Since OP said he doesnt mind the convo evolving a bit I would like to piggy back on this idea.
I like the idea of an ever changing planet. Where one day you log on you could be walking into your base over an ocean and the next your base is engulfed inside of a giant mountain. For this idea to work we would need a few things to be clear/put in place.
These ever changing planets should not affect any planets currently in the live universe. They would need to be completely new permanent planets. I know most of us enjoy the security of our builds weāve put months into.
2)Ever changing planets would need a limited number of permanent plots and a number of temporary plots. Permanent plots would hold your valuables-coils, storage, portal, etc. Temporary plots would be where you build say a bridge to get across that ocean that just appeared beneath your base. These temporary plots are subject to be completely destroyed at any time to allow the planet to continue evolving over time.
To spice these planets up even further, a reward could be given to players with max prestige at the time of wipe (planet evolution). Prestige is only applied to temporary plots, so the leaderboard would always be evolving with each planet evolution. We would need to constantly rebuild to regain prestige, but we would always have our permanent plot to fall back on.
Well in where I was going I was not promoting something that extreme on ocean today mountain tomorrowā¦ I have not have any conversations with James or Ollie to even see if the regen model could be extending to slowly change planets.
Additionally I would not block players from being affected by this lifecycle model I am slowly developing the idea for this game. I already pitched that prestige plants should give a negative benefit if not kept up and I feel we should at some level consider how builds might change if people do not keep them up. I would never take away a persons coin or certain things but I think that a possible that since we do allow wear on machines we should consider discussions about how wear might be on other thingsā¦ we have that with our house and cars and so many things in life and I donāt think it is completely wrong to at least talk about if those things make sense or not in this game.
For me I would not limit the idea to only new planets because that is not a feasible functional design for where the game stands now. New planets cannot come because of finances and limited player growth. I would consider all planets as a possible option but until more detailed discussion happens nothing would be off the table and nothing would be set in stone to stay on the table for the design.
Either way I donāt think this is the right thread to talk about that and until I can get more technical specifics from the developers about existing functionality and what IS possible versus what would be possible after development I wonāt be really entertaining discussion in the forum for my idea. Especially considering the severe push back and current mindset of many in the community. I will never change my mind that it is a smart approach to always be willing to change your previous decisions and pivot designs, but just because you might consider it does not in any way ever mean you would actually do that since it comes down to risk/reward, need/benefit, etcā¦
How would this specifically āharmā someone? Iām having a hard time seeing ill intent in my suggestion. Youād be given a choice to join a seasonal universe.
Could even implement challenge rules for the seperate universe that would be wiped, like increased mob spawn, or something fun like reduced gravity. More choice isnt a bad thing I believe
If the seasonal planet has a resource on it then I may want to put a farm or something on it. But if it changes and the resource moves then the farm is not any good. So do you limit the planets where making a farm makes practical sense to the non-seasonal planets? Does this create more crowding on the non-seasonal planets? Do the non-seasonal end up with all the large builds and the seasonal end up mostly empty? These are my concerns and how they do impact the players that do not want to deal with the planet changing out from under them.
Are you limiting players to only play in seasonal or non-seasonal universe? If this is the case then are you creating a permanent split in an already small player base? This is not like a rented planet where you can move back and forth between the two. If it is separate then it is separate. If this is the case then you really probably only hurt players due to the smaller number of planets in each universe. If we cut the universe in two then each half (assuming half the players want the seasonal) gets 25 planets and probably fewer exo planets.