I was so focused on the information about planet plot density forcing new planet spawns, that I completely glossed over this tidbit of theorycrafting @james has been going over, it seems personally behind the scenes, or maybe he’s colabbed with other devs on the idea, I’m glad he mentioned it here because I would not have ever really thought about this being a thing/ a possibility.
Temporary worlds, to me, sounds a LOT like wormholes in Eve Online. For those who arent aware wormholes in Eve are constant places in space, that are always there, but the access to them shifts from place to place. In that map you might enter the wormhole space in one part of the map, it will close behind you, and a new exit/entrance will open up on the complete other side of the universe map.
I wouldnt expect it to be the same at all but just the idea of a similar system got me jonesing at the thought. What if these temporary worlds werent really temporary, but their relation to the planets as they are currently changed. Right now, lets say the server banks are USW USE EU and AUS. These ‘temporary’ planets would have their access shifted from server bank to server bank meaning the portals established by the exploring/settling players wouldnt be the same thing day after day or week after week, depending on how aggressive the dev team wanted the change to be. Maybe Finata would be the only planet the ‘temp’ world could access during that day/week so youd have to establish the portal links etc and then the next day the only planet that could access it would be Angel or Boori…
This is wildly different than I think what James was alluding to in his thought, as Im sure he meant a world that existed for 24-72 hours or maybe a week and then disappeared and a new one would surface for us to explore.
Anyways, I’d really like to see what others would be interested in with this type of dynamic. I know some of you have crazier ideas. We won’t know what we can have if we don’t ask for it
I seconded the idea in another thread, I don’t know if this has been raised before however.
My take away was temporary planets for a month, then they change.
Brand new fresh places to explore, hunt or just visit on a regular basis. Seen everything? Well now it’ll be impossible to ever run out of places to explore.
Fresh new sets of resources that don’t get beaconed up, always available.
Less stress on the servers for more gain, as we constantly get new locations without needing to house them permanently.
The possibility for special event planets or for the devs to test new environments, monsters, fauna etc to see if they can go into regular circulation at some point. Maybe a Halloween planet, summer (beach) planet, christmas planet etc. Or just something like a nightmare world, that you’ll struggle to survive. A mountain world where its all peaks, swamp world, forest world all huge trees, or a completely ocean, or lava world etc. Extreme environments not intended for regular play, just for fun.
Semi rare colors, material types or even full block types that are only there periodically.
Holiday Homes and plots :D, that change with the seasons. - Would be nice to get some drop down blueprints or quick builds for this.
Extreme challenges, aggressive plants (spreading), decaying world that doesn’t regen, monsters with super health and great drops etc.
There are issues with both of those ideas. A Perma World with Temp Entrances, and actual temp worlds that were deleted when done.
Namely, if someone builds inside of them, then leaves and the world ‘Vanish/Entrance Vanish’, it would be impossible for people to go back to those builds, they would lose their plots, any items left behind, and so on.
With the Temp Entrance, they could find their way back eventually, but it could take them weeks, especially since most likely you wouldn’t be able to make a Portal from the normal world into the Temp world to circimvent the Temp Portal Entrance.
Players, especially new players, would freak out if they spent a week, month, or however long it lasts, only to log in and find the world is suddenly gone and all their items and such wasted.
Especially the Temp Portal Entrance one, cause their plots will still be in use, and unable to be deleted or returned till they make their way back, or the Beacon runs out of fuel in a month at the least.
Yes they wouldn’t be for permanent builds if they were temporary, that’d be the downside.
Yes it’d need a great big warning for new players when they warped in. Perhaps a T4+ would be an option too, as they wouldn’t go there anyway to start with because of the atmosphere.
to circumvent that, they could probably kick any players to the closest planet when the time runs out on temp worlds free of charge.
the temp worlds could also prompt players who enter the world with a notice that it is a temporary world and that building there would not be a good idea.
As for plots being used, they could either disallow plots all together, making the planet only acessable via warp conduits-thus encouraging players to travel as a group to save on coin (though solo players would not enjoy this) , or if they allow for plots to be placed, have them be automatically removed and refunded to the player once the planet is gone.
One more option is to have any beacon placed could only be fueled to the amount of time left for the temporary planet, regardless of how high of a tier beacon fuel used. if the planet has 2 days left, and you use the highest fuel, the max it would fuel would be 2 days. that way when the beacon expires, it will automatically give the used plots back.
I like the idea of a temporary planet (of any level) showing up with unique resources / colors and then disappearing. This would be very similar to the Halloween event. At the end of the event, the planet vanishes along with all player assets left on the planet.
I would love to see a holiday planet with candy cane trees or a thanksgiving planet with turkeys instead of roadrunners.
This had me thinking about how one could do a wipe, but not have it be a complete wipe and that lead back to temporary worlds.
Rather than a wipe, can we have cataclysmic events that could befall planets that increase their hardness level and/or change their regen rate? As if the planet is being pushed outside the known worlds. The blinksecs to the planet continue to rise over time until it can no longer be reached within the warp/portal skills of anyone. This would be an official event that would take place over a period of time; do you tough it out until the end, jump ship quickly?
Those who were on the planet when it finally gets this far away are given a free warp totem in the sanctuary.
This would present a “wipe” situation on a per-planet basis without wiping the entire universe (and all the characters with it). But, that’s not to say the planet would be completely gone:
The planet’s orbit is changed such that you can only get to the planet when it is actually in view from certain planets and it brings with it various new baddies and new materials that its collected from the outer rim. As it moves back towards the known worlds, its regen rate changes (faster? slower?) in kind. You can still set up beacons on the planet when it shows up, but fuel is burned up faster as it moves away from the known worlds and the outer rim doesn’t recognize your gleam club membership. Will your beacon still be there when the planet’s orbit comes by again?
An involuntary wipe would be a game ender for me. To have built up everything only to have it disappear. I would never come back. However, I do often think about voluntarily tearing down what I’ve built and re-building it. I know lots of players have done this as they learn the game and re-think their layouts and builds.
If there were a voluntary tear down mechanic, I would support that. I would love to be able to build something up, place bombs everywhere and remotely trigger them and watch it blow up. I would also like to see a voluntary pvp systems where people can attack my builds. It would give me a reason to build more.
I like the idea of temporary worlds but I also understand that they are not technically feasible. We can’t have everyone heading to the same place. It would constantly crash.
It must not be totally out of the realm of possibility. @james mentioned he had been toying with the idea of them and made that bit of a tease post. If there are multiple temp worlds spawned at a given time, it would reduce any potential bottle necking concerns you seem to fear occurring.
My guess is the temp world spawn would be similar to current world spawn. Since there are no beacons allowed on temp worlds it could spawn solely on temp world planet population. if the first temp world filled, a second temp world would spawn instantly.
Or you would just have to sit in front of a portal waiting for your turn
