Goonhub
10-13-2014, 06:12 PM
Someone mentioned earlier that there should be more options than just critters, and that got me thinking... What if the Bad Stuff is related to what you have constructed?
Like, how hard would it be to have the server just do a simple yes/no check on, "Does the station have a Pathology Lab?" "Does the station have a Pod Manufacturer?" "Does the station have a Brig?" and then for each "yes" it adds in a chance for different Bad Things to happen.
So, at round start, when there's basically nothing built, the only thing that can happen a few times an hour is meteor strikes. Since meteors suck, and you want to try your hand at curing diseases, you build some medical equipment and a Pathology Thingy. (Is it called an incubator? I don't know.) Now there's a 50/50 chance that the next Bad Event will be meteors, or will be an outbreak of a random space disease. Build a podbay, and now drones can spawn. Add a brig, and there's a chance the shuttle can randomly spawn half a dozen angry, robust, rolling-pin-wielding chefs. (They got lost on their way to the Plasma Chef competition, and now they're super pissed at everyone and everything.)
Then the pendulum swings both ways. If you want to construct and play around with something new, you do so with the knowledge that you might cause something bad to happen. Or, if you're looking for a specific challenge, the game will only let you face it once you've got the tools necessary to do so.
Speaking of, since Cogwerks mentioned his Modular Phaser idea, I think something akin to the CartyParty with a few, expensive, phasers and an assortment of mods would be interesting to add. And you could tie the presence of an "It Pays To Phase" vendor with the possible spawning of critters during Bad Events.
Like, how hard would it be to have the server just do a simple yes/no check on, "Does the station have a Pathology Lab?" "Does the station have a Pod Manufacturer?" "Does the station have a Brig?" and then for each "yes" it adds in a chance for different Bad Things to happen.
So, at round start, when there's basically nothing built, the only thing that can happen a few times an hour is meteor strikes. Since meteors suck, and you want to try your hand at curing diseases, you build some medical equipment and a Pathology Thingy. (Is it called an incubator? I don't know.) Now there's a 50/50 chance that the next Bad Event will be meteors, or will be an outbreak of a random space disease. Build a podbay, and now drones can spawn. Add a brig, and there's a chance the shuttle can randomly spawn half a dozen angry, robust, rolling-pin-wielding chefs. (They got lost on their way to the Plasma Chef competition, and now they're super pissed at everyone and everything.)
Then the pendulum swings both ways. If you want to construct and play around with something new, you do so with the knowledge that you might cause something bad to happen. Or, if you're looking for a specific challenge, the game will only let you face it once you've got the tools necessary to do so.
Speaking of, since Cogwerks mentioned his Modular Phaser idea, I think something akin to the CartyParty with a few, expensive, phasers and an assortment of mods would be interesting to add. And you could tie the presence of an "It Pays To Phase" vendor with the possible spawning of critters during Bad Events.