Space Events

[pether]

This idea appeared as I wondered how to introduce artifacts to spaced out, but it has many more applications as well.

So the idea is that the space hexmap, apart of fixed locations (asteroids and moonlets) could have some randomly generated things that you could interact with. Those can be passing meteor showers, space dust clouds, rocket wreckage, etc. They can appear at any moment of the game and have some limited lifetime before they disappear. Some of them can move to nearby hexes, some can stay in place until they die.

When they appear, player can send a rocket (maybe with some proper module) to interact with them. To simplify let's assume that interaction works as in vanilla, with no micromanagement at all - rocket arrives, event happens, rocket can come home. Late game tech could unlock space scanners that would be able to detect appearing event, so players wouldn't need to check hexmap every cycle.

Results of such space event can vary: you can find artifacts, resources, maybe some critters, eggs and seeds. If space event travelling through space (like flying meteors) reaches asteroid, you could see the effects on the surface (like meteor showers or other weather conditions). Ofc random effect is somehow related to space event type, so if you see on the hex map that meteors appeared don't expect finding critter eggs there - so if you hunt for the eggs you can ignore it. Severity and potential reward could be related to the distance between the event and your starting possition, so no meteors can be generated on your earlies asteroids

This could also allow devs to make clusters a little less constraint - you can have more randomness in world generation and risk no pips generated if you know that sooner or later there will be an encoutner that grants you pip eggs.

TLDR - I miss artifacts in the DLC, here is how we could find them

[Sasza22]

I really like the idea of some hexes having special properties or events. Like some of them could provide a passive research boost for the space research or maybe could be mined if provided with an empty module. Others could have different effects like speeding up or slowing doen rockets, like a nebula tile that needs to be charted by a rocket and it takes time and without it you can`t move past it. Or an asteorid belt that could be passed but at the cost of rocket damage (will damage random walls causing small oxygen leaks).

[Unfawkable]

This is a great idea, and I would like to see this as a way to prevent meteor showers on your planetoids. You find the shower event, and if you reach it and "disperse" it with a specialized module of sorts, it doesn't reach your planetoid.

[Sasza22]

15 hours ago, Unfawkable said:

You find the shower event, and if you reach it and "disperse" it with a specialized module of sorts, it doesn't reach your planetoid.

Or maybe you could so the opposite. If you find an asteroid field with rare resources you could push some of them towards your planetoid.

[goboking]

As someone who feels the developers rely too heavily on volcanoes as a source of renewable metal, I'd be happy if they were scaled back a bit and replaced in part by passing comets that could be mined. 

Aside from that, derelict ships and/or space stations is a great way to reintroduce artifacts into the game and give players who eschew care packages (we do exist, Klei ) the opportunity to procure eggs and seeds not normally available to them.  If aggressive critters or dangerous germs are ever added to the game, a derelict ship is a great place to stash them, adding a fear of exploring the unknown to space missions.

[Oxygenbreather]

On 4/22/2021 at 12:02 AM, Sasza22 said:

Or maybe you could so the opposite. If you find an asteroid field with rare resources you could push some of them towards your planetoid.

That is a wonderful idea to bring back meteor showers while making them less the constant pest they were in the base game.

Or just generally a meteor group passing through the starmap... it could either go by your planetoid or already target them.. and you could either subvert them to not hit you, or do hit you or hit another planetoid ..

[pether]

I just got my first artifact on beta branch. And it is beautiful.

Thanks KLEI, I know you are reading this! You are the best!