I did some searching to see if anything along the lines of what I am going to propose has been explicitly outlined, but I couldn't find anything except this thread... so I'm going to put it in here. In fact, Zook mentioned it very briefly above:
I'm sure there may have been other posts that Just_Ice can find.Zook wrote:Well there is plenty of good reasons : 1- because in dense / cloudy outter space, life is plausible, 2- because it's a good way to give the impression of non-humain life, without going into the classic alien stuff, 3- because it brings several gameplay possibilities (mining, research on biomimicry, quests, can add some danger or challenge, etc), 4- because of the graphical addition. If done successfully, a field of symmetrical not-really-organic-but-not-rocky-either could generate a feeling of exotism.
In a nutshell, my proposal is procedurally generated life forms that are created along with the system that are potentially hostile. In many regards my concept is wasps in space, but there are many ways that these things can be manifested.
This isn't really a new idea, just a specific one. They don't need to be created in every system, but they should offer:
- A threat to the player;
- A reason why mapping a virgin system remains a challenge;
- A prize for taking them on (such as the zero-point weapons from Freelancer, though a little more balanced obviously);
- A way to avoid destroying them - i.e. a piece of technology that can be researched that stops them attacking.
Thoughts?