Boss The Thing

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by Show, Aug 30, 2013.

  1. Show

    Show Phantasmal Quasar

    [​IMG]

    You're exploring a frozen planet devoid of life except for a small NPC village/research station and some hardier flora and fauna adapted to the cold.

    While mining, you uncover a creature, apparently dead, locked in a block of ice. It's unlike anything you've ever seen before, so you take it with you for further study.

    If at any point you expose the creature to heat, a small gooey bit melts off and tries to escape from you.

    The gooey bit will seek out the closest living being, kill it, and copy its shape. If you're close to the NPC village, it'll take over an NPC body...out in the wilderness...it'll copy a creature.

    If you don't find the creature within 5 minutes, it'll kill and copy another living being.

    When you do find the creature and attempt to kill it, it will respond like the creature it mimicked normally would...up to the point of death. Right before death it will mutate first into any other creatures it copied before, then finally into a mess of tentacles, spider arms, and teeth (final form).

    The longer it takes you to find the creature, the harder the fight will be. Leave the planet and when you return it may be devoid of life, except for one nightmare being able to transform into dozens of forms.

    Lose sight of it once , and you might have to wipe out life on the planet yourself just to make sure it has been eradicated.
     
  2. SuggestionsBot

    SuggestionsBot Autonomous Posting Device

    Thanks for submitting a new suggestion!

    Please remember to give your opinion on this suggestion by voting on our suggestions page.
     
  3. Dinosocks

    Dinosocks Pangalactic Porcupine

    No, let me give you three reasons;

    1: Copyright forbids this.

    2: Cliche

    3: This is way too complicated for one creature (Even a boss), unless you are talking endgame or a really, really big bossfight. Even then. . .

    A bossfight never takes more than 5 -10 mins in a normal game like this, unless the game's overall goal is to kill it by destroying its various bodies etc.
     
  4. Deathskull

    Deathskull Phantasmal Quasar

     
  5. Twig Arcane Empires

    Twig Arcane Empires Sandwich Man

    I have fought a boss for a good 20 minutes before :rofl:
     
  6. Dinosocks

    Dinosocks Pangalactic Porcupine


    That hit harder than expected. . .

    I dont know if i can counter these, but here i go.

    When i said the boss was "complicated", I meant that if you by chance encountered this creature on a planet which you had a firm grasp, and failed to stop it fast enough, you would have to resort to "eradicating all life" on the planet. Which i think calls for a big explosive or an environment change, both of which would ruin the planet itself.

    I stated that most boss battles take between 5-10 mins in a game like this, i made that judgement off personal experience, and was correct to an extent, but not universally factual.

    I said it was a "cliche", normally i would not make a big deal about something like this, but the movie itself is famous enough that most people would make the jump almost instantly. You are right when you say its impossible to have a good game without a cliche, or several.

    As for copyright, only counts if the OP actually insisted in calling it The Thing, i know that its easy to avoid this, but since that was the intended name for it so far, it was valid.


    Honestly, i would not mind a bit if this was in fact added to the game, if it was nerfed slightly.
     
    Show likes this.
  7. Deathskull

    Deathskull Phantasmal Quasar

    The developers said that they didn't want people to get attached to planets other than their home planet, so this wouldn't be as much of a problem as it sounds. It's the home planet that shouldn't be chewed up like a ragdoll by NPCS and events, other planets are far more vulnerable, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to send NPCS you really care about out there.
     
  8. Dinosocks

    Dinosocks Pangalactic Porcupine

    Really? Oh good, i was planning to keep to my ship anyway.
     
  9. Show

    Show Phantasmal Quasar

    Great feedback guys, thanks!

    I had a couple reasons for choosing 'The Thing' as the name.

    1. Most of the time, I'm horrible at naming.
    2. It was easy to get across the core concept.

    Dinosocks, you're right about it being cliche. Honestly, The Thing itself is pretty much a cliche. Shapeshifter/mimic stories have been around a really long time. I'm not sure if you could really call it an archetype, but it's close. (Edit...nevermind, apparently it's acknowledged as an archetype) It's an idea that feeds on everything from our image of self to our trust of others. Pretty base areas that are ripe for terror stories.

