Planets and Solar Systems Brainstorm Megathread

[FALCmods4all]

Now that a few people are getting to test the ck2 it seems like this is the point at which serious foundational structures can start to take shape future mods can latch on to.

What unique planets/satellites or solar systems/nebulae would you like to see that would be particularly conducive to collections of mods building off of them?

What unique cultures do you want to see becoming points of focus?

 

For me, the greatest missing culture is one proactively in pursuit of post scarcity automated living, like F.A.L.C. or Star Trek TNG. I most want to see tools, quests, and locations centered around the poor looking for a place to make their own — aided by the enlightened and sabotaged by corporations. I want the experience of creating and shaping a new space faction. I’m sure Sim Settlements will come into play, but having a unique location, a sort of commie planet, that mods can gravitate toward for stories revolving around successful or doomed utopian projects would be grand.

Maybe planet Marx at the edge of UC space and the planet Proudhon at the edge of Freestar space. 
 

On the more eccentric end of the spectrum, I’d be interested in some crazy one off planets, only reachable late ng+ using starborn galactic corridors, abandoned or inhabited intelligent alien worlds:

Planet Hereclitus - A world that looks like a prog rock album cover, every mile if the planet adorned with surrealist structures and creatures. Quests are chaotic and confusing, like being trapped in an art installation confounded to the purpose or identity of the creator, yet somehow each still makes one think or feel with haunting depth. The planet itself gives an eerie sense of sentience through odd behavior of flora and fauna. Major quest, humor the artist. A hub planet for eccentric organisms, geology, and architecture.

Planet Doldrum - A metal world, presumably some civilization’s ancient scrap heap at the center, but portions of development on the surface. The scenery alone tells eons of history. Finding any technology and a way to interface with it could shape human history for better or worse. The center of this world may be accessible from the right vent with the right pressure and heat gear. Major the quest, escape. A hub planet for eccentric mechanisms, alien bots, and ship graveyards crashed due to unique megnetosphere.

Planet Hell - A tidal locked planet with every extreme biome, smoldering irradiated dayside, freezing oceanic nightside, putrid twilight jungle. A captured moon side swiped the planet perpendicular from the solar orbit so although there is no day/night cycle there is vertical rotation as if the planet is a tire driving around its sun, and the moon has an extreme elliptical orbit getting very large and small in the sky, creating brutal tidal and volcanic activity. This planet is the most rich in rare resources and far beyond the survival extremes of others in all biomes. Perfect for enlightened communists since habitation is too expensive for corps to pursue, but a potential economic power play for resource leverage once operations are established. A Hub planet for extreme survival and outpost management.

The Flotilla - A Sanctum Universum community made up of hundreds of ships linked together. Flotillas could be a form of nonviolent system security whereas merc fleets could be the standard security force method for outpost shipping lanes. Major quest, Space hippie gift giving vs space pirate grab taking. A hub for the most crazy and complex ship builds and ship component based player homes.

The Seasnake - A house Va’ruun space train. Another space community, even more nomadic, also using ship components, different sections of the snake with different height and width specifications. This should be held off on until any DLC with Va’ruun comes out. A hub for well organized, utilitarian, deep space survival.

———————

No XP creating mods, but I can do great writing, animation, and potentially level design once I learn CK2 (whenever it gets released publicly). A tiny tad familiar with 3d modeling from 3d printing. If anyone has projects related to world building or economic/political deepening I’m interested in collaboration. I feel like there are always plenty of incredible gameplay mods, but you can never get enough quest & location mods and people building them, so that’s where I’m most interested in expending myself. That said, once a VR version gets released (eventually) I’d be happy to help playtest VR gameplay/immersion mods. Would love to see spectrums of visceral manual tasks to automated tasks for every triviality in the game.

Edited May 1 by FALCmods4all

[FALCmods4all]

A biome that so far is missing is one that consists only of very large organisms. Like navigating landscape full of tunnels/ valleys, etc clearly belonging to large creatures and having to figure out what objects or surfaces are dangerous or useful. Really giving the experience of being an insect in a place full of carnivorous plants or giant insect eating predators. Lots of scientists and poachers getting into trouble. 

