Danger in Space

Exploration in SE1 came down to avoiding asteroids while piloting at full speed with dampeners off. We could enhance this aspect with a couple of changes in the context of 1-to-4 COOP gameplay. What I described makes little to no sense in the context of a massive multiplayer server.

1) "Narrator"-based Gameplay

Keen Software House could come up with a "Narrator" for handling the gameplay events. Essentially, we want to monitor some data about the player (last time he built a block, last time he dealt damage, last time he completed a quest, total PCU, current progress).

Based on those variables, we can establish if the player is currently playing actively or not. If not, we can launch one of the events below or some other NPC-linked events (minor drone assaults, for instance).

The objective here is to have a system which would make sure the player is having something to deal with. For instance, if we detect that the player is in a cockpit moving at max speed and the narrator hasn't generated any events in the past 30 minutes to 2 hours, we can launch a solar flare.

2) Solar Flares

Every sun in mid-game/later-game sectors could emit a solar flare. The player needs to protect themselves from it by building:

a) A solar flare detector (Providing a prompt to players by sending a message in the faction chat. It has to be owned by a faction). b) A solar flare shield requiring its own dedicated batteries.

3) Micrometeorites

If you fly at max speed in certain sectors, you must have heavy armor on your ship, or you start taking damage over time to blocks on the outer shell. Not sure how this would be even resolved on a code level. It could end up being too much of a hassle.

4) Radiation

High radiation clouds/zones, forcing players to be within the range of an anti-radiation field or start losing health until death inevitably ensues. This makes sense if the cloud itself always spawns with a juicy asteroid within it.

5) Massive Coronal Ejections

You could create a system with two neutron stars. From time to time, the stars shoot out a cylinder-shaped jet in a random location close to the player's ship. Think of it this way:

We take the coordinate of the player.

We take the direction they are moving.

We aim two to three jets around their location.

A "plasma" jet forms where we will shoot for 5–10 seconds to warn the player.

We fire the jet for extra effects.

Alternatively, we can actually pre-aim the plasma jet precisely on the player and give them more time to react.