The Solar System - increasing challenges (very long)

Kethrian

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Hi guys. Ive been playing the galacticraft mod for a few weeks on our community server, backed up with a variety of other mods such as mekanism and MFFS. Heres my vision of how the solar system should be put together:

Increasing challenge:
Each new planet/location should offer a new environmental challenge, new mob types as well as unlocking new schematics to help deal with the problems of that planet and solving some problems on previous planets. This fits quite well with the space station, moon and mars locations already in the mod but could do with some tweaking. I've listed the planets and environmental traits first, followed by a list of some items/blocks which could be discovered along the way and the planet they may be found on.

Stage 1: Overworld orbit - Tier 1 rocket
Space Station
Challenges
: No air, 1/10th gravity, no floor and no resources. First mission requires resources on board to build starting area.
Usage: Low gravity allows launching of missions to planets further out as the fuel required to leave orbit is much lower. The space station also forms the basis for research and advanced tech production. For instance research into alien species may require a holding cell and lab which con only be built on the station.

Moon
Challenges
: No Air, 1/8th gravity, long day/night, medium spawn rate (lower than it is now though!), Reduced lighting effects, Meteor strikes.
Resources: Source of meteoric iron , Cheese and blueprints for higher tier items.

Stage 2: The inner planets - Tier 2 rocket.
Mars
Challenges
: No breathable air, 1/3rd gravity, normal day/night, medium spawn rate.Meteor strikes
Resources: Desh, meteoric iron, slimes, bacteria
Mobs:
Martian pigmen, slime cubes, slimelings. All villagers on Mars should be male (because men are from mars and women are from venus)

Venus
Challenges
: No breathable air, normal gravity
slow walking speed due to thick atmosphere.
Acid rain : although rain is infrequent, it causes poison damage when caught out in the open).
Permanent cloud - renders solar panels inoperable and allows monster spawns at any time of day.
400C surface temperature heat shielded armour which must be worn at all times.
Landscape: Flat desert landscape that rains infrequently. Any liquid except lava is immediately evaporated unless in a sealed container or tank. A strangely coloured squat species of tree would make for interesting plant life although it would need to be very sparse.
Resources: Acids and gases.
Mobs: Venusian Endermen (they really don't like acid rain) Space Witches, Acidic Ghasts. All villages on Venus should be female (because men are from mars and women are from venus) and live in shelters made from the wood of the local trees.

Mercury - Challenges: No air, Extremely long day/night (2 hours... because a year is a bit long!). No clouds. Heat shielded armour required to prevent damage when in the open.
Extreme temperature swing; liquids freeze at night, some rock types melt and become lava pools in the day. Wooden objects and wool bursts into flame during the day.
Landscape: Similar to the moon with heavy cratering. The sun is very large in the sky with no cloud. Landscape should be made largely from obsidian or other sufficiently tough to break material. No active volcanoes but pools of lava during daylight. Any liquid on the surface freezes at night. Ice can be found underground and at the bottom of deep craters. Vegetation is a variety of mushroom that grows in the dark and can be used to produce oxygen with the help of oxygen collectors.
Resources: Obsidian, sulphur, High quantity of metal ores near bedrock.
Mobs: Day spawn: Mercurial Blazes, Firey imps, Magma cubes. Night spawn: Obsidian Golems, Frozen imps, Obsidian cubes. Villages are populated with obsidian golems living in iron shelters.

Stage 3: The Outer Planets - Tier 3 rocket launched from Space Station or Asteroid Base

Asteroid Base
Challenges
: No air, 1/10th gravity, limited floor, Asteroid strikes, First mission requires resources on board to construct starting area. Permanent Sunrise.
A staging post to launch Tier 3 rockets to the Outer Planets. Can house some unique machines and multi block structures (see below).
Landscape: Similar to the space station, all rockets will arrive at a prebuilt starting area on an asteroid approximately 3x3x3 chunks. There is no solid ground layer but other asteroids are spread around the area like floating islands. Falling to bedrock level is fatal as there is no planet to fall onto. Asteroids are composed of metal ores, metal blocks and high strength rock.
Mobs: Deep Space bats and mosquito swarms of various types.