[aurreth]

I'd settle for there being WATER, as in streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, etc.  With a very, very few exceptions for ponds/lakes there is no water except oceans.

[FALCmods4all]

Seconded. I’d be stoked about some subnauticafield. 
 

I guess hard part there is eventually bound to be aquatic DLC so a lot of mod effort beyond basic swimming may become undone in a couple years or so. 

[FALCmods4all]

Seconded. I’d be stoked about some subnauticafield. 
 

I guess hard part there is eventually bound to be aquatic DLC so a lot of mod effort beyond basic swimming may become undone in a couple years or so.

I hope someone makes a ship turned submarine as soon as ck2 comes out anyway.

Lots of interesting lists of extreme planet types like this one: https://www.space.com/10-super-extreme-exoplanets

I’ve always been particularly interested in rogue planets and the challenge of a civilization attempting to remain alive or create an archive after being displaced from a star.

I hadn’t really thought about it, but an eccentric orbit planet would be easy to mod. Mostly just changing the size of the star in the sky over time and drastically changing the temperature over time. Minor spoiler alert, I think the new lost in space show explored the biology of such a planet a bit with plants and animals evolved for extreme forms of hibernation as the planet became extremely hot or cold due to orbit (I forget if orbit was eccentric due to a black hole as well). 

Edited May 17 by FALCmods4all

[aurreth]

4 hours ago, FALCmods4all said:

Seconded. I’d be stoked about some subnauticafield. 
 

I guess hard part there is eventually bound to be aquatic DLC so a lot of mod effort beyond basic swimming may become undone in a couple years or so.

I hope someone makes a ship turned submarine as soon as ck2 comes out anyway.

Lots of interesting lists of extreme planet types like this one: https://www.space.com/10-super-extreme-exoplanets

I’ve always been particularly interested in rogue planets and the challenge of a civilization attempting to remain alive or create an archive after being displaced from a star.

I hadn’t really thought about it, but an eccentric orbit planet would be easy to mod. Mostly just changing the size of the star in the sky over time and drastically changing the temperature over time. Minor spoiler alert, I think the new lost in space show explored the biology of such a planet a bit with plants and animals evolved for extreme forms of hibernation as the planet became extremely hot or cold due to orbit (I forget if orbit was eccentric due to a black hole as well). 

I've tried rogue planets.  You have to have a star.  And I've tried to make an invisible/neutron star or black hole, and currently you can't.  And you can't replace a star with a planet or space station due to the record structures.

And no to eccentric orbits, you can't make them.  The majority of the information in the planet records isn't actually used, all orbits are circular, and planets don't even move in those orbits as time goes by.  So no eccentrics, planets don't have seasons, etc.  The universe is static, and they tried to hide it with horrible procedural generation.

Of course all of this could change.  They alter the game code every time they update.  Two updates ago they made it easier to place custom star systems, while at the same time making it impossible to go to them (CTD).  I haven't tested the current game version yet (too busy dealing with mod issues).

[FALCmods4all]

22 hours ago, aurreth said:

I've tried rogue planets.  You have to have a star.  And I've tried to make an invisible/neutron star or black hole, and currently you can't.  And you can't replace a star with a planet or space station due to the record structures.

And no to eccentric orbits, you can't make them.  The majority of the information in the planet records isn't actually used, all orbits are circular, and planets don't even move in those orbits as time goes by.  So no eccentrics, planets don't have seasons, etc.  The universe is static, and they tried to hide it with horrible procedural generation.

Of course all of this could change.  They alter the game code every time they update.  Two updates ago they made it easier to place custom star systems, while at the same time making it impossible to go to them (CTD).  I haven't tested the current game version yet (too busy dealing with mod issues).

Ah, interesting, frustrating. 
 

