EARLY GAME: replace med-bay with spawnpoint / new ore generation.
The need for a medbay is quite annoying, especially when crashing with the pods there are currently, there's some examples i like from other games: Terraria has the world spawn in the middle of the map, spawns can be set to the beds people bind themselves to. Minecraft has a world spawn and spawns can be set to the beds people bind themselves to... Factorio has a world spawn that has people respawning in the center of the world when they die. Starbound has the spaceship that allows people to take anywhere. Astroneers respawns you at the main habitat via a droppod.
in current space engineers there are only medical-bays and spawning in an engineer suit. SE really need a respawn system such as a ''world spawn'' which could be set on a planet along the equator (and you would spawn in with a drop pod the first time you spawn, spawning after that would invoke a i guess.) the drop-pod would have a minimal design, and would despawn if people join someone else's faction (since there is already the pod of the founder) this way every player joining a faction would lose their drop-pod, and ''inherit'' the spawning location of the faction's founder. (THIS could also replace the current ''Engineer suit'' spawn option), in the world you could have a setting allowing you to have spawns around the planet's equator that are random per player (much like how atmospheric pods spawn right now) OR you could set the spawn location for all players, without the need of a medbay OR the fear/ problems of said medbay being destroyed, disabled, or (stolen?).
with this ''spawn location'' in mind i'll now explain why the spawns would be around the equator of the planet. the way that resources are scattered around planets is really bad, you have to travel very far to find yourself that one ore that you're missing. The way this could be done better is if the Equator would have ore patches with multiple small veins of random ores (ores that you need for things like the med-bay, generator, assembler or the refinery.) lots of tiny patches around the equator for early game, and bigger veins of one ore that are spread around farther apart from each other that you encounter more frequently as you come closer to the north and south pole of the planet. this way you could also incentive people to stay in one place in early-game, and venture out in late-game Med-bays would still exist. but they would just not be there in early game.
I like this feedback
While I like the idea of being able to set up an on-planet suit spawn (though you would be hard pressed to survive that way unless you're harvesting container drops for a couple hours), I'm think there's a few errors here that undermine the justification for your idea.
1) Ore distribution on planets is not randomly generated, it is set by the planets author in the PlanetGenerator.sbc file and through a set of color maps (RGB images). The planet author links particular values of each colour to items like terrain height, environmental items (surface rocks, trees, etc)....and ore patches. The colour maps are then projected onto the spherical planet surface by the game, which tells it where particular features are. Ore mapping looks like this:
<Ore Value="4" Type="Iron_02" Start="12" Depth="3" TargetColor="#616c83" ColorInfluence="15"/>
This tells the game that anywhere on the colour map with a "blue" value of 4, there should be Iron Ore voxel starting at 12m below the surface, and being 3m thick below that. It also then indicates if the ore patch should be visible on the surface using the dark spot patterning.
In short, if you don't like the planet ore distribution, go talk to the people making the color maps for the planets - its not an algorithm that Keen has put in place that places ores. Suggesting such an algorithm would be a fundamental change to how planets generate, and would probably break a LOT of saves and workshop items that have been carefully tailored by their authors.
2) Drop pods vs landers/respawn ships. The drop pod you are suggesting already exists in a number of respawn ship mods on the workshop. If you want a minimal start, there are lots of options already available, which you can implement into your own game if that is your preference. Forcing a player into a minimalist start is appealing to some players, but not all - be careful about conflating personal preference with ideal game mechanics. Perhaps KSWH could chose one of the more minimal pod designs to add alongside the lander in the vanilla game - simple enough to do.
3) Restricting spawns to the equator. Great on first glance IF a planet is designed specifically to support this, but breaks down in the very multiplayer environment you reference. By restricting players to spawning on the equator, you make it far easier for players intent on PvP to find them at a stage where defenses and mobility are both minimal. The more easily a trolling or griefing player can find targets, the more players are going to have a bad experience at the outset of the game and depart for greener pastures.
4) Finally, if a player is already in a faction - let them suit spawn to a faction medbay. You don't need any fancy drop pods or other mechanics added for this, just hit backspace and select the faction medbay to respawn at. If a player ISN'T in a faction, then they need sufficient resources to get themselves established - which existing lander & respawn ship mechanics already cover.
While I like the idea of being able to set up an on-planet suit spawn (though you would be hard pressed to survive that way unless you're harvesting container drops for a couple hours), I'm think there's a few errors here that undermine the justification for your idea.
1) Ore distribution on planets is not randomly generated, it is set by the planets author in the PlanetGenerator.sbc file and through a set of color maps (RGB images). The planet author links particular values of each colour to items like terrain height, environmental items (surface rocks, trees, etc)....and ore patches. The colour maps are then projected onto the spherical planet surface by the game, which tells it where particular features are. Ore mapping looks like this:
<Ore Value="4" Type="Iron_02" Start="12" Depth="3" TargetColor="#616c83" ColorInfluence="15"/>
This tells the game that anywhere on the colour map with a "blue" value of 4, there should be Iron Ore voxel starting at 12m below the surface, and being 3m thick below that. It also then indicates if the ore patch should be visible on the surface using the dark spot patterning.
In short, if you don't like the planet ore distribution, go talk to the people making the color maps for the planets - its not an algorithm that Keen has put in place that places ores. Suggesting such an algorithm would be a fundamental change to how planets generate, and would probably break a LOT of saves and workshop items that have been carefully tailored by their authors.
2) Drop pods vs landers/respawn ships. The drop pod you are suggesting already exists in a number of respawn ship mods on the workshop. If you want a minimal start, there are lots of options already available, which you can implement into your own game if that is your preference. Forcing a player into a minimalist start is appealing to some players, but not all - be careful about conflating personal preference with ideal game mechanics. Perhaps KSWH could chose one of the more minimal pod designs to add alongside the lander in the vanilla game - simple enough to do.
3) Restricting spawns to the equator. Great on first glance IF a planet is designed specifically to support this, but breaks down in the very multiplayer environment you reference. By restricting players to spawning on the equator, you make it far easier for players intent on PvP to find them at a stage where defenses and mobility are both minimal. The more easily a trolling or griefing player can find targets, the more players are going to have a bad experience at the outset of the game and depart for greener pastures.
4) Finally, if a player is already in a faction - let them suit spawn to a faction medbay. You don't need any fancy drop pods or other mechanics added for this, just hit backspace and select the faction medbay to respawn at. If a player ISN'T in a faction, then they need sufficient resources to get themselves established - which existing lander & respawn ship mechanics already cover.
Like this idea, as now on servers many people, even when having a medbays/bases they spawn in landers and kamikaze bases or use them as scouts to land near build a medbay and launch attack.
When a faction have a medbay/base no spawn in a lander should be allawed.
Like this idea, as now on servers many people, even when having a medbays/bases they spawn in landers and kamikaze bases or use them as scouts to land near build a medbay and launch attack.
When a faction have a medbay/base no spawn in a lander should be allawed.
I like the general idea. Though, may I suggest having cryo-pods be a spawn point? They are smaller, and currently have fairly minimal practical uses. It also would be somewhat thematic. Like having someone come out of cryo to help out.
I like the general idea. Though, may I suggest having cryo-pods be a spawn point? They are smaller, and currently have fairly minimal practical uses. It also would be somewhat thematic. Like having someone come out of cryo to help out.
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