Note: From here out the planets get increasingly hard to mod to keep them interesting and playable. I have included some ideas for the Gas giants below, but their moons could be much more interesting to play with, using the gas giants themselves purely as objects in the sky:

Jupiter
Challenges
: No breathable atmosphere. Permanent storm (High chance of lightning strikes and rain). Liquid surface. First mission requires materials on board to establish floating base.
A difficult planet to build on requiring players to establish floating bases and use some tech blueprints to dive into underwater dungeons.
landscape: Covered in a liquid (metallic hydrogen) to a depth of between 10 and 30 blocks, beneath this is "solid" blocks which when mined produce a gas (they will disappear unless excavated using advanced items). Near bedrock layer this becomes solid rock and ore.
Mobs: Ghasts, bats, squids (dangerous variety).
Resources: Hydrogen atmosphere as well as liquid and ice forms of hydrogen could make for a much improved rocket fuel source with appropriate blue print tech.

Saturn
see above - change layer heights so it has a larger atmosphere layer and smaller rock layer.

Uranus
Strictly a gas giant but seems like a good opportunity to make an ice world.

Pluto:
A rather uninteresting place of rock and ice and a lot of darkness....

Interesting moons:
Io

Challenges: Volcanic activity (seriously huge volcanoes), surface flame and smoke jets (similar to twilight forest mod)

Triton:
Geologically active moon with geysers of liquid nitrogen

Titan:
Thick atmosphere with methane rain, has oceans, rivers deltas etc and potential for volcanic activity.
 
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Kethrian

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Items blocks and multi-blocks.
All would need to be discovered using the schematic system and would require planet specific resources to build.

Tier 1 Rocket - travel to space station and moon from overworld.

Tier 2 Rocket - travel to all inner planets when launched from space station.

Tier 3 Rocket - travel to all inner planets from overworld, travel to asteroid base when launched from space station. travel to outer planets when launched from asteroid base.

Tier 4 Rocket - Requires discovery of Ion drive. Can reach any planet when launched from anywhere. requires Nuclear fuel source derived from outer planets.

Lunar Rover - moon buggy, can be used on any planet with gravity less than that of the overworld.

Martian explorer - an enclosed version of the lunar rover with chunky tires, built in heat shielding and oxygen supply fed through the internal inventory slots. Cannot be used in very low gravity such as moon and space station. Allows safer travel on Venus and Mercury and other hostile environments. Runs on fuel, but can be modified to use secondary solar panels or ion engines depending on blue prints found.

Mini sub - a one man vehicle similar to the lunar rover for use under water or any other liquid (not lava obviously) Has inventory and slots for oxgen tanks and fuel.

HEW - Hotile Environment Walker - A full walker frame for personal use (think power loader from aliens). when placed in chest slot changes player model to show Walker suit with players head visible out of the top. Player model is now 3 blocks tall and grants the following abilities while charged: step up 1 block high automatically, can jump 3 blocks high, ignore move penalties for dense atmosphere on Venus, confers heat shield ability as if wearing heat shield armour, Power fist punch when not wielding a weapon (high melee damage). Can probably think of half a dozen other upgrades that would be cool.

Geological rover - when charged and placed in an area, it will survey the surface soil in a 16x16 area and once complete provide a report of ore blocks are present beneath it.

EVA suit - upgrade to oxygen gear slot. Has additional slot for fuel and allows flight abilities when in 1/10th gravity or jump jet/hover ability on planets with gravity at or below 1/8th (e.g. moon)

Heat Shielded suit - upgrade to oxygen gear and oxygen mask. Has additional a lot used to contain coolant reserves and/or a battery slot to keep powered. Prevents heat damage on Venus and Mercury. Reduces flame damage from mobs.

Pressure suit - upgrade to oxygen gear and oxygen mask, allows air supply to be used to dive underwater.

Liqui-jet boots - sits in boots slot. Increases move speed when in/under water (or other liquid). Allows sprinting under water. Reduces mining penalty under water. Has built in battery slot to power them.

Universal translator - hand held tool that allows trade with alien villagers. Requires a language module for each planet that can be built using alien relics and requires a completed alien study from alien containment.

Stun baton - Hand held weapon that requires charging. Used to stun aliens and capture them for study.

Phazer - Charged short range weapon. fires beam upto 5 blocks range, can be set to kill or stun - stun setting can be used like a stun baton to capture alien villagers for study.

Emergency shelter - hand held item that, when thrown, erects a small shelter with a door, light and oxygen that can be used to hide from monsters, or take shelter from harsh environmental conditions. after 2 hours the internal power source will run out and deactivate. A good piece of emergency kit when you run out of oxygen or get caught miles from home.

Laser cutter - functions like a pickaxe which requires charging. Used for harvesting frozen liquids on gas giants.

Ion Cutter - functions like a pickaxe which requires charging. Improved mining capability on tough materials such as those found on mercury and asteroids.


