11-18-2019, 01:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-18-2019, 01:54 PM by OriginalGangstaStaines.)
Well, here's a suggestion for dealing with permanence and new players.
Create a separate galaxy for new players that generates a perfect system that's easy for new players.
The system has - no wormholes and deadheading ships will be darkmattered.
Have a questline that states the new player is inside a dying galaxy and their system will eventually be destroyed.
Somewhere in the system have a single wormhole gate structure that leads, one way, to the main galaxy and spits the player out at a random location in the main galaxy.
Activating this wormhole can be done as a quest, and is similar to activating a ringworld gate.
The system is destroyed in a supernova one Earth month after activating the wormhole gate.
This gives players a perfect tutorial zone, and time to create a refugee fleet.
Or heck, just spawn a NEW system that has a limited lifespawn, like a month or something long enough for most players to spread to a new system.
Also, it would be cool to have stellar cycles.
Give each system a lifespan before it dies and is reborn.
This lifespan timer could be as high as 5+ years, but start all the clocks at different times when the universe is generated, and vary the timers.
That way the galaxy changes relatively slowly over time from a player perspective.
With 20,000 stars and 5 year timers, that's an average of 4000 star regeneration a year.
To make it really interesting you could increase the timer to 7+ years but give systems a young, mid and old stage where they start as dust belts and end as blackholes, white dwarves, neutron stars and such. With 20,000 stars, that's 8 dying a day, so you could even form new blackhole links when twins blakcholes are formed on the same day.
Why? It means resets don't need to be a thing, we can just alter the timers a bit and gradually increase/decrease the number of starts and recycle old content.
Plus it means endless exploration. I could easily visit 20,000 stars in less than a year, but if there are a couple of thousand new stars a year, there's always something to explore, and galactic terrain subtly shifts over time and great new areas can be discovered and be recycled over the years.
Create a separate galaxy for new players that generates a perfect system that's easy for new players.
The system has - no wormholes and deadheading ships will be darkmattered.
Have a questline that states the new player is inside a dying galaxy and their system will eventually be destroyed.
Somewhere in the system have a single wormhole gate structure that leads, one way, to the main galaxy and spits the player out at a random location in the main galaxy.
Activating this wormhole can be done as a quest, and is similar to activating a ringworld gate.
The system is destroyed in a supernova one Earth month after activating the wormhole gate.
This gives players a perfect tutorial zone, and time to create a refugee fleet.
Or heck, just spawn a NEW system that has a limited lifespawn, like a month or something long enough for most players to spread to a new system.
Also, it would be cool to have stellar cycles.
Give each system a lifespan before it dies and is reborn.
This lifespan timer could be as high as 5+ years, but start all the clocks at different times when the universe is generated, and vary the timers.
That way the galaxy changes relatively slowly over time from a player perspective.
With 20,000 stars and 5 year timers, that's an average of 4000 star regeneration a year.
To make it really interesting you could increase the timer to 7+ years but give systems a young, mid and old stage where they start as dust belts and end as blackholes, white dwarves, neutron stars and such. With 20,000 stars, that's 8 dying a day, so you could even form new blackhole links when twins blakcholes are formed on the same day.
Why? It means resets don't need to be a thing, we can just alter the timers a bit and gradually increase/decrease the number of starts and recycle old content.
Plus it means endless exploration. I could easily visit 20,000 stars in less than a year, but if there are a couple of thousand new stars a year, there's always something to explore, and galactic terrain subtly shifts over time and great new areas can be discovered and be recycled over the years.