Add extra dangers for Vulcanus and Fulgora on deathworld

Post your ideas and suggestions how to improve the game.

Moderator: ickputzdirwech

DeadMG
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:56 am
Contact:

Add extra dangers for Vulcanus and Fulgora on deathworld

Post by DeadMG »

TL;DR
Make running away off Nauvis to Vulcanus/Fulgora not such an easy win on deathworld
What?
Vulcanus/Fulgora should gain some planet-specific difficulty modifiers. These can be disabled in all presets except deathworld. For Vulcanus I might suggest demolishers that spawn and attack you similar to biters, although obviously in lower numbers/frequency. For Fulgora I might suggest a setting for the lightning rods that makes them not guaranteed to work, but sometimes the lightning strike gets through anyway. Another option would be to jack up asteroids in either number or damage resistances on the inner system routes so you need a much bigger/better ship to escape.
Why?
The Deathworld preset has been hindered a lot in meaning in SA. The biggest issue is that once you reach rocket, you can launch to Fulgora or Vulcanus where there are no enemies that attack you. This means you can just camp out indefinitely hiding until you are ready. Although I see this as a legitimate tactic, it currently is just too easy of an "i-win" button compared to the old deathworld where you were stuck on Nauvis indefinitely. Even heading to Gleba is a bit less scary when you can wait around doing as much infinite research as you want ahead of time before evolution begins. I think that the player should have some incentive to not immediately abandon Nauvis in the first millisecond, or at least some additional challenge that makes deathworld live up to its name on every planet.
macdjord
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
Posts: 78
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:26 am
Contact:

Re: Add extra dangers for Vulcanus and Fulgora on deathworld

Post by macdjord »

Rather than just spawning new Demolishers, I'd suggest that the territory of existing Demolishers will very slowly move to fill cleared space that was previously owned by Demolishers the player has already killed. The player's starting area is always safe, but everything outside of that requires periodic action to defend it. Additionally, as the game goes on longer, the Demolishers whose territory are encroaching on the player's base will have spawned father away, meaning the player will be forced to deal with larger Demolisher variants.

Note that it can't just be the Demolishers directly bordering on the cleared territory expanding into it; the Demolishers on the far side of them need to also move closer, taking over territory that formerly belonged to the Demolisher closer in. Otherwise, as the game went on, the frequency of Demolisher attack would drop, since every time the player kills one, the next-nearest would have to expand all the way from its starting point before it could threaten the player's base. So technically this idea would involve spawning new Demolishers, just at the edges of the explored part of the map - not suddenly spawning a demolisher inside a previously safe zone.
Post Reply

Return to “Ideas and Suggestions”