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Original post by Diodor I'd like an on-ship ecology sub-game. Sophisticated planet ecology is wasted I think if it is only used to offer targets for a 2d rover to shoot at or run from.

This is interesting but doesn't it have the problem of forcing players to shuttle back and forth with only one animal type and supporting food? That is, if you wanted to grab 1 bear, 1 wolf, 3 sheep and 10 rabbits, you'd have to first transport bears and sheep, wolves and rabbits, then sheep and rabbits. Is this a good thing?

You could make this work if you had separate cargo holds and upgrades to your terrain vehicle, turning it from a rover to a huge thing like the Star Wars Jawa sand crawler with multiple compartments. There might even need to be gameplay involving skill levels of animal handlers for safe transport.

One logical problem would be why the animals can't be put into cryostorage, but maybe you could say it's a dangerous business requiring close knowledge of the alien biology, which of course you wouldn't have.

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The goal for the player would be to create self sustaining ecosystems that he doesn't need to bother with anymore.

I wonder if this makes more sense as a sort of "animal farm" on the planet, though. Cargo storage (or portable habitats affixed to the ship) should experience turnover, which means you wouldn't really be able to fire and forget.

I was thinking maybe your task is to get enough food to get a prize creature type back home, which might even have you making side stops looking for suitable prey. Problem with that, though, is that if you fail the scavenger hunt suddenly sucks unless you'd somehow planned out your route ahead of time.

It's still a dynamic with potential, though. I like that this has far more potential than just creature combat, as well, especially the complications and potential mayhem of escape.

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Original post by theOcelot IMHO, a game as cool as yours sounds deserves a team capable of fulfilling those expectations, but I realize that might not be possible or practical for you. [sad]

Thanks for the well wishes, but like I mentioned in the OP "design to your own capabilities" does seem like a smart strategy. (And heck, there's always the possibility of a sequel :D)

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Actually, you might be able to integrate a lot of that kind of stuff into #2 by making it a hybrid strategy/navigation game. Mostly what I'm looking for is a sense of detail all the way down to the lowest levels. I personally might actually prefer to get that from a #2 type of game, if it gave a detailed view of the world while also giving me a chance to think about the decisions I make. If you can still incorporate a few action elements into it, it would be just about perfect for me.

I got a chance to drive 200 miles over flat prarie yesterday and it gave me a realization-- if there was some clean way of cutting out all the straight-line stuff which, due to its nature, has minimal decision making, then that's the way to go. Even an alien planet in 3D would get boring if the stretches between interesting challenges were long.

So how about this:

As I've mentioned in parts above, I could go fully with #2 but create optional regions that expand into "action maps." These would be limited navigation puzzles or combat challenges. Each would be skippable at the cost of not getting whatever's behind them. I could either use mix and match creatures or represent this as a special mode where you fight "uber-creatures" or other vehicles. So you'd still get lots of creatures to interact with, but only a few would be on an action basis.

The encounter areas could simply use random maps with exit borders, kind of like the old Fallout games. This would make putting them together ten times easier because I don't have to perfectly solve the problem of how to expand tiles into subtiles.

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Original post by Wavinator(And heck, there's always the possibility of a sequel :D)

I guess I'll content myself with that. :)

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As I've mentioned in parts above, I could go fully with #2 but create optional regions that expand into "action maps." These would be limited navigation puzzles or combat challenges. Each would be skippable at the cost of not getting whatever's behind them. I could either use mix and match creatures or represent this as a special mode where you fight "uber-creatures" or other vehicles. So you'd still get lots of creatures to interact with, but only a few would be on an action basis.

I think that could work. I can imagine a player thinking, "I know there's something cool over there, but I have to cross that cracked, frozen lake (shown as an action zone). Hmmm..." You would essentially have two levels of navigation games.

What I really had in mind was to put all of that on one level, put all the little bits of navigation on the same level as the big stuff, with the ability to zoom out for boring parts. There would just be some parts of the world that had more detailed obstacles. Then you would add in a time-lapse feature that allows you to skip the boring parts, which would be interrupted by obstacles, creatures, competitors, or anything else interesting.

But having action minigames embedded on the planet's surface gives much of the feel of switching over to #3 for sensitive parts of the mission that require a more delicate touch. The game just tells you where those parts are. The rest of the time, you can concentrate on the high-level navigation and planning part.