So, I had this discussion on the discord a couple days ago and the ideas stayed with me and though it something worth throwing out:
Challenge Universes
Basically limited timed run separate universes that has a particular challenge. Probably would be for subscription members only (Or maybe a higher level of subscription unlocks them, or a one off fee?). They’d be designed to run for a set amount of time or till a certain community milestone, then end. Probably aiming to last 6 months. My hope would be they’d actually require little further development as they’d run entirely on the main game universes mechanics, the difference is in the setup which would hopefully be small in focus. They could also allow for some interesting testing, being fun small test serves in effect. They wouldn’t appeal to everyone and definetly not be new player friendly but they could be a relatively simple way to give players more to engage with.
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Escape Earth
This is the scenario that was first discussed. Everyone starts on one planet: Earth (or an earth like planet). Fertile, has water and LOTS of very small trace deposits. Maybe not every resource but some of the basic ones even if in tiny amounts. It would perhaps take a week to get a useable amount of Gold or Titanium.
The aim/challenge would be to settle another planet one system out (or maybe just have a ship leave the planet, or it could just be on a timelimit with a leaderboard). People would therefore have to work together with their one base with all of their efforts aimed at extracting the feeble resources available in the most efficient way. All with the aim of building a simple ship that will let them perhaps build a base on Mars just so they have the space the base provides even with 0 useful resources.
Wouldn’t be easy, wouldn’t be fast, but would use many of the core mechanics experienced players seem to enjoy to a really intense degree.
Don’t have any other firm scenario ideas but somethings that could be fun to play with
- No fertility
Perhaps a universe in which there are zero fertile planets, or at least players don’t start on one. Players have to use the meagre starting RATs to get HYFs set up so they can properly expand, always with the food limitations. - Different Flight speeds
A universe in which maybe flight speeds and costs are vastly dfferent, to either encourage or discourage multi-planet/system empires. - Sci-fi worlds/trope universes
Could be cool to design some limited run universes based off either well known sci-fi series or well known sci-fi tropes. Naturally, be unlikely to do ones based on any recent Sci-Fi worlds for copyright reasons, but the idea of, say, a gate system isn’t exactly copyrighted. Also maybe some worlds now in creative commons? - One base universe
A universe in which players have a 1 base limit no matter what, they will have to uproot and move their whole operation as needs determine. Effectively being space nomads - Resource Farming
The leaderboard would be entirely devoted to who could sell to the MM the most of a specific item. Lets say ‘Spice’. Nothing else would matter come the end, just simply how much was sold. - Money
Simple: Who has most money hoarded at end wins.
Love to hear if you guys have any ideas of settings/challenges that are a bit more detailed than my mind dump of small ideas. This definitely isn’t a suggestion for a development priority but perhaps could be something that is easily put up alongside that maybe generates a bit of extra income for little investment. Also each challenge may not appeal to all.