But hopefully the broken custom systems means they are at least considering better flexibility by the time full ck2 comes out.

They like to brag about making sims, so it’ll be a pretty big let down if we can’t even create solar systems based on actual discovered exoplanets and their stars.

I commend your experimentation thus far and look forward to future success!

[Apis4]

I think little things.... simple things. 

 

Give me a planet as home base friendly as Nimeria I(I?), with the looks of say Hyla II and it's sunny days...... but.. for once.... beastie free, safe water, and a NORMAL beach, no giant rocks/fossils/coral....and if the tropical forest had it's tree line only a few meters from the ocean, with golden sand in between... instead of being a mile away... then that would be just about the PERFECT planet to build a home on. 

 

Also, I know 'LIST'ers' are meant to be pioneering pilgrims... but it would also be nice to find a planet with a good few actual busy towns, even if not 'cities'.... maybe Gagarin or New Honestead sized, a place that has become popular, and seen a rush of land grabs by would be pioneers. Some place big enough to have a few bars/pubs, a hotel, a good few stores that are not just General Merchants and Weapon dealers.... even have few property options to purchase. A planet with a good few of these... relatively close to each other in places. Some isolated, sure, but some areas of the map... say where some mountains create two valleys a few kms apart from each other... there be a few towns only a few kms apart in one valley, and couple at each end of the one over the mountains etc. 

 

Also, this could roll in to my second idea... but planets where locations, like research labs, and factories... that are NOT 'Abandoned'....are STILL IN OPERATION, actually OUTNUMBER the ghost sites infested with Pirates/Spacers?Va'ruun/Ecliptic. Maybe there is NO planet where there's pockets of interconnected civilization where one can buy all they need, and even make a home and meet friends and new companions like imagined above.... but SURELY there is one that is so good for business, and deep enough within UC or FC space to be protected,, that companies still operate there, and actually, most places are NOT abandoned, but still in operation, with NPCs that are just going about their business... maybe with some radiant missions,... but not rescue ones, because they are functioning mini communities and do not need a savior to recue some stooge they failed. 

 

Finding a planet which is any or all of those, would be dope. 

[FALCmods4all]

11 hours ago, Apis4 said:

I think little things.... simple things. 

 

Give me a planet as home base friendly as Nimeria I(I?), with the looks of say Hyla II and it's sunny days...... but.. for once.... beastie free, safe water, and a NORMAL beach, no giant rocks/fossils/coral....and if the tropical forest had it's tree line only a few meters from the ocean, with golden sand in between... instead of being a mile away... then that would be just about the PERFECT planet to build a home on. 

 

Also, I know 'LIST'ers' are meant to be pioneering pilgrims... but it would also be nice to find a planet with a good few actual busy towns, even if not 'cities'.... maybe Gagarin or New Honestead sized, a place that has become popular, and seen a rush of land grabs by would be pioneers. Some place big enough to have a few bars/pubs, a hotel, a good few stores that are not just General Merchants and Weapon dealers.... even have few property options to purchase. A planet with a good few of these... relatively close to each other in places. Some isolated, sure, but some areas of the map... say where some mountains create two valleys a few kms apart from each other... there be a few towns only a few kms apart in one valley, and couple at each end of the one over the mountains etc. 

 

Also, this could roll in to my second idea... but planets where locations, like research labs, and factories... that are NOT 'Abandoned'....are STILL IN OPERATION, actually OUTNUMBER the ghost sites infested with Pirates/Spacers?Va'ruun/Ecliptic. Maybe there is NO planet where there's pockets of interconnected civilization where one can buy all they need, and even make a home and meet friends and new companions like imagined above.... but SURELY there is one that is so good for business, and deep enough within UC or FC space to be protected,, that companies still operate there, and actually, most places are NOT abandoned, but still in operation, with NPCs that are just going about their business... maybe with some radiant missions,... but not rescue ones, because they are functioning mini communities and do not need a savior to recue some stooge they failed. 

 

Finding a planet which is any or all of those, would be dope. 

