establish a new HQ. It seems everyone agrees that some kind of filter needs to be present to gate gameplay and force players to learn the skills necessary to master space flight and competent city building, else lose their home planet and be forced to retry in another sector.
The largest volcano on your home world is going to erupt (same timescale mechanics as asteroid). On the first day of the eruption the atmosphere is still standard. After a set period of time (not sure if Hazeron can trigger events based on # of orbits, would be ideal) the atmosphere becomes tainted, then exotic and finally corrosive whereupon the planet becomes totally uninhabitable with a reasonable amount of time in between stages. Whether or not the atmosphere goes full insidious would be up to Haxus.
In the end the planet is unusable just as with the asteroid except that it would not rely on asteroid mechanics or any of the bugs that are encountered with that type of disaster. Seeing a planet gradually become a blasted wasteland could also be a fun way to die and opens the door to allow more time between commencement of the disaster and the planet's destruction, possibly giving a visceral motivation for a player to go that extra mile to escape before the surface of their planet corrodes away entirely. I would think that this catastrophe would also take longer from beginning to end than the asteroid to give totally new players time to react, ask for help, etc. I also like the idea of other empires coming to bail players out of environmental catastrophes.
Edit: Pollution / global warming mechanic???
Edit x2: Check out these other ideas.
![[Image: iluK937.png]](https://i.imgur.com/iluK937.png)