Cluster art ideas thread

[GrandpaTrout]

Now, in areas where the Scrappers cannot go, say Epitaph, the wrecks just mount up. Imagine a cluster that decorates itself as time goes by?

I guess where I am going with all this is thinking about making the art less like decoration, and more like a reflection of the state of the stations or the cluster. Just an angle to brainstorm on.

This idea of art as a method of communicating the state of things has been around a while but this is the first time it has been said this way.

I wanted to start a thread to catch these ideas, because I expect we will all have them as we work on other features.

Some of the concepts to consider:
1. The art changes with the state of something in the game.
2. It conveys useful information to the player.
3. It could possibly provide the player with employment or support.
4. It links back into the game in self reenforcing ways.

The art does not need to meet all of those criteria, but the more it can meet the more it becomes a “feature” and less a “decoration”. (I am not against decoration, but methods of transforming decoration into features is the whole point of the thread).

Here are a few more ideas to consider:

Station Population

Stations track population growth (or growth of wealth however you want to think of it). We modify the station models so they can accept more Modules. Different types of stations us different kinds of modules. As a station grows in people or wealth, the number of modules grows.

Once a maximum limit is reached, the station cannot grow. Instead, it splits off half, and starts construction on a new station. Thus our cluster is self replicating. Successful stations are ones that create new stations.

Initially, a station can suffer loss by being attacked. Damage to the station reduces the stations wealth. The player could inflict this damage by destroying station modules. When all modules are destroyed, the station is destroyed. We link the station growth into the meta game. Stations that have pirates preying on them suffer slower growth.

Consider this visual image, as the player travels the cluster, the safe protected stations will all have grown large and fat. The stations fighting on the edges of space will be lean and thin.

Ship Damage
I think it was Joco who was playing with the idea of ships dropping cargo when there were destroyed. Here is a similar idea. We create art that represents the destroyed “core” of each ship class. When a ship is destroyed, this core gets placed into the center of the sim, and is left behind when the ship is destroyed. We might also drop a ship system or two at the same time, in small, correctly shaped cargo pods.

These same “cores” become the wrecks that are found floating near battlefields and other locations. So the whole idea is consistant – ships get blasted, they produce cores. Cores are found floating in wreckage fields. Cores are recycled at scrappers and shipyards into new ships.

Those are my two major ideas. I expect more thoughts will come up as people play.

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