Yes, I think larger clusters of larger settlements would generally feel more believable than so many evenly spaced isolated tiny industrial platforms.

And in addition to having varied ratios of peaceful habitation, it would be cool to see some more dynamic politics than just stations of good guys vs stations of bad guys. I’d like to see stations divided about preferring protection from different factions with strong arguments for each. Farmers that might associate with Crimson Fleet because corporations have taken advantage, Crimson Fleet looking for a doctor due to xenodiseases unleashed in a lab they took over, or spacers looking redeem themselves and start a legitimate mining venture. If spacers or pirates are almost as common as homesteaders we need to see the reasons why. What makes living so awful that so many people just pull guns on each other instead? A major problem many noted with being friendly with CF is that there was nothing to do at CF run installations, no collection runs or ransoms or even just spats with authorities. We get decent interactions between factions in story missions, but procedural quests tend to be a bit thin to say the least with way too many identical locations.

I too would like more mini biomes. I don’t think I ever saw a river during my playthrough. Cliffs by beaches were also rare, nevermind life that only appears near water. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of improvement over time, I just hope it doesn’t take too long. I’m thinking about the years between biome updates in minecraft or something. Hopefully it’ll be easy enough to make custom flora, fauna, and geological features that planets start to seem more dynamic and variable from place to place.

I’m optimistic about POI improvement. Seems like that more than anything has been built with mods in mind. I look forward to insane modular labyrinths of dungeon and city size clusters of settlement objects. Also, larger scale and more interactive anomalies could be nice. Ones that actually have surprising outcomes, set ups and pay offs. 

I’m not sure how long it will take to see drastically different biomes, but as long as the survival system becomes complex enough it will hopefully feel at least like there are diverse challenges depending on environment. I’d enjoy struggling with very different ways to die and for the scariest thing about making a creature angry isn’t that it might kill me but that it might create a hole in my suit that might let the environment kill me if I lack duct tape and even once patched my O2 is so low I might still die. Also, consider the strange new diseases a given atmosphere could have. Not getting checked out by the ship doctor after exposure should seem foolish if things seem fine. May even need a decontamination module in addition to an airlock.

I guess the last surface issue I keep trying to think of an answer for is the problem if waypoint based exploration. Would be nice if scanning was more vague. Like either one needs to be able to zoom in with a custom scanner to actually id a structure or maybe the scanner, or maybe some sort of tuning or chemical analysis is needed to get only the vaguest directions, and perhaps dormant or jammed sites can only be stumbled upon, or perhaps more places are hidden in surface caves and canyons/craters. There needs to be a sense of taking a rover endlessly and aimlessly then stumbling on something particularly unique or of taking time to analyze surroundings and deduce where there may be something of interest. More subtle clues could be cool too, like if some creatures eat metal seeking large herds to find a crash site. Or if creatures eat meat, perhaps encountering one eating a human limb and leaving a blood trail to follow either to a creature lair or from a facility. We need some semblance of environmental storytelling or at least more immersive/organic quest hooks. More of an investigating what became of such and such or aiding and defending researchers or prospectors as they discover this or that, and each quest  should pay off with an actually interesting sight, organism, ethical dilemma, etc. Npcs with a bit more purpose so bothering with them doesn’t seem like a waste of time. I guess as long as procedural generation is involved, no quest feels as alive as when built around unique characters and locations. Definitely miss the aspect of Skyrim and Fo4 where any place has some narrative built in to it. I guess with POI getting that modded complexity is possible, then bland vanilla tasks become a contrast to make custom events stand out even more. Randomly encountering a lunar castle in the middle of nowhere some eccentric starborn lives in becomes particularly memorable because it wasn’t just a dude getting lost in the same cave again.

[aurreth]

8 hours ago, FALCmods4all said:

I don’t think I ever saw a river during my playthrough.

Because there aren't any.  There are just places where they are supposed to be.  I've been looking for some sort of water level setting, you know, raise it until the streams fill in, but so far haven't found one.