Blocks

Float blocks - required for base construction on gas giant worlds - floats on the surface of the water and supports structures on top of it. prevents extended sideways building similar to scaffolding blocks.

Alien containment - a 3x3x4 multiblock that can only be placed on space station and asteroid base. A captured alien villager can be placed inside and studied using the lab devices. Aliens that live on planets with an atmosphere will require bottled atmosphere from their home planet to survive.

Zero G laboratory - only buildable on space station and asteroid base. A specialised crafting table that can be connected to Alien containment and various cosmological analyser blocks in order to unlock high tier technologies using blue prints and alien resources.

NASA 3d printer - advanced crafting table for assembling high tier components and items, such as the EVA suit and pressure suit.

Ion generator - advanced power generator that uses nuclear materials from other planets as a fuel source.

Meteor deflector. Protects an area around it from meteor strikes while powered.

Gravity normaliser - provides overworld gravity in an area around it when powered.

Teleporter - A multi block structure unlocked after the asteroid base, allows short teleports (max 100blocks at full power) to facilitate movement between colonised asteroids.

Terraformer - uses saplings, seeds, dirt and water to change a small area on planets with an atmosphere into a standard overworld biome. This gives the area a breathable atmosphere as long as the terraformer is powered and fed with ingredients. When turned off the area will slowly return to its original state.


World Gen

Alien relics - A stone block covered in alien writing, found on all inhabited planets that can be used to decipher the language of the alien villagers eventually leading to the universal translator and the ability to trade with them.

Ancient Alien device - A variety of non functional alien tech that can be used in advanced recipes.

Ancient Alien remains - Found like flint when digging up softer materials, used in a variety of research and advanced tech recipes.

Alien Navigation module - Could be fun to give access to a final location accessed with top tier ion rockets, such as an alien homeworld or some kind of world sized space station like a death star... end game world with lots of crazy stuff on it....


Well that's all folks!!! I have no development
experience so have no idea how hard some of this would be to implement... I hope someone can be bothered to read it all and take away some useful ideas. Please leave comments/thoughts etc and if Micdoodle8 wants any more ideas, there is plenty more where this came from.
 

OpelSpeedster

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[...]Mobs: Venusian Endermen (they really don't like acid rain) Space Witches, Acidic Ghasts. All villages on Venus should be female (because men are from mars and women are from venus) and live in shelters made from the wood of the local trees.
[...]

Unless that Wood is so alien it is fire-resistant, say no to that idea, because given how hot Venus is(Temperature-wise, not romantically-wise you sick pervert!) that wood would catch on fire. Well, maybe not catch fire, but...you get the idea.

Sorry, but I don't see how Wooden villages on a planet with a temperature as high as 464ºC would work out. And also, no landing on Gas Giants, too. Firstly, because there is no solid surface for you to "land" on. Secondly, the atmosphere would also crush you in seconds.

I might have read your idea incorrectly, but the closest we could get to would be either to make operational bases on Gas Giants' moons, or make space stations that hang on in the exterior of those massive planets' atmosphere, absorbing it's gases and hydrogen and then converting it into other resources, such as fuel or oxygen.
 

Kethrian

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Unless that Wood is so alien it is fire-resistant, say no to that idea, because given how hot Venus is(Temperature-wise, not romantically-wise you sick pervert!) that wood would catch on fire. Well, maybe not catch fire, but...you get the idea.

And blue bells cant exist on the moon... And there are no aliens, just trying to think of some things to give it more spice. Venus is a pretty flat desolate place, about 70% flat volcanic planes. would be a pretty dull world without something extra.

And also, no landing on Gas Giants, too. Firstly, because there is no solid surface for you to "land" on. Secondly, the atmosphere would also crush you in seconds.

Firstly I did say in my original post that the moons would be a better option than the gas giants. From a realistic point of view, I agree that a real "landing" would be impossible The description I gave is very specific that this would be a landing into a liquid with under"water" dungeons and content.

If we judged all the planets on what is feasible for a landing you can discount almost every planet and large body in the solar system due to temperature, travel time, atmospheric factors, gravitational forces, atmospheric pressure etc etc etc. This isnt a simulator, otherwise there would be no cheese on the moon and there would be no aliens to name a few minor changes that would need to be made. It would also be insanely dull...

From a GAME point of view, if the Gas giants are going to be put into the game, the suggestions I have made are the best way I can think of making it challenging and enjoyable while sticking with a theme for the planet.
 
