I was inspired by the Seasonal Planet suggestion from @Havok40k and thought that it might be an interesting somtimes event to have a doomed planet appear in the skies. These planets could be of varying sizes, geological makeups, and could have various atmospheric makeups. The one unifying factor would be that they all have an expiration date.
These planets would have varying levels of resources, unique or rarer block colors, and couldn’t be beaconed at all. Additionally they wouldn’t have automatic terrain regeneration, at least not entirely.
As the planet moves closer and closer to it’s doom, the lava and/or water level would rise and should be generated on a certain cycle, to make the planet harder and harder to mine.
Once the deadline for Armageddon has been reached, the planet would simply cease to exist. There could be a big animation of some sort in the skies, but it could also just be gone. Anyone who logged out while on that world would log back in to find themselves in the Sanctum, with a portal opened to one of the nearby worlds.
I think this could be fun for a gold rush type event where everyone is strip mining the planet to shreds while it gets harder and harder to survive. It would also occasionally create an influx of building blocks that don’t have a renewable source and are therefor more valuable.
Oh, yeah that could be cool. Assuming they could get a bunch of resources ready made for them to build. Maybe they could get “footfall” for it or something.
Also that would be a really good way to sort of promote some of the new colors and such in some kind of build.
Yeah I was thinking limitless resources to build with… and I guess they’d be beaconed so people don’t just waltz out with 2,000,000 prestige worth of blocks.
maybe beaconed, maybe like regionalized insane armor. So you CAN mine out the ruins, but you’re spending a lot of time on it. That could make it so you’ve got tons of people swarming over the ruins trying to get them pulled apart.
I like the idea. It’s be like a mining hunt. Do you think they should be visible from all world’s? Also, as time passes, the protection requirements could go up…
I’ve had so much fun exploring the new planets that I think this idea would kill me. What about collectable atlasses! A fully filled atlas of a planet that’s not there anymore might be pretty rare
I think the “season” of the Titans is upon us, and they’ll accelerate a doomed planet’s instability unless we stop them. If we beat them down as they spawn on the planet, we might buy some more time to harvest the planet’s resources before it expires/orbits away.
I like that idea, if the community doesn’t get together on the regular to fight the titan when it appears, it starts a long process to destroy the planet. So the planet isn’t doomed in the sense that it’s on a timer, it’s doomed in the sense that if players are ever caught slipping the titans will win.
You could even have a lengthy and expensive crafting process for an item which summons the titan. Who would risk an entire planet for some boss loot?! Would be an interesting PvP dynamic
Another cool idea is that the planet’s destruction is a slow process kind of like world regen, but harmful instead of helpful. Like one planet might be boiling from the inside so the regen starts replacing previously inert rocks with lava and ash. All the water slowly turns to lava. Huge fissures form in the surface dropping down into pools of lava. The grass dies leaving only dirt.
On another planet known for being lush it’s a hostile plant covering the surface with damaging thorn blocks which strangle out all other plant life. Players chop away to prevent its spread before it consumes valuable resources but they can never truly win
That could be fun! I was imaginging avarice and panic would be enough to decay a planet, and then just add in the rising water/lava to make it more dangerous. But I like the idea of stuff just decaying normally too!
Yeah, I mostly liked the idea that if the community liked a planet for its resources or colors or topography, it would stay around longer based on contributions to keep it around. I imagine everyone will be wild about titans at the start, but later down the line we can collectively decide which planets are worth saving. Maybe gatherers/non-combat types can also gather a resource exclusive to doomed planets to dump into an NPC’s machine at some public outpost, also slowing planetary decay.
A secondary idea is two temporary planets and they are crashing into each other. They are just T1-3 worlds when separate, but, when they touch, the area where they join becomes a Hellscape. The Hellscape slowly expands to the rest of the two worlds as they slowly crash into each other.
They you could have one, final day where they are completely merged and it’s just a lava, protection requirement, being pelted by meteors, filled with high level mobs mess.
What about a Doomed Planet that’s actually a bunch of giant asteroids? Extremely low gravity, no atmosphere, you basically need grapples to get from asteroid to asteroid and nearby portals to get a breath of air. Maybe little pockets of oxygen dense water blocks that you can breath in.