When I first started playing Starbound not too long ago, story tells that the universe is in peril, giving a false impression that other planets can share the fate of earth. Further in the story, player finds out that he is in no danger whatsoever. Currently, player colonies are a one time expense, and building defenses and large houses has no purpose in itself, leading to loss of roleplay, which makes the colony aspect simply boring by limiting player interaction to collecting rent. My suggestion is to change that. I tried to learn modding enough to do something about it, but having almost no coding experience, and almost no modding experience (tried to change ship layout a bit, done similar stuff in other games) I think it would be better to share ideas with people better at this than me. Ok, assuming I got your attention, my idea is to connect number of colony deeds on a planet (maybe even on ship or space station) to an event that spawns "gates" or enemy spawners in world (also, sending waves of enemies until destroyed or until there are no more colony deeds. This way, there is point in creating large underwater bases made of strong blocks, and not mud huts with small door and a torch. Another Idea is to tie blocks which make a tenant house to his rent (durasteel blocks make tenant pay more pixels, or themed blocks make specific race tenants pay more. Natural blocks lessen chance of invasion, but also the rent, etc.). I hope somebody will have fun making this Cheers
This sounds like a good idea. I see where you are going with this. But there are a few questions I have: What about early-game? What if all you can get is literally some mud blocks and a torch? Would you have this happen on high-tier planets? The only way I see you getting everything you want is if a monster is coded to spawn and spawn more monsters. But that just seems impossible. However, it is possible to have an object that spawns monsters, and you could add a feature similar to the shield generator where you can hit it until it is destroyed. Colony deeds? Use colony deeds to "power" the event? That could require a lot of scripting. But overall, this isn't a bad idea.
Well, this post is made to attract good coders and modders to the general idea of popping that safety zone, as there is virtually nothing to do in late game. About monster spawner, in FrackinUniverse there are weapons spawning liquids on contact, I wonder if its possible to mount a weapon that spawns monsters instead of a liquid (change id or something) then give that weapon to a monster, or a turret. Besides, there already is a monster spawner (during last mission there are those thingys that spawn flying eyeballs). About early game, I think a possibility to have a happy citizen living in a pile of mud with a door is very immersion breaking :d (in other worlds - I believe colonies dont belong in early game - but thats just my opinion, I like it when a game rewards roleplaying),and as its possible to create big colonies almost everywhere, I would rather not see it tied to planet tiers. Connecting colony deeds seems most fitting, as larger settlements should be more protected, but im no coder, so thats just a general idea. Seriously tho, when I first thought about all this, I was thinking about spawning huge tentacle-like structures real-time during invasion event, but thats impossible, as far as I know (maybe devs will add some block spawning)