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Deor

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Very nice post and loads of great ideas as ever Keth, going to need to upgrade the server again at this rate. I run the server Keth plays on, which proves a challenge at times :)

I think its Natura, but may be BoP, that adds the fire resistant trees to the nether. Something like that would be ideal for high temperature planets.

Other hostile planets could require you to send an expensive unmanned terraforming rocket to prepair a staging area before a player can travel there.
 
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Captain Kirk

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Great ideas!
My only reservations are that the phaser seems cliche, and 2 hour nights??????, and something like 20 minutes seems more appropriate.
 

OpelSpeedster

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And blue bells cant exist on the moon... And there are no aliens, just trying to think of some things to give it more spice. Venus is a pretty flat desolate place, about 70% flat volcanic planes. would be a pretty dull world without something extra.

What do you mean by blue bells? But I didn't mentioned aliens, I meant that the wood would need to be very alien in the meaning of unlike the things that exist in the Overworld.

And Mars and the Moon's landscapes are pretty much a little dull as of now, too. Sure, they're still WIP, but you get the idea. But a possible fix to the 'dull Venus' issue is to have lava rivers around, and maybe some volcanoes with lava flowing dotting the landscape. Nothing too Nethery, though. Just to add hazards and make the landscape more interesting.

Firstly I did say in my original post that the moons would be a better option than the gas giants. From a realistic point of view, I agree that a real "landing" would be impossible The description I gace is very specific that this would be a landing into a liquid with under"water" dungeons and content.

If we judged all the planets on what is feasible for a landing you can discount almost every planet and large body in the solar system due to temperature, travel time, atmospheric factors, gravitational forces, atmospheric pressure etc etc etc. This isnt a simulator, otherwise there would be no cheese on the moon and there would be no aliens to name a few minor changes that would need to be made. It would also be insanely dull...

From a GAME point of view, if the Gas giants are going to be put into the game, the suggestions I have made are the best way I can think of making it challenging and enjoyable while sticking with a theme for the planet.

First, Minecraft is not a life simulator, I know this, but come on, even certain things have limits. If we followed that logic, we could stuff Ghasts into buckets. I don't see how a Gas Giant's landscape could be. Besides, the temperature, atmospheric factors and time travel issues can alterady be solved by internal temperature managers, oxygen tanks and Faster-than-light travel, respectively.

Secondly, even if a spaceship could bypass Jupiter(or any Gas Giant for that matter)'s atmosphere, I don't even think it could get out, given how Jupiter has around 274% gravity. I may be wrong here, but I know that it is between 199% and 300%.

Don't get me wrong here, I really find your suggestion interesting and I like it, I just don't like the part where Venus has wood structures and you are able to go to Gas Giants.

If Mic decides to implement Gas Giants into the mod, fine, the mod is his, and I can't do anything to stop it, but I don't really approve of the idea, especially how you are able to gather Jupiter's most valuable resources without even needing to "land" on it, simply make a space station that orbits above Jupiter's atmosphere, then use a suction machine to absorb a fraction of it's hydrogen atmosphere.
 

Kethrian

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If we followed that logic, we could stuff Ghasts into buckets.
You can shove them into bottles depending on mod pack.

I don't see how a Gas Giant's landscape could be. Besides, the temperature, atmospheric factors and time travel issues can alterady be solved by internal temperature managers, oxygen tanks and Faster-than-light travel, respectively.
Secondly, even if a spaceship could bypass Jupiter(or any Gas Giant for that matter)'s atmosphere, I don't even think it could get out, given how Jupiter has around 274% gravity. I may be wrong here, but I know that it is between 199% and 300%.
You state that FTL travel is a viable and realistic answer to many of the obstacles, but escaping from a planet with 2.5x Earth's gravity is not possible... I'm pretty sure that if you had managed to create an engine capable of reaching FTL speeds, a spaceship that could survive doing it, and a way to protect the crew during FTL, that you could get a craft out of almost any gravitational field. It all comes down to whether you can carry enough fuel to escape without the fuel load making it too heavy to achieve the required velocity/altitude.

I just don't like the part where ..... you are able to go to Gas Giants.
you are able to gather Jupiter's most valuable resources without even needing to "land" on it, simply make a space station that orbits above Jupiter's atmosphere, then use a suction machine to absorb a fraction of it's hydrogen atmosphere.
I agree with you on the Jupiter part to a large degree. Its purely there for some ideas of different landscapes and environmental hazards that could give the mod some variety, even if that requires reducing the "realism".

