Well crap, water worlds are common!

from StarControl Forums

Let me get this right out of the way: Star Control: Origins has no planets in it with free-standing water.  We've taken the very convenient (for us) position that free standing water is extremely rare and that instead,, water tends to be trapped under layers of ice.

But according to a ScienceDaily article I read last week, water worlds might actually be pretty common.  

Now for you gamers out there, how would you like to see water worlds handled in Star Control in the future? For example, would you fly over them? Would your lander act as a submarine? Or something else entirely?

 

38,656 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

The lander hovers over the surface of the "land" planets.  so the stock lander should skim the surface of the water.     There should be mods that can be added to the lander like the jump mod that already exists to give it the dive ability...

and then perhaps additional mods to do deep dive.. similar to how you have resistance to insta-death when landing on Venus.. etc...

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

However it's handled, if the option to waterski isn't there, I'll be very disappointed.

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Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

I don't know... James Bond's Lotus submarine was pretty cool...

 

Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

Part of the issue is that at the scale our landers operate at, there might not be enough of a planet to create a compelling underwater experience. This is arguably a problem with planets in general, but there's not much "height" at play here, we kind of just bounce over mountains and the like and we don't see any particular differences in biomes between a valley versus the top of a mountain. And with oceans, a lot of the really interesting bits comes down to the density of the flora and fauna, like coral reefs filled with life. That might not be something presentable at the granularity with which we play with the lander.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Submarine space ships!  If you need any professional consultation on submarines I can let you know, I served on one.

Reply #7 from Stardock.net Forums Top

My vote is for a submersible, although I know that would be a significant feature to develop. Some kind of 6DOF lander would let us also explore "landing" on gas giants in the future.

Reply #8 from StarControl Forums Top

Yeah I vote for submarine.  If you don't go under the water it is too similar to an ice world.

Reply #9 from StarControl Forums Top

… wait 4000 exoplanets and around 35% of them should be water rich … 
from how many planets 400 Billions ? 
Is that common ?

Reply #10 from StarControl Forums Top

would be a nice element if we can explore inside oceans or whatever when available with hostiles aliens, and maybe a more rare mineral is found there, but with ocean aliens or whatever its more harder because they will attack you and what not and it would be neat if you can fight them or kill them but but not as easy and more come, so you only have time to maybe get the mineral and leave before getting rekt maybe? just thinking outloud is all

Reply #11 from StarControl Forums Top

I really wouldn't want to deal with sub driving...  I'd be content with hovering over the water.

Reply #12 from StarControl Forums Top

I personally would like to see an upgrade path. It sinks you die ---> Floats ---> Submersible. I also don't want to cause any extra work though. Imagine all the stuff that could be hid under the ocean!! Heck, if it is "a half way through the game quest" to get a submersible upgrade, you can time when a player finds certain item/artifacts and save certain things for end game this way.

I know the game is in late development . Maybe a future side quest somewhere for DLC.

Or later add a whole different plot element to the game by accessing the ocean floors, and having the submersible lander as the key to access it. It would be a great "natural barrier" for future expansions.

Just brain storming.