    I wouldn't see this as a standard boss fight. Again, you're right in that most of the time those are straightforward, usually a few minutes long (although others are right in saying there are longer examples). There is usually a definite start and finish...boss music plays...big explosion at the end...etc.

    This would be more of a slow burning affair. Never really sure if you were totally safe or not. Maybe thinking you were, and then having it slip away one more time...or one of the NPCs acting just a bit strange and making you wonder if a bit of it had survived.

    Now eventually there would have to be a big climax...gooey bits blown everywhere...nice loot raining from the sky...adoration of the locals...achievements covering your screen...etc etc.
     
    DeadlyLuvdisc and Dinosocks like this.
  10. Taylor

    Taylor Pangalactic Porcupine

    Please explain these things
    1. How do we transport it? or when we find it is it a bunch of cut scenes until the "you must find it and destroy it" part.
    2. How will we find it, Planets can be enormous!

    the idea (with some tweaking ) could be fun.
     
    SPARTEN1337 X13 likes this.
  11. Show

    Show Phantasmal Quasar


    Personally I'm not a fan of cutscenes. I think the easiest way to handle transportation is just like other objects in starbound.

    The frozen monster could basically be a decoration piece...fairly large (7-10 blocks wide, 4-5 blocks tall).

    The description could be fairly ominous when you inspect it, and on looting it could give you a quest to further investigate ("Why don't you see if you can thaw it out?")



    Two ways I see of going about finding it.

    1. This whole thing exists on a set planet. You are given the coordinates as a quest, or hear hints of this planet from NPCs or artifacts.

    In this case, there would be a lone NPC village serving as a research station next to a cave. Follow the cave down, find the creature. Go from there. The NPCs could be used to give further hints and instructions (and fodder for the creature).

    2. This is something that spawns on certain level planets. If one creature exists frozen in a block of ice, it's fair to assume more might as well.

    Let's say these have a chance to spawn on Level 70 planets below a certain temperature. They can be given the rate of a really rare ore.

    Each object is basically a boss spawn, and that worked well imo in Terraria.

    -----

    Only downside I see to all this is it would be easy to grief with this object.

    Mine some up...put them on display in your friend's worlds...watch the mayhem unfold.

    On the other side, you could make a mini-game out of it.

    Take some friends to a random planet, drop off the frozen monster...let it thaw and give it a 20 minute headstart...then you hunt it down.
     
    SPARTEN1337 X13 likes this.
  12. Dinosocks

    Dinosocks Pangalactic Porcupine


    Except the locals are all dead after you eradicated all life,

    Perhaps, instead of killing everything, you must find materials for a bio weapon suited to its genetic code, which only afflict it.
     
    SPARTEN1337 X13 likes this.
  13. Show

    Show Phantasmal Quasar

    Forgot about the locals...if you saved them in time they could through some adoration out...if not I guess it could be a Return of the Jedi type thing where their ghosts are like...'hey, we're dead, but good job yo'.

    Liking the bio-weapon idea. Would have to be useful against other enemies as well, maybe a late tier item that dissolves any living matter.
     
    SPARTEN1337 X13 likes this.
  14. leo2234

    leo2234 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    THIS SOUNDS LIKE AN AMAZING BOSS FIGHT i would be so happy for this to be implemented
     
  15. DeadlyLuvdisc

    DeadlyLuvdisc Oxygen Tank

    This is true, and I was very close to suggesting something similar once.

    My idea was more of an SA-X or Shadow Link inspired thing, where the boss has all the same abilities you happen to have at the time. It could place block walls to block attacks and scale cliffs, rip apart any traps you place, and mimic any mobility accessories you are wearing such as jetpacks or grappling hooks. You could limit it's abilities only by limiting your own, and even then it would have the upper hand in terms of health and reaction time.

    It could be found at the end of a dungeon that features replicas of mobs you've already encountered, sampled from your logbook file and re-balanced to match the current level of the planet. It's like the dungeon is reproducing your past by reading your memories and making you confront them again, culminating in reading you as a whole and making you confront yourself.
     
    Show likes this.

Share This Page