I don't think adding another 2 space station locations over the gas giants would add anything to the mod besides a resource drain and an unlimited fuel source (any unlimited resources are bad in minecraft imho). If it were a choice of "Build a Jupiter station", or "don't go to Jupiter", I'd choose "don't go to Jupiter". I think the moons have much more scope for dangerous and varied terrain.
 

Kethrian

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My only reservations are that the phaser seems cliche
clichés are great... how can you build a space mod without a few good clichés. Moon cheese is another great cliché and that's already in.

2 hour nights??????, and something like 20 minutes seems more appropriate
Each day on Mercury lasts as long as 58 days, 15 hours on Earth. This is quite a feat, considering a whole year on Mercury is only 88 days.

A minecraft Day/Night cycle is 20 mins on the Overworld. A Mercurian day would therefore be 19.5hrs real time. I suggested 2 hours since it is noticeably different to the standard overworld night day, without being totally overwhelming.

As a comparison:
A day on the Moon lasts 29.5 Earth days. A moon day in minecraft would therefore be 9.85 hours. The actual time for a lunar day/night is around 80 mins in Galacticraft - this is matched to the time for a lunar cycle as viewed from the Overworld.
 

Kethrian

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One comment on mercury, a year on mercury = 49 earth days
I disagree... so does the rest of the scientific community:
... Mercury's rotation around its axis lasts 59 days, and it takes 88 days to move around its orbit around the Sun.
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/eduoff/vt-2004/mt-2003/mt-mercury-rotation.html

planets in our solar system do have day and night cycles caused by the rotation on their axis. However, the length of a “day” varies from 10 hours to over 5000 hours.
Mercury - 1407 hours (59 “Earth days”)
Venus - 5815 hours (243 “Earth days”)
Earth - 24 hours (1 “Earth day”)
Mars - 25 hours (~1 “Earth day”)
Jupiter - 10 hours (~0.5 “Earth days”)
Saturn - 11 hours (~0.5 “Earth days”)
Uranus - 17 hours (~0.75 “Earth days”)
Neptune - 16 hours (~0.66 “Earth days”)
Pluto - 153 hours (6 “Earth days”)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/skytellers/day_night/activities/nightlife.shtml
How long is a day and night on Mercury?
Answer:
The period of rotation on Mercury is 59 days.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_is_a_day_and_night_on_Mercury
It takes Mercury about 59 Earth days to spin once on its axis (the rotation period), and about 88 Earth days to complete one orbit about the Sun
THIS ALL BEING SAID...
You need to be specific about whether you're talking about sidereal days or solar days.
A sidereal day is the time it takes to rotate 360 degrees.
A solar day is the time it takes to go from local noon to local noon.
It takes about 58.6 days for Mercury to rotate 360 degrees, but it also only takes about 88 days for Mercury to orbit the Sun. That means Mercury has moved about 240 degrees since the last noon. That's only about a 120 degree net gain towards completing a solar day. Mercury has to complete three 360 degree rotations to get back to local noon.
The same thing happens on Earth, but it's not as dramatic since the Earth rotates much faster than Mercury and an Earth year is much longer. The Earth moves nearly 1 degree in its orbit in the time it takes to rotate 360 degrees (about 23 hours, 56 minutes). The Earth has to rotate an extra degree to get back to solar noon, making a solar day 24 hours long.

Long story short... an ACTUAL MERCURIAN DAY IS ABOUT 176 EARTH DAYS

If translated to minecraft time where a day/night is 20 mins, a Mercurian Solar day would be 58.6 hours of real time!
 
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Kethrian

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Very interesting, I can do some textures for these if you want
Hi Flashy-3, I've no idea what everyone's involvement is in this project, but textures to back this idea up would be amazing !
 

Kethrian

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What do you mean by blue bells?
We have patches of bluebells (flowers) growing on the moon on our server... no idea why...

Maybe a world gen error? maybe our server mod Deor being silly :)
 

Kethrian

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I already have textures done for me and GCgamers planet addon(starcraft) which has the sun,venus pluto etc. But I could definitely make some for you

I have no idea how to code mods but I've written content for a few other game mods in the past and a lot of content for old text muds back in the good old days of gaming. I wouldn't have the first clue what to do with textures but I thoroughly appreciate the offer :p
 

Kethrian

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you know how long a venus full day is? 243 earth days
Yeah but I got around that by providing full cloud cover day and night so you don't ever need to see the sun. Mobs spawn all the time so no indication of day or night needs to be included :p A very deliberate dodge to avoid getting pulled up by the ultra realism crowd on these forums!
 

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